The Quran divine constitution for humanity or religious mumbo jumbo?
1) I do not accept sectarian divide, to me islam is islam and that is it. You either accept it or reject it. People have natural right to opinions because according to the quran itself Allah has created them ignorant but capable of learning 16/78.
Because people are born ignorant and they themselves have to make effort to get information and learn and we grow from a child to adult and old so we are not capable of getting information all together at once nor have we necessities available and conflicts of interests come in the way ie some want others to learn and some do not so they top people from learning.
So difference of opinion is due to such like reasons therefore it is wrong to label each other anything unless anyone does things deliberately wrong of which we are well aware and can prove it as well.
2) The main thing is brain its senses and its body mechanism that help it interact within its environment. Since all people are same in this respect other than some unfortunate people who for some or other reason do not have any of these available to them. All normal people are biologically similar. Psychologically our brains function the same way so no difference is there either.
3) Why then there are differences between people? a)because we are at different stages of our growth biologically so our capability is not equal in getting information. A child has less information as compared to a grown up in the same environment. Likewise educated has more information as compared to uneducated. More educated is more informed than less educated. More powerful and wealthy people have more opportunities than less well off and weak people. These like are reasons for having differences in our information collection.
4) Besides information collection we have to look at our quality of information that we have collected as to how useful it is and also how capable we have made ourselves about putting the available information together. Unless we develop our capabilities, we are not going to be much useful even to ourselves never mind others. In other words practice makes us perfect our skills and develop our potential. A seed needs constant care to grow in to a tree. Things can go wrong at any stage of one's life.
5) After explaining the very basics you would realise that it is not up to individual to do all for himself because humans are interdependent creatures. This interdependence some time helps us develop and some times hinders us from developing. So life is a constant struggle for existence at very basic level and at higher level it is capability of man to influence nature ie at one stage we are dependent on nature hence we are product of nature ie we are creation of our own environment and at another level we are capable of controlling our environment to a great degree so we modify nature therefore nature becomes our product.
All this should explain that we are totally dependent upon two things our ability to think things through and the available information of which we have to make some sense.
Without our biological machine called brain any information is useless and without information we are as good as brain dead.
Information is of two kinds. The one which we learn through our senses by interacting in our given environment is fundamental information which helps us develop capability of understanding things and concepts. The other is information that we are unable to discover for ourselves ie divine revelation. The purpose of divine revelation is to inform us about things about which we will never know if no one told us about. Since our birth we hear about religions and scriptures so we are attracted to such information if we are intellectually developed to see if it tells us where we come from and for what purpose. When we are children these like thoughts do not bother us but as we grow and begin to make sense of things we come across thoughts about our real origin that is why we become interested in stories of God and prophets etc. In other words we realise that there is more to life than meets our eyes. If we did not realise this then we have not yet developed in to a human but are at animal stage of existence yet.
If we are lucky ones who have realised that we need further information then it is not going to come to us instead we will have to make effort for it to get it and study it. Since there are all sorts of interested parties therefore it is a big struggle to get information and then another big struggle to learn to put it together so that we come to know for sure we have what we needed.
This calls for a standard for judging the information whether it is useful or not for our purpose and whether we have put it together properly or not.
So we have brain and the quran. To ensure we have understood the quran properly we must have a set criterion that works and cannot be refuted. The quran is said to be complete statement of our creator. The question is, how do we know it is really what it claims to be?
Anyone who can define this standard is scholar of the quran and should be agreed with and he who cannot is not the scholar of the quran and one must not agree with him/her.
When we talk about islam, the quran is foundation of islam and if we do not understand the quran properly then all our claims are in vain and useless or even false.
In islam ultimate imaam is only and only quran and nothing else, not even the prophet ie he too must follow this imaam to prove his own prophet-hood.
The question now arises, is the quran word of God? If we say it is then the next question is, how do we prove that it is? This calls for definition of what proof is. Unless one knows what proof is one cannot demand proof nor if proof is given one will understand it.
The very definition of proof and the way of proving becomes set as criterion or standard or yardstick for proper understanding of the quran. That is because unless we understand the quran properly we cannot prove the quran is divine revelation. The very understanding of the quran that proves it word of Allah is the proper understanding of the quran. An explanation that works is the right explanation of something, so the explanation that explains the quran is word of God is the proper tafseer or interpretation of the quran and all other explanations and tafaseer should be left alone.
All this should leave one in no doubt that there is set standard for understanding the quran and one must follow only and only that standard.
What is this standard?
To see whether a statement is true or not, we must understand the very foundation upon which the whole this process for scrutiny is based.
It is for this reason truth is defined into categories eg absolute truth and the relative truth.
Absolute truth is that truth which has no relevance to anything else eg the universe exists whether we were here or not. Something that exists, exists whether anyone is there to witness it or not. If God exists then he exists regardless he created anything or not and whether there is anything else there to to witness that there is God or not.
