What I make of islam, quran and hadith and why

[Mughal]

The main thing for anyone of us human beings is to realise that only God is God and that humans at best can only be humans. Only Allah is free of errors and humans being humans can never be Gods ie free of possibility of human error. This being the case we must remember the divisions of roles of God and human beings.

Even though message from God is error free yet human understanding is not necessarily error free. What does that mean? It means just as people can make mistakes in understanding the message so they can make mistakes in implementation of the divine will. So the basic question is how can we understand the message as best as possible for us. This requires us to have some basic understanding of the process involved for making sense of things.

As we all know that all our knowledge begins with suppositions ie we suppose things to begin with and then we try to build our picture from that base through trial and error. There is no any other way about it.

As we go along we put one brick above the other and if it fits we then put the next one on top of that otherwise we change our original supposition and try again. We keep doing that for as long as we are successful in getting the balance right and we have the building as much as we can build in our life time. This is how far we can take this exercise. It is an act of balancing plates on sticks and each of us can only balance so many in our lives ie rome was not build in a day.

In short we are all out on a fact finding mission knowing absolutely nothing at all in advance. In other words when we are born we have nothing to go on other than the brain and its senses and the environment we are born in.

The learning process continues till the day we are unable to learn anything any more. Between the beginning and the end of our lives whatever we have experienced is total sum of our knowledge.

Some people have more knowledge than others due to having wider and deeper life experiences than others as well as some people have different knowledge from others due to having spent their lives in totally different environments from each other. This is why nothing is cut and dry for anyone.

By exchanging ideas with each other we are only sharing our own life experiences with each other and thereby we help each other learn from that. Some people who are better at absorbing information and putting it together in better ways put forth more convincing claims and evidences than others and therefore we tend to unite on something better than what we already have.

This is how humanity came to an agreement that rules of wisdom should be the basis for all our claims and evidences to judge by.

The main rule is that if we have two opposing statement then both of them cannot be true at the same time in the same sense. Either both are fale or only one of them may be true.

Likewise any statement that contradicts self evident facts cannot be accepted true. The facts as understood by us at any given time.

What all this means is that nothing is true unless something is consistent within itself and with respect to realities of real world as understood by humans who do research and explore things.

This means that if the quran is divine in its origin then all its statements should prove free of contradictions within itself and with respect to realities of real world as far as they can be understood by human beings. Any information in the quran that humans yet do not understand cannot be used in evidence either till it becomes known as to what it stands for.

Since we are all on a journey of discovery therefore we should be allowed to continue this journey and we must not be stopped by each other because if we are stopped in the middle of this process then this process will remain an unfinished business and any claims about it by anyone will be absurd.

This is why claims of our sectarian friends are neither here nor there. They have so called aqaaid based religious interpretations of the quran that have countless mistakes in them because they do not use the proper idea for discovering the truth instead they take their make beliefs as sure thing and then try to prove them correct through quranic statements by their senseless interpretations.

The main point for us to realise is that in islam the quran is supposed to be the foundational text of isalm. For the quran to be proven genuine source of divine origin therefore we can never understand the quran in isolation from things that it is talking about. Since the quran talks about islam therefore we need to know what islam is, only then it will make sense likewise if it is divine manifesto of islam then we must also learn what a manifesto is all about before we could understand what the quran has to say as divine manifesto. Likewise if the quran is divine constitution for mankind to build their human community or society upon it then we need to know what are social structure, systems and practices that the quran is talking about. It is because there has to be relationship between constitution, its organisation and community as well as its institutions therefore if we do not make ourselves aware about these things then the quran cannot be understood at all.

It is therefore not right in my view to ignore anything when we interpret the quran because every little can help to understand the quran. However nothing can be taken 100% genuine hence we are forced to take what works and leave what does not because whatever works to serve the stated purpose is right and all else is wrong. This is why we must take realities of the real world as basis to begin with and build upon that and the picture the quran gives us will gradually become clearer and clearer fitting like pieces of a jig saw puzzle.

For example, the quran claims that Allah has set for humanity a goal to accomplish and that goal is islam=peace. Peace according to the quran is not possible unless people accept certain terms and conditions as laid down in the quran eg freedom of individual from individual ie no man is slave of any other man. All are free from control of each other. If anyone tries to control any other be it through strength of arms, deceptive ideas or wealth, all such control is termed oppression or suppression. The quran wants people to deal justly and fairly with each other but compassionately in order to bring mankind together to tie them in to a brotherhood. This is necessary according to the quran because without such blood, marriage and ideological bonding people cannot cooperate with each other and they cannot make progress and therefore prosperity of nations becomes impossible to achieve. So long as these essential ingredients remain missing from human society peace cannot be established.

This is why it is essential to realise the place of the quran in a human society. Without quran peace is impossible in the world because only the quran sets a goal that cannot be improved upon and the terms and the conditions the quran set for mankind cannot be surpassed. Hence the challenge in the quran that mankind cannot produce the like of the quran. Why not? Because the quran is the divine manifesto for islam=peace. It is the divine constitution for mankind to build their human society upon. No other manifesto or constitution can beat the quran on what it stand for.

So a muslim is the one who works for peace in the hope that God will reward him not only with good outcome of his efforts in this world in form of better world but also in hereafter.

This explanation should help people see how they should look at the quran and islam, God and mankind. Once people become aware of proper context of the quran then it is not at all difficult to see what people say and do is according to the quran and what is not. Islam is not necessarily what muslims claim it to be or what they do as islam but that quran is the foundation of islam and whoever claims and does what is in the quran in its own proper contexts is right and anyone else is not right.

So anyone who is critical of islam and quran must separate between islam and those who claim to follow it. If people believe and do wrong things in the name of islam that is not fault of islam and quran but of the people. The quran is just a divine advice and a guidance just like health guidelines which if people understand and follow properly will benefit them and if they do not then they will not help them. We cannot blame health guidelines for their misuse by the people.

Likewise any hadith that appears to oppose the quran should be first of all checked for its correct interpretation. Only such a report is to be rejected that cannot be understood in proper quranic context no matter what.

Hope this explanation helps people understand islam better.

[~ Sabr ~]

Could you put this post into 1 paragraph for me please... :X

[Muwaahid]

There is an abundance of dangerous assertions and misunderstandings and philosophical rhetoric in this post. It should be removed. Firstly we as Muslims have a foundation, I.e the Kitaab:al-Qur'aan. As-Sunnah as-Saheehah:authenticated Sunnah and the Fahm of the companions and those who followed after them in beliefs,statements,actions,and understanding and implementation of the seen of Islaam. As Ibn Qayyim said, Al- ilmu Qaalaa Allaahu wa Qaalaa Rasooluhu wa Qaalaa Sahaabatuhu" knowledge is what Allaah says and what the messenger (alayhi salam) says and what the companions say." That is the orgin of our knowledge and not supposition. We have been given guidance and it is upon us to take this knowledge and act upon it, we are not like herded animals with no shepherd we have guidance. As for looking at the ahadeeth (plural of hadeeth) that seem to oppose the.Quran then.we look to the isnaad (chain of narrators) as some of the earlier scholars of hadeeth used to say, "al isnaadu minad-seen wa lau laa isnaadu laqaalaa man shaa'aa maa shaa'aa" the chain of narrations is from the religion and had it not been for the chain of narration anyone would have been able to say what he wished." As for the statement about the aqaa'id (the different creed) of the Muslims then the true creed is the creed of Allaahs messenger (alayhi salam) and his companions and those who followed after them in beliefs statements and actions and understandings. If their beliefs differed with the way of the companions then their aqeedah is wrong.