Al-A'araf 7 v. 33: Spiritual Adornments

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Recently I am seeking some help from fellow Ahlul Bayt members of various branches of Islamic movements to help us to clear the name of our ulamas, family and imams. I hate to see how we Muslims dividing our selves into congregations, organizations or movements just to tyrannize each other and posing judgements based on unwritten laws to satisfy our nationalism or perhaps our position. Many of our people had already sacrificed their selves and keeping their silence under oppressions just to make sure that the nations of Islam do not split out of Allah's course and for the peace of the humanity. I cannot put everything up here in a blow. Maybe I would compile the names of those figures first. Many fitnas nowadays and I am sensing that our prayer times becoming earlier than before. I am not sure about other regions. I do not like to speculate but favoring and incline more to the Quran and the prophethood of Muhammad s.a.w as the basis of our Creed. But I think the time is moving fast as the speed of the Earth circulating the Star is also increasing. 

Anyway, this is not the topic I wanted to talk about in this post. I am here to keep the written notes about surat Al-A'araf verse 33 exegesis. It means in English more or less: "Say: My Lord forbids me indecency; whatever obvious of it, whatever hidden of it and sins and unjust oppression; and that you associate not the God with what He never ascribe in Revelation out of the authority and that you say not anything about Him of which you have no knowledge about".

According to Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah in his al-Azhar, Allah commanded Muhammmad s.a.w as His messenger to tell the universe that adorning one self with ornaments or modest eating or drinking habits are not forbidden. However those are just at the surface. It is actually forbidden to neglect spiritual adornment. Never exceed the limit of spiritual body sanctity with sins when it is well protected, and never feel worried if physical body is granted with adornments.

الفَوَاحشَ or indecency in the verse refers to disgusting acts related to genitals. In modern days, it is also known as promiscuous sex and the verse mentions about it is committed secretly or openly. As what we could see today, ladies wearing sexually attractive attire to attract people's attention, skimpy dress and showing off their physical assets. Some people would say why only ladies? I would say this refers to every sane human-being regardless gender which also include the third gender if there is such a thing. I know several sexual terms from my experience with those kids who watched porn. Whatever disgusting acts exceeding the sanctity limit of spiritual body out of these related to human-physical body attraction portrayed in those terms is forbidden. 

Watching anything related to this such as pornographic materials is also counted as disgusting. I could still recall some of my hostel mates were watching porn videos while I was in their room cause I was chatting with some of them. Suddenly one of them organized some porn watching party and locked the door. I did not say anything to them nor watching it. I pretend that I was reading the newspaper before I force one of them to unlock the door as it used their keys. When I return to my room I just whip myself with belt buckle. Some kids there including my roommate perhaps had mistaken me for whipping myself for 'Ashura or Muharram matam but it was Ramadan's eve, lol. I would fast in those days of 'Ashura rather than whipping myself. Yea that was retarded but I can't help it with the feeling of guilt for disrespecting my soul when I mingled with those kids for da'awa purpose. This is what I am telling brothers and sisters that I am stepping one of my feet in the hell because I love those brothers because they said they are Muslims. It is so tormenting yet we have to be patient with some psychological strategies to bring everyone to Allah without breaking their "heart". So we are not being selfish by only circulating the Mercy of Allah among our selves. 

Please don't misunderstood me as a man who discriminate women on gender basis when I am stating these as apart of what we understood from the verse when it mentions women. Sometimes people love to make controversy out of others' statement when we only mention women. I have five sisters and I am the only male among the siblings. For traditional orthodox Muslim family. If we are discriminating women, my sisters would not be given opportunity to study to the highest level that they can achieve and they could even mingle with any male friend they like as long as they know how to behave. I even had accompanied my sister to Thai for a "cowboy marriage" and lied by her when she wanted to marry a guy of her choice that happened to be someone's husband. English and most Western languages usually mention pronouns with the men ones but in Asian languages such as Chinese or Malay, there is no such thing. Just to make sure we follow the standard of equality in gender treatment that I put both he and she but not in all places as it takes space, hehe.