Relative truth is that truth which is relative to something else. The witness and the witnessed are relative to each other therefore they matter for each other. In some way existence of one thing is important for the other. This is why relative truth matters but not absolute truth.
Now to be sure whether a claimed relative truth is true or not or to what degree it is true we categorise evidence on basis of how heavy or important it is.
So relative truth is a)self evident or b) proven truth.
Self evident truth is obvious to us and so we do not need others to prove it to us eg one person will not fight with other over anything that in front of both of them equally. The universe exists and that is as obvious to one as to other or anyone else. This is why it is called self evident truth. it is not subjective but objective ie not just a thought in one's own mind but an external reality.
The proven truth is either based upon reliable witness statement as proof or based on mere circumstantial evidence ie based upon clues with their best possible explanation.
All other claims are mere possibilities ie they are as likely to be true as they are likely to be false. We cannot tell one way or the other.
This is the way we judge all evidences throughout the world in all courts of law and we have no other way of knowing the truth about anything.
The quran is not self evident truth nor a circumstance based truth but a witness testimony which is either true or false. But how do we know the witness is a true witness or a false witness?
If the quran is true testimony of God then it has to be free of contradictions within itself as well as it must not contradict the real world realities because they are self evident truths.
As explained self evident truth cannot be contradicted by proven truth and circumstantial evidence based truth cannot contradict proven truth that is based upon reliable testimony of a witness.
Most people have no idea of these like rules therefore they mix up everything and turn the whole thing in to a nonsense.
It is a bit like trying to do a complex mathematical sum that contains roots, brackets as well as all functions ie plus, minus, multiply and divide. Unless one knows which of them to tackle first as a rule one can carry on fighting with numbers trying to do anything first and anything last. The result is obvious to those who know how to do things.
This should leave no doubt in our minds that unless the quran is interpreted correctly first anything we say about quran does not stand. We can argue till cows come home and nothing will be concluded sensibly.
This is why it is not a good idea to argue over things about which one oneself does not know how to argue and cannot understand the point of view of the other party. This is why having good understanding of the common ground is very important from which the arguments should be started for good or satisfactory end result.
Evolution theory is neither self evident fact nor a witness based reliable testimony it only a circumstantial evidence based explanation therefore it should not be treated other than what it is ie least reliable proof.
When a fact is not a self evident fact then we look for a witness to see if we have anyone who has seen this happening but if a fact is not witnessed by anyone either then we have only our own explanations to rely upon and that is the best we can come up with.
Since the quran is said to be word of God, the question is, what are the rules for understanding the quran so that we could scrutinize it properly to see if it really is what it claims to be?
There is no sense in trying to criticise the quran without knowing anything about it but this is the way people are mostly doing things which is not unexpected because humanity still has a lot to learn before it is able to properly examine the quran for its truth.
Through out the world only lawyer represent people in courts of law because people themselves have no idea how to fight their cases, all because they lack what is needed to fight legal battles. Even lawyers ask other lawyer to represent them because two minds are better than one. Doctors look for second opinions regarding their diagnoses so people need to realise these points.
Everyone has the right to cross examine the alleged testimony of God but each and every person has a duty to ensure one is not biased or ignorant of rules that are necessary for examining the testimony. The basis has to be just and fair verdict that is sufficient for one's own satisfaction at least.
So what are the rules for understanding the quran properly?
The quran is the divine constitution for mankind to organise around. It is a program or a divine road map for humanity to work hard according to it to turn this world in to a blissful garden in which flow rivers full of things that people need. If they do not educate themselves and work hard according to divine program or if they turn the world in to hell of their own making and suffer then they only have themselves to blame.
When the prophet was around himself he knew what islam was all about and that is how he was able to bring about a revolution based upon the quranic revelation.
Today we know very little about the quran because we do not know arabic or that even if we know arabic we lack knowledge that helps us understand the quran. Since quran is divine constitution one has to think what a constitution is and what it is for. This means having sense of ideologies, societies, politics, economics, cultures, systems, structures and practices etc etc. Because each field of knowledge has its own terminology and requires specific skills for understanding and doing things.
Mullahs do not have the required knowledge so they simply pass on the memorised texts of the quran and the hadith and whatever explanations they have heard from their teachers generation after generation.
As we know soon after the prophet muslims became disorganised and gradually quranic concept became less and less known as kings and mullahs took over the umaah. Over a period of time islam from constitution for organisation of humanity became mazhabi pooja paat for so called muslims and all the related nonsense and so deen was changed in to mazhab=religion and malukiyat=imperialism. The kings ruled muslims in the name of country and mullahs in the name of religion. Both used and abused people as we see it today ie people are still a football between ruling elite and their funded mullahs. One using and abusing people in the name secularism and democracy and the other in the name nonsense dogmas, make bleifs and superstition etc.
