Pages 7 and 8 - Chapter One:
"In this brief outline of the basics of Islam, it is important to notice the primary
place accorded to the dual Shahadah or ‘testimony of faith’. This is to bear
witness that ‘There is no god but God’ and ‘Muhammad is His
messenger.’ The Shahadah provides the key to understanding the Islamic perspective in
all domains.
"In the definition
of ‘submission,’ the Shahadah is listed as the first required act of Muslims. By
verbally acknowledging the reality of God and the prophetic role of Muhammad, one makes
the other four pillars and the Sharia incumbent upon oneself.
"The Shahadah also
defines the content of faith, whose primary element is faith in God. The nature of the God
in whom Muslims have faith is set down briefly by the first Shahadah, while all the
objects of faith are conceptualized in terms of the concomitants of the second Shahadah,
which designates the domain of the message and the messenger."
Commentary: In a
sense, the Shahadah is not "the first required act of Muslims". To begin with,
Shahadah is a doorway to affirming one’s already existing status as a
Muslim, irrespective of whether one was born into a Muslim family or one was born into
other than a Muslim family.
The Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) is reported to have said: "Every child is born according to
primordial nature (fitra)" but, then, our parents may bring us up in accordance with
this or that tradition. Moreover, even if the family into which an individual is born may
be nominally Muslim or may consider themselves Muslim, this fact, in and of itself, does
not necessarily mean the parents or family of such a child will be rooted - either in
terms of practice, understanding, or faith - in the Islamic tradition that is actually
taught through the Qur’an or the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
The Prophet had indicated
there would be 71 sects of Jews, but only one of these would be on the right path. In
addition, he said there would be 72 sects of Christians, but only one of these would be on
the right path. Finally, he also stated there would be 73 sects of Muslims, but only one
of these would be on the right path.
To say Shahadah is not
enough. This act presupposes some minimal degree of understanding concerning
the nature of that in relation to which Shahadah is being said.
To say Shahadah, is to
give expression to a realization of one’s need to seek discernment concerning the
truth of ‘what is’, as well as, ‘where’, ‘how’, and
‘why’ we fit into this ‘what’. To say Shahadah, is the opening salvo
of a life-long struggle to differentiate the one right way among the 73 possible paths (72
of which are problematic) to which the Prophet was alluding in the foregoing Hadith. The
Qur’an states: "Each one does according to one’s rule of conduct, and thy
Lord is best aware of the one whose way is right." (17:84)
The Qur’an describes
the ‘time’ in pre-eternity in which Allah addressed the spirits and asked them:
"Am I not your Lord?" According to the Qur’an, we all answered
"Yes". (7:172) However, since the ‘time’ of that answer, the
understanding inherent in our response has become lost within ourselves as we made the
transition from the realm of pre-eternity to the realm of earthly existence.
By saying Shahadah, one
gives expression to a recognition or acknowledgment - on some level - of a need to work
toward realizing all that is entailed by both the Quranic question: "Am I not your
Lord?" and our original answer: "Yes". In effect, the Shahadah is the
gateway back to our origins for it contains, in its depths, both the question and answer
of pre-eternity.
To say Shahadah, is not
"the first required act of Muslims". Shahadah is the vehicle, so to speak,
through which one engages the journey of discovery concerning not only what it means to be
Muslim, but what being Muslim has to do with our primordial nature or ‘fitra’,
and as such, Shahadah is the ship on which one sets sail.
However, before one can
embark on such a voyage, one must understand - in some minimal fashion - that there is a
need for both the voyage and a ship. As such, understanding, of some kind, precedes the
act of Shahadah, and the latter is a way of formally acknowledging the former - otherwise
Shahadah becomes just a mindless, heartless, spiritless, empty, speech act.
To say Shahadah, is to
recognize the need for a mode of transportation in order to arrive at where we want to go
- which is the end of the line concerning the nature of reality, together with the truth
about who and why we are. This means the attestation of Shahadah is not so much the first
required act of a Muslim, as much as it is an admission that one can’t get
‘there’ (i.e., back to the knowledge and understanding of our original condition
in pre-eternity) from ‘here’(our current condition of spiritual ignorance and
being veiled) without assistance.
In short, the sense in
which the word "required" can be applied to the Shahadah is as an acknowledgment
of needing some sort of means of transporting us from ignorance to knowledge, or from
darkness to light, or from being veiled to being unveiled, or from potential to
realization. There is no element here of an obligation being imposed on human beings and
to suggest otherwise is problematic in a variety of ways.
In fact, the language of
the Qur’an in this regard does not speak of ‘obligation’ but speaks,
instead, in terms of ‘amana’ or ‘trust’. As the Qur’an indicates,
a "Trust" was offered to the heavens and mountains and earth, but they all
refused, being afraid with respect to the offer. Yet, human beings accepted this offer and
have, in all too many cases, proven themselves to be fools and tyrants concerning their
response to, or handling of, the Trust (33:72).
This offer was not
imposed upon, or made obligatory on, human beings. An opportunity was offered, and human
beings accepted.
The Qur’an does
indicate that trusts should be returned to the owner or owners of such trusts (4:58) as a
basic principle of etiquette, morality, justice, or adab. Indeed, irrespective of
spiritual tradition, philosophical stance, or political persuasion, there does seem to be
an inherent dimension within human beings concerning the basic injustice or
inappropriateness of keeping something to which one does not have a fundamental right.
