Historical perspective

In European history the ‘dark ages’ encompass the period of the scholastic thinkers and go as far as the dawn of the ‘modern’ age, around the beginning of the seventeenth century after Christ. During this long period, it can fairly be said that there was no significant development in the philosophy or principles of law: The principles and rules of Roman Law were accepted without question, with very little amendment and interpretation. But the same period in the Islamic world saw significant developments in the principles and rules of law, as well as in the social and natural sciences. Europe’s ‘dark ages’ (insofar as the label is justified) were not ‘dark’ for the Islamic world.

One example of this is the development of the concept of al-Siyar or international law, the term was first used in the discourses of the great jurist, Imam Abu Hanifah. During the Abbasid Caliphate, these discourses were written down and edited by Imam Muhammad al-Shayhani in his famous Kitab al-Siyar al-Saghir and Kitab al-Siyar al-Kabir. Another example is that, in the time of ‘The Karahans’, the first Muslim Turkish state, Serahsi, the greatest jurist of his age, wrote a five-volume study of international law, Sherhu’s Siyar al Kabir (see Akgunduz,199l). During the Ottoman period, this book was recommended by Sultan Mahmut II for teaching to the Janissaries.

International law before Islam

The concept of an international law was certainly known before Islam – envoys were sent and received between states, for example. But the concept was very limited – for example, there were no recognized rules for the treatment of prisoners of war and in any case applied only to a limited number of states or city-states whose people had the same race or religion or language.

Among the ancient Greeks, international law was only recognized between the city-states of the Greek Peninsula: non-Greeks were considered ‘barbarians’. A sort of ‘League of Nations’ had been established and the principle of protection for civilian objects’ and non-combatants – which meant not destroying a town or cutting off its water supply – was acknowledged between the Greek city-states but only between them. Roman Law was likewise applied only for states which were allied by treaty to the Roman Empire: inhabitants of states not protected by such a treaty could be enslaved and their property confiscated , Roman Law did not recognize any rights for belligerents or non-belligerents in a situation of war. And Roman Law in principle and practice protected only Roman citizens (Shaw, 1991).

al-Siyar as international law

The law of Islam was the first to give formal recognition to a truly international law to manage affairs between groups of people. M. Hamidullah (1973) says that “when Islam came and founded a state of its own, the earliest name given by Muslim writers to the special branch of law dealing with war, peace and neutrality seems to have been siyar the plural form of sirah meaning conduct and behaviour.’ One of the features of al-siyar was that there was no discrimination against foreigners or non-Muslim states.

One can see that the principle of international law was enshrined from the inception of Islam. An example is the treaty of Hudaybiya which was made during the time of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him he peace. The negotiation of the articles of the agreement had ended, and the Prophet, upon him he peace, had consented for them, but the agreement had yet to be signed. Abu Jandal then came to the Muslim camp seeking refuge. When Suhail saw his son, he said to the Prophet:

‘The matter between you and me has already been settled.’ The Prophet, upon him be peace, said: ‘You speak the truth.’ On hearing that, Abu Jandal said: ‘0 Muslims, am I to be returned to the idolaters to be deprived of my religion?’ But Abu Jandal was returned to the non-Muslims according to the terms of the agreement despite the objections raised to it by many of the Companions. This event illustrates the degree of importance attached to a treaty as one of the sources of international law in Islam.

As regards the sources of international law in Islam, Abdurrahman Doi (1984) has pointed out that, as well as treaties, custom, reason and authority were also relevant. However, these terms have a different meaning from that specified in Article 38 of the statutes of the International Court of Justice. The concept of international law encompasses ‘all public functions conducted by the state or its citizens in any intercourse not necessarily subject to private regulations in the performance of the public functions.’

It is worth noting here that traditional international law does not include individuals as a subject of its rules, that is, its jurisdictional application is limited to ‘states’ only. As Shaw (1991) points out, individuals are recognized as subjects of modern international law primarily through the establishment of human rights law after World War II. In Islam by contrast, international law governed not only the conduct of the Muslim state with other states, but also the relation of non-Muslim states and non-Muslim individuals living in the Muslim state.

The impact of al-siyar as international law

There was an impact of al-siyar on the earliest European writers on international law – among them, Pierre Bellow, Ayala, Victoria, Gentiles. All came from Spain or Italy and were influenced by Islam and Muslims during the Renaissance that was, in part, a response to the impact of Islam on Christendom. Moreover, Islamic international law must have influenced Grotius, as this impact can be seen from his discovery that postiliminium was known to Muslim law (see, Doi, 1984, p.421).

Leading authorities on international law such as Oppenheim have speculated on the long gap (about a millennium) between the period of Roman Law and the period when Grotius wrote his Do Jure Belli (1623). Given that many concepts of modern international law and relations are prefigured in Islamic codes, the impact of Islamic legal concepts should and could be seen to bridge that long gap in European legal studies.

