Our Dialogue

Q. A friend of mine argues that the Qur’an is the complete code for human life which is guaranteed by Allah to remain intact. Since no such promise is made in respect of the Hadith, he doubts the authenticity of every Hadith, even those included in the six authentic compilations. He says that the Qur’an is, as Allah describes it, clear and easy to understand in practice. He believes that the Qur’an is sufficient to practice Islam and he rejects all Hadiths whether they relate to belief, practices or other areas. He further argues that most Muslims idolise Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh). I am aggrieved by his attitude. Will you please shed light on this subject?


A. Your friend is not the first to make such arguments, nor will he be the last. Over the years, many people have tried to belittle the importance of Hadith and Sunnah. They always argue that since the Qur’an is the word of Allah, which has been guaranteed to be preserved intact, then it is all that is needed by any person to lead an Islamic life. I am afraid that this is only one aspect of how Satan sometimes succeeds in misleading people away from the right Islamic path. I often wonder how these people can continue to claim to be Muslims, when they should realise that their argument defies the very basic requirement of faith. Everyone knows that to be a Muslim, one needs first of all to declare his belief that “there is no deity save Allah, and that Muhammad is his Messenger.” The fact that this is the main first essential of faith means that we have to have a very clear concept of Allah and we have to know the role of the messenger.


When a person declares that he believes that Muhammad is Allah’s messenger, it implies that the person is the source from which we know Allah’s message and what He requires of us. We accept no other source whatsoever. The messenger has two main functions: Conveying the message and explaining it. The Prophet has conveyed to us the Qur’an which embodies Allah’s message. He has also conveyed to us a large number of Hadiths, which provide details of what is contained in the Qur’an. We cannot say that the Qur’an is the whole of Allah’s message and every thing else may be thrown away. The other function of the Prophet is to explain Allah’s message. This he had certainly done verbally and practically. For example, it is clear from the Qur’an that Allah requires us to believe in Him. There are numerous verses which explain to us Allah’s attributes. If one believes in the existence of Allah, and is fully aware of all His attributes mentioned in the Qur’an, would he have attained the degree of the truly faithful? The answer is that he has to evaluate his faith on the basis of the criteria set by Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) in the Hadith, which explains what is the practical meaning of having faith. Take for example, the Hadith which states: “Any one of you will not have truly attained faith unless Allah and His messenger are dearer to him than anything else, and unless his love or hate of any person is based on no reason other than his faith, and unless he hates to sink back into disbelief as much as he hates to be thrown in hell fire.” We say, then, that the Qur’an outlines clearly what is required of us in respect of believing in Allah and His messenger. This Hadith tells us of a degree of faith that must be attained if we want to be true believers. Moreover, explaining the message, it comes through the practical example the Prophet has set for us, showing us what it actually means to live as true believers.


Addressing His messenger, Allah says in the Qur’an : “To you we have revealed this Reminder, so that you may make clear to mankind what has been sent down to them, and that they may give thought”. The word, “Reminder”, refers here to the Qur’an. You note that the function of explanation and clarification, which the Prophet had to do, is set clearly in the Qur’anic verse. It cannot, then, be accepted from anyone to say that he is in no need of this explanation and clarification by the Prophet and that he will deal with the Qur’an himself. It should be remembered that the Hadith has not been added by the Prophet according to his own thoughts. To say this is to betray a total lack of knowledge of the status of Hadith. It is unanimously agreed by Muslim scholars throughout the history of Islam that what the Prophet has said concerning matters of religion has been revealed to him. He expresses in his own words, the thoughts and meaning that Allah has given him. He himself adds nothing.


Your friend says that Muslims idolise Prophet Muhammad.(Pbuh). He may have a point if he is referring to the practices of some Muslims who always speak of loving the Prophet and organising celebrations where they sing, praises of the Prophet, thinking that this is all they need to do in order to please Allah and His Messenger. But your friend is totally mistaken if he is referring to what scholars and Muslims who know their religion well state all the time, that following the example of the Prophet is the way to earn Allah’s pleasure. Indeed, to follow the example of the Prophet is to do what Allah has commanded us. Furthermore, it is the practical implementation of the second half of the declaration which brings any person into the fold of Islam : That is to say, the declaration that one believes in Muhammad as the last messenger of Allah.


