Holy Quran says(Surah 2-AL-Baqarah verses 183-185 and 187)
183.O you who believe! Observing As-Saum (the fasting)[]
is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before
you, that you may become Al-Muttaqűn (the pious).
184.[Observing Saum (fasts)] for a fixed number of days,
but if any of you is ill or on a journey, the same number
(should be made up) from other days. And as for those who
can fast with difficulty, (e.g. an old man, etc.), they
have (a choice either to fast or) to feed a Miskîn (poor
person) (for every day). But whoever does good of his own
accord, it is better for him. And that you fast, it is
better for you if only you know.
185.The month of Ramadân in which was revealed the Qur'ân,
a guidance for mankind and clear proofs for the guidance
and the criterion (between right and wrong). So whoever of
you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month
(of Ramadân i.e. is present at his home), he must observe
Saum (fasts) that month, and whoever is ill or on a
journey, the same number [of days which one did not observe
Saum (fasts) must be made up] from other days. Allâh
intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things
difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the
same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allâh
[i.e. to say Takbîr (Allâhu-Akbar; Allâh is the Most Great)
on seeing the crescent of the months of Ramadân and
Shawwâl] for having guided you so that you may be grateful
to Him.
187.It is made lawful for you to have sexual relations with
your wives on the night of As-Saum (the fasts).They are
Lîbas [i.e. body cover, or screen, or Sakan, (i.e. you
enjoy the pleasure of living with her - as in Verse 7:189)
Tafsir At-Tabarî], for you and you are the same for them.
Allâh knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He
turned to you (accepted your repentance) and forgave you.
So now have sexual relations with them and seek that which
Allâh has ordained for you (offspring), and eat and drink
until the white thread (light) of dawn appears to you
distinct from the black thread (darkness of night), then
complete your Saum (fast) till the nightfall. And do not
have sexual relations with them (your wives) while you are
in I'tikâf (i.e. confining oneself in a mosque for prayers
and invocations leaving the worldly activities) in the
mosques. These are the limits (set) by Allâh, so approach
them not. Thus does Allâh make clear His Ayât (proofs,
evidences, lessons, signs, revelations, verses, laws, legal
and illegal things, Allâh's set limits, orders, etc.) to
mankind that they may become Al-Muttaqűn .
Prophet Muhammad's (peace be upon him) sayings:
(Hadith)
Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him)
said; "Allah Subhanawatala says: "All other deeds of man
are for himself, but his fasting is purely for Me and I
shall reward him for it.
The fast is a shield. When any of you is fasting, he should
eschew loose talk and noisy exchanges. Should anyone revile
him or seek to pick a quarrel with him, he should respond
by saying: "I am observing a fast.
By Him in Whose hands is the life of Muhammad (peace be
upon him), the breath of one who is fasting is purer in the
sight of Allah than the fragrance of musk.
One who fasts experiences two joys: he is joyful when he
breaks his fast, and he is joyful by virtue of his fast
when he meets his Lord."
DU'A (Supplication)
Allah! We seek Your pleasure to guard against Your anger
and Your mercy to guard against Your punishment,how much we
try to praise You,we cannot praise You as much as You have
praised Yourself.
We ask You, our Lord, to give us merit in this world and a
merit in the Hereafter,and to protect us from the agony of
Fire.
Allah! Save us from disease, agony, enemy's temptation's
and ill fate.Let us live a happy and healthy life and
spread the message of peace to humanity.O Allah give us
patience to face difficult times and to win against our
enemies and enemies of our faith.
Allah! Protect us during our stay on earth and under it and
during the Day of Judgment,O You All Merciful.
Allah! We ask You to forgive our sins before we leave this
place and to let our good efforts be met with Your
gratitude,our good deeds be profitable and our deeds
successful,O You the Most Merciful.
Allah!Teach us what is useful and let us benefit from what
You have taught us.