In last couple of centuries if you are well aware of indian muslim history you will come across a name syed ahmed khan, a person who started alighar muslim university in india. It was he who challenged mullahs on basis of rationality or superstition. he managed to defeat mullahs comprehensively. Mullahs however responded with their fatwa nonsense but it did not affect his rational stand. More and more muslims got educated his way and mullahs despite opening a lot of different fronts against him still stood no chance.
No sooner he died that another giant scholar of islam stood tall Muhammad Iqbal. He once again challenged mullahs' interpretation of islam but this challenge was whether islam was a deen or a mazhab like any other mazhab. He could not be opposed because he was right and he was able to prove he was right so all mullahs could do was rain down on him their fatwas.
He then sought support for his ideas from Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They had a long discussion and finally jinnah accepted the position of iqbal. Unfortunately iqbal died leaving jinnah in hands of ghulam ahmed parwez and after death of jinnah parwez was the only scholar of islam who kept alive the real concept of islam despite opposition from mullahs.
Later on we see modoodi coming round to the same idea that islam is not mazhab but a deen and he was followed by likes of dr tahir al qadri, de israr, ghamdi etc etc.
Today there is hardly any muslim scholars who does not accept islam as a deen but war of words is still there because none has really defined deen other than iqbal who separated quran as a constitution of islam and shariah its law according to the quran but based on mutual consultation of the ummah. He rejected malukiyat based fiqh as islamic law. This is what current fight is all about.
This fight is between muqallids and ghair muqallids as well as between muqallids of different schools of fiqh. Once people understand the quran properly this fight will end because there is no sense in it.
However to realise that there really is no sense in it the quran must be understood by each and every individual. This is going to take time but it will happen hopefully sooner rather than later.
Intellectual criticism is invalid if it is not based upon some rules that cannot be refuted. The rules then become conventions like mathematical formulas.
For example it is irrefutable fact that brain needs to be there to benefit from information. The active agent is not information but brain.
Likewise when there are two opposing statement they both cannot be true. Either one is false or both are false.
Likewise books of grammar were brought into being much later on in time than languages and same is true about dictionaries. The text of the quran is more reliable and one has to make sense of it to decide everything from the quran including the rules of grammar and meanings of words to make dictionaries.
It is unlikely that we will have ancient arabic literature from before the time of the quran because even the quran is reported to have been written on various scrap materials. Therefore may be those writing were written actually long after the quran from which people are trying to understand the quran.
Moreover the quran being sent by Allah would contain Allah's point of view not of human point of view necessarily here and there so words used by Allah would contain the sense Allah wanted to convey rather than what people believed. For example why Allah used word jinn is different from what people believed what jinns are. So when we interpret the quran we will take it as a true word therefore it ought to be interpreted in a way that does not contradict rationality. That is because anything that contradicts rationality cannot be true even if it is attributed to God. That is so because it negates importance of brain and information concept and the relationship between the two. This is why we must look for consistency between the quran and rationality. Jinns therefore could be anything but not what makes no sense rationally or if the idea contradicts reality.
The powers people attribute to saints, prophets, iblis, jinns etc have implications such as if jinns exist in the sense of super natural beings that can fly through out universe and are in contact with humans then obvious result is that what we know today about our universe would have been discovered long ago because jinn and saints would have told us how the earth looks like from space because jinns could travel in space and saint could see the universe on the palm of their hands.
Or jinns are said to be very naughty. Now if you leave a naughty kid in a room full of things and go away and then later come back and see the room all will be turned upside down. The same like strange things will be seen by all of us if that was the case with jinns. People who claim to have jinns and magic powers could empty banks and get women they wanted at will. They would not be sitting in streets corners collecting pennies from us the public. Look at how much governments spend on spying on each other and on defence against each other all this would become useless and redundant. Superpower would mean nothing.
So to make sense of a statement, one has to know what the statement is talking about so that one could make proper sense of it otherwise mere words are words and nothing more.
This is how knowing these rules helps one to decide if one is following the rules right way round or wrong way round or not at all.
So using one's brain to judge things is very important for getting to the right sense of information.
This is why one has to see supporting arguments for whatever ideas one proposes. It is not matter of just knowing the language a bit. One cannot become a doctor till one knows the terms involved and what exactly they mean. This is why we are not politicians or bankers or professionals etc etc till we master the language involved and be able to demonstrate the related practical skills. However pioneers are different people they do things first then invent terms to explain them because what they discover is not known before them therefore exact words do not exist but explanations can lead to new terms or labels.
The research of parwez sb on language is much superior than research of ghamdi sb because ghamdi sb has mastery of grammar but not of language development and its evolution based on critical analysis regarding sense of words.
If one just read the quran and became educated then it would have been easy for each and every molvi sb to be master in everything but they are not. Instead the bread and butter language they know, according to that they interpreted the quran and so instead of bringing out the sense the quran wanted to convey they conveyed their own understanding of it at the level of their own knowledge this is how they ended up covering up the quran with their own senseless explanations.
