1

Preface
Fill, fill the cup with sparkling wine,
Deep let me drink the juice divine,
To soothe my torturd heart;
For love, who seemd at first so mild,
So gently lookd, so gaily smild,
Here deep has plungd his dart. (Hafiz)
Writing on religion is difficult, on Islam more so. First,
religion is a divine experience. Gaining it is a tedious job. The more
it is gained, the more it gives a feeling that nothing substantial has
been gained. Once God opens the heart, it gets drowned into the sea
of meaning. It is attended by bewilderment, or liptightedness.
Second, religious experience, to whatever extent gained, cannot be
shared easily with others or at least with everyone. Knowledge and
maturity go side by side with each other. Just as those who do not
have strong teeth and developed stomach cannot chew and eat
bones, similarly those who do not have the capacity to seek inner
meanings must not read the books of flower petals and butterflies to
see therein the image of God. It has always been the law of life that
secrets are not shared with all and sundry as they are shared with
equals or friends. Once such attempts are made, unnecessary
troubles are invited. We can take the example of Mohammad (peace
be upon him and his progeny). When he shared his Night Journey
with some people, some of them began to advise him not to reveal

2
this to people in general. He did but at the same time some people
began to whisper or mock at him or carry tales between their friends
and so on. No doubt Mohammad
SAW
could not remain silent by the
pressure of his mission and message but he had to face even
persecution for his honest exposition. It does not mean, however,
that the most important aspects of religion should remain unknown
or obscure. They must, on the other hand, be carried on or
communicated to others who need them, who have a passion for
them. But the communication as suggested by Rumi should be
intelligently safe, should be told in the words of others. The Quran,
also, speaks very clearly but in the language of metaphor which is
safe. Moses
AS
, for instance, seeks fire but the Burning Bush tells
him that his God is speaking to him. Similarly, Yosofs shirt is rent
apart but its meaning is revealed to the reader only through an
allusion. The Quran mentions silken cushions in paradise provided
for those who enter there. What silk is, what cushions are, is known
to those who take the hint. (Must be appreciated that silk is more
pleasant, warmer than the cushion). Moreover, as we said it is
maturity both in the biological and the intellectual sense that take in
meanings and secrets. Also, unearned food causes indigestion and
carries infection to others. Third, religion is a very vast field the
depths of which make it more comprehensive and absorbing. Its
insights are gained slowly and steadily. Passion, constant seeking,
hard work, investment in terms of time and money, preparedness for
successes and failures, endurance for pleasure and pain, and above
all else, close guidance of one who is an expert in religious
knowledge are some of the important requirements for one who

3
treads upon the path. Hardly it happens that Manna comes to you
from heavens but even that is not impossible. The heart ravished
lover may send a tearful sob to the skies of truth wherefrom
everything he must have may descend. But normally, efforts upon
efforts are needed to gain a merciful glance of God. He may give
food and fruit and a good home for good health but if you want to
play hide and seek with twinkling stars, you may have to spend
sleepless nights. But ah, how sweet are the wailful moonlit nights
spent sleeplessly for the beloved who may not come even when the
dawn smiles at you.
This given, we have taken upon ourselves the hard task of
writing on Islam. We would require enough of time to plan, to
think, to write, to seek opinions, to print, to proofread, to correct
and so on. But we have no time. What we do today is done. Who
knows what happens tomorrow, more so at a time when things are
not favourable for any serious work including reading and writing.
Our world is going certainly from bad to worse. Powerful people
are falling upon resources of wealth like mad wolves. They are
spoiling everything worthwhile, including religion, to make sure
that their bad designs are not detected and observed. Lofty
educational institutions and information technology have been
brought within the game of power and power hunt. Religion has
also not been left alone to play its part creatively and independently.
Unfortunately, Islamic history, too, shows that kings have always
tried to buy clerics and clergymen to remould religion to their
political needs. Tragedies upon tragedies in this respect stand
recorded. Today the clutches of power are more dangerous, more

4
frightening. Hence doing an honest job is like walking on sharp
thorns in a sun scorched desert bare footed. With all that we have
done our bit as much conscientiously as God has given us the
strength of.
The author has throughout his life of about 71 years
tried to see the world with his own eyes. No doubt he has tried to
observe nature and natural phenomena in their various moods and
colours. Born luckily in Kashmir, he has right from childhood
enjoyed the company of flowers and birds, plants and trees, sun and
shower, brooks and springs, rain and snow; youth and age. He is
grateful to God in numerous ways for having been blessed with a
keen eye to observe everything around including the poor innocent
women working in fields under the hot sun. He has tried to measure
the glances of small children with his palpitating heart, more so
when they look at their mothers toiling hard. He has seen abject
poverty around and also how women are fighting it with their
endurance but dismay. He has seen all kinds of people living at
various levels with various socio-economic positions, men and
women, young and old; has tried to talk to them to form an estimate
of personality types. He has visited institutions of various types,
tried to participate in institutional activities to feel the impact of
participation. He has seen students and teachers with different
approaches to learning-teaching processes, seen also people
involved in informal ways of learning or influencing. He has,
according to his capacity, tried to read and understand reading
materials on different subjects. Above all, he has participated in
religious practices including of mystics and has marked strange

5
things happen to him also intensely. But never has he allowed
himself to be swayed by opinions normally based upon cheap
populism. He has tried to accept churned ideas though tentatively so
that they can further be churned and baked as much as possible.
Often he has seen sour faces around him expressing displeasure and
at times he has faced persecution as well as slander. But he has kept
his pace normal seeking truth and thanking God for steadfastness.
Religion of Islam, basically spiritual, is a very sensitive
religion. It hardly leaves anything unattended. Its scope, therefore,
is very broad. In no case does it reject the material base of life but if
refuses to compromise with anything that interferes with its main
purpose spirituality! It enjoys life as best as possible because life
is only an expression of God. Hence it becomes a mirror for a true
Muslim. Taken as a whole life becomes a ground on which the spirit
of man nourishes itself for further growth and flowering. Mans
onward march has never been measured exactly but it has been
admitted widely that life does not regress. It only takes forward
steps, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. Even in future its
progress cannot be measured or estimated objectively. Thus the
Quranic idea that this world has not been created in vain sport has
well been taken in. Each bit of dust, each blade of grass; each
insect, each animal, each human being sings the praise of God.
There is no God but Allah is the rhyme and rhythm of life taken as a
whole. Everything that has been created by God is a part of this
universe, an inseparable part but everything that exists constitutes
the universe to sing the hymn of unity. For us human beings,
growing a plant is as much necessary as going to the moon or

6
discovering something new which shows God appears every
moment with a new glory. What is death is life and what is life is
only a preparation for a fresher life. The day and the night sing the
same divine chorus as does the light and the darkness. We count
things as long as we are immature. When we mature, we see
nothing but one grand show. One day we find that thou, I and we
merge in that One.
This book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter
pays homage to Mohammad
SAW
. He is the springboard of at least
1

Islamic action. We have to bring in his whole life to seek inspiration
from. That is Sunnah. We will have to see how he earned, ate, lived
a normal human life, behaved with others, dealt with public affairs
and above all conducted himself in relation to God. In fact whole of
his behaviour was conditioned by his religious conviction which is
explained in the Quran mainly. Jenab Aisha
RA
, very appropriately
said the Quran is Mohammads character and his love. The problem
for us is solved there. Then, he eats simple food when he gets it. He
goes without food when he doesnt get it. He is not a glutton at all.
He does not attend to getting money so that he lives luxuriously.
That is Abu Lahabs job. He is absolutely moneyless. He doesnt
have a house to live in. He lives in the cells of Ummahatul-
Mominin. He behaves softly and kindly, never beats anyone. A bad
word never comes to his tongue or lip. He is free from ill will and
gossip. Morally he is perfect. Nor even once he slips. Sure about
himself, he doesnt wear garbs. He doesnt take refuge in wealth

1
At least Islamic Action because others may not believe that he is all in all, the
source of everything that happens.

7
and goods but in Allah. He has no property, no gold, no diamond
and his hands are absolutely clean. He is good even to his enemies.
When he is in power
1
, he pardons everyone. Should we therefore,
not copy him in toto and not only in beard-wearing?
The second chapter like all other chapters springs from the
first one. The main purpose of all religious activities is to seek
nearness to God. Man has to go back to his original source- God.
That is the return. That is Tawba. Without the real source of life
everything is useless. We have come to this world only to grow
things for the hereafter. What we sow here we reap there. And we
have to sow. We have absolute guidance for our role in life. We
have the Quran and the Sunnah. We have the Quran within the
Quran.We have nature and history to guide us. That is the third
chapter. We have the signs of God provided in nature and the nature
of man. Each sign is to be read carefully and applied in life. Life
does not grow on trees like flowers and fruit. It is to be earned
diligently. The more we read, understand and apply the Quran, the
Quran within the Quran, the more we realize God, the more we
enjoy union with God. But our action, the Islamic action in
particular, is social. Islam cannot grow in a society in which man
exploits man. We cannot be brutes. We have to live like brothers.
We are right brothers, all of us; without any prejudice to anything.
We are one, our life-situation is one and our God is one. Even these
three dimensions are the dimensions of one God. There is no God
but Allah. We cannot but share everything for His sake. He does the

1
He is powerful always; He will be powerful always. His power is not worldly. It is
divine. Rahmatal Lilalmin he is,
SAW
.

8
same thing. We have to obey Him in sharing too. Social harmony
therefore is the fourth chapter. The fifth is on women. For what sin
was the buried babe done away has been borrowed from the Quran
to explain the pathetic story of the mother who gives us birth. She
has suffered endlessly in Jahiliyyah and in all Jahiliyyas. What we
call modern society is also unfair with women. Islam has a special
concern for them. Good Muslims, lovers of God, do not treat them
badly, should not do so. That is equal to genocide. Mohammad
SAW

has a great love for three things. Women, fragrance, prayer. We are
with Shaikh-i-Akbar who points this out. God will bless us if we
pay the tribute due to our mother who gives us her blood and her
heart. The Quran begins with ALAQ. We must respond to the
Quranic sense positively. But all the chapters in the books are
interwoven. They are a single unit. They pronounce all together:
Allah-o-Akbar!
The author seeks apology for his limitations. He is no
scholar, has no scholastic achievements. This presentation is an
expression of his love for God and His people. His regard for
women is due to their suffering and motherhood! He has chosen
only a few areas for writing this book within a short time of forty
days, leaving many other areas for other people. Creative criticism
within the areas chosen is welcome.
May God guide us all to the Right Path! Amin!
Syed Habib
Zabarwan, Srinagar
July 3, 2010


9




Mohammad
Mustafa
SAW


10

What first appeared from out the Unseens depth
Was his pure light no question, no doubt!
This lofty light unfolded signs The throne,
The footstool, Pen and tablet appeared.
One part of his pure light became the world,
And one part Adam and the seed of man
When this grand light shone up, it fell
Before the Lord, prostrate in reverence.
For ages it remained in prostration
And eras long in genuflection too
And year by year it stood in prayer straight,
A lifetime of profession of the faith
Tis prayer of the secret Sea of Light
Gave the community the prayer rite!
(Shaikh Farid ud din Attar)

When the ardent desire and the strong will to get known
takes on to action, when action takes the form of an imperative and
an unending occupation; when passion mingles with toiling and
boiling blood, Mohammad
SAW
is born. He is born to play the game
of life together with its uncountable and indescribable aspects which
give birth to restlessness and pain. We cannot easily and
successfully explain life. In the Quranic metaphor if we design pens
of trees in woods and use the water of oceans as ink to describe life
and its rich attribute, we will be doing an exercise in futility. If we

11
repeat the exercise, we will be reaching nowhere. We will be
placing ourselves in situations which will cause us bewilderment.
Still then songs of praise on Mohammad
1

SAW
, (who is the sum-total

1
These are known as encomiums. Persian and Arabic poetry has a rich stock of
encomiums which, if understood well, will throw light on aspects of Mohammads
SAW

life not covered in simple prose. Unfortunately very little effort has been made by
those who study religion or lead a puritan life to do research on encomiums. As a
result many aspects of Mohammads
SAW
life remain hidden or unknown. In our times
religion has been hijacked and a very superficial view of Islam is presented to suit
politicians self interest. Lot of money has been poured to produce literature that
proves that Mohammads
SAW
personality is neither mysterious nor in that way
extraordinary. If encomiums were detailed out in terms of their hidden meanings, the
efforts of political religion would be frustrated. Here are given some lines to show
how marvellous his personality is and absorbing for lifetime.
The whole world is effulgent with Mohammads
SAW
beauteous light.
Paradise regains freshness as Mohammad
SAW
stands therein upright.
. . : . : . . . : .
` , t

Manifested the hidden treasure In forms manifold
Mohammads face a pleasure See if thou art bold
- . , :

.
.
,

. .

.

,
, .
` - t

Juicy dates like pearls shine Reason observe smiles divine
. . _ , : : . . . . - _. `.
` , t

All flowers to sustain and grow Seek water from thy streams flow.
, : < . l - . . . . <
` t

(Sahib) What an astonishing beauty thou art! Its charming glow strikes me a lot!
_ . . . _
.

. .
, . - ,
` t


12
of life and also something more than that) have been composed and
sung abundantly by men of ability and great repute all the world
over. They have used fiery poetry and imagination together with the
art of metre, refrain, rhyme and rhythm. But they havent reached to
its depths. This is not a hyperbole but a reality, a reality which
should not disappoint us, should on the other hand, make us happier
because that speaks of the richness of his personality.
This given, Mohammad
SAW
is born, in Mecca, but, he is
born everywhere, everywhere where there is light, his WADUHA,
the brightness of his face, his love and his guidance. He can be felt
and seen by all and sundry provided that they have a palpitating
heart and a visionary eye. He can be seen even by the lowest of the
low, by the depressed and the diseased, by the orphan and the
handicapped, by the poor and the needy. Economic status, political
position, educational and cultural awareness, social prestige or even
religious piety are no necessary qualifications to see where he is
born and where he lives. He lives in the souls of his followers, of
the lovers of humanity men, women, young, old; eastern, western;
white, red, black or whatever. His gates are open even for those who
sin and do the worst. His responsive love seekest the humblest
criminal wherever he is in the mire of defame of bad name. He does
not seek palaces and banquet halls if these do not conform to his
standard. His movement is not restricted and no barriers of
authoritarian rule whereunder human beings are crushed bar his
way. Like morning breeze he is free to enter any place even if the
place is fettered or barred under whatever conditions of omission



13
and commission. Like the smiling and joyful spring he finds his
way into the mountain cot of the shepherd and the shepherdess
amidst thunder, lightening, rain or hail. He is born mysteriously in
the soul of those who passionately seek him and ardently greet him.
He is there, he is here
Everywhere he peeps
Silently
Like the morning beams
Through the eyes
Of Lovers
The windows
Of their heart. (Author)
He is born when even Adam was not born, when Adam was
dust soaked in water.
1
He is everywhere, where individuals stand

1


- - : , . _ .
` t

This verse of Sadi Shirazi occurs in his famous classics BOSTAN. In the book Sadi has
a very famous encomium on Mohammad. We quote some of its lines.
. . : . < .
.

,
,

Honourable in character, beautiful in qualities,
The Prophet of people, the mediator of followers.

.

.. . .

The Imam of all prophets, the leader of the way
The trustee of God, the descending place of Gabriel.
. , _. - . . . . - . .

The interlocutor whose Mount Sinai is the whole universe
And all rays are the reflection of his light.
(Cont.)

14
upright to give an account of what they do. He sees what we do and
how we conduct ourselves in our daily affairs. He is reality
personified or closer to it than no distance. He permeates the
whole universe, the ebb and flow of circumstance, the glow and
glory of lifes romance. The creation began, says Ibn al-Arabi,
with Nur Mohammad
SAW
, the Lord brought the Nur from His own
heart. Jami, the lover, says:
Welcome to Rose Garden
With many a winkling glance
Of ramblers walking romance
Roses rip red robes
To have perchance
Thy bodys warmth
Glorious but sublime.


, , : . .
.

,
.
. : . .

One night he rode and rose to high heaven,
And in worth and rank was elevated above angels.
. . . . : . : . . . .

. .
,
,
. . .

He rode so swiftly in the land of proximity to God
That Gabriel was left behind at sidreh ony. (Alaedin)
The verse that was quoted first is based on a tradition which has been quoted even by
Martin Lings in Muhammad.
The heavens above
Feel small
Before thy grandeur
Thou wert created
When Adam Himself
Was in clay and water still. (Author)
Its Arabic origin:
` _. t , _ . ; , , | | = ,



15
`. . -

,
,
,
.
: , . . . . : t ` . , _. . .

In Germany Goethe feels this warmth and composes a
famous song of Mohammad
1SAW
: MOHAMETSGESANG. A
possible transcreation of the song is attempted here:
Far beyond these clouds
From under the rocks yonder
Bubbling fresh waters spring
To fall on marble beds
Unearthed yet though
Reared and looked after
By angels in babyhood
Innocences sweet sleep!
Murmuring through bush and plant
Jumping up to the sky
In ecstasy and song.

From above the peak tops
Into passes it flows
Jumping from stone to stone
On beds colourfully gay
From the earliest days
An urge prophetic
Divinely schemed and bestowed
It sweeps along its kind
Towards the goal destined!

1
The song is German. Prof. Mohammad Mujeeb and Sir Mohammad Iqbal have
attempted its translation. Mujeeb Sahabs translation is found in Urdu prose and
Iqbals rendering in Persian verse. Mujeebs translation appears in
,
and
Iqbals in

. The title of Iqbals rendering is
< ,
. We have transcreated
Mujeebs version.

16

Down there in the valley
Touch of its feet
Cause flowers bloom
Its breath sends life
To fields green
Unchecked by shade and touch
Welcoming love glances of flowers
It flows on and on
Surging curling turning!

Smaller springs embrace its skirt
To flow and glow
It shines through plains
Like silver liquid
Plains shine with its bright
Rivers in plains springs in hills
Implore with this refrain
Brother take us to thy Lord
Cause us reach the fathomless sea
That spreads welcoming arms
For us to reach
In love though we are
Far from its restful lap
Above us the sun our blood sucks
A hilly pass may turn us
Into a pond somewhere
Stopping us on our way
Brother take us to our Lord!


17
Come, come and join
It grows in full swing
Glorious tides rise and fall
All its kind upon shoulders
They take and flow
It conquers everything
On its way
Wherever it treads
Cities flourish!

Its flow doesnt stop
Leaves past shining
Buildings in marble
Flows on in creative fervour
The whole world whirls
On its surface
Flags to show its glorious pomp!

Iqbal has also a very beautiful poem in his masterpiece,
PAYAM-I-MASHRIQ: FASLAY BAHAR or the spring tide, on
the subject. It is a metaphorical poem, however. Metaphors help us
to say what we cant say in plain and simple words. The
metaphorical poem narrates the whole story of creation and the
beatific story of loves play, the play that is not mundane, is
spiritually pure because it reflects Mohammads
SAW
light. We give
our own transcreation of the poem so that an estimate of
Mohammads
SAW
beauty through Iqbal is made:



18
(1)
The Spring clouds
In hill and dale
Pitched tents
Get awake
The bird with myriad notes
The parrot
The pheasant
The crane
Compose orchestra they all hearken
The brook on its banks grows
Fields of tulip and rose
Come see with eyes wide awake!

The Spring clouds
In hill and dale
Pitched tents
Get awake

(2)
In gardens and meadows
Long rows of roses grow
Caravan- like at best
See and stand upright
Spring winds blow
Birds songs flow
Poppy drops petals
Beauty a fresh rose plucks
Love generates for itself pain


19
In gardens and meadows
Long rows of roses grow
Caravan - like at best
See and stand upright

(3)
Nightingales sing
Orioles still louder!
Hot blood in the bed-vein
Ah! Silent you remain
Break wisdoms law
Take meanings drink
Wear rose-red robe
Sing!
Nightingales sing
Orioles still louder!



(4)
Leave the hermits cot
Take to the open field
Sit on a brooks bank
Watch running-waters prank
Proud though Narcissus is
The springs lovely child
Print on its forehead a fond kiss!

Leave the hermits cot
Take to the open field

20


(5)
Unaware of the manifest
Thou art in slumber
Open thy eyes wide
Behold meanings
Row and row tulips
Sparks in bosom have
Pour on their hot blood
Mornings dew-like-water tears
Look stars in twilight.

Unaware of the manifest
Thou art in slumber
Open thy eyes wide
Behold meanings


(6)
Gardens ground
Stole away
Divine secrets
In full array
All what happens
All what is yet to happen
Call it birth
Call it death
Is wrought by change
Change, the infinite, the eternal

21
Gardens ground
Stole away
Divine secrets
In full array

But let us retreat from this state of trance and see what
happened in Mecca where Mohammad
SAW
was born. What
happened there to convince us he was born great, born to become
the Prophet, not only of Arabs, who were in the mire of Jahiliyyah,
but of the whole world where everything exists stones, rocks,
dust, sand, mountains, valleys, water courses, seas; gold, silver,
diamonds, ornaments and ornamental shows; ships, sails, boats and
boatmen with their loads; winds and clouds and rain and showers;
vegetation and foliage, plants and trees, fruit and juice, animals and
beasts and birds; human beings of all colours and creeds, men,
women and children; old and young and weak and strong. He was
the RAHMATAN LILAALAMIN for all, to love and to be loved
above all else! SALLALAHO ALAIHI WA AALIHI (Peace, O
God, on him and his progeny).
Khadijah
AS
is one of the most honourable ladies of the
world. There is no god but Allah and Mohammad
SAW
is His
Prophet is a confession on her tongue but the tongue seeks
inspiration from her heart which is pure and clear. This confession
makes her a Muslim certainly the first one. However, she knows
Mohammad
SAW
before the confession is made and before she
becomes the first Muslim. She employs him to be in her business.
She has been watching him and hearing about his behaviour. She is

22
impressed by his personality and by his demeanour as everyone else
is. But perhaps she is more impressed because she is destined to
become more than an Ummul Momineen (Mother of believers).
1

She calls him Al-Amin, the faithful, the trustworthy, the one who
can conduct business affairs very successfully and honestly, the
man who is sincere and truthful. Perhaps his friends called him so
too. Who began first, Khadeja
AS
or they, is hard to say. But
Khadeja
AS
was more concerned about him as al-Amin.
2
She used to

1
Carlyle, the Western scholar, quotes the prophet of Allah
SAW
about Khadeja
AS
.
by Allah she believed in me when none else would believe. In the whole world I
had but one friend, and she was that!
If at all anything more about Khadeeja is required, Carlyle has that too:
He was twenty five; she forty, though still beautiful. He seems to have lived in a
most affectionate, peaceable, wholesome way with this wedded benefactress; loving
her truly, and her alone.
2
Annemarie Schimmel has given a legendary story in verse form in her book: And
Mohammad
SAW
is His Messenger (pp 77-78). We quote it here to show that
Mohammad
SAW
was really al-Amin:
Her call was heard by the prince-
Ahmad came close to her.
He said: Why do you call for help-
What happened to you, O gazelle?
She said: Lord, I have left hungry
My two kids in the desert.
Help me, poor me, please,
Be my bailsman, O Ahmad!
Ill go, Ill come back very soon,
Just give them a little milk!
The excellent lord, with his noble hands
Opened quickly the snare,
And the gazelle ran swiftly away
To where her kinds were waiting.
Then came the stupid hunter back
And asked the Messenger:
(Cont.)

23
go to Waraqa bin Nowfal. He was her cousin, a christian monk, a
scholar in his own right and for genuine reasons, a sage who could
interpret dreams and foretell. He it is who told Khadeja
AS
that
Mohammad
SAW
will be put to much trouble. He it is who expressed
a wish that he would help this prophet if he were alive. Waraqa
knew his qualities and worth. He knew Mohammad
SAW
was
potential. He had once interpreted a dream to Khadeja
AS
that she
will be wedded to a great man. This must have burnt a candle in her
imaginative heart. Khadeja
AS
may have shared many things about
religion with Waraqa, the sort of guide that he was. He may have
told her that Mohammads
SAW
being is extraordinarily rich. He may
have told her that his inner is far more richer than his outer. Like
Rumi, the Sufi, the Persian, the poet, Waraqa must have known that

Look, I have done this cruelty
because Ive fun in hunting-
Why did you tear apart the snare?
Why did you send off the gazelle?
Who are you, where do you come from,
And what is your name? Tell me that!
Either youll produce the gazelle,
Or give an answer to me!
The Messenger rose before the man,
The Lord of patience full:
Mohammad Amin, the faithful, Im called-
That is my proper name.
The gazelle promised me to return
And to offer herself to you,
But I am in any case for you
Her bailsman in her place,
And when the gazelle does not return
I shall be her substitute
This allegorical legend has very deep meanings. Amin promises to provide for the
souls that individuals have. He liberates the souls from bondage.

24
the whole universe will be lost in Mohammad
SAW
.
1
She may have
known from Waraqa that Mohammads
SAW
breast is a universe in
which are treasures of divine secrets. She may have known that he
is as expansive as Baladil Amin or even far more than that.
2


1
In the eyes of his lovers who love him ardently, Mohammad
SAW
is the first and the
last, he is the Quran, the Furqan (the chapter discrimination or the Quran potential),
the Yasin and the Taha (two chapters of the Quran), the 36
th
and the 20
th

respectively). He knows all the ways, is the last of the chain of prophets, the master
of everything. He taught the path dust manners of the mount Sinai (where Moses
AS

saw the burning Bush.) These are the impressions of Iqbal, poet of the East, about
Mohammad
SAW
in BALI JABRAEAL. The Urdu verses:

. . - :
, . -
, . .
| .

2
Later when the Quran was revealed, the Baladil Amin got almost defined. Says the
Quran:
By the Fig and the Olive
And the mount of Sinai,
And the city of security
We have indeed created man in the
Best of moulds, (95: 1-4).
And the city of security appears to be an improper translation. BALADIL AMIN is
the vast expanse that contains everything potentially. So Mohammads
SAW
breast or
his being contains the whole universe in it. It is as broad as outside put together.
German scholar and sage, Immanuel Kant, says that he is overawed by two things: a
starry sky above and a moral universe within. Mohammad
SAW
has both the worlds in
his being. And the Quran is very clear about the expansive quality of mans soul in
general. God says He breathed into man from His own soul. Mohammad
SAW
being the
soul of souls, has Divine soul in him to the fullest capacity. All lights, says Jami, have
been created out of his light
. . . . , _
. Hence Al-Amin means that
he carries everything in him; secrets and sources, productivity and creativity, role
and responsibility, time and tide, matter and soul, energy and power. (Cont.)

25
Mohammads
SAW
own saying, later, proves that he is very
capacious, very mysterious and very secretive. Khadejas
AS
title Al-
Amin is therefore apt and real.
Perhaps the aforesaid is not sufficient to satisfy the ardent
lover that Mohammads
SAW
personality is by nature and by birth
extraordinary. We shall therefore attempt to collect more evidence
to satisfy the thirst of the lover. We shall, first, go back to
Mohammads
SAW
mother, Jenab Amina (may God bless her) to
whom we are indebted in uncountable ways. It is said that
marvellous events had happened during her pregnancy and laying-
in. Says Martin Lings: She was conscious of a light within her, and
one day it shone forth from her so intensely that she could see the
castles of Bostra in Syria. And she heard a voice say to her Thou
carriest in thy womb the lord of this people; and when he is born
say I place him beneath the protection of the One, from the evil of
every envier. Then name him Muhammad
SAW
.
1
Amina
AS
once
said to Halima, Mohammads foster-mother, the demons wiles
are powerless to do him harm, for a glorious destiny is in store for
him.
2
Abdul Muttalib too believed that a great future is in store for
Mohammad
SAW
. He used to seek his opinion even when he was a
young child.
3
His wet- nurse, weak and poor, took his charge and
found certain strange things happen to her. Her milk in her breasts
welled up miraculously and when she offered him her right breast

So in the words of the Quran he bears the trust which nothing or no one dared to
bear. The trust is there in his Breast,
SAW
!
1
Muhammad
SAW
, p.21.
2
Sliman bin Ibrahim: The Life of Mohammad, p.26
3
Martin Lings, p.28.

26
he found enough milk to satisfy his hunger. She offered him left
breast too but he refused to take it, leaving it to his foster-brother.
He always behaved like this even afterwards. Not only this, their
she-ass returned swiftly leaving others behind, others who had
chosen children from rich families to foster and on their way to
Mecca had found that Halimas she-ass was too weak to carry
herself at the speed their animals did.
1
Halima and her husband
were very happy. Their conditions of living had changed or even
improved. They were delighted that a remarkably strange child was
being looked after by them. Though a child, he behaved very nicely,
not normally possible for the children of his age. He always had a
smiling face and a strange type of light could be seen on it by
Halima while she embraced him or fed him lovefully. While we
write about this, we also feel that his behaviour was not childlike:
he appeared to be maturer than his age.
2

Around the age of six Mohammad
SAW
was taken back to
Jenab Amina
AS
but seeing that Halima was very keen for him and
he himself would be happier and healthier in the open air, she
returned him to Halima. One day while he was looking after the
flocks of his foster parents or leading them to the pasture, two men
in white robes came and took him away at about noon and split his
chest open. This in Islamic history is known as Expansion,or in
Arabic (Quranic) language, INSHIRAH. It is said that a black spot
from the heart of Mohammad
SAW
was taken away by those who
opened his chest. The Quran alludes to this event in these verses:

1
Sliman b Ibrahim, p.24.
2
He was always ahead of his age. Even today one can feel how matured he is!

27
Have we not expanded (for) you your breast?
And removed from you your burden
Which weighed down your back?
And raised the esteem (in which) you (are held)?
So, verily, with every difficulty there is relief:
Therefore, when you are free (from your immediate task),
still labour hard.
And to your Lord turn (all) your attention.
(91:1-8)

The Quran does not make a mention of any black spot that
was removed from the Prophets heart
SAW
. The burden which
weighed very heavy upon his back is something very mysterious;
perhaps no translator of the Book can explain it because like other
secrets it also seems to be a mystery. What relief Mohammad
SAW

must have experienced after having been ensured that his burden
has been taken off. With difficulty there is relief and then verily
must have pleased him furthermore. With the repetition of this verse
and with the word of assurance verily he must have flown high
and also forgotten the pain, all the more, which forms the subject
matter of ADDUHA (Chapter 93). It is said that the expansion of
breast is very important, particularly for those who seek to know
secrets of self, who have a strong desire to know and also see
truth. For is anything comparable to seeking a close tie with God?
Shouldnt His friendship be sought to know what man doesnt
know? And when man begins to know what he knows not, he
begins to feel the pressure of things that are extraordinary. Patience,
tolerance, selflessness, dedication at the cost of ease and comfort,

28
preparedness to forget things that tie one with the mundane,
brushing aside in love habits and beliefs and dependable merriments
that provide protection and security before friendship ties with God
are established. Above all, spending hours and hours, day and night,
mostly alone and cut off from the madding crowd, in observation
and deep thinking, sometimes solving things but often getting
confused and tangled in things interwoven,
1
in conditions of sun and
shower, at times without eating and drinking and also sleeping
are some examples of these pressures. To resist demands of
common men, ANNAS in the Quran, and the drift against ways of
living established in a society, is like putting oneself on sharp thorns
and trying to sleep on them, Mohammad
SAW
seeks refuge
2
from the
Lord of common men whose established ways of living can very
hardly be challenged. He also seeks refuge from the whispering of
the devil who joins the crowd to make change impossible. The

1
Poets usually use ZULF to allude to the intricacies and labyrinthine situations of
life and love. Jami in singing the praise of Mohammad
SAW
uses this metaphor
commonly. For instance:
:

. . .

,
.

,
.
,

.

,
`.
.
.

,
.
,
. . . :

.
,
.
- _

The Quranic idea of

,
(see Chapter 92 in particular) has been brought forth by
Jami to show what happens when invisibility makes understanding truth difficult or
even impossible. Like a lover one has to undergo this ordeal by suffering and pain
very patiently,
:

. - : . + , . .
is also Jamis painful expression which
shows what happens. Zanjeer, Qullab similies show (1) long chains (2) hooka one
gets suspended on like butchers flesh-weight. MUSHKI KHUTUN then adds fuel to
the fire of longing and the lover of Mohammad
SAW
becomes restless rolling and
tossing about, inwardly or even outwardly. I have seen his lovers and the lovers of
Allah weep piteously when caught by the situation. Patience only helps!
2
See Chapter 114 of the Quran.

29
Quran mentions INSHIRAH in Chapter six also but in a different
context. It seems that breasts are rendered open whenever God wills
that individuals should be put on the right path for reasons some of
which have been hinted above. By reading and understanding this
verse of the Quran the point becomes clear.

So whosoever Allah intends to guide,
He expands his breast for Islam and
Whosoever He intends to leave in error,
He makes his breast strait (and) narrow.
1


Islam as used in this verse, means submission to Allah who
is the first and the last, the inward and the outward of things, who
has absolute power over everything that exists in this universe.
Human beings apart, there is nothing in this universe that does not
submit to Him and His powerful glory and there is nothing in this
universe that exists except He. There is no God but Allah prevails
everywhere and rules.
We may now refer to the first journey that Mohammad
SAW

undertook to Syria in a caravan in the company of his loving uncle
Hazrat Abu Talib. It seems that there was no plan for this journey of
Mohammad
SAW
.
2
Abu Talib seeing the restlessness of this young
boy decided to take him with and they started. The young boy was

1
The Quran, 6:126
Moses also prays to God that his breast be opened and his problems solved. His
problems usually were related to Pharaoh whom Moses confronted.
_ = | = _ | _ = = _ ; , . | _ - ;

2
The boy was emotionally upset at the departure of Abu Talib. Abdul Muttalib was no
more in this world. Seeing the emotional state of Mohammad
SAW
Hazrat Abu Talib
decided to take him with. See Zainul Abideen Rehmnumas book Payamber.

30
nine that time but some say he was twelve, some fourteen. When
they reached Bastra they stopped because the Meccan caravan
stopped there always. This place was known because a Christian
lived there generation after generation. The monks cell had some
important but old manuscripts. One of these manuscripts contained
the prediction of the coming of Prophet to the Arabs. Bahira
who now lived in the cell, was well versed in the contents of this
book.
1
It was interesting that both Bahira and Warqa bin Nowfal
were the contemporaries of the Prophet of Allah
SAW
. Since the
caravan destined for Syria stopped near the monks cell at Bastra,
Bahira got a chance to meet Mohammad
SAW
, the Arab Prophet
SAW
.
Lings describes the meeting
2
and we quote him fully:

1
Martin Lings, p.129.
2
The meeting has been quoted by Zainul Abideen Rehnuma also. He produced the
whole dialogue between Hazrat Abu Talib and Bahira and Bahira and Mohammad.
Some interesting things in the dialogue are:
Bahira: Have you left anyone behind?
Abu Talib: All have come except a youthful boy who is the youngest in the
caravan.
Bahira: Call him too.
(When Mohammad
SAW
was brought, Bahira addressed him thus:)
Bahira: Draw near please. Let us have a chat. (He took him aside. Abu
Talib followed)
Bahira: I have to ask you something. In the name of Lat and Uzza speak
truth.
Mohammad
SAW
: These two are the things I dislike most.
Bahira: In the name of Allah speak truth.
Mohamamd
SAW
: I always speak truth. Ask what you want to.
Bahira: What do you like most?
Mohammad
SAW
: Solitariness.
Bahira: Which of the scenes you like most?
Mohammad
SAW
: Thy sky the stars!
Bahira: Do you see many dreams? (Cont.)

31
He (Bahira) had often seen the Meccan caravan
approach and halt not far from his cell, but as this one
came in sight his attention was struck by something the
like of which he had never seen before; a small low-
hanging cloud moved slowly above their heads so that it
was always between the sun and one or two of the
travelers. With intense interest he watched them draw
near. But suddenly his interest changed to amazment, for
as soon as they halted the cloud ceased to move,
remaining stationary over the tree beneath which they
took shelter, while the tree itself lowered its branches
over them, so that they were doubly in the shade. Bahira
knew that such a portent, though unobtrusive, was of
high significance. Only some great spiritual presence
could explain it, and immediately he thought of the
expected Prophet
SAW
.
1


Mohammad
SAW
: Yes, many, even in wakefulness.
Bahira. Content of dreams?
Mohammad
SAW
: (Remains silent)
Bahira: (Bahira, too, says nothing)
Bahira: Can I see your back between your shoulders?
Mohammad
SAW
: Come and see yourself.
(Bahira observes the mark between his shoulders which appears like
an apple. Whispers Yes, he is the one.
Abu Talib: What is it?
Bahira: It is a mark which is mentioned in our books. Who is this boy?
Abu Talib: My son!
Bahira: No, his father shouldnt be alive.
Abu Talib: How do you know? Yes, he is my nephew.
Bahira: His future is very important. The things that I have seen if seen
and understand by others, will cause him death. Save him from
Jews.
1
Marting Lings, p.29.

32
In fact, Bahira invited them for a meal. While they were
eating, Bahira was observing the boy, including his face. Everything
that he saw was written in his books. Then he saw the seal of
Prophethood between his two shoulders in the back, exactly there
where it was described in his books. In a cordial manner he was
pleased to ask Mohammad
SAW
certain questions most of which we
already described quoting Z.A.Rehnuma. Bahira, also, told Abu
Talib to be careful about this boy because he has a danger of severe
enmity from the side of Jews.
1
Great things are in store for this
brothers son of thine, said Bahira to Abu Talib.
From Bahira we know Mohammad
SAW
saw dreams. We also
know that he does not reveal their content to Bahira. There may be
many reasons for this secrecy. One, the Quran narrates that
Joseph
AS
reveals his dream to his father Jacob
AS
. He advises his son
that he should not reveal his dreams to his brothers who carry an ill
will and enmity against him. They may harm him if they know the
truth. Mohammad
SAW
had many more enemies. Would he reveal his
dreams to Bahira, he would disclose the richness of his soul, thereby
would endanger himself. Or at least he would gain nothing by
disclosing the assets of his soul. Two, Bahira confirmed what he
wanted to confirm by the silence of Mohammad
SAW
. Hence when
things are achieved by silence, why give them a verbal expression.
Three, since Mohammad
SAW
is the soul of souls, he would have not
thought it proper to disclose the secrets imprinted on his potential

1
All these things have been quoted by Sliman Bin Ibrahim in The Life of Mohammad.
Sliman also writes that Jews would kill Mohammad
SAW
if they knew what Bahira
saw. Sliman also confirms seal of Prophecy in his book.

33
soul. Secrets should not be disclosed because even God does not
disclose secrets to all and sundry directly. People in general may not
tolerate their intensity and the whole game of life may get disturbed.
Four, if secrets are disclosed, there remains nothing for lovers of
God to strive for. Life becomes dull and listless. Great souls enjoy
doing things and solving their problems themselves. Earned bread is
sweater than unearned one. Unearned things do not get registered
well. Free gifts are not honoured also. People show carelessness to
things which are showered at them freely. Life is very sweet, very
precious, very colourful if it is earned. Five, Mohammad
SAW
was in
the early period of his life. He would have been more careful.
Losing precious things is very painful. Six, sharing secrets of
dreams with those who are not trained may not be in the fitness of
things. Very close friends deserve to be closer. Seven, dream secrets
may not benefit everyone. God has created people differently with
different capacities, potentialities, likes, dislikes, temperaments,
attitudes and so on. Eight, secret sharing may cause troubles in the
social, moral or even spiritual sense. It is better to be careful. Nine,
it is improper to be assertive to the extent that self-assertion gives a
feeling of I-am-ness. Mohammad
SAW
never gave anybody feeling
that he is the master of the universe. God addressed him that way
but he himself said that he is a BASHAR. He didnt claim
extraordinary powers. Ten, beauty needs no ornaments and
ornamentation. Man is known by what he does. Exposing dreams
may not be necessary. These reasons are not absolute. These are
only an estimate; God knows better. But we think that Mohammads
sleep was far more visionary than our wakefulness and his dreams

34
carried the richness of his mind which was more than a universe
certainly. It was Balad-ul-Amin that is mentioned elsewhere in this
book.
Nature and society has been the centre of attention for many
who are interested in life and its improvement. Poets, philosophers,
scientists, social scientists, reformers, saints and sages have
absorbed themselves in social and natural affairs according to their
level and approach. How can prophets remain aloof when their
minds are more inclusive seeking betterment of life at a larger and
more intense scale? From the earliest days of his life due to his God
given gifts of heart and head, Mohammad
SAW
was seen seeking
seclusion or retirement to absorb himself in thinking and pondering
over the phenomena of nature and society. His eyes were very sharp
and keen and his perceptions never and in no case less intense.
What happened in his inner being is unknown mostly but the way
he cast his eyes on things showed his seriousness and gravity.
Silently and attentively his moments of life would pass gazing and
thinking even during the days he would play or go out with his
foster-brother or wet-nurse. Before that many a time Abdul Muttalib
would observe and record his response to environment of Mecca
and at times would seek his opinion in matters of life as if he were
seasoned through observation and experience. His wet-nurse had
also seen that the child would seek pleasures of observation and
observational thinking when in the lap of nature, more so if left
alone.
1
She once told his mother, Jenab Amina
AS
, that he would be
better off in open-air circumstance than in the pestilence of Meccan

1
Sliman bin Ibrahim, p.24.

35
city. Whether it was a plain statement or much deeper than that one
does not know but the spectacle and grandeur of nature absorbed
him so much that he would soar high limitlessly. The Quran
provides ample evidence to this fact. Not that he sought some solace
in it because he was orphan or away from his mother under the care
of his wet-nurse or not having peers around him for game and sport,
song and skip and prank and pleasure. He was not lost in loneliness
caused by circumstance and family condition, nor bitten by grief or
remorse or helplessness that orphans in families living under
economic strains experience. No, no, no! He was a different kind
who told us later that those who remember Allah standing and
sitting and (lying) on their sides, and reflect on the creation of the
heavens and the earth: Our Lord, thou has not created this in vain!
Glory be to thee! Save us from the chastisement of Fire.
1
He was
sure that clouds, for instance, have a message for us and also a
direct but profound utility- while they drift and toss up and down,
causing rain and shower over the hill and the dale, the sand and the
thorny desert, the palm and the palmy grove in which sweet and rich
fruit of dates for Arabs grows. He knew the value of water, this
unlettered orphan, peace be upon him and all those who love him
(or even do not love him for reasons of prejudice or desperateness)
at a time when science was in its infancy and the arid land of his
birth was shrouded in Jahiliyyah.
2
He knew that water is the

1
The Quran, 3:190.
2
The worse kind of Jahiliyyah prevails over the world now when in spite of what is
known as the advancement of science and technology, the marvels of computer and
internet, the facility of transport and travel and the abundant network of the written
material, water is getting scarce and scarce for drinking purpose. (Cont.)