These verses connecting the physical indecency with spiritual ones. They have to do with adornments at human physical body. The God never forbids the Ornaments of the God. But in our daily life, most people tend to appear in front of others such as looking sexually attractive or others just to show off to others. Some men perhaps would show off their muscular body to others or some women would show off their boobies or thigh or hips and etc just to make people adoring them. Through these verses, the God commanded Muhammad s.a.w to tell the world that there is nothing wrong with dressing nicely and decently. Nothing wrong to wear any pattern of fabrics. He forbids dress which is worn to show off physical body with the mean to raise sexual desire of people around regardless men or women. When a portal evil is opened, others will gradually be opened too. This is also one of the gates to polytheism.

As what has been mentioned in Surat al-An'am vs. 151 which means: "Say: 'Come, let me recite what your Lord has prohibited upon you. He commands that you should not associate anything with Him, and to parents be polite. And do not kill your children due to poverty. We provide them with sustenance and also for you. And never be close to indecency be it openly or secretly. And never take the soul which the God has forbidden except with justice and legal rights. He instructs you with these may you use logical thinking and reasons".

The verse also mentions about ألأِثْمُ which means the sins. Then it mentions ألبَغْيُ بِغَيرِالحَق which is translated as unjust oppression. Al-Suddiy interpret the sins as committing vices. While the word ألبَغْيُ or oppression refers to the act of hurting others unjustly. Al-Mujahid interpret the sins as all of the acts of vices. And oppression refers to the act without legal justification which also hurts the doer's self. 

Ibnu Katir says that: "As per conclusion, the sins refer to all of the crimes which affect the doer's self while oppression refers to the act of crimes which has hurt others". Based from the conclusion made by Ibnu Katir, we could now differentiate the sins into categories and identify on what is the oppression or tyranny. For example, B simply hates this A guy because he perhaps unintentionally became his rival. Then B took out his rifle and shot dead A. This is referred according to our terminology as ألبَغْيُ the unjust oppression or a tyranny.

Then, the verse mentions that it is forbidden to associate the God with others. Seeing others as powerful and as equal as the God in term of the power possession would make a person sinful for the crime of associating the God with others. Other than that, a person who is saying something about the God without any knowledge has the gravity of the sin heavier than associating Him with partners. This refers to people who established pseudo-religious teachings and claiming that it is of the God while the God never reveals as such. Such a person has no knowledge about the fact of religion, law and jurisprudence. He could not even differentiate what is legal and what is illegal but yet acting like he was revealed with the scripture to add in nonsense things which are claimed as part of religion. Around the world and throughout centuries, there are spiritual or pseudo religious movements established by people who claim their selves as teachers while his teachings is followed by ignorant followers. This is also a grave sin.

List of the Crimes and Sins Mentioned in the Verse

From these verses, there are six kind of the crimes forbidden by the God:

1. Sins committed openly       
2. Sins committed secretly
3. Sins out of the "heart"
4. Sins tyrannizing others
5. Associating the God with others
6. Sins of speculations about the God while they are just their mere imagination

Jushammiy Explanations

The sixth of these sins is the greatest after all the consideration given. Al-Jushammiy mentions: "This verse shows that all of the sins are illegal. The sayings of the God in the scripture covering the tiniest of all crime acts and all wrong promises which go against the divine law, evil words and evil belief which is related to crimes and vices".

The words ظَهَرَ and بَطَنَ include all of verbal acts and those emerged from "heart" such as cheating, lying, envious and etc. The word ألبَغْيُ or oppression refer to all of the tyranny to others. It includes for example the rebellion of people that destroys a country or making innocent people suffer, attacking or discriminating other congregations within the larger congregation and also the political leader who defends people who commit crimes.    

And in the scripture says the God: "وأنْ تُشْرِكوا باللهِ مالَم يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ" refers to acts of associating the God with partners and enslaving oneself to others for example to human bosses, earthly kings, earthly stuffs for example gold and silver, other creatures in the earth and heavens for example angels, stars, planets, animals, satan, genies and others.

And it includes in His sayings: "وأنْ تقولواعلى اللهِ مالاتعلمونَ" which refers to innovations and blasphemy. Those who issue out the fatawa without following the guidelines of the righteousness, providing fake testimony and lying about others are also counted as among those who committed this sin.

