وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَى اللهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَن يَكُونَ لَهُمُ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ ۗ وَمَن يَعْصِ اللهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ ضَلَّ ضَلَالًا مُّبِينًا

It is not meet for a believing male and female, when Allāh and His Messenger rule on a matter, for them to have any choice in their matter. He who disobeys Allāh and His Messenger has indeed strayed a clear straying.

[ʾal-ʾAḥzāb: 36]

I once spoke on the importance of using the mind, while submitting one’s personal thoughts to divine decree. I quoted an example from a book of Khālid Baig (may Allāh accept and elevate him). He mentioned the logical argument of the Qarāmiṭah Shīʿah that a brother is most acquainted with his own sister, why then should a stranger marry her? It would be far more compatible for him to marry her himself.

This was at a Jumuʿah talk at the University of Johannesburg. A bright spark from the Muslim Students’ Association stood up to argue that the Qarāmiṭah simply lacked mastery of genetic sciences, otherwise there is no problem with regarding logic to be supreme. I did not regard it appropriate to begin a debate at that time.

These days when Muslims regard their social media as license to elevate themselves as peers to the ʾAʾimmah, the leading-master scholars of ʾIslām, I have less tolerance to those who make ʾIslām their plaything. I should also confess that my thought processes, were at one time, not much different to the MSA bright spark. Maurice Bucaille’s The Bible, the Qur’an and Science had a massive impact on me as a teenager. Thus, I can understand on a personal level, what I cannot tolerate on a theological level. Yet, at some stage we have to mature and accept facts, however unpalatable. While I do not question the sincerity of Cyber-Muslims who sacrifice at the altar of science, my sympathy and understanding do not license me to accept what is contrary to the guidance of Allāh and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم).

There are definitely those who are blessed with more information and intelligence than I, but I cannot thank Allāh enough for the light that comes with acquiring knowledge through traditions that thread back to His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم). What are mere disparate threads of data to others, become a canvass for a collage of knowledge, understanding and spirituality. ʾIbn ʿAbbās (رضي الله عنهما) alluded to this chain, when he narrated that Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said:

تَسمَعُونَ، ويُسمَعُ منكم، ويُسمَعُ ممن يَسمَعُ مِنكُم

“You will hear [me] and will be heard from, and those who hear you will then be heard from.”

ʾAbū Dāwūd, ʾAḥmad

I write this with the hope that Cyber-Muslims will realise that we all have limitations. We should seek and contribute to Islāmic knowledge via correct respectful avenues, instead of the license that the West issues – the ego and personal thoughts. Bear with me as I present some food for thought under these headings:

1. Allāh’s Decree Trumps Personal Thoughts & Logic
2. Unintended Vehicle for the Heresy of Innate Good and Evil
3. Spiritual Harms
4. Are Cyber-Muslims heirs to the Greek Philosophy heresy?

1.     Allāh’s Decree Trumps Personal Thoughts & Logic

To return to the argument of the MSA student, in regards Islāmic marriage laws. He would have us defer to the tools of western geneticists, since the modern Muslim unfortunately demands that Allāh’s decree conform to human logic, Allāh’s decree is insufficient on its own.

Yet the very beginning of mankind, implemented as per the decree of Allāh, does not conform to the acceptable measures of genetics.  

Geneticists measure closeness of relationships on a scale called the Consanguinity Coefficient. This scale starts at 0, which represents two entities with no relationship. The scale ends at 1, the highest relationship. A measure of 1 is held to be impossible because it means an individual “self-reproduced”. Measures above 0.03125 (e.g. second cousins) are held to be high.  

Muslims, Christians and Jews all accept that Allāh created Ḥawwāʾ [Eve] (عليها السلام) from the rib of ʾĀdam (عليه السلام) i.e. from his genes alone. So mankind started at a coefficient of the “impossible 1”.

Who then did their offspring, the second generation of mankind marry? There was nobody to marry except themselves. Ḥawwāʾ [Eve] (عليها السلام) would give birth to sets of brother-sister twins. A brother would marry a sister from another set.

The offspring of brother-sister unions have a high coefficient of 0.25. However, the parents of these second-generation siblings already started at 1. Thus would the third-generation of mankind, who are the offspring of the second-generation brother-sister unions be rated at 0.25 or 0.5 instead? I do not know. I have to know my limitations and I am not a geneticist.

What I do know is that these first generations of humanity were propagated through divine decree, and that is what I submit to. If the criteria were western thoughts, logic and genetics (or any other science) then the very origin of humanity is proscribed. Let alone rates of 0.03125, we are talking about 0.25, maybe 0.5, and even the impossible 1. Those marriages were according to the decree of Allāh for that time. Western science does not supplement, but defies Allāh’s decree in this case. We have to accept that Allāh alone is the criteria, not our logic and the west.    

2.     Unintended Vehicle for the Heresy of Innate Good and Evil

Those apologists who defer to western science, in their supposed defence of Islām, are implicitly resurrecting heretical doctrines of the buried Muʿtazilah sect. Their apologetics has a sub-text of preferring heresy over the Orthodox teachings of the ʾAhlus Sunnah.