Allah! Guard us with Islam all the times whether we are
standing,sitting or lying.Protect us from the malicious
acts of the enemy and the envious.
Allah! We ask You for guidance,piety,virtuousness and
affluence.
Allah! Let us be of those who do Halal things mentioned in
the Qur'an and avoid Haram things mentioned in it.Let us be
of those who recite it well and understand its explicit
meanings as well as the hidden meanings.
O Allah! Let the Qur'an be our means for the nice dresses
and shadows and attaining graces and avoiding curses,help
us to recite it all day and night in the way that pleases
Your Lordship.O Allah!Let it be a cure for our hearts and a
remedy for our diseases and let it be our savior from the
Fire.
O Allah! Let us be amongst the people of the Qur'an Who are
the closest people to You.O You the Merciful of all.
O Allah! Purify our souls from hypocrisy,our tongues from
lying and our eyes from envy and treachery.You know the
treacherous eyes and what is buried in the hearts.
O Allah!Let us be among those who called You and had their
calls accepted,those Who asked for Your guidance and were
guided,who sought Your victory and were given,who relied on
You and were sufficed,and those who repented and got their
repentance accepted.Amin.
Ramadam Reading Material: last week we looked at the life
of Imam Malik and his School of Thought(maliki School of
Jurisprudence well known for adhering to the Sunnah of
Rasullah)Today,we continue the issue by looking at the life
and work of Imam Abu Hanifa,Imam of the Hanife School of
Jurisprudence,the largest within Sunni Islam.
Within the Sunni Muslim tradition, Hanafi is one of four
“schools of law” and considered the oldest and most liberal
school of law. Hanafi is one of the four schools of thought
(madhabs / Maddhab) of religious jurisprudence (fiqh)
within Sunni Islam. Named for its founder, the Hanafi
school of Imam Abu Hanifa, it is the major school of Iraqi
Sunni Arabs. It makes considerable use of reason or opinion
in legal decisions. Sunni Hanafi creed is essentially
non-hierarchial and decentralized, which has made it
difficult for 20th century rulers to incorporate its
religious leaders into strong centralized state systems.
The Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence was founded by
Abu Hanifa, born in Kufa, Iraq about A.D.700. He was one of
the earliest Muslim scholar-interpreters to seek new ways
of applying Islamic tenets to everyday life. In his
lifetime Abu Hanifa was disgraced, called ignorant,
inventor of new beliefs, hypocrite and kafir. He was
imprisoned and poisoned. He died in 150 A.H. [circa 767-768
C.E.]. Abu Hanifa's interpretation of Muslim law was
extremely tolerant of differences within Muslim
communities. He also separated belief from practice,
elevating belief over practice. Hanafi took Shafi as his
rival and vice versa.
Most of the Hanafi school follows al-Maturidi in doctrine.
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu Mansur al-Samarqandi
al-Maturidi al-Hanafi (d. 333) of Maturid in Samarqand,
Shaykh al-Islam, was one of the two foremost Imams of the
mutakalliműn of Ahl al-Sunna. He was known in his time as
the Imam of Guidance (Imâm al-Hudâ). The majority of the
former Taliban are Maturidis.
Broad-minded without being lax, this school appeals to
reason (personal judgment) and a quest for the better. It
is generally tolerant(except the Taliban) and the largest
movement within Islam. The Hanafi school is known for its
liberal religious orientation that elevates belief over
practice and is tolerant of differences within Muslim
communities.
Hanafi scholars refuse to control a human religious or
spiritual destiny, and refuse to give that right to any
human institution. Among the Hudud crimes, those crimes
against God, blasphemy is not listed by the Hanafis.
Hanafis concluded that blasphemy could not be punished by
the state. The state should not be involved in deciding
God-human relationships. Rather, the state should be
concerned only with the violation of human rights within
the jurisdiction of the human affairs and human
relationships.
