Editor's Note: Huffington Post Religion has launched a scripture commentary/reflection series, which will bring together leading voices from different religious traditions to offer their wisdom on selected religious texts. We are pleased to announce a series of reflections for the Holy Month of Ramadan featuring posts by HM Queen Noor, Dalia Mogahed, Eboo Patel, Kabir Helminski, and Rami Nashashibi. They will all be reflecting on a passage from the Qur'an, Sura 2:177, which appears below. Last month we featured Christian reflections on the Gospel by Rev. Jim Wallis, Dr. Serene Jones, Dr. Emilie Townes, Sister Joan Chittister, and Rev. James Martin, S.J. Coming in September we will feature Jewish commentaries for the High Holidays and in October Hindu commentary for Diwali. We hope all readers, Muslim and non-Muslim, will gain wisdom from the insights of our writers on the Holy Qur'an:
True piety does not consist in turning your faces towards the east or the west -- but truly pious is he who believes in God, and the Last Day; and the angels, and revelation, and the prophets; and spends his substance -- however much he himself may cherish -- it -- upon his near of kin, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and the beggars, and for the freeing of human beings from bondage; and is constant in prayer, and renders the purifying dues; and [truly pious are] they who keep their promises whenever they promise, and are patient in misfortune and hardship and in time of peril: it is they that have proved themselves true, and it is they, they who are conscious of God. (2:177 [Asad])
The Qur'an is the record of 23 years of messages given to the Prophet Muhammad by a source which he believed to be the very same God who addressed all previous human communities, as well as the Prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (among others). From the Muslim perspective, the verses (ayats) of the Qur'an are both an intimate dialog between God and Muhammad and a source of guidance for human beings in general. Non-Muslims, and especially Westerners, bring their own expectations, and sometimes their own prejudices, to their attempts at understanding this "book." The great American classicist Norman O. Brown began a study of Islam late in his life and offered some extraordinary insights in a series of lectures which have been recently published as The Challenge of Islam. Brown once reflected that the West was not ready to appreciate the Qur'an before James Joyce's avant-garde Finnegan's Wake was published.
Both texts are many-layered, non-linear language events. Just as Ulysses is not quite a novel about Ireland but an experiment that probes the very possibilities and limits of language, so, too, the Qur'an challenges human sensibilities. It describes itself as "a sublime Book. No falsehood can ever enter it from in front or behind. It is a bestowal from on high by the One who is All-Wise, and to whom belongs all praise" (41:41-42). It does not, however, claim a monopoly on the truth, but rather "sets forth the Truth, confirming the Truth of whatever remains of earlier revelations" (5:48), affirming, for instance, that the Torah of the Jews is "a guidance and a light" (5:44).
Some of what gets in the way of Westerners reading it for the first time includes:
Needless to say, all of these things can get in the way of an openhearted, sensitive reading of the text. Since most English translations have adopted Biblical terms to translate the Qur'an, the linguistic originality and uniqueness has been obscured. In some translations we encounter the terms "believers" and "unbelievers" and we think of those who do or do not subscribe to an exclusive doctrine or dogma dictated to them by a religious authority. The root meanings of these words are not about "belief" at all, but about a perception of spiritual reality, a trust that life has meaning and purpose, a certainty of the heart that has little to do with theology. The Arabic term which has been translated as unbeliever is kafir which would better be understood as someone in denial, someone who willfully "covers" (i.e., denies) the spiritual dimension of life -- no matter what their nominal, purported religion or lack thereof.
For reference, the most respected translation and the most comprehensive linguistic analysis and commentary on the Qur'an is The Message of the Qur'an by Muhammad Asad. Asad was born Leopold Weiss, son of a Rabbi in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who was, among other things, Pakistan's first Ambassador to the United Nations.
Much of the Qur'an is about getting beyond man-made beliefs and dogmas, about becoming vigilant about the ways spirituality degenerates into self-serving orthodoxies and power structures, about returning us to the simple awe and wonder of a pure heart, about doing the work that supports human dignity and well-being. I know what some people are now thinking: what this really means is setting up a religious dictatorship. History shows otherwise. Islamic societies were typically multi-cultural and multi-religious, as witnessed by the Ottoman world, Spain in the Middle Ages, and Jerusalem over 12 centuries of Muslim rule.