So this verse has collected all of what has been forbidden by the God to mankind. The verses before this verse has mentioned on numbers of what is not sinful to be done or known as مباح mubaah. The verse also highlighting the importance of politeness and manner related to religion's affair or worldly affair. This also shows that there is a cancellation of تقليد taqleed since the God commands everyone to investigate and researching on the reasons for arguments. Not to just stay blindly following on anything. Because there are also the indications about explanations in the revelation as mentioned in the verse: "مالم ينزل به سلطانا" which shows the importance of researching on arguments in our divine law. The سلطانا word refers to a precise explanation.

What are the Benefits of the Verse?

As what has been concluded for the verse, it is not forbidden for us to wear nice attire suitable with the position of holy sanctuaries such as masjid or when performing the circumambulation around the Ka'aba in holy Mecca. Nobody forbids that. Nobody also forbids us to eat or drink anything which is legal as long as we do it moderately.

The most important thing for us to put into our attention is our manner, politeness and the sanctity of our inner selves. Never adorn our selves with the adornments of satan which will cause us to fall into the trap of the envious creature. Protect our heart from being contaminated with sins or when we tyrannize others. Protect our inner selves from associating the God with partners by worshiping what is not to be worshiped or believing that earthly or heavenly materials and creatures have the power over the God. After that, never be religious without questioning and reasoning as what the God said in the verse through the words of Surat al-'An'am v. 151 about logical thinking and reasons. This is why I am performing da'awa according to suitability and I do not like to be bonded by specific movements. I saw some fellow Tabligh members walking like a penguin. So, I asked them why are you walking like that? They said this is how prophet Muhammad s.a.w walk as we are following the Sunna. I just feel it funny that they could walk properly but choosing to walk like a penguin. How do they know prophet Muhammad s.a.w walk like that? They ever seen it? In some hadiths narration, they mentioned that prophet Muhammad s.a.w walked "like" climbing the hills and his steps are moderate and modest. They never say anything about walking like a penguin. What I would say is that just be our selves. We don't have to show how eager we are until it become so awkward. Some people keeping bushy beard and looking to us who do not really have beard like ungodly people. I saw many people who keep beard as it is a "Sunna" but never bother to brush it nicely and apply oil. Their beard even contains lice, na'udzubillah. Sometimes I keep beard and sometimes not because I will trim it all when I feel "dirty" and grow it again. It is a "Sunna" which people should understand not the only "basis of religious" obligation. If we are a "Chinese" person or a Korean guy, how could we grow beard like Mid Easterners bushy beard? Our genetic developed differently of theirs.

This verse perfectly describe on how should we conduct our life with ethic and noble manner. It is nor wrong for an old guy or old woman to dress nicely with whatever expensive fabric or sprinkling some perfume according to occasion. As long as it does not affect people appreciation or respect on their selves due to "flirtatious gazing" to others then go on.

The Nexus of Jurisprudence and Shari'a and Islam

The verse strongly reminds us to avoid from talking about "religion" when our knowledge is not reaching the suitable level for the questions raised. And never try to debate on anything if our arguments are based on perception or hear says or simply copy-pasting certain ulama's thesis. Following our own thought and labeling others with accusations without referring to the sayings of the God and prophetic traditions is the peak of all sins and crimes. When it comes to jurisprudence on what is legal or what is illegal, we are not allowed to simply issuing any rulings accept with نص or the precise evidence. If we have no basic knowledge then start it with classes in the nearest masjid in our area. It is actually open for both men and women because I had female colleagues in our Shari'a stream class and many of our female elders were also trained as da'awa cadres where they protect the interests of ladies in the jurisprudence body and provide information to others.

For some jurisprudence schools of Islam, اجتهاد the ijtihad which refers to personal decision-making for interpretation of laws could be exercised if one possess the basic knowledge of Shari'a and Jurisprudence sciences. The فروع furu' could analogically be deducted through قياس qiyaas on the أصول usool in the religion. The derivation of the judgement or الإستنباط is based on the Shari'a Spirit where the previous judgements are referred as long as it is in accordance to the basis of law. What everyone should know is that the result of the ijtihad is not definite and not to be accepted by everyone like the sayings of the God! The result of the ijtihad according to the majority of ulamas is based on ظن the suspicion and not definite as implied in our technical term قطع qat'i.

Only the followers of the ulamas who hate others who differ from their teachers opinion and rulings that attack people around and issuing judgement to others on the reasons that only they themselves and the God know. This is the "chief" of all disasters around the world. Nations are judged by the مقلدين muqallideen. Not by the ulamas who are the real jurists. Everyone could be da'awa cadres but not all da'awa cadres around the world are the قاضي jurists and فاقِه faaqih.             
                                 
Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!

