Aql Mahkam Az Libas Chun o Chand
Ishq Uryaun Az Libas Chun o Chand.
(Reason is strengthened by ‘how and why’ (argumentation); Love is free from the robe of argumentation.
Imam Ghazzali says: Reasons for peoples’ weakness in faith are:
a)A reason connected with those who engage in philosophy.
b)A reason connected with those who engage in mystic way.
c)A reason connected with those who profess the doctrines of Talim
d)A reason based on the practice of those who are popularly described as having knowledge.
In a similar way he categorized practice of different sects in terms of seekers of knowledge of truth as:
a)Scholastic Theologians who preferred to follow reason and speculation and professed to be thinkers and intellectuals in this sphere of knowledge.
b)Philosophers who claim themselves to be masters of logic and relied on all their theories and beliefs on logical deductions.
c)Talimites who claimed themselves to believe only in One Authority of a sole leader in the form of a Imam
d)The Mystics who claimed that they had the exclusive power of ‘divine knowledge, eternal vision and intuitive power.
The question that is debated in Lights from Sinai by Amir Suhail Wani has relevance and he has brought the arguments to support that Traditional Response is possible in the Modern World which is cognitive in texture. A notion that religious metaphysical doctrines were primarily motivated by human conditions and terrestrial existence has been a serious debate going on for centuries together. Ibn-I-Arabia’s reversal theory of understanding has opened new dimensions of appreciativeness when he declared that the man is not a microcosm, but universe in the macrocosm, thus inverting the quantitative relationship beyond psychological explanations for the reason that psychology is still in infancy. Isaac of Acre has the answer, “You should know that these philosophers whose wisdom you so much extol have their heads where we place our feet”
What is more interesting is that a good section of populace is neither intellectually awakened nor spiritually or scientifically motivated. The layman section of the world doesn’t a scholar or a philosopher to address their religious needs. They need a faith healer. Faith for them is the only tool to scratch their existence to settle the matter of truth. Amir has rightly taken recourse of faith to bring to light the relevance of faith.
A general question that irritates a religious core is how divorce of metaphysical from physical and real from illusions, infinite from the finite be considered a pulsating theory to define life. The objective for which a man has evolved as the crown of the creation is to achieve union with the Creator. And no formal education, philosophy or theories are needed to formulate such union, what all it requires is love. It is possible to see God within and that can be experienced by loving God and His creatures. God Himself is the embodiment of love and He wants all of us to experience love. As Murshid Junaid says “ That love signifies the entering into the qualities of the beloved in exchange for qualities of the lover. Our Glorious Prophet SAW says: “He who knows his own self, knows Allah”
Amir is rightly debating how Muslim youth have failed to get persuaded by scholars of forced rearrangement of epistemic puzzle board, resulting their line of faith losing grip. Taking help from The Qur’an Amir has found a suitable route to address this evolving trouble. The Holy Book reveals:
“ Ask the people of knowledge in case you don’t know”. People of knowledge have surely guided the generations for they have strong faith fit enough to satiate the requirements of demanding intellect of this generation and the next.
Lights from Sinai by Amir Suhail Wani has recorded aspects of Khwaja Ghulam Farreds’s poetry who advocates that his epistemological archetype is not literary in texture but gnosis. He writes: Heart is love and gnosis, essence of life, artery of universe and it is this hearts that opens to infinite depths of interiority. The Book further refers Shah Hiussain’s poetry as a quest for the metaphysical presence. The poet writes: Lord! You have the knowledge of my existence
You are my inward. You are my outward
You dwell in my every pore
You are my warp. You are my woof.
You are my entirety
The above rendering purely rejects the theological speculation as the poet refers God in terms of spiritual dimensions.
Khalifa Abdul Hakeem has moved ahead by describing Islam as a cosmic order and a metanarrative bearing universal implications and applications. Hakeem has identifies Islam with cosmic harmony and defines a Muslim as a product of exoteric and esoteric dimensions that leads him to connect himself with Grand Order. From Alamdaar-i- Kashmir to Rumi and Shamas, the book has covered their point of views to make a point that Amir is well-read fellow who has emerged as a voice to argue what all he has experienced. Understanding Islamic Spirituality is a chapter that has thrown a textual light on the subject. The Mystery of Meem and Civilization in Islam are the topics Amir Suhail has put forth his point of view and that end the first section Religion And Spirituality of this book.
The second section Philosophy and Philosophers covers wide range philosophers to deliberate upon how the transition of epistemology and ontology from the expansion of human understanding proved to be an offense by Western philosophy. Kierkegaard’s opinion stands as the greatness of belief lies not in the theorization, but in complete surrender to the object of belief. Of the Sacred and Symbol signifies how The Qur’an asserts that there are symbols of God within and outside of the human self. Of Science, Religion and Philosophy, the author has again taken the shelter in the inn of Dr. Iqbal to see how conflicts arising out of the clash of religion and philosophy could have been find the way easily.
“Philosophy, no doubt has jurisdiction to judge religion, but what is to be judged is of such a nature that it will not submit to the jurisdiction of philosophy except on its own terms”
The book further brings it on the plane that modern philosophical view with its own nomenclatural diversity has pushed the human mind beyond the trajectories of abstraction. Bergson and Nietzche has also been given a space in the book.
The third section Poetry and Literature covers the ideology of poets like Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki, Ghani Kashmiri, Iqbal, Faiz, Lalleshwari followed by the last section Poetic Thoughts
There are so many questions that a modern man must find answer in the book. Amir Suhal has really created a better space in this global village to confront the ideology that permits nothing but confusion. The rebuttals are powerful and carry a genuine message that must be felt and for which Amir is looking ahead to make it a point in the book.
It is Kitab Mahal Publication, a publishing house that has time and again invited new authors and budding scholars to give voice to their experiences. The paper quality, layout besides compilation is outstanding. We pray and hope that this publication house will in future carry this as a duty to bring such volumes with such interesting themes for the generations to come.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Mushtaq Barq is a translator of the Book “Verses of Wahab Khar” .His works are published in various publications.
