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Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam

A book of The Promised Messiah (a.s.)

Written for, and read out at, the Conference of Great Religions, 26-29 December 1896, at Town Hall, Lahore

Presentation at:

16th National Ta`limul Qur`an Class,

Baitul Islam,Toronto, 10-12 August 2007

By: Dr. Saleem Rahman

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Five Questions

1. What are the Physical, Moral, and Spiritual States of Man? [This World]

2. What is the State of Man After Death? [Next World]

3. What the Purpose of Man’s Life and How does one Achieve this Purpose? [This World]

4. How do the Teachings of Shariah impact a man in (a) this life, and (b) the next life? [This World] & [Next World]

5. What are the Sources of Acquiring the Knowledge and Perception of the Divine? [This World]

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Question No. 1

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Faculty of Reason; Wisdom; Perceptive-Knowledge;Moderation

Cleansing oneself from all “earthly” motivations for one’s actions

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Three States of Man’s “Ego” and their Relationship with Man’s Physical, Moral and Spiritual Conditions

• “The Ego That Incites to Do Evil” bends one to follow evil thoughts and actions.

• Definition of “Evil”: Everything that is opposite to the path that will lead one to maximize one’s potential as a human being.

• This is man’s Physical Condition (and “animalistic state”) that exists before one rises to the Moral Condition.

• Faculty of Reason; Wisdom; Perceptive Knowledge; Moderation cause Physical Condition Moral Condition

• Cleansing oneself from all “earthly” motivations for one’s actions causes Moral Condition Spiritual Condition

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• A set of very close relationships exists between man’s Natural Condition and his Moral Condition and Spiritual Condition

• Different kinds of food and drink items also affect one’s Moral and Spiritual Conditions

• If Natural Conditions are harnessed by (and subjected to) the teachings of Shari’ah, these Natural Conditions are transformed into Moral Conditions and, in turn they have a deep impact on one’s Spiritual Condition.

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• Effect of various Food and Drink items on one’s mental and emotional states. Meat-eaters vs. Vegetarians• Moderation in the choice of food (meat and vegetables) lead to a good balance between the mental and emotional aspects of one’s personality. “Eat and drink, but don’t be immoderate!”

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Body & Soul of Humans and their Actions

• Soul / Spirit is hidden (or embedded) within the earliest form of our physical development — it is not imported from outside the body [e.g. Fire “hidden” in a flint stone]

• Analogy: Sincere human actions also have a “hidden spirit /soul”, which resides within the “outward body” of those actions.

• This “Soul / Spirit” gradually becomes apparent along with the continued development of the physical aspects of that human action.

• Now, the “movement” of Spiritual “Life” begins!

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• Since this infusion of Spiritual Life is from God, therefore all the forces created by God are instructed (or are “pre-programmed”) to be helpers of such

a spiritually “re-born” person; except the Satanic elements who are opposed to him

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1. From “Animalistic” Human to Moral Human

2. From Moral Human to Godly Human

The Holy Qur’an’s Three Methods of Reform

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• The Holy Qur’an transforms one from the Physical Condition (“animalistic” human) to a Moral Being, using moderation, and then to a Spiritual Being having Full Devotion to the Creator (negation of one’s “self”) — called “Islam” — (2:113)

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• Teaching Civilized Behavior in the social context (taming the “animal” in humans)

• After “graduating” in Civilized Behavior, teaching the methods of Advanced Moral Conduct.

• Turning these “dry scholars” of morality into active practitioners of Applied Moral Conduct — leading them to have a Loving Communion with God Almighty.

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• Outward Physical acts (motivated by natural, unrefined, desires in the applied sense): “Khal’q”

• Inward “spiritual” Attributes (in the absolute sense): “Khool’q”• The Holy Prophet s.a.w: “And you surely possess high moral excellences.”

(68:5)

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• Two Aspects of Morals: – (i) Avoidance of Inflicting Harm to someone’s life, honor, and

property (when one was capable of doing such harm)– (ii) Doing Good, or Providing Beneficial Help to someone’s

life, honor, and property (or, at least, intend to do that) being mindful of the time and place of such conduct.

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Justice (Ad’l):(1) Someone does you a “Good Turn” (2) In return, you also do him an “equal” amount of Good Turn

Taking Initiative to do Good to Others (Ehsaan): Doing good to others that is of (1) a higher level than just “Ad’l” and

(2) Do it without their asking for it Doing Good to Others with such Passion “as if” they were your

Close-Relatives: (Ee’taa-e-Zil-Qur’ba)

• Case-1: Not Doing Good that is “Out-of-Place” or “Misapplied” (“Mun’kar”)• Case-2: Not Doing Good to others, “like they were relatives”, to an appropriate

degree, whether falling short or being excessive (“Bagh’zh”)

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1. Chastity (remaining pure of all approaches to sexual misconduct, when you have the capacity to misuse your faculties powers)

2. Integrity and Honesty (being unwilling to take wrongful possession of someone else’s wealth, property, etc.)

3. Refraining from causing physical hurt or pain to anyone; being a person without mischief; living your life peacefully with everyone

4. Cheerfulness and Courteous / Polite Manner and Talk.

Discarding Evil

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• Forgiveness (forgiving someone’s transgression against you)

• Justice (returning someone’s good turn with an equal degree of goodness)

• Taking Initiative in Doing a Good Turn to Someone (without being asked for it)

• Doing Good to Others with such Passion “as if” they were your Close-Relatives

Doing Good

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• The righteous believers (in the Hereafter) will drink from cups that will be filled from a spring which (spring) they are digging up right now, in this world (i.e. in this life), with their own hands.

