The statement:

“There is an absence of Islamic awareness. Islamic awareness seeks to realise Islamic law in its vitality and justice. The most important thing is justice, not prescribed rituals: prayer and fasting. No, no, no. Your prayer and fasting are between you and your Lord. Thus, when a martyr was killed, the first thing the Messenger asked was: ‘Does he owe a debt?’ If they said yes, he said: ‘Pray over him.’ He himself did not pray over him. The point is that when the Messenger asked, he did not ask about his prayer, fasting, zakat, character, or pilgrimage. He asked whether he owed a debt: a right belonging to people.”

Commentary:

1. Al-Nafisi’s statement, “The most important thing is justice,” is correct, but not in the worldly material sense he intends. It is correct in the divine sense grounded in faith, explicitly stated in God’s Book and explained by the Messenger. Al-Bukhari (6937) and Muslim (124) narrated from Abdullah ibn Masud: When this verse was revealed, {Those who believe and do not mix their faith with wrongdoing will have security and are guided (82)}, it troubled the Prophet’s Companions. They said: Which of us has not wronged himself? The Messenger said: “It is not as you think. It is as Luqman said to his son: {My son, do not associate partners with God; association is indeed a tremendous wrong}.” The Prophet thus explained the Qur’an through the Qur’an and clarified that the ‘wrongdoing’ contrary to the foundation of ‘justice’ is associating partners with God in worship.

God created His servants for a specific purpose, explained in the Book and Sunnah: to worship Him and associate nothing with Him. This is the foundation and condition of ‘justice’, the greatest obligation, and the true religion we are commanded to establish. God says: {I created jinn and humans only to worship Me} [al-Dhariyat: 56], and: {They were commanded only to worship God, devoting religion sincerely to Him as upright believers, establish prayer, and give zakat; that is the upright religion} [al-Bayyinah: 5].

Al-Bukhari (2856) and Muslim (30) narrated from Muadh ibn Jabal that the Messenger said: “God’s right over His servants is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him. The servants’ right upon God is that He not punish anyone who associates nothing with Him.”

Whoever neglects God’s right through association and unbelief neglects ‘the greatest justice’ and commits ‘the greatest wrongdoing’. His punishment is therefore perpetual residence in the Fire. No intercession reaches him and his righteous deeds do not benefit him. God says of unbelievers who do not hope to meet Him: {We will turn to whatever deeds they performed and make them scattered dust} [al-Furqan: 23]. He says: {The deeds of those who disbelieve in their Lord are like ashes struck by a fierce wind on a stormy day. They can gain nothing from what they earned; that is far-reaching error} [Ibrahim: 18]. He says: {The deeds of those who disbelieve are like a mirage on a plain which a thirsty person thinks is water, until he reaches it and finds nothing} [al-Nur: 39]. Aishah said: I asked, Messenger of God, Ibn Judan used to maintain family ties and feed the poor in the age of ignorance. Will that benefit him? He said: “It will not benefit him. He never once said: My Lord, forgive my sin on the Day of Judgement.”

2. As for people’s rights, meaning ‘justice’ in the worldly material sense, Islamic law came to protect, preserve, and magnify them. It prescribed worldly and otherworldly penalties for wronging people in their lives, property, and honour. Nevertheless, God placed them second to His own right, as the preceding verses conclusively establish. God’s right is the greatest right upon creation and takes precedence over others’ rights. However great and lofty those rights may be, they remain second to the right of the mighty Creator, Lord of the heavens and earth. God says: {God does not forgive association with Him, but forgives what is less than that for whom He wills}. This verse occurs twice in al-Nisa, verses 48 and 116. The first ends: {Whoever associates partners with God has fabricated a tremendous sin}; the second: {Whoever associates partners with God has strayed far indeed}. This repetition emphasises the importance of the oneness of God in worship and its priority over every other right.

3. We thus know that al-Nafisi’s words, “The most important thing is justice, not prescribed rituals: prayer and fasting. No, no, no. Your prayer and fasting are between you and your Lord,” are false and embody a corrupt belief contrary to the explicit Qur’an and Sunnah, wholly contradicting Islam’s foundations. The ‘prescribed rituals’ of prayer and fasting are the foundations of pure worship. They are God’s right, for which He created creation, sent messengers, revealed books, and established the prospect of Paradise and Hell.

His justification, “Your prayer and fasting are between you and your Lord,” is fallacious sophistry. The ‘worship’ that al-Nafisi belittles because it is a private relationship between servant and Lord is a condition for every justice, righteousness, uprightness, and good in human life. Neglecting God’s right is the root of injustice and the cause of all evils. Every injustice, corruption, and evil on earth results from wholly or partially neglecting that right.

God explains the harmful effect of association on people’s lives in al-Rum: {God created you, then provided for you, then causes you to die, then brings you to life. Can any of your partners do any of these things? Glorified and exalted is He above what they associate (40). Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so He may make them taste some of what they have done, that perhaps they will return (41). Say: Travel through the earth and see how those before you ended; most were polytheists (42)}.

4. His appeal to the authentic hadith that the Prophet declined to pray over someone who owed a debt is also invalid. Indeed, it proves the opposite of what he intends. The Prophet refrained for an incidental reason from praying over this man, who had realised ‘justice’ and was free of ‘wrongdoing’, being a Muslim affirming God’s oneness. He therefore deserved funeral prayer, and attention was drawn to discharging his liability out of mercy, compassion, and honour for him.

