TOWARDS CLEAR-FEATURED ISLAMIC IDENTITY
Dr Mahmud Abul-Huda Al Husaini
Aleppo-Syria
Oh our professor, Al Nawrasi, we have come here with the others to participate in listening to you, while you address us from our past that was your present, and talk to us about a future that we might be one of its elements. Here we are to listen to you when you say:
"Oh you who hide behind very far epoch… listening to the Words of Light silently and quietly… whatever is your name, Sa'id, Hamzah, Omar, Othman, Taher, Yusuf, Ahmad, and the like, I address you:
Raise your heads and say to me: 'You have told the truth'. Let this belief of yours be a debt on your shoulders. Leave alone my contemporaries who are indifferent to my words. I talk to you through the waves of ether that extends from the immemorial valleys of the past, called history, to your fine future. I am not to blame if I come earlier in time, and fate wills that I should come to the sea of life when it is winter time… . As for you, I congratulate you for you are going to live a flourishing spring as paradise. The seeds of Light that are sown and planted today will bloom into mellow flowers in your land…. We are waiting for your meeting our services …. If you happen to cross the versant of the mountain of the past, do visit our graves and plant some presents of that spring on the top of the citadel".
Oh our professor, we owe you great veneration and esteem. If we all present our hearts as gifts to you, we would not be giving you your due in full.
After listening to the Professor's word, I say:
Undoubtedly, the Messages of Light that exceeds a hundred and thirty Messages, was and is still supplying the Muslims with precious fiducial services in a style that is intelligible to the believer and the rejecter. It spreads Qur'anic truths of strong proofs and unequal evidences. It radiates at a time in which the faith of the imitators is shaken. They consider religion mere worship and neglect it as treatment and method for life. It is the time when destroying the Muhammadan Shari'a and Ahmadan rituals abounds.
No doubt, and because of these Messages, as Prof. An Nawrasi (MBUH) said, every disciple of the Light has become a hidden Pole of the Saint Poles, or a brave officer in an army that dispatches abstract support to the hearts.
Certainly, we believe that these Messages are closely related to the Holy Qur'an. Moreover, they are as interpretation of it.
I have spent a lot of time in meditating upon and studying this book, and I liked searching and perusing its sublime deep meanings. Consequently, I wrote some subjects derived from its spirit and its great guidance.
But, as I have been asked to participate in this scientific conference to present some scientific and practical suggestions that I believe useful and hope for their benefit, I present three wide headlines to the brothers, researchers and administrators, hoping that the Exalted Allah would make my research be the cause that leads to blessings, welfare, prosperity and development.
First: As our Islamic Ummah suffers the most difficult circumstances and the cruelest ordeals, we have to draw the attention to the orientations of Prof. An Nawrasi to the unity of the Ummah and its abstract Muhammadan union which is the union of Islam that should be steadfast among all the believers, in power or in action. In Prof. Nawrasi's opinion, this union should not be restricted to a group of people in Istanbul or Anatolia , for he asserts that his trend is love of love, dispute with dispute, and supporting the soldiers of love of the Muslims. He insists on the idea that every Muslim is meant to be, as he believes, affiliated to his community. From this starting point, and in the name of Shari'a, he calls the Sheiks and scholars who seek knowledge, to be united before any other people. Moreover, he sees that the publisher of the ideas of this Muhammadan Union is all Islamic books and daily journals whose aim should be to raise the word of Allah, and that the head of this union is the Pride of the world, our Master the Honorable Messenger, Muhammad (PBUH). As for his method, it is to adopt the good manners of our Master (PBUH) and to revive his Prophetic Sunnah . By establishing this union, we would have put a barrier to prevent the separation of groups and parties. In addition, we have to do our best to unite them .
The Professor believes that the purpose of this union is unity of goal, not methods.
I see that the practical application of the orientations of the Professor concerning the practical union is by communication with proselytizers all through the Islamic world, and by consultation with the Islamic communities. The purport of the message of these communities should agree with that of The Messages of Light that is nothing but an actual understanding of the truths of the Holy Qur'an. Wherever these communities exist in our Islamic world, they should be integrated with the movement of the disciples of the Light.
The Professor said: "The key of the Muslims' happiness in their social life is 'consultation'. Real consultation leads to sincerity and cooperation, for three ones (111) become one hundred and eleven. Consequently, by sincerity and real cooperation three persons will be able to benefit their Ummah as much as one hundred persons do."
As Turkey assumes a status of priority in the Islamic world nowadays, and as it enjoys human freedom, this would help the realization of this trend of Prof. An Nawrasi, especially after most of the Islamic countries have become deprived of such convenient circumstances.
