13.12.2022
166

SIGNIFICANCE OF ENSURING INTERRELIGIOUS HARMONY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION (second part of the article)

Obviously, through this unique philosophicalromantic genre, Ibn Tufayl intended to point out the difference between formal or traditional belief, which is based on symbols, allegories or metaphors, and philosophical-mystical or artistic-elitist belief, which relies on pure mind or pure immediate cognition, which is achieved by persistent exercises of the pure soul. But Ibn Tufayl is not the first to make that distinction. Al-Fārābī (870–950) is most responsible for something like this in Islamic philosophy, who thinks that revelation (waḥy) can be understood as a combination of the highest philosophical knowledge with the highest form of prophecy. Al-Fārābī does not dispute the functionality of revelation to the masses, but prefers reason, which serves the intelligent elite. Ibn Nafīs, on the other hand, had another intention, and that was to refute the opinions of the Muslim philosophical elite, above all Ibn Sinâ, an elite who had fallen too much in love with their minds. In particular, says Ibn Nafīs, the life (sīrah) of the last Messenger of God is a paradigm, based on the principle of “the best or always the best solution for all life situations”.

Natural Faith vis-à-vis Divine Dictate. I have brought these two stories of Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Nafis to show the potential power of the innate nature of faith (al-īmān) as compared to the power of formal or instructed religion (al-dīn) as a divine dictate. For as much as is it is natural, faith is a divine dictate as well. So, the real challenge for man is to grasp and accept this God’s absolute dictate: ‘Be - and it is’. From the first ‘Pure Being’ as the ’light of all light’ (nūrunʿala nūr) to the last ‘Pure Faith’ as the ‘salvation of all salvations’, man is impowered to believe that God is the First and the Last (al-awwal wa al-ākhir), that He is the Immanent and the Transcendent (al-zāhir wa al-bāṭin) at the same time. Man has that power, but he may not have the will to follow his belief in the absolute truth as a foundation for all other truths. Therefore, the proposition: “faith is a dictate” makes sense for those who willingly accept the first proposition: “God is the absolute Lord of all worlds”, i.e., not one uni-verse but many multi-verse. There are people who understand it but do not accept it, just as there are those who accept it but do not understand it. We are interested here in those people who formally accept that God is the First and foremost al-āmir, the One who calls man to a certain action and al-nāhī, the One who distracts man from a certain action. But they do not comprehend fully the ultimate purpose of divine commandments which aim at making the brotherhood of humanity. They are the ones we want to subject here to critical observation in the light of the critique of the pure faith to which they refer. I am aware that they reject our observation and our criticism because they are confident that only they are on the right path, which we do not compre[1]hend. But even if we understood somehow their “right path,” we would not be theirs because they are not ours. Therefore, this is not about their and our faith, but about their and our affiliation. People are not separated by faith because faith is the common value of all. People are separated by belonging because belonging is a private value of a certain group. Faith is the light of the mind; affiliation is the blindness of reason; darkness arises when the light is turned off. Belonging to an alienated group begins when pure natural faith is lost.

As important as it is for man to understand and accept that faith is God’s dictate for his action or inaction, it is so important that he knows the difference between God’s and man’s speech or God’s and man’s commandments. On this detail the whole question of pure faith, pure mind, and pure hand is featured. When he says, “God has spoken or commanded”, man is in a position to rise to the “light of all lights” or to fall into the “abyss of all abysses”. It is that bridge, which is thinner than a hair and sharper than a saber, over which man should walk not only on that eternal due day, but also on this passing test time. This earthly bridge is neither a privilege nor a curse of any particular faith, but it is a common temptation for every faith. But in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries of the Mīlād, the birth of Isa/Jesus, a.s., which corresponds to the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries of al-Hijrah, migration of the Prophet Muhammad, a.s., from Mecca to Medina, Islam and Muslims face this temptation more than any other formal religion in the world. Muslims today are faced with the temptation of the meaning of pure faith as opposed to an impure religion of irresponsible groups who claim to defend Islam. God’s pure faith of Islam was clouded by impure human minds to such an extent that even the purest minds were not left unaffected. Perhaps there is con[1]solation here in that many in the world have given up or are on their way to give up the faith as such and therefore they are not concerned with either pure faith or impure religion, except Muslims, who do not give up their innate trust in God. It appears that they the loudest of all in a defense of their religious beliefs. But the question is whether Muslims do it in a way that others understand them or, perhaps, there is no way for others to understand them no matter how religiously they present themselves. In a world where faith is not a first-rate value, it is not easy to be a believer. But this must not be a reason for the unclean mind to defile pure faith because others do not appreciate the smell of your faith, nor understand the taste of your mind, nor enjoy the justice of your hand. In order to return the will and love for the faith to those who have given up the faith, you must show them with the heart of your love, with the mind of your clear thoughts and with the hand of your justice that faith raised you to be a truthful man, who has the heart of love, who has the mind of understanding and who has the hand of justice of all people of good will. All people are God’s creatures. God knows why He created them. 

