Originally posted on muslimsofnorwich.org.uk
الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، ولله الحمد
اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ كَبِيراً والْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ كَثِيراً وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ بُكْرَةً وَأَصِيلاً،
لاَ إلَهَ إلاَّ اللَّهُ وَحْدَه، صَدَّقَ وَعْدَه، وَنَصَرَ عَبْدَهُ، وَأَعَزَّ جُندَهُ وَهَزَمَ الْأَحْزَابَ وَحْدَه.
أشهد أن لآ إله إلاّ الله وأشهد أنّ محمَّداً رسولُ اللَّهِ صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلَّم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسانٍ إلى يوم الدين. أما بعد:
تاريخ اليوم العاشر من شهر ذي الحجة، في السنةِ ألفٍ وأربعِ مائةٍ وستة وثلاثين
الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، الله أكبر، ولله الحمد
We are here in the season of the Hajj on the day of our Eid. On the tenth of Dhi’l-Hijjah, the Muslims in Makkah stone the jamrahs, shave their heads, leave behind their ihram and perform the tawaf al-ifadah. It is good that we consider some of the meanings encompassed in the rites which the Hajjis perform and the sacrifice which those of us able to do so make on this day after this prayer. These rites are some of the most ancient known to man and are transmitted to us and confirmed by the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for this age in which we live.
The rites of the Hajj revolve around Adam and Ḥawwā’, and Ibrāhīm and his family, peace be upon them all.
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, “الْحَجُّ عَرَفَةٌ Hajj is ‘Arafah.”
ال القاضي وإنما سمي الموقف عرفة لأنه نُعِتَ لإبراهيم عليه السلام فلما أبصره عرفه، أو لأن جبريل كان يدور في المشاعر فلما رآه قال قد عرفت، أو لأن آدم وحواء عليهما السلام التقيا فيه فتعارفا، أو لأن الناس يتعارفون فيه (المناوي _ فيض القدير)
The Qāḍī said, “The place of standing was only called ‘Arafah because it was described to Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, and then when he saw it he recognised it; or because Jibrīl used to go around the sites of religious significance and when he saw it he said, ‘I recognise it’; or because Adam and Ḥawwā’, peace be upon them, met there and recognised each other; or because people get to know each other there.”
‘Arafah is from the Arabic root meaning “to recognise”. From this same root we also derive ma‘rifah ‘knowledge, recognition or gnosis’, which is the very beginning of the dīn as that understanding of Divine essence and attributes, and the attributes of the Messengers by means of which the Muslim can worship Allah without association of partners with him. Used denoting the direct lived knowledge of Allah, exalted is He, it also denotes the end of the dīn itself. Thus the people of knowledge refer to people possessing this particular ma‘rifah as‘arif bi’llah – gnostic of Allah.
One of the explanations of the name ‘Arafah is that it was the place where, after their expulsion from the Garden, Adam and Ḥawwā’ met and recognised each other. So this core event of the Hajj commemorates the first man’s and the first woman’s recognition of each other and remember that all that transpired leading up to the expulsion from the Garden was fore-ordained in order that humanity would take up their destinies here on Earth.
It is important to point out that in the re-telling of these pivotal stories in the Qur’an, there is no mention of any extra guilt on the part of Ḥawwā’ nor is there any suggestion that she somehow tempted Adam to fall. Rather Allah, exalted is He, said:
فَأَزَلَّهُمَا ٱلشَّيْطَٰنُ عَنْهَا فَأَخْرَجَهُمَا مِمَّا كَانَا فِيهِ
But Shaytan made them slip up by means of it, expelling them from where they were.1
This will be important for what we have to consider.
اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ
What was the nature of man and woman’s recognition of each other?
Allah ta’ala said:
{يَآ أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُواْ رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا }
O mankind! have taqwa of your Lord who created you from a single self and created its mate from it 2
Allah says that He created mankind from one nafs – one human self. The first understanding of the āyat is that the one nafs was Adam, peace be upon him, and the mate was Ḥawwā’. But a second understanding is that man and woman are the same, from the same self, in that both see and hear, both use their intellects, both have emotions such as mercy, pity and love, as well as rage, jealousy and malice. Both man and woman have the same potential for ma‘rifah – knowledge of and recognition – of the Lord, and of worshipping and serving Him, exalted is He. The highest mutual recognition that can take place between a man and a woman is the recognition of these highest potentials in each other. So here we have a different beginning to the human story in the meeting between a man and a woman, a beginning worthy of being commemorated ever-after, as it has been by uncountable humans.