Earlier human rights declarations

In the Western tradition, fundamental human rights and freedoms have been ‘declared’ in very well known documents – among others, the Bill of Rights consequent on the English Revolution of 1689, the Bill of Rights promulgated by the state of Virginia in June 1776, the Declaration of Independence issued by American States in July 1776, the French Declaration of Rights of Men and Citizens issued by the Constituent Assembly of France in 1789. In Western thought on the subject, Sultan Abdul-Mejid’s ‘Gulhane Hatt-i Humayun’ of 1839 and Islahat Fermani of 1856, the Ottoman Imperial Restricts, are also counted as documents on international human rights, but, there is a substantial difference between them and the Western documents. The latter announced and initiated reforms in fundamental rights and freedoms; by contrast, the Ottoman documents (as Akgunduz, 1990, has pointed out) formalized in writing what had already been practised in the Ottoman Empire, i.e. in the Islamic countries. On the Gulhane Hatt-i Humayun, Kuzu (1991) points out that its prohibition of the separation of people as Muslims and non- Muslims was practically meaningless because there was no problem in the Ottoman Empire of the freedom of conscience and religious belief.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

• AKGUNDUZ, A. (1991) Belgeler Gercekleri Konusuyor Vols 3-4, Nil Yayinlari, Izmit
• CIN, H and AKGUNDUZ, A. (1990) Turk Hukuk Tarihi Istanbul.
• DOI, A, (1984) The Islamic Law. Ta-Ha Publishers, London.
• GAUHAR, A. (1978) The Challenge of Islam. (ed), Islamic Information Services, London.
• HARRIS, n.i. (1991) Cases and Materials on International Law, Sweet & Maxwell, London.
• KUZU, a. (1992) Demokrasi – Resmi Ideoloji – Sivil Toplum’, The Magazine of
• Ankara Universtiy, Faculty of Political Sciences ,47, p.346.
• LAGUEUR, W. & RUBIN, B. (1979) (eds) The Human Rights Reader, New American Library. New York.
• MCCAUBRY, H. (1990) International Humanitarian Law: The Regulation of Armed Conflict, Dartmouth, Hants.
• SHAW, NI. N. (1991) International Law, Grotius Publications Limited, Cambridge.
• SIEGHART. p. (1986) The Lawful Rights of Mankind, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Modern medical practice has come back to the conclusion that diet is the key to good health and investment in good dietary advice will lead to a reduction in treatment costs, Emphasis on diet is a principle universal to almost all forms of traditional medicine. You can find sound advice on diet everywhere from Europe to China. The Prophet of Islam, upon whom he peace, set out the dietary principles that led to great advances in Arab and Islamic medicine. He said:

The stomach is the well of the body and the veins drink from it. If it is healthy, the veins pass on good health, if it is sick the veins pass on poison.

The term himya is used to mean both diet and precaution. Harith, ‘the doctor of the Arabs’, said: himya is the source of every cure and the stomach is the home of every illness’. To understand what is meant by himya we should recall the incident when the Prophet and his cousin, Ali, were invited to eat at the house of Umm al Mandari. Muhammad, upon whom be peace, began to eat and then stopped and said to Ali: ‘You are recovering.’ He gave him some barley and chard saying, ‘This is better for you’.

Himya has three functions: 1) it is used as a cute; 2) it is used to maintain good health; 3) it is used alongside cures to aid recovery

Diet and balance

In our previous article, we described the concept of mizaj, balance. Cures are prescribed according to the type of imbalance. Certain foods are classified as ‘moist’, others as ‘dry’. They match their opposites. The simplest example can he found in the Prophet’s advice: ‘Fever is from the fire, put it out with water.’ Another example would he rubbing olive oil on dry skin. One may say that these ideas are common sense and not really medical principles.. However, developing from these ‘simple’ examples came the system of medicine which went on to set the foundations for modern medical practice. Al-tibb al-Nabawi influenced surgeons and physicians like Ibn Sina and al-Hazen. It appears that in the rapid advancement of science many forgot these basic simple ‘common sense’ truths. Now we find ourselves again returning to the idea of a balanced diet.

Diet is normally described in terms of the three macronutrients, namely proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The structural parts of all body cells are made of proteins. It is these which stop them from collapsing. They are also vital in the functioning of the cells. Every protein consists of a string of building blocks called amino acids. The human body needs about 22 amino acids to make its necessary proteins. Fourteen of these can be manufactured by the body. The remainder have to be obtained through our food.The US National Academy of Sciences recommends 0.8 gms of protein per kilogram of body weight. The concept of balance is very important. It has until recently been commonly accepted that red meat is an ideal source of high-quality protein. A recent British report has been interpreted as suggesting that a vegetarian diet actually optimizes health. The reason for this is that taking in large amounts of ‘first grade’ protein from meat inevitably leads to an increased intake of harmful animal fat. This was clearly understood by the Companions of the Prophet. He told them; ‘The lord of all foods for the people of this world and the next is meat’ (related by Ibn Majah). ‘Umar also warned them: ‘Be careful of meat for it has harm like the harm found in wine.’ Another Companion of the Prophet said: ‘Do not make your insides a graveyard for animals.’ Balance is vital. ‘Second grade’ proteins found in grains and legumes are just as effective when combined with ‘first grade’ meat proteins. The different types of meat and their contribution to mizaj, can he found in Ibn al Qayum’s al – Tibb al-Nabawi. It corresponds to the now widely accepted view that red meat is vital but must be balanced with fowl and vegetables.