36
medium of life and also that man himself exists in it and through it
And we made from water everything living.
1
culminates in His
Throne of Power is ever on water.
2
He enjoyed observing
lightening and thunder amidst awe and wonder that these natural
phenomena cause in the minds or hearts of people. He knew their
value and also that everything that exists is set in order and for
specific purposes. He was not a recluse away from the realities of
nature and life living in mountains and saving himself from
changing moods of life but passed every moment in definite ways
meaningfully, purposefully and in absolute ecstasy. Strange
outbursts in absolute liaison with Allah, the most graceful and
sublime, would be heard in ARABIEN MUBEEN (clear Arabic
language) and the listener if sensitive like Ummar, the friend, would
simply do nothing but wonder! Wonder he would, not only because
of the beauty of expression of these outbursts but also because of
the burden of the metre and meaning that these strange
compositions would carry with them.
3
(A sample in Quranic Arabic

Women, the desperate lot of Muslim community, in rural areas, can be seen flocking
together, pitches on their heads and running in desperation in search of drinking
water for miles and miles together for fear of intestinal and stomach troubles that
have grown over the years due to water scarcity. Stomach and intestines are more
important than skin in rural areas because the value of skin as related to beauty or
aesthetics is beyond the understanding of people who are shrouded in poverty,
ignorance and miss-rule. Water as a symbol of gnosis does not touch the imagination
of people in spite of religiosity and religious fervour. There are many aspects of
modern Jahilliyyah which if explained, will cover volumes of books and other media
means.
1
The Quran, 21:30
2
The Quran,11:7.
3
For example see the Quran, 78:6-15; 86:5-14. (Cont.)

37
given in the footnote for those who read)! This language, Arabic
would however, not be understood by those whose hearts and ears
would be sealed and whose eyes would not see because of a
covering on them. It was not an easy language because it carried so
much divine in it that those who would listen carefully and
understand mindfully would melt with extraordinary warmth of it
and see as if streams full of murmuring water are flowing within
their breasts. And we reveal of the Quran that which is a healing














38
and a mercy to the believers, and it adds only to the perdition of the
wrongdoers.
1
Had we sent down this Quran on a mountain, thou
would certainly have seen it falling down, splitting asunder because
of the fear of Allah. And we set forth these parables to men that
they may reflect.
2
This language known as Arabic was beyond the
comprehension of many who lived in that arid land, Abul Hikm and
the chieftains of Meccan oligarchy included. (But strangely this
Quran, this Arabic language, would very severely touch Shaikh-ul-
Aalam of Kashmir who would burst out saying:
Why didnt you die, reciting the Quran
Why didnt you burn to ashes doing it?
How did you (avoid death) to continue living?
Didnt Mansoor consume himself in its fiery flame?
We have to be receptively sensitive to see streams of
meaning flowing through nature and falling down like cascades of
perfume on Mohammads soul to come out finally through the
tongue of the Prophet in the shape of the melodious Quranic verse.
This is not an ordinary verse. This is divinity, in nature, in
Mohammads
SAW
being pouring itself to cause full bloom of the
Universal Soul. We must not forget that Mohammads
SAW
eyes
caught a full view of the miserable conditions of the weak and the
downtrodden in a community of Arabs dominated by the Meccan
oligarchy and backed by the privileged Jews and Christians.
Women and children and orphans and the hungry and the slaves
produced an orchestra that added fuel to the fire of love that this

1
Quran, 17:82.
2
Quran, 59:21.

39
Prophet of Allah
SAW
had brought with him to shape mankind
according to his divine order!
= . | . . = - . . _ , . . . | . . - , . . . . _ | . . - . . . _ , . . . . | . . . -
= . . . . . . , - . . . , . . . . . - | . . . . . - - . . . . . - . , . _ - . = . | . . -
: t ` _

He attained the height of eminence by his perfection;
He dispelled the darkness by his grace;
Excellent were all his qualities;
Pray for blessings on him and his prosterity;
(Sadi Shirazi)
Apart from what has been said so far, three events in the life
of Mohammad
SAW
are extraordinary and significant: the night of
power, when the Quran was imprinted on his mind, the beginning of
revelation on Mount Hira and the Night of Ascent. All the three
events are neither objectively detailed out nor explained
satisfactorily fully. No secrets can be exposed to the masses,
ANNAS in Arabic, openly. Religion must approach people
according to their level of understanding, power of endurance and
absorption, and capacity to secret. The essence of religion, the
gnosis, (or MORIFAT in Arabic language) must be bought for each
drop of blood by the seeker of truth if he is restlessly ardent and
devotedly committed. The brilliance of the Beloveds presence
needs a welcome of pearls and diamonds and His countence the
whole world and its absorbing lust. Love is a consuming flame
which demands everything of the lover, with the lover and about
him. Those who are consciously careful about themselves and afraid
must stay away and aloof!

40
The Night of Power, the LAILATUL QADR in Arabic,
stands mentioned in the Quran. It happened in the month of
Ramadhan and is upto date celebrated in the last week of this
month, on the 26
th
or in certain cases on 21
st
, everywhere in the
world by all Muslims, particularly the devoted. It has a chapter in
the Quran, 97
th
, which reads:
We have indeed revealed
This
In the Night of Power:
And what will explain
To thee what the Night
Of Power is?
The Night of Power
Is better than
A thousand months.
Therein come down
The angles and the Spirit
By Allahs
1
permission
On every errand:
Peace! ... This
Until the rise of Morn!

Registered on the mind of Mohammad
SAW
the Quran was
slowly revealed during twenty three years to him. The first
revelation, amidst shaking, wonder and fear came to him when he
was over the mountain near Mecca in the cave Hira. Jibrael
appeared to him and pressed him in his arms twice telling to

1
Not Allah but Rub is mentioned in the original text. To me Rub is correct and more
appropriate to the occasion.

41
RECITE and recite in the name of Lord. The unlettered Prophet
SAW

knew not how to read but he was commanded to read and he read.
He read not only the verses that were revealed to him that day on
Mount Hira but everything that is contained in the Quran, in the
whole universe as a matter of fact. He read what man knew not and
he understood the value and the power of pen, the pen which is
mentioned in a separate chapter, the Pen. Al-Qalam is the 68
th

chapter in the Quran which mentions not only the pen but pens. It
means there are many pens besides the Pen which write, record and
design. The Prophet knows it with great pleasure and says that the
first thing that was created was the Pen followed by the creation of
the Tablet. So the Qalam and the Lowh are the first creations! The
Prophet
SAW
read that man is created out of blood or the blood
mated. So KHALQ ALAQ go together and significantly so. In
another chapter of the Quran, AL-TARIQ (No 86), the creation of
man is repeated:
So let man consider of what he is created,
He is created of water pouring forth,
Coming from between the back and the ribs.
(86:5.7)
Pouring forth is not a proper translation of MAEN DAFIQIN.
Jetting out is because the liquid comes out in jets. It causes
wonder and the wonder reveals a lot of meaning. So the Prophet
SAW

was very conscious of the act of creation which is a divine process.
It is conducted by the Lord Himself.
Mohammad
SAW
was amazed but overawed by the first
revelation which gave him a shake. The appearance of Jabraeal, too,

42
was amazing and awful So Mohammad
SAW
rushed down to his
home where Khadeja
AS
was there. She too, was worried to see
Mohammad
SAW
in that state. She knew the whole happening from
Mohammad
SAW
, covered him with a blanket, said to be black, and
set off for Waraqa bin Nawfal, the scholar and the sage, to confirm
what it was all about. And Lo! Mohammad
SAW
was now the Prophet
of Allah, the Prophet
SAW
of the Arabs, the Prophet
SAW
who had to
change everything amidst hard work and suffering, amidst poverty
and pain, facing almost alone in the beginning the terrible
opposition and persecution of the established order at the hands of
those in particular who thrived on it and led a life of power, ease
and comfort, enjoying everything that was materially good, that
cooled down their nerve and eased their flesh. Khadeja
AS
was with
him to see everything and take part in whatever concerned him,
peace be upon him and his friends! She was there when nobody was
there and she was the only friend when everyone, almost everyone
in that Jahiliyyah, opposed him and blocked his way. She was his
companion bringing from Waraqa a good news, a very encouraging
news that he is the Prophet of Allah
SAW
who is praised by Allah and
His angels and therefore should also be praised by those who
believe! She really praised Al-Amin from the depths of her being!
Mohammads
SAW
opposition was neither simple nor without
reason. He was now the Prophet of Allah openly, challenging the
manner and method of those who sold God in His House, Kaba.
They had designed idols to strengthen their instrument of exploiting
the poor and innocent people whom they used for their merriment
and comfortable living. They had created a social order in which

43
ritual was everything that defined gods and the chief god. The ritual
meant no improvement, no advancement in living or of life. Life
was caught in the mire of bread-earning and bread-winning, no
matter in what ways and with what methods. Not that hard efforts or
means employed for fulfilling vital needs bore fruit! Many people
including their women and children slept without food living in
cells or tents that in that arid land suffocated due to everything
unhygienic and disease-breeding. Even if shame were necessary,
scarcity of means caused its non-observance. Men and women,
children and elders slept almost together, either in the open air or in
cells or tents, like animals that were reared by Jahiliyyah and its
conservators. Mohammad
SAW
was pained to see it, wanted to relieve
the common people of this drudgery of poverty, ignorance and
dismay so that the masses would also some day see the dawn of
reality or something that corresponds to it. He didnt want people to
run away from pestilence of poverty and live on mountains in cells
or tents or whatever, counting beads or practicing magic fruitlessly.
He wanted a definite improvement in living so that people would be
relieved of demons, of bad living and hunger to present themselves
before Allah who had no equals, no rivals, no assistants, no agents
or comrades whatever. There is no God but Allah he wanted to
sow in the minds of people to reap the reward of life that would
pronounce Allah-o-Akber, there is no God but Allah,
Mohammad
SAW
is His Prophet, attend to prayer and deliver yourself
to be in peace and prosperity! He wanted to unite people in real
brotherhood and in an atmosphere of social justice. He had no ill
will for anyone unless anyone would block the way of his people in

44
marching towards the welfare and well-being goal. All this was
intolerable. What was important in the eyes of the keepers of Kaba
was the establishment and the Meccan Oligarchy! But
Mohammad
SAW
, forced by his mission and lettered in the name of
the Lord who created man and taught him abundantly, made his
way through ultimately to success that puzzles everybody and
frustrates modern Jahiliyyah.!
His mission made an important and creative headway when
he began experiencing Ascension recorded in the Quran as a
mysterious travel between two places in the company of God. It is
said that God lifted him away to show him wonders that are
qualified by the Quranic verses in chapter 53, AL-NAJM (The
Star). Sarmad, the Indian saint, commenting on this travel, said:
The mullah says that Ahmad went to heaven
Sarmad says that heavens descended into Ahmad.
For real and truthful statements as this he was executed in Delhi in
the year 1661. But Al-NAJMs first 18 verses are secretive as well
as wonderful. One mighty in power had taught him. The Lord of
Strength. So he attained to perfection. Then he drew near, drew
nearer yet, so he was the measure of two bows or closer still, So
He revealed to His servant what He revealed, And certainly he
saw Him in another descent, At the farthest lote-tree, Certainly
he saw of the greatest signs of His Lord. In yet another chapter of
the Quran the event of Meraj or Ascent or Ascension is referred to.
Only a single verse is given there, the first one (see chapter 17).
Ascension is ASRA there. There it has been pointed out that the
precincts were blessed so that he is shown the signs of God.

45
SUBHAN AL LAZI ASRA BIABDIHI, in fact carries the same
meaning as given by Sarmad. It is God who travelled with
Mohammad
SAW
, not Mohammad
SAW
with God. God is everywhere
as a matter of fact. One wonders why only one verse is given to
Meraj in this chapter. But like other chapters, Taha in particular,
Moses
AS
has been mentioned. Significantly Moses
AS
also sees the
Bush illuminated whereon God talks to him. It is also a meeting
between God and Moses. Abraham is also said to have talked to
God several times. So rapport between God and Prophets is not rare.
It is very sad that historians on Mohammad
SAW
and doctors
of Islam, especially those who interpret the Quran, do not
investigate into matters related either with Meraj or with revelation
and its place in our life. The times have so changed that the
attention of the interpreters is more towards political and moral
affairs than to the reality of religion direct experience with God.
The Quran is very clear on the point. God is nearer to man than his
jugular vein. Wherever, we turn, we see the face of God. When we
remember God, He is at once there to respond to our call. Gods
face can be seen provided that we make efforts and spend in His
way. We must develop in us the same qualities as God has. The
powerful night, the Revelation and the event of Meraj and many
other Quranic descriptions, though brief and allegorical, stress the
dirct-experience. Like Mohammad
SAW
and following his path of
SUNNAH we must attend more to this aspect of religion than to
flogging people in the open market. This is the demand of our age
when religion is politicalized and institutionalized too much.

46
Regarding Meraj one more point needs be taken up. The
body-soul or body-mind controversy is there too. It is said that
Meraj was a psychological or spiritual experience merely. But God
mentions precincts and lote-tree and another descent and
Gabriel and Buraq and carrying and bridging distance and
nearness and eyes and highest place in paradise and so on.
Why then do we insist that Mohammads body didnt participate?
Iqbal calls the material and the phenomenal world as the habit of
God, the Aadat-ullah in the Quranic sense. If God in spite of His
LIGHT METAPHOR in the Quran needs a body to be known why
doesnt Mohammad
SAW
need to be seen in the Heavenly Journey
bodily too? Are we still not comfortable about Mohammad
SAW
? Are
we the keepers of Kaba who want to see him buried? Ah! What can
be said about those who do not love Mohammad
SAW
more than their
ownself? Certainly he experienced body and soul and certainly
legends are true, even the Buraq with the shapes that it has! Those
who practice gnosis see! There is a lot of mystic literature on Meraj
available even today, not only in Persia and other countries but here
in India also, Kashmir certainly included. Attars Ilahi Nama is a
significant example! Just one ray from the event of Meraj is enough
to serve a death blow to the lust and desire of wealth and power
generated by the commercial civilization of today!
Mohammad
SAW
found himself in the sea of hardships and
difficulties soon after he was born. His troubles multiplied with the
passage of time, as his field of action expanded. His life was a bed
of thorns on the whole, at least in the common sense. Not that roses
did not touch his feet but that they were of a different hue and a

47
different colour. By a keen observation of his living conditions one
can easily say that great works of great men are attended by ordeals
that test their endurance and courage and also the seriousness of
their purpose. His purpose was serious beyond any doubt and his
determination of facing odds verified that he was not a weakling,
nor even one who could not understand lifes ruthless moods. He
cut his way through and wrote on everything he faced that
Mohammad
SAW
is the Prophet of Allah whose life and death and all
that is between these two extremes is in the hands of God before
whom we should do nothing but submit. This is no rationalization
but a hard fact which characterizes his life and of his progeny who
dyed the sands of Kerbela with their rosy red blood! Peace be upon
him and upon them all ever and evermore!
He could not see even the face of his father, nor even his
fondling with a child in Mohammad
SAW
. He was deprived thereby
of even a sweet smile that the fondling would add to his pleasant
face. He saw his grave once, in the company of his mother when he
was around six, while standing by her sobbing and wailing near the
grave. Absolute silence of the child marked the scene while he
observed the emotional outburst of his bereaved widow-mother,
Jenab Amina
AS
. What was passing through the heart and soul of
young Amina is the mystery of widowhood but what the silence of
Mohammad
SAW
, the orphan, denoted is known to Allah alone, Allah
of Mohammad
SAW
who had called Abdullah back before his son
was born. We only consciously wonder why Mohammad
SAW
was
left orphan when Allah proclaimed But for thee, but for thee, I had

48
not created the heavens
1
and verily Allah and His angels shower
praise on Mohammad
SAW
; we should follow suit sending him
adoration, wishing him peace! And lo and behold, soon after this the
mother too was taken away, Mohammad
SAW
sitting by her side, near
her bed, dumbfounded. That left him absolutely either in the lap of
aged Abdul Muttalib, the grandfather, or in the protective arms of
Abu Talib, his uncle, the father of Ali, the Lion of Allah, against an
oligarchy utterly unconscious of the Merciful Lord of Mercy.
Mohammad
SAW
sought consolation in the unending recitations of
the Divine word:
O ye who believe! Seek help with patience and with prayer,
for God is with the patient.
And say not of those who are slain on Gods path that they
are dead; nay, they are living! But ye understand not.
With somewhat of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth,
and lives, and fruits, will we surely prove you: but bear good
tidings to the patient.
Who when a mischance chanceth them, say,
Verily we are Gods, and to Him shall we
return:
On them shall be blessings from their Lord, and
mercy: and those! They are the rightly guided.
(2:153-157)
Trials and ordeals of Mohammad
SAW
, after his mothers death,
assumed intensity. First pressures upon pressures of all kinds that
test the nerve as well the character of a person, a human being for

1
Meaning of
| , v . | , v . | - . v > .
quoted from Selected poems from
the Divani Shamsi Tabriz, edited by A.A. Nicholson.

49
that matter, were laid upon Abu Talib. He was addressed with soft
but pleasant words and made conscious of his position and prestige
in that tribal society, was also promised that his position will get
strengthened if he paid a head to what was being said to him
regarding Mohammad
SAW
and his non conformist behaviour.
Wealth and power or whatever is alluring to flesh and blood was
offered to him if he agreed to leave Mohammad
SAW
alone. He was
still young, too young to stand upon his legs so that he could resist
the force or power that the Quraish used to browbeat him with for
conformity and submission. He had no friends, no relatives, no kin,
nor even sympathizers to stand by him, to strengthen him at least
through consolation and good word. He had no money, nothing of
that sort, to impress people or to attract them to his side. He was
alone besides being straight forward and honest, not using the
methods that wordly-wise and clever people use to straighten things
and to win favour. He would be more lonely would Abu Talib, in
consideration of his position or for the sake of power promised,
leave him in the lurch and abandon him. But Abu Talib didnt
waver, didnt accept the advice of the chieftains of Mecca and
continued supporting Mohammad
SAW
. By no means and under no
circumstance shall I leave you at the mercy of these people. Forget
your worries. I shall not leave you alone before I reach the grave.
Almost these words were spoken by Abu Talib to Mohammad
SAW

when he advised him to listen to what chieftains said and when
Mohammad
SAW
got worried about Abu Talibs apparent tendency
towards them. Hearing this the chieftains approached Abu Talib to
convey to Mohammad
SAW
to abandon his stand or face

50
consequences. But neither the greed of worldly benefit nor the
threat of confrontation or persecution affected Abu Talib. His
character did not allow him to spare Mohammad
SAW
either for this
or for that. His love for this boy was real but profound. Come what
may he was with him as ever before. He was Mohammads
SAW

uncle but this relation alone does not explain his attitude and
support. Abul Hikam or Abu Jahal was his uncle too but both were
of different make and different nature. Abu Talib was soft and kind,
Abu Jahal rough and crude. The one was humble but large-hearted,
the other conceited and prejudiced, jealous and chicken hearted. The
one loved Mohammad
SAW
passionately and sincerely, the other
hated him and wished him death so that his pride would win him
and his kind power for which he was desperate. Besides Abu Jahal,
Abu Lahab, Abu Sufyan were also Mohammads
SAW
relatives but
Mohammad
SAW
sought Allah far above any relationships or worldly
ties because nothing other than God interested him. It was the
verdict of God that he should suffer for great ideals that made him
the greatest man of history! The swiftest fleet to carry him to
perfection in the absolute sense, was suffering! Before his
persecution openly and exactly Mohammad
SAW
was approached by
Abu Sufyan, Abu Jahal and others for a compromise with them. He
was to make sure that he did not challenge their gods, nor even the
status-quo that made everything for them possible belief and ritual
and commerce and all. The gods protected their life and interest
Hubul, Lat, Manat, Uzza and others. They attracted people from all
sides, even from neighbouring places. People would come in great
numbers to worship gods in Kaba but would also meet in Mecca

51
for trade and commerce. Hence Meccan economy, which benefited
Meccan oligarchy most, depended upon these gods and the activity
they generated. If Mohammad
SAW
did not interfere with their gods
they would not merely share power with him but would be pleased
to bestow upon him an honourable position so that among other
things he would enjoy money and materials, comfort and luxury.
Some of the chieftains had offered him any possible medical
assistance he would require to get cured from the ailment he was
struck with. Really it seems that they believed he was ill (I beg his
pardon for writing this) and therefore talked the way none else did.
They also thought that the ailment was extraordinary and
mysterious.
1
Mohammad
SAW
had told Abu Talib that he was not
interested in anything, particularly when it interfered in his belief
about God or disturbed his idea about an ideal society. He had told
him if the sun would be placed in his right hand and the moon in his
left, he would not accept to budge an inch from his vocation that
was divine and therefore imperative categorically. He must have
passed on his opinion to Meccan chiefs. But when Mohammad
SAW

heard them patiently and silently, he at last told them. I am not
interested in anything except God and His ways. I am not interested
in wealth and power, services and goods. I have entrusted myself
and my affairs to Him and Him alone. Only one confession you
have to make. All else is solved. There will be no heart-burning, no
envy, no jealousy, no conflict between us. I seek no favours, no

1
They said more and more about his illness and coined names for it: madness,
epilepsy, mental disequilibrium and all that. They also said he was fanciful and
haunted by ghosts. Some said he practised magic, (I seek Gods refuge for writing
this.)

52
gains from you. Only confess to there is no God but Allah and.
1

He had not completed his confession Article (Kalma in Arabic)
when the chiefs shouted at him. So, said they, You are stubborn
and dont change. We burn our boats with you. Nothing now to be
said.
2
So they left to hatch plots against him. The persecution takes
a definite shape now. They are out to kill him. He knows it full well
and also Abu Talib and Ali
AS
and all.
They could not kill him. They could not harm him
substantially. They could not stop him from spreading the message
of God in spite of all what they did: hiding on his way to stone him
to death, poison him for the same design indirectly, spreading
thorns in his way, persuading people to make his walking
impossible
3
, throwing rubbish on him in streets, abusing him and
taunting him, telling him that he says nothing new but collects
information about Jews and Christians, and other prophets
Abraham and Ishaq and all and welding them together to compose
a book of poetry, naming this as divinely revealed Book, the Quran.
They find fault with him even when he lives a normal married life,

1
This is what Mohammad
SAW
said but this is not his direct speech. Zainul Abidin
Rehnuma describes him for this in Payamber.
2
Even these are not the direct word spoken by them. See Payamber.
3
It is said that Abu Lahabs wife used to place thorns in his way so that he is either
wounded or debarred from going about to spread Gods message. There is a chapter
in the Quran that condemns both Abu Lahab and his wife the IIIst. We quote it:
Abu Lahabs hands will perish and he will perish.
His wealth and that which he earns will not avail him.
He will burn in fire giving rise to flames
And his wife the bearer of slander,
Upon her neck a halter of twisted rope!
(III:1-5)

53
they abuse him and his partners-in-life, Ummahat-ul-Mominin (the
mothers of believers), they express their joy when his sons pass
away and with malice call him ABTAR (the one whose condition is
bad), they enter his ranks and try to torture him by undesirable
activities, they try to divide his followers, they criticize him at every
step, but they fail and fail absolutely. They fight battles against him
even after he leaves his home, Mecca, and they use whatever means
they have and whatever war strategy they can engineer to crush and
kill him and his faithful companions. Each effort brings them failure
and utter disappointment and each time they grind their teeth
against him. Light, God as it is, cannot he stopped from illuminating
and warming everything that exists between the heavens and the
earth and in the underworld. He spreads it successfully ultimately.
Truth is come and falsehood
is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth.
(17:81)
Verily, we have won for thee an undoubted VICTORY
(48:1)
Strange enough they build a mosque to create a parallel
Islam, in spite of his being amidst them, with sufficient strength
gained by him in all respects for all purposes. He frustrates them by
designating the mosque as MASJID-i-DORAR, the mosque causing
schisms and damage. He refuses to accept their design of using
houses of God (mosque) for purposes of dividing and distorting
Islam.
Mohammad
SAW
bore hardships silently but sometimes he
offered prayers imploring God to help him and to make his role
easy and successful. In Taif great many troubles were inflicted upon

54
him, so much so that he bled on the wayside and almost swooned.
REHMATAN LILAALAMIN being treated as such is something
which appears to be incomprehensible (let our blood be poured and
sacrificed on his sacred feet indeed)! This Rehmat slightly moved
offers a prayer. We quote him
SAW
:
O Lord! I make my complaint unto thee, out of
my feebleness, and the vanity of my wishes, I am
insignificant in the sight of men. O thou most
merciful! Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! Do not
forsake me. Leave me not a prey to strangers, not to
mine enemies. If thou are not offended, I am safe. I
seek refuge in the light of thy countenance, by which
all darkness is dispersed, and peace comes here and
hereafter. Let not thy anger descend on me; solve my
difficulties as it pleaseth thee. There is no power, no
help, but in Thee.
1

Several opinions have been expressed about the persecution
Mohammad
SAW
was subjected to and about dangers he dared to
face. The hardship trials, it is said, were nothing but sign posts to
show the great work he undertook to bring about a revolution in the
world, a revolution that in no way concerns Arabs only but the
whole mankind. Even life at the sub-human life owes much to this
mysteriously great man whose steadfastness and courage never
wavered. Passing by roses and rose bushes and numerous kinds of
other flowers it was natural for him to get the prick of a thorn here
and a thorn there which sometimes scratched him, taking drops of
blood out of his body to show their colourful richness and fragrant

1
Amir Ali, The Spirit of Islam, p.42.

55
quality. In fact even the thorns prostrated in his way while he
walked.
. : . . . . ,

Fond of him
Even the thorns
Kissed his feet
He himself unmindful
Took them easy
Like soft silk
Carpeted below.
1


Says Gani Kashmiri:
. _. .
No fruit is possible
in this world unless it has a stone in it or a bark around it or a shell.
2

Let us attempt a brief summary of the opinions expressed
about Mohammads troubles:

1. We did indeed offer
The trust to the Heavens
And the Earth
And the Mountains;
But they refused
To undertake it,
Being afraid thereof:
But man undertook it:

1
Jamis verse is given in Persian. A transcreation of it attempted by the author with
utter humility and meekness
2
Authors transcreation.

56
And he was indeed unjust
1

And Unmindful.
2

This is the Quranic trust. It is Gods AMR (order) which has
to be carried. Man has no choice. There is but to do and die is
written on the gates of prophets cottages. They have to plunge into
action. It has to be and it is. Angels cannot object. They cannot
counsel God about what He decides. Mohammad
SAW
has to face
money power of Mecca, better say, Meccan oligarchy. He has to
release Abrahams Kaba. The job is very tough. He is alone but
how does that matter. God is with him and that is enough

1
The trust was to be taken by man because he was decreed to be the vicegerent on
the earth. Unjust he was because he did not know that this trust-bearing
responsibility was going to be difficult for him beyond measures. He was attempting
There is no God but God solution of the problem of life. He was therefore a ZALIM
for himself. While all others were restful, he was carrying the heavy trust. JAHOOL
or unmindful he was because he was trying to do it quickly. Jahal is quick action,
without proper thinking. Jahal is quick because strong desire to do something
triggers it off. Hence man was right. See also TAFSIR-I-HUSSAINI for more detailed
discussion on the subject.
, - _. ,

.

. ` _. .
` , t

Nimrods fire
Frightens not Abraham
His strong passion
Jumps into carelessly
The intellect still watching
On the safe side
(Authors translation)
2
Ibid

57
- . , | - _
is the goad. And also My prayer and my sacrifices
and my life and my death are surely for Allah, the Lord of the
worlds
= > _ . _ - , ; - _ | - _ = | - | ,
Mohammads
SAW

job was far more difficult, for more heart-breaking because he is the
seal of prophets, more expansive, more incorporating, selflessly
giving what no one can give. He is love for all and his love knows
no bounds. Rehmah is always on his tongue and Rehmah triggers
off his action. Greater the job, harder the problems attending it!
2. Mohammads role on the scale of prophethood is very great. It
is inclusive, tolerant, multi-dimensional (bringing the spiritual in
close touch with the economic, the political, the social, the moral
and the aesthetic, the personal and the psychological) and dynamic.
Prophets with lesser responsibilities in less evolved societies have
suffered hardships Adam, Noah (Nuh), Abraham (Ibrahim),
Ishmael (Ismail), Jacob (Yaqub), Joseph (Yusuf), Job (Ayyub),
David (Dawud), Yonah (Yunus), Moses (Musa), Zacharias
(Zakarriyya), Jesus (Isa), Gods blessings upon them all and our
praise showered at them! They have confronted people fallen in sin
and vice, anti-social and immoral action. They have faced kings and
their unbridled power and pride. They have been tortured and
troubled, some of them have been even frightened for life.
According to some, great Isa (Jesus Christ
AS
) has been crucified.
This list is not enough or sufficient. Outside the folds of Islam also
great men, the men of God, sages and saints have suffered either
persecution or execution. Since Mohammads
SAW
job is more
important, bigger and harder, he is exposed to greater troubles.

58
3. Love is far more difficult, far more troublesome. To love
even the most forgotten man, the most bereaved man, the most
neglected child, the most tortured spouse, the most miserable slave
and the poorest man is love in the real sense. To be careful even
about animals and insects and to join the world of birds is love. To
seek nearness of God in domains beyond the untrodden ways is love
and to enjoy life in its deepest form is love passionate.
Mohammad
SAW
adopted love in its extremity. He enjoyed food,
lived married life, played with children, brought mundane life close
to the quarters where he lived with Ummhat-ul-Mominin, washed
himself very regularly, enjoyed subtle jokes also to help solving
mysteries and lived in the company of men and women to boost
social life and to encourage best of human relations. This way of
loving must have frustrated many who misused it or thought it
against the then existing norms. Hence troubles! Even after him
those who followed his love-track suffered greatly. Mansoor Halaj
is one. But before him the greatest sufferer was Hussain, his
grandson
AS
.
4. Mohammads efforts were always gigantic and
extraordinary. One of such efforts was ushering a social change
which was historical but wholesome as well as multidimensional
economic, social, moral, attitudinal, psychological and religious. No
doubt, the change triggered off smashed those who thrived on
conditions existing or prevailing before the coming of
Mohammad
SAW
. It brought unease, discomfort, insecurity and
uncertainty to Meccans who worshipped many gods in Kaba. The
change threatened trade, commerce, economic welfare and also

59
Jahiliyyah that profited the keepers of Kaba who had full control
over everything. Conflict between the forces of change and of
conservation was inevitable and it brought more sufferings, more
hardships to Mohammad
SAW
, the leader of the movement. But he
would measure his achievements step by step. Each achievement
would bring him joy and satisfaction; his thanksgiving to Allah
would multiply. Allahs words would assure him that ensuing
events would be better for him than the earlier ones
1
and verily
with every difficulty there is relief.
2
Hence he would gather fresh
courage and revitalize himself, forgetting his woes in the light of his
remarkable attainments. He would like to climb heights still out of
sight or undiscovered. Suffering would be his vehicle and he would
reach wonderlands that would confirm his undaunted sacrifice and
uncommon will.
5. Mohammad
SAW
observed suffering in various forms. He
observed it in stone cutters picks and shovels that bring streams of
water to arid lands for vegetation and crops, for food and fruit. He
saw it in gardeners hard labour who thereby lay gardens of fruits
and flowers in lands spoiled by sand and stone, thorns and thorny
bush. He found it in travelers ceaseless travels in sandy deserts in
the company of camels whose hoofs and humps are designed to suit
the desert.
3
He felt mothers suffering labour pain and the wear and

1
The Quran, 93:4.
2
The Quran, 94:5.
3

> , = v v , , . - .

Do they not look
At the camels
How they are made? (88:17)

60
tear of child rearing attended by woes and wail. He saw suffering in
orphanage, in widowhood, in poverty, in hunger, in womanhoods
drudgery under male domination. Usury, gambling, corruption,
intrigue, crafty persecution, deceit. Cheating yawned before him as
demons and he resolved to face them always with renewed courage
in productive and creative action. Above all, he found it in love, in
REHMAH, and he always refused to abandon it!
Mohammads
SAW
suffering gave him power to brush aside
any weakness for home or children, name or fame, wealth or
prestige. It hardened his ego for patience, endurance, steadfastness,
tolerance, open mindedness, forgiveness, humility and mercifulness.
These values he cultivated by his blood which at times stultified by
deceit and deceitful betrayal. But he used these values in his
frequent historical action to establish the kingdom of God on the
earth. He carried with him all and sundry, high and low, friends and
foes, Arabs and non-Arabs, bright and dull. Women received his
sympathetic attention, haply because of their suffering but definitely
owing to their decency and goodness. Men, however, he didnt
forget and bore them with in spite of their roughness and
dominating habit. Village and town, crudity and culture, labour and
love, fear and freedom were brought on a single plan to make life a
gift of God. Where there were brutes, human beings with their nails;
where mercilessness was considered a strength, he was considerate
and tolerant and soft and patiently watchful, working hard tirelessly
at the cost of everything personal, to tame people for a harmonious
living. No wiser, no better friendly person than Mohammad
SAW

could have achieved success so brilliant, so historical that even

61
today people bite their nails in amazement and wonder. Let us
therefore adore him morning and evening, waking and resting,
standing and sitting, alone and in company and salute him saying
you are the greatest of all human beings, all praise to you and your
progeny and to those who stood by you in absolute faith!!!
We now come to hypocrites hypocrisy to show that it
consumed Mohammads
SAW
attention all through his career. It
disturbed him in the beginning when he announced his faith, in the
middle when he got busy in thousands of ways of uplifting mankind
to the highest position, and, at the end of his age when an all round
success touched his glorious feet. It continued gnawing at the body
and soul of Islam even when he disappeared from the public gaze
into eternity, undoubtedly damaging severely the solidarity of Islam
emphasized by Mohammad
SAW
and his Allah repeatedly. It
weakened the message of Islam and culminated in the tragedy of
Kerbela which is the saddest event in the history of mankind judged
by any standards of historical criticism.
1
Those who were

1
Apart from Ali wa Nabbowah and Al-Fitnatul Kubra of Taha Hussain of Egypt,
Maudidi shows very clearly how Islam was weakened and how tragedy of Karbala
took place. See Maududis book
- > . - , , .
. Iqbal and Maulana Azad have
also alluded to Bani Umayya tyranny and shown that the misrule damaged Islam.
Amir Ali, Reza Arsalan, Mohammad Charfi, Akbar Ahmad, Milton viorst in The Spirit
of Islam, No God But God, Islam and Liberty, Journeying into Islam, In the Shadow
of the Prophet respectively can be quoted as sources on this point. There are others
also whom we do not quote for brevity. Viorst calls Umayyads the dynasty of
usurpers and Iqbal the liars. The author does not agree with these authors at each
point but Kerbela they explain well. Amir Ali is genuine, however.
The presence of hypocrites in Muslim societies of today is not a sorry scheme of
affairs merely. It is very horrible and dangerous. Prophet of Islam
SAW
had to fight one
big leader of hypocrites in his time but today we have many Abdullah Ibni (Cont.)

62
responsible for Kerbela forgot everything about Mohammad
SAW
and
his efforts of giving believers a place of honour in history. These
hypocrites didnt care even to see ladies and children suffering for
water and food in the terrible heat of Kerbela desert. One by one
Hussain
AS
and his relatives were hacked mercilessly and the ladies
from prophets home were wailing, crying and suffering.
The Quran mentions hypocrites and their way of damaging
Islam in many ways and at many places. Of the people there are
some who says: we believe in Allah and the Last Day but they do
not (really) believe. Fain would they deceive Allah and those who
believe, but they only deceive themselves, and realize (it) not! In
their hearts is a disease, and Allah has increased their disease: and
grievous is the penalty they (incur), because they are false (to
themselves) when it is said to them: Do not make mischief on the
earth, they say: Why, we only want to make peace! Of a surety,
they are the ones who make mischief, but they do not realize (it).
When it is said to them: Believe as the others believe, they say
Shall we believe as the fools believe? Nay, of a surety they are
the fools, but they do not know.
1
The nefarious activities of

Ubays to fight against. They are more invisible than Ubay. They divide Muslims on a
very large scale. They generate ever new FITNAS (problems causing confusion,
chaos , unnecessary uprisings and violence: issues that solve nothing but create
abnormal conditions) in order to gain power or prestige. They earn huge amounts of
money and some of them become rich all at once. Usually they try to abrogate Islam
by inventing theories of reform and change. Many of them work under foreign
powers and are controlled by systematic plans of spies and diplomats. They work
under various organizations but wear garbs so that they are neither seen nor even
detected. Their principal motive (as of their masters) is to weaken Islam so much so
that it loses all what positive and creative is left in its system.
1
The Quran, 2:8:13. Seel also 2:14-20

63
hypocrites are so vicious that the Quran has a separate chapter
1
to
point out these. We list some highlighted in that chapter.
- They say they believe but they dont. They cheat.
- They confess with their tongue that Mohammad
SAW

is the Prophet but their hearts refuse to accept it.
- They obstruct people from the path of Allah.
- They are liars and take oaths in order to convince others.
- They are uncertain. They have no legs to stand upon.
- Their appearance is deceptive.
- They are arrogant who think they require no prayer for their
forgiveness.
- They are rebellious transgressors. God wont forgive them even
if the Prophet prays for their forgiveness.
- They do not want to spend on those who are with the
Prophet
SAW
. They think economic strain will force them to leave
Madina.
At other places in the Quran some more vices of hypocrites are
mentioned. For example:
- They mock, jest and joke at believers.
- They try to divide believers.
- They carry tales
- They try to create weakness in the minds of people who believe.
They create fear as well. Thus they try to keep believers away
from the path of Islam.

1
Chapter 63

64
- They spread rumours to weaken Mohammad
SAW
and
his family. They are slanderers.
- They raise false issues to consume Prophets
SAW
precious time
in superfluous matters.
- Even in battles they play mischief to allow enemies overcome
believers.
Mohammad
SAW
would try his best not to offend them and
would avoid them very softly. In his heart of hearts he knew,
however, how much of harm they do to Islam and in what way they
weaken the character of common men. Indirectly he would warn
believers to be careful not to be swayed by their craft.
Education: It is absolutely wrong to say that Mohammad
SAW

was uneducated or even unlettered. Perhaps being unlettered and
unschooled
1
was his feeling which God liked and addressed him as
UMMI. But God removed this anxiety by saying:
And He found thee
Wandering, and He gave
Thee Guidance. (93:7)

The Most Gracious!
It is He who has
Taught the Quran. (55:1-2)


1
Even unschooled he was not. The whole universe was a school wherein he would
learn lessons which puzzled everyone and continue doing so even today. He learnt
these lessons with ecstasy and great pleasure.