Connecting the first times and the Last Day, it is also understood that this standing on the plain of ‘Arafah is as it were a rehearsal for and a reminder of the standing of mankind on the Last Day awaiting reckoning. The expectation of a reckoning has deep implications. People who know they have a reckoning will explore a thousand avenues before bombing cities full of women and children, as they will before bull-dozing and steam-rollering, building and manufacturing their way through existence. People who know they have a reckoning will take themselves to account before they are taken to account. People who know they have a reckoning tread lightly on the earth.
25|63|وَعِبَادُ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ عَلَى ٱلْأَرْضِ هَوْنًا وَإِذَا خَاطَبَهُمُ ٱلْجَٰهِلُونَ قَالُوا۟ سَلَٰمًا
The slaves of the All-Merciful are those who walk lightly on the earth and, who, when the ignorant speak to them, say, ‘Peace’. (Sūrat al-Furqan 25:63)
Among the rites performed in the Haram is the sa’y – the going back and forward between Safa and Marwah in commemoration of the plight of Hajar and Isma’il, peace be upon them.
What happened in that valley, which is commemorated by countless generations ever since, was the attainment of one woman of her freedom. What was that freedom? It was her knowledge that she had a Lord, and that she and her child were not dependent upon the care of the father of her child but directly dependent upon the Generous Lord alone. In Arabic such freedom is known as ghinā.
This knowledge is the knowledge of Muslim man and woman, since if this can be known by a poor uneducated slave woman anxious for the welfare of her child, then it can be the knowledge of anyone in existence. It is this knowledge in woman that contributes to the bravery of the Muslim man, for, as we know from countless examples, it is this woman who will help her husband strive to make the Word of Allah uppermost, and to exert himself to secure justice for the poor and the downtrodden. It is also this woman who will moderate the urge to ferocity and excess in the man, since it is the free, the strong and secure who can show mercy and forgiveness and magnanimity
The opposite of such a man and such a woman are those who develop nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or who countenance such work, or who work in the service of usurious institutions, or who accept passively to live in a usurious society deriving all the benefit of its apparent prosperity without having to commit the crime directly. It is extraordinary what evil is done in the world in the name of earning a living and in the name of the job.
اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ
So, this figure, the Muslim woman, totally dependent on her Lord alone, is of such transformative power that one woman’s attainment of that estate is worth celebrating for thousands of years. For without her freedom, the children will never be free and, as in the model of this society with which we are so familiar, will be doomed either to repeat their parents’ mistakes or rebel against them, thus locking the society either into robotic repetition of the parents’ crimes or in cyclical revolution and civil war.
اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ
أَقُولُ قَوْلِي هَذَا وَأَسَْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ وَلِسآئِرِ الْمُسْلِمِينَ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إنَّهُ هُوَالْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
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اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ اَللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ وَلِلَّهِ الْحَمْدُ
And for the man there is a reminder. Man all too easily sees children as the continuation and fulfilment of his own destiny and designs. See here, encapsulated in the rites of the Muslims for all time, the sacrifice of Ibrahim, peace be upon him, of the son whom Allah had granted him in extreme old age, whom he must have hoped would carry on his work.
فَلَمَّا بَلَغَ مَعَهُ السَّعْيَ قَالَ يابُنَيِّ إِنِّيَ أَرَى فِي الْمَنَامِ أَنِّي َأَذْبَحُكَ فَانظُرْ مَاذَا تَرَى. قَالَ يآ أَبَتِ افْعَلْ مَا تُومَرُ . سَتَجِدُنِيَ إِن شَآءَ اللَّهُ مِنَ الصَّابِرِينَ * فَلَمَّآ أَسْلَمَا وَتَلَّهُ لِلْجَبِينِ * وَنَادَيْنَاهُ أَن يآ إِبْرَاهِيمُ* قَدْ صَدَّقْتَ الرُّؤْيَآ إِنَّا كَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُحْسِنِينَ
102 When he was of an age to work with him, he said, ‘My son, I see in a dream that I will sacrifice you. What do you think about this?’ He said, ‘Do as you are ordered, father. Allah willing, you will find me resolute.’
