THE CONCEPT OF GOD IN MUS.T.AFĀ MAH.MŪD’S WORKS
By
Muhammad Amin A. Samad
* *
Dr. W. Haddad April 9, 1979
God and Man in ConTemporary Muslim Thought (397-702D)
INSTITUTE OF ISLAMIC STUDIES MCGILL UNIVERSITY
1
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
……………………………………
1. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD ……………………
2 3
2. ALLAH AND HIS MOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES … 5 CONCLUSION……………………………………………… 10 ENDNOTES …………………………………………..…
11
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………….. 14
2
INTRODUCTION This paper is an attempt to study the concept of God as presented by Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd in his following works: , , ُ , , , and ُ . The paper is divided into two parts: 1. The existence of God, and 2. Allah and His Most Beautiful Names. Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd is prolific writer. He wrote more than forty-five books: studies, short stories, plays, travels, and collections of articles. Like Wah.īd al-Dīn Khān, he is also a polemic writer and deals with defending Islam from secular and atheistic influence. His tendency towards Sufism is obvious in his writings, as we shall see in this paper.
3
1.THE EXISTENCE OF GOD The author asserts that the absolute existence belongs to Allah alone. Other than Allah is (non-existence). The existence of Allah’s creatures from non-existence occurred through His blessing. He gives them “the dress of existence “ to become the object of the manifestation of His Names and attributes. Therefore, the author upholds the idea of ( اwah.dat al-wujūd, the oneness of Existence), i.e., that God alone is the real and absolute existence, which he asserts to be purely Islamic. This is because he considers the Hindu conception of oneness of Existence called “pantheism” to be deviation from the truth, for he denies the possibility of union between God and man. The author contends that man in the eternal truth is non-existent, for he only comes into being through God’s blessing; he cannot unite with the absolute existent, God.1 Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd contends further that the relationship between God and His creatures is like that between soul and body where there is neither incarnation , union , connection , nor separation between the two.2 God manifests Himself in His creation without union or incarnation, like the appearance of one’s face in the mirror. 3 Dealing with the question raised by those who do not believe in God, i.e., “If God exists, then who creates God?” the author’s answer can be outlined as follows: a. The question itself is wrong, because: 1) the Creator cannot be, at the same time, created; 2) God who created time and space is not subject to them; 3) God who creates the law of causality is not subject to it. b. Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804 C. E.) himself admitted that reason cannot encompass the infinite truths. Reason in its nature is only capable of perceiving (juz’iyyāt, particles), not the absolute existence , the existence of God. Kant asserted further that it is through conscience and not through reason that we perceive God, like the occurrence of thirst indicates the existence of water.
4
c. Aristotle (348-322 B.C.) in his sequent digression of causes said that the chair is made of wood, wood is from the tree which, in turn, is from a seed, and the seed is from the farmer, and so on, until this sequence ends with a first mover which does not need a cause. This, according to Mah.mūd, is God.4 There are many reasons that lead the atheists to reject the existence of God. One of them is the existence of evil. The atheists contend that since this world is full of evil it cannot be created by a Creator who is Wise, All Knowing, Merciful and Generous. In refuting this statement Mah.mūd gives us the following arguments: 1. Judging a play by watching only one act of it is misleading. A boy will cry when his father takes him to the hospital for operation and will consider it an evil deed. But when the boy grows up he will understand that behind this accidental evilness there is a permanent goodness, for the sake of which forbearance is necessary. Man’s life is in the same way. His life is still going on, and his death does not unveil the curtain, because the play goes on after his death where there are still other acts. Therefore, a play cannot be judged by witnessing only one act of it, i.e., the presence of evil in this world. 2. Man’s personality, character, firmness and determination are firmly related to his suffering. Without wrong-doing
, hurting
and injustice there would be no forgiveness, mercy and justice. 3. A thing that seems to be a defect in a partial view is actually a blessing and goodness in the whole sight. It is like what seems to be a dirty spot in a picture looked very closely, while in fact, it is a shadow without which the picture will not appear beautiful Earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters, in spite of destroying thousands of people, have good function in keeping the balance between the disrupting and boiling inner part of the earth and its stable hard peel. Earthquakes restore mountains to their proper places after they have slowly moved. And mountains are like props protecting the peel of the earth from exploding, due to the hard pressure of the inner part of the earth. 4. Evil is one aspect of the nature of freedom given to man by God. Freedom of will will have no significance if it is exclusively for doing good. Man will become compelled to do good things only. Therefore, doing evil is another aspect of man’s freedom of will.