Notwithstanding their common heritage from Imam Abu
Hanifah, the scholars belonging to the Hanafi madhhab are
divided in the Barelvi and the Deobandi school, and these
two schools have different attitude toward Wahhabism.
The Sunni Hanafi school is dominant in the Arab Middle
East, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The followers of
Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 767) are found in Pakistan, India,
Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, China, North Africa,
Egypt, and in the Malay Archipelago. The school is followed
by the majority of the Muslim population of Turkey,
Albania, the Balkans, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
China, India and Iraq. Most of the Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims
of the Hanafi school. Ethnic Kazakhs, who constitute
approximately one half of the national population,
historically are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi School. Ethnic
Uzbeks, Uyghurs, and Tatars, comprising less than 10
percent of the population, also largely are Sunni Hanafi.
Other Islamic groups, which account for less than 1 percent
of the population of Kazakhstan, include Shafit Sunni
(traditionally practiced by Chechens),Shiite, Sufi, and
Akhmadi.
Sunni are found throughout Afghanistan. An estimated 84% of
Afghanistan's population is Sunni, following the Hanafi
school of jurisprudence; the remainder is predominantly
Shi'a, mainly Hazara. In March 2003 Ayatollah Mohammad Asef
Mohseni, leader of the predominantly Shia Harakat-e
Islami-yi Afghanistan, proposed that, along with the Sunni
Hanafi school of jurisprudence, the Shia Ja'fari school of
jurisprudence be included in the new constitution as an
official sect.
Deobandis and Barelvis are the two major groups of Muslims
in the Subcontinent apart from the Shia. Barelvi Hanafis
deem Deobandis to be kaafir. Those hostile to the Barelvis
deprecated them as the shrine-worshipping, the
grave-worshiping, ignorant Barelvis. Much smaller sects in
Pakistan include the Ahl-e-Hadees and Ahl-e-Tashee. The
non-Pakhtun population of Pakistan is predominantly
Barelvi. The stronghold of Barelvism remains Punjab, the
largest province of Pakistan. By one estimate, in Pakistan,
the Shias are 18%, ismailis 2%, Ahmediyas 2%, Barelvis 50%,
Deobandis 20%, Ahle Hadith 4%, and other minorities 4%. The
Ahle-e-Hadith is a small group of Sunni Muslims in India
who do not consider themselves bound by any particular
school of law and rely directly on the Prophet’s Sunnah. By
another estimate some 15 per cent of Pakistan's Sunni
Muslims would consider themselves Deobandi, and some 60 per
cent, are in the Barelvi tradition based mostly in the
province of Punjab. But some 64 per cent of the total
seminaries are run by Deobandis, 25 per cent by the
Barelvis, six percent by the Ahle Hadith and three percent
by various Shiite organisations.
The Muslim League was founded by the Aga Khan, leader of
the Ismaili Sevener Shiites. And Mohammed Jinnah(father of
Pakistan) was an Ismaili. The barelvis and shias and
ismailis and Ahmediyas joined the Pakistan movement, while
the deobandis opposed the formation of Pakistan, since they
wanted to islamise all of India. But the Deobandis in
Pakistan owed their allegiance to Maulana Shabbir Ahmed
Usmani,who organized the Deobandi ulema who were in favour
of Pakistan into the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam. The so-called
"nationalist Muslims" who opposed Partition, such as
Maulana Azad and Maulana Maudoodi, were Sunnis.
The differences between these sects can be difficult to
understand. For the Barelvis, (who are mostly from the
Pakistan province of Punjab) the holy Prophet is a
superhuman figure whose presence is all around us at all
times; he is hazir, present; he is not bashar, material or
flesh, but nur, light. The Deobandis, who also revere the
Prophet, argue he was the insan-i-kamil, the perfect
person, but still only a man, a mortal. Barelvis emphasise
a love of Muhammad, a semi-divine figure with unique
foreknowledge. The Deobandis reject this idea of Muhammad,
emphasising Islam as a personal rather than a social
religion.