Other people of faith have had the same challenge as Muslims have today, but the challenge that the Muslims face today is the most difficult of all. This challenge is not in theory, but in practice. If anyone in this world has a Holly Book in which everything is written from the beginning to the end of human life on earth, then Muslims have that Book. They inherit God’s Book in which everything is explained to them; in which they are warned of the danger of an impure human mind, which defiles pure faith; in which they are suggested how to import a pure heart that believes, a healthy mind that thinks, and a righteous hand that acts into one whole. What happened in the meantime? Where and when the connection between a pure heart, a healthy mind and a just hand was broken in Muslims? That connection certainly existed. This connection of the Muslim heart, mind and hand was cared for by people who were also aware that God is al-āmir, the One who calls for honorable deed and al-nāhi, the One who deters shameful action. The difference is not in the Qur’anic message, nor in the Sunnah teaching and practice. The difference is in the background of those who read the message upside down, those who misunderstand God’s commandments, and those who misapply the commandments in a way that does not connect the pure feeling of the heart with the healthy thought of the mind with the moral action of the hand.

It is in vain to invoke the pure feeling of the heart, the sound thought of the mind, and the moral action of the hand against those who invoke the Book of God and the practice of the Prophet without a sense of pure faith. Although a minority, they spread the impression that they are dominant in the faith, a faith that is neither without a pure heart, nor without a common sense nor without a righteous hand, but is without a clear idea, which could stop the insensitivity, insanity and helplessness. It is not our intention to deal with the French poet André Breton, who gathered artists around his “Manifesto of Surrealism” at the beginning of the last century, calling them to “the dictates of thought, without control of reason, beyond any aesthetic or moral preoccupation,” but to point out that this idea is very similar to the idea of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who call for “the dictates of faith, without control of meaning, beyond any ethics or morals”. Breton’s former call for the “dictate of thought without reason and morality” has remained at the level of artistic imagination or naive folly, but the call for “the dictate of faith without reason and morality” today leaves no one indifferent and serene, especially non-Muslims. The play around the “mindless dictates of faith” is neither artistic imagination nor naive folly, but an existential challenge to which Muslims must respond with existential conviction and freedom.

Of course, by actualizing the question of the “dictates of faith” or the “faith of dictates”, we consciously open one of the most difficult theological dilemmas since man has existed on earth. It is man’s need to hear a voice outside of himself. This need is not an accident but an innate sense of his consciousness, as his addiction to someone who is somewhere and absolutely superior to him. This state of man’s situation is a paradox because he is at the same time free and dependent on something beyond him. Indeed, this paradox confuses man the most and prevents him from realizing his true position in the world. Just as he thinks that he is absolutely free, an absolute force appears, which returns him to a state of relative freedom, but also when he thinks that his destiny is fatally dependent on someone, a rebellion against dependence on anyone appears in him. Man knows that he is not alone on earth. He is aware that he belongs to someone who created him. But he doesn’t know who. In the quest to find out to whom he belongs outside and above himself, man listens to some voice from above, which is compatible with his voice from within about how he can believe, how he can think, how he can act and how he can be saved. The secret, then, is in that voice, which man hears outside himself, but also within himself; the secret is in that dictation, which man receives with faith that it is a dictation from the one who is to lead him to success in this world and salvation in the Hereafter. Not only have different generations of peoples throughout history listened to the voice differently and received the dictation differently, but different individuals have also heard different voices from heaven. That is how it used to be. But today not only the usual heavenly voice descends to earth, nor is only authentic heavenly dictation sent from heaven. Today, voices rise from the earth to the sky as dictations, which then return to the earth, so many are confused, because they are not able to distinguish the right and wrong voice they hear from the sky, nor are they able to distinguish right from wrong dictates. They are incapable of resisting to the false voices and false dictates that are spreading across heaven and earth today. Everything is mixed in their heart and mind, so the hand becomes unjust. That is why it is necessary to return to pure natural faith, which purifies the human heart, clears the human mind and cleans the human hand of injustice.

Mustafa Ceric, 
Grand Mufti Emeritus of Bosnia

Additional Information

SIGNIFICANCE OF ENSURING INTERRELIGIOUS HARMONY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION (fourth part of the article)
There is neither a stronger dictation nor a stronger motive than the dictation and the motive of pure faith. Noah,...
Contribution of biographical data for social and cultural history: Epitaphs from Abu Mansur al-Maturidi’s Cemetery
Dr. Ashirbek Muminov,Head of the Research and Publications Department, IRCICA IntroductionThe paucity of written sources creates difficulties for a full-scale...
SIGNIFICANCE OF ENSURING INTERRELIGIOUS HARMONY IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION (third part of the article)
There is neither a stronger dictation nor a stronger motive than the dictation and the motive of pure faith. Noah,...

Leave a comment

Notes

Our social networks

Contact

Phone:
E-mail:
Address:
©2024 All Rights Reserved. This template is made with by Cherry