5
5. Good and evil are two sides of one coin . Flood and wars, for example, are evil on one side, but they mean life on the other. Wars divided people into families, clans, tribes, nations, and finally bring them into one international table in the Security Council of the United Nations. Through scientific research during the war people made discoveries and inventions: penicillin, blood transfusion, atomic energy, rockets, jet engine, submarines, radar, etc. 6. Evil in its pure origin does not exist. There is only lack of goodness, then the lack that accompanies the limitations of man as well as of other creatures. Otherwise, man will become free from defect, and in turn, will become god, i.e., every man is created to become a god, and this is impossible.5
2. ALLAH AND HIS MOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES The author gives us his analysis on the word
(Allāh). He asserts
that is a proper name of the Divine Essence that is wrapped with divine secrets. It is the only name to which His Most Beautiful Names are referred. We say, for example that (al-S.amad) is the name of Allah, not vice-versa. is the only name which is used in the formula of the shahādah (confession of the faith). We say: “There is no god but Allah” and it is not valid to say, for example, ‘there is no god but the Very Patient .” We may share Him in His other names. We can say that a person is (generous), say that he is Allāh.6
(merciful), or
(magnificent), but we cannot
Mah.mūd goes further on with his mystical analysis about the word . He asserts that this word has no opposite. It begins with letter ) (اthat is the first one of the alphabet. It is the “Adam ,
,
is bent to become letter
, and ” of letters, because other letters take their
6
shapes from it, i.e., the straight so on. Letter numbers. One is the beginning of all numbers.7 If we drop the letter
and come to the second letter of the word اهللwe find the
. This letter indicates possession, i.e.,
“belong (s) to” After we have dropped the become
is the symbol of one in
(li) which means
in the word اهللthe word
(lillāh), which means “belong(s) to Allah.” There are many
Qur’ānic verses which mention هلل, among which are: “Unto Allah belongeth ) (هللwhatever in the heavens and the earth.”8 “Say: Unto whom belongeth whatever is in the heavens and the earth? Say: Unto Allah )(هلل.” (Q. 6:12). The author goes on and says that if the second letter on the word هللis also dropped the word becomes (lahu), which means “belong(s) to Him.” There are also many Qur’anic verses that mention the word . One of them is as follows:
“And
blessed be He unto Whom belongeth ) ( the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth …” (Q. 43:85) If the third letter is also dropped from the word اهللwhat remains is the letter hā’ which is pronounced hū. This letter is a symbolic expression
to the Absolute Divine Secret, i.e., God’s Essence. The
author maintains that those who remember God
repeat the word
9
in their dhikr (incessant repetition of certain words or formula in praise of God), when they say Yā hū, yā hū,… yā man lā ya‘lamu man hū illā hū. These words are written in Arabic . The author makes his conclusion stating that the name Allāh is perfect in its construction. It is a name that denotes the intended meaning, namely, God, either in its complete structure or in its separate one.10 Mah.mūd points out the significance of the word Allāh for the s.ūfīs in their dhikr. He states that the dhākir (the person who remembers God
7
through dhikr) starts his dhikr with his tongue, then with his heart sincerely and confidently. Finally, the dhākir will reach the stage where he is unconscious about himself or anything else but God. He will feel that there is no real existence but God Himself. This state is what the s.ūfīs call (ma‘rifah, gnosis, cognition). The author quotes the definition of according to the Sufi Ibn ‘At.ā’ Allāh al-Sikandarī11 as follows: “Ma‘rifah is viewing without knowledge , substance without information
,vision
without description
, unveiling
without veil , feeling without dispute .”12 Therefore, the author contends, it is not fire that burns, but Allah; it is not water that quench the thirst, but Allah. If He will He can make fire cold and not harmful like the fire into which the Prophet Abraham was thrown. The fire did not harm him. It was Prophet Abraham who said, as mentioned in the Qur’ān, “And Who feedeth me and watereth me. And when I sicken, then He healeth me.” (Q. 26:79-80).13 The author states that everything prostrates itself to Allah willingly or unwillingly. The Qur’ān says: “And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours.” (Q. 13:15).”14 This is because, the author contends, that everything is subject to the laws of nature created by God. Thus, both the heart of a believer and that of an unbeliever obey the physical laws of God’s creation. Both of them throb according to this law. Even the cells of the body are subject to this law.15 With regard to the first article of the essential Muslim creed, i.e., the doctrinal formula “there is no god but Allah”, the author stress its importance. It is so important that he deals with it in two of his works: , (pp. 104-107) and (pp. 202-217). He mentions the merits of this formula, as follows: 1. It was revealed to the Prophet. It was the first and the most important news coming from heaven. It is the essence of the Qur’ān, Islam,
8
and every faith one h.adīth as follows:
. He bases his view on two Qur’ānic verses and ...