As the Professor sees that the publisher of the ideas of this Muhammadan union is all Islamic books, why shouldn't we add, for example, the service of the book to the Messages of Light that would lead to supporting the Islamic and fudicial idea in the Messages of light and complement it?
Moreover, while serving the Messages of Light that are derived from the Qur'an, why, for example, don't we also serve righteous studies presented by contemporary giants in science and education, studies that are in harmony with the Messages of Light in their content as long as they do not contradict the Messages of Light in their purport, and when these help in fixing faith by means of revealing the inimitability of Qur'an and the truths of faith?
As all the Messages of Light assert the continuity of deriving knowledge from the Qur'an and learning from it, and with the emphasis on the importance of studying the Messages of Light, I suggest that the disciples of the Light call for many conferences on Qur'anic studies.
Secondly: While we see the tyranny of secularism most often spread in our Islamic world, and see its subordination to the Western interests, we have to make firm the orientations of Professor Al Nawrasi in teaching religious sciences in developed modern schools concerned with cosmic and experimental sciences, in addition to applying his orientations of acquiring some modern sciences in religious schools. Subversive plans against our Islamic world aim at creating a clash between the students of Islamic religion and experimental sciences to present a reality in the Islamic world similar to the European clash between the church and science. The enemies of Islam have realized that Islam embraces experimental sciences and calls for them, in addition to its encouraging the students of these sciences, so they want to present a reality in which there is reversal of truth and they try to make people have the illusion of the opposite of what is true.
Once, the Professor said: When I was in Wan, the Wali (ruler), Taher Basha, allotted a room for me where I used to stay. During that time, I learnt by heart about ninety books on truths. I used to rehearse what I had memorized for three hours a day, so I completed memorizing them in three months… and I thanked Allah too much. This memorized knowledge was the means of promotion for me to the truths of the Holy Qur'an .
This is the way by which the Professor was promoted from sciences into the truths of the Holy Qur'an, and this is the method of the Professor that we should rear our generation on to emphasize the agreement between science and religion.
The Professor made it evident that "Islamic truths are distinguished by their perfect readiness to raise their people to the levels of material and abstract development simultaneously." Material as well as abstract promotion of our Ummah cannot be achieved unless religious and scientific knowledge are joined together as is mentioned above.
Thirdly: Our duty towards Islam and the necessity of our communication with all the people in the world to explain the truths of Islam should not lead us unconsciously to excess of compliments or flattery of the non-Muslims, especially with the appearance of some abnormal mottoes here and there that call for unity of religions. The most feared thing is to reach a stage in which we forget about the pride of Islam that our Professor, An Nawrasi, felt in many well-known attitudes in Russia and other countries.
The Exalted Allah accepts only the religion of Islam. Moreover, some intelligent Westerners, such as Bismark, as is mentioned by the Professor, was intelligent enough to realize the waited for truth that would be the savior of humanity from its floundering. The Professor quoted Bismark's statement saying: "After I studied Divine Books thoroughly, I did not find in them real wisdom that guarantees happiness of mankind because of the distortion of the original texts, but I found the Qur'an of Muhammad (PBUH) superior to all the other Books. In every word of the Qur'an, I found a wisdom. There is no other Book that can realize the happiness of mankind as this Book."
The Professor's most concern was that the non-Muslims embrace Islam, this process should be by means of our stable identity, not by excess in compliments or flattery. The professor said: "If we reveal Islamic ethics in our deed and speech, and the perfection of the fiducial truth, the followers of the other religions would embrace Islam jointly and in groups" . The Professor explained the stability of the fiducial Islamic identity that should be void of any flattery saying: "The most preferred manners in Anatolia is fearlessness, self-esteem, steadfastness in religion, agreement of what is said and what is thought, whereas elegance and tenderness related to the affairs of civilization and the like are considered by them flattery and cajolery"… . If flattery, cajolery, adulation and sacrificing public interest for private interests are considered necessary for reason, do witness that I announce my disavowing of this reason. I would be instead proud of insanity which is a state similar to one of the steps of disavowal.
Though we believe that Europe will give birth to the Islamic State , as is told by the Professor, but at the same time I find that the Professor's first concern was about the Islamic world, a matter that had priority in the interests of his heart. From this perspective, I suggest to the disciples of the Light to make their main concern about the Islamic world, a more important matter than the concern about the West, though I do not call the disciples to give up their concern about the West, as the wise in the West have begun to have great interest in Islam.
Finally, I'd like to say that these are mere three words that I have presented, inspired by The Messages of Light. If I am right, that is from Allah, and if I am mistaken, that is from myself and the devil, and I ask Allah's forgiveness.