2008 July | Between Asgard and the Western Paradise

Archive for July, 2008

Jul 24 2008

The Seven Conditions for Shahada

Posted by: 阿偉 in Religion

I have often encountered non-Muslims who have said to me that if one has been fooled into reciting Shahada, or recites it in jest, that he is ‘instantly’ a Muslim, and that his attempt to go back to another faith constitutes irtad (apostasy) for which the penalty is death. This however, is a misconception. Just as in any other religion, if precepts are not taken full-heartedly, they are invalid. In Islam, there are seven conditions which are required for the declaration of Shahada to be considered valid, which are explained here:

1. Al-Ilm, or knowledge. — This is to say that one must understand what is meant by the shahada. The first word of shahada, Ašhadu literally means to testify; and one must therefore understand that they are testifying that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad (SAW) is his messenger. This can be compared to testifying in a court of law: if you testify before a judge to something that someone else has said without knowing its meaning, just repeating what they said, it cannot be considered as valid evidence.

2. Al-Yaqin, or certainty — When a scholar or scientist begins his study, he continues to refine what he knows until he uncovers facts which can’t be denied. Once we have knowledge, we should perfect this knowledge. Certainty is perfected knowledge which negates doubt, and here it is to be sure of the truth of shahada. The Quran says,إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَرْتَابُوا وَجَاهَدُوابِأَمْوَالِهِمْ وَأَنفُسِهِمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أُوْلَئِكَ هُمُالصَّادِقُونَ, which means: “[Know that true] believers are only those who have attained to faith in God and His Apostle and have left all doubt behind, and who strive hard in God’s cause with their possessions and their lives: it is they, they who are true to their word!” (49.15) Abolishing doubt therefore increases faith and belief in Allah.

3. Al-ikhlaas, or sincerity — In today’s society, people constantly want to distinguish themselves from the rest. Some can successfully pursue fame and fortune, but others are not as lucky. Ordinary people might try to stand out from the crowd by the way they dress, the music they listen to, or even the religion they claim they believe in. When I studied Buddhism, I often attended lectures at a monastery. I happened on one occasion to ask another attendee who sat behind me, “Why did you become a Buddhist?”. His reponse: “Because I couldn’t stand Christianity and how strict it was”.

Can we convert to Islam because we want to make some kind of “fashion statement”? No. When we declare faith in Allah (swt), we do it for the sake of Allah (swt). We must not do it because we are running away from our former religions, or solely because we seek a Muslim’s hand in marriage and are attempting to please his or her family, and certainly not for superficial reasons of wanting to be an “individual”. Ikhlass helps us remain true to the purpose of Islaam, submitting to Allah (swt), and not to ourselves, and therefore negates shirk.

4. As-sidq, or truthfulness — Once we know something and are certain of it, we can say it truthfully. This means that when we say the shahada, we say it honestly. Going back to what I said in the beginning of this post, many people in the West assume that taking the shahada in jest makes one a Muslim. This is a direct refutation of that idea. Furthermore, the Quran says: يُخَادِعُونَ اللّهَ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَمَا يَخْدَعُونَ إِلاَّ أَنفُسَهُم وَمَا يَشْعُرُونوَمِنَ النَّاسِ مَن يَقُولُ آمَنَّا بِاللّهِ وَبِالْيَوْمِ الآخِرِ وَمَا هُم بِمُؤْمِنِينَ, which means: “And there are people who say, ‘We do believe in God and the Last Day,’ the while they do not [really]. believe. They would deceive God and those who have attained to faith-the while they deceive none but themselves, and perceive it not.” (2.8-9) Allah (SWT) cannot be fooled: those who claim to be Muslims and have taken the Shahada under false pretenses will be punished on the Last Day.

5. Aq-qabul, or acceptance -– A good scientist accepts the results of his experimentation, even if he previously had different thoughts on the matter. When one recognizes the implication of the Shahada as truth, then he must accept it, else he is an atheist. This also prepares us to accept the full truth of the Noble Qur’an as the inerrant and perfected word of Allah transmitted through his Messenger.

6. Al-inqiyad or compliance –- This is the manifestation of acceptance. We must be prepared upon reciting shahada, to carry out all the obligations of the Qur’an and submit to Allah (swt) as Muslims. This is shown in our daily actions, such as prayer, making hajj, and the like.

You may have heard Protestants say that salvation shall be attained by faith alone. This misconception has also spread somewhat into Islam. However, if we transgress Allah (swt) purposely while knowing this is non-compliance. This is not to say that we will be perfect, either. Everybody makes mistakes, but as long as we repent, we aren’t violating the precept of Shahada, for the Quran says: وَأَنِيبُوا إِلَى رَبِّكُمْ وَأَسْلِمُوا لَهُ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يَأْتِيَكُمُ الْعَذَابُ ثُمَّ لَا تُنصَرُونَ which means “Turn unto Him repentant, and surrender unto Him” (39.54).

7. Al-mahabbah, or love – This means that we are satisfied with the conditions of the shahada,love its implications of making us true Muslims. It means our actions will be guided by the love of Allah and by love of fellow Muslims.

No Comments »

Jul 21 2008

Pope: “A spiritual desert is spreading”

Posted by: 阿偉 in Current Events, Religion

Yesterday in Australia, Pope Benedict addressed a crowd of 200,000 saying, “Side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading – an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair”. He also told young Catholics to avoid that “falsely conceived freedom” and instead turn toward Christian values to build a more placid lifestyle.