It is like you are giving a grade two child the work of grade ten and expect that he will be able to make sense of it.
This is why I say mullahs should either learn things and improve their knowledge about thing the quran talks about so that they could understand them or just leave interpretation to those who know what they are doing. Unfortunately, if mullahs do not do it, no one else does it either or that mullahs do not let others do things their way. This is why this ummah has to make a move to put such wrongs right or we are going to stay the way we are ie remain stuck in nonsense of mullahs.
I think our main problem is not trying to understand the quran in sense of a constitution for bringing about a good human society that is at ease within itself and the world out there.
unless we understand the quran properly ourselves, we cannot convince others to come and join us. so long as we leave the quran to mullahs to teach it to us, they will keep us involved in their halwa fights. the while we keep fighting over none issues, we are not left with any time to do what we need to be doing.
by following mullahs nonsense we are creating more and more enemies in the world rather than human brotherhood. How it is that the prophet was able to use only and only the quran and create within 14years of his prophetic life a human community, a community of strangers loving each other the most and we have not been able to do so for last so many centuries?
We need to rediscover that islam if we want a good life for ourselves and the rest of humanity.
I think we need to pay special attention to a few points.
1, islam is rational and not a mumbo jumbo of mullahs, a point made by sir syed ahmed khan very clearly a couple of centuries back. Still mullahs have problem with it but could not undo it. A challenge for the whole of ummah.
2, islam is deenillah=Allah's consitution for mankind to live by not a mazhab created by kings and their mullahs. Another point made by another great scholar of muslim ummah dr sir muhamamd iqbal. Mullahs did not like it but again they could not fight it to prove iqbal wrong.
3, quran is constitution for the ummah and all laws of islam are to be formed within limits set by the quran but by mutual consultation of the scholars of the ummah who are well aware of realities of real world situations and circumstances. This is why all imperialist mullah made laws in the name of islam must be discarded because they are based upon deliberate misinterpretations of the quran and sunnah and so misrepresent islam. Again this point was made by iqbal very clearly and mullahs could not oppose it. This is what was taken up by muhammad ali jinnah and ghulam ahmed parwez.
By now scholars of ummah have accepted, islam is rational though people still get involved in all sorts of superstition and nonsense due to their ignorance and due to mullahs taking advantage of them.
By now scholars have also accepted that islam is a deen and not a mazhab though mullahs still show there ignorance here and there wherever they can.
The sole point of fight remains definition of what constitutes shariah of islam. Is it the imperialist mullahs' version of islamic law or quranic version of islam law that was around in time of the prophet and is rediscovered by sir syed ahmed khan and iqbal, jinnah and parwez like people.
This fight needs to be really understood so that we could once and for all defeat imperialist priestly version of islam and its shariah that was brought about to justify wrongs that muslims kings and priests did to each other and outsiders in the name of islam.
This raises yet bigger question that if the quran is really the constitution of islam then why the quran does not talk like a constitution for ummah=nation building like any constitution of even an organisation or company or country?
The answer is that the quran does talk about being a divine constitution but imperialist mullahs have diverted our attention away from that in order to replace the divine constitution of ummah by their own petty constitutions to divide ummah and rule by their own self made laws that are against the quran.
In the quranic sense all things belong to Allah alone because he is sole sovereign of this kingdom of universe. Therefore none has the right to rule the people even in the name of Allah. It is Allah's rule of law that stands as rule to live by for all, regardless a prophet or an ordinary person. No double standards.
The names of surah are very important to understand because they carry clues as to what they are about. Likewise meanings of words need to be expanded to help people see what the quran is really saying in its text when looked at it in its own context which mullahs destroyed by bringing in concept of shane nazool.
These diversions of mullahs are so obvious for anyone who knows how world works and how countries are run and they know how to read the quran. Because you cannot understand the quran till you realise what the message is supposed to be about. It is revelation for the revolution to bring about a better world and that is what prophet showed us by his example. We have taken sunnah in the wrong sense are fighting over nonsense things leaving aside the real message of the quran, which is islam=peace in the world on basis of some conditions or term.
The quran is a divine constitution for humanity telling them to aim for peace=islam. With set out objectives for mankind like freedom, justice, fairness, compassion, brotherhood, progress and prosperity because unless these objectives or condition or terms are accepted and fulfilled peace in the world is impossible.
This is what the quran is challenging humanity for ie you cannot produce anything like the quran ie you cannot produce a quran like constitution that can tell you way to peace and prosperity.
The quran contains ideologies for social, political and economic systems, structures and practices. We are not supposed to take this book as a mumbo jumbo of mullahs like mullahs of bani israel turned their divine books in to mumbo jumbo make beliefs.