65
At many places in the Quran, almost everywhere, it is clear that
Mohammad
SAW
was educated by God, by one Mighty in Power,
endued with wisdom.
1
This education became the basis of his
BASHIR, NAZIR and SIRAJAN MUNIRA. All his names and
positions depended upon his direct perception, direct vision of
God.
2
And of what value or worth are the letters of the languages
that we use in this mundane world? Do these letters lead us to the
sanctuary of God, to intimacy which is attended neither by intellect
nor by anything our knowledge is capable of
3
? And Mohammad
SAW

was not unlettered too. He could read or cognize the letters with
which the signs of God are written everywhere in the universe, from
the heavens to the earth, in the movement of winds and clouds, in
rains and showers and snow, in the sudden sprouting of grass in
spring, in the flowers and the ripening of fruit these signs he read
even in animals in whose body both the dung and milk are produced
in quite a proximity. He read these signs in the water that is thrown
in the womb of mothers to give a start to new life, the brief story of
which puzzles even biologists who research into evolution.
4

Mohammads
SAW
understanding of these letters or signs given, even
mystics have a very astonishing experience in recognizing these

1
The Quran, 53:5-6
2
This direct vision has been hinted at when we pointed out Prophets Night of
Journey. See chapter 17 and 53 in particular. See also chapter 20 wherein Moses
Burning Bush has been mentioned.
3
We do not mean to say that knowledge which in modern world has created wonders
is of no worth. But it is insignificant before Ludun and Lee Maallah, states which are
purely visionary and direct.
4
See Chapter MUMINOON (23), verses 12-14. Maulana Azad has expressed wonder in
explaining these verses in his commentary.

66
letters and sounds. It is, among other things, due to this fact that
Rumi, the Sufi Persian poet said:
. - . ,

.
.
.
. . . . , . . . . .

Throw hundreds of Books, spread over hundreds of
pages and letters into fire. Turn your face towards
your beloved and go on enjoying the glory and grace
of his countenance.
Had Mohammad
SAW
not been benefited by direct observation and
vision, had he not had the good fortune of perfect knowledge, he
would have not prayed:
_ = _ . _ -
(20:114)
O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge.
Even in regular prayers he would bow in benediction thus:
O God grant us the pleasure of looking at your Holy Face
and the desire of meeting you. O God! Enable us to judge
the truth in its reality and to follow it; and enable us to
judge the untruth in its actual shapes and to keep away
from it. O God! Show us the reality of all things as they
really are
Praising him in his encomiums Jami says:
_. .
.

.
.
,
.
,
, , < .

The secrets of Existence
As they are
Are seen by thine eye
Eye that sees God.
We know that Mohammads
SAW
knowledge is ample and
unbounded. It includes everything, exterior and interior, exoteric

67
and esoteric, mundane and extraordinary. It covers the whole life,
from the inorganic to the organic, culminating in man who has been
seeking superhuman perfection for ages now. The scenes of
paradise and dwellers therein create wonder and Mohammad
SAW

enjoys the descriptions of these in the Quran in ecstasy, pure joy
and peace. Tasting its extreme sweetness, enjoying its melody and
promoting himself by its spiritual benefit, he very aptly announces
that each verse of the Quran is knowledge and a heal to the wounds
of man who loves God! See how he understands paradise and its
spiritual grandeur:
Gardens enclosed, and grapevines;
Maidens of Equal Age;
And a cup full (to the Brim). (78:32-34)

In a garden on high,
Where they shall hear
No (word) of vanity;
Therein will be couches
A bubbling spring;
(of dignity), raised on high,
Goblets placed (ready)
And cushions set in rows,
And rich carpets
(All) spread out. (88:10-16)
The descriptions, these and many others, in the Quran are both
auditory and visual but some are so important that they are only
seen and felt and not narrated in speech. So, Mohammad
SAW
is
enlightened enough to perceive and to enjoy everything worthwhile!

68
His unletteredness is only a reference to show that his
knowledge is mysterious, mystical, prophetic and therefore
absolutely extraordinary. It is a phenomena to which human
intellect has no direct access unless it is developed into intuition.
Nothing is far from his Presence and Intimacy provided that the
seekers heart and head converge together in loves lift.


69




Seeking Nearness
To God

70

I love thee! I love thee:
Is all that I can say
It is my vision in the night,
My dreaming in the day:
My blessings when I pray,
I love thee: I love thee:
Is all that I can say? (Baba Farid)

All things return to their origin. The pond, the well, the lake;
the fountain and the waterfall, the brook and the brooklet, the stream
and the streamlet, the river and the rivulet, the spring and its playful
but gushing waters seek to join a bigger whole the sea. Seas too all
together like to join the earth in order to form a larger whole. Then
the earth together with her seas looks around to feel that it a part of
the universe in which stars and planets, plaids and galaxies float.
The sun and the moon swim too, so does the whole solar system.
The solar system way be in search of more systems which to this
day remain a mystery. How great is this whole show! It has puzzled
many including one of the greatest mystic saints of Islam, Shaikh
Farid-ud-din Attar (God be pleased with him), who wrote a famous
book
1
to express his idea on this grand show. But the search for the

1
MANTIQ UT TAIR or Conference of Birds is his famous Persian classics. In this book
the idea of wholesomeness or Unity has been explained allegorically. In their
translation of the book Afghan Darbandi and Dick Davis have given the following
gist: (Cont.)

71
whole and the wholesomeness of life itself does not solve the
problem unless we, human beings, have a fuller perception if it,
unless our intuitive eye unfolds and has a dominant role in this
perception. Lucky we are that we have the Quran, a complete
guidance in principle, with us to unfold our eye and to help a
comprehensive perception of the whole. But some people are in the
habit of seeking political in the Quran, and also an authoritarian
strictness to suit their political urge forgetting that the book is
basically spiritual and wants mankind follow things which lead to
mans nearness to God.
1
This basic motive of the Quran has from

The allegorical framework of the poem is as follows: The birds of the world gather
together to seek a king. They are told by the hoopoe that they have a king the
Simorgh but that he lives far away and the journey to him is hazardous. The birds
are at first enthusiastic to begin their search, but when they realize how difficult the
journey will be, they start to make excuses The journey itself is quickly dealt with
and the birds arrive at the court of the Simorgh. At first they are turned back; but
when they are finally admitted and find that the Simorgh they have sought is none
other than themselves. The moment depends upon a pun only thirty (si) birds
(morgh) are left at the end of the Way, and the Simorgh meet the Simorgh, the goal
of their quest.
Like Attar more people have dealt with Unity, both in the East and the West. Shaikh-
i-Akbar has written a very famous book to battle with this idea. It is said that
Mohammad
SAW
guided him in a dream to write this book.
Mahmood Ahmad Shabistari has also written a very small but significant book,
GULSHAN-I-RAZ. This also explains oneness or unity.
1
This is also true that man alone does not seek nearness to God. Everything that
exists seeks it but in its own way. If this were not true the Quran would not at
places invite our attention to
, . , _ |

- - _ | . , = v _
everything that exists
between the heavens and the earth declares the glory of God. If we understand how
everything declares the glory of God, we shall ourselves benefit from this
understanding. We shall, draw nearer to God than before. Besides, when everything
offers praise of God, everything joins with us in seeking nearness to Him. The
whole becomes a wider whole then.

72
time to time been best observed by prophets whose understanding is
naturally the highest. They have taught their people to follow it.
Their observations have been alluded to by the Quran though not in
detail. And the Quran has not mentioned all the prophets. However,
prophets only do not point out spirituality of the Quran. Others do
too. All the people of God whom we in our language call Auliya
categorically say so. They work for it together with their disciples
and the record of work that they leave behind them constitutes a
good source of understanding the spirituality of Islam. In no way
can their understanding and the record of their work be ignored or
undervalued. Doing so will amount to blurring the Right Path which
Islam in itself seeks in the very opening chapter of the Quran, the
FATIHA. But besides Auliya-ullah or the people of God, great
many scholars belonging to the East and the West, in all times,
explain how the Quran is essentially a spiritual Book. They give
historical and literary proofs to augment their claim. Their works
have been accumulated too and the literature thus produced is of
utmost importance to modern man.
1
It has recently been seen that
some people all over the world and working under usurpers of

1
Maulana Jalal-ud-din Rumi, Sadi Shirazi, Hafiz Shirazi, Nizami Ganjwi, Ummar
Khiyyam, Sanai, Naziri, Urfi and many others have produced literature which once
ignored can deal a great blow to the most creative aspect of Islamic culture.
Marshall Hodgson and Davood Rehbar have greatly praised this cultural treasure. To
Dawood the spirituality of Islam is bound to receive a blow if this treasure is written
off or ignored.
In our own country Amir Khusroo, Mir Taqi Mir, Galib, Asgar Gondwi and Iqbal can
be quoted to have done a great job to water the rose-garndens of Islamic spirituality.
Sufi poets of Kashmir, again, have transcreated the Quran in their language simply
and easily. If there were researchers and Sufis to translate or present the work done
by Kashmiris, a great service to Islam and to mankind would be done.

73
peoples power have launched a movement to prove, though in a
perverted way, that the Quran wants only
- , | - = , _ - |
1
to
follow. No doubt the Quran has a very sound and strong moral
system and very emphatic dos and do nots but the system is
neither separate nor overriding the spiritual. This is to be put in
practical shape to realize the ultimate goal, i.e. the nearness to God.
All rituals, all practices, lose meanings if intimacy or at least
nearness to God is dropped out or ignored. That way Islam loses it
brilliant appeal and inclusiveness as a revealed religion and is
reduced to a mere political ideology.
Hazrat Junaid Baghdadi (God be pleased with him) who laid
the foundations of mysticism or Sufism in Islam
2
held that the
ultimate concern of man is to enter the kingdom of God well-
pleased and well-pleasing.
3
This return is achieved when the soul is

1
It means carrying orders for positive actions and forbidding behaviour that is morally
and socially unacceptable. In short it means dos and do nots.
2
This view is expressed by a Western author. It appears that this is not correct.
Prophethood and sainthood or Nabuwat and Wilayat are not separate from each
other, nor are they contradictory. Hence Mohammad
SAW
knew mysticism very well.
The proof is Meraj or Ascension. Even Ali
AS
knew it very well. After them all others
preceding Junaid
RA
.
3
(To the righteous soul
will be said):
O (thou) soul,
In (complete) rest
And satisfaction!
Come back thou
To thy Lord,
Well-pleased (thyself)
And well-pleasing
Unto Him

74
at rest and is attended by all the spiritual blessings which in the
Quran are metaphorically described as paradise. Some of these
descriptions are:

- a garden whose width is
that of the heavens and
the earth.
1

- a garden-beneath it flow rivers: perpetual
is the fruits thereof
and the shade therein.
2

- a garden where there
is no vain discourse
but only salutations
of peace.
3

- gardens in which rivers
flow.
4

- gardens with rivers flowing
underneath an eternal
dewelling.
5

- Home of peace.
6

- Gardens and fountains, peace and

Enter thou, then, (Cont.)
Among my Devotees
Yea, enter thou
My Heaven. (The Quran, 89:27:30)
1
The Quran, 3:132;
2
Ibid., 13:35.
3
Ibid., 19:62
4
Ibid., 2:25.
5
Ibid., 3:135.
6
Ibid., 10:25

75
security raised couches, no
sense of fatigue.
1

- delights of the eye.
2

- Home that will last : no toil, nor
sense of weariness, shall touch
therein.
3

- Pleasant shade raised couches.
4

- Fruit they have whatever they
call for.
5

- Sustenance determined, fruits
gardens of delight a cup
from a clear flowing fountain,
crystal white delicious free
from headiness intoxication
chaste women with big eyes
6

- lofty mansions, one above another.
7

- Rivers of water unstaling, rivers
of milk of which the taste never
changes; rivers of wine, a joy
for those who drink; and rivers
of honey pure and clear all
kinds of fruits.
8

- Eternal life for them therein
All that they wish and

1
The Quran, 15, 45:48.
2
Ibid., 32:17.
3
Ibid., 35:35.
4
Ibid., 36:56.
5
Ibid., 36, 57-58.
6
Ibid., 37:41-50.
7
Ibid., 39:20.
8
The Quran, 45:15.

76


there is more with us.
1

- An achievement, gardens enclosed
and grapevines, maidens of equal
age, a cup full (to the brim)
no vanity no untruth.
2

- two springs flowing fruits of every kind,
two and two, carpets whose
inner linings will be of rich brocade:
the fruit of the gardens near
(maidens chaste, restraining their
glances, whom no man or jinn
before them has touched like
unto rubies and coral.
3

- two other gardens dark green
in colour two springs pouring
forth water in continuous abundance
in them will be fruits and
dates and pomegranates fair
(maidens) good, beautiful maidens
in pavilions whom no man or jinn
before them has touched reclining
on green cushions and rich carpets
of beauty.
4

- Where they shall hear no (word) of

1
Ibid., 50: 34-35.
2
Ibid., 78:31-35.
3
Ibid., 55:48-58.
4
The Quran, 55:62-76.

77
vanity;
Therein will be a bubbling spring.
Therein will be couches, (of dignity)
raised on high,
Goblets placed (ready)
And cushions set in rows,
And rich carpets (all) spread out.
1

It needs to be imagined that gardens, rivers, springs; fruits of
various kinds; cups and drinks, overflowing containers; water
flowing in streams and springs and rivers; pearls and diamonds; silk
and silken cloth, brocade and carpets; cushions and pavilions; young
maidens with attractive eyes, virgins untouched by advancing
males; are all representations of a very deep psychological or
better say spiritual experience. The Quran does not rule out their
physical existence or physiological value but that physical or
physiological cannot be grasped unless one has the actual
experience of the soul qualities or attributes, the blessings of which
these are concrete examples.
2
Imagine all these things plus And
there is more with us dance before the eyes of a blessed soul. What
joy, what satisfaction, what elevation he may require, furthermore.
But yes these are the things which a true lover of God does not
require. He requires nothing less than God! See what Rabia Basri
says:
O my joy and my desire and my refuge
My friend and my sustainer and my goal,

1
Ibid., 88:11-16.
2
It is only the vulgar who think that these are baits placed before the greedy to
attract them to Godhood. A blind man is no judge of colours.

78
Thou are my intimate, and longing for thee sustains me.
Were it not for thee, O my life and my friend.
How should I have been distraught over the spaces of this earth.
How many favours have been bestowed,
And how much hast thou given me
Of gifts and grace and assistance
Thy love is now my desire and my bliss.
And has been revealed to the eye of my
heart that was athirst
I have none besides Thee,
Who dost thou make the desert blossom?
Thou art my joy, firmly established within me
If thou are satisfied with me, then
O Desire of my heart, my happiness has appeared.
1

Let the recluse be given the gift of paradise, says Iqbal, I
want nothing less than thy presence.
2
Even the Quran explains this
restless quest of lover of God in the story of Prophet-Abraham
(peace be upon him and his progeny). The story:
When the night was dark, Abraham saw a star;

1
Margaret Smith: Rabia Basri: The Mystic and Her Fellow Saints in Islam, p.28.
2

` , t . : . : , . , . . . : -

But Iqbal has a very beautiful poem in Payam-i-Mashriq on this theme. The poem has
a source in Geothe, the German poet, who Iqbal was very fond of. The poem entitled
as HUR-O-SHAYIR shows restlessness of a lover even in paradise. Since he is
caught by a never ending passion, he doesnt attend even to the most beautiful
maidens of paradise. He moves from one thing to the other and the movement keeps
his fire burning. When the spring comes with its glassfuls of wine for him, he craves
for yet another spring, not for wine but for his thirst for ever new things. His heart
dies in a paradise that gives him rest and deprives him of struggle and pain of
passion. He lives on an endless goal-seeking. See Payam-i-Mashriq for this Persian
melody.

79
He said to himself, this must be the Lord.
But soon the star set and his faith was shaken.
Then he saw the moon rising in the sky.
This is the Lord, he said.
However, when it waned, he lost faith in it.
Likewise when the sun rose, brighter than everything.
He was convinced that it was the Lord.
But the sun also set, and Abraham cried:
I set my face against all these.
I repudiate every kind of worship
Except the worship of God.
Creator of all that is in the heavens
And on the earth.
1

Rabia Basri is reported to have said:
I prefer to be with my Maker
rather than behold what He
Has made.
And:
The more a man knows God, the more he is lost in Him.
2

Hazrat Shaikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani (peace be upon him) attacked
the excessive material attachment of the rulers and the ruled. He
stressed that it was only through mystic intuition and inner
introspection that man could receive knowledge about the Ultimate
Reality, and only through Kashf (vision) and mushahadah
(experience) could be obtained peace of mind and inner fulfillment
rather than through material pursuit or intellectual argumentation.
3


1
The Quran, 6:76-79
2
Rafiq Zakaria: Discovery of God, p.179.
3
Rafiq Zakaria: Discovery of God, p.181.

80
Going back to the Quran, again, let us see where and how the
Book urges us to be spiritual or mystical and seek this far more than
anything else because everything else is only a means towards this
end. The great mystic of the west Louis Massignon, after having
spent more than fifty years of his life in finding out the spiritual,
said that the Quran is basically spiritual. Cragg says about him:
He was convinced that Muslim theology was essentially a
mystical structure deriving from the Quran itself as the
primary source of its development. These immediate features
of the book and of the Prophets career, which seem to place
them both squarely in the sphere of dogmatism, autocracy,
power, and sharp contrasts aspects proudly incompatible
with the true mystical temper Massignon was bold to
claim, in their proper perspective, as the very proof of his
case. Quranic vocabulary as the vocabulary of mysticism
was the central clue of his scholarship. The prophetic figure
behind it and within it he saw as the intense focal point of a
sense of religious destiny a contraction of truth within
historic time.
1

Let us substantiate Massignons view:
The Quran or in fact Islam stresses Tauhid for more than
anything else because it is vitally important. There is no God but
Allah, there is no God but Allah and Mohammad
SAW
is His
Messenger, and this goes on expanding. Mohammad
SAW
has sought
nearness to God for him as well as for his people. Other prophets
who have been before him have also sought nearness to God for
themselves and for their people. Mohammad
SAW
says God is

1
Kenneth Cragg: The Mind of the Quran, p.163.

81
omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient. He has to be sought
through his attributes. The off repeated key of the Quran, In the
name of Allah, the Merciful Lord of Mercy carries the rhythm of
the attributes, Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim all along. The Quran
stressing on one hand the oneness of God and on the other
mentioning His attributes time and again is not suggesting a
multiplicity, is only stressing that He is to be sought through
attributes which are the modes of His activity. Scholars list 103 to
105 modes. We take the case of Hazrat Mir Syed Ali Hamadani for
reference who has mentioned 105 in his famous gift Aurad-i-
Fathiyya for the people of Kashmir, (God be pleased with Amir).
Common people believe these are only 99. If Allah is added to the
list, the number rises to 100. But the Quran says that the attributes
are so numerous that these can hardly be counted. We shall quote
almost all the names of Allah as given by Hazrat Amir
RA
:
Allah Compassionate Merciful
Sovereign Holy Peace
Security Protector Mighty
Subduer Exalted Creator
Maker Fashioner Forgiver
Supreme Bestower Sustainer
Opener All knowing Controller
Enlarger Depressor Exalter
Honour-bestower Abaser All-Hearing
All seeing Judge Just
Incomprehensive All-aware Forbearing

82
Great Forgiving Appreciating
High Greatest Guardian
Preserver Reckoner Bountiful
Wise Loving Honourable
Riser Witness True
Keeper Powerful Strong
Friend Praiseworthy Recorder
Author Repeater Life-Giver
Destroyer Living Everlasting
Discoverer Glorious One
Unique Independent Powerful
Omnipotent Provider Postponer
First Last Manifest
Hidden Ruler Highest
Beneficent Causing Return Sin-Effacer
Favour-Bestower Punishment Awarder Sustainer
Compassionate (kind) Sovereignty Lord Equitable
Majesty and Bounty Self-Sufficient Gatherer
Enricher Giver Withholder
Punishing Benefactor Light
Guide Originator Survivor
Inheritor Director Patient

83
Truthful Shielder
1


It is this list or broadly speaking the numberlessness of His
attributes that makes God the Lord of Bounty.
2
Throw a glance
upon the expanse, if possible see how grand, how gracious, how
sublime it is! But a single glance wont do. One has to constantly be
in touch with what is happening in the phenomenal world, in this
void all around us. We must quote Voltaire:
One must be blind not to be dazzled by this spectacle; one
must be stupid not to recognize the author of it; one must
be mad not to worship Him
3

Iqbal calls this universe, the phenomenal world, the Habit of God
(
- . = | -
) in the Quranic language. It is therefore, the best means to
understand God. Moses
AS
also had to take the help of the mountain
to see Him following the guidance of his Lord. The Quran reads:
When Moses came to the place appointed by Us, And his
Lord addressed him, He said: O my Lord! Show (thyself) to
me, that I may look upon thee.
Allah said: By no means canst thou see Me (direct); But
look upon the mount; If it abide in its place, then shall thou
see Me. When His Lord manifested Himself to the Mount,
He made it a dust, And Moses fell down in a swoon. When

1
All these names have been taken from Aurad-i-Fathiyyah. They are all in Arabic.
Given that the translation is not easy we have made an effort to bring them in
English.
2
No. God is Lord of Bounty in spite of attributes. This has been written only to show
how important the attributes are!
3
Rafiq Zakaria, p.205

84
he recovered his senses he said, Glory be to thee! To thee I
return, and I am first to believe.
1

Besides, when one observes the Beauty of God, one forms a
real idea of His personality. Many poets understanding this rightly
use attributes or names of God to present their own ideas about the
possibility of vision. They see Him through the mirror which rightly
they call the phenomenal world and everything that exists in it. We
have a separate chapter on this issue; therein we shall be discussing
reflection of God in the phenomenal world or nature in detail.
We shall now take up SIBGATULLAH
2
which carries
significant importance for our discussion on seeing Gods face.
TAFSER-I-HUSSAINI interprets it as falling in love with God and
achieving highest state in mysticism. As is evident, falling in love
with God and making Him the object of love is not easy. It
consumes the life of the lover leaving no trace of his behind. With
all that it is so worthwhile that nothing is comparable to it. When the
lover is annihilated there remains nothing but God. Blessed are
those who achieve this goal.
3
So far so good but how to fall in love

1
The Quran; 7:143.
There is no question of repentance on the part of Moses
AS
. He returned to his Lord.
Tauba from which TUBTA has been taken is the RETURN. The mountain is a
metaphor. It stands for the phenomenal. Moses
AS
swooned because (Cont.)
of the wonder and the power of experience. The mountain could not remain in place
because there is no God but God. Everything perishes when God appears.
2

= , - - | - - - . - | - = , - - | - - , =
(We take) Allahs colours, and
who is better than Allah at colouring, and we are His worshipers. (The Quran, 2:138)
3
See how Hazrat Junnaid Baghdadi
RA
feels about this state:
God gives to the adept the sharp desire to behold His essence, then knowledge
becomes vision, and vision revelation, and revelation contemplation, and
contemplation existence (with and in God). Words are hushed to silence, life becomes

85
with God and how to be a mystic? What colours does God have?
Again the answer is far from being simple. While all the colours
belong to God and all the colours and their perception is necessary
to reach the coloureless, the lover of God has to grind himself in the
mill of life. He has to use all his faculties, all his powers to seek the
light ultimately, Which in the Quran is defined as God:
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The
parable of His light is as if there were a Niche and within
it a Lamp. The Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it
were a brilliant star. Lit from a blessed Tree, and Olive,
neither of the East not of the West, whose oil is well nigh
luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon
Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to his Light!
Allah doth set forth parables for men and Allah doth
know all things.
It must be noted that Noor (light) as the definition of God or his
colour has been metaphorically described by God. The metaphor is
only a guide to reach God. The guide is divinely provided for the
sake of people in general. So ANNAS is mentioned in the verse.
Commentators of the Quran give a lot of importance to Olive tree
which is blessed and belongs neither to East nor to West. They also
say that the glorious light cannot be measured or even described
fully. It has grades upon grades through which the lover has to pass

death, explanations (necessary for finite minds in this world) come to an end, signs (a
concession to those who are weak in faith) are affaced, disputes are cleared up.
Perishability (fana) is ended and subsistence [baqa] is made perfect.. Weariness and
care cease, the elements perish and there remains what will not cease, as time that
is time-less ceases not.
This has been taken from Margaret Smiths, The Mystic and Her Fellow Saints, p.92.

86
in order finally to reach the regions of spiritual light. Hence the
Quran only awakens mans consciousness to reach the ultimate light
which by means of the blessed olive tree can be aspired for.
Mystics, all of them, seek this Blessed tree and this Light
(SIBGATALLAH) with the help of the guide. No scholar has so far
given the objective meaning of the tree and the light nor given of the
Niche and the lamp within it. It has only to be followed carefully
secretly.
In addition to 24:35 (the Light verse) the Quran points out at
various places the importance of eyes, ears, skin and heart as the
gateways by which the Light of God (which is His colour) can be
pursued as well as perceived. The Quran uses FOAD or QALB for
heart even in the most important verses of AN-NAJM (53) which
reveal Night Journey of Mohammad
SAW
but which journey is a
single step for the wilful and the daring in the eyes of the famous
philosopher-poet, Mohammad Iqbal He says:
The Night of Ascension
leads to the Highest Heavens
The ascent is too tedious and long
The willful and the daring, however
Cover it in a single step
The morning with its radiance
Bows before it in adoration.
1


1

, . ; - .
-
,
.
,
` . :
. . , . . , . : . / . _
` . .
.

. t


87
What happened to Mohammad
SAW
in this night happened with
the help of seeing and feeling and revelation. But the role of FOAD
or heart is emphasized by The heart in no way falsified that which
he saw.
1
So it seems that the three faculties work together in
developing vision or approaching God. The Quran makes man
conscious that these qualities are bestowed upon him and for this he
should be thankful to God. If he does not offer thanks duly he is
ungrateful to his Creator. Read the verses.

Many are the jinns and men
We have made for Hell:
They have hearts wherewith they
Understand not, eyes wherewith
They see not, and ears wherewith
They hear not. They are
Like cattle, nay more
Misguided: for they
Are heedless (of warning).
2


Do they not travel
Through the land, so that
Their hearts (and minds)
May thus learn wisdom
And their ears may
Thus learn to hear?
Truly it is not the eyes
That are blind, but the

1
The Quran, 53:11.
2
The Quran, 7:179

88
Hearts which are
In their breasts.
1


It is He who has created
For you (the faculties of)
Hearing, sight and feeling
And understanding: little thanks
It is ye give!

Verily We
Have set veils over their hearts
So that they understand this not,
And over their ears deafness.
If thou callest them
To guidance, even then
Will they never accept guidance.
2


At length when they reach
The (fire), their hearing
Their sight, and their skins
Will bear witness against them,
As to (all) their deeds.
They will say to their skins:
Why bear ye witness
Against us? They will say:
Allah hath given us speech
..

1
The Quran, 22:46.
2
Ibid., 23:78

89
Ye did not seek
To hide yourself, lest
Your hearing, your sight
And your skins should bear
Witness against you! But
Ye did think that Allah
Knew not many of the things
That ye used to do!
1


Say: It is He who
Has created you,
And made
For you the faculties
Of hearing, seeing
And understanding:
Little thanks it is ye give.
2


So we gave him (the gifts)
Of hearing and sight.
3

In his famous book FORTY SECRETS (
- , = _
) Mir Syed
Ali Hamadani
RA
points out that the people of God, once they
develop their ears for mysterious sounds, receive as if discourses
from even the mountains and valleys. They also hear secrets full of
musical grandeur from the middle currents of streams.
4
And the
Quran says that the blessed will not in paradise hear anything that is

1
The Quran, 41:20-22.
2
The Quran, 67:23.
3
Ibid., 76:2
4

.
.
,
.
_. - , : , :

. . . - . . . . , . , : . , - .


90
vain nor will whatever they hear be a lie. In other words their ears
will receive only meaningful and true messages from God.
1
Most of
the Muslims, even if they are not well versed, know that Solomon
heard even birds and trees speaking the names of Allah in His
praise. The whole nature in fact passed messages to him. Kashmiri
sufi poets, Ahmad Sahab Batwari for example, says impressively
that men of God, the Gnostics, hear sermons from all the six sides.
Sufis call it SHASH JEHAT or SHASH KAL.
A study of the history of mankind, of nations, are as important
as travels so that deeper insights gained therefrom are utilized for
god-consciousness. The awakening and enlightenment of a person
depends upon the depth of such insights and the extent to which
these are assimilated in God-consciousness. Perhaps we need not go
here into details in the history of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob,
Joseph, Moses, Christ and other prophets (peace be upon them all)
to understand how they battled for their self-consciousness and
against their foes in order to enrich themselves and their
communities on their way to God. The Quran has many more stories
woven around the seekers of truth which, again, help us to gain
God-consciousness. These stories for example are woven around the
Tree of life, the Arc of Noah, the Fire of Nimrod, the River wherein
Pharaoh and his army drowned the rending asunder of Josephs
shirt, his Prison story, the Well he was thrown into, the Burning
Bush and so on. In modern times these sources of God-
consciousness assume more importance because after
Mohammad
SAW
prophetic guidance cannot come to mankind and so

1
The Quran, 78:35.

91
our sole dependence on them is unavoidable. A probe into these rich
sources is neither impossible nor futile as some very cunning people
who are against the spirit of religion and solidarity of man believe.
Man has conquered nature to a great extent and has invented
machines like computers. Nothing is impossible for him because
Quranically he is the master of the universe wherein everything has
been left in his hands for his unending travel to divinity. Unveiling
secrets in the sources aforesaid, therefore, is both possible and vital.
Our life needs this unveiling far more today than ever before.
We must now turn our attention to WAJHULLAH, which
means Face of God, because it is the ultimate goal of the drama of
life being played by God through man as the best creation. The
stress in the Quran on the Face of God is repeated several times so
that we do not neglect its importance nor miss it as the ultimate
meaning of life. Moreover, the Quran makes us aware that we
cannot remain blind and pass from this world in that state. For in the
hereafter also we shall be blind, not seeing the Face of God.
1
Let us
look upon these Quranic verses in order to form an idea how the
Face-of-God idea is stressed.

Whatever of good ye give
Benefits your own souls,
And ye shall only do so
Seeking the face
Of Allah.
2


1
And whoever is blind in this (world) he will be behind in the Hereafter, and further
away from the path. (The Quran, 17:72)
2
The Quran, 2:272.

92

God is
One God: whoever expects
To see his Lord
1


Everything exists
Will perish except His Face
To Him belongs the command
And to Him will ye
All be brought back.
2


All that is on earth
Will perish:
But will abide (for ever)
The face of thy Lord-
Full of Majesty
Bounty and honour.
3


And they feed, for the love
Of Allah, the indigent
The orphan and the captive
(Saying) We feed you
For the Face of Allah alone:
No reward do we desire
From you, nor thanks.
4



1
Ibid., 18:110 (Here LIQA rather than WAJH has been mentioned)
2
Ibid., 28:88
3
Ibid., 55:26-27.
4
The Quran, 76:8-9

93
Those who spend their wealth
For increase in self-purification
And have in their minds
No favour from anyone
For which a reward
Is expected in return
But only the desire
To seek for the countenance
Of their Lord Most High
And soon will they
Attain (complete) satisfaction.
1


The Face of God is to be sought in many ways. First through
prayers. But prayer is formal as well informal. Five times a day a
believer is asked to offer prayers. He or she has to face Kaba which
among other things stands for unity. There is no Eastern, Western or
black and white or any other division in this brotherhood. All stand
together before Allah and all have the same soul. Men are there,
women are there to bow before one God. What is to be said or read
while in prayer has, however, to be lived. For instance the praying
believer says: in the name of the Merciful Lord of Mercy. He or she
has to understand and live Mercy of the Merciful. He/she has to see
with his/her eyes (which we shall explain soon) that in this universe
whatever is is because of Rehman, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
He/she has to visualize how He operates. Similarly, the praying
believer has to understand and see how He is the providence. He
provides not only for man but for all creatures at any stage of

1
Ibid., 92:18-21

94
development. He provides for the believer and the non-believer.
1

Prayer therefore involves the whole universe. We observe this and
also how God provides for everyone and everything, living and
(what we call) non-living. Prayer leads us to a grand workshop
wherein we see the functioning of God through His providence.
Similarly prayer helps us to understand the Right path (Siratal
Mustaqim) which is followed by all except by those who are
deviated and deranged. No names of those who follow the path are
mentioned. The most sacred Being, the great of the greatest is
worshipped by all. He is praised and He responds to the praise. He
hears him who praises Him. But prayer and praise is not a lip
service. To hell with those who offer prayers unwillingly or only as
a lip service, says the Quran (see chapter 107:5). Prayer is also an
activity of mind. Those who offer prayes do so with the core of their
heart. They feel and realize the uncountable manifestations of God
in prayer and before and after it in nature and everything. Besides
all this, in prayer Mohammad
SAW
is saluted as the Messenger of

1

. . - . . . . _ . : .
- . . . . . , ,
` _ t
(Cont)
Thy benevolence deprives none of sustenance
Thy unseen treasure is
Open both for the monk and the fire-worshipper
How that thy friends return
Empty-handed dismayed
From thee who takes care
Even of the deadly enemy. (Sadi)

95
God. He is praised for his deeds and his role. Angels and those who
adore God are also appreciated at the end of prayer. Those who are
to our right and left are also saluted, be they angels who record or
those who are mentioned in the Quran as the Rightist and the
Leftist. This is formal five-times-a day prayer which may extend to
long hours of Ramadhan Nights to recite passionately and
collectively:
O ye who opens our heart and eyes and create periods of
light and darkness, illuminate our hearts with thy
knowledge and gnosis. Thou art the most sacred and the
Most powerful. Purify us with thy purity and forgive us
for our wrongs. Grant us an entry into paradise which is
thy presence. We seek blessings for Mohammad
SAW
and
his progeny in this state of oneness with thee!.
1


Prayer, however, is not a mere five-time-a day ritual. It is far
more than that. It may be NAFL which is mandatory and offered for
several reasons. It may be offered as thanksgiving for something
achieved by the grace of God. It may be offered for something we
crave for. It may only be an extension of compulsory prayer in love
and passion for God. There is no ending to it. We may offer Nafl
prayers during nights in order to attain nearness to God designated
by the Quran as MAQAM-i-MEHMOOD. This is a blissful state
wherein the visage of God is seen and a constant rapport with God
is made. Sufis mention this state a lot. They are passionate about its
extraordinary pleasures. The Quran mentions this state thus:

1
The chant in the nights of Ramadhan during Ramadhan prayers is melting, it has been
seen. The translation is free, not a word-for-word one.

96
And as for the nights
Keep awake a part of it as
An additional prayer
For thee: soon will thy Lord
Raise thee to a Glorious State
(Of thy soul)
1

The central prayer or
= , | , = = _
is also mentioned in the
Quran. For some fortunate souls this prayer carries a lot of
significance as it is a means for rapid spiritual development. Such a
prayer for them is attended by pleasures that in common Quranic
language is paradise. For some, however, this prayer remains
obscure. As for our interpreters, most of them either maintain
silence about it for the sake of secret-keeping or know it not.
Whatever prayers, in short, are observed must be observed not as
mere rituals but as acts that carry practical meaning in our life even
after the ritual is over. The Quran says:
And when the prayer
Is finished, then may ye
Disperse through the land
And seek of the Bounty
Of Allah: and
Remember Allah frequently
That ye may prosper.
2

Salat or prayer in no case must be taken as a non-serious
matter. Those who offer prayers for meeting with God cannot but be
those who are united with the whole mankind of all places and times

1
The Quran, 17:79
2
The Quran, 62:10.

97
and with nature and society. Greed or greedy ways of living do not
touch them either in individual capacity or as a nation. No political
frauds, no economic exploitation, no hijacking of religion for greed
and greed of power, no selfish motives at the cost of peoples lives,
no discord, no intrigues, no violence, no small scale or large scale
killings in the most ruthless and brutal manner are possible there
with those men and women who pray passionately. They know
prayer is an ascension for a believer and it blocks his way to
grossgess, indecency and evil deed. They know being in the act of
prayer every time and always means being united with God. God
forbid if they are not, then it is not prayer, nor even a ritual. There
are very many people there, hypocrites in particular, who use prayer
only as a pretext, even in lofty prayer buildings.
Yet another dimension of prayer is that it must be offered
standing, sitting, walking, sleeping or in whatever conditions we
are. We have to be in Gods presence always in order to be true
believers, true lovers of God. Hence our giving, our taking, our
earning and spending; our eating and drinking, our wearing and
dressing, our planning things and executing them, in fact all what
we do in our individual or collective capacity should not forget that
we are in presence of God seeking His visage. Our body and soul,
our private and public life, our worldly and non-worldly affairs must
be geared to this goal and to this goal alone. Such a prayer has not to
be formal necessarily. Rumi, the mystic saint of Islam, was asked
how many times and when should we offer prayers. His reply was
as apt as his glorious poetry and poeting, meaningful and God-
conscious. He said: How many times and when we should not

98
remember God and avoid being in the act of prayer. Let those who
seek God and His countenance remember that our life and our death
and whatever is possible between these two should do nothing but
be in the act of prayer.
Perhaps drunken from the tavern of Rumi Iqbal also extends
prayer to our day to day as also to our creative life. In his lecturers
he says that a student learning in a school, an observer of nature
observing natural phenomena and its beauties, a traveler traveling
far and wide through deserts, valleys, fields and gardens, a farmer
toiling under the hot sun and producing at least eatables, a woman
humming at the pillow of her sleeping child, a mother looking at her
childs face touchingly and tenderly, a medical man trying to find
out or discover a vaccine for a fatal disease or epidemic and a
scientist experimenting in a laboratory are all examples of forms of
worship. Kenneth Cragg also plays with this idea in his The Mind of
the Quran. He says that a Muslim in his position of standing in
prayer is free to look right and left, up and down to ponder over the
mysteries of nature amidst which he lives and offers his salutations.
He may marvel at the vastness of the expanse and doing so develop
the habit of constantly thinking about all marvels that define God as
mystery. Cragg also things that prostration in Muslim prayer is
recognition of the magnificent role the mother earth has been
playing in throwing man out of its womb to discover God and His
gorgeous activity. This recognition includes the story of the march
of man from a helpless state to this state of mastery which defines
modernity. Iqbal and Cragg or anyone else, this universe is a puzzle

99
of God. Whosoever tries to solve this puzzle finds God in the
solution whatever and is therefore in the act of prayer.
We are conventionally aware of fasting and we know almost
all religions have prescribed this method for self-control. But in
Islam, besides discipline and self control, fasts or Ramadhan carry
more meanings. We have not merely to abstain from eating and
drinking and enjoying sex but to exercise control on hearing, seeing,
talking, touching, thinking, reasoning and feeling as well. All idle
talks are neither to be heard nor spoken, let apart abusing, shouting,
quarreling and so on. The tongue is to be trained for the best use it
can be put to in the vein of visualizing the face of God. Nothing is to
be heard which does not correspond to the requirements of self
purification. We cannot plot against humanity. We cannot harm
anyone by word or dead, nor can make anyone uncomfortable by
way of insult or abuse or bitter remark or ill will. All good morals
are to be practiced to help ourselves or people. All morals therefore
have to be functional rather than theoretical. Words are to be used
sparingly and positive deeds are to be done frequently. Self-help and
self-supporting activities are to be promoted and first come first
serve habit formed. Full attention has to be given to God
consciousness and whatever one feels necessary for this purpose has
to be done. Far more important than anything is that some sort of
rapport if not a complete one is to be developed with God because
the month of Ramadhan marks the revelation of the Quran to
Prophet Mohammad
SAW
. If receptivity of inspiration is not
cultivated, the month of Ramadhan may not involve a Muslim

100
actively in observing its significance and sanctity. In view of this
active participation Maulana Jami sings:
Friends Visage thee didnt see
The Event passed ah! O Jami
How come thou welcome Eid then
An exercise in futility!
1

We have already seen, though very briefly, how wealth can be
a right brother to spirit. Spending is good for brotherhood of
mankind, for also piety that breeds itself on giving fearlessly and
with love. We cannot claim righteousness, says the Quran, unless
we give what we love or what is very dear to us.
2
But spending is a
key to enter the kingdom of God for a full view of the Most
Beautiful, the Most Graceful and The Sublime. We seek visage of
God or His Face. Money, cash or kind, in silver, gold or diamond, is
not important. We submit to God together with all that we posses.
This submission, this God-love, is important. Hence spending does
not aim at fame or name or thanksgiving or boastful self-importance
or anything else that allures in the mundane world and its social
settings. We do not seek indirect favours from those whom we
oblige. We give humbly and in utmost humility. Our hearts melt in
the process of giving and the joy thereof appears on our faces. It is
only for the sake of the beloved God that we give. We give from

1

.
,
- . , , . . _. .
` , t

2

3:91 | | , | , - _ , - , ,



101
what He has been kind enough in giving us. While we give we bend
in benediction: O God gracious and compassionate, we seek nothing
but thy countenance:
O ye who believe!
Be God-conscious,
And let every soul look
To what he has
Sent forth for the marrow.
Yea, be God-conscious
For Allah is well acquainted
With (all) that ye do.
1

This Be God-conscious is alluring! How passionately
alluring it is, indeed!
So the countenance of God is to be sought in actively
responding to the needs of the neighbour. But is that not the
individual way of looking at the matter. Is that also not the
conventional behaviour of the believing giver? We may have to pick
up this divine guidance for a broader extension in the modern world.
In the Islamic world of today there are a few very rich countries
who with the grace of Allah are bestowed with immense wealth.
Such is the extent of the immensity of this wealth that it cannot be
easily brought into counting and for specific reasons. In the spirit of
the Quran this great resource is to be brought under the most
creative and most beneficial way of spending, more so when the
wealthy part of the Islamic world claims a leadership role for the
entire Ummah as they call it. Necessary but huge grants require to

1
The Quran, 58:18

102
be sanctioned and passed on to the needy communities wherever
they are. These grants need not be spent in haphazard manner.
These need to be placed in the hands of responsible bodies who in
their own turn need to be made answerable for their role in planning
creative spending. Poverty, health, education, food-production,
industrialization and upliftment of weaker groups need to be
earmarked as goals. All through the granting, the planning, the
spending processes transparency needs to be maintained at various
levels everywhere. This way poor societies may get released from
the mire of poverty and utter backwardness so that opportunities for
spiritual well-being are released simultaneously. No spirit grows
wherever there is hunger, disease, ignorance and the consequential
violence. Seeing the Face of God is a significant and essential
milestone in that developmental well-being. We cannot ignore
underprivileged people. The price for that is bound to be very
heavy. Then we shall be laying the foundations of a system that
shall be catering for the top brass of Muslim society and their
luxurious living. We cannot also leave money and wealth in the
hands of people, Muslim or non-Muslim, who grab resources of
Ummah. Our God is one, we believe in all prophets, all of us offer
prayers, observe fasts and if strong enough financially, perform
Hajj. We believe in angels and the hereafter. We bow to God in the
same direction and we not only propagate but are the Muslim
Brotherhood. We have to hold the rope of Unity and we cannot
ignore Gods command of standing united. When all these things
are common, our resources are also common. There is no division in
Islam, no separate nationhood. Hence we have to share money,

103
material and wealth equitably. Like Bani Umayya we cannot ignore
Islam for power and politics. Our first task, therefore, should be to
declare assets and resources in Islam. We should stop crushing the
weak and the poor under feet and declare them as inferior or slaves.
We must stop all activities that in the name of Islam we have
launched all over the world to keep Islam backward. Our world does
not tolerate Pharaohs or Nimrods or Abu Jahals or for that matter
Changez Khans of modern technology playing nefarious role in
disguise even in the so called Islamic countries.
Unity of Islam has another dimension, unity that brings us
closer to God. This is assembling together once a year in the month
of Zilhaj in the sacred land of Mecca where Muslims from all over
the world perform Hajj. Prophet Abraham
AS
has been instrumental
in providing this opportunity and Muslims have adopted his way of
assembling and circumambulating round Kaba, the House of God.
Muslims in Mecca circumambulate round Kaba chanting in
Unison: Here I am at your service O Allah, you stand alone
without any rival whatsoever. The Iranian revolutionary Dr Ali
Shariati describes the circumambulation in the following words:
As you circumambulate and move closer to the
kaba, you feel like a small stream merging with a big river.
Carried by a wave you lose touch with the ground.
Suddenly, you are floating, carried on by the flood. As you
approach the centre, the pressure of the crowd squeezes you
so hard that you are given a new life. You are now part of
the people, you are now a man, alive and eternal the
Kaba is the worlds Sun whose face attracts you into its
orbit. You have become part of this universal system.
Circumambulating around Allah, you will soon forget
yourself You have been transformed into a particle that

104
is gradually melting and disappearing.
1
This is absolute
love at its peak.
2


Kaba has the Black stone in it. The stone has been used by
great Sufis in order to explain an important secret in metaphorical
form. They relate
= , . | , - -
the Black Face with it. I personally
consider that without discovering the Black Face and understanding
the real meaning of the Black stone no Face of God can be
visualized. Hence the stone has to be discovered and understood by
the pilgrim. We must point out here that Ali Shariati has pointed out
an important historical fact in his book Hajj. That is about Hazrat
Hajras burial. Shariati says she is buried in the Kaba because her
burial ground has now been enclosed with the Kaba. Needless to
say that Hazrat Hajra
AS
was given to Abraham
AS
by Hazrat Sara
AS
,
his wife. Then Ismail
AS
was born of her. We should also know that
Hajj is the best means to realize the idea of Allah-o-Akbar without
which collective consciousness and total intelligence cannot perhaps
be understood. Rumi takes up the idea of Black Face in a poetically
cautious way and says:
One single heart is more pleasant
Than hundred-thousand Kabas
Mind thou then to bring it
Back to its original position
For only in that case O pilgrim

1
An individual is never a particle though. He merges into a bigger whole to reemerge
as the strongest and the most powerful creative individual.
2
Karen Armstrong: A History of God, p.188 (Armstrong has taken the quote from Ali
Shariatis book Hajj.