Your friend is also mistaken in his interpretation of the Qur’anic order that we must not differentiate between Allah’s prophets and messengers. In order to know what Allah means by this order, the best way is to look at the Qur’anic verses which mention this. Verse 150 of Surah 4, entitled “Women”, may be translated as follows : “Those who deny Allah and His Messengers, and those that draw a line between Allah and His Messenger , saying : ‘We believe in some but deny others,’ thus seeking a middle way - these indeed are the unbelievers. For the unbelievers we have prepared a humiliating punishment. As for those that believe in Allah and His Messengers and do not discriminate against any of them, they shall be rewarded by Allah.” These verses are clear in referring to believing in Allah’s messengers in a way which does not lead to the denial of any one of them.

Q. In some mosques, the imam moves forward and backward during the prayer in order to be near the microphone, but sometimes this makes his voice extremely loud. Before starting the prayer, one imam spends considerable time to ensure that the rows are straight. Another takes a relatively long time standing after rising from the position of bowing or in the sitting position between the two prostrations. Some remain silent for sometime after reading the Fatihah. Please comment on such practices.


A. There is no doubt that the imam is responsible for making the congregational prayer right. He should advise the congregation to make their rows straight and ensure that the first line is straight. But this is easy to achieve if everyone stands shoulder to shoulder with the person next to him. Some imams make strenuous efforts on this point, which reflects their keenness, but then they can easily err by being too cautious.


It is also the responsibility of the imam to ensure that the prayer is done in comfort. Nowadays, with microphones and loud speakers, noise could be very loud. He should ensure that it does not irritate his congregation by being too loud.


There are certain supplications that we are recommended to say in the positions mentioned by the reader, and in others such as prostration and bowing. However, the imam must not make his prayer, or any part of it too long, because he should consider that people might not be able to tolerate such lengthy situations. For example, a person with back pain cannot remain in bowing position too long, and an asthmatic person may find prostration too strenuous if it is made unduly long. The Prophet advised one of his companions who recited long passages of the Quran in prayer, and advised him to make his prayer short. If one is praying alone he may make his prayer as long as he wishes, but if he is leading the prayer, he should be considerate.

Q. When a friend of mine visited me at home, he looked at the hand of my seven year old son and said that according to his knowledge of palmistry, the Muslim name we have given to our son is not suitable for him, because it will bring him bad luck. He refused several alternative suggestions and then recommended the name Assad and one or two other. Is it true that a child’s name may affect his luck?


A. My advice to you is to throw everything you heard from your friend out of the window and forget all about it. The Prophet (pbuh) has condemned what fortune-tellers say and described it as “lies”, even when it happens that what they say comes true. What the Prophet (pbuh) meant is that fortune-tellers do not know anything about the future. If they say something and it happens to be like they say, they have not said it on the basis of any knowledge. It was all guess work and so their assertion that it will happen has no foundation whatsoever. As such, they are liars. It is needless to say that what proves to be false in what they say must be described as lies.


This applies to all of fortune-tellers, whether they pretend to read palms, coffee cups, consult the stars or set up a horoscope. A Muslim may not accept any of these activities. Nor may be believe anyone who pretends to be able to tell the future on any basis.


Names do not have anything to do with luck. Indeed the idea of luck is alien to Islamic thinking. What happens to us in our lives is either something we bring about or something which Allah has assigned to us. The first type is our own work; the second will happen to us no matter what name we have.

Q. A person who loses his job or money as a result of his negligence may blame Allah for that, saying that it is His will. The total earnings of a person in his lifetime is already determined by Allah. Why should a man work, then? Please explain what powers Allah has given to man. Normally we find hard workers well off, while lazy people are poor.


A. Sometimes, people find it easy to put the blame on Allah’s will for what happens to them through their faults. The example you have mentioned is a typical one. A person may be warned once or twice by his employers about his negligence, but pays no heed. Eventually, he finds himself out of job. He then starts to justify the whole thing as something that would have happened anyway, because it is Allah’s will which cannot be stopped. But what is Allah’s will in the matter?


What we have to understand is that Allah has placed man on earth and charged him with the task of building human life. He has given him the freedom of choice, which makes him able to choose, in any situation, his course of action. This ability of man is part of Allah’s will. Hence, it has to operate in human life. If it didn’t, then man would have been exactly like all animals who have no say in how they live and how they are effected by the world around them. Allah has also willed that the law of cause and effect will operate to the full in human life. Thus, if a man exposes himself to severe wintry weather, he gets cold and he feels himself in need of having a fire or a source of heating nearby. It is Allah’s will which makes man affected by weather conditions. It is also Allah’s will to give man the ability to think about what sort of action he could take to reduce the severity of the situation in which he finds himself. He thus thinks about having some sort of heating. It is Allah’s will to make man able to decide whether to switch the heating on or not. But whether man chooses to switch it on or not, it his own action, determined by his free choice. If he does, he gets warmer. If he does not, he continues to suffer in the cold. There may be some constraints, which motivate man to act in a certain fashion, but it is he who weighs up the possibilities open to him and makes his own decision. If a man decides not to switch his heater on, he cannot blame Allah’s will for being in the cold.