We need to raise our level of thinking if we want to benefit from information that quran contains for our guidance towards creating a proper human society.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/national-political-issues/80207-transparency-versus-corruption-4.html
1) I do not accept sectarian divide, to me islam is islam and that is it. You either accept it or reject it. People have natural right to opinions because according to the quran itself Allah has created them ignorant but capable of learning 16/78.
Because people are born ignorant and they themselves have to make effort to get information and learn and we grow from a child to adult and old so we are not capable of getting information all together at once nor have we necessities available and conflicts of interests come in the way ie some want others to learn and some do not so they top people from learning.
So difference of opinion is due to such like reasons therefore it is wrong to label each other anything unless anyone does things deliberately wrong of which we are well aware and can prove it as well.
2) The main thing is brain its senses and its body mechanism that help it interact within its environment. Since all people are same in this respect other than some unfortunate people who for some or other reason do not have any of these available to them. All normal people are biologically similar. Psychologically our brains function the same way so no difference is there either.
3) Why then there are differences between people? a)because we are at different stages of our growth biologically so our capability is not equal in getting information. A child has less information as compared to a grown up in the same environment. Likewise educated has more information as compared to uneducated. More educated is more informed than less educated. More powerful and wealthy people have more opportunities than less well off and weak people. These like are reasons for having differences in our information collection.
4) Besides information collection we have to look at our quality of information that we have collected as to how useful it is and also how capable we have made ourselves about putting the available information together. Unless we develop our capabilities, we are not going to be much useful even to ourselves never mind others. In other words practice makes us perfect our skills and develop our potential. A seed needs constant care to grow in to a tree. Things can go wrong at any stage of one's life.
5) After explaining the very basics you would realise that it is not up to individual to do all for himself because humans are interdependent creatures. This interdependence some time helps us develop and some times hinders us from developing. So life is a constant struggle for existence at very basic level and at higher level it is capability of man to influence nature ie at one stage we are dependent on nature hence we are product of nature ie we are creation of our own environment and at another level we are capable of controlling our environment to a great degree so we modify nature therefore nature becomes our product.
All this should explain that we are totally dependent upon two things our ability to think things through and the available information of which we have to make some sense.
Without our biological machine called brain any information is useless and without information we are as good as brain dead.
Information is of two kinds. The one which we learn through our senses by interacting in our given environment is fundamental information which helps us develop capability of understanding things and concepts. The other is information that we are unable to discover for ourselves ie divine revelation. The purpose of divine revelation is to inform us about things about which we will never know if no one told us about. Since our birth we hear about religions and scriptures so we are attracted to such information if we are intellectually developed to see if it tells us where we come from and for what purpose. When we are children these like thoughts do not bother us but as we grow and begin to make sense of things we come across thoughts about our real origin that is why we become interested in stories of God and prophets etc. In other words we realise that there is more to life than meets our eyes. If we did not realise this then we have not yet developed in to a human but are at animal stage of existence yet.
If we are lucky ones who have realised that we need further information then it is not going to come to us instead we will have to make effort for it to get it and study it. Since there are all sorts of interested parties therefore it is a big struggle to get information and then another big struggle to learn to put it together so that we come to know for sure we have what we needed.
This calls for a standard for judging the information whether it is useful or not for our purpose and whether we have put it together properly or not.
So we have brain and the quran. To ensure we have understood the quran properly we must have a set criterion that works and cannot be refuted. The quran is said to be complete statement of our creator. The question is, how do we know it is really what it claims to be?
Anyone who can define this standard is scholar of the quran and should be agreed with and he who cannot is not the scholar of the quran and one must not agree with him/her.
When we talk about islam, the quran is foundation of islam and if we do not understand the quran properly then all our claims are in vain and useless or even false.
In islam ultimate imaam is only and only quran and nothing else, not even the prophet ie he too must follow this imaam to prove his own prophet-hood.
The question now arises, is the quran word of God? If we say it is then the next question is, how do we prove that it is? This calls for definition of what proof is. Unless one knows what proof is one cannot demand proof nor if proof is given one will understand it.
The very definition of proof and the way of proving becomes set as criterion or standard or yardstick for proper understanding of the quran. That is because unless we understand the quran properly we cannot prove the quran is divine revelation. The very understanding of the quran that proves it word of Allah is the proper understanding of the quran. An explanation that works is the right explanation of something, so the explanation that explains the quran is word of God is the proper tafseer or interpretation of the quran and all other explanations and tafaseer should be left alone.
All this should leave one in no doubt that there is set standard for understanding the quran and one must follow only and only that standard.
What is this standard?
To see whether a statement is true or not, we must understand the very foundation upon which the whole this process for scrutiny is based.
It is for this reason truth is defined into categories eg absolute truth and the relative truth.
Absolute truth is that truth which has no relevance to anything else eg the universe exists whether we were here or not. Something that exists, exists whether anyone is there to witness it or not. If God exists then he exists regardless he created anything or not and whether there is anything else there to to witness that there is God or not.