Philosophical Terms about Self and Soul

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

I always spend my time around this musalla sometimes reciting Quran alone behind the musalla. My family house is just few blocks from here and I can just walk to reach here. Beloved brothers and sisters may visit me kalau sudi boleh saya belanja minum teh : )

While growing up into a 26 years old guy, I had came to experience many conflicts and bitter experiences. I counted every event that happened in my life and most of those being counted are bitter ones while only few are pleasant ones and that does not last longer since it is taken away in a blink of eyes. I heard many debates about being grateful and thankful and the notion of redha (pleased) with divine pre-destiny in the Tablet of the Holy Lord. I also found connections of the human traits and quality with the desire or self-passion with the events that happened in life such as the psychological problems attacking a person when he or she could not achieve something or simply facing loophole in their life. The true meaning of happiness in life, they could not decipher.

I sometimes use to talk about this issue with my family member when we encounter conflicts within our sphere. I don't know whether this a high issue that could not be grabbed by others though they are highly educated and excel well in academics as compared to me or maybe because people have different ways to view the world around them. I admit that I was influenced by Buddhist or maybe Hindu's worldview and metaphysics but when I return to ancestor's path, it does not differ much especially after I opened up Muslim elders' discussions in tasawwuf kitabs. This is not about 'aqidah or the fixed Islamic creed about the nature of Allah nor about the wahdat al-wujud or taniyat al-wujud stuffs. This is about creature's self-awareness.

This is a little bit philosophical not of Islamic scriptural studies. I am not playing smart here. I would also use daily occasions in explanations and if this is Hindu or Buddhist teachings, then I will mention it as it is as not to mix them up or confusing anybody who stepped in the humble site. It's not about berhala or idolatry as I didn't learn Buddhism to worship stones, lord Buddha, devas nor to worship any creature as Divinity. This is about the desire of human-being who is never satisfied with whatever that it has. In Arabic, we call the self as nafs and the same thing is also absorbed into Malay language when our ancestors bringing the path to South East Asia realm. When I was exposed to Buddhism teaching, the nafs is known as attama. Attama means the ego or the soul in Bali-Sanskrit.

Hindu-Buddhism Technical Concepts

First of all I think maybe I need to put up the comparison between technical terms between Sanskrit and Arabic. When our ancestors who were involved in philosophical studies as they entered the regions, they just translated everything into Arabic or Persian what they had understood from the lessons that they studied from non-Muslim philosophies since before the formation of the fixed creed of "Sunnah" teachings to counter some movements who dwell with confusing philosophies regarding spirituality, self-concept, perception and identity closely related to psychology. The terms such as wahdat al-wujud and stuffs came from the philosophies of non-Muslims from the Indus civilization. Some of the terms are also absorbed into Malay language right away from Sanskrit since Malay countries were previously of Hindu traditions. This is an effort from a plain Arab descent guy in South East Asia in the part of clearing the lapses faced between civilizations. Sanskrit culture, philosophies and traditions in Asia and South East Asia is like of Greek and Latin's in Europe.

The terms that I would like to share for comparison between Sanskrit and Arabic are jiwa and attama. Jiwa could be an equivalent for nyawa in Malay. In Arabic, it is a concept almost close to ruh and in English we translate it generally as soul though soul is only a part of jiwa. Attama on the other hand could be classified from lower to higher. It means the self or ego. In Arabic, we also have the term which is known as nafs and it is also subbed into few kinds of self. For those of Hindu traditions and Buddhists, attama is eternal as well as jiwa. They never die and could not be killed though being tortured, stabbed, slain, burned, shot or crucifixed. 

Then there is another thing about human and other creatures who breath in the earth and universe as to understand these words that we use and listen everyday. Human and creatures posses body and not only soul. Body in Arabic is known as jasad. Urm, I can't think any word used by Hindus for this. But when a person dies, the Sanskrit word for dead body used by Buddhists is kalevarah and in Malay it is known as bakai or bangkai. In Arabic, the body without soul is known as janazat or mayyit. For Buddhists and Hindus, body is the cage of the soul. It contains the soul. When the body has no nadi (blood flow in the vein) because the heart stops beating, the lungs stop functioning and stop producing breath that could be sensed flowing from the nose, or when the brain stops functioning, then the body is officially dead. The jiwa or the ruh is separate with the body and it becomes a mayyit.