The Muʿtazilah are famous as the heretics who persecuted ʾal-ʾImām ʾAḥmad (رحمه الله). They presented themselves as rationalists whose logic superseded revelation (just like some folk today). They were enamoured with the West (just like some folk today) in the form of Greek Philosophy, and Aristotle in particular. Their doctrine of ʿAdl [Justice] demanded that Allāh conform to whatever they perceived as logical, and scoffed when Traditionalists presented “illogical” divine revelation or prophetic texts (just like some folk today).

A derivative of ʾAdl was that anything good is good because it is rationally deduced to be innately good. Thus Allāh has to decree it so. Conversely anything bad is bad because it is rationally deduced to be innately bad, thus Allāh has to decree it so. A Muslim child should be able to understand the fallacy of these “intellectuals”. How can the King of Kings “have to” decree as per flawed human rationality?

Good or bad is by Allāh’s decree. If Allāh prohibits pork, then it is deemed bad. Who are we to tell Him to prohibit pork because it is innately bad according to human findings? Similarly, what He commands us to do is deemed good because of His command, not because we tell Him that it is innately good according to our intellect. 

This is so clear and basic, that if we examine other faiths, our belief is similar to the majority Jewish position (as per my correspondence with Rabbi Ari Shishler).

Examples

The aforementioned marriages clarify that Allāh decrees as He wills, not as my logic dictates. Our Sharīʿah denounces sibling marriages because Allāh has guided us in His Book. Yet the same act was practised and probably commanded in the Sharīʾah of ʾĀdam (عليه السلام). How could it have been innately evil if conducted under the auspices of the Prophet of the time?

We would condemn marriage even with a half-sister. Yet there is a tradition amongst the People of the Book that marriage to a half-sister was still extant in the Sharīʿah of ʾIbrāhīm [Abraham] (عليه السلام) [Genesis 20:12] and was only prohibited in the Sharīʿah of Mūsā [Moses] (عليه السلام) [Leviticus 18:9]. Whether that detail is accurate or not, it is irrefutable that Allāh decrees as He wills, and has decreed individual laws which differ according to each Sharīʿah. How then can something be innately good or bad when Allāh did not always treat it the same way?

Allāh Himself declares that Sulaymān [Solomon] (عليه السلام) had statues sculpted [ʾas-Sabaʾ: 13]. Our commentators tell us that these were metal and crystal statues of beasts, birds, angels, prophets and the pious. This has been prohibited unto us. We abide by Allāh’s decree and deem sculpture of animate creatures to be sinful.  Yet can sculpture be innately sinful when done under the auspices of the prophet of the time, and receive mention in the Qurʾān?

This should clarify the case for changing of decree from Sharīʾah to Sharīʿah. What about within our final Sharʿīah? Was everything immutable? Did the Qiblah [prayer direction] not change? Were three daughters of Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) not married to idolaters in the beginning?

If intoxicants are innately evil, why did Allāh not prohibit it from the outset? On the contrary, we know of incidents of Companions as senior and as close to Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) as ʿAlī (رضي الله عنه) and Ḥamzah (رضي الله عنه) having been affected through its consumption. If ʿAlī (رضي الله عنه) did not utilise his logic to declare wine to be prohibited and bad, even before Allāh’s revelation, then who is there on the planet who has such mental capacity? It is prohibited and thus bad because my Allāh prohibited it, not because I say so.

How does this manifest today?

The well-meaning but misguided Cyber-Muslim, whether an individual, or “Muslim media” seeks to “prove Islām” through such gems as Why ʿIslām prohibits pork, Why I fast, Why Muslims don’t drink alcohol, etc, all of which appeal to western scientific studies as ultimate truths. If Allāh is even mentioned in these works of genius, it is only as an afterthought. The Muʿtalizah denied the Ṣifāt (Attributes) of Allāh as a cover for polytheism. The Cyber-Muslim overtakes them and constructs a benefits of Islām movement – MINUS ALLAH!!!

The Cyber-Muslim does not pause to consider the ramifications of basing our belief on western studies. (By “western” I include a special mention of Arab and South Asian “intellectuals” who pride themselves in consuming the vomit from the west).

Firstly, there is the theological problem of what in effect is a Muʿtazilī argument. Pork is prohibited because of tapeworm and what have you. I have no issue with encouraging Muslims to abstain by presenting external benefits, but to present these benefits as the criteria has serious implications for the state of one’s faith.

Secondly, the shallowness of research is astounding and manifests as an insult to Islām. If internet access qualifies one to pronounce on every matter, surely it has also given one access to do a search on the BENEFITS of pork, the HARMS of fasting etc. Shallow research portrays Islām’s adherents as amateurs. 

Thirdly, how much effort was exerted into researching the pros and cons of the claims made? If pork and wine are innately bad, why are those studies (of the benefits) not refuted?