Al-Bukhari (2295) narrated from Salamah ibn al-Akwa that Abu Qatadah said: Pray over him, Messenger of God, and I will assume his debt. The Messenger then prayed over him.

Ibn Hajar said in Fath al-Bari, 4/478: “The scholars said that his refraining from praying over someone who owed a debt was intended to encourage people to repay debts during their lifetimes and secure release from them, lest they miss the Prophet’s prayer over them.”

Had this dead man neglected the foundation of ‘justice’ and committed the greatest wrongdoing, being a polytheist and unbeliever, he would not have deserved funeral prayer at all, or supplication and requests for forgiveness. Our Lord says in al-Tawbah: {Never pray over any of them who dies, nor stand at his grave. They disbelieved in God and His Messenger and died defiantly disobedient (84)}.

Such a ‘wrongdoer’ receives no funeral prayer, let alone inquiries about his debt or people’s claims upon him. Discharging his liabilities does not benefit him: he belongs to the Fire even if he was just and charitable in worldly dealings. God’s Messenger Jesus son of Mary said: {Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever associates partners with God, God has forbidden Paradise to him; his refuge is the Fire, and the wrongdoers have no helpers (72)} [al-Maidah].

This shows the enormous difference between God’s right and people’s rights. In this particular case, the deceased’s liability was discharged merely by payment of what he owed, though he had died and his deeds had ceased. Regarding God’s right, however, his liability can never be discharged if he neglected ‘the justice of affirming God’s oneness’ and committed ‘the injustice of association’. No one can fulfil that right for him or cancel it. God says: {It is the same for them whether you seek forgiveness for them or do not; God will never forgive them. God does not guide defiantly disobedient people (6)}. He says: {If those who disbelieve possessed everything on earth and as much again to ransom themselves from the punishment of the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them; they will have a painful punishment (36)}. He says: {Those who disbelieve and die as unbelievers bear the curse of God, the angels, and all people (161), remaining under it forever. Their punishment will not be lightened, nor will they be reprieved}.

5. The ruling of refraining from funeral prayer over a debtor “is abrogated. Initially it encouraged them to incur fewer debts and hasten repayment. It was then abrogated, and ultimately he prayed over those with debts and those without debts,” as Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz said in Majmu al-Fatawa, 13/163.

Its basis is what al-Bukhari (5371) and Muslim (1619) narrated from Abu Hurayrah: A deceased man owing a debt would be brought to the Messenger, who would ask: “Has he left anything to repay his debt?” If told he had left enough, he prayed; otherwise he told the Muslims: “Pray over your companion.” When God granted him conquests, he said: “I have a greater claim over believers than they have over themselves. If a believer dies leaving a debt, its payment is my responsibility; whatever property he leaves belongs to his heirs.”

Abu al-Walid al-Tayalisi therefore said: “This abrogated those hadiths concerning refraining from prayer over a debtor,” as in Musnad al-Tayalisi, 4/258 (2647).

Al-Hazimi also stated in al-Itibar fi al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh min al-Athar, p. 127, that they were abrogated, supporting this with al-Zuhri’s disconnected report that the Messenger used not to pray over someone who died owing a debt, then said: “I have a greater claim over believers than they have over themselves. Whoever leaves a debt, its payment is our responsibility,” and subsequently prayed over them. Al-Hazimi said that although this report is disconnected, corroborating authentic hadiths establish its soundness, and the imams’ consensus contrary to the earlier ruling also supports it.

Ibn Qudamah in al-Mughni, 3/506, and others also stated decisively that it was abrogated.

Al-Nawawi said in Sharh Sahih Muslim, 7/47: “Initially the Prophet refrained from praying over debtors to deter them from taking borrowing lightly and neglecting repayment. He commanded his Companions to pray, saying: ‘Pray over your companion.’ Qadi Iyad said: All scholars hold that funeral prayer is performed over every Muslim, including one subjected to a prescribed punishment, one stoned to death, one who killed himself, and a child born of fornication. Malik and others held that the imam should refrain from praying over someone executed under a prescribed penalty, and that virtuous people should not pray over openly sinful people as a deterrent.”

Al-Iraqi said in Tarh al-Tathrib, 6/229: “This ruling, his refraining from prayer over someone who died owing a debt, is unquestionably abrogated. He subsequently prayed over him and paid his debt, as established in authentic hadiths.”

The point is that had refraining from prayer over a debtor involved a ruling more important than prayer and fasting, as al-Nafisi claimed, it would never have been abrogated. Since it was later abrogated, we know it was a disciplinary and deterrent ruling drawing attention to fulfilling rights. Perhaps heirs’ denial and evasion of a deceased person’s liabilities was a custom of the age of ignorance. Islamic law came to preserve and enforce them, and the Prophet emphasised this through a practical stance so its impression upon people would be stronger and more lasting.

5. These words of Dr Abdullah al-Nafisi add another item to the hundreds of proofs and examples demonstrating dangerous doctrinal deviation in the Islamic movement’s thought. Al-Nafisi is one of its prominent members and was a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. He became known for his book The Islamic Movement: A Future Vision, as well as, earlier, his support for the Khomeinist revolution. These words express his understanding of Islam, its realities, and its objectives in light of the foundations of the Islamic movement in whose institutions he was raised, whose thought he imbibed, and whose propositions filled his heart.

Confronting the political, utilitarian, and materialist interpretation of Islam is therefore among the most important binding duties upon people of knowledge and faith today. Success comes from God.