Relative truth is that truth which is relative to something else. The witness and the witnessed are relative to each other therefore they matter for each other. In some way existence of one thing is important for the other. This is why relative truth matters but not absolute truth.
Now to be sure whether a claimed relative truth is true or not or to what degree it is true we categorise evidence on basis of how heavy or important it is.
So relative truth is a)self evident or b) proven truth.
Self evident truth is obvious to us and so we do not need others to prove it to us eg one person will not fight with other over anything that in front of both of them equally. The universe exists and that is as obvious to one as to other or anyone else. This is why it is called self evident truth. it is not subjective but objective ie not just a thought in one's own mind but an external reality.
The proven truth is either based upon reliable witness statement as proof or based on mere circumstantial evidence ie based upon clues with their best possible explanation.
All other claims are mere possibilities ie they are as likely to be true as they are likely to be false. We cannot tell one way or the other.
This is the way we judge all evidences throughout the world in all courts of law and we have no other way of knowing the truth about anything.
The quran is not self evident truth nor a circumstance based truth but a witness testimony which is either true or false. But how do we know the witness is a true witness or a false witness?
If the quran is true testimony of God then it has to be free of contradictions within itself as well as it must not contradict the real world realities because they are self evident truths.
As explained self evident truth cannot be contradicted by proven truth and circumstantial evidence based truth cannot contradict proven truth that is based upon reliable testimony of a witness.
Most people have no idea of these like rules therefore they mix up everything and turn the whole thing in to a nonsense.
It is a bit like trying to do a complex mathematical sum that contains roots, brackets as well as all functions ie plus, minus, multiply and divide. Unless one knows which of them to tackle first as a rule one can carry on fighting with numbers trying to do anything first and anything last. The result is obvious to those who know how to do things.
This should leave no doubt in our minds that unless the quran is interpreted correctly first anything we say about quran does not stand. We can argue till cows come home and nothing will be concluded sensibly.
This is why it is not a good idea to argue over things about which one oneself does not know how to argue and cannot understand the point of view of the other party. This is why having good understanding of the common ground is very important from which the arguments should be started for good or satisfactory end result.
Evolution theory is neither self evident fact nor a witness based reliable testimony it only a circumstantial evidence based explanation therefore it should not be treated other than what it is ie least reliable proof.
When a fact is not a self evident fact then we look for a witness to see if we have anyone who has seen this happening but if a fact is not witnessed by anyone either then we have only our own explanations to rely upon and that is the best we can come up with.
Since the quran is said to be word of God, the question is, what are the rules for understanding the quran so that we could scrutinize it properly to see if it really is what it claims to be?
There is no sense in trying to criticise the quran without knowing anything about it but this is the way people are mostly doing things which is not unexpected because humanity still has a lot to learn before it is able to properly examine the quran for its truth.
Through out the world only lawyer represent people in courts of law because people themselves have no idea how to fight their cases, all because they lack what is needed to fight legal battles. Even lawyers ask other lawyer to represent them because two minds are better than one. Doctors look for second opinions regarding their diagnoses so people need to realise these points.
Everyone has the right to cross examine the alleged testimony of God but each and every person has a duty to ensure one is not biased or ignorant of rules that are necessary for examining the testimony. The basis has to be just and fair verdict that is sufficient for one's own satisfaction at least.
So what are the rules for understanding the quran properly?
The quran is the divine constitution for mankind to organise around. It is a program or a divine road map for humanity to work hard according to it to turn this world in to a blissful garden in which flow rivers full of things that people need. If they do not educate themselves and work hard according to divine program or if they turn the world in to hell of their own making and suffer then they only have themselves to blame.
When the prophet was around himself he knew what islam was all about and that is how he was able to bring about a revolution based upon the quranic revelation.
Today we know very little about the quran because we do not know arabic or that even if we know arabic we lack knowledge that helps us understand the quran. Since quran is divine constitution one has to think what a constitution is and what it is for. This means having sense of ideologies, societies, politics, economics, cultures, systems, structures and practices etc etc. Because each field of knowledge has its own terminology and requires specific skills for understanding and doing things.
Mullahs do not have the required knowledge so they simply pass on the memorised texts of the quran and the hadith and whatever explanations they have heard from their teachers generation after generation.
As we know soon after the prophet muslims became disorganised and gradually quranic concept became less and less known as kings and mullahs took over the umaah. Over a period of time islam from constitution for organisation of humanity became mazhabi pooja paat for so called muslims and all the related nonsense and so deen was changed in to mazhab=religion and malukiyat=imperialism. The kings ruled muslims in the name of country and mullahs in the name of religion. Both used and abused people as we see it today ie people are still a football between ruling elite and their funded mullahs. One using and abusing people in the name secularism and democracy and the other in the name nonsense dogmas, make bleifs and superstition etc.