This is some excellent advice which Catholics need to listen to. As I have addressed before, we live in a time when people are socialized towards making the so-called means of production ends in themself, perpetuating the need to continually make money to become “distinguished” in society. In such a society, people are always occupied with petty matters and have little time to devote to spiritual affairs. Thus, they are unhappy and dissatisfied with the quality of life. Even when one does manage to break free from the dominant materialist mentality and build a higher course, the world today is such that one is required to advance within the maze of materialism before one can actually exit it.

The Pope’s words ring true that spirituality is on the decline, but he was also correct about the fact that people seek false freedoms. In a secular society, many people use the word “freedom” to connote the right to do as one pleases at any time. It is used as a justification by liberal fundamentalists for hatred of religion and love of sin. For example, for some time now, the media in America has been most vociferous in decrying the so-called “lack of freedom” in Islamic nations. Forty years ago, the same liberal fundamentalists had already launched a brutal and effective attack on Christianity in much the same manner, also in the name of “freedom”. Therefore, we can see that a secular notion of freedom is not always beneficial for religion.

In the Bible, Paul wrote to the Galatians regarding the idea of freedom. He was much concerned with the way that man viewed freedom. This is clear in Galatians 5.13 where he writes, “do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh”. This is an exhortation for them not to follow worldy, secular freedoms, but to seek freedom of the spirit.

What, then is freedom of the spirit? To be consise, freedom of the spirit is obedience and submission to the law and will of God, which later was revealed to Muhammad (SWT) as Islam. True freedom is not the freedom to act on base carnal impulses, but rather the will to power of overcoming those. This is the same power against the force of flux and degeneration into confusion and lawlessness, recognized by the Buddhists as the “Eightfold Path” through prajna, sila, and samadhi. In other words, the freedom to which Pope Benedict referred is that which gives us the ability to rectify our lives.

Comments 1 Comment »

Jul 16 2008

Against religious revisionism

Posted by: 阿偉 in Religion

In some ways, this is a reply to a comment on what seems to be my most ‘popular,’ or at least most discussed post. In replying to my analysis of Baha’i, a commenter calling herself “Susan” asks why it is that we look to the past, and not to the future in matters of religion.

This reason for this is very simple, and we need only begin by consider the meaning of the word ‘religion’. It was St. Augustine who stated that religion derives from the root ligare, with the prefix re-. The meaning of religion is to thus “connect again”. In Chinese, there exists a similar meaning for the word 宗教. The first character, zong (宗), has the connotation of “ancestor”, while 教 means “teaching”. Thus the purpose of religion as the ancestral teaching aims to reconnect mankind. Exoteric religion reconnects mankind through a common bond of ethical precepts, while esoteric religion attempts to reconnect mankind with the unchanging divine, just as the spokes of a wheel connect the outer hub to the center. It can clearly be seen that it is in the past that religion is rooted, and is therefore not concerned with a world of flux and becoming, but with the world of being and stability. Evidence of this is found across multiple traditions. For example, the Christians say “They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail” (Hebrews 1:12). Even Buddhism views the entire world of Samsara as in a constant state of change, and thus, the entire Dharma of the Buddhists is to transcend such change.

I think we can look to the condition of the modern Protestant church in America to see what has happened in the name of modernizing religion. In my travels, I have seen churches which are more like movie theatres than places of worship, heard “praise songs” which only appealed to emotions and had little liturgical value, and listened to ”youth sermons” dedicated to appealing to the lowest common denominator. Likewise, I have seen Buddhism in the West become nothing more than a platform for social activism. If the other religions are to follow this current course, what shall become of them?

In the Qur’an, Allah says:

“I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion” (Sura al-Maidah 5: 3)

“Say, O people of the Book exceed not the bounds in your religion, trespassing beyond the truth. Nor follow the vain desires of people who went astray in times gone by, who mislead many and strayed from the even way. Curses were pronounced on those among the children of Israel who were disbelievers, by the tongue of David and of Jesus son of Mary, because they disobeyed and persisted in excesses.” (Al-Maidah 5:77-78)

When people change or revise religion, this is called bidah (بدعة). Who, then, decides what is right and what is wrong? In our world today, there are certainly some unscrupulous people who use devious methods to achieve their own political or economic ends. This has already been seen when people have created cults such as Scientology, Falun Gong, the People’s Temple, and countless others. Suppose one group wants to promote communism, and another capitalism. When they alter the religion in service of worldly ideologies, this is the cause of much misery and conflict. However, we should note that Bidah in matters of science are different from those in matters of faith. For example, there have been scientific advancements which are helpful to mankind, which are not considered haram. This is also why Islaam can be practiced by so many cultures from the time when Muhammad (SWT) until the present day without contradicting the faith. Religion does not to be revised in order to fit the present day, but rather the faithful shall exercise restraint and not fall into temptation and sin. It is for this reason, revisionism or bidah has been forbidden.

This tells of the danger of bidah. All the divinely-revealed religions have been perfected by the Creator himself, and then transmitted through the Holy Prophets for the benefit of all mankind. By creating new religions, we indeed trespass beyond the truth. I am not denying that Baha’i has some social objectives which many people find to be attractive. Yet, these are only social objectives: another commentator makes a point that noble thoughts and well-wishing do not constitute prophethood, and this is a correct notion. In religion, we need to think of how best we can keep the Tradition alive in this decadent modern age.

No Comments »

Jul 14

Between Asgard and the Western Paradise

Traditions, Culture, Spirituality, and more…

Archive for July, 2008

The Seven Conditions for Shahada

Pope: “A spiritual desert is spreading”

Against religious revisionism