Islam is not Mohamadenism: The Prophet Is There Not To Call Us To The Person Called Muhammad But To The Din-i-Hanif
By Muhammad Maroof
Shah
November
12, 2020
If Islam is
submission to Truth/Reality who is against it? If this Reality is known or
manifest by what is the Praised One, the Embodiment of all perfections that
human nature aspires for, who can dare to oppose the later? If the beauty of
Muhammad (SAW) known to select saints and sung by such poets as Jami and Iqbal
is known by any human, it is impossible to oppose it or ignore it. If we note
the distinction between Muhammad (SAW) as known by Muslims in history and
Muhammad (SAW) as known by Homo religiosus as its own aspiration for
transcendence/ideality or the image of perfection one adores, as the Messenger
sent not only to all humans but all creation, as the Mercy of the worlds known
and unknown, as the Envoy of the Absolute as such and not a person so and so,
it needs to be debated whether it is possible or feasible to deny Muhammad
(SAW). If blasphemy against the Sun is impossible or vacuous that is best
ignored, doesn’t it call for revisiting the current debate on blasphemy on
theological and other grounds?
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To be true
to theomorphic nature or divine image in which man is created or to know
ourselves (the Self in us) is the demand of scriptures. The Prophet is there
not to call us to the person called Muhammad (SAW) (Islam is not Muhammadenism) but to the
Din-i-Hanif and established way – Tradition/Sunnah understood as well established
way – that has been, in essence, affirmed by all those who have not forgotten
their primordial covenant/true nature and stand praised/sanctified. Our
passions, our ego, our tendency to forget or ingratitude make us heedless
towards this primordial covenant of the soul with the Divine/Self/Spirit and
necessitate Revelation. Saints and Hukama are those who especially guard
against these negative tendencies and come to discover the treasure within that
is informed/affirmed by the prophets and they in turn become best explicators
of the wisdom of the prophets. As such we see prophets, sages/traditional
philosophers, saints, first rate theologians/ulama across traditions on the
same page on the question of Primacy of Revelation/Intellection/attachment to the
Absolute and corresponding theosis/assimilation of divine attributes or
perfection of ethics by submission to the Nomos and centrality of the Envoy of
the Absolute.
Muslim
Sufis have extended the notion of Muhammad (SAW) the way Pannikar does of
Christic principle to embrace without exception the totality of being, reality
as a whole and equating like ‘Christophany’ the Light of Muhammadan with
universal ontology. And in a well-known hadith of the Prophet (S.A.W) we are
told: On the Day of Judgement, a herald
angel shall cry out [God’s word] from beneath the Throne, saying: ‘O nation of
Muhammad! All that was due to me from you I forgive you now, and only the
rights which you owed one another remain. Thus forgive one another, and enter
Heaven through My Mercy.’
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The British
scholar T.J. Winters has noted that the promised intercession of Muhammad (SAW)
on the Day of Judgment may well be effectively inexhaustible and available to
all mankind. Noting that the Prophet has
been sent to all mankind and such Prophetic statements as “My intercession is
for those who testify that there is no god but God, sincerely, their heart true
to their tongue and their tongue true to their heart” he argues against
imagined limitations on the dominion of mercy that the substance of the Prophet
embodies. He also cites the famous Indian-Yemeni scholar al-Zabidi that “it is possible that some of the
Prophet’s intercession will be for all religious communities.”
The claim
of superiority or comprehensiveness is ultimately grounded in/justified at the
level of supraformal esoterism and it assumes transcendence/embracing of rather
than negation of previous religions or exoteric dimensions. The Quran
consistently emphasizes submission to Reality/ Revealed Norm and links felicity
to faith and righteous action and castigates ingratitude and pride or arrogance
towards the Real. It has nowhere party spirit that recruits followers to a
particular person called Muhammad (SAW).
Incidentally
the most fecund intellectual and spiritual current of Sufism in Islam has
understood Muhammad (SAW) as higher existential or life giving Light of
Muhammad that informs/embraces or mirrors other prophets/faith communities as
well and as such is implicitly affirmed in every tradition that submits to
rather than rebels against the Real/Truth/Revealed Norm or Way.