The Buddhists and Hindus believe in the reincarnation of jiwa as it is not a subject to death like what I had mentioned above. The subject to sufferings and death is only the body. However, jiwa is not free from attachment to worldly desires. It needs to be liberated from desires. So, here comes the attama. Attama is more related to thoughts and desire. It leads human from the lowest to the realization of highest self. 

What actually makes human happy? Is it a disastrous life, simple and plain life or a luxurious life? When we wanted to achieve something say, the degree for an example... How long would we take to achieve it? Is it a comfortable or an enduring difficult process? For what is the degree? It is for career improvement or simply for a topic of discussion when we meet people as not to lose our face. Why we need a career? We need to survive in this modern world with it. It is to get a suitable job. What if we can't get suitable job after that? Won't we feel that it is a pointless thing? What if we get a suitable and desirable job? We can further continue to other stage of life. But how long would we feel happy with it? It's not long isn't it? We would face other things which will follow. The jiwa is learning through the pain and pleasure of temporary worlds. Both hell and paradise is temporal in their belief. This is related to the creation of universe (brahma) and cosmology in Buddhism as well as Hinduism about the cosmic system exploding stuff giving way for new cosmic system which consists of time and space. A very long-winding story and I had once learned about the planets cyclical calculations for predictions though I wasn't good at maths in school. I think it is almost close to astrologers' science and illegal in Islam. But I still remember some of the the lessons just never practice it anymore, hehehe. 

I'm just sharing about philosophical view of life and spirituality in this post which makes up some part of me today. Not about Islamic matters yet and not about tasawwuf angle related to Islam since we don't want to mix them up. In Hindu-Buddhism, there is also a term known as brahmalikhittam. It is almost close to the meaning of taqdir ilahi or qada' and qadar for Muslim and I am aware about these concepts too. It is mentioned in hadith qudsi of imam Nawawi compilation narrated by Umar r.a and summarized again in the Islamic pillars of faith. 

So, as per Hindus, the mind of a person who's not attached to external sense objects enjoys happiness of the inner-self. They will realize the ultimate truth. It is through the knowledge of uniting the consciousness of oneself with the ultimate consciousness that he enjoys the unlimited bliss. This is the word of Krishna to Arjuna during the Kurukshettram war in a part of Mahabharata which was separated into Bhagavadgita (chapter 5 verse 21). Buddhists always discuss about developing one self to achieve nibbhana (free from psychological and physical suffering). From where the atman comes is not important. 

Whoa, such a long post I need to stopppp!!!!

I thought that it is just a mere writing about terms but it also includes worldview and few topics which could be developed more. Today I just feel quite sad and I text Amir which is my undergrad friend who's still in contact with me. I just talk about appearing "dead" to all of my contacts. I also think to shut-down my recently opened facebook account but nevermind... Let it be there... I won't log in nor checking the news of the brothers that I came to know in Tekun hostel anymore. I also received the text from Azren which was also my undergrad classmate and a senior of European studies postgraduate class. He talked about his loathe with accountants who love to yell at people and know no respect to people also saying that he hates corporate culture. Then when he asked me about my job interview. I just answer him that I won't go far from my father. It is ok if people treat me like a person with no feeling because they hardly see me crying in front of people or losing my temper. I am a very patient person. I'm not bragging but this is a fact. I know who is my self.

I made a hard decision which is to take care of my bed-ridden father rather than going out to find job because my sisters are busy with their life and my mother could not handle it alone. She also has other ceremonial responsibility. I went out for a moment taking opportunity from the visits of my two aunties tonight. I just went out to musalla chanting dzikr and Asmaa' al-Husna after I can't hold my tears during maghrib service to calm down myself and shave bald my head, hehe. It symbolically shows that I am willing and ready to be a sacrifice and I will sacrifice everything in myself whether external or internal for my father well-being after I talked with Allah. May Allah helps my father and cure him, inshaAllah. I believe Allah is my Protector and Friend. He never leaves me and He knows what is the best for my soul so He educates me with His Mercy and Love.       

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!