105
Thou shall perform a great Hajj.
1

Let us now turn our attention to yet another requirement which
helps us in seeking the Face of God and thereby drawing close to
Him. We have already mentioned seeing, hearing, feeling and
touching but we have not discussed them as basic gateways of
knowledge. As long as we are in this material world, we have to
have a knowledge of all the things around us. To have it we need to
make a full use of the capacities and powers provided in our being
or body and soul by God. Are we making a proper use of our eyes,
ears, nose tongue, skin and heart in order to understand and
appreciate the grand workshop God has placed us in?
2
Or do we
pass by this world like the blind and the deaf and the dumb and the
stone-hearted? Do we smell things and taste them properly? Do we
make a full and appropriate estimate of colours, smells and tastes?
Do we feel with our hands the delicacy of the petals of a flower? If
we touch the wings of a butterfly and also a stone placed somewhere
on the roadside or in our lawn, what difference do we feel? Can we
relate the blend of the colours of trees and flowers with the blend of
colours in our being? Can we understand the role of the sun in all
the colour blends that we observe? Can we see how our smelling
power helps us to relate ourselves with God? Do we differentiate
between tastes and see common factors in them? How does our nose
and our tongue work together? A pat on the cheeks of a baby, of a

1

, . .

.
, . . . . - ; .
` . t

2
We shall give a fuller detail of this workshop in a separate chapter.

106
baby girl, attempted, what affects do we observe in us? In the child?
Do effects last long, how long? How does our heart carry us far
away into the twinkle of stars and the silent hide and seek of the
moonlight? Why do we weep and wail and cry and why do we see
with doleful eyes? What is the meaning of our laughter? Can we
seek answers to these and to similar questions from our heart? How
do feelings play and how do poets and prophets make us fly like
birds and birds of paradise? The list of such questions related to our
own organs, to our own system, to this divinely designed machine,
is too long. Answers are had but not the final ones and the answers
knock at the door of divinity time and again. Our mind based on our
sensory-perceptual games is a workshop of God, nay Gods home
itself. Let us enter it and see how gloriously sublime He is. If we do
not make use of our organs of knowledge, we are doomed. God, as
Iqbal says, will ask these organs what role they have played and
how. In fact every moment He asks these organs to give an account
to their functioning but most of us understand not. Certainly these
organs lead us, God willing, to paradise or, God forbid, to torture
hell. We carry heaven and hell upon our own shoulders!
Given thus the importance of eyes and ears, nose and tongue,
skin and heart and also of thought processes of thinking, reasoning,
imagination, judgement, analysis, synthesis we move with their help
to INTUITION which as Bergson says is only a higher form of
thought. But we need to cultivate all these things appropriately and
satisfactorily, particularly in Islamic countries where they are left
almost unattended. Thanks to Europe and America where
tremendous progress is made for the development of these faculties.

107
Television, computer and bomb-making we copy from the West but
we do not care to see our sensory- perceptual organs fully
developed. For this development we need proper food, rest, health
and recreation first. We need schools (not shops where money is
minted in the name of education and childrens minds are stuffed
with information and rote-learning) to train natural endowments and
faculties. Under nourishment, mal-nutrition, adulterated food,
contaminated drinking water or insufficient health-care hamper
growth and check development. God does not stop the supply of
these things, nor does He issue economic sanctions, He is very kind
and the Quran is clearly showing that He has placed the whole
universe under our command. This subservience of nature ensures
our fuller development so that we use whatever we require in order
to be able to use our capacities, powers and faculties to draw near to
Him. No one is such a sustainer, caretaker, friendly and
compassionate as God Himself. How on earth, therefore, can any
sensible person imagine that He has made 2 to 5% people to grab
the whole wealth of the world, say 75% to 80%, and leave 20 to
25% for the rest who are less powerful, less priviledged! Before
Islam does anything else let Muslims believe this grabbing of wealth
amounts to fraud and loot which hampers or even makes
impossible the physical, the intellectual, the emotional, the moral
and the spiritual development of mankind. This sheer exploitation of
economic resource needs be stopped forthwith before huge mosques
like those of Cordova are built all over the world to train soldiers
and spies to guard this unearned, unjustified wealth. Wealth is a
great FITNA or even the greatest because it does not allow

108
people to live a fuller life in order to seek nearness to Allah on the
Right Path.
We know that mass communication and information
technology have made tremendous progress in modern times.
Almost every home in one form or the other has its impact. The
Internet covers both information and education. But alas these
brilliant devices are absolutely functioning under the control of
those few people who involve millions upon millions of people in
war and war-like conditions. The world is a furnace now. Anytime
anything can happen. One doesnt know how these modern
resources can be freed from the clutches of the Hitlers and the
Stalins of today. These heartless dictators are in league with Abu
Lahbas, Abu Jahals and Marwans of todays Muslim oligarchy. No
chance for the visibility of Face of God as long as this state of
affairs continues to exist. Those who believe in productivity and
creativity should take immediate steps for personal and collective
improvement in whatever form possible. The road is tedious as well
as dangerous but hope is our guide and Gods compassion our
deliverance! Let peace and love prevail!

Greed has devoured all
The plaintiff, the jurist
The pleader, the judge
Where to go and why
To seek justice but how?
1


1


109
So all this for WAJHULLAH, the Face of God! Not that God
cannot be seen by man but the eyes with which he can be seen or
better say is seen are not mans, are Gods! Mans insight is so
sharpened by Divine Grace that the whole kingdom of God with
God in the centre is visible. The idea is substantiated in the Quran:
So you slew them not but
Allah slew them, and thou smotest
Not when thou didst smite (the enemy),
But Allah smote (him)
1

Therefore, what you see is not seen by you, is seen by God
Himself.
- _ - , . . _ - , . | | - _ - _
reminds us of Mahmood Ahmad
Shabistari in Gulshan Raz wherein he says:
If it is permitted for the bush to
Say, I am the Real, why then is
It not permitted from the mouth
Of an excellent man?
2

The Burning Bush spoke to Moses
AS
, I am your Lord. It was
his own heart that was illuminated. The voice came from his own

; _

.
. . _ . _
` . t


1
The Quran, 8:17.
2
Gulshan Raz, p.62.
. . : . . . . : .
`
.

,
,
.
,
t


110
heart therefore.
1
The traveling, the travel and the traveler all become
one and the distance between thou and I cease to be. In Bali
Jabril Iqbal says:
Believers hand is the hand of God
Creative, skilful, dominant, accomplished.
2

It is this stage of awakening and awareness that explains non-being
(

) of a man who remains not silent or dormant but active, in the
Being of God. This stage only explains that this universe is neither
independently existent nor functionally confronting. The visage of
God reflected everywhere in each bit of matter gives it a status
which in no way is material or the other. This can be read in
chapter 55.
All that is on earth
Will perish:
But will abide (for ever).
The Face of thy Lord.
Full of Majesty
Bounty and Honour.
3

A strong desire or an urge to have a direct access to God is
responded well. Even a single tear shed for the sake of beloved God
has its positive effect. Restlessness and wail of a lover determine his
status but the beloved at the other end, so to say, is shaken with each
sigh of the lover. The warmth felt here is a warmth issued forth from

1
When he saw a fire, he said to his people; stay I see fire; haply I may bring to you
therefrom a live coal or find guidance at the fire. So when he came to it, a voice
came: O Moses, surely I am thy Lord The Quran, 20:10-12.
2

. _. : . _ : . . : . . : , . : - : , .

3
The Quran, 55:26-27.

111
there. Before Lailas curls get loose, Majnoons night becomes
darker. When Farhad digs a canal amidst mountains, a murmuring
stream begins to flow like the springing love of Shirin. There is
always a hide and seek being played. Children play it in a child like
manner but the lover and the beloved do it in the most exciting way,
depends upon what the lover seeks and how serious he is about the
beloved. When the earth is dug, bed made, seeds sown, water given,
flowers bloom one day bringing smile to the face of the flower
lover. Send a deep sigh up into the cosmos, you will see angels will
bear it on their wings to place it before the one who broke your
heart! A stone becomes an image, an idol, a god to a sculptor who
chisels it passionately and artfully. It may seem absurd to us who
believe in no God but Allah, but it will be the fruit of the sweat and
blood of the stone carver. May be his hands get bruised, may be he
works under the sun without shade, may be he goes without food
and drink several times while he is working on the stone, may be his
eyes swell because of sleeplessness, may be he burns mid-night oil
thinking and imagining, may be he is sometimes alone and
loneliness frightens him, may be people mock at him taunting and
laughing, may be someone used to ritual calls him a senseless idler,
but one day he finds his heart poured on the stone. Love is greater
achievement but love of God the greatest and the best. Ask the
sculptor he will tell you that his image on the stone is not stone; it is
far more than that. It is subtler, smother, finer, beauty ingrained in
stone. See beauty with the eyes of lover beholder, you will be
amazed and lost. Ask him what beauty is, he will say:
My Love

112
Ceaseless bounty of God
Poured in sweat and blood
Eternal and infinite!
Ask Rumi what is means, he will tell you the story of the shepherd
and Moses
AS
. He will tell you God understands language of the
wanderer lover only. He will tell you Moses
AS
gets a rebuke!
Have you come to unite
O Moses
AS

Or to cause a schism
Between Me and My beloved.
1

Love is a strange world. Here there is no haste, no waste. Here all
the theories melt away and all stories end with a positive sweet note:
It is the Lover
Who is everywhere
He is the wail
The painful tale
He is the seeker
And the sought
Ultimately he is one
Who seeks none
But Him!
But if all efforts go waste and blood is spilt like water and the
lover dies on the sand of passion, he is the winner! Let Farhads
beloved Shirin remain heedless in her palace tower grand, is it not
enough that Farhad does his best? Is it not a very great achievement
that he strikes his pick against his head and pours his red hot blood
in the murmuring stream he cut in rocks and mountains? The music

1


. . . . - . . .
` . t


113
he produces cannot be heard by the wanton ear. Shirin or no Shirin,
his job is done. The murmuring stream turns into melody by his
blood. That is the visage of God to him, if not of the God of Mercy,
of the God of blind love indeed! That is enough!
Let us come back, we were carried to states which words fail
to describe! Call on Me, I will (answer your prayer), says God in
the Quran. He is with you, wherever yoy may be, is again a
Quranic reward. This goes simultaneously with the visage-of-God
urge. This goes with the callers call which emerges from the depths
of heart. A call is never a lip service. It is a serious matter, a matter
that consumes body as well as soul. The more the passion of the
caller, the quicker the response I am with you. The call is not
verbal only, it is the expression of the whole being of the caller. The
eye, for instance, may call Him with a deep glance over the petals of
a flower and will see Him there! It may see Him in the flutter of
wings from bough to bough of a bird fluttering in His search. It may
see Him in the designs of a butterfly whose wings are never at rest.
The caller may hear the sound of a thrush singing stealthily amidst
plants and grass notes that know no end. Touch of a fragrant flower
may be a call from God to make His seeker restless with a deeply
sensitive message that it may send down into his nerve. The tongue
has tastes that carry you with into the sublimity of God who is
present in food and fruits and preparations of vegetables and meat.
But He is present everywhere, with you also when no one is there!
He shows His visage in myriad forms! That is the glow of His
Being. That is where thou and I melt together into We. That is

114
where multiplicity and diversity is finished. The single unity is born
and the visage of God remains! Rumi sings:
It happened that we made a trip without We
There our heart bloomed without We
That moon which was hiding from us
Put a face on our face without We.
Not having died in the grief of the beloved
We were reborn in his grief, without We
We are always intoxicated without wine
We are always happy without We
Dont remember us ever,
We are our own remembrance without We.
We are happy without We saying
Oh we shall always be without We
All doors were closed to us
When the road of justice
Opened without We
With the existence of We, the heart of
King Kai Qubad becomes a slave.
If the slave is without We he
Becomes king Kai Qubad.
We have passed beyond right and wrong
For the prayers and sins of existence without We
We are intoxicated from the cup of Shams al Din;
His cup of wine will never be without We.
1

It is a state which speaks itself in the words of the Quran: God
is pleased with them and they are pleased with God. It is here that
contradictions are resolved by harmonies attending the state of

1
A.Reza Aresteh: Rumi, the Persian, The Sufi, pp 71-72.

115
absolute union in simple and understandable ways we may say
that mans own heart becomes a Kaba and he submits through Salat
(prayer) to his own self. The self takes a creative form and it gets
involved in human affairs through constant guidance flowing in
intuitive rapport. It is a never ending affair in which creativity and
revelation take the shape of eternity. To allude to this state, we
quote Hazrat Abu Yazid Bistami
RA
from Muslim Saints And
Mystics:
On one occasion Abu Yazid set out on the journey to
Hejaz, but no sooner had he gone forth when he returned.
You have never failed in your purpose before, it was
remarked. Why did you do so now?
I had just turned my face to the road, he replied, when
I saw a black man standing with a drawn sword. If you
return, well and good, if not, I will strike your head from
your body. You have left God in Bestam, he added, and
set out for the Holy House.
A man encountered me on the road, Abu Yazid recalled.
Where are you going?, he demanded.
On the pilgrimage, I replied.
How much have you got?
Two hundred dirhams?
Come, give them to me, the man demanded.
I am a man with a family. Circle round
me seven times. That is your pilgrimage;
I did so and returned home.
1



1
A.J. Arberry, P.114. (This is a short form translation of Tazkirat-ul-Auliya by Shaikh
Farid-ud-din Attar).

116






76
Yusuf U Zulaykha of Maulana Jami. Copied from Margaret Smith: Rabia Basri: The
Mystic and Her Fellow Saints in Islam, p.60

117




118



God
Man
And The Spectacle

119

Each speck of matter did he constitute
A mirror, causing each one to reflect
The beauty of His visage. From the rose
Flashed forth His beauty and the nightingale
Beholding it, loved madly. From that fire
The candle drew the luster which beguiles
The moth to immolation. On the sun
His beauty shone, and straightway from the wave
The lotus raised its head. Each shining lock
Of Lailas hair attracted Majnuns heart
Because some ray Divine reflected shone
In her fair face. T was He to Shirins lips
Who lent that sweatness, which had power to steal
The heart from Parwiz and from Farhad life
His beauty everywhere doth show itself,
And through the forms of earthly beauties shines
Obscured as though a veil
Whereer thou seest a veil,
Beneath that veil He hides.
76

Nature, man and society, the Face within the veil: let all the
three seemingly separate entities merge together to form a whole
which has neither the beginning nor the end, nor the soul nor the
body, which is independent, self-sufficient, spotless and pure. This

120
must make the beginning of this chapter which aims at
understanding that nothing in the whole drama of life is defective,
meaningless and useless, that nothing in nature, man and society is
disjointed, that no one has power to assert I unless it means
standing upright and awareness to probe in order to expand in
knowledgeability and consciousness. What is hidden is not hidden,
is apparent but the appearance is so effulgent, so sharply hot that the
final word about it is neither spoken nor written nor will ever be so!
Let us straightway begin with God and His praise because the
Quran also begins with His praise in Shifa chapter. Shifa is called
FATIHAH also, the opening chapter with its very important, very
essential seven verses. We praise God because we are grateful to
Him in countless ways. In this chapter we may mention as many
favours of God as we can. But first let us express our gratitude for
seven most important things:
1. He created us and provided us with abilities, capacities,
powers which make us the best creation.
12
These capacities and
abilities, potentialities and powers include our sensory-perceptual
organs with which we see, hear, smell, taste, touch and feel. Our
heart is the main centre of feelings and emotions. Without this basic
potential man would not stand upright to face the world of nature
and to live in a society. It is not easy to detail out how our senses
work and the sensory organs that make their functions possible. It is
also not easy to rationally analyse the working of our heart which as

1

2
The Quran, 95:4 (We have indeed created man in the best of moulds)

121
already said is known as FOAD in the language of the Quran. The
world of dreams and aspirations, feelings and emotions require
volumes for detailed description. Just a beat of our heart, with the
compassion of Allah, can gain us insight into whole life and we
shall be saved from all problems.
2. God created us and gave proportion and order to our soul
1

which He breathed into us from His own soul
2
very
compassionately. How kind He is that He made man after His own
image and therefore he is supposed to develop in him the same
qualities that He has. In the last chapter we have alluded to
SIBGAT-ALLAH which is colouring oneself in the Noor of Allah.
Moreover, since God has made REHMAT necessary for Himself
3
,
we should also be compassionate and loving. Since our soul is
Gods soul, we are not isolated from Him and will return to Him and
Him alone as also because everything returns to its original source.
3. So fortunate is man that God taught him all the names when
his creation was being considered by Him.
4
Knowing names means
knowing concepts. Since he knows all the names, he knows all the
concepts. This leads as to think that man is knowledgeable
potentially. Everything is written on his tablet, the heart. Shouldnt
he be grateful to his maker? Is there a better friend than Allah who
taught him names. Angels had not been bestowed with this favour;
therefore they could not tell man names the very first day of

1
The Quran, 91:7.
2
Ibid., 5:29
3
Ibid., 6:12.
4
Ibid., 2:31-33. It is Iqbal who in his English lectures proves that names are concepts.
It is he who thinks that Mans mind is the PRESERVED TABLET.

122
creation. Perhaps this also is the reason why man is known as the
best creation. When he knows all the names how is it possible that
anybody will teach him anything thenceafter. Certainly man is
indebted to his compassionate God beyond measures!
4. Man is so great and so fortunate that he bore the trust which
no one, no creature in the whole universe, had the capacity or power
to bear.
1
It seems God created him only for this great task.
Undoubtedly this task is neither easy nor ordinary but man came
forward to take the responsibility. Ever since he has been facing
hardships and extraordinary trials to prove that he can execute jobs
related with it. Suffering is a necessary requirement for bearing the
trust because suffering alone makes a man great. One doesnt know
why people, particularly Westerners, do not highlight this idea. One
also does not know why Muslim scholars do not very clearly
explain why the trust-bearing has proved a difficult task and how.
Mans thankfulness for this responsible assignment cannot be
understood fully unless we know how it has made man great in spite
of its perils and dangerous involvements Always the head that wears
the crown lies uneasy but this crown has gained man so much that
he has forgotten his uneasiness and troubles after his achievements.
This is very sad that mans true significance as the trust-bearing
trustworthy has remained understated. Perhaps its highlighting
would reveal to all and sundry that religion has made man really
great and therefore man-God relationships in our times are vitally
important also because today man has to bear things more heavily
than in the past. This is evident that suffering makes man great as

1
The Quran, 33:72.

123
well as more powerful because he gets hardened on one hand and
more powerful on the other to do harder and more dangerous things.
Will Durant has briefly hinted at the trust-bearing of man but he has
not very clearly given any credit to Islam for having included the
things in the Quran. We quote him:
Civilization is a union of soil and soul the
resources of the earth transformed by the desire and
discipline of men.
1
Behind the facade and under the
burden, of courts and palaces, temples and schools, letters
and luxuries and arts, stands the basic man: the hunter
bringing game from the wood; the woodman felling the
forest; the herdsman pasturing and breeding his flock; the
peasant clearing, plowing, sowing, cultivating, reaping,
tending the orchard, the vine, the hive, and the brood; the
woman absorbed in the hundred crafts and cares of a
functioning home; the miner digging in the earth; the
builder shaping homes and vehicles and ships; the artisan
fashioning products and tools; the peddler, shopkeeper
and merchants uniting and dividing maker and user; the
invester fertilizing industry with his savings; the executive
harnessing muscle, materials, and minds for the creation
of services and goods. These are the patient yet restless
leviathan on whose swaying back civilization precariously
rides.
2


1
Very easily the expulsion of Adam and Eve can be related to it. Man fell on the earth
not as a result of damnation but for his tremendous role. See Iqbals
. _ . : .
t ` . _

2
The Age of Faith, p.206.

124
The responsibility does not involve man only economically; it
has many more involvements. Basically it is, bringing all things
together in order to lift the veil to see and realize God. Everything is
subordinated to the soul of man. Its promotion and strength can
never be sacrificed, whatever the gain.
5. Man is not an animal. He cannot live instinctively. God has
given him intellectual powers and reason to use his mind. He has the
choice to decide between alternatives. That is how he drew near the
tree of knowledge. His refusal to depend on nature exclusively like
birds and animals means that he used his free will. Now he has the
choice of adopting for himself either a positive course of action or a
negative one. He is at a loss if he chooses the negative one. But if he
adopts positive ways, he is a winner. AMAL-i-SALEH is the
positive action. God has given him the powers by the exercise of
which he can be in rapport with Him directly.
1
His intellect can
develop into intuition. Nature is full of signs of God. These signs
provide lot of guidance to him to battle with forces that try to
deviate him from the Right Path. So he must be thankful to God and
praise Him for constant guidance. Even for his mental capacities he
must express gratitude.
6. Man is the main actor on the stage of life. He has all the
facilities given to him. We have already said he has ample powers
and potential. But natural forces and nature has also been placed at
his disposal. In 14:32-33; 16:12; 16:13; 16:18; 31:20; 45:12-13 for

1
The Quran, 2:38-39. God through signs and otherwise sends guidance to him. If he
follows it, he is successful This guidance is a common property: plants and birds and
animals also receive it. The Bee as in Chapter 16 receives it too.

125
instance the Quran ensures him that he has all the divine help
available and therefore he can act on the stage fearlessly and
confidently. He has no reason to feel depressed or desperate. Lots
and lots of praise be to God who is so gracious, so benevolent, so
kind to man. Unfortunately the subservience of nature is also not
emphasized by our religious preachers. One doesnt know why they
are against mans self-confidence and self-assurance. They want to
see man weak so that they can ride over him for personal interest?
Man is a very strong creature because his best friend God is at his
back. He must not stop even for a moment in expressing his
gratitude to his nourisher and provider God.
7. God has always helped him or brought him into existence
from a state of nothingness. Once he was so unimportant that he was
not even mentioned. Then he was created out of a thick substance, a
liquid which jets out as a result of union between a man and a
woman.
1
The union is passionate and totally absorbing because the

1
The story is not only interesting but marvelously amazing wonders upon wonders!
First preparations within the bodies of the male and the female are made over a
period of time. All kinds of things are geared into work for biological, mental and
emotional preparations. Then adolescence sets in and there is fire there. The whole
world, the whole universe begins to dance, so to say. Song and music sets in, vocal
or non-vocal, this way or that way. Every object appears growing in beauty. Then the
pair draws near; all feelings, all emotions begin their interplay both sides and
mutually. Then the seed and the egg and the jetting out of substances to facilitate
production of life in Gods workshop! The whole story of Jene and DNA and food and
fruit assisting it comes to the fore. Science, in spite of its wonderful achievements
upto date cannot explain the whole story of the wonder. There are more secrets to
be revealed. Then the role of the intellect and emotion and feeling in (Cont.)
determining the new life and its quality more wonders, many of which unknown. O
God! Then the arrangements of food inside the wombs and the mothers endurance
and patience! Purpose? Lifes restless urge to manifest itself? God knows!

126
human machine is to be launched for bringing a new life to the fore.
Then he was continuously fed by things that God created or
produced for him from time to time in the womb
1
and after the birth
into the world. How on earth can he afford to forget Him! Him who
is so kind, so lovely, so protective, so providing, so caring! He does
everything for man calmly and quietly. Every moment His work is
going on and on; tirelessly, sleeplessly, restlessly. He does what
none else does. Praise be to Him but are we able to express our
adoration and gratitude for so much of providence and care? No!
SUBHANAKA MA SHAKARNAKA HAQA SHUKRIKA. O God
how pure thou art! I cannot offer my gratitude and thanks for what
thou hath done for me! Exalted is thy pure Being!
But thanksgiving and praise is not enough. Understanding His
processes of sustenance and look-after are also necessary. We do
not we ungrateful beings even understand the role of teachers or
guides or helpers or parents in bringing us up. How can we even
understand the role of our Lord, Our Rub (
_ =
) with the limited
knowledge we have and also the limited experience.
2
And our
parents do not do anything for us. Even they are made to work for
us by our Lord God! The more we understand the mechanism of
sustenance the more we desire to know of it. That is how God is
great. The morning breeze comes with a message. Get up, take a

1
Blood! Blood of the mother, God bless her! Let the faithful son and the daughter kiss
her feet! But this food has everything for the growing babe. The machine of the
womb is not electronic. Is it fleshy? What kind of flesh? So fine? How?
2
This does not mean man knows nothing. See what Mohammad
SAW
knows and how
much. See what our prophets and saints and scholars know. But God increase me in
knowledge, was the constant desire of the Prophet
SAW
!

127
bath, go out and feel fresh. Offer prayers to Him who is all around,
in the colour of flowers and the fragrance they emit, fragrance of
various types from various flowers of various hues and colours, row
and row in foothills and on tops of mountains, cultivated or self-
grown. All sustain us because in all of them there is one God,
because there is none else! Then begins the play of the sun beam
and the sunshine, spreading light all around, over the hill and the
dale, on the treetops playing with their lush-green robe and calm
seriousness, playing with the zigzag waters flowing in streams,
springs and shallow brooks musically dancing all over. The play is
on. The fields are waiting for a wonderful sustenance cover-up. The
sunbeam, the sunshine and the sunbath grow food and fruit-
vegetable and vine. They grow us also, directly and indirectly,
through the direct touch with our skin and skinny bone, through the
sweet fruit we eat, through water and waters provisions. This
sustenance drama is all absorbing, wonder creating and if God
Wills, riddle solving. We solve the riddle of sustenance if we ponder
over things, if we read signs of God in all things that sustain us.
Sacred is thy Being O God, all this thou hath not created in vain!
Everything sustains us, if not our stomach, our mind, if not our
mind, our blood and so on. Everything sustains us because in
everything is present God, the Omnipresent!
But God is not a Rub only; He is Rabul Aalamin, the nourisher
of all the worlds, as some say. Aalamin, they say, is the world of
organic and inorganic things, the world of stones and rocks, the
world of plants and shrubs and bushes and trees, the world of
animals and birds and, above all, the world of human beings who

128
bring everything with them. Variety upon variety is sustained and
upkept by the Lord of the worlds. He is everywhere every time, apt
and quick and exact. Food He gives, protection He gives, defense
He provides and He arranges necessary things for growth and
development of every thing. He grows blades of grass for the
grasshopper and the insect for the bird who longs for insect feast.
The bird is the prey for the fowler and the fowler brings his prey to
the market for those who know roasting and eating skillfully and
tastefully. The taste is provoked by the smell and the smell is
sustained and so to say squeezed by the flame and the cooking art.
Somewhere the Lord of sustenance provides a loaf merely but
somewhere the substance is abundant, depends all upon what He
thinks and for what divine purpose. The Lord is not helped by
anything and any one, is arranging for the sustenance of the worlds,
nor does He seek any opinion from anyone in doing so. With human
beings, as with insects and birds, He is bountiful. So is He with
snow and glacier and rain and water. The wind blows, the clouds
toss up and down in pleasant as well as fierce moods, the rains
shower here and they shower there, on vast fields and barren lands,
on thorns and flowers, on stagnant pools and running streams, but
the growth is facilitated here quick and there slow, here scarce and
there abundant. The drama is on and the Lord of sustenance is in full
control of everything!
Rabul Aalamin is also the sustainer of this world and the
hereafter, some say. The whole drama of life is only a preparation
for the hereafter, more permanent, more enjoyable, more
meaningful, and more mysterious in spite of being open and

129
unveiled. Never will things be unveiled in the absolute sense at
least. Lift a veil now, you will find more veils underneath. And veils
upon veils is the sauce of life, a continuous toss and dance of
imagination and intellect, feeling and dream. Ones heart may beat
with the awe of the continuity and constancy of search, unendingly
merciless as it is, but one will learn to pause and pause for a new
take-off, refreshing and revitalizing! That is true but this world is as
busy as the next one in its own way. We need the sustainer more
here perhaps because what we sow here, we reap there. Hence
sowing may be more important than reaping. The sowing as well as
reaping is not taken in the ordinary and conventional sense. The
sowing is mental, psychological and spiritual. This world is on fire.
Every bit of it is burning with desire and search and re-search. What
we finish today, is unfinished tomorrow. If we sow a seed today, we
need a handful of it tomorrow and bagful the day after. There is
more smoke than fire in the world, more night than day, more black
than white. Once you are upright on your feet, you will never rest.
Nothing will let you rest and never. You need sustenance upon
sustenance from your Lord because otherwise you the tiny creature
have no possibility of coming out of darkness to see things clearly
in the hereafter. And who knows whether there is a possibility of
rest there or not? But rest we do not require, we who are drunken
with passion, passion for life. Lovers need no paradise for rest and
eternal song! They want passion and pain!
1


1
Songs sung by Mir and Iqbal can be referred to: (Cont.)

. . . - . ` t . . . .
. . . . . .

.
.
.
. ; . . . r . .

,
.
, ,

.
.

,
,
,
, - ; . , . . , ` , t . . _
.

- .

.
, - . _


130
Let us now pass pass gently into the world of REHMAT, the
universe of providence. It is the most striking phase of Godhood
AR-REHMAN, AR-RAHIM. These two phases are one essentially,
merge into the oneness of Allah. AR-RAHIM is more active than
AR-RAHMAN but the former cannot work without the latter. One
hundred thirteen chapters of the Quran open with Allah, Rahman
and Rahim and 56 times
1
more the AR-RAHMAN is spread over in
the Quran. Chapter 55 is named as AR-RAHMAN separately. It
defines the concept directly as well as metaphorically. MARYAM,
the 19
th
chapter repeats it several times, one doesnt know why. The
chapter number chosen for Maryam is 19
th
. The number is
significant. The Quran in spite of everything is a mystery. And there
are mysteries upon mysteries in it. How lucky, how great is the man
on whom the Book is revealed and he knows everything about it.!!!
Rahman is all creative, the creative process itself. The world
of creation is full of colourful amazement, puzzle and wonder. Birds
create, animals create, human beings create: even plants and trees
create, so do flowers and fruit. Even in mountains under hard and
soft rocks the process of creation is one. Strange chemicals interplay
and action and reaction give birth to metals and matter. Iron and
copper, gold and diamond, zinc and coal, thallium and cobalt
2
and
many other things are produced in the underworld. Who knows

1
I have myself checked Rahmans frequency in the Quran but only once. May be I am
not correct cent percent.
2
God has lifted Afghanistan up. The for what fault have you been beaten has
brought them Mercy from God. They are now rich in minerals more so in gold,
thallium and cobalt. One does not know that the west will not steal away these
things. However, Afghans can now solve the problems of hunger and thereby
problem of blood flow~. Perhaps no brown sugar will be produced there.

131
what is happening underground and how many agents are at work
with what raw material and equipment. When, for instance, the earth
sucks moister, how does it do so and with what intelligence. Every
preparation has its own appointed time, and time is therefore a
determining factor? How? Does time flower there, pollinate there,
produce things like pollen to attract pollinating agents like water,
wind and insects and birds and so on? Does time wither like leaves
in autumn there too? For what? For a newer life? What happens in
freezing cold in regions where the sun does not reach? What agents
play the part of sun there? Geologists, miners, geographers may
know the answers but better answers are available through the
messages that descend here on this earth every moment. The plant
gets these messages, the bee gets, all insects and birds get, so get
animals. Why not human beings therefore through AR-RAHMAN,
again? How do hoopoes know where the male bird is, where the
female bird is? Do they sing mating songs? Do we hear them? Is
this the functioning of AR-RAHMAN, the power of creation?
Animals attract animals, birds birds, insects insects, flowers
butterflies and human beings human beings. Birds have colorful
feathers. Developed by Rahman? Animals have strange shapes and
sounds. Developed and provided by Rahman? Horses run and neigh,
mares neigh in response. Does Rahman whisper in their ears? What
happens to snakes, to snails, to peacocks, to butterflies? Are their
sounds, their body moisture, their design and colour, their softness
and delicacy involved in creation and are all these things plus many
others of the sort defining Rahman? Rahman makes men create
more men but Rahman makes them create many more things to

132
make life worth living and better. Whatever has been created in
modern age has been created by Rahman. If Asians do not follow
Ar-Rahman, Europeans will. If Europeans do not, Americans will.
Ar-Rahman does not confine his activity of creation to particular
regions. Wherever there is response, there is follow-up, he goes
there.
1
If Muslims do not create a social order in which possibilities
of conquering nature are provided amply and sufficiently, Ar-
Rahman will create some other people who will do it. God belongs
to all and all belong to Him. Rahman is no special prerogative of
anyone, any people, any nation, any time!
This activity of Ar-Rahman passes on. He creates speech.
Speech of birds, of animals, of human beings, OK! But do other
creatures of God also speak. One thinks yes. The moon asks a poet
to come out and compose a song on it. Iqbal writes a song, rather
songs. He communicates with the moon and the moon corresponds
with him. The dialogue spreads over many things.
2
But the moon is
in correspondence with the sun and with God too. Everything in this
universe is in praise for God. Plants receive light and change their
directions, if needed, to receive it. They get minerals from the earth.
They are in touch with other creatures. Similarly animals have fur
because they know it protects them from environmental dangers.
Bees have beehive for many purposes. How do they make it and

1
If your turn back (from the path), He will substitute in your stead another people;
then they would not be like you! The Quran, 47:38 (This is in Sura Mohammad
SAW
)
2
Read Iqbals
- =
in Bang-i-Dira. It is a wonderfully meaningful poem.
. . . - - .
. . . . - .


133
with which material? Who guides them for gathering materials and
for building beehives? Which language have they to communicate
with flowers wherefrom they collect honey? We have hands and
eyes and other parts of body to make gestures which is also
language. What gestures are made by other creatures and with what?
Swaying in breeze is a gesture for plants, flowers and trees too? So
is swaying a dance, as good as of human beings, worse than that or
better? These questions are strange but not meaningless! Is our
language the same everywhere? Do our languages differ? Why?
Due to which factors? Is silence also a language? Is the language of
looks and eyes the best one? Or is there any other language? How
did Solomon build rapport with animals and birds? Do springs and
brooks and rivers sing? Do pebbles and stones sing too? Do we hear
the language of Zabarwans and Mahadevs? Do we correspond with
stars and planets? Does milky way create turbulence in our mind?
What words, what similes, metaphors and alliterations and allusions
we use in listening to the songs of the sea, the wind, the zephyr and
morning-evening calm? Does the whole universe speak? If yes, woe
to those who do not listen to the music of the universal language or
the language of universe! How poor, how dead they are!
See how Ar-Rahman works in creating vocal cords and tongue
to produce not merely sounds but songs and song-styles. See how
our vocal apparatus works at various occasions, in ordinary
language or in language we speak at special occasions with various
types of people. We quarrel, we express anger and joy and love and
feeling but every time our speech ability shows its feats according to
the situations and requirements. At such occasions as extreme grief

134
and sudden elation our language is almost a reflex action. All these
things reflect Ar-Rahman and we adore his excellence!
This excellence can be seen in many more ways. It can be seen
in the course that the sun and the moon adopt. The poet says that the
moon is in love with the sun and therefore there is always an
attraction between the two. The scientist says that the movements of
all natural objects floating in the void are regular, computed and
perfectly errorless. The philosopher may say that the moon gets the
borrowed light and therefore is dependent. All borrowing is
dependence! Besides, moons light is a reflection of the sun. When
we look at the moon, we form an idea of the sun. We can see less
intense glamour and grandeur of the sun. More tolerable is the moon
therefore. Similarly prophethood is more tolerable than Godhood.
God is Jabbar and Qahhar also, sublime and powerful and at times
ruthless and difficult. The best way to face God is through
adoration, praise, benediction and submission. It is very difficult,
very dangerous to say I . Mansoor Hallaj said I. He was hacked
and burnt. His place was not here. It was there where habit and
phenomena are not there, a realm where intensity can be
experienced and enjoyed with.
The Ar-Rahman play can be seen in the animal world and in
the sphere of vegetative growth; both interdependent. The corn, the
seed and the husk are found in abundance from earliest times, and
also fruits, wild and grown. In between these things the earth, the
sun and the sunlight work essentially and vitally. Without water and
warmth, light and lights benefits there is no growth, no
development and therefore no life possible, whether of animals, of

135
birds, of insects and tiny organisms. Even plants cannot grow
basically to provide for others. But winds and gales, trees and
plants, sun and suns heat all play and interplay to make seasons,
weather, rain and rains-element, clouds. They are always there, with
Rahman, to work wherever they are in need of. Excellent but when
this interplay goes on, moods and looks of nature change and also
lifes phases, at various levels. Colours and colour blends, shapes
and shaping, forms and formal looks, scenes and scenery add
flavour and fragrance to life and its pleasure and pain. The tiniest
and what Wordsworth calls the meanest
1
flower or its bud tells us
the saddest story and sings us the most impressively melodious
song. So Rahmans providence is also a source of beauty or in other
words Rahman is beauty himself! But this beauty makes the whole
universe beautiful!
We should not forget to mention deep waters and sea, not only
to praise and adore Rahmans provisions for the fish but for all sorts
of water bodies. Fish are not of one kind only; the biggest and the
smallest fish are there, swimming and twisting or perhaps dancing,
mating and praying. The discovery channels show us wonders of the
sea and we get lost when we see and hear discourses on them. I call
it a discourse because the commentaries are not less important than
religious discourses. Gods greatness can be seen and also His
providential grandeur in the world of fishes how they take water
and other living substances, how they see and hear and feel and

1
If I were Wordsworth, I would not use the word meanest. No flower is mean,
perhaps nothing is mean. Wordsworths full line:
To me the meanest flower that blows can give thoughts that do often lie too deep
for tears.

