Khutbah #18 - 30/10/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

I am always very wary of talking about the Qur'an. My knowledge of Arabic is limited, so I get to read few of the Dictionaries and Commentaries that are a Qur'an scholars reference books. But it didn't take me long as a muslim to realize that most muslims don't read them either, so I never let it stop me from working out what I thought of Qur'an for myself. I never let the most revered of Christian scholars go unchallenged, so why would I do that with the muslims.

It is the same with the Shari'ah. Many people have told me that as I am a muslim without a madzhab it is essential that I pick one and then accept everything decided by its scholars. It seemed that the most important thing was that I didn't try to think about these things for myself. I was too open to error. The Shari'ah must be therefore be reduced to mindless obedience, a world where whatever the system, it must be accepted as a truth in its entirety, exclusive and unquestionable.

Of course, people know that humans don't function like that. They accept such an approach with the willingness of a straight-jacket, and duly ignore the scholars in their private lives, though still giving lip service to the theory - for to challenge a jurists opinion is often treated as a challenge to Shari'ah itself, a far more serious offence. Similarly, to approach the Qur'an without a prior acceptance of someone else's interpretation is also often seen as a challenge to the Qur'an and the fundamental essence of Islam itself.

So when you give an opinion about the Qur'an, you have to speak with great care, as it is a subject about which people have very strong opinions, though rarely will a muslim take personal responsibility for what he thinks. It makes no sense to me that you shouldn't acknowledge your own opinion, it's just that it's necessary to remain aware of the limitations of personal knowledge, which is why I always try to make plain that I acknowledge those very limited parameters around whatever my mind comes up with.

Your understanding of Truth can change with your experience, but the fact that you change your understanding doesn't mean that all prior experience was invalid and irrelevant. Insight isn't always relevant in proportion to the truth of the premises that trigger it. Let me give you an example.

Many years ago, I was talking to someone about the meaning of the word 'Dzikr'. I knew of the way that Arabic was a root language, with large numbers of words coming from a single triliteral root, and I was told that all those words concerning 'Remembrance' had a root, one of the meanings of which was being kicked in the genitals.

I thought that this was a wonderful association. Here is a part of our physical bodies which is rarely at the centre of our attention, despite being of tremendous importance to most of us - we are usually a bit remote, somewhat detached from it, with our mind on other things. With Dzikr, what was previously at the periphery of our attention is suddenly brought very much to our attention. Suddenly what we had forgotten fills all our thoughts. In fact, it is hard to think of anything else, to experience anything else. The experience is all consuming.

And God is so rarely at the centre of our attention, ignored and treated as unimportant, but through the Dzikr we try to remember that God actually fills our experience, and remember that we don't see if we don't look. Still most of us don't bother until we get a more salutary reminder, such as a close shave with death, and even that doesn't last for long.

"And the ships run with them before a fair breeze, and they rejoice in it, until there comes upon them a strong wind, and waves come on them from every side, and they think they are being overwhelmed. So they call upon God, making their religion His sincerely: 'If You deliver us from these, surely we will show our gratitude.'

Nonetheless, when He has delivered them, behold they are insolent in the earth, behaving wrongfully. O mankind, your insolence is only harm against yourselves, the enjoyment of this present life, then unto Us you shall return. Then We shall tell you what you were doing." (10.22-3)

After a while, I met a group of Arabs and the subject of Dzikr came up, and they all said "This is a lot of nonsense! - That's not the root at all." So I dropped the idea - but that didn't take away the fact that it was a great symbol for Dzikr, whether it was true or not.

Then some years later, I was looking through a new Arabic dictionary I had borrowed, and there it was! So I decided to think of it as true again, well aware that it was partly because I wanted it to be that way, but of course, I am always prepared to change my opinion again in the light of whatever new experience God might send me.

And God is the Truth, and the All-Knowing.

*****

The Qur'an has so many allusions and levels of meaning, that any short comment on any part of it is wildly reductive. It is hard to know where to begin. But as we were speaking of the Book in which is no doubt last week, so let us begin with Baqara (which will give me more time to look at Fatiha next week).

How many times have we seen someone quoting those opening words in the mosque, with the Qur'an raised in one hand "This is the Book in which there is no doubt!". And the meaning seems straightforward enough, but the complexity of what we are offered is actually evident from the very first word of the Surah. Because 'Dzalika' doesn't mean 'this', it means 'that'. It means distance, not closeness, which suggests a whole range of possible meanings, but none of them suggesting that the Book is in the reader's hand.

Not only each word, but each phrase carries variation of meaning. 'No doubt' can not only be associated with 'The Book', but alternatively with the phrase that follows it 'a Guidance to the God-fearing'. And 'God-fearing' is itself a poor translation of 'Mutaqin', not conveying the positive side of 'Taqwa', the awareness of God's omnipresence, and the desire to mould one's existence in the light of that awareness. There is no word in English.

The Qur'an, by its eternal nature, must have meanings for us now that were not relevant to muslims in other times - our context of understanding is so different. At the same time, it contains outlines of a frame of reference that clearly unites muslims in a context of understanding that stretches across a span of over 1400 years. A view of the meaning of life that we trace back through mankind's history to Adam. Eternal meaning.

Yet at the same time, the Qur'an was revealed at a specific time and place, and was completely integrated into the daily lives of those who lived around the Prophet. Real people are mentioned by name. Real events are referred to. People asked questions of the Prophet, and God answered them through the Qur'an. As the Qur'an gave it's guidance, everyday laws and entrenched traditions of the local society were transformed.

To the Companions, the Qur'anic experience was not a static text, but an ongoing Revelation completely integrated with their daily life experience, and their guide through the complexities of understanding God's Will was the Prophet himself. 'Aisha said that the Prophet was 'the Qur'an walking'. A living example of its meaning - a living, breathing, active, human, dealing with something different every moment of the day.

How many of us think of the Qur'an as having that same vibrancy, completely integrated with the book of our lives? Obviously not in the same way as those living at the time of the Revelation, but the Qur'an wasn't just revealed for the Companions, so in some way we must try. For no matter how fancy the binding, the Qur'an is not just something manufactured on a machine and fixed in its interpretation by a Government committee. It is far greater than that, and belongs not to any authority but to mankind.

O God, forgive us, and have mercy on us, and guide us, and grant us security, and grant us sustenance.