“So know (O Muhammad) that there is no God save Allah, and ask forgiveness for thy sin and for believing men and believing women…” (Q. 47:19). “He sendeth down the angels with the Spirit of His command unto whom He will of His bondmen, (saying), Warn mankind that there is no God save Me, so keep your duty unto Me.” (Q. 16:2). The Prophet said: “The best thing I have brought as well as prophets did before me, is the formula: There is n o god but Allah.”16 (the word expressing piety). It is the angels’ tasbīh. (glorification of God). It is the (the word which leads to salvation) for a dying person, and a formula that is mentioned ten times a day during the five daily-prayers. The author supports his view with the following Qur’ānic verse and a h.adīth qudsī (a h.adīth in which God Himself speaks, as opposed to h.adīth nabawī, an ordinary Prophetic tradition); ...
2. It is the
“… then Allah sent down His peace of reassurance upon His messenger and upon the believers and imposed on them the word of self-restraint, for they were worthy of it and meet for it. And Allah is Aware of all things.” (Q. 48:26) “‘There is no god but Allah’ is My protection . Whoever says it will enter My protection, and whoever enters My protection will be safe from My punishment.” 17 With regard to God’s Most Beautiful Names , which also indicate His attributes, among the ninety-nine names18 mentioned in the Qur’ān, some of them are applicable to man. A man can also be generous, merciful, and so on, but cannot be Allah. This is because Allah is the name of God’s Essence, while other names are the names of His divine attributes.19 However, the author contends that although man shares some of God’s attributes, man’s attributes are limited, while those of God are unlimited. Man can be generous, but his generosity is limited to what
9
Allah has given him, while Allah’s generosity is unlimited to unlimited crenatures.20 Among the attributes of God dealt with in Mah.mūd’s works are (al-S.amad, the Impenetrable). He is absolute (withstand), while others than He are (weak). Therefore, He is the only One Whom people take refuge;21 (al-Salām, Peace), i.e., there is no war or conflict with Him, because war occurs between two sides, while God is only One; 22 (al-Lat.īf, the Subtle), He is absolutely subtle. Therefore, He penetrates everything with His absolute presence. He says about Himself in the Qur’an: “Vision comprehendeth Him not, but He comprehendeth vision.” (Q. 6:104). He is always with us in absolute nearness, like our pupil that we cannot see due to its closeness to us. He is closer to us than our jugular vein (Q. 50:16);23 (al-Wāh.id, the one God); He alone Who helps us and harm us; it is He Who puts poison in the scorpion and puts fragrance in the flower; 24 (al-H.ayy al-Qayyūm, the Living, the Self-Subsisting); He does not depend on anything for His life, while everything depends on Him;25 (al-Shakūr, the Very Grateful); He rewards good deeds with ten times of merit;26 (al-S.abūr, the Very Patient); He is patient with His servants. He gives them sustenance and life, while they deny Him; 27 (alMalik, the King); He is the absolute king of every existence. He rules everything with His laws, from an atom to a galaxy. Man is a small king; his soldiers are: his passion, anger, and desire; his people are: his tongue, eyes and hands; he is a king as long as he is obeyed by them;28 (alMuta‘ālī, the Very High, the Exalted); He exalts His creatures; the relationship between God and His creatures is neither (h.ulūl, incarnation)) nor (ittih.ād, union), but rather (closeness) or (farness). The farness occurs only on man’s side when he neglects Him and keeps himself busy with something else. On the other hand, he is close to Him when he keeps himself busy with Him;29 (al-‘Adl, the Just; the occurrence of justice cannot be imagined except with and from God Himself, because He encompasses everything with His knowledge. Any
10
worldly disaster has goodness in it, because that disaster is a work of mercy and justice. Cursing with the occurrence of misfortune is a childish attitude. The author says that there are many handicapped persons who are endowed with special gift and ability. Moreover, some diseases create trace in the body of the infected one. The body secretes a kind of substance to defend itself against a certain disease after it has been infected by it.30
11