Fourthly, the Cyber-Muslim claims to advocate a religion of truth but falls for falsehood. The bulk of these “scientific studies” have no names of institutes, references or dates. You do no favour to yourself or your religion through such conduct. Sometimes names are given but facts are conveniently redacted. For example a 1978 study on Ḥalāl slaughter is continuously cited, but the reservations which Prof. Willem Schulze expressed about his own paper are conveniently never mentioned.

Fifthly, a wider search would reveal that many of these “studies” are sponsored by specific interests or are edited to make certain vested interests happy. Granted, these are not lies, but the slant presented makes for an incomplete assessment. Check the sponsors. Read the small print. I should know. I worked for 16 years at the South African National Halaal Authority and was inundated with these kinds of slanted studies and arguments, both from the food industry and Muslims with vested interests.  

 Sixthly, we should be more honest about the perpetuity of scientific fact. By tying Islām to a “fact” what happens when that fact is disproved? The conclusion is that Islām is disproved. That the Qurʾān is mistaken. That is a disservice to Islām. What should worry us is that many of us regard current scientific theory as immutable fact while matters of faith are up for discussion. Current scientific theories are regarded as final and cannot be challenged. Can such a person who has more faith in the words of the West than of Allāh really be a believer? Let alone controversial food studies, scientists continuously re-examine what they had previously held to be absolute, who are we then to say that these are absolute facts by which the Qurʿān should be interpreted? For example, new studies contradict something as central and basic to western science as Newton’s Laws of Gravity:

Dr. Jan Pflamm-Altenburg of the Helmholtz Institute of Radiation and Nuclear Physics said, “According to Newton’s laws of gravity, it’s a matter of chance in which of the tails a lost star ends up. So both tails should contain about the same number of stars. However, in our work, we could prove for the first time that this is not true: In the clusters we studied, the front tail always contains significantly more stars nearby than the rear tail.”

https://www.techexplorist.com/new-puzzling-discovery-challenges-newtons-laws-gravity/54515/

 Dr. Tereza Jerabkova, a co-author of the paper, said, “So far, five open clusters have been investigated near us, including four by us. When we analyzed all the data, we encountered a contradiction with the current theory. The very precise survey data from ESA’s Gaia space mission were indispensable for this.”

https://www.techexplorist.com/new-puzzling-discovery-challenges-newtons-laws-gravity/54515/

3.     Spiritual Harms

1. Aligning oneself, even if unintentionally, with a heresy.
2. Engaging in falsehoods and misrepresentations, even if only at the level of the Ḥadīth, “It is sufficient [to attribute as a] lie for a man who narrates all that he hears.” We are commanded to verify before we disseminate. Furthermore, every news item is not worthy of public discourse. The person who flippantly spreads news is regarded as a liar in the Ḥadīth.
3. Laying the foundation for detractors of Islām, by falsely tying Islām to personal interpretations which can be debunked.
4. Disobeying Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) in regards personal interpretation. He has warned that such people will be in Hell. For example, the categoric claim that Allāh speaks about a microscopic creature in ʾal-Baqarah:26.

 

4.     Are Cyber-Muslims heirs to the Greek Philosophy heresy?

I confess that when I first pondered the phenomenon discussed, I considered the Muslims who engage in such activity to be under the influence of the Muʿtazilah. I have mentioned some similarities above. However, after further thought, I am more inclined to recant that view. The Muʿtazilah no longer exist as a distinct sect. It would be a stretch to claim influence on a people who had no contact with them, or even heard of them. Although much of their heretical ideology was subsumed into the disbelief of the Shīʿah and the Shīʿah have done much to spread their filth since 1979, to claim that they spread the Muʿtazilah strand amongst the ʾAhlus Sunnah would require evidence which I lack.

As a Sunnī the Muʿtazilah are my opponents. Yet it would be unchivalrous of me to deny that they were intellectuals with a formulated doctrine. The Cyber-Muslim on the other hand has no doctrine other than “let’s impress the West.”

The Muʿtazilah were erudite scholars, however misguided. The Cyber-Muslim often possesses no qualification other than knowing how to surf the internet.

The Muʿtazilah may have been obsessed with Greek philosophy and ventured into disbelief, but the intellectual basis of being such fanboys cannot be denied. On the other hand, I doubt that Cyber-Muslims worship the West through in-depth study of tracts from French Revolutionary and other philosophers. If anything, the source of their devotion seems to stem from Hollywood. Let alone the average Cyber-Muslim, the Texan who touts himself as the greatest warrior against modernism and western thought, cannot do without his juvenile Hollywood clips inserted into his video “debates”. So deeply has Western thought penetrated the Muslim psyche.

In summary, Allāh has gifted us with intellect. We employ our intellect in His obedience and not to defy Him. Yet the line between obedience and defiance is not clear without the light of knowledge which Allāh’s Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم) brought. May Allāh guide us against every subtle snare of Satan.

سليمان الكندي

Twitter: @sulayman_kindi

Blog: https://kindi313.wordpress.com