^ يريد بالسعي هنا العمل والعبادة وقيل المشي وكان حينئذ ابن ثلاثة عشر سنة ^
What is meant by sa‘y here is work but some have said that it is walking. He was at that point thirteen years old.
قال يا بني إني أرى في المنام أني أذبحك ^ يحتمل أن يكون رأى في المنام الذبح وهو الفعل أوأمر في المنام أنه يذبحه والأول أظهر في اللفظ هنا والثاني أظهر في قوله افعل ما تؤمر ورؤيا الأنبياء حق فوجب عليه الامتثال على الوجهين ^
“He said, ‘My son, I see in a dream that I will sacrifice you” is interpretable to mean that he saw the act of sacrifice in a dream, or that he was ordered in a dream to sacrifice him. The first is more obvious with respect to the wording here but the second is more obvious with respect to his words “do as you are ordered”. And the dreams of the prophets are true and thus it was obligatory for him to comply with it in both respects. (Ibn Juzayy)
Just as we have seen a different kind of man and woman, a new youth enters the human story, for if Ibrāhīm is making a great sacrifice, what about the son who lays down his life thus? All three have reached the knowledge that whatever the outward appearances of events, they trust in the essential mercy of Allah.
Then when they had both submitted and he had laid him face down on the ground, We called out to him, ‘Ibrahim! you have fulfilled your vision.’ That is how We recompense good-doers.
And He said, “That is how We recompense good-doers” i.e. the people of Iḥsān, so that this is a promise to you too, this is also a universal and general promise. And He said:
وَفَدَيْنَاهُبِذِبْحٍعَظِيمٍ
We ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice
So he had set out to sacrifice him and Allah considered the vision fulfilled and redeemed the boy with the sacrifice of the ram.
This clearly is an utterly different family from anything seen elsewhere in history. The imperatives are totally different with these people. Yet something so apparently politically insignificant as these decisions in a family, not the great adventures of mighty armies or the movements of phenomenal sums of money, are what lie at the very core of a dīn which a huge part of humanity follow. It is these things that are commemorated at this event which it is obligatory for each Muslim to make pilgrimage to once in a lifetime if they are able, and in the rites celebrated by the rest of us who remain at home each year. That is because it is events like these that transform the whole world in a way which political people can only dream about.
But the story does not stop there. At the time of Sayyiduna Mūsā, peace be upon him, the family expanded to a tribe, who later went on to found a city. At the end of their history, when they were finally overrun and defeated by the Romans, the lone figures of Yaḥyā and ‘Īsā, peace be upon them, appear. They are not the beginning of a new dispensation but they attempt to rescue the dīn of the Children of Israel. Some of the later followers of ‘Īsā, peace be upon him, made the fateful error of grafting Christianity onto Greek and Roman culture, which contrary to the Ibrāhīmic, was founded on a fractured family, a fracture they sought to heal by democracy. And that has been the basis of the Western world.
Then Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was sent as the last of the Messengers based on a return to the Ibrāhīmic model and then carrying it on past the tribe to a polity, Madīnah, a city containing different tribes. In the hands of his trusted khulafā’ and with their knowledge of the famous wathīqah agreement between the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and the inhabitants of Madīnah including the Jews and the tribes who had not yet accepted Islam, the Madinan model even encompassed different confessional groups: Muslims, Christians, Jews and others, binding tribes, races, cultures together in a great civilisation.
And today Jewish and kindred tribalisms and the Greek and Roman imperial form based on the fractured family have come to dominate the world, penetrating even among the Muslims and producing neurotic manifestations. In this it is vital for us to return to the Ibrāhīmic family and the Muḥammadan Madīnah for the sake of all mankind.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلآئِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ ، يَآ أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيماً
اَللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلِّمْ تَسْلِيماً
وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَآءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ ، وَسَآئِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً الْأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَاِلْمُهَاجِرِينَ ، والتَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ إلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اَللَّّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينِ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ ولِاتِّباعِ سُنَّةِ مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ
اَللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الْإسْلاَمَ وَالْمُسْلِمِينَ ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ ، وانْصُرِ الْمُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ ، واجْعَلْ كَلِمَتَكَ هِيَ الْعُلْىَا، وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى
In particular, we ask Allah for healing for Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi, the founder of this Ihsan mosque in Norwich, and a return to good health.
1 Sūrat al-Baqarah 2: 35
2 Sūrat an-Nisā’ 4: 1
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