You can say the same about almost everything in life. A person who stays at home doing nothing will earns no wages from anywhere. He cannot blame Allah or His will for not having enough to live on. It is his own decision not to go out to work and, consequently, not to have any wages. Had he sought some employment or started some trade and, having had it, continued to discharge his duties and do his work to the best of his ability, he will have his salary or profit, as the case may be. It is Allah’s will to organise human life in such a way as to make work a means to earn a livelihood. But it is man’s choice whether to work or not.


We have to differentiate here between what Allah knows beforehand of what will happen to us during our lifetime and what He has pre-destined for us. He has certainly determined in advance the life duration of every one of us. This is only a reference to Allah’s advance knowledge of what happens to each one of us. Allah’s foreknowledge of man’s livelihood does not mean that a man will end up having the same amount of money whether he works or not. To believe this is to take a very naïve attitude. The fact is that man’s earnings are dependent on his work, but Allah who has full knowledge of everything knows in advance what sort of work every person will do and how much he will earn for it. We can compare this to the productivity of the earth. Allah has given the earth, the ability to be cultivated and to yield all sorts of agricultural produce. If man makes use of this quality which Allah has given to the earth, every one will have enough to eat. However, if man does not cultivate the earth, its surface will be covered with wild plants, few of which are edible and many are not. If man then goes hungry, he cannot put the blame on Allah. If two neighbours share a plot of land and one of them plants apple trees in his part, while the other does not, the latter cannot say that Allah’s will has prevented him from having apples in his land. When we understand this, we know why we should work in order to earn our living. If we do not, we earn nothing.

Q. Can we say that frequent occurs of natural disasters such as floods and cyclones are manifestations of Allah’s anger with some people and He punishes them with these disasters.? As it is understood from the Qur’an, when Allah chooses to inflict a collective punishment on some people, there is a definite purpose to be served by that punishment on some people. Can we determine such a purpose in what happens these days? If not, we can still consider such disasters as the working of Allah’s wrath or “ghadab”?


A. Allah mentions in the Qur’an that He has caused Pharaoh and his people to suffer a number of natural disasters, including floods and attacks by waves of locusts and other insects. He described those events as clear and detailed signs of His power, but Pharaoh and his people continued to be arrogant and maintained their criminal practices. It is noteworthy that these events are described in the Qur’an as “clear and detailed signs.” A sign is sent to a people in order to remind them of Allah’s existence and power so that they may come to believe in Him. We cannot equate such a sign with what you have termed “ghadab” or collective punishment visited on some people. A sign is sent in order to make people respond positively. Therefore, the positive response is the one sought for. A collective punishment is bound to defeat that purpose, particularly if it leaves a community in total ruin.


It is also mentioned in the Qur’an that Allah had destroyed complete nations with natural disasters or some other form of punishment because they arrogantly refused to follow the Prophets and the messengers sent to them. The people of Noah, for example, were destroyed with the flood, while the people of Aad were destroyed by winds. The fact that Allah mentions these punishments to us serves as a reminder that,. He is able to inflict similar punishments to us if we defy His laws. We should always be in fear of Allah and try best to please Him. Exerting such effort is certain to spare us any collective punishment.


Having said that, I should explain that volcanoes, cyclones, floods and other forms of natural disasters take place as a result of natural laws which Allah has set in operation. They may be caused when the fine balance Allah has placed in the universe as a whole is upset. However, when a cyclone hits certain areas, we cannot say that the people of that area have earned such a punishment by Allah. How can we tell.?+Allah is the most just as judges. If He punishes some people, His punishment is just. Allah may choose to delay punishment of others until the Day of Judgment. No one who disobeys Allah may escape punishment, unless He chooses to forgive him or her. Therefore, we should be always be in fear of incurring Allah’s anger, lest His punishment take us unawares. The Prophet (Pbuh) used to appeal to Allah for protection against causes of natural disasters. For example, when the Prophet (pbuh) heard thunder or a thunderbolt, he used to say: “My lord, do not kill us with your wrath and do not send us to perdition by inflicting suffering on us. Spare us all that, our lord.” In short, we should always maintain a balance between realizing that Allah controls all natural laws and He can easily inflict on us any type of punishment He may choose. His punishment is always just.