The quotation we are looking at here is a good example of this valuing of essential goodness over religious doctrine and form, because it tells us that true and sincere goodness is not the result of merely conforming to the outer forms of religious rituals, but consists of doing good to others, living a life of service, bearing suffering with patience, and overcoming fear. To say that "piety" (Arabic birr, literally "goodness") is not about facing east or west is significant in the Islamic context, where the direction of Mecca is always kept in mind for establishing the direction in which one will prostrate during the five-times-per-day ritual prayer. As important as that is, it is not as important as being a good person, "sharing one's substance" with those who are near to us, with wayfarers, with anyone needing refuge, and the freeing of other people from all sorts of "bondage." It is to embody the essence of religion, which includes not "believing in" but being "faithful to" God, His angels, His Prophets (without distinguishing some as more important than others), and recognizing an external accountability for our actions.
If it was "multi-cultural" then one needs to explain the second class status of religious minorities in Ottoman Turkey,in Islamic Spain,and so on and so forth continued to present day Islamic states.
Distorting history and suspending ones own knowledge of what history is will make even Mein Kampf and Nazi Germany seem quite reasonable and it's actions
Because we are conditioned to deplore racial theory and we bring our own conceptions of what is just we wrongly condemn Nazi Germany and we misunderstand Mein Kampf because of wrong translations and taking the text out of context.
May we both be guided to the truth. Ameen
It works on an etymological sense in so far as in-fidel means -- literally-- to not have faith.
But the English word infidel has idomatic connotations that are simply not present in the original Arabic word.
It holds bellicose and apocalyptic connotations that far exceed the meaning of kafir -- (nonbeliever).
That is not say that the word kafir is not exclusionary -- Islam too has a sense of 'we're special, you not special, come be special' -- like other religions.
But the connotations present in the English word infidel are grossly inaccurate in their effect.
I do not believe in Angels, which were invented ~600-BCE by the Hebrews, perfected by the Christians and made far further from reality by the Islamic scriptures, in my opinion.
The greatness of religion is also its danger; it calls you to something more important than your own personal interests and desires. If used properly, you can see tremendous acts of charity, compassion, and solidarity with the meek. However, the opposite situation, that of vesting a person, group, or interpretation with unconditional significance, is also possible, even if not correct. In fact, this is what the great religious symbol of the “demonic” means. If you read the texts as an adult, disconnected from superstitions and literalizations, you will see the demonic is the granting of unconditional significance to something finite - that is a person, his will to power, an identity group, ethnic, racial or religious, or even ones own interpretation of religion. Religion is as dangerous as it is great, because people are as dangerous as they are
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Nobody has even tried to know more about the author, his work and his contributions and the Islamic tradition of Sufism he represents. He is one of the very few individuals in the modern world who have wisdom and the capacity to bring people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds together in harmony with each other.
There is a saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) "The basis of all the actions are the intentions behind them". So it is quite possible to get bad outcomes from seemingly "good" actions, because intentions were not pure or were misdirected. It applies to anything from prayer, fasting, giving alms or striving in the way of God. This is the reason there is an emphasis in Sufi teachings of Islam (a mystical tradition) to purify one's intentions as an ongoing practice. Whatever negativity we are seeing in the world today is the manifestation of this phenomenon on a global scale.
We have lost touch from ourselves and this is why we see each other as "other", the reality is that we are all "one" at our core and connected to each other more than just our DNA. So lets stop this "bashing" and get back to our core and cherish our big human family.
That said, I think we can safely say that many, many Muslims wouldn't measure up to Kabir's high spiritual standards. Eventually we have to ask ourselves, wouldn't it be better for religion to uplift ordinary souls, instead of providing inspiration to a sensitive few who insist there's great beauty if you "read between the lines" and engage in a great deal of critical thinking? Most ordinary worshippers don't do that, you know.
When it comes to the spiritual practices I referred above taught by Sufi teachers, they have been followed in communities of ordinary people for over a thousand years. The only standard which is asked for is a 'heart' and according to Rumi if the heart is 'cracked' open with the longings its even better.
In these times of economical, environmental and natural disasters of epic magnitude we have plenty of hearts which I hope are open and ready to see this oneness of humanity at large, in these pains and sufferings we are all impacted by, one way or the other.
This coming together of different faiths and communities in harmony with each other, is the way of a hopeful future.
Ramazan Mubarak.
I read statements like this, and it always occurs to me that the Ottoman world and Spain in the middle ages were at the height of Islam as the ascendant culture at that time. Surely there is far less tolerance in the middle east today. Similarly Europe of the middle ages was pretty barbaric and intolerant as a Christian backwater in the wake of the Roman Empire. How much do societal attitudes have to do with religious beliefs, and how much do they have to do with the extent to which a culture is economically embattled or on top. Maybe "beliefs" have far less influence than we tend to believe. How much does it really matter what's in the holy books.