136
understand and mate and multiply and so on. But they are a food for
human beings and the food is rich. To make the food abundant we
rear fish in fish forms where we can see them every time as we see
birds and fowls. Fish in waters have food in animals but they are
themselves food for their enemies. One doesnt know why death in
that sense snatches life from these beautiful creatures? Do they get
any discount for this type of death? We know man dies not but joins
a better life in the hereafter. But what happens to fish when they
become food for others. This is no poetry, is philosophy of religion,
is Ar-Rahmans riddles to be solved by our intellect and meditative
intuition. The sea life or the life in waters does not end with fish.
We chose one animal. There are other animals also. Some are very
dangerous for man. But sea has pearls and corals and other
valuables. We wear them and adorn ourselves. Perhaps we join the
Beautiful by adorning ourselves with beauty aids. The adornments
of pearl and coral trigger off our emotion, may be lust also and
perhaps the warmth produced affects our blood and bloods role in
reproduction. Ar-Rahman sharpens our thinking and imagination to
understand hidden secrets of divinity and to benefit from them.
Then in the sea and waters are boats and ships, exactly and in
metaphorical sense. We know that these serve an important means
of transport even today. Supremacy on the sea depends much on
boats and ships. There are no sails now. The navigational feats are
easier and safer. May be ships do not help us in trade only, they
widen our horizons too. It is an adventure to be on the sea, and if
possible, in it, better mechanically. But boats sail like the Ark of
Noah also. They help us from drowning or sinking into the sea of

137
life. That is more dangerous and more perilous. We must be grateful
to Rahman who provies us boats to be safe from sinking.
The greatest benefit of Rahmans providential play is not easy
to achieve. The providential game or drama or whatever you call it
liberates man from earth-rootedness and takes him to unending
flights. He is not a bird but he has wings to fly and those wings are
provided or developed by providence. Once he conquers space and
time and whatever is in them, he becomes powerful to fly with the
wings that he develops thereby. The skies are opened for him and he
travels beyond mundane sights and horizons. The skies are not
physical necessarily, not the ones that are conventionally known to
people, the blues all around us. They are mental flights and
imaginative excursions but mental or imaginative is not mental or
imaginative absolutely; they are accompanied by concrete realities
that we see with our eyes normally or touch or taste or whatever.
Our paradise also becomes streams and springs and shades and
fruits and drinks and it is. While we are here in this phenomenal
world, we have to use language and language without materials of
expression is impossible. Hence Ar-Rahman, while helping us soar
helps us with concrete realities also. The state of being in a position
to soar is pleasant and we offer our gratitude to God for this!
We may have not said enough about Allah, the Lord of the
universe and man , the sustainer of life and the provider of
everything, material and non-material. But in the sense of this book
we have tried to deal with essential things so far. We shall now
attend to hallowing of the earth which Islam took upon itself. The
earth till the coming of Islam was controlled by gods and goddesses

138
and nothing was left in the hands of man. People believed in the
sun-god, the rain-god, the river-god, the god of disease and
pestilence. Beauty and carnal love was also managed by a god, so
was manly valour and strength. Even behind mountains and rocks
and trees and in springs, wells and graveyards spirits dwelt. No
place was left empty. Islam sent all these gods away declaring there
is no God but Allah. Then, as before, everything began to be
controlled by Allah and there was no need of making sacrifices,
human or animal, in cash or kind. Now the sun is the source of light
and Allah Himself is defined as Light. Now the river is not
controlled by any supernatural deity but harnessed into life-givig
and life-supporting natural power. It began to be used as to
metaphor for life which is continuously flowing, regularly providing
support to growth and development. Love becomes a great force to
burn like fire everything that is impure and it provides a bond
between human beings on one hand and between man and the
universe on the other. Beauty envelops the whole world and pushes
aside everything so that nothing but God can be seen in anything
charming, graceful, proportional, symmetrical, harmonious,
attractive and bewitching. Through His signs God becomes visible
in the expanse that wraps us up. So what is light in the sun is glow
in the moon, is twinkle in the star, is vastness in the void, is silence
of the night, is chirp of the cricket, is croak of the frog, and is twitter
of the owl. The dawns evanescent smile, the mornings brisk
laughter, the days warbling brightness, the evenings brooding calm
and the nights soothing sleep are all as good expressions of the
same reality as is childs innocent play, adolescents busy revelry,

139
mothers selfless love and husbands fondling gaze. We see Him
appear in the youth and age, growth and decay, life and laughter. He
aspires, hopes, fails, wails, succeeds, delights and shares love and
living. His is the day and days toil, His is the night and nights
dream and when He wakes up, He feels fresh and fine. His moods
are numerous and his modes visible every moment in His skilful
work and creative role. Exhaustion touches Him not nor does He
wink or sleep. He is wet and dry, soft and hard, thick and thin, sweet
and sour; sometimes a wound, sometimes the pain, sometimes the
balm but always busy. We see Him everywhere but He is very near
to us, nearer then our jugular vein!
In order to hallow the earth we cannot throw stones out, nor
wooden blocks, nor paper and pencil and colour and brush. He is the
stone, He is the rock, He is the woods, and He is the wood. Not only
pen and pencils but everything that is needed to draw, He is that and
that abundantly. On each leaf you see His drawing and on every
fruit His colour. He is the colour of the egg and the hue of the
blonde eye. He is the pattern of the autumn and the bloom of the
spring. He melts like snow and flows like torrents of water. His
cascades are many and his spring fountains countless. How can we
count His art because His art knows no bounds. We astonishingly
praise Him for His majestic Hand!
The earth is sacred because it is beautiful. Beautiful God is
reflected everywhere. For instance He is reflected in stones: round,
flat, rough, coloured, multicoloured, cheap, precious stones. Taj
Mahal is beautiful, so is Red fort and Fatehpore Sikri. Ajanta is
famous for its beauty, so is Elora. The whole of Rajasthan is

140
historically known for its stones. But only India is not beautiful for
stones; other places are too. Iran for Asfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz.
Even Turkey has stone grandeur! Where do we not have stones? Go
to Cordova, the mosque there built by Muslims is a great piece of
art. It is one of the wonders, also for its stone work. Even in
Western countries we have stones, precious as well as ordinary. But
ordinary stones are also precious in the eyes of the beholders of
beauty. Precious ornaments, also in the crowns and thrones of kings,
queens and monarchs are extremely beautiful. Stones find their
place around necks and on breasts. So even some great men like
Akbar and Khusrov bow their necks for diamond necklaces or
chains or what have you. Real grand beauties salute stones and wear
them even in their hair. But stones enrich kingdoms and kings
palaces. Rich mans pride and honour is measured by stones too, so
is of the wealthy tradesman and bureaucrats. Stones are found
everywhere in mountains and hills, barren lands and roadways too.
They are natural decorations. Some look like snakes, also due to
mass that gathers round them; lines upon lines of such stones are
found in stone walls presenting the most beautiful sights. Stones in
streams and streamlets, rivers and rivulets, brooks and brook banks
are a world of their own, to play with weed and water, fish and frog.
They produce music with water but without water too their music
has been heard and enjoyed with. Some people claim direct
communications with stones in the broad day light, but in the
moonlit nights in particular. If you doubt ask poets and see their
poetic compositions around stone. It is not only one Wordsworth,
one Azad of Kashmir who play their imaginative feats with stones,

141
thousands of other poets do as well. So do stone cutters, builders,
pebble-designers. Farhads also do for their Shirin sweethearts.

Noose and noose-trap is a story
Heart and heart-beat a sweet melody
Heart brings Moses to the Mountain
Seeing Gods face! Can it be easy?
1


Stones are beautiful but snakes are beautiful too, in spite of
their bites and poison. If you play with snakes mischievously, they
will cause you sleep to death. Their long, thin as well thick coiling
bodies are colourful and grand, designed and beautiful, their tongue
presents the grandest view, with its constant flick. Their hiss and
their zigzag move is not something that your constant attention and
gaze can miss. But snakes are not only this much. One wishes one
could be a snake charmer to play on a snake charming flute to make
them enjoy music and dance. One would rob them of their
consciousness by giving them a heavy dose of musical charm Ah!
Snakes are charmed by music. But music charms cows two. They
give more milk. This is one relation between the snake and the cow.
Another is that they are a part of nature, both of them. Yet another
that they produce sounds to correspond with their kind and to cheer
us. We can also interpret some of their sounds. If we are more
fortunate, we can understand more about them, perhaps everything
depends how your soul is awakened. If your soul is awakened you
can understand everything about cows, snakes, snails, birds,

1
An attempt at translating Iqbals
. ,

.
. .

= .
,
. . . : .


142
bumbles, bees and beetles. You will enter the body and soul of
tigers, bears, wolves, lions, elephants and buffaloes those who are
wild and enjoy their freedom licenciously but spontaneously. So
beauty is found in all creatures who enjoy not only their graceful
form and manners but of others of their kind as well or of those of
different make. For instance birds make their nests with particular
kinds of straw because the straws are functionally beautiful and
comfortable. Some use colour paper-bits and pieces of cloth that
have prints. Perhaps all this to increase their passion for beauty and
to please their kind. Can be said their sense of beauty is divine in
spite of their little tiny bodies and little tiny eyes!
But birds alone arent pretty. The beauty of waters, of clouds,
of rain and snow, of hail and frost is superb. But what is not superb
in nature at its own place? Even a very small plant growing in a
forest corner over a peak has its grandeur and grace. Here you are,
with your wonder and quest, to see how God plays hide and seek. A
lonely violet by a mossy stone near Gangbal or Tarsar or Marsar
squeezes your hearts blood if you throw at it glances upon glances.
But why? Do you know the language of flower? Does your heart
know it? Why does it get involved through its window the eye?
God takes you to the mountains to see lonely flowers but He makes
you spend sleepless nights too, to watch stars, millions upon
millions of them, shinning like precious diamonds or fancy light
bulbs. If you get familiar with the lights of these stars, doomsday at
a starry sky night will befall you, doomsday not to finish with you
but to awaken you to seek a beautiful, extremely beautiful, phase of
God! Which of the favours of thy Lord, then, will thou deny!

143
The sense of beauty is restless to mention more and more
objects of nature plants, trees, bushes, flowers, fruit, corn and
seed. Tiny plants have tiny roots to take less food from the soil, to
grow in abundance. Perhaps they are required more than trees by
many creatures, insects, animals and human beings. Their trunks are
tiny too. Some of them, require support. Sometimes they get it
spontaneously. A tiny plant may grow on a tiny tree or over a wall
or a support that you may not provide for it. Some plants are short-
lived as compared to others. Some are very useful, some, as we
think, harmful. But nature knows whether they are harmful or useful
or useless. We have already said nothing is useless or sportive
merely. Plants are more frequent than trees. Is frequency more
beautiful or rarity or are both equally beautiful. The more you step
up on the ladder of life, the more you become rare. Rarest is the
Chinar that grows for many years. Plants have flowers and seed but
only some have fruit for man. Fruitless plants also may have fruit
but not for human beings. Flowering seasons or flowering time is
more beautiful than other periods of growth. Bees and butterflies
and bumbles and bulbuls have a busy time in flowering season. Like
wanton boys and girls these pleasure-loving creatures think that
flower season is only for them. They may be husbands but not the
masters of the whole process. They may, like bridegrooms wear
drapery, as do flowers wear to attract them and also like brides but
how do they know that the game is more complex than simple as
they see it. They think they only are important but do not know that
God is far more important or better say most important of all and
the whole game of life including of flowering is for God and God

144
only. Gods beauty seeks seeds and corns to perpetuate life but seed-
production requires song and dance of the bird and colour and hue
of the flower too. Beautys play and at times songs and dances of
the play make beauty more intense, more sublime and therefore
more overwhelming for the beholder or the lover. One is fascinated
by the flowering season of plants and trees but one is aghast when
one sees bunches of fruit hanging and slowly and steadily
developing colour simple or blended. With colour developments
seeds too develop and when it is ripe time, fruits either fall suddenly
or automatically or are collected by men who trade with them. Even
the busy days of the trader from the days of budding and flowering
and growing and ripening are a long story of beauty because of
waiting, watching, curing disease and watch-keeping against birds
and other thieves who want to have their share of fruit not in an
orderly manner. In this preparation of growth, flower and fruit,
hundreds and thousands of workers employed by God, the
Beautiful, play their role and also the sun, the wind, the cloud, the
rain, the day, the night, the weather and the season. The methodical
and mannerly management is beautiful, so is regularity, timely
provision, quantity of provision, proportionate distribution of
requirements and food for this growth and development.
Beauty needs no ornaments but plants and trees develop their
ornaments in the process of growth and atmospheric and seasonal
change. Very attractive colours have been seen in tiny branches, in
twigs, in boughs, in leaves and in trunks in all seasons. In springs
colours are more fascinating but in autumn blends and juxtaposition
are so subtle, so charming and fine that one is simply spell bound to

145
see them. Even in winter one can see a strange ornamentation in
bare boughs and branches which look like an interwoven network.
Trees are not ghosts, nor ghost like. They are a fine work of bark
and branch. A symmetrically formal shape is seen from the lower
trunk to the upper and from the upper to the branch-spread. Thick
and thin meet together from the root to the leave. The softness of the
twig with colours on it makes the view so pleasant that the eye does
not like to return. In spring season and when fruits are ripe the
ornament is more visible than it any other season. From a distance
one can see flowers and their shapes and colours creating a marvel
of decorational grandeur. Pruners and shape makers get lost in
beauteous wonderland if they understand how the hand of nature
take care of this harmonizing wake-up.
Beauty is a dance the swings of which take care of time and
tide. Babble of babe changes into pleasing shouts of a child who
frisks with language as small girls frisk with new born lambs. Songs
of adolescence, full of passion and pain, pass into sermons and sobs
of middle age and then into brooding memory. What is a toy in early
childhood become a tombourin in adolescence, a tool in adulthood
and a trough of hot water in which old age warms its feet. Children
are not so fond of hair dress and hair oil as are boys and girls
passing through colourful age of puberty. Eye brows and collyrium
lose our attention when we pass from youth to age. Family and
family welfare programmes and involvements appear more
charming to married life which seeks more morals than romantic
songs of the Persian poet or of Rasul Mir of Kashmir (God be
pleased with this faqir of melody)! The seductive jingle of bangles

146
lose their colour when age ripens into wisdom and flowers into fruit.
Children appear more beautiful than spouses and their education and
health invite the attention of parents most. This is how joys and
joyous days of adulthood turn into passing-shows and the worries
and anxieties of old age set in. Old age, however, has its own
attractions in scriptural heavens wherein youthful girls with
downcast eyes play around streams and gushing fountains and
cupfuls of wine are offered by attractive and bewitching eyes in
fearless and free atmosphere. There in that world are no policemen
with long moustaches to frighten out the demands of passionate love
and absorbing beauty. Beautiful women become heavier due to
childbirth and childrearing but childrens beauty absorbs them so
much that their minds become smarter than their bodies and their
kiss and hug assumes lofty details around the necks and breasts of
their lovely babes. Food preparations for children and childrens
fathers turn into occupations where frisking plays and beauty aids of
early days melt down into lost memories. House decorations and
decorating materials so dear in post-marital periods fade away into
diapers and pads which modern age has invented to lessen the
strains of motherhood. The colourful silken scarves of haughtiness
get drenched with the sorrowful tears of childrearing! But many a
woman become ladies with productive and creative sophistication
that await them in this age in which children are getting neglected
more and more. Mothers, moreover, show more interests in their
husbands than in friends with whom they shared their pain and
pleasure when unmarried and young. But if friends are more reliable
and interesting than husbands in the post marital period due to the

147
dominance of psychological urge and the overdose of greed, then
friendship assumes meanings more real, more enduring and
everlasting than of any other relationship! Human heart is too
childish and too jumpy but when it cultivates serenity and wisdom-
depth, it becomes infinitely surpassing everything!
But that was about human beings. In lower forms of life too
age does not disturb beauty or its changing colour. The crow of a
hen begins to fade away when she sits on eggs in order to hatch
beautifully feathered chickens or young ones out of them. She is
wiser now because her frequent crowing or singing does not disturb
the human beings who do not understand the productive impulse of
song and music. A steed runs and neighs at the sight of a mare who
throws backward glances at him even when she is grazing but when
the mating season is over, the running and neighing seek other
directions and glances become feebler. Pups play more frequently
than dogs and when age overtakes them their speed of running gets
lessened. One day you may see them hardly move. The fur on dogs
bodies is smoother and more beautiful in their youth than when they
grow old and like ruffled plumes of a bird their skins grow
unpleasant. But they say an aged dog is a better friend that one who
runs after its mate even when it is not a mating season. A cats mew
is pleasant even to frightened children but when it prowls for rat, its
playing paws get more sharpened than the nails of a preying bird,
the kite.
The vegetable plant looks very attractive in its dark green leaf
but when like tomato and bringel, pepper and carrot it assumes
colourfully rich form, we get amazed, not simply but meditatively.

148
Cauliflower and pumpkin, radish and red been play their own
pranks but when they enter the kitchen to seek preparations in oil
and ghee and spice and garlic, they shoot up imagination for tongue
and taste. Apple in its variety has busied Persian poetry and
beloveds are addressed in its language, not only for its fragrance but
also for colour and sugary balm. Seek the company of orange and
strawberry and pomegranate and pineapple and cherry, the apples
singularity will increase for blended taste and delicious flavour. The
peer does not go waste because its juice is as perennial as its shape
drawn in oil colour for Londons Art gallery. Give juicy pears to
farmers toiling under the sun of dry September, they will remember
its March flower when in their adolescent play they would may
around flowered pear trees.
Let us visit the skies and the stars, the moon and the Milky
way to see how beauty plays hide and seek with changing time and
its timetable. The morning stars passage over the dawn starts
smiling because she knows the bright sun with its grand appearance
is soon to come. The twinkle twinkles because the moon is shy
though its moonlight peeps through the nights veil. When the night
passes into its late hours the dogs bark is heard more and the
shooting stars anger goes out of control. The restful silence behind
the curtain of a drawing room begins to change sides when the
fragrance of rich mustard flower grown in vast fields is carried by
the gentle breeze into the privacy of early wake-up. The full starry
sky plays a competitive match with moon beams in clear November
skies over saffron fields the purple petals wherein hide the real
saffron from the eye of insects perhaps because their greed may rob

149
the plant of its valuable wealth. The delicate thread of saffron like
the tongue of a snake does not flick, as it is too shy to tolerate the
full moons eye. But when it is gathered into compounds by the
saffron grower, it is peeled off from its purple cover and left to dry
up. Times hand places the same saffron into the market place where
it is seen even by those who do not like to buy it. The saffron fields
go bare one day and the starry skies that used to shower their lustful
smiles over them are overtaken by frequent cloud-cover which in its
own way presents yet another beautiful scene, more so if in intervals
the cloud formations are interrupted by the moon beam. The cooling
atmosphere down on the earth seeks warmth from the stars and the
milky way and the newly married couples begin to twinkle like the
luster of love! The winter is not a disturbing factor for youth whose
warmth of passion has hundreds of starry skies in it to shoot up like
the full bright shooting star! But ah, age! It reads poetry wherein
imagination and metaphor take the shape of allegories full of Yusofs
and Zulaikhas, Sheerins and Ferhads, Lailas and Majnoons, Heers
and Ranjas and Rumeos and Juliets. These allegories float in the
starry skies and the moonlit nights of their own kind and we forget
all about the fullness of this seeming void.
Beautys changing moods are in itself a great beauty. One of
its moods is when it takes a formal interest. Though Islam in
Abraham vein took no interest in shapes carved on stone, it never
lost interest in the shades of shady trees where paradise-dwellers
fondle with untouched virgins of equal age. Keats liked the Grecian
Urn and its shapes which to him assumed everlasting life.
Wordsworths Lucy was to him as attractive as his highland lass

150
whose absorption in reaping and singing was as much divine to him
as the growth of uncountable daffodils over the lakes bank. Iqbals
beauteous form was Cardova mosque whose formal beauty was
loves passion and passionate love, a never ending engagement of
the noble soul. The Qurans interest in rains and sudden growth of
flower and fruit; in mountains and mountains colourful rocks; in
seas and pearls that divers get, is astonishing but meaningful.
Allahs eyes are also keen to seek form. Therefore He created this
world of plant and tree, fruit and foliage. He follows games of pairs
and therefore And we have created you in pairs. His interest goes
on and on to appreciate his own Hand in grapes and clover, olive
and palm, fruit and herbage; fountains and flowing waters, thrones,
cushions, carpets and silks and so on. One must be sensitive enough
to feel the Quranic interest in form and formal beauty!
Beautys intensity can be realized and felt when we leave the
forms proportionate make and harmonious look. But proportion
and harmony, line and length, figure and ground and many other
hues and colours of beauty are more inner than outer. Perhaps more
intense inner is the sap of the tree that provides it food and colour
and also uprightness and grandeur. Perhaps this too is a form. Then
we remember an Indian sage who told his disciple to bring a fig to
understand the soul. What the disciple could not see with the
external eye in the fig was its soul. We quote Will Durant who
relates this story in The Story of Civilizataion

Bring hither a fig from there
Here it is, Sir
Divide it.

151
It is divided, Sir
What do you see there?
These rather five seeds, sir
Of these please divide one.
It is divided, sir
What do you see there?
Nothing at all, sir.
Verily, my dear, that finest essence which you do not perceive
verily from that finest essence this great tree thus arises. Believe me,
my dear one, that which is the finest essence this whole world has
that as its soul. This is reality. That is Atman that are thou
Do you, sir, cause me to understand even more? So be it, my
dear one.
1

So innerness of beauty is loves flame in the bosom of the
mother, in muscles bread-winning vigour in the arms of the father,
in doleful play in the glances of a lass and in welcoming thrust in
the steps of a lad. We see hearts elation in the colour of the cheek
and the glooms evil in the dilation of the eye. The colour of the
soul appears in the henna of the bride and the jingle of her bangles is
the expression of the music that the strings of her soul produce.
Your grief may appear in overeating or in fasting or in crying or in
reducing tension in whatever play you pick up for yourself. Your
dreams may appear in choosing song and music or in digging beds
for flowers or in arranging things in your room or in writing stories
or in stroking your paper with colourful pens or brush. The inner
beauty does not remain hidden even in veils that conservative
society forces upon its female folk. Nor can beards hide the love

1
Our Oriental Heritage, Vol.I, p. 414.

152
that priests have in their bosoms because the styles of trimming will
tell onlookers the whole story.
Leave the inner and outer of beauty, come to it wholesome.
Sleeplessness is beauty when it becomes fondness for stars and sky,
moon and moonlight spread over tree tops and mountain peaks.
Beauty is basking in the sun of a blonde-eyed youth who has come
from a far away- Western land to feel the touch of the sun on the
shores of Gangbal lake in Kashmir. The blonde eye is beauty, so is
the youth, as are the waters and the heights on which the lake is
situated. Differentiate the lake over a mountain peak from the
swimming pool of a five star hotel in a hot city, you will feel beauty
in various styles and moods in natural and mechanical form. The
waterfalls of Kashmir can be compared with the waterfalls of Shiraz
and the poetry of Hafiz with that of Rasul Mir or Mahjoor of
Kashmir and when you do it you will be singing a song for beauty in
its subtler ways. But stop for a moment and see how the child plays
with dolls and delightful designs, see also how busy she appears in
her innocent days, you will forget the collections of a youthful lass
around the days of her marriage. The dolls are beautiful so are the
drapery and the dress being wedded into the pleasures of the union
of souls! Nights get shorter and days longer when you hear the
flutes of love being played by the flesh and blood of human soul.
Flowers appear more attractive, more fragrant when henna covered
hands place them round the necks of husbandry that appear prettier
if they are high and lofty. Beauty throws its charmful nets whenever
and wherever it finds a chance!

153
The sounds vowels, consonants, diphthongs, nasal of the
Quranic words is a world which needs special attention of expects
who are not seasoned only in sounds but also in music that these
produce. Mehadan, Autadan, Azwajan, Subatan, Libasan, Kiraman,
Sirajan and many other words of this kind produce notes as if of
nymphs of paradise which we have neither seen nor heard.
Similarly, yalamoon, talamoon, gafiloon, yooqinoon, warisoon,
jahiloon kinds of words do not lag behind to produce surpassing
melody. Sunaa, Mashhooda, Ahada, Furuta, Abada, Rashada,
Shatata when compared with ghafirin, Salihin, rashidin, Rahimin,
Qanitin, Muslimin give effects which produce turbulence in the
minds of sound experts and instrumentalists. We are giving
examples of individual words with their combination of sounds an
effort which does not give us a complete idea of the sound schemes
of the Quran. Read the verses of the Quran and see how you feel but
if you know how to recite them, the feeling is doubly intense and
effective. The rise and fall of your voice together with the help that
it receives from such sounds as long AAA ( ) disturbs the repose
of angels, so to say, and they descend to hear you and your Quranic
melody. Angels and melody? This is also a wonderful gift that the
Quran can offer, believe it or not. Recite the Quran, with your heart
in it, you will feel tone and tune embrace each other to lift you into
realms of peaceful ecstasy!
But the Quran is not only sound; it is also meaning put
through words and expressions. Again a field of experts but we
outsiders of the language can feel how carrying natural backgrounds
and historical settings the words and expressions create linguistic

154
paradise. The meanings are lofty as choices of words and
expressions are apt and appropriate but the effect they produce on
readers heart and soul is tremendously forceful and seductively
alluring. One is certainly carried to a world which is definitely not
mundane but mundane plays its part to make it what it is. Yosef
AS
,
for instance, is thrown into the well but immediately he is carried to
a palace in which he is taken in various ways and welcomed through
need, reason, passion and wonder! Words and phrases, expressions
and allegories accompany the chariots of meaning which lift us into
the heavens of Godhood or divinity. The human, it seems, is not at
all involved but the human and the divine join together is such a
melodiously transcendental form that you are wonderfully spell
bound and aghast! Yosof
AS
only is not there, Moses
AS
is also present
, with Burning Bush and Lustrous Hand to narrate the story of
Egyptian king who thought he can replace God but, lo, saw Him in
the deep waters when he lost his life and lifes meaning together
with his army of men and power.
Meanings of the Quran carry the realities of world along
particularly when nature provides appropriate settings to them. The
nature verses that we find in the Quran, therefore, stir our
imagination and unfold meanings which otherwise remain obscure.
We quote here some:
Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the
alternation of the Night and the Day; in the sailing of the
ships through the ocean for the profit of mankind; in the rain
which Allah sends down from the skies and the life which
He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of
all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of

155
the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves
between the sky and the earth; (here) indeed are signs for a
people that are wise.
1


He it is who sends down water from the clouds for you; it
gives drink, and by it (grow) the trees on which you feed.
2


He causes to grow for you thereby herbage, and the olives,
and the date palms, and the grapes, and all the fruits. Surely
there is a sign in this for a people who reflect.
3


And He has made subservient for you the night and the day
and the sun and the moon. And the stars are made
subservient by His command. Surely there are signs in this
for a people who understand.
4


And what He has created for you in the earth is of varied
hues. Surely there is a sign in this for people who are
mindful.
5


And He it is Who has made the sea subservient that you may
eat fresh flesh from it and bring forth from it ornaments
which you wear. And thou seest the ships cleaving through
it, so that you seek of His bounty and that you may give
thanks.
6



1
The Quran, 2:164
2
Ibid., 16:10
3
Ibid, 16:11-14
4
The Quran, 16:11-14
5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.

156
And surely there is a lesson for you in the cattle; We give
you to drink of what is in their bellies from betwixt the
faeces and the blood pure milk agreeable to the drinkers.
1


And of the fruits of the palms and the grapes, you obtain
from them intoxicants and goodly provisions. There is surely
a sign in this for a people who ponder.
And thy Lord revealed to the bee: make hives in the
mountains and in the trees and in what they build.
Then eat of all the fruits and walk in the ways of thy Lord
submissively. There comes forth from their bellies a
beverage of many hues, in which there is healing for men.
Therein is surely a sign for a people who reflect.
2

The sign values of these verses is vitally important. We cannot
pass by these natural phenomena casually and unmindfully. We
need to be very careful and vigilant or otherwise we miss them.
Their understanding is vital too because the meanings hidden in
them are to be applied in life mainly to understand the working of
divinity in nature and therefore to understand Allah. They are sure
to create wonder in us because the setting is so designed that it is in
no way simple or ordinary. The wonder is there because the worship
is highly interwoven and intricately interdependent. The formation
of clouds, for instance, is caused by the heat of the sun, is facilitated
by the wind and also depended upon the alternation of day and
night. The temperature variations caused by this alternation are also
significant. The clouds are not an independent phenomena too.

1
Ibid, 16:66.
2
Ibid., 16:67-69

157
These have to go from one place to another to shower rain. They
have to make no difference between the hill and the dale, between
the spring and the pool on the road, between the heap of garbage
and the rose beds of a garden, between the poor mans vegetable
garden and the rich mans orchard. The wind, the cloud, the night,
the day, the sun, the varying temperature are all geared together for
a shower of rain, mainly to facilitate vegetative growth. Only one
kind of food is not to be arranged for: the root is to suck minerals
from the land, the insect is to take its own share, the sparrow and the
kingfisher have to have water as well as food, the crow has to steal
away fruit due to watchmans dozing but certainly owing to the
compassions of the Providence. On and on and on goes this cycle
going day and night, resting never. Take yet another example of the
bee. It goes from flower to flower to do its own job of collection of
honey. But before that is done, it is attracted by the flower. All the
arrangements of delicacy of the petal with different hues and colours
on them and also attractive designs are there. Fragrance is carried
around by the soft movement of breeze which also makes gardens
dance very artfully and subtly. May be the bee is invited to draw
near the flower by the fragrance of the particular flower too. May be
the movement of the plant and the tiny branch shows it the way. But
the bee anyhow goes there, draws near, sits at the centre of the
flower and sucks the thing it wants. But how does it see the centre
of the flower? Does it find its way to the flower-centre only as the
bird finds its track in the skies while it flies or does something else,
like its smell or its vision help it find the place, one doesnt know.
The expert of birds and insects as also of flowers, may know.

158
However the wonder is there. The wonder reaches its zenith when
we observe the beehive or the honeycomb of the bee. The dexterity
of building is superb and marvellous. A tiny creature and this skill
of building and sense of material collection! A tiny creature with
such a mind and feeling! God! Only thou can produce and teach or
train such creatures. The climax is that the bee is guided by
revelation. It builds homes where no one builds, safely and
PRIVATELY? Wonder! Other wonders are also alluded to in these
verses, like the production of milk in the bodies of animals! On one
side is the most delicious, most useful thing produced-milk! On the
other, the dirtiest and the most harmful thing the faeces! The
animal belly is the production centre. There is no possibility of
infection carried to milk. All kinds of creatures take milk agreeably.
No one, nor even human beings refuse to take it. What we call
animals are our mothers in the sense of providing milk. But, our ill-
treatment to them! Beverage! From grapes particularly! Intoxicants!
What does it all mean? What far is the beverage? If it is for
intoxication, why is intoxication required? Have we to understand
the utility value of beverage or its moral impact? Can the two go
side by side with each other? Or is beverage mentioned only as a
gift of God which tones up? God is great! He entangles us in strange
webs!
Our attention is drawn to nature through nature verses. That is
right. But why should we understand them and if not what will
happen? We are given to understand that these verses are a part of
the Quran. They are a Quran within the Quran. If we do not
understand them, apply them in our life, we will be denying to

159
accept divine guidance. And when we deny guidance of God, we
blaspheme. We are KAFIROON, the heretics. By this denial we
shall be deprivating our own selves of the benefits of divine
guidance. Hell or not, we shall not be making ourselves a candidate
for seeing the face of God. We shall not be trying to approach Him
and to draw near Him. We shall be by own negligence missing the
paradise of union with God. We shall, therefore, be failing ourselves
as human beings worth the name. Hence there is no possibility of
being blind in the sanctuary of God which is nature.
We have already referred ourselves to hallowing of nature.
But before we hallow nature, we shall have to hallow ourselves. We
shall have to build such relations with nature as help reach God, as
much as God Wills, as much as we deserve, as much as we try. We
shall have to seek un understanding of how nature, man and God are
one. The failure of man as man is due to divisions in his own
personality. Our observational stock, our own hearts are so defective
that we see many things instead of one. And that One is God. As
long as we do not see oneness, we are impure!
A difficult questions! Do all of us have the capacity of
observing nature, seeing the signs of God in it, understand the signs
and then apply them in day to day life? Most of the people today, as
in the past, are so absorbed in bread and butter, in the ordinary
business of life, that they cannot undertake the task. The Quran, in
spite of common mans claim to it, is already proving to be a book
out of his reach. When another difficulty of seeking the book of
nature is added to it, its comprehension as well as applicability
becomes harder. But what then is the remedy? We have seen and

160
experienced that men of letters only do not enter the kingdom of
God; people with no education, no skills to read and write, have also
been claiming maturity in religious and spiritual matters if not as
puritans and recluses, certainly as mystics and Gnostics. And many
people of humble background believe and practise things which
even scholars do not have an idea of simply because God opens up
their intuitive eye and they lead a very meaningful life. We have
seen such people in different places at various times. Even now our
world is not without people who enjoy God-given gifts of head and
heart. However, in spite of all this the guardians of our religion and
society should very seriously understand that empty stomachs find it
hard to approach God and that ignorance is the greatest evil that
keeps people away from the house of God which nature is. Instead
of keeping themselves busy with authoritarian control of the
innocent people, these self-appointed guardians should employ the
spirit of Islam and fight against economic backwardness intensified
by ignorance, lack of education and culture. In the light of
modernity they should take creative and productive steps towards
this direction. We have in this book given certain definite and
practicable suggestions to follow.
Another difficulty of understanding Ayat or signs of God in
nature crops up when they take a metaphorical or allegorical form.
If like idols, however, metaphors are broken, strange meanings will
get unfolded. Water, for instance, takes the meaning of gnosis or
knowledge and Tree of occult understanding. Similarly sowing of
seeds becomes whispering secrets in the ears of a disciples heart
and sweeping is regarded as cleaning ones heart of the effects of

161
bad deeds through prayer and alms-giving. Thunder is taken as
Gods wrath and dark clouds are bad moods that blur understanding.
Islam is idol-breaking religion and Muslims should learn to be
iconoclasts also in the sense of breaking idols around them in nature
and society. People of humbler birth and background should
continue trusting God who one way or the other opens their inner
eye and intuitive insight so that they understand the symbolism of
nature in their quest for God. Much depends on their sincerity and
warmth of heart in seeking Him who sees them and hears their
lament and prayer!
Sanctuary of God as nature is, it saves us from blasphemy and
superstition. As we discussed before we see God in the form of
beauty reflected everywhere. Each leaf we see is a mirror and also
each dew drop on the petal of a flower. Shelley is great as he sings:
All the earth and air
With thy voice is loud,
As, when night is bare
From one lonely cloud
The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflowed.

Like a glow-worm golden
In a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholden
Its aerial hue
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view:

But Shelleys song is in praise of the skylark whom he finds
everywhere. Our song is in praise of Allah who is present in the
sanctuary of nature. The Bulbuls twitter is He, the flowers hue and

162
colour is He. He is the winged joy of the butterfly who tosses from
flower to flower, now here, then there, enjoying flowers and
collecting honey. He is the bud, buds opening, the flowers soothing
smile and the fragrance borne by the wind to olfaction awake. He is
the music and dance of nature, in woods, through swaying bough
and branch, in the sea where tides rise high to embrace the glowing
and the peaceful moon. He is the heart of the sensitive poet whose
imaginative composition seeks Him both in the rosy bush and the
thorny prick. He is the astonishing splendour of the dew whose
mirror has in its bosom all that is delicate, colourful, pleasant and
marvellous. He is the eye of the bumble-bee whose musical tunes
are triggered off by the wonders of things provided in the paradise
of gardens variety. He is the serious heavy sound which when
mingles with the wetness of gardens atmosphere becomes heavier
and ever more melodious. He is everything which knows no end, no
languor, no rest, no sleep. It is a continuity that absorbs everything,
everywhere, everytime, a full time absorption for the worshipper
who is thereby engaged in the stillness of his act of faith. There is
no question of monotony much less of superstition and superstitious
fear that involves only the idolatrous mind.
Let us now come to love, the source of man and nature, the
fountainhead wherefrom everything springs. Some say God Himself
is Love because He is involved in it. And (have We not) created
you in pairs
-

, _ -
1
speaks of the drama of life which He is
Himself playing because He has produced it. Let Rumi speak:

1
The Quran, 78:8

163
One night I asked love, say truly who are you? She replied: I am
everlasting life; the succession of happy life!
I tasted everything,
I found nothing better than you.
When I dove into the sea,
I found no pearl like you.
I opened all the casks,
I tasted from a thousand jars,
Yet none but that rebellious wine of yours
Touched my lips, and inspired my heart.
Hail! O love, that bringest us good gain
Thou that art the physician of all ills,
The remedy of our pride and vain glory.
Our Plato and Our Galen!
Through love the earthly body soared to the sky.
The mountain began to dance and became nimble
Love inspired Mt Sinai, O lover, (so that)
Sinai (was made) drunken and
Moses fell in a swoon.

Through love thorns become roses, and
Through love vinegar becomes sweet wine
Through love the stake becomes a throne,
Through love the reverse of fortune seems good fortune,
Through love a prison seems a rose bower,
Through love a grate full of ashes seems a garden
Through love a burning fire is a pleasing light.
Through love the Devil becomes a Houri.
Through love the hard stone becomes soft as butter.
Through love grief is a joy.

164
Through love ghouls turn into angels,
Through love stings are as honey,
Through love lions are harmless as mice,
Through love sickness is health,
Through love wrath is as mercy.
1

Rumis revelry is not only Rumis: millions of millions of
lovers sing with him and for the sake of nothing but God. Prophets
have sung loves song, saints and seers have, mystics and sufis have,
poets and philosophers have. Even scientists sing love songs, not
only in their private apartments which are a part of nature, but in
their laboratories and observatories also. Stone cutters are singing
love, so are farmers in the open on their farms under the hot sun.
Frisking girls sing its praise, so do wanton boys who run after flies
and butterflies. Women in chores of everyday living sing its
melodious tune also to see their misery off. Men when alone on a
hilltop sing its sweet songs as shepherds sing it out while playing on
their classical pipe. Love, glory be to thee, thou hath pierced many
hearts unnoticed!
Some like to call love fire but when it takes the form of
unfulfilled desire, its flames rise high to burn even the sky that fans
it like the wind. Its dreams burn men and women like candles alike
but when morning dawns at them, there remains nothing of them but
ash. Ash is so dear to Gnostics that they rub it on their foreheads to
show that their destiny brings nothing for them but it. Love is very

1
Rumi, The Persian, The Sufi, pp. 76-79.
Once easily understand that love turns this mass earth into a paradise in which there
is no God but Allah. And that is true!

165
hot in the prime of ones age but when the age sets aside the prime
and cools down, love seeks meanings that time feels jealous of.
Then rise loves flames and sparks so madly that even sanctuaries
seek their warmth. Iqbal, the poet, in this vein also felt that his love
creates tumult and turbulence in states which we define as the Being
of God! Whatever the fire of love, the Gnostics believe that it burns
everything to prove its own purity.
Loves own moods change. Sometimes it maintains silence
but its silence may tell us thousands of stories in sobs and wails.
However, when the milder expressions lose their effect, hysterical
cries and shouts set in. Majnoons stories are not only yesterdays
nor is a stone-throwing show finished with him. Today also love
finds Majnoons in new forms who are detected not necessarily in
deserts but on the roadside as well. Not stones but shoes are
showered at them to tell love that it cannot seek bolder expressions
even in the so-called modern age. But modern age has its own
methods of protecting love. It gives love garbs of song and dance
and poem and poetry and music and art. However, when these garbs
exhaust, even drapery and designs, architecture and painting,
calligraphy and decorational art provide the deception. Bodily
gestures also feed love but when these fail too, plays and activities
approved by culture take charge. Mehjoor says:
Every moment beautys dazzling modes change,
Loves eyes perceive them in full range.
Flowers come and go ever and always
Bulbul changes not too its loves ways.
1


1


166

Love starts with body but when it matures it leaves the body
like the soul at the time of death. Our mothers give us birth but
when our own romance takes hold of us, we forget them if not
easily. Sound minds, however, are grown or developed in a sound
body. Similarly mature love receives a good nourishment from
physique. This law of nature, of God cannot be changed. And, as
Syed Hussain Nasr says, union with the Divine can best be
understood through carnal love. If the latter is only a transitory state,
the former is enduring and everlasting. Perhaps here, too, love is the
most sublime activity. Our wealth is weariness, says Will Durant,
and our wisdom is a little light that chills; but love warms the heart
with unspeakable solace, even more when it is given than when it is
received.
1
And Nietzsche says, in true love it is the soul that
embraces the body.
2

To conclude this chapter, shall we now proceed to the creation
of man which is mentioned by the Quran in the most wonderful and
thought provoking way and which gives us a peep into the nature of
man. See what the Quran says:
By heaven and by the night visitor.
Would that you knew what the night visitor is!
It is the star of piercing brightness.
For every soul there is a guardian who watches over it.
Let man then reflect how he is created.