CONCLUSION The author throughout his books shows his firm belief in the existence of God and the truth of Islam. His language is simple and clear. He uses, to a great extent, poetic diction. However, his books lack reference. The only reference is the Qur’ān where the locations of every verse referred to by him is mentioned. The h.adīths quoted by him have no narrator, so that we do not know how strong they are in their validity. Another shortcoming of the author is that he does not stick to the topic he is dealing with. For example, he deals with the Most Beautiful Names of God in his book where we expect to find the ninety-nine names of God. But we find only a few of them, and then the author moves slowly to the Sufi concept of knowing God and his (the sūfī’s) relationship with Him. The same topic is dealt more in detail in his book . However, these shortcomings are understandable and tolerated, since the author’s works are intended to be read by laymen. The author’s tendency towards Sufism in his works is obvious. He gives us his esoteric interpretation and analysis about the word . He states that the first letter, i.e., alif is the origin of all letters. This is because the letter alif is the only one written in a straight line. He does not tell us that the origin of the word is which literally means “the god”, and that the first two letters indicate the definite article “the”. It is true that the author does not try to solve the problem of the material world, but rather the spiritual and metaphysical one. He is concerned with trying to convince his readers that in spite of the existence of injustice, disasters, and any kind of disorder on this planet of ours, there is God whose wisdom and knowledge encompass everything and are beyond human apprehension. He urges his readers to return to God and to worship Him instead of denying Him. However, he denounces the possibility of union with God claimed by some s.ūfīs. He contends that the only relationship between man and God is closeness or farness. God is always close to man, but it is man who keeps himself far away from God.
12
ENDNOTES 1
Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd, , pp. 45-46. The author relates that the Sufi al-Amīr al-H.asan b. Makhzūn al-Sanjārī who lived in the beginning of the 7th century A.H. advised people to beat hard any insane sūfī who claimed to be God, and if the s.ūfī protested, that indicated the falsehood of his claim. Ibid. p. 47. 2 Ibid., p. 53. 3 Ibid., p. 56. The Egyptian s.ūfī Ibn al-Fārid. (d. 632/1235) had already given this example when he said in his ode entitled (the Poem of the Way), couplet no. 660 and 661 as follows:
“And wouldst thou have thy soul unveil herself, contemplate what thou seest without doubt in the burnished mirror, was it another that appeared in them? Or bids thou behold thyself by means of them when the rays were refracted?” See Mah.mūd Tawfīq (ed.) , p. 62, line 10-11; R.A. Nicholson, Studies of Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge: The University Press, 1921), p. 258. 4 Mus.t.afā Mah.mūd, , 5
Idem.
pp. 7-8. , pp. 110-14; see also idem, ,
pp. 20-23. 6 Idem, اهلل, p. 39 7 Ibid, p. 140. 8 Qur’an, 31:26. The translation is rendered by M.M. Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New York and Scarborough: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., n.d.). Reference to Qur’ānic verses and translation relating to them in other places in this paper are also his. See also Qur’an, 3:109, 129; 4:126, 131. 9 Here the letter is turned by the author into the word that means “he” and is referred by him to God. This word can be pronounced huwa as well as hū. The author chooses the latter to support his view. 10 Mahmūd, , pp. 41-42. 11 Tāj al-Dīn Abū ’l-Fad.l Ah. mad ibn Muh.ammad b. ‘Abd al-Karīm Ibn ‘At.ā’ Allāh (d. 709/1309) was an Egyptian s.ūfī of the Shādhiliyyah order. He was one of the adversaries of Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728/1328) of the H.anbalī school. See G. Makdisi, “Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh,” E.I.2
13
12
Mahmūd, , pp. 42-43. The author does not give us any reference to the works of Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh. This definition of ma‘rifah has not been found in Ibn ‘Atā’ Allāh’s al-H. ikam , his only available work at the Library of the Institute (of Islamic Studies, McGill University). 13 Ibid., p. 43. The author contends that a true s.ūfī considers working as obedience and a devotion to God; he is not lazy, he does not keep silent on the occurrence of injustice. , p. 44. Sufism does not call for invalidation of reason and the glorification of poverty, beggary, and wearing rag, because they are deviation from Islam. Islam glorifies purity and exhorts people to work. The Prophet said in a h.adīth: “If poverty were a man I would have killed him.” Ibid., p. 55. 14 Another Qur’ānic verse referred to by the author is: “Seek they other than the religion of Allah, when unto Him submitteth whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly, or unwillingly, and unto Him they will be returned.” (Q. 3:83). 15 Everything is subject to the laws of nature. Among these laws are: Law of Surface Tension , Law of Rejection of Vacuum, , and Law of Action and Reaction
, see Mah.mūd, الطبعة الخامسة
, pp. 116-117.