The Barelvis follow many Sufi practices, including use of
music (Qawwali) and intercession by their teacher. A key
difference between Barelvi and Deobandi that Barelvi's
believe in intercession between humans and Divine Grace.
This consists of the intervention of an ascending, linked
and unbroken chain of holy personages, pirs, reaching
ultimately to Prophet Mohammad, who intercede on their
behalf with Allah. It is a more superstitious - but also a
more tolerant - tradition of Indian Islam. Their critics
claim that Barelvis are guilty of committing innovation
(Bid’at) and therefore, they are deviated from the true
path - the path of Sunnah.
The Pakistan Movement got support from the Barelvis (Low
Church). It had faced opposition from the National Indian
Congress which was supported by the Deobandi seminaries
(High Church). However, after the establishment of Pakistan
as an Islamic state in 1949, Barelvi Low Church was too
mixed up with mysticism to be a source of Islamic law.
Ironically, Pakistan moved away from the 'spiritual
pluralism' of the Barelvis, who had supported Pakistan, and
relied on the more puritanical Deobandis who had opposed
it.
Unlike the Deobandis, the Barelvis see the Prophet Mohammad
as more than a man, a part of the divine light of Allah.
This doctrine gives rise to a form of Islam that provides a
space for holy men and esoteric practices and graves appear
to be often more ornate than those found within Deobandi
communities. The Wahhabi (Arabia), Deobandi (Pakistan and
India) and Jamaat-I-Islami all are anti-sufi, and against
the over devotion to Muhammad, whereas the Barelvis
emphasize Muhammad's uniqueness. Indeed, nearly 85% of
South Asia’s Sunni Muslims are said to follow the Barelvi
school, closer to Sufism. The remaining 15% of Sunnis
follow the Deobandi school, more closely related to the
conservative practice of Islam. Most Shiites in the
subcontinent also tend to be influenced by the Sufis.
Pakistan’s Muslims, like other Muslims in the region, tend
to follow a school of Islam which is less conservative, and
hence the support for strongly and overtly religious
parties has been minimal.
The Barelvis believe the Prophet is a human being made from
flesh and blood [bashar] and a noor [light] at the same
time. This is like the example of when Gabriel, who is also
noor [light], used to appear to the Prophet in the form of
a man, flesh and blood. He is infallible and perfect and
free from all imperfections and sinless (as are all
Prophets). He is human but not like other humans. Allah has
given him the ability to see the whole of Creation in
detail while he is in his blessed grave as if he was
looking at it in the palm of his hand. This is called being
"nazir" ("witnessing"). Allah has given him the ability to
go physically and spiritually to anywhere in the Created
Universes he pleases whenever he pleases (peace be upon
him) and to be in more than one place at the same time.
This is what is meant by "hazir" (present). This is not the
same as believing that he (peace be upon him) is present
everywhere all the time!
The northern Indian Deobandi school argues that the reason
Islamic societies have fallen behind the West in all
spheres of endeavor is because they have been seduced by
the amoral and material accoutrements of Westernization,
and have deviated from the original pristine teachings of
the Prophet.
Deoband is a town a hundred miles north of Delhi where a
madrasa (religious school) was established there in 1867.
The so-called 'Deobandi Tradition' itself is much older
than the eponymous Dar-Ul-Ulum at Deoband. The Deoband
madrasa brought together Muslims who were hostile to
British rule and committed to a literal and austere
interpretation of Islam.
For the last 200 years, Sunnis often have looked to the
example of the Deoband madrassa (religious school) near
Delhi, India. The Deoband school has long sought to purify
Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the
faith and reemphasizing the models established in the Koran
and the customary practices of the Prophet Mohammed.
Additionally, Deobandi scholars often have opposed what
they perceive as Western influences.