_. . . _. : . . . . . . :
: . . . . ` . t _ , _.

1
Will Durant: The Pleasures of Philosophy, p.114.
2
Ibid, p.110.

167
He is created of gushing water.
Which issues between the loins and the chest bones.
1


The wonderful story starts with nature here also the heavens and
the night visitor. NAJMUSSAQIB is the word used by the Quran.
Here the translator translates it as Night visitor. We are not experts.
Otherwise we would translate it as the star which shoots or as
shooting star. Why the heavens, why the shooting star? Because the
verses on the creation of man are following. When the conception in
the womb of the female takes place, the flights of the male and
female are as birds flights into the sky. They are at the peak of their
emotional and spiritual state. Out of this peak like the shooting star,
shoots the jetting substances which issue forth from the loins and
the ribs. And the shooting star is Noori (of the substance of Light),
not physical, not material in the ordinary sense. It is taken care of by
the guardian who watches over it, by God naturally! While the male
and the female are busy or absolutely involved in the act of creation
(as the co-workers with God?), the shooting star, the soul that is
getting transferred from the loins and the ribs to the ovary, where a
new life is starting under Gods control, is also shot. The machine,
the human body, is working under the plan of God. The man and the
woman are fully participating. The scheme is divinely sacred. The
process is sacred too. The agents! Are they divine too? Let man
see is a warning suggestion or suggestive warning. It must not be
missed. Then creative signs of God will be missed. But are man and
woman really so intelligent as to understand the whole process, the

1
The Quran, 86:1-7

168
whole mechanism, the whole scheme, the whole chemique and the
physique of it? Is this sophisticated process understandable by
man/woman? What will they understand? Why is the watery
substance issued forth in JETS? What is the organic arrangement?
How is the organic arrangement made and when? Who makes it?
Were any cautious precautions taken and by whom? which foods?
Which environmental elements were used for this process? Is there
any role of food and facility in the formation of the jetting
substance? What are the biological involvements of the substance?
What are genes and DNA? Do we know everything about them?
Does the man and the woman in the reproductive act know genes
and DNA? What effects do emotions and feeling at the time of
coitus leave on the gene and the DNA of new life? When that gene
and DNA will be asked to give an account of what it did in the
world, will that account involve others also who were involved in
producing gene through food and emotion, intellect and feeling? All
these questions and their answers shoot up agitations in mind and
soul before we reach certain conclusions regarding the act of
creation! The family and family welfare, the emotions and feelings
of all the members of the family and also particularly of parents are
very essential in understanding things about human creation here
and now. The circle will go on widening bringing in all
environmental, political, social and cultural factors in the creation of
a human individual. Religion is a serious matter which involves
everyone and we must not make it as simple as attending a ritual or
buying a loud speaker for our mosque!

169






Social Harmony
And Islam

170

Those who spend their wealth
by night and day, privately
and publicly, their reward is
with their Lord; and they have
no fear, nor shall they grieve
1


Those who swallow the property of
the orphans unjustly, they swallow
only fire into their bellies. And
they will burn in blazing fire.
2


O you who believe, devour not your
property among yourselves by illegal
methods except that it be trading
by your mutual consent. And kill
not your people. Surely Allah is ever -
Merciful to you.
3


Society is a universe of its own kind. Man who lives in it
makes it so to a great extent. Man is himself a universe. His needs
and urges, his aspirations and ambitions, his dreams and goals may
create social problems which may float in social stratifications,

1
The Quran, 2:274
2
Ibid., 4:10
3
Ibid., 4:29

171
playing and interplaying, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly and
fiercely, giving rise to changes or at times revolutions. This being
so, the subject is very interesting, more so when it gets related to
religion or when religion plunges into social drama. Soon after
Prophet Mohammad
SAW
appeared on the scene of Arabia, an arid
Bedouin land, his encounter with its problems began. But when the
Quran came, he announced his social reforms in its chiseled
religious language. Let us begin our discussion on this reform with
one of the most comprehensive verses of this marvelously musical
piece of Divine Literature.
It is not righteousness
That you turn your faces
Towards East or West
But it is righteousness -
To believe in Allah
And the Last Day,
And the Angels,
And the Book,
And the Messengers;
To spend of your substance,
Out of love for Him,
For your kin,
For orphans,
For the needy,
For the wayfarer,
For those who ask,
And for the ransom of slaves;
To be steadfast in prayer,
And give Zakat,

172
To fulfil the contracts
When ye have made;
And to be firm and patient,
In pain (or suffering)
And adversity,
And throughout
All periods of panic,
Such are the people
Of truth, the God-conscious.
1


Great and grand the word of Allah as it is, Mohammad
SAW
declares
that nobody in a multiple society has a monopoly to assert as a sole
guardian of Truth and Righteousness. No one, however, can deny
that God has always been merciful and gracious in providing
guidance to people so that they can live a life of purpose and honour
and also discover truth saving themselves thereby from Gods
displeasure or wrath. The guidance is provided through messengers
who have come to various places in various times. There is no
difference between a messenger and a messenger though in degree
some excel others. Islam has given a list of some of these prophets
or messengers. But while the names of all the prophets have not
been given, it has been clearly said that no nation can exist among
the galaxy of nations without having a prophet to guide mankind
there. If we move from general to particular, we will through the
Quran learn about the prophets who came to deliver messages from
the time of Abraham (God be pleased with him and his progeny),

1
The Quran, 2:177.

173
who proclaimed his firm belief in the oneness of God and the unity
of mankind. We will learn that Moses
AS
and Christ
AS
were great
prophets and also Joseph and David and Solomon and Zachariah.
Islam does no deny the teaching of these prophets. One the contrary,
what they said or did is mentioned in the Quran which is the Book
God revealed to Mohammad
SAW
. The Quran includes even those
who are neither Christians, nor Jews, but who in their own way
believe in one God and worship Him according to their belief. If
these people do good to themselves as to others with whom they
live, God is pleased with them and promises them fearless and
happy life. The Quran says:
Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the
Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and
the Last Day and does good, they have their reward with
their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they
grieve.
1

The acceptance of the multiplicity of faiths in a community
dominated by idols created by the hands of man is marvellous. Islam
is clearly seen laying the foundation of a pluralistic society there in
the arid land of Arabia and here in any part of the world provided
that the faiths that claim to be sound proclaim their belief in the
existence of God and use their faith and resources in the service of
mankind and in doing all those things which nourish the soul of
man. There is no social chaos, no social disharmony and no social
prejudice. There is no force, manual or cultural, economic or

1
The Quran, 2:62

174
political and no social restrictions imposed. Let everyone follow his
faith and conscience. The Quran:
You who reject the faith (kafirun)
I do not worship what you worship
And you do not worship what I worship
I am not worshipper of what you worship
You are not a worshiper of what I worship.
A reckoning (din) for you and a reckoning for me.
1


The idol worshippers of Mecca didnt accept even that. They
tried to fight Mohammad
SAW
and his faithful followers and
annihilate them so that they do not establish a just society in which
everyone has a right to live and live his faith. Today also Muslims
are frightened out even in their own lands by the so-called Muslims
who do not want equality and egalitarianism, who by the exercise of
their power and influence want to exploit weaker sections so that
they live like kings and enjoy life without caring for values and
principles that promise good and smooth living for all. But today
also Islam has enough of potential and strength to live and let live
amongst the galaxy of nations and amidst varieties of cultures.
Today also Islam offers tolerance that is required for colourful and
smooth living of peoples with different persuasions and inclinations.
It is absolutely horrible to see that the enemies of Islam outside this
faith use the so-called Muslims to see Islam either weakened or
hijacked or finished with. The most unfortunate aspect of this
nefarious design is that pseudo-intellectuals, pseudo-religionists and

1
The Quran, 109:1-6.

175
morally weak people are bribed heavily through money and power
to divide Muslims and to either weaken Islam or change it
drastically. With all that Islam responds very favourably. It clearly
presents its wholistic view that mankind is one and indivisible. All
peoples put together and all over the world make human culture
worthy of its name and of positive offerings. It does not look down
upon any community or any nation provided that it does not face
dangers of its own annihilation due to the exploitative designs of
commercial greed and its supportive technological supremacy. It
extends its hand of cooperation in a world which cannot afford
confrontation in the interests of a positive world culture and
globalization. However, it rejects any imposition that threatens its
hard-earned spiritual glory and historically appreciated cultural
excellence.
In the light of the comprehensive verse with which our
discussion began, perhaps enough is said about derecognition of
East and West division and in the respect of one Godhood, one
spiritual guidance, one book and one message. Let us immediately
attend to hard realities of life that disturb social harmony and create
trouble for man. Let us first take money and wealth which is the
basic evil if it conquers man through its allurements and greedy
offerings. What is to be done with it and how is it to be spent. Islam
offers a very convenient solution for the Arabs of yesterday and the
world community of today. A share out of the money and wealth
that we have is fixed, 2.5 percent. Very easily agreeable, perhaps
even for the greedy. This is Zakat, the poor rate, something that
makes wealth worthwhile or in Islamic terms purified. Without it

176
wealth or money is impure, is the suggestion provided in the term
Zakat. But how does it contribute to social cohesion or social
harmony. 2.5 percent is very little as compared to 97.5 percent that
remains after the Zakat is given out or paid. True but your wealth
may not amount to Rs.100, it may exceed thousands and hundred
thousands. For example if it amounts to 1,000,000, you will have to
pay Rs. 25000. This amount is handsome and can save many people
from dire need. But then the total wealth possessed by the rich in a
society may not be only 1,000,000; it may be 100,000,000,000,000
offering millions to the poor and the needy. Imagine a society that
was offering nothing, offers millions when Zakat becomes
obligatory, the poor and the needy will have a good time. Zakat
explains something is better than nothing as well. And God who
makes Zakat obligatory knows how much of wealth people have,
how much they hide and count stealthily. Therefore, He takes 2.5
percent off it to make a good offer to the depressed and the destitute.
Again, to distribute money amongst the moneyless is marvellous.
First bond between the haves and the have-nots is established. Envy
and heartburning is taken off. Hearts are brought closer than before.
Something new is done. Simultaneously love of an impure thing is
decreased, even if it is equivalent to 2.5 percent only. Above all,
God-man relationship in terms of money spending is established, let
us say to the extent of 2.5 percent at least. Zakat is purification of
money, may be of character, may be of soul! God is flying many
kites with one string and that too in the desert of Arabia where He is
seen by many in the form of a cup of water and a pair of dates only.

177
Peace be on Mohammad
SAW
and his progeny. This man in deserts is
building a society on sharing little things and building brotherhood!
But Zakat is substantiated.
| | - ,
=
, . , . - . , ,
step is
taken simultaneously. And they ask thee as to what they should
spend. Say: whatever is left after your needs are fulfilled, runs the
Quranic verse (2:219). This is not as obligatory as Zakat, is only
mandatory. Perhaps for those who think 2.5 percent is insufficient,
perhaps for those who are more inclined towards a just society,
perhaps for those who love dry months, weak children, weak
mothers, orphans and slaves, perhaps for those who think money is
not as good as winning hearts of those humans who are crushed by
the wheel of time. Once the first step is taken, other steps follow.
Whatever you can spare after your need is done, serves a death
blow to greed. Why should one work for money greedily, night and
day, at the cost of human value and brotherhood of mankind,
exploiting people and making them work like cart-driving horses
and asses. If satisfaction of bare need is the meaning of money, why
should one die for it. This psychologically effective divine guidance
is carried by
| | - ,
. It became really a love dose. The faithful lady
Khadija
AS
abandons everything, even her own self, for the sake of
God, to Mohammad
SAW
, the Prince of the two worlds who didnt
own even an apartment for himself. Ali
AS
follows and sleeps or
stretches on mere and bare sand to be called an Abu Turab which
means both the sleeper on sand and master of the earth. Fatima
follows, let the noblest things and the sweetest things be her share!
She works with her own hands and has nothing even for her
sustenance. She gets only suffering for the sake of Mohammad
SAW


178
and for there is no God but Allah! Abubaker
RA
follows by drawing
very close to Mohammad
SAW
in the cave and to Madina. Bilal
follows, Salman follows, Abu Dhar follows. Faithful friends follow!
God be happy with them all and be they rest in paradise and peace!
They follow because it is the best course to follow. The course that
leads to greed and wordily luxuries is not good; one must seek God
and follow Him on the right path:
Fair-seeming to men is made the love of desires, of
women and sons and hoarded treasures of gold and silver
and well-bred horses and cattle and tilth. This is the
provision of the life of this world. And Allah with Him
is the good goal (of life.)
1

If this injection of
| | - ,
goes to the blood of man as had gone
into the veins of Ali
AS
, he does not seek money or wealth or
property in kind or cash or whatever of that sort. He seeks Truth,
Beauty and Goodness three things in one God. This is straight and
clear but wealths baseness is emphasized in other ways too. Are
you gathering money, for What? Dont you know this habit of
assimilating money will be of no avail to you at a time when you
will be buried under heaps of earth in your graveyards which day by
day you are approaching? Do you know that pits of fire are waiting
for you if you do not give an account of how you made heaps of
gold, pearls and diamonds? Look:
Abundance diverts you
Until you come to the graves,
Nay, you will soon know

1
The Quran, 3:13.

179
Nay, again, you will soon know.
Nay, would that you knew with a certain knowledge!
You will certainly see hell,
Then you will see it with certainty of sight;
Then on that day you shall certainly
be questioned about the boons.
1

And do you backbite proudly on the basis of wealth you have
accumulated? Do you count your property and exult! Do you think
this will remain with you for ever? And of what use is Abu Lahabs
wealth along with what it has earned him or given him?
2
Very
impressive warnings against a danger that we generate for ourselves
by falling in love with money, by accumulating it by hook or crook.
We should give it away and keep only that much that fulfils our
needs. We should not hoard because hoarding is base:
O you who believe! There are many among the priests and
anchorites, who in falsehood devour the sustenance of men
and hinder (them) from the way of Allah. And there are
those who bury gold and silver and do not spend it in the
way of Allah: announce to them a most grievous penalty.
On the Day heat will be produced out of that (wealth)
in the fire of Hell, and with it will be branded their
foreheads, their flanks, and their backs This is the
(treasure) which you buried for yourselves: you then taste
the (treasures) you buried.
3


1
The Quran, 102:1-8.
2
Ibid., Sura 111 which condemns the habits of Abu Lahab and admonishes his wife
who was an enemy of Mohammad
SAW
and Islam.
3
The Quran, 9:34-35.

180
The story does not end here. Whenever the heart-melting
verses are revealed to Mohammad
SAW
, suddenly there is something
that encourages spending in the way of Allah for the poor and the
needy and patting philanthropists whose palms are always open to
give and give adequately. And whatever you spend in the way of
God for your own soul-benefit, you will find it with your Allah
there as it is good and brings you reward, renders the Quran in the
chapter entitled as MUZZAMIL, the cloak. The cloak makes
Mohammad
SAW
a messenger of God, the cloak wraps him when he
is shivering with heaviness of message, shivering because divinity
cannot be borne easily by flesh and blood. This cloak was thrown at
Mohammad
SAW
by noble Khadeja
AS
who realized the value of the
man and the message he received. But both

=
and

= - ,
ideas
are repeated in the Quran several times to register the usefulness of
spending. The most important benefit of spending money amongst
the deserving is the seeing of the Face of God. A society where the
have-nots and the desperate victims of hard days receive such an
encouraging treatment, such a life-giving support from their
brothers cannot but be an ideal society, something which is a dream
of the men of today!
So far we pointed out certain ways in which wealth is
distributed in a society that conforms to Islam. We have not
forgotten to mention another mode of giving out money: lending.
Lending money is not to be avoided when someone in need comes
and asks for it. Let the borrower bring in writing what he has
borrowed and from whom. Let the writing be witnessed by two male

181
witnesses or by four women.
1
The conditions of borrowing or/and
lending should be put forward by the borrower in order to make sure
that he/she is not borrowing under pressure or compulsion. Usury
should be absolutely abandoned because usury has no place in
Islam. Islam or better say God blots it out and promotes alms
and charity. Once the money is lent out, the lender should not be in
a haste to get it back. Possibly the borrower may not be in a position
to return the money. He may be in straitness or
- .
. The
writing is suggested because in its absence the lender or the
borrower may play mischief the witnessed writing, furthermore,
eliminates the possibility of dishonesty. It is also possible that
unwritten lending-borrowing may cause quarrels between parties.
The quarrels may lead to violence or murder in a community where
such things are common due to lawlessness and Jahiliyyah. Giving
concessions to borrower is good but the best reward comes to those
who do not get the money back from them either because they have
enough or they think that their borrower-brother is financially frail.
Writing off loans amounts to kindness and benevolence! All this
leads us to think that profiteering is not good living, nor is the habit
of usury in any way justified. Better are those who use money for
the good living of their weaker brothers. Best are those who work
hard to earn money but use it on the poor, the orphan, the widow,
the diseased, the down-trodden and the seeker of education and
knowledge. Still best is the one who helps those who are busy with
God and out of self respect do not ask for help!

1
This is not an Absolute law. Now that women are also strong, their witnessing
should be considered by Jurists in modern perspective.

182
So far so good but who will receive Zakat or whatever is spent
in the way of God? The destitute and the orphan will receive and the
underprivileged, the wayfarer, the sick, the displaced, the divorced,
the widow, the outcast, the slave and the God-lover who does not
ask. The list is so impressive and the pain of want is so acute that
whosoever tries to cure it or promises to do so, is also impressive
and lovable. The list is far more impressive now when human
beings in great numbers, particularly in the world of Islam, are
treated as animals or are butchered en masse for no fault of theirs.
Those who do not die at once die by inches due to hunger, disease,
worry and wail. Look at their faces in Asia and Africa, in cities or in
forgotten villages, you will see more bones than flesh but you will
see no smile, no glow on these sunken faces. Has God decreed them
to suffer and to be tortured incessantly or are unjust society, unjust
systems of management and rule responsible for their misery? But
Islam is impressive, so is Almighty God who feels the pain and
pangs of hunger and want and asks Mohammad
SAW
to plunge into
rescue measures. But ones appreciation and the joy attending it
knows no end when one sees Mohammad
SAW
helping the lowly and
the depressed with his word and action, day in and day out. He is
busy with God and His mysteries but that involvement does not
decrease his involvement with people and peoples affairs. His
interest in paradise is also very strange: he refuses to enter it until
each human soul goes through it. He is RAHMATAN
LILAALAMIN even today when wants, sin and crime yawn to
devour mankind and all that is worthwhile in life in the most

183
horrible way. His love demands that we should sermonize least and
plunge into action before it is too late.
One of our friends recently asked a question as to who should
be called an orphan. Perhaps the question was so painful that no one
answered quickly. Mankind is not orphan because God reigns and
will continue to reign. We are not orphan because Mohammad
SAW

and his Islam is there to feel, to console and to create hope. But then
orphanage continues to be a problem worldwide, more so when
people have been killed in recent years in great numbers. The
diabolical machine has killed them leaving behind millions of
orphans, without resources, without care, without state protection, in
spite of Islam, in spite of wealthy Islam particularly. Feed the
orphan and dont grab their resources knocks at the door of our
heart if it still remains there beating in our breasts. Perhaps we try to
feed as many of them as we plan to, perhaps not to protect them as
Moses
AS
and his guide protected the orphan in
| | , | . | . = , _ - - _ = ,
(chapter 18) but to use them through
indoctrination and training to guard the conditions that made them
orphan. Perhaps the mass orphanage are the new designs of Abu
Sufyans and Marwans of today. Perhaps Mohammad
SAW
,

Rahmatan
Lilalamin, needs be more active and more result producing today
when everything else is seized and jammed, seized and jammed also
through state power! We need Islam in the appalling conditions of
today when economic, political, social, educational or even religious
institutions are under strict control of those few whose main concern
is power and wealth, who for the sake of it alienate people leaving

184
them at the mercy of circumstances which are far worse than
orphanage.
Now the wayfarer whose hardships and pain was felt by
Islam! Assisting him was proclaimed as righteousness. The miseries
of wayfarer, too, affected Mohammad
SAW
and touched his heart.
This lovely being soon after he was out of the critical period of
orphanage begun traveling with the caravans of noble Khadeja
AS

and experiencing what traveling in the desert meant. The sun
scorched sand, the hot sun, the waterless desert, the barley bread if
at all available, walking and walking and perspiring, bearing the
dust and the violent storms of wind now and then all these things
defined wayfarers life and also his thinking about the people who
enjoyed life sitting at home without any toil or hard work, bagging
the lot of people who were either wayfarers or toilers, toiling day
and night, frequently without sufficient food and rest. Appropriating
this wayfaring he is inspired to yoke the wealthy into human service
and to seek help for the wayfarer. Mohammad
SAW
would have been
knowing about wayfarers and their kith and kin who depended upon
their wayfaring. May be the conditions of the Bedouins of the dry
land that prevailed after the great Prophet passed away didnt reach
us because many things of importance didnt reach us through
history. Whatever it was, the conditions of living of wayfarers
demanded an immediate attention of the Prophet
SAW
who wanted to
establish an egalitarian social order. Todays wayfarers are not in a
better condition though outside Arab or African deserts they are not
supposed to walk and walk with their camels, the ships of the desert.
In spite of automobiles and their rush on roads, millions upon

185
millions of human beings are bundled up together like bails of
cotton and bags of salt and cement, in trains and trucks, not once a
while but regularly. The labourers, the peasants, the factory workers
and school going boys and girls are huddled up together. In order to
run the diabolical economic machine the feeling of their suffocation
and pain, the realization of their sub-standard living conditions does
not regenerate the spirit of Islam that essentially does not tolerates
any human misery, be it in traveling, running, walking, suffering
longer hours under tough conditions or wayfaring. To the needy, to
the wayfarer, to the hungry, however, continuous to be shouted on
loud-speaks of mosques if not five-times a day, at least in Fridays
congregational addresses delivered in the length and breadth of the
Muslim world including the Islamic kingdom of Saudi Arabia!
The social programme of Islam involves kith as well as kin
and money-spending for social harmony includes them as well.
They cannot be neglected and have to be taken care of. A wealthy
mans wealth is not necessarily his own; it is also of those who are
related to him, who have, may be, contributed to his becoming
wealthy, one way or the other. Ones brothers are a part of ones
life, so are ones sisters, ones wife and children, ones parents or
grandparents, ones cousins and so on. Women relatives require a
special attention because even now they are in weak condition due
to exploitative character of the male world and due to social and
economic problems that bind them if not like slaves at least as
servants. Moreover, families and family ties are useful in many
ways, today also because most of the backward Muslims in
backward societies live in large joint families. So if one helps a

186
relative today, he may help in return tomorrow. First come first
serve but one doesnt know how much is to be given to relatives.
One has to apply ones mind in order to tackle this sensitive issue. It
may be necessary that one spends whole of ones money on
relatives, depending upon how in need they are and how gravely and
critically. But Islam is a religion that follows a middle path, a
balanced one. It does not cross limits which the Quran calls
- = .
. It
is not an extremist religion. It is absolutely absurd to spend wealth
or money on relatives who need no succour because they are
themselves well of, at least to the extent to which they can fulfill
their needs comfortably and easily. It is more absurd to pass money
to relatives thinking that otherwise it will go to some others. Tax
evasion is a greedy and criminal habit and it needs to be discouraged
by law or whatever, also in Islam where the clever and the crafty
find excuse and pretexts to avoid a situation, also of this kind.
Muslims in whatever conditions of distributing Zakat or alms they
are, must know that too much concern for or too irrational tendency
towards kith and kin may breed nepotism which is the most
detestable behaviour and the most harmful mode of corruption.
There is no scope for corruption in Islam. Both the corrupt and the
corrupted: to hell with them.
1

One of the serious concerns of Islam was to provide for the
poor and the needy. The concern demands more attention today.

1

| = _ | = _ > _ | _
In recent years corruption in millions of a
guardian of Islam with a long-beard and a short-trouser came in international press
but the matter was hushed by a Western ruler in the interests of National Security.
The greedy and their greed pollutes everything but when they touch religion, pollution
becomes the worst.

187
Poverty is the greatest curse, it degenerates man, weakens his soul,
more quickly than anything else. It can touch even great souls in one
form or the other and try to absorb their creative energy and time. It
offers least resistance to merciless rulers and their long-nailed claws
who really and usually thrive in a land where poverty reigns. It is
not for nothing that great saints and Sufis have offered prayers to be
safe from the clutches of poverty. The Quran condemns those who
do not care for the poor and the hungry. The Quran washes off sins
of the sinner who feeds the needy, the poor and the hungry. Feeding
may not be as important as carrying a message that poverty needs be
eradicated because of its dangerously harmful consequences. The
attitude of the Quran or its sensibility towards poverty:
Do you see who belies the spirit of religion?
Then such is the (man) who repulses the orphan (with
harshness)
And does not encourage the feeding of the indigent.
So woe to the worshippers who are neglectful of their Prayers.
Those who (want but) to be seen (of men),
But refuse (to supply) even neighbourly needs.
1

They say a mans stomach is aflame when the cooking-flame
does not light itself. One can imagine what a difficult life those
Arab tribes would been living who didnt have enough to eat and
drink. Many of them lived in the open may be in tents which were
safe from dangers anyway. Moreover, safety of caravans coming
and going to and from Mecca, Medina and other places was also
seen in the context of poverty and the insecurity that is breeds, even

1
The Quran, 107:1-7.

188
the exploitative habits that were frequent amongst tribes were
understood as being the result of insecurity they had. All thefts, all
sorts of evils including corruption and corruption of morals were
considered to be having roots in economic insecurity, deprivation
and want. So distribution of money in whatever form and on
whatever principle was not merely a remedial measure taken by
Islam to stop poverty or to steadily eradicate it. It was also the most
revolutionary step that was taken to establish a welfare society
through the most respectable, constructive and peaceful measures.
However, the economic revolution through peaceful means
that was triggered off by Islam in 7
th
century points out that social
cohesion and social harmony without a sound economic opportunity
for all and an honourable happy living for the humblest sections of
population is not possible. If the poor who are exploited by the
powerful in many ways are not given an assurance, in whatever
form and through practical ways, for food, drinking water, proper
clothing, habitation, basic health and education
1
a clean society with
a morally sound Islamic culture is not possible. Will Durant is
correct in saying that once stomachs are filled, man raises his head
towards the sky. And Muslims are great only when they eat not for
the sake of eating merely but to raise their heads towards the sky to
throw their net over everything that is obtainable and conquerable.
But eating is fundamentally important. If Muslims think whatever

1
Everything that we do to make our living possible is not the end of our life. Islam sets
education as the most cherished goal without which the basic purpose of life cannot
be achieved. Therefore, a scholar is better than a martyr.
| - , , = - - _ - . , - . -
.
Therefore, pen is mightier than the sword.

189
Islam did in 7
th
century in economic field is a final word for today,
they are greatly mistaken. But yes what was done by our model
society was commendable, is commendable even for today and must
be carried ahead. Since wealth and wealth-producing means have
greatly increased since then, labour and labour laws have changed,
too, all over the world, Islamic societies, particularly those which
are amazingly rich and resourceful, cannot remain frigid for taking
the revolution ahead. If they do Islam will be a laughing stock and
the poor Muslims an easy resource for creating violence and war all
over the world. This poor lot will be a pawn in the hands of those
who want to grab the resources of Muslim countries.
The matter needs be looked at from another point of view too.
We know that the number of the hungry and the poor all over the
Muslim world is increasingly growing, particularly in Africa and
Asia where ignorance and abject poverty shoots up this appalling
growth. Standards of living of these hungry and poor people are so
low that one bows ones head in shame to see it. Though the actual
conditions of these people are not exactly known because of the
politically motivated mass communication and electronic media, yet
one can easily form an idea by what is available in the world press
that millions of people are living like animals and leading a severely
hard life. This happens at a time when the populations of the
advanced countries (advanced in the material sense though) are
happily living and enjoying life and culture that has marvelously
grown as a result by technological development and easy travel.
Even in resourcefully rich Muslim countries large sections of the
society are enjoying the fruits of welfare and well being. This is

190
shocking that the miserable conditions of the growing number of
poor people are generated by those who exploit them mercilessly
and rule over them authoritatively. However, a lot of lip service is
done to regret and wail the sub-human living conditions of these
millions but no substantial measures are taken to check poverty and
to take people out of its frightful grip. Something regrettable and
perverse is done instead. Non-issues are raised so that people are
kept busy in seeking redress of their conditions of living not
productively but theoretically unrealistically. One wonders how the
rulers of Muslim countries claim to be the followers of
Mohammad
SAW
who initiated social and political change that by any
standards of modern life was revolutionary.
We must be very honestly clear in saying that Muslims (the
poor and the hungry, the homeless and the jobless, the sick and the
ignorant) are prone to any kind of living that by any standard is un-
Islamic. They are forced by circumstances to get deviated from
Islam to promote any style and method of governance that directly
as well as indirectly brings back tyrannical rulers like Pharaohs,
Nimrods and Yazids to rule over them. And modern Yazids do not
use swords and poisonous spears only: they have dangerous
weapons of destructions to crush the poor so that they do not rise or
even use peaceful means of steady development. They are
intimidated, terrorized or involved in subversive activities so that
their own hands are used to perpetuate the conditions of life
responsible for their poverty and degradation. Whatever is
happening in Muslim countries today or even in those countries
where like India Muslims live in great numbers, the aforesaid

191
methods are applied. Besides, conventionalism, dogmatism,
prejudice and narrow-mindedness and ignorance of any kind that
obscures life are promoted. Group-conflicts, ideological disputes
and cheap methods of social disintegration are also tried out so that
all entry points to roads of betterment and good life are closed. The
most harmful tactics to conserve backwardness is applied when
ruthless and greedy hunters of power appear in the garb of Mehdis
to present a perverted Islam and propagate it by all kinds of means
so that for hundreds of years the original Islam remains either
obscure or buried. Many people are working very skillfully day and
night to make the strategy work successfully and very efficiently but
trained spies and intelligence men are sent to the field for effective
guidance and control. Money and resources are provided at the local
and foreign levels so that no chance is left for any positive
movement to generate itself or to succeed. Bureaucratic and
technocratic machines are also employed and business management,
too, is left in safe hands so that fool proof arrangements for the
success of the negative mission are made. Educational institutions of
whatever kind are particularly controlled so that no dangerous
youth is produced in them with no dangerous know-how or
knowledge. The whole network, in short, works as a totalitarian
system so that wealth and power has no danger whatsoever to face
today or tomorrow. Alas, the social revolution of Islam stands
hijacked!
Bedouins were earth-rooted. They loved their land in spite of
its heat, sand and storm. Perhaps they knew very little of vegetation,
of flower and fruit, of rivers and streams and springs flowing and

192
watering fields upon fields of corn and grain, of mountains full of
forests and forest wealth. They knew the ship of the desert and the
date and the olive with barley bread and may be milk. They fed
themselves perhaps not everyday. They were blind to the world
outside their arid land and also to myriad things of ease and comfort
that these things offered. They knew no languages beyond their
cherished Arabic in which they composed songs and sang them to
ward off anxiety and anger, wail and woe. They had seen no people,
known no culture beyond their own, no art, no beauty, no beauteous
dance of manners and morals. Mohammad
SAW
broke this
earthrootedness, first by Great Migration, the HIJRAT, which
turned to be a blessing in disguise; second by emphasizing in the
Quranic vein that we must travel far and wide into the world and
learn lessons of Gods behavior and peoples rise and fall; third by
sending his envoys to other countries with messages that there is no
God but Allah and that the best course to lead an honourable
worldly and spiritual life is to submit before His Will and Power;
fourth by proclaiming that there is no difference between a man and
a man, the worldly life is a short life and the most enduring one is
the life hereafter, we must seek knowledge even if we have to go to
China and that India sends to mankind pleasant and cool breeze. The
Quran is emphatically clear in saying that the whole earth belongs to
Allah and therefore to belong to a specific place is a refusal to this
truth. And earth-rootedness may cause too much love for family and
children. The Quran makes us conscious that our main concern is
Allah and He is sufficient for us, let our family and our children not
be a bondage for us to forget God. We have to love our children and

193
respect our parents obediently but our main objective is Allah and
let this objective not be forfeited.
If earth-rootedness, or for that mater any permanent tie-up
with a particular patch of land, would have been obligatory Islam
would have not reached far and wide and Muslims would have not
accepted inter-marriages everywhere. All these examples show how
Islam has a very broad concept of social relationship and how this
religion teaches us to harmonize social relations in broad settings. It
also teaches us that earth-rootedness may be an obstacle in
participating in broader culture that Muslim of yore have
contributed to marvellously or sometimes amazingly. However, they
should make a full use of the bounties of earth not only locally but
globally and for the sake of God and His people alone.
One of the most absorbing issues for Mohammad
SAW
had been
FITNAH discord, dispute, divisive issue, pretexts for chaos and
confusion. Hypocrites and the people with double standards or who
thought Islam emphasized goodness and afterlife too much, backed
by envious Jews and Christians whose interests corresponds to the
self-interests of the Quraish, created Fitnah. The Quran condemned
it openly: Discord is more intense than murder or it has far
reaching bad effects than that of murder. These Quranic
proclamations made clear that true believers must rule out disputes,
divisive problems and oppressive measures because they are
socially unproductive and morally injurious for collective living and
smooth social health. Murder or bloodshed may be one of its effects
but these eat up the very vitals of social fabric. Mohammad
SAW
did
his level best to bring people so close to each other that there

194
remained no problem to breed fitnah but still the underground
workers did their job of disintegrating people hiddenly. Even
Abdullah bin Obay he tried to calm down through a policy of
universal tolerance and good personal conduct but all the same the
wolf (Obay) did not lose his nature in spite of losing his teeth. The
greatest tragedy of Islam is Uthmans
RA
murder and love of wealth
and political power which began as early as Islam spread but took
the final shape in Kerbela. Todays Fitnahs in the Muslim world are
numerous, some of them very serious. We have already hinted that
the only measure to nip them in the bud is unflinching faith in God,
in Islam and Mohammads
SAW
practical life. Then economic justice
based on equitable distribution of wealth is as necessary as
breathing for living. As long as theft of wealth continues and the
poor grow poorer, there is hardly any possibility of ruling out fitnah.
A great social measure to bring social cohesion and harmony
was trust-building also through promises and covenants. The
Prophet
SAW
never wanted any issue of social discord or
disintegration to crop up between individuals, tribes, communities
or conflicting groups. Practicing himself what he said he stressed
that promises be made and kept, covenants mutually agreed upon
and kept up and treaties executed and implemented in letter and
spirit. The worshipers of paradise are those who:

are keepers of their trusts and their covenant.
1

Losers are those:

1
The Quran, 23:8.

195
who break the covenant of Allah after its confirmation and
cut asunder what Allah has ordered to be joined and make
mischief in the land
1

Children of Israel are reminded of their promises:
call to mind My favour which I bestowed on you and
be faithful to (your) covenant with Me. I shall fulfill (My)
covenant with you.
2


And when we made a covenant with the children of Israel,
you shall serve none but Allah and do good to (your)
parents, and to the near of kind and to orphans and the
needy, and speak good (words) to (all) men, and keep up
prayer and pay the poor-rate, then you turned back except
a few of you, and you are averse.
3


And with those who say, we are Christians, we made a
covenant but they neglected a portion of that whereof they
were reminded: so We stirred up enmity and hatred
among them to the Day of Resurrection. And Allah will
soon inform them of what they did.
4


And fulfill the covenant of Allah, when you have made a
covenant, and break not the oaths after making them fast,
and you have made Allah surety. Surely Allah knows
what you do.
5


1
The Quran, 2:27.
2
The Quran, 2:47.
3
Ibid, 2:83.
4
Ibid., 5:14.
5
Ibid, 16:14.

196
Mohammad
SAW
never wanted any confrontation with the
enemies of Islam, we have already said that he left them free as he
wanted himself to be left free alongwith his friends and followers, in
matters of religion and religious conduct. But they didnt keep their
covenants and promises always. There was not a single breach of
trust on the part of Muslims. Hence Muslims stood for peace and
social cohesion through dialogue and consultation. Even amongst
Muslims trust, promise and agreements were made a common affair
and disputes were resolved peacefully. Keeping a word became as
good a norm as freeing a slave, helping an orphan and so on.
In matters of living with others Prophet Mohammads
SAW

Treaty of Hudaibiyyah stands significantly valid even today. If the
spirit of this treaty is kept into view, the most crucial international
disputes can be solved easily. If Muslims were self-respecting and
self-conscious, they would use all diplomatic resources to get the
spirit enshrined in United Nations charter. Amir Ali, the famous
jurist of our times writes about Hudaibiyyah in the following words:
After much difficulty a treaty was concluded, by
which it was agreed that all hostilities should cease for ten
years; that anyone coming from the Koreish to the
Prophet
SAW
without the permission of the guardian or
chief, should be re-delivered to the idolaters; that any
individual from among the Muslims going over to the
Meccans should not be surrendered; that any tribe
desirous of entering into alliance, either with the Kureish
or with the Muslims should be at liberty to do so without
hindrance; that the Muslims should retrace their steps on
this occasion, without advancing further; that they should

197
be permitted in the following year to visit Mecca and to
remain there for three days with their traveling arms
namely their scimitars in sheaths.
1

Poverty is my pride,
| ;
is simple living and high
thinking at its best.
2
This off repeated proclamation was lived by the
Master of the two Worlds even in his day to day life. He ate very
little, ate very simple food, usually barley bread, dates and honey
and sat and slept on very coarse date-palm. Prints of leaves and
twigs could be seen on his most sacred body very often. He had no
house or hut of his own. His dress used to be very simple. But this
poverty was not inflicted upon him by any.
3
He voluntarily adopted
this style of living for himself. But his standard of living was far
higher than that of any king of yesterday or today. But for thee, but
for thee, I had not created the heavens was
| , v . | , v . | - . v > .
the
honour bestowed upon him and also we have not created thee but a
Mercy for the two worlds. His character proved every word of the
Quran. Ummul Mominin Hazrat Aysha
RA
is right in saying the
Quran is Mohammads
SAW
character.
Let Muslims learn it, also let every lover of Mohammad
SAW

live it. All the evils of modern world will be solved forthwith if
| ;
is applied, if simple living and high thinking is taken as a

1
Amir Ali, The Spirit of Islam, p.89.
2

_ . _ , . _ = , _ , , - = _
renders Maulana Jami.
(Poverty lifted thee to such heights that monarchs carried on their heads gifts to
submit before thee.)
3
Many of those who propagate Sunnah today live in mansions and lead a luxurious life
like those who worked in Bani Ummayya administration or held power directly. That
bewilders sensitive Muslims.

