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07-12-2011, 01:56 AM
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 Tawhid
 Now and then I debate with atheists and agnostics (online forums, friends, collegues and so on) Over the last few months I've read a few books to increase my knowledge. And now I'm wondering whether my views are correct. I've had a debate on an atheist forum lately and my opponent asked me to shortly explain what Islam is and what we Muslims think of the west and other religions. So I wrote a short summary about Islam, mainly Tawhid (my current understanding). My question is whether someone can point out my faults, mistakes that occur within my post that are not about Islam at all. I understand very well what I'm doing, this is not the most efficient way. I remember it's a sign of the end when every human being, young or old would have an opinion. I'm currently enrolled in university, my parents would be greatly dissapointed if I gave it up or delayed it since they sacrificed a lot. The environment I am in however asks a lot of questions about my faith and I feel I'm responsible for giving them the right and appropriate answers. We Muslims often forget what an immense responsibility we have, every wrong act we commit is increased in severity because of our title as Muslim. I just hope that my views are not wrong and if they are, someone please correct me. I think there are some major mistakes in it. (I've not yet corrected the grammar). DISCLAIMER: DO NOT TAKE THIS AS AUTHENTIC. ================================================== ============ In Islam God has 99 sacred names in order for human beings to understand Him (The Most Merciful, The Avenger, The Loving, The Light and so on..). God rules and sustains the universe with the aspects of Tanzih and Tasbih. Tanzih is declaring incomparability of God with other creatures. Tasbih is affirming similarity with other creatures. All names of God contain Tasbih and Tanzih, but some names are overruled with Tanzih and others are overruled with Tasbih. I find that this can be better explained I a graphic way.  Tanzih: All worlds have the same center, but the center (God) has no dimension. Gods attributes like Wrath and Majesty are overruled with Tanzih. Creatures are distant from God because of God’s incomparability. (42:11 - Naught in the universe is like Him).  Tasbih: It symbolizes God’s concern over other creatures in terms of kindness, mercy, compassion, and love. Every creature is connected to the Center, it gains it’s reality from the Center.  Tasbih & Tanzih together is Tawhid, declaring the Oneness of God. It’s how God governs, sustains and controls the universe in an organized way. The worst sin according to Islam shirk, setting up rivals with God, this is destroying Tawhid and ultimately destroying the reality of others, because it causes chaos. You set up other centers within reality which causes the unreal to lose its connection to the Real. This doesn’t have to be just idols you worship. I’ll quote two Hadith (sayings of the Prophet (s)). The Prophet came out to us from his house while we were discussing the AntiChrist. He said, ‘Shall I tell you about something that is more frightening to me than the AntiChrist?’ The people replied that he should. He said, ‘Hidden Shirk, in other words, that a man should perform the salat (prayer) and do it beautifully for the sake of someone who is watching.’ ‘The most frightening thing that I fear for my Community is associating others with God. I do not mean to say that they will worship the sun, or the moon, or idols. I mean that they will perform works for other than God with a hidden desire.' So the most important saying of a Muslim is ‘La iLaha il Allah’ = ‘There is no god but God’. It rejects all other gods, idols, desires and egocentric thoughts that human beings have come up with and it testifies of the Ultimate Reality. ‘Allah Akbar’ = ‘God is Greater’ is another example of this, which means that God is greater than all other things that humans have come with. The fire in hell is the response towards those who claimed greatness by which they destroyed other realities. Fire also grows without considering its rampage on other realities. From a western perspective, the universe is controlled by laws, only these laws make order possible, all matter has submitted to these laws. Muslims are of the opinion that one should submit to God, since everything else has already willingly or unwillingly. Not submitting is causing disorder; the universe is a sign for people to know that submission causes order. If we take a look at the universe, everything has divine attributes of God, even minerals. At the bottom there are minerals then there is microscopic life. They have certain divine attributes. Next there are plants; they are for example ‘Grateful’ and ‘Generous’, when you give them enough water they’ll give you fruit. Then there are animals, at the final stage there is the human being, who has all the divine attributes of God. The universe is the macro-cosmos with all the divine attributes; the human being is the micro-cosmos. We end up with people like Pol Plot and Bhuddah. It’s that Tanzih and Tasbih create this immense spectrum of human developing which cannot be found among any other creatures since we have all the attributes that can be found within the Cosmos. While other religions and ideologies have taken either Tanzih or Tasbih into extremes, Islam is trying to balance them on the point of a needle. (2:143 - Thus, have We made of you an Ummat (community) justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves.) So from an Islamic perspective acknowledging God is acknowledging oneself. Denying God is denying yourself. A famous proverb says: ‘He who knows himself knows his Creator.’ Stimulating and achieving this balance is by practicing the five pillars of Islam. Declaration of Tawhid, Prayer 5 times a day, Fasting during the month of Ramadan, Zakat and Hajj. It’s a whole way of life for the sake of this balance. The Christians and the Jews say that Adam was made in God’s image. The Hindu’s say that man’s first parents were Mahadev and Parwati and they were made in the image of God. This doesn’t mean that God is an old man with a beard like we tend to see him in popular culture. It means that the human being has all the attributes of God but dimmed, like explained above. The human being is the vicegerent (Tasbih) of God according to Islam, he has to perfect the balance and put things in the right place within oneself. But at the same time also a servant (Tanzih) who has to submit. A verse in the Qur’an explains that only the human being is able to carry this Trust of God. (33:72 - We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to carry it and were afraid of doing so; but man carried it. Surely he is wrong-doing, ignorant.) The Heavens refused because they are the luminous, they are close to God (Tasbih) and could not bear the Tanzih (distance of God) of that Trust. The Earth refused because it could not bear the Tasbih (Nearness to God), the Earth is dominated by Tanzih. The mountains refused because they could not tolerate the extremes of either Tanzih or Tasbih. But the human being has accepted it. (2:30 - Just recall the time when your Lord said to the angels, "I am going to appoint a vicegerent on the Earth." They humbly enquired, "Are you going to appoint such a one as will cause disorder and shed blood on the Earth? We are already engaged in hymning Your praise, and hallowing Your name". (2:31 - God replied, "I know what you do not know." After this He taught Adam the names of all things. Then He set these before the angels and asked, "Tell Me the names of these things, if you are right (in thinking that the appointment of a vicegerent will cause disorder). The names in this verse is generally seen as all the attributes of God. Understanding Tawhid means that one understands that every creature is simultaneously confronted with Mercy & Wrath, Gentleness & Severity, Life-giving & Slaying, Bestowal & Withholding, Reality & Unreality. This in order to balance the microcosmos within the human being, it shapes people and people choose how. From the Islamic perspective: Human intelligence consists of two main faculties: Imagination & Reason, Khayyal & Aql. 1. Kalam (Theology based on Revelation) 2. Philosophy (By Reason, mostly inspired by Neo-Platonism) 3. Theoretical Sufism (By Medidating to Experience God) The Kalam scholars thought of things like ‘How to differentiate between a ‘good’ Muslim and a ‘bad’ Muslim’, ‘Is the Qur’an created or Eternal?’, ‘Are God’s attributes the same as God or are they different?’, ‘Do humans have free-will or are they predestinated?’. Some scholars were highly critical of Kalam because of the overrationalizing and nit-picking. The Kalam scholars maintained that their science was important as it gave people the understanding of who God was and how they should respond to God. Profitable Knowledge according to Islam is the knowledge that prepares one for the encounter with God. The philosophers developed a parallel with Kalam. But the philosophers were heavily influenced by the Greek intellectual heritage, especially Aristoteles. The philosophers focused more on reality unlike the Kalam who focused on revelation, they used reason as a primary tool and saw it as infallible. Let’s say that they were obsessed with reason. Theoretical Sufism is the third branch. They focused on Imagination (Khayyal). The Sufis meditated on God’s names, they wanted to experience the truth instead of using primary revelation or reason. Most of them followed the Prophet’s (s) Sunnah like on how to eat, sit, sleep so in generally on how to act and behave in order to experience the nearness of God. Knowledge can increase that process of shaping or it can also destroy it. Majority of scholars are of the opinion that people should learn all three fields of knowledge to create a balance within the human faculty and understand the limits of each respectable field. Nothing is infallible when it goes into extremes. But when one all three are combined, one achieves an unshakable faith and peace within the heart from an Islamic perspective. But what happens when one adopts Reason or Imagination as the main faculty? Reason is overruled with Tanzih (distance from God). One establishes the principle of either/or and it cannot be both. People who use solely reason to understand the Real, they establish difference and separation. That’s the only way reason can see. Rational process emphasizes to greater analysis and difference. The more attention people pay to difference the more they will see the cosmos as a separate object which can be analyzed in different parts. This means that people eventually adopt the attitude of Tanzih (Distance from God). Eventually people will find it logic and reasonable to become atheists or agnostic or see God in the way deists see Him (before becoming an atheist). This is called within Islam ‘ta-til’ which means ‘divesting God of his function' and ultimately leads to Shirk. New divinities like ‘Communism’, ‘Capitalism’ or ‘Science’ are put in the place of God and questioning them is unheard of. Imam Al-Ghazali knew for example that this would happen if people become obsessed with one of the two faculties; he refuted Neo-Platonic thought in ‘the incoherence of the philosophers’. You could say that the Muslim world