Text of the post:
Dr Muhammad Ayyash al-Kubaisi tweeted his thanks and appreciation to Dr Rana al-Shami for her attention to children through her book Abd Allah and Abd al-Rahman: Gleams from the Gatherings of Light. According to the photographed pages published by al-Kubaisi, the book states:
“I learned that God created humanity and made it succeed on this earth for a great purpose and noble wisdom, greater than the conceptions of the heedless and their concerns restricted to play, amusement and reckless enjoyment. Succession on earth is a commission to Adam and his descendants to manage and develop the earth according to the approach pleasing to the noble Creator, glorified is He, for He is Sovereign of all dominion.”
Comment:
1. The Center for Studies in the Interpretation of Islam has consistently monitored and warned against this distorted call: the call to a political interpretation of religion. It has distorted the concepts and minds of many people zealous for their religion and its teaching. Instead of their zeal being religiously sound, aiming at God’s pleasure, attaining His Paradise, establishing servitude to Him on earth and erasing every manifestation of associating partners with Him and idolatry, it makes their call political and utilitarian. Servitude, an end in itself, becomes merely a means. We have written extensively on this and will refer interested readers to some examples at the end.
2. The post above is stark evidence of this call’s penetration among people of different kinds, classes and ages. Some think it is restricted to a particular group of intellectuals, yet it is being written even for children, who are raised on it. Leadership, management and succession in their distorted sense are planted in children’s minds from their earliest years. How will this generation then understand that God’s pleasure and fulfilling devotion, humility and reverence towards Him are the purpose for which they must live, whether or not they are able to manage and develop the earth? How will they understand that managing the earth, government and dominion are fruits of fulfilling the purpose, which God gives to whom He wills in His wisdom and mercy, rather than an objective to pursue, much less “the great purpose and noble wisdom”?
3. Raising and educating children on these concepts is one factor behind extremism and violence. What will result when a child is told: your purpose in life is to become a leader and master, manage the earth and assume authority to rule according to the approach God approves, as they claim? The result will be that everything God commanded, monotheism, worship and religious rites for whose fulfilment the messengers were sent to devote every effort, is postponed, indeed neglected and disregarded, until that supposed purpose is achieved.
How much blood has been shed, honour violated and countries destroyed to achieve the aim of taking control of the earth’s management and development? ISIS and al-Qaeda are living examples of this distorted upbringing. Then we are told that humanity’s task, for which it was created, is managing and developing the earth according to the approach pleasing to the Creator: “Grave is the word that comes from their mouths. They speak nothing but a lie” (al-Kahf 18:5).
4. The lives of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and his Companions contain nothing of this upbringing. Reflecting on his advice to Ibn Abbas, may God be pleased with them both, then a child who had not yet reached puberty, is enough to reveal the reality of this distorted interpretation of religion. Imam Ahmad narrates in his Musnad (2803), as do others, that Ibn Abbas said: “I was riding behind the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and he said: ‘Young boy, or little boy, shall I teach you words through which God will benefit you?’ I said: ‘Yes.’ He said: ‘Be mindful of God and He will protect you. Be mindful of God and you will find Him before you. Know Him in ease and He will know you in hardship. When you ask, ask God; when you seek help, seek God’s help. The pen has dried concerning what will occur. If all creation together wished to benefit you with something God had not decreed for you, they could not. If they wished to harm you with something God had not decreed for you, they could not. Know that there is much good in patience with what you dislike, that victory comes with patience, relief with distress, and ease with hardship.’”
I say: Whoever reflects on this wise prophetic advice, its foundations of religion and principles of faith, and how the Prophet drew Ibn Abbas’s attention so that he might understand and memorise it, and compares it with what the author of Abd Allah and Abd al-Rahman: Gleams from the Gatherings of Light wrote, will recognise the great difference between education founded on the correct interpretation of religion and on its distorted political and utilitarian interpretations.
5. Future generations can be protected from the evil of this distorted interpretation and the calamities it carries, from which the community has suffered and continues to suffer, only by firmly and forcefully countering it. Every attempt or movement to distort this religion and the foundations on which it rests, intentionally or otherwise, must be challenged, with efforts dedicated to explaining sound creed and establishing the meaning of devotion and servitude: that this is what we were created for, as God states, “I created jinn and human beings only to worship Me” (al-Dhariyat 51:56). This is the work of the Center for Studies in the Interpretation of Islam, which hopes for cooperation from everyone concerned. The matter is dangerous and grave. God is the One whose help is sought, upon Him we rely, and there is no power or strength except through Him.
For more, see:
The foremost purpose of worship: obedience or accumulating good deeds?
Amr Khaled and the wisdom of creation
ISIS: a product of the political interpretation of Islam
Succession on earth means developing the earth
Scholarly efforts to refute the political interpretation of Islam
Rather, political interpretation is the bridge to secularism