However, this makes
acceptance of the trust a matter of fiduciary responsibility in relation to the Trust, on
behalf of the Owner, and not a matter of an obligation and requirement which has been
imposed independently of what human beings have agreed to accept on their
own. In other words, once a human being has accepted the offer of the ‘Trust’,
then, there is a ‘duty of care’ associated with this acceptance, but this
‘duty of care’ arises entirely as a matter of responsibility of that to which
the individual has stipulated in accepting the offer, and not as a matter of what has been
imposed on the individual by the One Who has extended the offer or Trust.
The "damages"
which ensue if an individual does not fulfill the fiduciary responsibilities or duty of
care associated with the ‘accepting’ of the offer of the Trust, will accrue to
the one who has failed to live up to the responsibilities of acceptance. The One Who
offered the Trust sustains no damages because the whole idea behind the offering of the
Trust, to begin with, was in order to benefit the individual who accepted the offer.
The offer is an
opportunity. It is not a requirement for anything except that once accepted, if an
individual wishes to realize the possibilities inherent in the opportunity, then, there
are ways which can assist one to actualize the potential of the offer or Trust.
In this context,
spiritual guidance (whether through Revelation, a Prophetic mission, the teachings of any
of the friends of God, or one’s own spiritual progress) is for the purpose of
supporting an individual’s efforts to adhere to the requirements of the fiduciary
responsibilities which the individual assumed by accepting the offer in the first place.
The Qur’an stipulates there is no compulsion in matters of Deen (2:256), and the fiduciary
responsibilities surrounding the offering of the Trust are all entailed by Deen since Deen
is the Way through which the potential of fitra is realized.
Fitra, or primordial
nature, is the opportunity. Fitra is grounded in the Trust being offered. By realizing the
potential of fitra, one is returning the Trust to its Owner.
What is this Trust? It is
rooted in the reason underlying Creation - that is, as is recorded in a Hadith Qudsi (in
which Divinity speaks through the Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him): "I
(Divinity) was a Hidden Treasure and desired (or loved) to be known, so I (Divinity)
brought forth Creation."
The Trust concerns the
possibility of a specific way of knowing the ‘Hidden Treasure’. More
specifically, all facets of Creation fulfill the purpose of the original desire of
Divinity merely through their being and giving expression to manifest knowledge of the
‘Hidden Treasure’ by virtue of the nature inherent in different modalities of
created being. But, the opportunities vested in the Trust are about coming to know
something of the ‘Hidden Treasure’ with respect to what is at the heart of the
innermost dimension of the original Divine Desire or Himma (Aspiration).
We struggle toward this
to our own benefit, and not to the benefit of Divinity. Moreover, to the extent we neglect
this opportunity which was set in motion by acceptance of the Trust, then, we will be the
losers, not Divinity - in either case we shall meet with our Lord: "O mankind! Surely
you are ever toiling on towards your Lord - painfully toiling, but you shall meet
Him." (84:6)
The author of Sufism
- A Short Introduction makes a common mistake when he refers to the first Shahadah
as the "testimony of faith". Bearing witness, which is the focus of the first
Shahadah, is not the same as a ‘testimony of faith’, which is the focus of the
first declaration of ‘iman’.
If this were not so,
then, there really would be no need for two attestations - one concerning
‘islam’ and one giving expression to ‘iman’. If this were not so,
then, there would be no reason for the Prophet to be instructed, through revelation, to
tell the bedouins, who had come to him proclaiming belief in God and His Messenger, to
say, instead, that they submit, for belief had not, yet, entered their hearts. If this
were not so, there would be no need to distinguish between ‘islam’ and
‘iman’.That which is being attested to in relation to ‘submission’ and
‘faith’, respectively, involves a different kind and level of affirmation in
each instance.
The Qur’an informs
us there can be no compulsion in matters of Deen. Given this Quranic principle, then,
‘the first required act of Muslims’ cannot be Shahadah if one is
construing "required" to mean that which has been made obligatory upon, and is
being imposed on, human beings since this would be in violation of the spirit of
non-compulsion which is at the heart of the Quranic message.
All of life is a matter
of choice. We choose to our benefit, and we choose to our detriment.
‘Guidance’,
whether given through the Qur’an or the Sunnah (actions) of the Prophet or through
the teachings of a shaykh or through one’s own inner unveiling, is not about stating
what is obligatory. Guidance is preoccupied with informing us about options,
possibilities, degrees of freedom, problems, and consequences in relation to the exercise
of choice.
Guidance is concerned
with providing help, insights, suggestions, assistance, support, advisory warnings, and so
on, concerning the journey of life. What we do with such guidance is up to us, but,
whatever we do, we must know that what we choose to do will either help us as individuals
or hurt us as individuals.
Guidance is a
manifestation of Beneficence and Compassion. It is not, nor was it ever intended to be, an
onerous burden to be imposed on human beings as a litany of obligations which are required
to be performed ... or ELSE!
At the same time, we
neglect guidance at our own risk. However, the risk which is at issue here is not
primarily a matter of the dire consequences which may ensue if heed is not given to the
guidance which comes to us. Rather, the risk we run is to miss out on fulfilling the
purpose of our lives, along with the concomitant realization of our own spiritual
potential, and in all of this, our lives become the evidence which can be marshaled
against us on the Last Day when what we have done is measured against what could have been
the case had we sincerely pursued the realization of essential identity and spiritual
capacity - "On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet shall testify
against them." (24:24)
Unfortunately, there
seems to be a, ‘forced sense’ of "required" inherent in the
author’s previous quote for he goes on to say the following. "By verbally
acknowledging the reality of God and the prophetic role of Muhammad, one makes the other
four pillars and the Sharia incumbent upon oneself".
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