Just as Sikhs originated from Hinduism, but are not Hindus,
and Protestants came from Roman Catholicism, but are not
Catholics, similarly, the Deobandi sect originated in the
Sunni community, but are not strictly Sunnis. The tack of
Darul Uloom Deoband is in accordance with the Ahlus-Sunnah
wal-Jama'ah, Hanafiate practical method (Mazhab) and the
disposition (Mashrab) of its holy founders, Hazrat Maulana
Mohammad Qasim Nanautavi (Allah's mercy be on him!) and
Hazrat Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi (may his secret be
sanctified).
The Deobandi interpretation holds that a Muslim's first
loyalty is to his religion and only then to the country of
which he is a citizen or a resident; secondly, that Muslims
recognise only the religious frontiers of their Ummah and
not the national frontiers; thirdly,that they have a sacred
right and obligation to go to any country to wage jihad to
protect the Muslims of that country.
The Deobandi interpretation of Islamic teachings is widely
practiced in Pakistan. The Deobandi movement in Sunni
Islam, was founded in response to British colonial rule in
India and later hardened in Pakistan into bitter opposition
to what its members views as the country's neo-colonial
elite. The Islamic Deobandi militants share the Taliban's
restrictive view of women, and regard Pakistan's minority
Shiia as non-Muslim. They seek a pure leader, or amir, to
recreate Pakistani society according to the egalitarian
model of Islam's early days under the Prophet Mohammed.
President Musharraf himself, is a Deobandi, actually born
in the city in India, where the school took it's name.
During the first half of April 2000, the Government of
Pakistan permitted a 3-day conference organized by the
Deobandi Muslim political party Jamiat-Ulema-Islami (JUI).
Several speakers at the conference made anti-Western
political declarations. Deobandi and Barelvi sects
struggled, sometimes violently, for control over local
mosques in Lahore neighborhoods.
The fundamentalist Deoband Dar-ul-Uloom brand of Islam
inspired the Taliban movement and had widespread appeal for
Muslim fundamentalists. Most of the Taliban leadership
attended Deobandi-influenced seminaries in Pakistan. The
Taliban was propped up initially by the civil government of
Benazir Bhutto, then in coalition with the Deobandi
Jama'at-ulema Islam (JUI) led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman [who
by 2003 was the elected opposition leader at the Center in
Islamabad and whose protégé is now the chief Minister in
the NWFP]. Traditionally, Sunni Islam of the Hanafi school
of jurisprudence was the dominant religion of Afganistan.
The Taliban also adhered to the Hanafi school of Sunni
Islam, making it the dominant religion in the country for
most of 2001. For the last 200 years, Sunnis often have
looked to the example of the Deoband madrassah (religious
school) near Delhi, India. Most of the Taliban leadership
attended Deobandi-influenced seminaries in Pakistan. The
Deoband school has long sought to purify Islam by
discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith
and reemphasizing the models established in the Koran and
the customary practices of the Prophet Mohammed.
Additionally, Deobandi scholars often have opposed what
they perceive as Western influences. Much of the population
adheres to Deobandi-influenced Hanafi Sunnism, but a
sizable minority adheres to a more mystical version of
Sunnism generally known as Sufism. Sufism centers on orders
or brotherhoods that follow charismatic religious leaders.
Although the majority of the Islamic population (Sunni) in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, belong to the Hanafi sect, the
theologians who have pushed Pakistan towards Islamic
Radicalism for decades, as well as the ones who were the
founders of the Taliban, espoused Wahabi rhetoric and
ideals. This sect took its inspiration from Saudi Hanbali
theologians who immigrated there in the 18th century, to
help their Indian Muslim brothers with Hanbali theological
inspiration against the British colonialists. Propelled by
oil-generated wealth, the Wahhabi worldview increasingly
co-opted the Deobandi movement in South Asia.
Next week InshaAllah,we shall look at the two other Schools
of thought.
Have a nice and Blessed weekend,and the very best of salaam
to you all whereever you may be,but please remember that
you are an ambassador of Islam-be very courteous and polite
to your fellow human being.
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
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