16
Mah.mūd, , p. 204. 17 Ibid., pp. 204-205 and 210. 18 L. Gardet mistakenly included Allah in the 99 names instead of
(the
Giver). See “al-Asmā’ al-H.usnā,” E.I. 2. Should the name also be excluded, then the name (the Lord of Majesty and Generosity) is considered two names. 19 Mah.mūd, p. 125. See also Muh.ammad ‘Abduh, , p. 7. According to the Ismā‘iliyyah, the esoteric movement among the Shī‘ah which appeared in the second/eighth century, actual affirmation of Allah’s attributes, like Existence, Knowing, and so on, leads to tashbīh (anthropomorphization of Allah). This is because these attributes were share by other existing things. Therefore, the Ismā‘ilīs which were also called the Bātinīs, i.e., seekers of the inner or spiritual meaning of the nas.s. (divine texts), asserted that Allah is neither existent nor non-existent, neither knowing nor ignorant, but rather between the two. See Abū ’l-Fath. ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Shahrastānī, , (in the margin of Ibn H.azm’s
, 3 vols
, vol. 2, p. 29. According to Ibn H.azm (d. 456/1064) the Most Beautiful Names of God are not His attributes, because neither God, nor the Prophet,
14
not even his companions had ever called them God’s attributes. The term “God’s attributes” according to Ibn H.azm was the invention of the Mu‘tazilīs and the Rāfid.īs. See Ibn H.azm’s , vol. 2, pp. 120-121 and 150. The s.ūfī H.asan Ibn Makzūn considered the divine attributes to be applicable to the divine names, not the divine essence. See Mah.mūd, , pp. 445-451. 20
Mah.mūd, , p. 30. 21 Ibid., p. 9. According to L. Gardet
has five meanings: 1) the Master, He
Who reigns; 2) close to (the Forbearing) whom the acts of His adversaries neither trouble nor move (negative attribute); 3) the Very High in Dignity; 4) He to whom one prays and supplicates (attribute of relation); 5) in whom there is no “hollow”, negation of all mixture and of all possible division into parts, see “alAsmā’ al-H.usnā,” p. 716. 22 Mah.mūd, p. 214. L. Gardet gives us three meanings of : 1) possessor of flawless peace (negative attribute); 2) giver of peace and salvation at the beginning of the creation and at the time of resurrection (active attribute); 3) will pronounce the benediction of peace over his creature (attribute of speech), see “alAsmā’ al-H.usnā,”, p. 715. 23 Mah.mūd, , pp. 9-10. 24 Ibid, p. 19. L. Gardet gives the distinction between al-Ah.ad and al-Wāh.id. AlAh.ad means “the One by Essence, absolute simplicity of the Essence, insuperability and inimitability of the divine attributes.,” while al-Wāh.id means “the One God, there is no other God.” See “al-Asmā’ al-H.usnā,”, p. 716. 25 Mah.mūd, , p. 11. 26 Ibid., p. 21. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid., p. 22. 29 In rejecting the possibility of (incarnation) and (union) between God and His creatures the author gives us two examples: a) Fire gives its quality (i.e., heat) to water if the water is put near the fire, but there is no between the two elements; b) The image of the sun appears on the surface of a clear and clean brook without the occurrence of of the sun on it. Ibid., pp. 34-35; see also above, p. 2. 30 For further details, see ibid., pp. 36-38.
15
BIBLIOGRAPHY ‘Abduh, Muh.ammad. Gardet, L. “Allāh,” E.I.2 ________. “Al-Asmā’ al-H.usnā,” E.I. Ibn H.azm, Abū Muh.amad ‘Ali. Macdonald, D.B. “Allah” E.I.1 Mah.mūd, Mus.t.afā.; ________ . _______ ________. ________. ________. Makdisi, G. “Ibn ‘At.ā’ Allāh,” E.I.2 Nicholson, R.A. Studies of Islamic Mysticism. Cambridge: The University Press, 1921. Pickthall, Mohammed Marmaduke. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. New York and Scarborough: George Allen and Unwin, n.d. Shahrastānī, Abū ’l-Fath. ‘Abd al-Karīm al-. In the margin of Ibn H.azm, Tawfīq, Mah.mūd (ed.)