In last couple of centuries if you are well aware of indian muslim history you will come across a name syed ahmed khan, a person who started alighar muslim university in india. It was he who challenged mullahs on basis of rationality or superstition. he managed to defeat mullahs comprehensively. Mullahs however responded with their fatwa nonsense but it did not affect his rational stand. More and more muslims got educated his way and mullahs despite opening a lot of different fronts against him still stood no chance.
No sooner he died that another giant scholar of islam stood tall Muhammad Iqbal. He once again challenged mullahs' interpretation of islam but this challenge was whether islam was a deen or a mazhab like any other mazhab. He could not be opposed because he was right and he was able to prove he was right so all mullahs could do was rain down on him their fatwas.
He then sought support for his ideas from Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They had a long discussion and finally jinnah accepted the position of iqbal. Unfortunately iqbal died leaving jinnah in hands of ghulam ahmed parwez and after death of jinnah parwez was the only scholar of islam who kept alive the real concept of islam despite opposition from mullahs.
Later on we see modoodi coming round to the same idea that islam is not mazhab but a deen and he was followed by likes of dr tahir al qadri, de israr, ghamdi etc etc.
Today there is hardly any muslim scholars who does not accept islam as a deen but war of words is still there because none has really defined deen other than iqbal who separated quran as a constitution of islam and shariah its law according to the quran but based on mutual consultation of the ummah. He rejected malukiyat based fiqh as islamic law. This is what current fight is all about.
This fight is between muqallids and ghair muqallids as well as between muqallids of different schools of fiqh. Once people understand the quran properly this fight will end because there is no sense in it.
However to realise that there really is no sense in it the quran must be understood by each and every individual. This is going to take time but it will happen hopefully sooner rather than later.
Intellectual criticism is invalid if it is not based upon some rules that cannot be refuted. The rules then become conventions like mathematical formulas.
For example it is irrefutable fact that brain needs to be there to benefit from information. The active agent is not information but brain.
Likewise when there are two opposing statement they both cannot be true. Either one is false or both are false.
Likewise books of grammar were brought into being much later on in time than languages and same is true about dictionaries. The text of the quran is more reliable and one has to make sense of it to decide everything from the quran including the rules of grammar and meanings of words to make dictionaries.
It is unlikely that we will have ancient arabic literature from before the time of the quran because even the quran is reported to have been written on various scrap materials. Therefore may be those writing were written actually long after the quran from which people are trying to understand the quran.
Moreover the quran being sent by Allah would contain Allah's point of view not of human point of view necessarily here and there so words used by Allah would contain the sense Allah wanted to convey rather than what people believed. For example why Allah used word jinn is different from what people believed what jinns are. So when we interpret the quran we will take it as a true word therefore it ought to be interpreted in a way that does not contradict rationality. That is because anything that contradicts rationality cannot be true even if it is attributed to God. That is so because it negates importance of brain and information concept and the relationship between the two. This is why we must look for consistency between the quran and rationality. Jinns therefore could be anything but not what makes no sense rationally or if the idea contradicts reality.
The powers people attribute to saints, prophets, iblis, jinns etc have implications such as if jinns exist in the sense of super natural beings that can fly through out universe and are in contact with humans then obvious result is that what we know today about our universe would have been discovered long ago because jinn and saints would have told us how the earth looks like from space because jinns could travel in space and saint could see the universe on the palm of their hands.
Or jinns are said to be very naughty. Now if you leave a naughty kid in a room full of things and go away and then later come back and see the room all will be turned upside down. The same like strange things will be seen by all of us if that was the case with jinns. People who claim to have jinns and magic powers could empty banks and get women they wanted at will. They would not be sitting in streets corners collecting pennies from us the public. Look at how much governments spend on spying on each other and on defence against each other all this would become useless and redundant. Superpower would mean nothing.
So to make sense of a statement, one has to know what the statement is talking about so that one could make proper sense of it otherwise mere words are words and nothing more.
This is how knowing these rules helps one to decide if one is following the rules right way round or wrong way round or not at all.
So using one's brain to judge things is very important for getting to the right sense of information.
This is why one has to see supporting arguments for whatever ideas one proposes. It is not matter of just knowing the language a bit. One cannot become a doctor till one knows the terms involved and what exactly they mean. This is why we are not politicians or bankers or professionals etc etc till we master the language involved and be able to demonstrate the related practical skills. However pioneers are different people they do things first then invent terms to explain them because what they discover is not known before them therefore exact words do not exist but explanations can lead to new terms or labels.
The research of parwez sb on language is much superior than research of ghamdi sb because ghamdi sb has mastery of grammar but not of language development and its evolution based on critical analysis regarding sense of words.
If one just read the quran and became educated then it would have been easy for each and every molvi sb to be master in everything but they are not. Instead the bread and butter language they know, according to that they interpreted the quran and so instead of bringing out the sense the quran wanted to convey they conveyed their own understanding of it at the level of their own knowledge this is how they ended up covering up the quran with their own senseless explanations.