• This verse refers to a deep secret of the philosophy of what Paradise really is. Whoever wants to understand it, here is the broad hint!

• You are creating your own record (good or bad) by your own daily actions. Everything counts!

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• Real Bravery: Constrained by (a) Time and (b) Place [situation and occasion]– Personal Bravery: Overcoming personal ‘desires’/passions; combating a

hardship, to gain Allah’s approval of this brave conduct

– Helping in defense of Truth (truthful stand) — not due to one’s perception of one’s own resources and powers but based on one’s trust in receiving Allah’s Help in this endeavor.

• Real Truthfulness: Constrained by (a) Time and (b) Place [situation and occasion]. Telling the truth where it may hurt yourself or your dear ones. Giving up those “egoistic reasons/causes” that make you tell lies

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• Real Patience (Forbearance): Restraint in the face of provocation or hardship. – This does not mean, loud protests and verbal outburst in the beginning

and (after one gets exhausted) then becoming quiet (and thinking that this is “Sab’r”, or Patience.

– It means: When you lose something/someone then, affirming that “It was only a trust (aam’aanat) from God”, one must not complain. Rather, make a prayerful recourse to Him (Whose is its true Owner, i.e. Allah the Almighty) and be contented, while waiting for the acceptance of prayer (whatever the outcome)

• Real Service to Mankind: No blind “nationalism”, at all costs. – Help your own people only in matters of righteousness and piety; – Do not help them in matters of sin or transgression.

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An inborn desire to seek the Ultimate Higher Power

• Every earthly passion / love for any object (or, objective), in fact, reflects the eternal love one has for the Creator

• Observing God’s Creation cannot provide complete satisfaction in ascertaining the Existence of God. It is partially helpful, of course.

• Perfect Satisfaction is provided by the Direct Revelation from Allah the Exalted that He does exist!

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Arguments in Support of the Existence of God Almighty

1- [Moses said] Our Lord is He Who gave everything its proper form and then guided it to its proper function.

2- With Your Lord is the final judgment: The whole system of cause-and-effect, in the universe, ends with God Almighty. Every cause (which is not ‘primary’) is traceable to some other cause, and so on …. God Almighty is the Cause of All Causes, i.e., the First Cause.

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3. It is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. All of them float smoothly in an orbit. (36:41)

[Their Messengers said,] “Are you in doubt concerning Allah—Maker of the Heavens and the Earth?”

4. All that is on earth will pass away. And there will abide forever the Person of thy Lord, Master of Glory and Honor. (55:27-28)

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False “Gods” — and those who believe in them

Surely those whom you call upon instead of Allah cannot even create a fly,

even if they all get together for this purpose. And if the fly should snatch away

something from them, they cannot even recover it from it. Weak indeed are

both the seeker and the sought. They have not formed a true concept of the

attributes of Allah. Srely, Allah is Powerful, Mighty. (22:74-75)

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Oneness (Unique Singularity) of God

Tauheed (Oneness of God — belief in the genuine sense — amounts to Justice (Ad’l) from mankind toward God.

Genuine virtue always resides between two extremes. Any habit that pulls you towards the “middle ground”, leads to a

genuine moral attribute. Recognizing the constraints of time and place (situation and occasion)

amounts to a “central tendency”, and it always establishes you upon the “middle ground”.

The Truth always resides in the middle position of two falsehoods.

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The Essence of Islamic Teaching:

Adopt the “Golden Mean” between two Extreme Positions

Allah has made the Muslim Ummah poised in the middle (i.e. it has

been taught by the Holy Qur’an to avoid both extremes) in its approach to everything (Al-Shu’ra:21)

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Spiritual Conditions / States

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• O thou soul at peace! Return to thy Lord; thou well-pleased with Him and He well-pleased with thee. So, enter thou among my chosen servants. And enter thou my Garden! (89: 28-31)

Spiritual Condition at the “Third Stage”:

• These are they he whose hearts Allah has inscribed faith with His Own hand and whom He has helped with the Holy Spirit (58:23).

• Allah has endeared faith to you and has made it to scorn fair to your hearts! And He has made you averse to disbelief, wickedness and disobedience and impressed upon your hearts the viciousness of evil ways. All this has come about through the grace and favor of Allah. Allah is All-Knowing Wise (49:8-9).

