Monday, December 5, 2011

Dawud Israel on Abdul Hakim Murad

Like his Edward Said Week brother Dawud Israel is having his Abdul Hakim Murad Week. He explains the background here. One thing that confuses a new comer in the beginning is the fact that AHM is acknowledged as a singer. And he is also acknowledged as the modern Ghazali. Now these two things are not consistent with each other. This is altogether a common phenomena that when a western fellow enters the fold of Islam then he accepts some of the tenets of Islam and then expects Muslims to accept some of his ideas, opinions as the correct interpretation of Islam. Normally any brother entering Islam is taken as great news and event and that it is. Except that your poor Alig is now pondering over the events where a singer enters the fold of Islam. Should one dread this moment? Leaving the question hanging and coming back to the AHM Week at Muslimology the blogger their is going to focus on AHM's opus called the Contentions. This is a new concoction by AHM, a blend of Sayings, thoughts, aphorisms, quotes, assertions, ideas or whatever-in short contentions. From the title it is apparent that certainty is not the object here. And that is the second rub that your poor Alig feels. Islam is a faith and hence it is all about that-faith, belief, iman. There is another near equivalent word in Islamic languages about it - yaqeen, sure faith, surety. This is opposite of contention. Should we come down to a contention from the level of yaqeen. Personally your poor Alig feels that it will not only be a loss but a mistake of the blunder proportions. The final rub, for the time being, is that one would expect that any one indulging in evaluating and analyzing an author will give a summary of the works. In the present case that blogger can not do that. For a single contention he might write ten statements in its explanation and hence those expecting a condensation will be left with an expansion. If AHM is a sage then it will be worth it to put effort in trying to understand him. On the contrary the music related questions and the fact that there is some thing Harmonica Alcoran associated with him points in the opposite direction.
Ergo, one has to start a with a note of caution.

Update 1  (05.12.2011) :  In the next post an ode to Qur'an is discussed. Mr Murad takes some thing from Hasan Askari's book Alone is Alone and discusses it in his paper Reason ans Balance. From a hand written page it is clear that a girl's state of mind is being discussed when she has a look at two open pages of the Arabic script of the Holy Qur'an. Your poor Alig has a problem here too. The praise that is being showered is impersonal. Though there is Islamic imagery used in the narration but the content is not particularly Islamic in its essence-it is universal. With very slight variation this could be used for any other scripture.

Update 2  (05.12.2011) : Then the next post is about purification of intellectual mind. There is some praise for reason (and this in any case will include intellect). Reason and intellect, no doubt, is a great blessing of Allah(SWT). People lacking these facilities are not looked with much appreciation by the people. But the way might is not always right-might itself is a blessing of Allah(SWT) and it can be used in obedience and disobedience of Allah(SWT) similar is the case with reason and intellect. This is wonderful thing and it can be used for and against Islam. And that you profess to be a Muslim is not a surety that you are using your reason and intellect in the correct matter. This is a painful experience of modern times (a return of Mutazila by other name.) In the beginning there is praise for reason in this post. This is enough to give goose pimples to the wary. Then there is the assertion that integrity is maintained by intellect. And then it is asserted as a tenet of piety.  It is strange how much ground one can cover in one and half a statement. One gets the uncanny feeling that reason and intellect is being promoted as the new presiding deity. This is the bane of the modern Salafi and Ahl-e-Hadees ideologies. This is precisely what Mutazila was all about. And this is what Imam Ghazali (RA) busted. This is very strange that some one has projected Mr Abdul Hakim Murad as the new Ghazali. The evidence so far is pointing in the opposite direction. History is not a periodic motion. You do not have Mutazila right, Mutazila wrong periods following each other.

Relevant Link : Muslimology