198
practice of life. It is hoped that the richest Muslims of today will
live this Sunnah, in addition to the beard they wear, in order to raise
their own standard of life and the standard of living of their Muslim
brothers in the length and breadth of todays world.
Nobody should form an opinion that Mohammads
SAW

followers and friends did not adopt his styles of living. From Ali to
Abubaker to Uthman to Ummar to Abu Dhar to Bilal to Salman to
Dawood, to Maroof, to Junaid, to Dunoon to Rumi and to Sanai
1

and in between them thousands upon thousand of people even upto
this day have been living what he said, millions who have been
reciting praise of Mohammad
SAW
in the most ardent manner. Sufis
in particular have been seen living a very simple and ordinary
worldly life but sitting on the throne of power by the Grace of Allah
and due to the veneration for Mohammad
SAW
. Even leaders and
scholars who havent claimed any transcendental experience have
been seen throughout different periods of history living simple but
exalted life. This type of life also has contributed immensely to
social efficiency and social justice.
Physical or manual work has never been considered as
derogatory by Muslims, nor has living as parasites been allowed by
Islam. Mohammad
SAW
used to do his work himself, would also take
part in religiously useful social work. So did his faithful friends do
around him. When Medina mosque was being constructed, he would
be seen carrying building materials on his shoulders. Once a
mischief monger came to him as a guest, spoiled the bed during the
night and left away. In the morning the Prophet
SAW
began washing

1
May God bless them all, be they praised, as well, for their simplicity and lofty ideals.

199
the bed. When his friends offered help, he rejected saying serving
his guest was his duty not of anyone else. Ali
AS
worked,
Abubaker
RA
worked, Ummar
RA
worked so did all other faithful
friends. Since then millions of good Muslims have been working to
make their own living as also to enjoy work for the sake of work.
Mystics have in particular liked to work manually. But
unfortunately in our times some people consider work derogatory,
avoid it and make others work for them. Servants are being used and
also women in the family. Whosoever is privileged avoids work,
particularly manual. This has bred a new caste system amongst
Muslims. The evil is filtering itself down amongst people who are
trying to move up the social ladder. Good Muslims who believe in
self-help, self-dependence and self-reliance always dislike to live
like parasites on others exploiting them one way or the other. Hence
the evil needs be checked so that it does not weaken character and
spoil social harmony.
Slaves! The Messenger of Allah, peace by on him and his
progeny, did all what he could to deliver justice to slaves who were
brought and sold like bricks and stones and had no social standing
whatsoever. Freeing a slave was an act of righteousness proclaimed
by the Quran. A sinner could wash off sins if he would spend money
on the poor and free a slave or slaves. Mohammad
SAW
treated slaves
very well and humanly. He never gave them a feel that they were
different from other human beings. He brought Bilal
RA
very close to
him and gave him the important position of MUAZZIN. After the
Imam, the leader who leads prayers five times a day and on Friday,
the Muazzin is important because he calls people to Salat, to prayer.

200
Bilal
RA
the black slave, was given the status of calling people in his
melodiously loud voice:
Allahu Akbar (God is most great, 4 times)
I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. (twice)
I bear witness that Mohammad
SAW
is the Apostle of Allah (twice)
Come to prayer. (twice)
Come to success. (twice)
God is Great (twice)
There is no God but Allah (one time)
Bilal Calls great friends of Mohammad
SAW
to prayer Ali,
Abubaker, Uthman, Ummar, Abu Dhar, Salman, Jafer and all (may
God bless them all with His love and grace)! But he calls all others
too, spreading the message of Islam that God is one, God is the
greatest, Mohammad
SAW
is the Apotle of Allah, Salat is the best
means to ideal success. The black slave, himself a Muslim in the
true sense, stands for and propagates brotherhood of Islam. He rubs
shoulders with great Arabs like Ali
AS
and Abubakar
RA
five times a
day submitting with others to the glory and Lordship of Allah. He
sits with Mohammad
SAW
to receive divine guidance and light
regularly and continuously and enters blissful states. He loves
Mohammad
SAW
fondly and Mohammad
SAW
is very fond of him and
his devotion. He is freed by Abbakar
RA
who offers his price as
demanded by the cruel master who tortured Bilal
RA
with lashes and
wounds inflicted by them. Bilal
RA
sends a message to humanity of
yesterday, today and tomorrow that there is no difference between a
man and a man and that any one belonging to any culture or race or
whatever is a candidate for Gods love and mercy. Hence by
bringing Bilal
RA
very close and assigning him a responsible position

201
Mohammad
SAW
sends a message to mankind that Islam stands for
one world, one man, one Truth, one Beauty, one Goodness and it
does not for any considerations recognize differences of colour,
race, language, nationality, sex or status as basic in presence of God
who is one without a rival or a counsellor or an assistant.
Writers like Hussain Hykal say the condition of slaves in Arab
land was very critical and low. They were treated socially so badly
that they were thrown away from Kaba as for as their habitation
was concerned. They, therefore, lived in the outskirts of Mecca.
They were miserably treated, hardly as human beings, before the
coming of Mohammad
SAW
. One doesnt know the average price
paid for a slave but one thinks it must have been very low, perhaps
depending upon the conditions of a slave man or slave woman. If
the slave was healthy and good looking and had some other qualities
as well, he would fetch a good price or she. They were subjected to
hard work without any consideration to tropical conditions under
which they worked normally. Arabs, particularly the rich, more
particularly those who constituted Quraish aristocracy, used slave
women in addition to their own wives for licentious sex over and
above the hard work they did for their masters. Nothing very clearly
is said about the privileged woman. Whether they used male slaves
to gratify their sexual lust or not has not been mentioned by
historians generally. But it appears that the custom was there. But
Islam brought a big change particularly when Mohammad
SAW
was
seriously in favour of freedom and social jutice. Will Durant says:
The Muslim had full rights of life and death over his
slaves; usually, however, he handled them with a genial

202
humanity that made their lot no worse perhaps better as
more secure than that of a factory worker in nineteenth-
century Europe. Slaves did most of the menial work on the
forms, most of the unskilled manual work in the towns; they
acted as the servants in the household, and as concubines or
eunuchs in the harem. Most dancers, singers, and actors were
slaves. The offspring of a female slave by her master, or of a
free woman by her slave, was free from birth slaves were
allowed to marry, and their children, if talented, might
receive an education. It is astonishing how many sons of
slaves rose to the high place in the intellectual and political
world of Islam, how many, like Mahmud and the early
Mamlukes, became kings.
1

Islam did not free only one slave, Bilal
AS
. Many more were
freed, many more embraced Islam and entered Islamic Brotherhood.
Those who embraced Islam were treated equally. In addition to
freeing slaves and converting them to Islam, rights were given to
them. If a slave woman gave birth to her masters child, the child
became the heir of the master. Likewise, if the slave became the
father of the child of the free woman, the child was treated as free.
Muslims took all the care lest the slaves are treated as socially
segregated. WA MA MALAKAT AYMANOKUM (and those
possessed by your right hands) allowed Muslims to take slave girls
to bed besides their own wives and that showed that the maid
servants or female slaves could come very close to Muslims. Even
in meeting, sitting, talking, eating and so on no social segregation

1
The Story of Civilizations: The Age of Faith, vol. iv, p.209

203
was forced on slaves. The greatest boost slaves received when
Mohammad
SAW
delivered his last historical address. In that he said:
Feed your slaves as you feed yourself and clothe them as
you clothe yourself, and should they do anything wrong or
commit any mistake, forgive them, but if you cant,
meaning most probably that if they are incorrigible they
cant learn, then free them for they are also creatures of
God.
In spite of what Muslims did with slaves and said about them,
slavery remained as social and moral weakness of Islam. Perhaps
Islam could not bring a revolutionary change by abolishing slavery
because neither the time allowed it nor even the people who
embraced Islam, but the facilities that were given to slaves, the
treatment that they received was encouraging as well as appreciated
even by those who were not Muslims or are not. The spirit of Islam
shows that there is no difference between a man and a man, between
an Arab and a non-Arab or a white and a black. All Muslims are
brothers and they should always stand unitedly firm without causing
any division or schism in the Ummah. This is enough to say that
Muslims showed remarkable broadmindness in accepting goodness,
talent, bravery, knowledgeability and other qualities as virtues that
make man good and earn him a respectable status in the society.
This is also true that some slaves rose to highest positions of power
and showed their metal in giving a comparatively efficient
administration to the people they ruled. But what we need today is
to advance the spirit of liberty and freedom and abolish all kinds of
bondage.

204
Today there are no slaves, perhaps no masters as well. But the
privileged and the economically powerful have learnt other methods
of subjugating people. They treat their servants or employees as
slaves, make them work tirelessly for little money they pay them
and at times behave with them mercilessly and rudely. The un-
Islamic habit has infected even government administration where
lower grade employees are maltreated or even tortured or harassed
one way or the other. Longer hours of work, lack of working
facilities, lack of security of service, almost total absence of services
like medical, educational and recreational service, under-
employment and authoritative treatment can be cited as examples
which show the bad lot of people working in government offices or
concerns. Even in homes very objectionable treatment is given to
helpers and servants. Astonishingly some of these privileged people
practice Islam and show mannerism that suggests that they are God
fearing and true Muslims. But in spirit they take Islam to levels
which when analysed in terms of the Quran and the way of
Mohammads
SAW
day to day living show that Islam stands
aborogated.
In Mohammads
SAW
time the issue was not only of slaves:
there were other social issues, though slavery was the most ciritical
of all them. The tribal society has much tribal arrogance. That
arrogance is carried to our times in one form or the other. Even in
similar tribes some people thought that they were superior to others
and therefore behaved that way. The consciousness of superiority
was fanned by economic position of a family, of a tribe. The poor
and the downtrodden were mostly looked upon as inferiors.

205
Language was yet another factor that contributed to I am-ness. All
this leads us to think that a social stratification was there, though not
as acute as it is today. Differences and also pride and prejudice
associated with them have not been highlighted by Muslim writers
satisfactorily, perhaps also because the art of sociological analysis
was not developed as it is now. Muslims thought that these issues
were secondary possibly because (1) they all stood upright and
together rubbing their shoulders with each other and offering
prayers five-times a day. As Iqbal says Mahmud the monarch and
Ayaz the slave stood in a single line forgetting the one was a king
and the other only a slave. Besides everyone of them repeated the
article of faith, offered Namaz or Salat, observed Ramadhan, the
month of regular fasts, paid poor rate and performed Hajj at least
once in life-time. Everyone believed in the afterlife, the angels, the
long chain of prophets broken ultimately by the finality of
prophethood; all these essential requirements bound them together
as brothers who should stand untied and should never cause schism:
(2) they followed the Quranic injection:
O mankind, surely we have created you from a male and
female, and made you tribes and families that you may
know each other. Surely the noblest of you with Allah is
the most dutiful of you. Surely Allah is knowing, Aware.
1

This gave no recognition to anything except God-consciousness and
dutifulness. Hence what makes man great is neither language, nor
region, nor birth, nor colour, nor race, nor money, nor power:
(3) they followed the Quran which pointed out that outer references

1
The Quran, 49:13.

206
are only for identification, recognition and colourfulness of life but
the primary thing is character and knowledgeability that gives light:
(4) basically one single soul dwells in the being of man and this is
inspired in him by God from His own soul. So the nature of man is
one and indivisible.
This given and accepted as a manifest truth, our world,
including the world of Islam stands divided today, far more than
ever before, in spite of the progress man has made in all walks of
life. Standards of living may be of life also have changed for the
better, nature has been conquered to a considerable extent, natural
forces do not threaten man so much as they used to do in the past,
life is more colourful, more enjoyable than it was, possibilities of
understanding have also grown, facilities of enlightenment have
increased and man to man relationships in terms of travels and mass
communications have grown, but divisive problems have grown too
and to appalling levels. Our world is more class and caste-ridden
today. Tensions on account of these divisive forces have grown so
much that peace is almost impossible. Blood is flowing like water in
gutters and millions of people are losing life and property. At the
social level very tense relationships are seen between communities,
families and family ties. Even in families these evils creep stealthily
and break our nerve. Man-woman relationship has also assumed
caste-class colour. Race is an international issue. Even in USA
people are drawn against each other on caste-base. In Europe,
Canada, Australia and other advanced countries race and blood boil
more often than once, influencing politics and welfare schemes.
Fundamentalism of worst kind is not seen only amongst Muslims

207
but amongst Jews, Christians, Hindus and so-called Marxists.
Fanaticism reigns everywhere. The East-West controversy remains
alive, sometimes yawning like ghosts of evil on internationally
famous
1
TV channels. The world is sinking day by day and man is
losing grip over everything in spite of proclaimed supremacy of
machine and material. One doesnt know where we are going.
The condition of the Muslim countries is horrible. They fight
against each other. When their fights seek truce due to exhaustion,
their foes throw dust into their eyes and add oil to the burning fire.
Political religion is causing serious damage and heavy loss. When
there are no battling issues, something somewhere is either invented
or discovered to create a trouble. Bombs are thrown even in
mosques and the Islamic Republics concerned are watching to
giggle. Money is spilt like water but basic reasons for all fabricated
trifles are kept alive. In spite of Friday prayers and the noise caused
by loud speakers people pass in lanes and streets, paths and foot-
paths like deaf and dumb. We have almost forgotten the social-
harmony and social-justice message of Mohammad
SAW
and his
Islam! There are no Abrahams to extinguish the fire of Nimrod and
no Hussains to print SUBMISSION in their blood on Kerbela sands.
May the Merciful God of mercy be Merciful to us all!
Both Abraham
AS
and Hussain
AS
however help us to
understand the most controversial issue of Islam today which is
fanned for reasons underlying it. If we read history insightfully we
will come to know that the issue is based on the fundamental clash
between Meccan aristocracy on one hand and Mohammads
SAW


1
Or notorious?

208
prophethood on the other. To Meccan aristocrats Kaba is a power-
centre because idol-gods kept therein are utilized for money and
power and the luxurious living. To Mohammad
SAW
Kaba is Gods
House because there is no God but God and one God loves
humanity which is indivisible and promotes it basically spiritually
through submission. There is no question of exploitation of man by
man and no possibility of acquiring money at the cost of human
existence and human living. Meccan aristocracy refuse to accept
Mohammad
SAW
as the prophet of God because they are sure his
success is a danger to their vile interest, exploitative power and
arrogant chiefdom. They are not ready to leave gods because on
them depends their life of ease and honour. Outrightly from the very
start they use all sorts of means either to silence Mohammad
SAW
or
to frighten him to submission or to murder him. Every effort brings
them failure and every failure prepares them for more intrigues,
more tactics against Mohammad
SAW
On the other hand
Mohammad
SAW
wins at every step and one day he declares himself
as the last Prophet of Allah. Abu Sufyan, Abu Jahal, Abu Lahab and
other chiefs come out openly to fight battles against Mohammad
SAW

and his followers and friends. Abu Sufyan as the commander of
Quraish aristocracy tries his best to rout him and Islam but fails
miserably. One day when Islam appears as winner and the most
successful religion Meccan aristocracy give up confrontation and
change garbs. A hidden underground movement against Islam is
launched and hypocrites are actively but strategically used to help
its momentum and success. Every effort is made to cause division in
the ranks of Muslims and every weakness of Muslim solidarity is

209
recorded to benefit from. But when Mohammad
SAW
passes away,
they reassert. Slowly and steadily they win ground through political
tactics and discord, corruption and fraud, murder and violence.
Finally Mohammads
SAW
family is targeted and Hussain
AS
is
martyred brutally in Kerbela together with his friends and kin. Bani
Ummayyads powr is established fully. The rest of the story to be
narrated by Khilafat-o-Malookiyat of Allama Maududi though not
very satisfactorily. What Maududi finds out is that Islam was
weakened by Ummayyas and the system established by
Mohammad
SAW
was changed into kingship for the greed of money
and power. Todays greedy power, wherever it may be, also likes to
rout the spirit of Hussain
AS
in the minds and valour of men
wherever they are. Today also Kerbela is hot without water supply
and full of poisonous war materials. Hence for a true Muslim and
for a true lover of the spirit of Islam each day is an Aashora
1
and
each patch of land Kerbela. Today also Rumis lament stands true to
tell you the story of what happened to Islam.
. .
. .
.
.
,
.
: . .
. .
.
.
,
.

The wordly wise did their job of straightening wordly
affairs. Mohammad
SAW
, Alas, was left even without
shroud, the white sheet.
Meanwhile, Kerbela marks the greatest betrayal in human history of
the people who were lifted up to the skies by the Master of the two
worlds whose family alongwith suckling children were butchered in
the desert under the blazing sun and unbearable circumstances. This
tragedy will never be forgotten because in spite of the betrayal in the

1
10
th
Moharram when Hussain
AS
was martyred.

210
most trying conditions princes reared in the lap of Mohammad
SAW

and on his shoulders gave their life but not their hand to the
shameless brute Yazid bin Mauwya who and whose dynasty
overrode Islam with tyrannical power and lunatic greed.
However, let the hatchet be buried and all the Muslims all
over the world be friends and brothers again. Let the lovely and the
most revered Prophet Mohammad
SAW
be honoured by word and
deed every moment in our day to day life by our deeds and while we
make our living. Besides, let us resolve to break the idols of wealth
enameled with gold and diamonds in our homes and all kinds of
institutions. This is not to say that wealth should not be produced
and production in all fields should not be increased. Mankind needs
production and wealth today for more than ever before also to
conquer nature more and more and to make life more and more
pleasant and worth-living. But wealth should not be worshipped like
neo-gods and it should never, in no case, determine national and
international affairs. It should not replace God of Islam nor should it
throw Him in the background in charge of non-wordly affairs.
1
It
should also not be earned or heaped up by hook or by crook, by any
means, particularly at the cost of social good and public welfare.
That wealth is the basis of the martyrdom of Imams and the ruthless
mass killings of today. That wealth should be disdained, should be
left unattended. This may appear as a wishful thinking, a utopia and
an imaginary castle-building, but this is the way we can finish with
all our disputes, Shia Sunni or whatever. Let Shias all over the

1
Who are they to issue verdicts against God and define His role. But that is what they
do. They think they cant succeed in their designs as long as God is All Powerful.

211
world continue mourning Moharam and Aashora more than ever
before to remind us of God and to condemn wealth and power, the
root cause of evil, or evil itself. Let all people who have conscience,
love truth and goodness join and condemn brutal betrayal and let all
serve water
1
and juice to pay a tribute to Mohammads
SAW
lap and
shoulders, peace be upon him and his progeny.
Asslam-o-Alaikum (May God bestow upon you peace)! This
is the salutation of Islam, the first vitally important way of meeting
people or addressing them! We may or may not join hands and kiss
them while we salute but mere Assalam-o-Alikum is enough. We
should have begun this chapter with this salutation but this is both
the beginning and the end of all collective beahviours. Beginning
with Salam is as important as ending with it. Hence let our choice of
bringing Salam at the end of the chapter may not be considered as
less important.
Peace be upon you immediately unites the speaker and the
listener (or listeners). It is not merely a salutation, nor only a charity
of the tongue; it is something far more than that: an opening of the
gateway of soul, to sow love therein, for there is nothing more
precious, more important than love in human affairs or in mans
relationship with God. The union of an individual with an
individual, of an individual with a group of individuals through love
produces nothing less than love, more so when Assalam-o-Alikum
carries the letter as well as the spirit. This first interaction opens
harmonious relationships between people living together in a

1
Water is a symbol of gnosis according to Frithjof Schuon, the Western mystic. Juice
is a token of passionate love!

212
society. It is the purity of soul that salutes or your salutation aims at
purification. Friends become fast friends with Salams and fast
friends still faster to seek intimacy. Foes drop down their armour of
ill-will, or envy, or hatred, or back-biting, or intriguing when you
wish peace. Strangers start coming near to a person who salutes
them with peace be upon you. So Salam is a bond between all
people, all types of people living anywhere anytime. People coming
from any country, any region, any economic background with
whatever culture, manners and etiquette, hear this sweet expression
and fall in love, of whatever kind, with the one who wishes them
peace. Women, children, relatives, rural, urban; educated, illiterate,
old and weak, young and youthfully healthy all join this chorus in
the sweetest language, perhaps with a smiling face, and join the
blissful state of peace. This is the first gift of Islam! All in their
heart of hearts praise Mohammad
SAW
who showed them how to
meet and with what sweet language. All join the kingdom of God,
the Most High and the Most Praiseworthy peace! God bless us
with your Mercy and help us to seek social harmony ever and
always!

213



For what sin was
the buried babe
done away

214

O Prophet of God, I would not wish any doubts or anger
to remain in your heart concerning me, but I do not have
the power to remove this black cloud that the talk of men
has cast over your mind, but are you not the Prophet of
God, then surely you must know the truth better than
anyone. O Prophet of God, I am too humble to hope that a
verse would be revealed by God concerning my innocence
or that my name should be mentioned in the Quran. I am
too humble for that, too small, too powerless, nevertheless I
pray to the God of Islam that he should reveal the truth to
you, so that you may know whether I have done any
wrong.
1


Zainul Abidin Rehnuma quotes Jenab Aisha Sidiqa (May God
shower blessings upon her), the Mother of Believers. She was
saying this to Mohammad
SAW
placing her head on his knees and
weeping bitterly when she was slandered. Her father Hazrat
Abubaker (may God bless him) and her mother were very unhappy
over the slander. Mohammad
SAW
was occupied too. He drew a cloak
over his head but soon got up throwing it aside. Then wiping the
drops of perspiration from his face which showed he was in the state
of revelation, he recited the verses of the Quran revealed on this
occasion:

1
Payamber,vol.III, p.224.

215
Those who brought forward the lie are a body among
yourselves: think it not to be an evil to you; on the
contrary it is good for you; to every man among them
(will come the punishment) of the sin that he earned,
and to him who took on himself the lead among
them, will be a Penalty grievous.
Why did not the believers men and woman when
you heard of the affair, put the best construction on
it in their own minds and say, This (charge) is an
obvious lie?
Why did they not bring four witnesses to prove it?
When they have not brought the witnesses, such
men, in the sight of Allah, (stand forth) themselves
as liars!
Were it not for the grace and mercy of Allah on you,
in this world and the Hereafter, a grievous penalty
would have seized you in that you rushed glibly into
this affair.
Behold, you received it on your tongues, and said out
of your mouths things of which you had no
knowledge, and you thought it to be a light matter,
while it was most serious in the sight of Allah.
And why did you not, when you heard it, say? it
is not right of us to speak of this: Glory to Allah! this
is a most serous slander!
Allah admonishes you, that you may never repeat
such (conduct), if you are (true) Believers.
And Allah makes the Signs plain to you: for Allah is
full of knowledge and wisdom.

216
Those who love (to see) scandal published broadcast
among the Believers, will have a grievous Penalty in
this life and the Hereafter: Allah knows, and you do
not know.
Were it not for the grace and mercy of Allah on you,
and that Allah is full of kindness and mercy, (you
would be ruined indeed).
1

The most detestable slander recorded in the history of mankind in
general and in Islamic history in particular was over. It was not only
directed against one of the most respectable ladies but also against
the Mother of Believers who after Khadeja
AS
was loved most by the
Master of the two worlds
SAW
. It showed to what extend the basest
and the dirtiest minds can go to disrespect and to dishonour a lady
of very high standing and caliber. It also showed how these people
can send a flying dagger into the back of Islam which awarded the
fullest respect on womanhood, which stands as a lighthouse for the
whole of mankind even today.
The Quranic verses that were revealed to Mohammad
SAW
to
exonerate Jenab Aisha Sidiqa
RA
with the fullest honour and respect
due to her also extended and deepened the meaning of for what sin
was the buried babe done away (
,

. .
,
|

.
). You may call it an
exaggeration but BIAYYI ZANBIN is a liberation charter for
women issued by God in His kingdom. It reveals ever new
meanings to all people, men and women, male and female, of all
ages, in all geographical regions of the world. Being very
impregnate it provides chances and direction to teachers and

1
The Quran, 24:11-20

217
scholars to reveal to the world and to mankind significance of
womanhood as at least fifty percent of human life, the other fifty
percent being manhood. Let us therefore go direct to BIAYYI
ZANBIN to explain its meaning and purpose as much as we have
the capacity given to us by God!
It flatly refuses the culture
1
of Jahiliyya which allowed
burying alive of baby girls. What was the reason? Was it a sport that
they used to indulge in because they indulged in many sports? Did
they think that a woman was a plaything even in the earliest period
of her age? Did they think that they could throw her away as they
threw away a toy or a rotten thing or a spoiled fruit? Was their sense
so blurred that they thought that burying her alive would harm
none? Harm not her because she was lifeless? Harm not her mother
because she had no mind, no feelings, no emotions to see her die
that way? Did they think that the babes mother had not suffered
during her pregnancy for giving birth to her? Were the relatives of
the babes mother not hurt to see the babe going into the grave
alive? Didnt they have a sense of future and also of history that
would be written in future also describing as to what happened to
their baby daughters at their hands? Did they think that they would
be responsible to give an account of their misdeeds to mankind
before they would be caught by the strong hands of God to show
what they did, particularly to baby girls? Were they grown fully as
human beings or were they still brutes to do whatever they wanted

1
To call it a culture is madness. Even to call it a way of life in improper. It was living
like animals or even brutes. It was irrational a well as totally inhuman. Jahiliyya,
therefore, was eternal damnation!.

218
to do? Was their humankind different from other human beings who
made a difference between brutes and human beings? Were they
diseased hereditarily and therefore their minds didnt work properly
or were they imbalanced mentally, psychologically because of
difficult life they lived in that arid land? Did they think that their
misdeeds as related to women were so bad that they would be paid
back in the same coin but the recipients would be their female
offspring? Were they mentally deranged because their treatment
with the daughters and wives, mothers and sisters of other people
was so bad that their own conscience was pricking them? Did they
think that women brought them dishonour because their kind was an
evil incarnated and men were basically good and born so? The
answers to these questions will show what kind of a people they
were and why they buried their babes alive. Even now people will
have chances to introspect so that whatever effects of that Jahiliyya
are carried today will possibly be removed or remedied.
BIAYYI ZANBIN was a bell of alarm for the male world to
awaken; to awaken to the new light that had dawned with the
coming of Islam. The new light showed to the male world that they
were primarily responsible to generate the evils that polluted some
of their women. They dragged women to any kind of sport that they
thought brought them dishonour. Were male members of that Arab
community at least not equal participants in that process of
dishonour? Did they think that the dishonoured women involved
themselves with robots? But robots were not there at that time.
What kind of creatures descended from heavens in order to involve
women in that shameful act that brought them dishonour? And a

219
woman who is essentially passive cannot take initiative in such
things as are particularly socially prohibited. If pastimes or
indulgence were not harmful for men who usually decide norms and
values of a society or even of backward communities, why did
women participating as passive partners in those pastimes brought
them slur or bad name or whatever how? Is it not absolute
madness that men punish women and that too so seriously as
burying their female babes alive for the same act as they consider
justifiable for themselves or even enjoyable? BIAYYI ZANBIN
therefore, gives birth to rationality on which human behaviour,
whether of a man or a women, should be judged. It serves as a
curative movement for a thinking which generates a mental disease
in men.
This Quranic injection impregnated with meanings awakens
Arab Jahiliyya to see that mankind is one and cannot be divided on
the basis of sex. Man is as good as a woman and a woman as good
as a man. The two are both supplementary and complementary to
each other and form a complete whole. They like two wheels of a
cart or a machine go side by side with each other to make it go or
function. If anything happens to one wheel, the other wont
function. The two wheels must both be efficient and of the same
stuff and make. Otherwise the cart or the machine wont work. The
Quran substantiates this thinking by so many verses, at so many
places. First in chapter four:
O mankind! Fear
1


1
Karen Armstrong defines TAQWA as God consciousness. We Muslims understand
that it is FEAR.

220
Your Guardian Lord,
Who created you
From a single Person,
1

Created, out of it,
His mate, and from them twain
Scattered (like seeds)
Countless men and women;
Fear Allah, through Whom
Ye demand your mutual (rights),
And be heedful of the wombs,
(That bore you): for Allah
Ever watches over you.
2

So how can we say men and women are not alike. The soul
from which they are created is one. The world in which they are
placed is one. One God has created them both. We have to be God
conscious in behaving with each other in this context. If we
discriminate against each other, God will be unhappy. He is
constantly watching over us and knows what is in our minds while
we interact. In spite of this Quranic guidance if we men believe that
we are the chosen people, how will God excuse us for our perverted
thinking. Now see how Muslim men and Muslim women are treated
at par with each other at a different place in the Quran:
Men and women who have surrendered,
Believing men and believing women
Obedient men and obedient women
Truthful men and truthful women

1
NAFS is translated as soul also.
2
The Quran, 4:1

221
Enduring men and enduring women.
Men and women who give in charity
Men who fast and women who fast,
Men and women who guard their private parts
Men and women who remember God oft
For them God has prepared forgiveness
And a mighty wage.
1

The eye-opening episode which was the cause for this
revelation is also encouraging for men and women both. Umm
Salmah (God may shower His grace upon her and her wisdom)
shortly after her marriage brought a request from the women of
Medina to Mohammad
SAW
. A deputation of women requested her to
convey to Mohammad
SAW
as to why they were mentioned in the
Quran rarely. After sometime the Prophet received the revelation
and Umm Salma
RA
passed it on to the women who were pleased as
well as encouraged. But we are encouraged also to see that Umm
Salmah
RA
stood by the Prophet
SAW
shoulder to shoulder to make his
work easier and to participate in matters related to the life of
Ummah and to that of mankind at large. It is not Salmah
RA
only
who did so, Aisha
RA
also did. We have already noted the role of
Jenab Khadeja
AS
in Islam and its spread, particularly in those days
when Mohammad
SAW
lived a very difficult life, also due to
persecution. Is that not an enough proof that Islam respects women
most and treats them at par with men? It should be noted that in the
verses quoted above it is the action of a man or a women that brings
him or her a reward. There is nothing beyond that except, of

1
The Quran, 33:35.

222
course, Gods Will that makes a man or a woman a candidate for
good reward or a punishment. Great amongst those are they who do
good deeds needs not be brought here for further explanation.
Verses of the Quran can be quoted to show that there is no
difference between a man and a woman. In 2:187 women have been
shown as an apparel for men and men as an apparel for women.
This is true even in the month of Ramadhan between the breaking
and observance of fasts. The first revelation KHALAQAL INSAAN
MIN ALAQ (man has been created out of blood mated) shows
clearly how man and woman both play parts equally in causing
conception. The chromosome from both sides determines life. Still
then if it is held that men and women have natural differences, we
shall be neglecting Quranic guidance. No doubt biologically they
are different but that proves no superiority, no inferiority. Each
individual, man or woman, is different too but that proves only
richness of life, an appreciable phenomena. If women are not like
men, men also are not like women. If spring is not like autumn,
autumn is also not like spring. Variety is a quality of life, a very
great quality!
We now move on to the breaking of shackles which BIAYYI
ZANBIN does. It prepares women to stand upright asserting that
they have an equal right with men to grow and to be. Growing and
being is not only physical but multi dimensional. We may grow
mentally, psychologically, morally, socially, culturally and, above
all, spiritually. Similarly we have a right to be economically strong
to resist hunger, disease, ignorance and other man-eating evils that
accompany poverty. Poverty should not be thrust upon human

223
beings. Man should live like a poor man but that is his choice for a
lofty life-standard. Similarly in societies where fraternity and
equality and justice are held high, we must be politically awakened.
This is for men as well as women. Neither of the two has a special
prerogative to this kind of life. If, unfortunately, women are thrown
into the background and men supersede them as in Jahiliyya, life
will be damaged considerably. It is a great sin to force women to
live a poor life and allow men to enjoy the fruits of fuller life at the
cost of women. Again, think of a woman who is buried alive in the
grave of ignorance, is not allowed to see God in the perspective of
the Light verse of chapter 24, what will her life be like. She will be
like a stone blind and inactive. BIAYYI ZANBIN in the sense of
ignorance grave makes us conscious that man or woman is not
essentially born for hell which in its real sense is ignorance. If
chapter 93 and 94 are not read by the inner eye, if the original
meanings of these verses are not discovered, human life will turn
into a dead coal. We are mentioning these two chapters only for
reference, otherwise many more chapters and verses of the Quran
that awaken us spiritually are important chapter 16, chapter 20,
chapter 55, chapter 99, chapter 112 and so on. And each verse needs
education and awakening in letter, in spirit. To say therefore that
women are not able to spiritual awakening is to close gates of
Godhood for them. And we must know how spiritual awakening is
possible, both for men and women, and then throw ways and means
open for them so that both enter paradise of meanings to lead
themselves deeper into union with God. We shall have to discover
how great saints and mystics like Umm Haram, Rabia bint Ismail,

224
Muadha al Adawiyya, Nafisa (daughter in law of Hazrat Imam Jafar
al-Sadiq, peace be his share and glory his award), Ishi Nili, Shuhda
Fakhr al-Nisa, Zainab Naishapuri, Aisha bint Mohammad, Zynab
bint Kamal, Rabia Basri and many others attained heights of
mysticism. This story is very unique and interesting for us who live
in this part of the world knowing very little about women in Islam
who became imminent figures through gnosis. Thus growth and
development in all aspects of life, including of course psychological
and spiritual, cannot be underrated or ignored for women who
unfortunately stand neglected by the high-handed. An emotionally
disturbed person, a morally degraded or depressed human being, a
politically crushed individual and a social outcast, more so if it is a
woman, cannot reach the level wherefrom she can take off for a
nearness to God. And, above all, mental sharpness is basically
necessary. That is why the Quran refers to knowing, thinking,
reasoning, meditating to all intellectual or mental processes that
help all, men and women, to attain meanings of everlasting life. If
obstacles are laid in the way of mental development, no fruits of the
life hereafter can be grown and tasted.
Might is right is absolutely refuted by BIAYYI ZANBIN,
particularly when it comes to crush mankind. Islam came to help the
downtrodden and the weak so that they stand upon their feet to
enjoy the fruits of life as fully as possible. Islams altitude to women
in this respect is quite visible in BIAYYI ZANBIN. The might of
Jahiliyya which is the physical force of the brute or the outcome of
blind ignorance stands condemned and in the most forceful manner.
God is delightfully compassionate also in terms of His declaration

225
. | - - _ . - | - -
1
. It means He has inscribed for Himself
Mercy. But when His wrath expresses itself, the whole universe
trembles with fear. That wrath is quite audible in BIAYYI
ZANBIN. We cannot subject womankind to brutal discrimination in
a world in which nothing but Gods justice and Gods mercy
prevails, prevails to save the victims, women, from the sharp nails
of Jahiliyya, (Jahiliyya of that time or worse Jahiliyya of today). We
cannot leave men free to issue verdicts on women who give birth to
them and thereby serve mankind willingly and patiently. We cannot
discriminate against those on whose breasts we feed ourselves at a
time when we are so weak, so helpless that none else comes to our
rescue. Discrimination against mothers amounts to sending nails to
our heads so that we are finished with our own hands.
Men and women are two sides of a coin as said before. They
are like two hands which complete the work force of a human being.
BIAYYI ZANBIN awakens us to this as well. Man began his social
life when alongwith woman he started living and living in a family.
The woman began keeping the house and man went out in search of
food. Man took upon himself the task of a gatherer and woman did
the creative job of looking after children after they were born of her;
that was the first stage but then the activities of man grew more
complex and that of a woman also. BIAYYE ZANBIN points out
that the complex roles need readjustments and rearrangements every
now and then. A full participation of both but prior to that a full
recognition of the roles of both is necessary. The more efficient the

1
The Quran; 6:12

226
workforce of both the partners, the more the welfare of family and
of mankind at large. It cannot happen that only one hand is allowed
to grow and to work: that will mean only fifty percent workforce
applied. And work is not manual only. More work is mental or
emotional or spiritual or social or moral or what have you. Man
does not live by bread alone. He needs more non-physical than
physical or material. Similarly a woman needs more non material.
She cannot be fastened to a peg for the upkeep of bondage. She
cannot be denied variety of life and variety of roles for lifes
betterment for herself, for her children and for man. This
recognized, mankind will come out of the hell of Jahiliyya, ancient
or modern, to enjoy the fresh and frequent atmosphere of free and
full life. That is BIAYYI ZANBIN, that is the Quranic guidance,
that is RAHMAH! But BIAYYE ZANBIN does not thrust itself
upon us. It makes us conscious of togetherness, of mutual
cooperation, of mutual sympathy and mutual love so that men and
women develop themselves for mutual roles in life and life
situations. It shows clearly that the harmony of man-woman
togetherness can be heard and enjoyed with to enjoy life and to
make its onward march both fruitful and enjoyable. It, like the fresh
air of spring season, awakens us to enjoy the bloom of flowers all
around. Let us respond and awake!
Murder is impurity of soul combined with lack of faith. It is
the result of total darkness of mind. BIAYYE ZANBIN points out
the worst kind of murder, the burying alive of a female babe. It is
only the darkness of mind which does not allow the murderer to see
what potentials and powers, what capacities and capabilities the

227
babe comes with to this world. May be those potentialities and
powers would give mankind (which is absolutely womankind also)
saints, seers, mystics, religious reformers, social reformers, political
leaders, scholars, scientists, good mothers, flowering artists, great
literary figures and what have you. Each babe that is born in this
world is born for hereafter too. Each babe therefore comes with a
promise that the ills and evils of this world would be lessened if
opportunities of and access to full development of that babe are not
withheld or refused. The promise also visualizes improvement of
material and non-material conditions that are used in this world for
personal, individual and collective improvement and betterment.
The opportunity of birth may also discover ways and means that
may enlighten minds to see more and more glory and sublimity of
soul. Crushing birth and crushing potentialities of the new born babe
is standing rudely in the way of God to obliterate His schemes and
scheming. Moreover, the babes life may prove to be a new
dimension to lifes enjoyment. Being born to this world and to the
hereafter is a chance that is given once. If this single chance goes,
the enjoyment possibility goes as well.
And what right has the rude man to destroy a babe before it
flowers? Is man the rude male who kills a baby girl the creator
of the babe he kills? If he is not, with what authority does he dare to
play the destroyer? Does he create in the same way as God creates,
sustain in the manner God sustains, promote in the way He
promotes, arrange and rearrange in the same way as God does?
Does he create hope in the hopeless, give strength to the weak,
console the dejected and the depressed, enlighten the one who is lost

228
and fill the life of those who have nothing with them except belief in
Gods mercy? If not, how does he stretch his nailful hands to scratch
life out of a babe? And honour and dishonour, richness and poverty,
fullness and hollowness, hope and despair is in His hands. How do
the hands of a crude male snatch all these powers from God and do
away with an innocent babe? Shame!
We must never lose faith, faith in the mercy of God, in His
numerous ways which prove nothing but His unbounded kindness
and love for man (which includes woman equally). Killing a babe is
the worst kind of faithlessness. But see how God obliterates or say
frustrates this faithlessness. In spite of female-babe-murder
attempted in Jahiliyya and later in various periods of times in
various other ways, the number of women went on increasing
bringing for the faithful various colours of womandhood to the
forefront. As said above, woman became saints and mystics,
scholars and knowledgeable persons, very kind mothers and
daughters, sisters and spouses, playing their role in various ways in
life situations and society, proving that God appears every moment
with a new glory. Losing faith in God doing all this is to lose ones
own worth as a human being. Let us therefore, be faithful enough to
see more and more colours of Godhood blooming in the lives of
women!
Murder of female child in whatever way
1
proves one thing
clearly failure of man as man. So a murderer is a failed man. He is
a failure because he does not dedicate his life to women

1
At some other place we will try to show that burying alive of a female babe alone
does not kill her. She is killed in other ways too.