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One may or
mayn’t have come across/known Muhammad (SAW)– more than two thirds of humans
never had and may never have good opportunity to properly know historical
Muhammad (SAW) but every man, by virtue of human state, encounters the other or
is bound to respond to the question of authenticity/ openness to Being and thus
its saving graces/ participation in the Mystery of Being/Love/Freedom or
commitment to ultimate concern which constitute saving truths. Islam is not an
identity but truth and what saves is truth and not identity and as Soroush
notes “I believe that the Islam of identity should yield to the Islam of
truth. The latter can coexist with other truths; the former, however, is, by
its very nature, belligerent and bellicose. It is the Islam of war, not the
Islam of peace. Two identities would fight each other, while two truths would
cooperate.”
What it
means to affirm Muhammad (SAW)? Nothing in the sense of accepting a new
President of world whose currency will now count. Only to consent to be
transformed by the Word he brings and as such it is existential response.
Opening to love/submission to truth is what delivers one. This can be
understood by all. Belief in a prophet is a means to commit oneself to the
Message brought by the Prophet. Prophetic function involves participation in
saving Logos/ readiness to be transformed by certain ethico-spiritual regimen.
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Also Read:
Embrace What Is Different:
Quran and Hadith Stress on Building an Inclusive Society
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The Prophet
doesn’t bring anything new and as such only affirms the old or just reminds and
as such his advent doesn’t alter the scheme or basic logic of salvation itself.
Given the fact that there have been multiple prophets simultaneously or in
history all delivering salvifically efficacious message implies that it is what
the prophets bring or stand for (metaphysically, attachment to truth/Absolute)
that is the key to salvation. One doesn’t thereby imply that the Prophet’s
presence is not in itself a saving grace but that this presence as such means
much for a very small fraction of his audience but the rest are saved by the
Word or receptivity to the content or following the Way that religion consists
in. As Hick noted, the basis of
efficacious salvific process involves “the transformation from
self-centeredness to Reality-centeredness” in this life.
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Also Read:
Blasphemy, Islam and Free Speech
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The way no
community has copyright over the Sun, Muslims don’t have over the
Messenger/Mercy for all the worlds and the notion of the best applied to him
needs to be understood in proper terms (one must keep in mind the Quranic
explicit command not to distinguish between the prophets and special grace or
fazl to some of them) to make sense of “outsiders.” The claim of being the best
or final is vacuous if it refers to particular form as that would absolutize
that form and that contradicts the principle that what is sought by religion
transcends forms. It can only refer to an ideality. As Shaykh Isa Nuruddin
Schuon explains:
Firstly,
this designation of “the best” refers to the Logos, which is the prototype of
the cosmos in the Principle, or of the world in God; and in this case the
epithet doesn’t refer to any man. Secondly “the best” is Muhammed in as much as
he manifests or personifies the Logos, every other Messenger (Rasul) is equally
“the best”. Thirdly, “the best” is Muhammad in as much as he alone – in
accordance with the framework of perspective – manifests the whole Logos, the
other Messengers manifesting it only in part, which amounts to saying that
Muhammad is “the best” in as much as he personifies the Islamic perspective,
the man who reveals it necessarily the best but as much can be said, of course,
of every other Messenger within the framework of his own Message. Fourthly,
Muhammad is the best in as much as he represents a quality of Islam by which it
surpasses other religions; but every integral religion necessarily possesses
such an unequalable quality, lacking which it would not exist.
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Also Read:
Islam and Free Speech: A Reply to A. Faizur Rahman
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One may
conclude with a remark that if all metaphysics is derivable from la Illaha illallah, as has been maintained
and Muhammad-ur-Rasoolullah
encompasses all archetypal perfections that are there, we see quintessential
expression for every religion’s ideal in twin testimonies of Islam.
Original Headline: Primordial covenant of the
soul
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/islam-mohamadenism-prophet-there-call/d/123451
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