adopted the way of Al-Ghazali and the western world the way of Averroes (who gave the Greek intellectual heritage to Europe by influencing Thomas Aquino which in turn led to secularism). The obsession with reason, especially during the renaissance has ended now with widespread atheism and agnosticism in the modern world. So from the perspective of Islam: If one adopts the way of reason solely eventually he'll become an atheist or an agnostic eventually. The other way is the way of Imagination, which is overruled by Tasbih (nearness to God). Sufi’s for example tend to support Tasbih more than Tanzih and when one goes into extremes, everything is holy. Since everything has God’s attributes. Hinduism is an example when Imagination just changes the original religion. The Hindu scriptures and even Hindu’s themselves believe in One God but they argue that God is everywhere, in other words they are only looking at Tasbih and denying Tanzih. They end up worshipping idols and human beings with a noble character. Tanzih = Servanthood Tasbih = Vicegerency The Qur’an revolves around Tanzih and Tasbih, trying to establish Tawhid within the human being. The Qur’an starts while being overruled with Tanzih. The first part seeks out and destroys every reality the human being has come up with; the ultimate victim is the human ego (if successful). God praising Himself abundantly is a response and an attack on the human ego, the ultimate false god. Demanding absolute submission by narrating tales of the past (Abraham ready to sacrifice his beloved son) to God. In short the Qur’an demands servanthood to attain Tanzih within the human being. In later parts the Qur’an reassures the human being of God’s Mercy and Kindness, it emphasizes Tasbih. A Hadith qudsi is quoted here. O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me, I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me, I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me, ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great at it. Moses (a) proclaimed the Majesty of God (Tanzih). Jesus (a) proclaimed the Goodness of God (Tasbih). Muhammad (s) proclaimed the Perfection of God (Tahwid). Christianity is a religion that has stressed a bit too much on Tasbih, by giving Jesus a divine role. Judaism is a religion that has stressed too much on Tanzih, jews seeing themselves more servants than vicegerents. Islam is trying to balance these views as explained above. Western rationalism from the Islamic perspective is not much different than Hinduism. It’s the other side of the coin.  Hinduism (denying Tanzih)  Western rationalism (denying Tasbih). It started with proclaiming God as an impersonal Being who didn’t care for humans but was ultimately concerned with maintaining the cosmos. This meant that the human being was free to dissect everything to understand the environment. In the end it led to the denial of God since unity of the cosmos was lost. It’s no wonder that the brutal exploitation of nature and the loss of religion in the modern world are happening at the same time. The macro-cosmos is the outward reality of the micro-cosmos which is the inward reality. From an Islamic perspective; man is destroying the inward divine attributes and that has too manifest in the outward reality by destroying the same specific divine attributes to be found in nature. Ultimately it’s a violation of our vicegerency. God sent Prophets to mankind to remind them of Tawhid. The Prophet Muhammad (s) is the last and final messenger of them, he is the seal of the prophets. Revelation is the only way to keep Imagination (Tasbih) and Reason (Tanzih) in balance. During human history there have always been religions and ideologies that have either stressed Tanzih (distance or denial of God) or Tasbih (denial of Q:42:11 - Naught in the universe is like Him). The social and ecological chaos and disorder in modern times is quite easy to explain from the perspective of the Qur'an. (Q:2:11-13) Whenever it is said to them, "Spread not disorder on the earth", their reply is, "We only seek to put things aright". Beware! they do spread disorder but they realize it not. And when it is said to them, "Believe sincerely as the other people have believed", they reply, "Should we believe as fools have believed?" Beware! they themselves are the fools, but they know it not. |
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07-12-2011, 02:23 AM
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#2 |
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Asalaamu 'alaykum brother
I havent thoroughly read all of your post as Im not knowledgeable enough on this style of reasoning. But I skimmed through it and the first thing that stood out, is that it seems to imply that the previous Prophets, before Muhammad salallahu 'alayhi wasalam didnt come with tawheed. This is very incorrect as the message of all the Prophets from Adam alayhi salaam to Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalm was nothing other than tawheed. The method you're currenrly using seems to be going down the path of speculative theology (Ahlul Kalam) which could be dangerous. Its best to stay away from it as it is not required at all. Infact Imam Ghazzali said that knowledge of the fundamentals of our belief on the method of the speculative theologians (Ahlul Kalam) is not necessary at all even as a condition for a mujtahid. Personally I would recommend you change your approach to dawah. Try the "GO RAP" approach that IERA use. Read the booklet "Man in the Red Underpants" by Abdur Raheem Green, and checkout some of their lectures such as "Islam or Atheism: Which one makes more sense?" by Hamza Tzortziz |
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