229
empowerment through loveful upbringing, through delicate
handling of issues related to her health, education, entertainment,
housing, social interaction, creative activity and so on. He is a
failure because he does not respond to her needs as a human being,
as a mother, as a neglected human lot, as a dreamer of good life, as
an imaginative person and as one who wants opportunities to show
her worth. It has been minutely observed that women are poets born.
When they talk, they talk in a soft, calm and composed language
and as those who are in touch with natural world. Their sense of
observation brings them harmony and proportion and when they
express themselves in an appropriate setting, this observation speaks
itself. They are sympathetic and know how to cure wounds through
very delicate feelings because essentially they are mothers and
know what wounds are and what their pain is like. Just a pat with
their soft and delicate hand, with their soft and delicate fingers, has
the capacity of spreading affection in the body of a human being
and also in his soul as blood spreads in the whole body. If a male
does not recognize and value this quality responding to it promptly
and creatively, he is a failed male. Again, his failure proves itself in
other ways too. He refers his own faults to others. He is hungry and
he destroys his own food. He thinks his passions are bringing him
dishnour and dirt because he satisfies them in ways which he thinks
are improper. But instead of checking himself, he does away with
those who are victims of his own passion. Instead of improving
himself he destroys those who are used by him for his self
abasement or self degradation. His example is the example of a
person who in a rose-garden observes weeds grown around his rose

230
bushes. But instead of clearing weeds he roots out rose bushes. He
is not only a failed gardener, he is mad. Beautiful and elegant rose
bushes he destroys, ah! The greatness of man, therefore, is proved
by his positive role in life. He proves a strong person, a courageous
being, when he supports life and promotes it. If he spoils life with
his imbalance and madness, he proves he is worse than animals and
also the weakest being on the earth. Hence give something to life
and wherever you find your hand can improve, can console, can
create hope, go there at once and prove that you are a living spirit.
Cruelty is an expression of the worst kind of thraldom. When
you feel insecure and afraid you become a sadist or cruel person. To
call a cruel man a person is also wrong because a harmoniously
balanced personality cannot commit cruelty. You become cruel
because you dont see positive ways of overcoming your fears. All
authoritarian altitudes refer to pathology. To inflict pain on others is
as bad psychologically as letting others inflict pain on you. To harm
others is harming oneself. The more you move towards cruelty and
authoritarian behaviour, the more you prove you are ill or you are
deviated from humanity. One day you find you are totally a victim
of cruelty, fallen in its trap. Like an alchoholist or an addict of
brown sugar you find you are unable to control brutal anger or
murderous deign or authoritarian mannerism and so on. So you slip
more and more into your morbid habit or pathological condition.
Better would have been if you would from the very first day show
love and affection to others. Love begets love and affection
affection. Authoritarianism and cruelty brings pain and hatred and
the vicious circles go on widening. Shouldnt we for a moment

231
consider, therefore, that if good social and moral, religious and
spiritual conditions of life are to be generated in a society, we will
have to move productively towards these goals through our own
behaviour. The best that we can do is to promote rather than
destroy, improve rather than spoil, sow rather than reap, love but not
hate. That is the positive attitude, the hidden suggestion in BIAYYE
ZANBIN QUTILAT!
This forceful Quranic shaking shakes us to discover and to
value womans nature and worth. We may have drawn subtle hints
towards it so far. But let us be more specific and more exact.
Motherhood is the greatest endowment of a woman but it is not as
natural as it would seem to the crude mind. Unless a girl is fully
grown in all respects, unless she is brought up in a free and fair
atmosphere, unless she is securely provided with love, affection and
attention by her family and surroundings, she is not supposed to be a
good mother. A good education (but not indoctrination) is as much
necessary as good and balanced food. Take them away from lifes
blooming situations or keep them bound with the chores of living,
they will not properly develop as human beings. And thwarted
growth of a girl is detrimental for motherhood. Jahiliyyah or
Jahilliya like conditions of life send a shiver down into the deep of
their nerve that they are doubted as human beings and not treated at
par with boys. This never goes out of their mind come what may
afterwards. Hence their motherhood gets infected even when its Bud
has not flowered. A wounded motherhood capacity affects children
severely, be they male or female. But motherhood goes on receiving
set backs by the constant dos and do nots of parents, by the fables

232
and stories about women that are narrated to them by closed minds,
by the food and other things provided to them and, most of all, by
the taunts of friends and foes. Girls should not eat much, they
should not spend or spend much, they should not speak in presence
of men, they should not smile or laught in presence of anybody,
they should not go out of their home, much less to play kinds of
sermons frighten them. They receive shocks constantly and they
develop complexes which weaken them. They begin feeling
something is wrong with the very nature of a girl, or a woman. The
tragedy gets chronic when girls are not given responsibilities, when
their deeds are checked every moment, and above all, when their
doings even in the kitchen are not appreciated. They get both
discouraged and demoralized. The more the complex Jahiliyya, the
more the demoralization of a woman, the more damaged the
motherhood. Disappointment sends a death knell to both womans
quality and her motherhood. In modern Jahiliyya unwilling
motherhood even after two or three children sends waves of fear and
suffering into the very soul of mothers, so does promiscuous sex.
But motherhood is not the only nature of a woman, nurture is too.
She is a born expert to place the child in her lap, in her arms, where
there is sufficient warmth there. She nurtures body, she nurtures
soul, she nurtures emotion and feeling and intellect. She nurtures
value and values dynamic role. Only this is not nurtured by her.
She nurtures home and homely peace. Her looks, her manners, her
styles produce a home which for any definition is better than even a
rose garden and rose bower. East or West, she gives home the best.
She nurtures even flowers and flower plants and her hand knows

233
how to arrange them both in and around the lawn and the house. Her
soft and motherly hand adds to the delicacy and fragrance of flowers
and the greenery of the plant. She may nurture fruit and provide
sweet juice to the children of the home, children that she looks after.
She may like to see butterflies around her and like the butterfly take
delight in honey. Her nurturing hand may not leave even animals
and birds, fowls and fawn. She may feed a bulbul and a hoopoe or a
maina if she is happy and can place her hands on things she likes to
nurture. She may feed even birds of imagination if she is allowed to
do so by her husband or even by her own son. She may nurture
ideas, and if not ideas habits, habits of cleanliness, of endurance, of
hard work, of kindness, of soft speech, of early rising and leaving
snoring sleep. All depends upon how she is left free to nurture, how
nurturing is welcome, how it is encouraged by words of
appreciation, by praise and approving glances. Crude men cradled in
Jahiliyya of all kinds do not know how to fondle with the most
excellent endowments of a woman. Let us see more of it!
The passions of a woman can be felt by the songs she sings or,
if songs are prohibited by the patriarchal culture, by the lullaby she
murmurs into the ears of her child. One does not really know why
her lullaby is so imaginative, so thought-provoking, so sweet. If its
words are not caught it becomes more attractive, more thought-
provoking. Sounds are far more attractive, sweater and deeper with
feelings than are words. Words reveal things quicker than sounds.
Therefore sounds are more mysterious like the passions of a woman.
But women are not rich in passions only; their feelings lift up a
sensitive soul to states strange. Return from those states is possible

234
neither for women nor for their sympathetic listeners. Their glances
reveal this, their tight-lipped moods reveal this, their down-cast eyes
reveal this, their brows and the lift of their eyes express this in
various ways. They cannot be killed easily but they can be silenced
so much that they can be left lifeless. Their sensitivity, to refer to
one more nature, is so sharp, so keen that one touches wood when
one feels its prick. Sudden outbursts of love and affection that
children are fortunate enough to receive from them are so delightful
that their delight cannot be measured by the smiles of childrens
heart. One wonders why children do not fall asleep when they are
touched by these outbursts. Suddenly sometimes, somewhere, these
outbursts are expressed to grown up men also if they show real
favours to ladies but these expressions take the form of a prayer or a
sweet remark or a sharp smile. You cannot measure a womans
sensitive soul, nor can you weigh it. Like poetrys inexpressible
beauty it is something that you can only feel, as was the sensitivity
of Khadeja
AS
felt by young Mohammads
SAW
marriage. We have
listed some of her virtuous qualities but believe it or not she is the
embodiment of virtue which crude men have no realization of.
BIAYYE ZANBIN is so comprehensively rich that it has a full
perception of her souls quality.
What happens to her nature if the crude hand of brutal
discrimination and exploitation scratches her soul? Well, it is an
untold story; even women do not have the will to express it. We can
only say that her motherhood is chopped, her nurturing capacity is
frozen, her love, feeling, affection stultified like blood, her
sensitivity, her delicacy, her gracefulness blackened by the dark

235
smoke of rudeness and she is left lifeless in the sense of meaningful
living. Our world, still needs to learn how to save womanhood from
the fierce clutches of power greed!
BIAYYI ZANBIN spirit can help us understand qualities of a
woman that draw her very close to God and His Creative Activity.
Women, for example, are beautiful and like beauty too much. God
also is Beautiful and likes beauty. The womans interest in beauty
starts with herself. She likes to adore herself as much as she can or
as much as she is capable of. She is interested in dress and dress
material and she goes on collecting things that she thinks add to her
beauty. Related to this is her interest in ornaments. Gold and silver
and diamond is her weakness but if these things arent available, she
will place her land on glass and plastics. She will perhaps find more
interest in these stuffs because machine has made them more
colourful, more attractive and easily available. Likewise her interest
in house materials, kitchenware, curtains and furniture is
tremendous. She will chose things of form and design, colour and
art. But if she is too weak financially to have them, she will bring
earthenware and wooden things to make her kitchen agreeable to
her taste. Things woven of wheatgrass and palm-fibre enter ordinary
mans house and women in these households wait for shopping
chances in fairs and festivals that enrich the social and cultural life
of people everywhere. All these things apart, even the most humble
woman in a rural setting will take a broom or a brush in her hand to
clean the house and the compound. But cloth drenched in good clay
also does not miss her attention. She will paint the walls whenever
there is a function around in the home or outside. If there are no

236
functions, there will be a festival or a religiously important
celebration like the powerful Night of Ramadhan or the Eid.
Women whenever they feel free, engage themselves in spinning and
weaving or at least in churning butter if she has a cow. All along
one would see her busy and also hear her singing songs which are
imaginatively as well as artistically woven round nature. Her taste
for and interest in beauty will not end here. She may wear clothes
with embroidery or flower-design and one would see her inner by
the designs she chooses. She may busy herself with needle work or
knitting or sewing and pour her aesthetic taste in these arts skillfully
if not artistically always. Like more fortunate women she will take
interest in beauteous forms though her materials will be least
expensive and handy. The fortunate women may involve themselves
in expensive pastimes like gardening, painting, instrumental music
and so on. Ordinary women will use pitchers and copper plates as
instruments but rich women will buy expensive musical systems
pianos or classical sitars and so on. Even cooking and uncooked
food-preparations will use the aesthetic sense of women, if not
through expensive meat and chicken, at least through vegetables and
domestically produced butter and cream. Green and red pepper,
mint and cucumber, reddish and carrot together with cream and
easily available fruit she may use to prepare food full of flavour and
taste. Beauty and beauty aids of this sort colour personality, fan
aesthetics and enliven heart and soul for far-greater perceptions of
beauty, grace and sublimity. We have left describing womens
activities in festival celebrations or religious functions where their
chants and chanting abilities can be seen with appreciation. Kashmir

237
is known for womens participation in ceremonial aesthetics an
account of which will need a separate treatment. But we must not
miss mentioning that beauty and its absorptions are a great help to
have a vision of the Absolute very conveniently.
Now we come to a very important phase of womens life. Do
they have the same duty towards mankind and God as men have?
Are they also answerable to mankind and to God for what they do?
These questions, no doubt, appear very easy but their answers are
difficult. Duty and answerability are ideas that can be referred to
free individuals. BIAYYI ZANBIN points out that women are not
free; they are like slaves or bonded labour working for mere
existence under the strict and barbaric control of a tribal community
in which only men matter. We can neither assign nor expect roles in
bondage. We must know what we have to do, for what reasons,
under which conditions and for which goals. Women who are done
away when they are not even conscious to this world are not
supposed to know anything about any job or any role. And that
Jahiliyya which didnt have any conception about past, present and
future couldnt fix signposts for itself. It is due to that slumber that a
bolt came from the blue to awaken men that they must not only
mend their ways with respect to their treatment of women but also
work towards the future of humanity. This bolt was BIAYYI
ZANBIN and this warned them that women cannot be treated but as
equals and that they should properly be prepared side by side with
men to play their role. This preparedness will make them conscious
of their existence as human beings and also of collective living. This
preparedness will awaken them for their responsibility to group

238
living and also for answerability to God. Men or women, they
cannot do good to their souls unless they serve mankind, unless men
are for women and women for men, unless individual interest and
collective benefit fall in the same straight-line. The first step
towards this can be marked only by granting respect and freedom to
the babe who is brutally buried alive and done away.
BIAYYI ZANBIN QUTILAT very clearly and openly
declares that sex is neither sin nor an undesirable behaviour. If it
were so the Quran would not teach us that man has been created as a
result of union between a male and a female, that union between a
couple is not forbidden even in the nights of Ramadhan, the month
of fasting, that both men and women should note that pairs are not
essential only for the continuation of mans life but also for the life
of animals and birds and so on. We have created you in pairs has
already been referred to. Verses from the Shooting Star have also
been quoted. It has been said that the liquid substance that is issued
forth from the loins and ribs of the male and the female is a wonder
of wonders. Moreover, necessity of a woman for a man and of a
man for a women is essential. Then how is it so that sex is bad or sin
or undesirable. We must not fail to note that even in paradise young
girls with their downcast eyes and untouched private parts will be
offered to the dwellers of paradise as a gift. How then do we
develop hate towards baby girls and bury them alive? Not only is
sex to be admitted as a very important part of human existence but,
it is also to be praised as being a means for Gods creative act. Very
great people have come into existence and shown their contributory
worth. Mans history is full of their creative and productive record.

239
Even in future we will continue having eminent men and women
who will furthermore make life better or even marvellous. It is
wrong to say that science and technology hasnt done any
substantial work for lovers of God or for those who submit to Him
dogmatically and ritualistically. These notable achievements prove
how the spiritual richness of man has worked wonders showing that
God is beautiful as well as powerful. These achievements of man
are utilitarian as much as they are spiritual. They point out that
nature has been conquered and secrets hidden in it are exposed as
well as utilized for better life and living. Without sex, which is the
basis of life, no such natural benefits would have been realized or
applied. Men and women that will be born now will discover things
that will, in the words of Iqbal, expose God one day.
1
In the last
chapter we have shown that man and nature are full of signs of God.
If those signs are not observed, understood and applied in life, we
will be blaspheming. There is a paradise of human emotion and
feeling in the life of a man or a woman. If intellect is included in it,
the paradise develops depth as well as extension. A woman is more
intense in the field of emotion and feeling for both biological and
evolutionary reasons. The interplay of all the natural potentialities
appears more in sex before and after the act but the act itself denotes
its peak. How can a human being in the perspective of the signs be

1

. . . . . : . , / _ . . , l _
- . . : . : : -
.

- .

.
. . .
` , t


240
deprived of or detracted from understanding and applying emotions
and feelings accompanied by intellect. As already pointed out, we
are told to think about the creative act. We are also asked to
appreciate how God has brought us into this world. Therefore,
understanding man-woman relationship in terms of sex is in order.
No poetry, no music, no art, no grace and grandeur is comparable to
the creative act in which He shapes man and provides the best of
fabric in him. The AHSANI TAQWEEM cannot be brushed aside
arrogantly and rudely because it is divinely designed. Shall we
destroy or even spoil this best fabric in the being of a female babe?
Shall we afford to be blind to it in our age which is marked by
tremendous progress in all fields of knowledge including the
knowledge of soul?
Suppose for a moment that sex is shame, it is below the
dignity of a human being, is man not an active participant in its
processes? Is he not the initiator of the processes? Is he not more
assertive and more dominating at least in the historical sense? If yes,
why should the female be punished, mocked, slandered and
defamed unnecessarily, more wondrously by the male himself? The
wolf in the Wolf and Lamb story finds reasons, one or the other, to
tear the helpless lamb apart. Similarly, man also tears a woman
apart, this way or that way but being a more fierce brute he has to
find no reasons to justify his act. He is free to do anything he likes
even in the darker age of today, justifiable to be called modern
Jahiliyya. BIAYYE ZANBIN denounces ways of subjugating and
depressing women therefore!

241
Discrimination against women to the extent of their brutal
murder is the greatest sin because it snatches power from God, the
Creator, and uses it in the most perverted form. Man who does it is
absolutely pathological and in that state he reduces himself to the
lowest level of existence, even below the level of animals. Being
blind he does not understand the value and meaning of human
existence in its male-female form and in that state of darkness
commits the most heinous crime against not only women but also
humanity at large. The crime gets recorded in history. The criminal
goes out of existence carrying with him the burden of his crime but
in no way harms Gods kingdom or His laws of life, laws of
creativity, laws of wisdom. He is disdained as are the Arabs of
Jahiliyya, as are those who like brown-sugar addicts use this crime
or try to use it in new forms today. The most detestable thing
about their evil deed is that they punish the crime before it is by any
definition done. No civilized people, no sane people in any corner of
the world appreciate this also in the vein of the Quranic verses that
we quote here to register our regard for women:
And those who accuse free women and bring not four
witnesses, flog them (with) eight stripes and never accept
their evidence, and these are the transgressors
Surely those who accuse chaste believing women,
unaware (of the evil), are cursed in this world and the
Hereafter, and for them is a grievous chastisement,
On the day when their tongues and their hands and
their feet bear witness against them as to what they did,

242
On that day Allah will pay back to them in full their
just reward, and they will know that Allah, He is the
evident Truth.
1


The Quranic reverence for women can be observed in other verses
wherein eminent ladies have been mentioned.
2
Hazrat SARA
RA

gives birth to Hazrat Ishaq
AS
from whose line Christ, the soul of
Allah, comes to mankind with his love and sweet message. From
Hazrat Hajra
RA
Ismail
AS
is born and all Muslims wherever they are
fall in his line. The mother of Moses
AS
receives revelation, suffers at
the hands of Pharaoh but succeeds to give mankind something
which Muslims value considerably. Pharaohs wife helps Moses
AS
,
so does the aunt of Moses
AS
. Mary
AS
, the most respectable lady, has
a chapter in the Quran. The chapter recognizes her greatness and
honour. She is chaste and sacred and gives birth to Prophet Jesus
Christ
AS
whose contributions to mankind stand recorded in history.
Mary
AS
develops a rapport with God and receives guidance direct
from Him through revelation. Saba or Sheba receives attention and
honour from Solomon
AS
, the prophet. So side by side with
greatmen, the Quran mentions great ladies and also their
contributions to mankind. Then in the history of Islam Jenab
Khadeja
AS
occupies a distinguished position. She is the first person
to embrace Islam. She is the one who stands by Mohammad
SAW

through thick and thin. She sacrifices everything for

1
The Quran, 24:4,23-25.
2
Where the Quran does not mention great ladies, history does, and history is a great
sign of God. Besides, Iqbal is his lectures says that history together with science and
mysticism is to guide mankind in the post KHATAMUL ANBIYA period in the
perspective of the Quranic teachings.

243
Mohammad
SAW
. Some say the reason for her death is the hard life
which she spent with the Prophet
SAW
when sanctions were imposed
on the family. The greatest thing about her is the she gives
Mohammad
SAW
Fatima
AS
, the mother of Hassan
AS
and Hussain
AS
.
They stand like a rock against those who hijacked Islam for the sake
of worldly power and wealth, who invented all that is vicious and
vulgar to gain support for their evil deeds. We have already referred
to Maududis Khilafat wa Malookiat which exposes Ummayyads for
their un-Isalmic conduct of public affairs for which Kerbela tragedy
was played. If Maududis analysis needs anything more in support,
that can be obtained from Taha Hussains books Ali Wa Nabbowah
and Al-Fitnatul Kubra. Hussains
AS
blood and that of his kith and
kin wrote everything honourable and honourably religious on the
sands of Kerbela. The flag that he and his innocent martyrs posted
in there stands as a lighthouse for good governance and ideal
administration of public affairs. But Jenab Zanabs
AS
role is not less
significant. This great daughter of Jenab Zehra
AS
taught a lesson to
all the good sons of good mothers and good sisters of good brothers
as to how boldly they should stand in the way of God fighting for
truth, not wavering under the most difficult or nerve-breaking
conditions. Her story is heart rending as well as soul ravishing. The
speech she delivered in the court of Yazid bin Mauwya is a record
in human history, for boldness, for truth speaking, for eloquence and
for presence of mind. This is the legacy for women and women in
Islam; this shows to what extent women can stand firm in the way
of God!

244
In the early period of Islam, particularly before the passing
away of Rasul-ullah
SAW
, women enjoyed a considerable freedom in
going out of their homes, in attending prayer in the mosque and also
in solving issues related to family affairs. They were even bold in
expressing themselves. From the family life of the Prophet
SAW
itself
we have evidences to show that the mothers of the faithful were not
dominated by him. Jenab Aisha
RA
and Jenab Hafsa
RA
were quite
vocal so much so that some of his friends thought that they were too
bold. Once Hazrat Ummar
RA
came to scold his own daughter for
being over-expressive. But the Rahmatan Lilalamin
SAW
sent him
back with rather a tough word that he would himself attend to his
family affairs and that Ummar
RA
had no reason to take the trouble
of interfering. It is also reported that the Prophet
SAW
would allow
women to meet him and to talk to him fearlessly. Once when
Ummar
RA
saw some of them surrounding him, he came and lashed
at them. But the Prophet
SAW
told him that women should not be
struck even with a sweet-basil twig.
1
To augment this we quote two
Western writers. First Will Durant:

But the Moslems of Mohammads century had not
secluded their women; the two sexes exchanged their
visits, moved indiscriminately through the streets, and
prayed together in the mosque. When Musab ibn al-
Zubair asked his wife Aisha why she never veiled her
face, she answered: Since Allah, may He remain blessed
and exalted, hath put upon me the stamp of beauty; it is

1
Zainul Abidin Rehnuma has narrated this episode in his famous biography (on
Mohammad
SAW
) Payamber.

245
my wish that the public should view that beauty, and
thereby recognize His grace unto them.
1

Will Durant is known both in the West and the East for his insight
into history and historical criticism. Though not so known as Will
Durant, Margaret Smith has done research on Muslim women and
has in a scholarly manner pointed out that saints and mystics of
Islam (women) have earned a name in gnosis and thereof in drawing
near to God. She has very clearly pointed out freedom of Muslim
ladies in the early period of Islam. She writes:
There is ample evidence, then, that at the beginning of
the Islamic era women had much freedom in the choice
of their husbands, that marriage was in many cases an
equal partnership and that women could, and did, assert
their right to an independent life. Social intercourse
between women and men was not restricted to close
relatives but women might meet with strangers in
society. They went about freely and had the right, as we
have seen, to go into the mosques at the time of prayer,
to worship in common with the men. Moreover, those
who were versed in jurisprudence expressly recognized
the right of a wife on marriage to make a condition that
there should be no second wife, nor even a concubine,
and this right, as we have seen above, was frequently
claimed. The woman then, at the beginning of the

1
Will Durant, pp. 220-21 (Maulana Rumi supports her view in this verse of Divani
Shamas:
/ - , . .

,
. < .

Rumis view is based on a tradition which Nicholson has quoted:
| , , _ v ,


246
Islamic period, had a dignity and independence not
found later, and early Arabic literature reveals a feeling
even of chivalrous reverence to womanhood.
1

In out times Benazir Bhutto,
2
who was elected Pakistans
Prime Minister twice, writes clearly and forcefully.
Understanding the role of women in Islam requires that
the Muslim Holy text be looked at in the proper context.
The Quran was produced at a time in history when women
were seen as unequal in almost every society, especially in
the Arabian peninsula, and were often considered to be
nothing more than slaves. Girl newborns were sometimes
buried alive. We were taught Islam stood for the liberation
of humanity from the age of idol worship and darkness.
Islam prohibited the killing of girls and gave women the
right to divorce, child custody, alimony, and inheritance
long before Western societies adopted these principles.
Islam stresses the importance of education and
knowledge, of compassion and taking care of the weak,
the poor and the depressed.
3
Thus the message of Islam is
pro-womens rights.
4

She continues writing forcefully and truthfully:

1
Margaret Smith, p.122.
2
God be pleased with her. She was brutally assassinated and her story of
assassination is still a mystery.
3
Unfortunately if not very surprisingly women are thrown into the cells of ignorance
and darkness. I have heard people say that women should neither read nor write so
that they cannot express themselves. A bureaucrat in Kashmir said to me that the
earnings of a woman are HARAM (denied as impure). People feel very happy and
satisfied when they see women weak and serving them as servants. Shame!
4
Reconciliation, Islam, Democracy and the West, pp 39-40

247
in Islam there is no distinction between the sexes. In
fact, it is quite remarkable, given the social conditions of
seventh century Arabia, that Islam advocated religious
gender equality that took the rest of the world centuries
to reach. However, sadly for me, the message of
emancipation of women proclaimed by Islam is hardly to
be seen in Most Islamic countries. Instead tribal
traditions and the values of subjugation spawned by
authoritarian systems have robbed women of their
Islamic rights to gender equality.
1
One of most essential
components of religious pilgrimage known as Haj and
Umrah is the Tawaf, the circling of the Kabah seven
times. And from the birth of Islam to this very day, the
millions who circle the Kabah are men and women
together, together as equals under Allah. There is no
separation; there is no hierarchy. There is equality.
The Quran goes further giving women property
rights:
men shall have the benefit of what they earn and women
shall have the benefit of what they earn. Women can
earn money, and what they earn is theirs. This gives
them an autonomy almost unheard of in many parts of
the world in the twenty first century. And the Holy Book,
the words of Allah revealed to the Prophet, consistently
goes out of its way to make the point of sexual equality...
Stylistically and grammatically, it would have been

1
One doesnt know for certain and for what reasons ZA Bhutto or Benazir didnt
liberate women of Pakistan fundamentally from economic subjugation and drudgery.
No radical constitutional reforms were made, nothing practical was done, except of
causes to bring S Rehman to the forefront. Was US or the West responsible.

248
sufficient for the Quran to state that all or all people
will be allotted what they earn. But it underscores the
deliberate and emphatic gender equality by repeating the
prescription for men and for women, making it clear, so
that there can be no confusion not only are men and
women equal but women are clearly demarked as wage
earners. In Islam, a womens place is not necessarily
always in the home. It was not true for the Prophets
SAW

wife
AS
, who was a successful business women, .
1

In the following words Benazir Bhutto singles out how the Quran
safeguards womens interest, especially of those women whose
orphanage is exploited for reasons of money and property. She says:
Men who marry propertied female orphans are also
warned against marrying them for their money and then
siphoning off their properties. The Quran makes it clear
that the property, even after marriage, belongs to the
woman and must not be taken over by the husband on
the grounds of marital bonds.
2

To celebrate the honourableness of women in Islam furthermore, we
shall go to the golden period and quote a Sufi or a saint of
eminence, Shaikh Farid-ud-din Attar:
The holy prophets have laid it down that God does not
look upon your outward forms. It is not the outward form
that matters, but the inner purpose of the heart, as the
Prophet said, the people are assembled (on the Day of
Judgment) according to the purpose of their hearts so
also Abbas of Tus said that when on the Day of

1
Ibid., pp. 44-45.
2
Ibid, p.47 (Benazir quotes the Quran, Chap 4, Verse, 127.)

249
Resurrection the summons goes forth, O men, the first
person to set foot in that class of men (i.e those who are to
enter Paradise) will be Mary, upon whom be peace The
true explanation of this fact (that women count for as
much as men among the saints) is that wherever these
people, the Sufis, are, they have no separate existence in
the Unity of God.
1

Some like Karen Armstrong say that mystics have a reverence for
femalehood as incarnation of God and that the inscrutable essence
of God al Dhat (
. =
) is feminine. Mohi-ud-din Ibni Arabis
Nizam, the most pure, as he called her, brought him an aura in
which be realized Divine Wisdom. Allegories like Yusof Zulaikha,
Lala Majnoon, Wamiq Uzra, Shirin Khusroo and many others reveal
how important a part women play in the life of men to achieve
spiritual excellence. The chapter 12 of the Quran is wholly devoted
to the basic idea of the beauty of Hazrat Yosof
AS
and the cutting of
fingers of Egyptian women to see his glowing grace. The wife of
Aziz (Egyptian king) falls in love with Yosof
AS
and tears his shirt in
the back. Had it been possible for Gnostics to explain for every Tom
Dick and Harry this Quranic allegory we would know astonishingly
important secrets about man-woman creation schemed by God. But
certainly Shaikh Samoon in Attars Conference of Birds, Zulaikha,
in Jamis allegory, and Shirin Farhad in Nizamis allegory are of
utmost significance to those who understand. These three
personalites Attar, Jami and Nizami are so great in Islam that we
cannot ignore them or avoid them. If we add more to this list, then

1
Margaret Smith, p.2. (She has herself taken the quote from TAZKIRAT UL AULIYA of
Attar).

250
we have Rumi, Sanai, Sadi and Khiyyam whose Persian poetry is
not superb only but very meaningfully fruitful for our spiritual
relations with God. We cannot forget mentioning Hafiz Shirazi
whose lyrics are far more important than allegories at least to the
lovers of music and love. This is not to deny that thousands of other
poets outside or inside Islam have not used love as the primary force
to reach God! Only an instance of Kashmiri poetry as of Rahim
Sahab of Sopore, Nema Sahab, Shamas Faqir and Rasul Mir is
sufficient to say that these are the people who understand man-
woman relationship on equal footing as a ladder to reach the heights
of spirituality.
History records the greatness of many women who due to their
ability and skill have empowered their own life but have over-
brimmed their personal worth and quality to pour it into common
good. Such women besides being creative in arts, sciences and
literature have as activists remoulded community experiences,
reformed culture or even rediscovered channels through which to
pour creative and constructive urge. Some of them have been saints,
seers and sufis or pious recluses. While ladies of other religions
have left behind them good records of good deeds, Muslim women
have not lagged behind. They have been Arabs, non-Arabs, Iranians,
Indians, Turks and West Asians, to deal with their prominent works
may mean to go beyond the scope of this book. We shall, however,
mention some Indian women like Razia Sultana, Nur Jehan, Jahan
Ara, Habba Khatoon, Lala Arifa and so on. While Razias father
chose her over his sons, Nur Jahan helped Jehangir greatly in
matters of administration and scholastic interest. Jehan Aras

251
association with her scholar and mystic brother Darashikoh was of
tremendous importance and her interest in spiritual field
praiseworthy. She was a great literary woman too. Her dislike for
Aurangzebs dogmatic approach and her differences with her sister
for being a pawn of the emperor proved that she was not only a
Godly person but a brave lady too. Lala Arifa of Kashmir was a
great fan of Shah Hamadan
RA
and her spiritual legacy is being
honoured in Kashmir with passion and prestige!
All what we said so far to open up the revolutionary meanings
of BIAYYI ZANBIN QUTILAT does not stop us from knowing
that human nature in general is neither an unchangeable phenomena
nor something in the making of which environmental forces in the
evolution of man have not played a part. Man is not today what he
was in the past, nor is woman. As life went on taking forward steps,
men continued growing stronger and women weaker in general. Life
has always been a power game. Whosoever has might has right also.
The strange thing to notice is that wherever women find a chance
and an opportunity, they play the same role towards men as man
plays towards them. A propertied woman may treat her man as a
servant if the poor fellow is poor or weak. Similarly a woman in
power may approach the male members of her family toughly or,
may be, rudely. It has been seen that even very intelligent women
make their husbands hen-pecked
1
if the poor fellows are not sharp
and smart. It can be said in the same vein that modern woman even

1
The most intelligent men, more so if they are strong in all respects, want to see
themselves benefited. Then bravest of all men are those who give their wives an idea
that they are their soft friends who can be played with. A woman deserves
unbounded love by an intellectually grown up man/ husband.

252
in higher circles of Muslim countries may change roles with their
men. Sometimes men can take care of women and sometimes
women of men. This also may happen that women may refuse to be
taken care of. And mens rough attitudes can also be seen growing
softer in such societies, may be because their women prove equal in
rank and file, behave intelligently and wisely, go shoulder to
shoulder with men to understand and enjoy life equally through
thick and thin. We may also see that women are losing their
classical grace due to mechanical culture that is grinding them in the
same way as it does men. May be they also show signs of stress and
stressful behaviour as do the men do. Hollowness of mind and
character may hit women as it hits men and they also may behave in
pseudo- masochistic way inside or outside the family. Family may
lose grip on women because of its static nature or monotony but
wherever family may prove that children are less expensive than
dance and dancing pranks, both men and women can play table
tennis in their own drawing rooms or even bedrooms. But BIAYYI
ZANBIN still proves, in more ways than one, that multitudes of
women have suffered and are suffering, perhaps more cruelly now
than before. As long as selfishness and greed dominate there will be
more hide and seek in human relations and more pretexts to rule
over the weak, man or woman. There will be more use and throw
articles of consumption around than live and let live friends or
life-time partners. Above all, as long as man remains lost in his own
imbalanced life, he may show more disturbed behaviour traits than
existentially matured character-designs in his dealings with people,
particularly women!

253
At the end of this chapter we shall now point out the most
undesirable shape that man-woman relations have taken in our
times, also in the Muslim world. Women are not buried alive but the
new graves that have been discovered to bury them are very
dangerous. These graves do not devour women at once; they devour
them slowly and steadily. One of the horrible graves is ignorance.
We have mentioned it somewhere but only as a casual reference.
Ignorance is an antonym of awareness or knowledge. It is blindness.
It is living like a dead coal. Though there is no absolute ignorance
possible with men but we want to show that most people including
especially women are awfully ignorant. They are ignorant due to
poverty, due to greed, due to exploitation, due to childlabour or
caste or backwardness which so-called religions impose upon men
and women. When ignorance is imposed on women, for the sake of
self-designed religion or gender inequality, it takes the most
depressive shape. Many young girls all over the world, even in
Muslim countries, are not schooled or are taken off from basic
schools earlier with the consideration that they do not require any
reading or writing. They are by nature designed and designated as
future-mothers and in motherhood responsibilities no education is
required. Astonishingly it is said that education damages
motherhood because educated mothers read books or write or listen
to poetry or song and are careless about family affairs or even
husbands. Moreover, devils find their mischievous places in their
minds and they plan things against traditions and traditional living.
All these behaviour traits, these self-styled ideas are the products of
ignorance. Wherever there is education, there is light and wherever

254
there is light there is better family living, better human relations,
better culture, better opportunity to enjoy life, better capacity to
advance life, and better capacity to seek nearness to God. If there
arent, there is not real education; there may be schooling and
certification and a false idea that mere reading and writing make
education. One who is enlightened will see that man or woman is
the best creation of God and should, therefore, be treated as such
mutually. But throughout history women have remained uneducated
and ignorant as compared to men. Even today they are jostled back
and admissions to institutions, particularly higher, are denied to
them. How disgusting they are like animals thrown into the cells of
homes to breed children, for narcotic drugs and drug trafficking!
But even outside schools their eyes are blindfolded. They cant see
what men are doing, how they are making money, how they are
killing people, how they are involved in violence and mega-death,
how they build palaces and turn arid lands into lawns and gardens,
how in hotels and houses CD players and recorders engage men in
activities that baffle even devils and demons, how side by side with
modern Hitlerian criminals Muslims are pouring streams of
diamond and goal to hatch plots against the poor, the downtrodden
and the weak at a large scale, larger than imagination can cover up.
Women cannot object because they cannot see, they cannot see
because they are imprisoned into their kitchens where smoke and
dirt and childrens refuse make a hell of their life. This is happening
day in and day out and will happen tomorrow and the day after and
upto eternity. Capitalism and its hostage Islam cannot allow
removal of these horrible sights which like fetters bind Muslims in

255
chains everywhere. Let us wait for Mehdi
1
who will tear out this
HIJAB!
Yet another grave to bury woman alive is a well-planned, well
programmed propaganda that women and shame, women and
morals and women and family welfare are the urgent needs of today
which cannot be sacrificed at any cost. One doesnt understand what
shame is? One needs take a magazine or a newspaper in hand to see
naked pictures of women to boost production and sales of consumer
goods produced in machines at a very large scale. Who designs
these pictures? Who publishes them? Who is attracted by them?
Who are mesmerized by this pictorial nakedness? Who by didnt of
this commercial religion of today motivates and persuades to
cabaret and immoral traffic? Who is persuaded, male or female?
Why are clerics of Islam silent? Dont they have the capacity of
reading between the lines or even looking at the newspapers
pictures? We are not referring to obscene writings, obscene pictures,
blue films and so on. We are also not inviting the attention of the
managers of religious institutions to songs of all kinds in which
morals are ground like pepper and salt to add pain to the wounds
that modern commercial culture has inflicted in humanitys soul!
We are only pointing out senility of religions, which pushes back
the poor mother to drudgery and tragedy. We are in no way and
under no circumstance against creative religion. We honour it
because it has always and everywhere helped mankind to seek God

1
But who is going to be the Mehdi, I do not know. So far there are no preparations, no
signs for this Masiha, this saviour of mankind. The most horrible Satans wearing
dazzling garbs only kill time and engage mankind in ever new dramas the tragedy of
which is ignorance and open loot, miserable living and mega-death.

256
and eternal peace. But we are pointing to hijacked religion which is
used by the muscleman of the worst kind to conserve and nourish
backwardness in which woman is the worst sufferer. Womens
suffering leads to semi-genocide because women are the mothers of
children who constitute mankind. A backward woman gives birth to
an abnormal child. The more the abnormality of children, the more
the abnormality of the society in which such children are born.
One doesnt understand why morals are thrust on women only.
Men go about bearheaded, use half trousers or jeans, wear
obnoxiously tight clothes and ill-mannerly printed T-shirts and
shoes. They exhibit half naked bodies, dress hair like drug addicts,
wear gold chains and iron bracelets like women and drive bikes at a
fast speed on roads and lanes conventionally built for conventional
traffic. They use pullovers and paints, coats and jackets or any other
materials that modern age designs and styles with suggestive make.
They can smoke or chew gums in arrogant ways or indulge in loud
talking, jeering, shouting, street rocking and unparliamentary
language and thoughts particularly where women are seen shopping
or traveling or walking or what have you. All this is allowed
1
for
Romeos but Juliets have either to keep indoors or wear long robes to
show bashfulness and honour that men call female gene. A woman
wearing tight clothes is a point of discussion in coffee houses or on
the road side or in social gatherings. Well read people may talk very

1
This is not to be said that men should not be modern in terms of their dress and habit
but they also have a duty to be genuinely respectful to women and elders and not to
behave like beasts on roadside and public places. And if modern ways of dressing
and going about are good for males, why not for females? Do men have a special
prerogative to life and living?

257
loosely about women who work in hospitals or teach in schools or
are seen in TV and radio stations or are detected listening to pop
songs. Such men may themselves indulge in corruption in
government offices or politics or courts and so on. The same man,
be he a brother, a husband or even a father may deliver on women
folk of the family all kinds of moral lessons, using often very tough
language. Whatever is done by the male world in the immoral sense
pricks the conscience of men (if they have it) and then in that mood
when they face women, they shower at them morals to their
satisfaction. But again their fish-hunts may make moral waters
muddy but the mud will be brazenly slung at the face of women.
One shivers to the bone when one observes women exploited
even for food. Men must eat first and also the best possible
preparations arranged by women in conventional kitchens.
Whatever is left is then eaten by women most of whom do not mind
the discriminatory treatment. After all men are men, they should be
given the best, more so if women are religiously faithful and
dedicated to husbands and male children, is being exchanged
around stream ghats wherefrom village women draw water even
these days of public health engineering
1
facility. Similarly milk,
curds and eggs and fruit is served to males on priority basis. Even
women care for male children more than they do for females.

1
Women in the village go for miles, pitchers on their heads, to fetch water and make
frequent rounds to do it. Their children, especially female ones, play with rubbish and
dust till the water drawing business is over. Then they cook, wash clothes, look
after animals and go to forms with basketful of foods for males. Many women work
in paddy fields half naked amongst men who are in no way prepared to allow giving
up Hijab.

258
Disgust reaches its height when one sees these things with ones
eyes. Girls stare with doleful eyes when their siblings or juniors or
elders (males) wear fashionably tailored clothes and they
themselves find only those garments on their bodies which cover
them. Shouldnt under these circumstances those men be considered
as saints who with love and affection feed their baby girls and bring
them good clothes and other dress materials? But the fault of
discriminating girls or women lies somewhere else. It lies with
economic systems that take care of middle classes and higher ranks
of society where women do not have problems of food and clothing,
though where yet very complex ways of discrimination against
women can be seen, however. It is so disgusting that even in the
writings of Benazir Bhutto discriminations against such women as
are born in rich families, of feudal lords also, can be traced out. One
does not hesitate in pointing out that even that poor fellow could not
save herself from the long nails of her family which too was
patriarchal!
Islam as we have seen so far, did historically acclaimed jobs
of helping the weak and the downtrodden including especially
women. Men have always tried to weave webs and snares around
them so that their menial subordinate roles are conserved. Islam,
very emphatically, has liberated at least their mind to seeing that
they are as good human beings as men are in the eyes of God and
that they are like men free to improve upon their life so that they
fulfil their promise of returning to their origin God. We fully
appreciate that women in Islam are busy in regaining the place

259
Islam has granted them in the Quran.
1
But we conclude this chapter
with a melancholy strain over Mula Sadras attitude and Hadi
Subzevaris support to this attitude as exposed by Abdolkarim
Sarosh in his book and notes thereon. We categorically refuse to
accept their stand on women. Sarosh writes:
The text of Mulla Sadra is as follows:
and (one of the providential creatures of God on earth is
the animal kingdom ) some of whom are for eating, some
for riding and adornment; some are beasts of burden and
others are for elegance and comfort. Yet others are created
for copulation. Others are used to furnish clothes and
furniture.
Haji Mulla Hadi Sabzevari adds in the following
commentary on the margins of the above texts:
Three is a subtle point in the fact that Mulla Sadra has
relegated women to the rank of animals. This means that

1
Reza Aslan writes in his book No God But God (pp 73-74): Today throughout the
Muslim world, a whole new generations of contemporary female textual scholars is
reengaging the Quran from a perspective that has been sorely lacking in Islamic
scholarship. Beginning with the notion that it is not the moral teachings of Islam but
the social conditions of seventh-century Arabia and the rampant misogyny of male
Quranic exegetes that has been responsible for their inferior status in Muslim
society, these women are approaching the Quran free from the confines of traditional
gender boundaries. Amina Waduds instructive book Quran and Women: Rereading
the sacred text from a Womans Perspective provides the template for this
movement, though Wadud is by no means alone in her endeavour. Muslim feminists
throughout the world have been labouring towards a more gender-neutral-
interpretation of the Quran and a more balanced application of Islamic law while at
the same time struggling to inject their religious and political views into the male-
dominated, conservative societies in which they live. Muslim feminists do not
perceive their cause as a mere social reform movement; they consider it as a
religious obligation?

260
due to the general defectiveness of their reason, their
weakness in perception of details and their inclination
towards the trinkets of this world, the women are truly and
justly ranked as dumb animals. They are often created with
the character of domestic beasts but God has given them a
human appearance so that men are not repelled by their
appearance and will have intercourse with them. This is
why men are empowered by the religious law in such
matters as divorce and insubordination of spouses and the
like.
1

Mohammad, the beloved of mankind, peace be upon him and
his progeny, left behind him daughters. To conclude discussions,
those who love him should follow his Sunnah and honour and
revere womankind!


1
Abdolkarim Saroash: Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam, p.223.