It is like you are giving a grade two child the work of grade ten and expect that he will be able to make sense of it.
This is why I say mullahs should either learn things and improve their knowledge about thing the quran talks about so that they could understand them or just leave interpretation to those who know what they are doing. Unfortunately, if mullahs do not do it, no one else does it either or that mullahs do not let others do things their way. This is why this ummah has to make a move to put such wrongs right or we are going to stay the way we are ie remain stuck in nonsense of mullahs.
I think our main problem is not trying to understand the quran in sense of a constitution for bringing about a good human society that is at ease within itself and the world out there.
unless we understand the quran properly ourselves, we cannot convince others to come and join us. so long as we leave the quran to mullahs to teach it to us, they will keep us involved in their halwa fights. the while we keep fighting over none issues, we are not left with any time to do what we need to be doing.
by following mullahs nonsense we are creating more and more enemies in the world rather than human brotherhood. How it is that the prophet was able to use only and only the quran and create within 14years of his prophetic life a human community, a community of strangers loving each other the most and we have not been able to do so for last so many centuries?
We need to rediscover that islam if we want a good life for ourselves and the rest of humanity.
I think we need to pay special attention to a few points.
1, islam is rational and not a mumbo jumbo of mullahs, a point made by sir syed ahmed khan very clearly a couple of centuries back. Still mullahs have problem with it but could not undo it. A challenge for the whole of ummah.
2, islam is deenillah=Allah's consitution for mankind to live by not a mazhab created by kings and their mullahs. Another point made by another great scholar of muslim ummah dr sir muhamamd iqbal. Mullahs did not like it but again they could not fight it to prove iqbal wrong.
3, quran is constitution for the ummah and all laws of islam are to be formed within limits set by the quran but by mutual consultation of the scholars of the ummah who are well aware of realities of real world situations and circumstances. This is why all imperialist mullah made laws in the name of islam must be discarded because they are based upon deliberate misinterpretations of the quran and sunnah and so misrepresent islam. Again this point was made by iqbal very clearly and mullahs could not oppose it. This is what was taken up by muhammad ali jinnah and ghulam ahmed parwez.
By now scholars of ummah have accepted, islam is rational though people still get involved in all sorts of superstition and nonsense due to their ignorance and due to mullahs taking advantage of them.
By now scholars have also accepted that islam is a deen and not a mazhab though mullahs still show there ignorance here and there wherever they can.
The sole point of fight remains definition of what constitutes shariah of islam. Is it the imperialist mullahs' version of islamic law or quranic version of islam law that was around in time of the prophet and is rediscovered by sir syed ahmed khan and iqbal, jinnah and parwez like people.
This fight needs to be really understood so that we could once and for all defeat imperialist priestly version of islam and its shariah that was brought about to justify wrongs that muslims kings and priests did to each other and outsiders in the name of islam.
This raises yet bigger question that if the quran is really the constitution of islam then why the quran does not talk like a constitution for ummah=nation building like any constitution of even an organisation or company or country?
The answer is that the quran does talk about being a divine constitution but imperialist mullahs have diverted our attention away from that in order to replace the divine constitution of ummah by their own petty constitutions to divide ummah and rule by their own self made laws that are against the quran.
In the quranic sense all things belong to Allah alone because he is sole sovereign of this kingdom of universe. Therefore none has the right to rule the people even in the name of Allah. It is Allah's rule of law that stands as rule to live by for all, regardless a prophet or an ordinary person. No double standards.
The names of surah are very important to understand because they carry clues as to what they are about. Likewise meanings of words need to be expanded to help people see what the quran is really saying in its text when looked at it in its own context which mullahs destroyed by bringing in concept of shane nazool.
These diversions of mullahs are so obvious for anyone who knows how world works and how countries are run and they know how to read the quran. Because you cannot understand the quran till you realise what the message is supposed to be about. It is revelation for the revolution to bring about a better world and that is what prophet showed us by his example. We have taken sunnah in the wrong sense are fighting over nonsense things leaving aside the real message of the quran, which is islam=peace in the world on basis of some conditions or term.
The quran is a divine constitution for humanity telling them to aim for peace=islam. With set out objectives for mankind like freedom, justice, fairness, compassion, brotherhood, progress and prosperity because unless these objectives or condition or terms are accepted and fulfilled peace in the world is impossible.
This is what the quran is challenging humanity for ie you cannot produce anything like the quran ie you cannot produce a quran like constitution that can tell you way to peace and prosperity.
The quran contains ideologies for social, political and economic systems, structures and practices. We are not supposed to take this book as a mumbo jumbo of mullahs like mullahs of bani israel turned their divine books in to mumbo jumbo make beliefs.
We need to raise our level of thinking if we want to benefit from information that quran contains for our guidance towards creating a proper human society.
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