• Truth has arrived and falsehood has vanished, falsehood is bound to disappear (17:82).

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Spiritual Condition at the “Third Stage”:

• Persistence and Perseverance (Istiqaamah)

• Complete Self-negation is needed, for finding God.

• Submitting oneself (docilely), like a sacrificial lamb, in front of God

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• Say, ‘My prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are all for Allah, the Lord of the world.’ (6:163)

• An ultimate “joining” of Man’s Love for God and

God’s Love for Man results in a man’s Spiritual Re-birth and God’s new manifestations of power come into play for his sake.

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• God the Creator has devised a perfect system of cause-and-effect. Whenever we commit an action (whether good or bad) this action is registered as a “cause” and a corresponding re-action [effect] is generated from God’s perfect cause-and-effect system, which “saves” every action on the “hard drive” of our soul, which we, ourselves, cannot erase!

• Thus, we go through daily life, doing good or bad things which continuously “shape” our Record of Life (“A’amaal Naamah”) and all this is “saved” on the “hard drive” of our soul (so to speak!).

• In the Next Life, this Record (which we ourselves had created in the world) is laid bare in front of us and everyone else to see. “Now, read your own record!”, we will be told. Having done it to himself, nobody will be able to blame anyone else, except himself! It is too embarrassing to even think about that situation.

• People who have created a “bad record” for themselves in their lifetime, do have some idea of what they will be up against, in the Next Life. Those who were “blind” to the need to create a “good record” for the Next Life, they will enter the Next Life, unable to find their way around—stumbling blindly, and hurting themselves with every move. The virtuous people will, similarly, have, in this lifetime, a “sneak preview” of their Next Life of reward.

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• Faith and “Actions that are Appropriate to the Occasion”• An Analogy: Relationship between a Garden and its

Irrigating Canal. • Faith = Garden Appropriate Actions = Canal• Without “Appropriate Actions”, nobody’s state of Faith can

survive. • Islam stresses the role of Appropriate Actions (as opposed

to some other religions)

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Question No. 2

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What Happens in the Next Life?1. The Hereafter is not something completely new. Rather, its

explicit scenes and experiences are simply the images and reflections of what we do in this world.

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2. But, the spirit of our actions in this world (that was implicit) will be given an explicit form in the scenes and experiences of the Hereafter. The Holy Qur’an says:

“Whoever is ‘blind’ in this world will be blind in the Hereafter, or even more astray from the way (i.e. even worse off). (17:73)

3. Progress, in the life of the Hereafter, will be

unlimited (without any bounds)

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Question No. 3

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1- Identifying / Recognizing God 2- Perceiving (Experiencing) God3- Emulating (copying the attributes of) God4- Full Devotion to (losing one’s own “self” in) God

Scope of Worship

Islam: Teachings and Code of Conduct

Purpose of Human Life and

How to Achieve it?

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How to “Correctly” Identify / Recognize God Almighty?

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Praying to a self-styled “God” — Searching for Him and

Calling Him for Help …. No Response! Wishing does not achieve the fulfillment of desire If you do not pray to the One and Only TRUE GOD,

all your prayers go to waste!

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2. Learning about, and being attracted to, God’s Beauty

(a) Oneness (b) Greatness / Immensity (c) Exaltedness (d) All other Divine Attributes

Internalizing a “Most Lovable God” (known through Divine Attributes, in the Holy Qur’an)

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3. God’s Benefaction (Eh’saan) — summarized in Surah Al-Fatihah

Creating us out of “nothingness” Continuous life-sustaining support / development Countless acts of mercy (Rahmat) Boundless benefaction (Eh’saan) — it defies

measurement or estimate

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4 - Prayer (Du’a): Man must learn to recognize how he achieved something not due to his own (God-granted) powers but, ultimately, as a result of God’s Powers.

5 - Struggle / Endeavor (Mujaahida): Spending in the Cause of Allah: (a) wealth (b) skills (c) mental faculties (d) time (in everyday life) (e) time (whole lifetime)

6 - Persistence / Perseverance (Iss’tiqaamat): Not getting (a) left-behind (b) discouraged, or (c) tired, of devotion to God.

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7 - Companionship with the pious people (Soh’bat-e-Saadiqeen); Keeping a “model” in sight, for inspiration; this also proves the need for the continuation of Prophethood

8 - Revelation from God; true visions / dreams etc. Occasional “reassuring travel-advisories / information bulletins” from God: I am with you. Press on ahead …!

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Question No. 4

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Question No. 5

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Three Levels of Human Knowledge1. Reasoning-based Certainty of Knowledge [Ilm-ul-Yaqeen]

2. Visually-based Certainty of Knowledge [Ay’en-ul-Yaqeen]

3. Experience-based Certainty of Knowledge [Haqq-ul-Yaqeen]