The second of the macronutrients are fats. They are composed of fatty acids, long molecules of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They produce more than twice the amount of energy of proteins or carbohydrates and also carry vitamins A, D, E and K. They are vital for growth and repair, as well as for insulating the body and maintaining a regular temperature. They cushion vital organs. There are several kinds of fat. They differ according to their degree of saturation. Saturated fats produce high levels of blood cholesterol. Cholesterol is a complex waxy substance that is essential to the walls of body cells, the production of vitamin D, hormones, bile acids and nerve tissues. The liver produces cholesterol naturally and does not need any from the diet. Therefore, any added will be excess and lead to imbalance. High cholesterol levels have been associated with high risk of heart attack. A simple way to reduce cholesterol levels would be to moderate the use of eggs and organ meats such as liver.

Carbohydrates are the third of the macronutrients. They provide the body with energy help control the breakdown of protein, and protect the body against toxins. Carbohydrates are of two types. Monosaccharides are simple single molecule sugars. An example is glucose. Polysaccharides are more complex molecules and are broken down into two or more sugars.An example is starch. They arc found in fruits, vegetables and grains. They have a high nutritive value and provide vitamins, minerals, proteins and fibre. Polysaccharides take longer to digest and are therefore more effective in keeping away hunger. Barley has been a vital ingredient in Arab medicine dating back to the Messenger as well as an important part of his own and his followers’ diet.

Digestion

A pillar in al-Tibia al-Nabawi is that illness can be related to diet and digestion. The Messenger laid special importance on position while eating as well as going to toilet. He emphasized the importance of oral hygiene and exercise. The ‘stomach’ mentioned in the saying of the Prophet quoted earlier is generally understood to refer to the whole digestive system. We are being told to keep our whole body in order. Looking carefully after our diet and digestion means looking after our whole body and ultimately our minds and inner selves. Optimum digestion means optimum health.

Digestion begins with the mouth and the teeth. Food is broken down by chewing and is moistened with saliva which stimulates the rest of the digestive process.It is then swallowed as holus. This should take a few minutes. Problems associated with this process include the interaction of bacteria and sugar or other carbohydrates. This breaks down the protective enamel and causes tooth decay. We are told to use siwak, a simple tooth stick, when we make ritual ablution. It is said to he purifying for the mouth, pleasing to the Lord and it makes the devil angry. In al-Tibia al-Nabawi, oral hygiene is not only for good health, it is a part of worship. The Messenger, upon whom he peace said, ‘Prayer with siwak is better than 70 prayers without it.’

The bolus passes to tile stomach via the muscular oesophagus. Reflux of stomach acid during this process leads to heartburn. This, according to al-Tibb al-Nabawi, can he avoided by sitting in a relaxed position while eating. The Messenger said: ‘I do not eat while leaning,’ and ‘I sit as a slave sits and I eat as a slave eats’. He used to sit and eat on the floor with his thigh resting on his foot, with due respect to his Lord and also to those he was eating with,

After the bolus has passed from tile oesophagus it enters the gallbladder. The gallbladder stores bile made by the liver and releases it into the duodenum. Gallstones are the main prob1em associated with the gallbladder. This can he avoided by himya, correct balanced diet. A diet low in animal fats reduces the risk of gallstones.

The bolus passes into the stomach which is a muscular sac that mixes acid fluid with food which then passes into the intestines. The stomach was described by the Messenger as ‘the well of the body’. It is very important that the well is kept clean. Dieticians are now beginning to fully realize the damage that is done to the stomach through smoking, alcohol and irritant foods. Fasting to ‘give the stomach a rest’ is now a common treatment. The role of fasting in Islam is well known. The obligation to fast-for one month a year benefits the Muslim’s body, mind and soul. The commended regular fasting throughout the year is either three days in the middle of the month, or on Mondays and Thursdays.

There are two intestines in the digestive system. The first, called the duodenum or small intestine, is a tube that receives strong alkaline juices from the pancreas and gallbladder which break down fats and neutralize stomach acid . The most common illness related to the small intestine is duodenal ulcers. These are commonly caused by alcohol, smoking and stress.

The passage of food takes four hours in the stomach, about four and a half in the small intestine and finally about twelve hours in the large intestine. The large intestine is a tube in which food and fluid are absorbed. Food residue is formed into faeces.

The final stage of digestion, i.e. the removal of waste, is just as important as the first. The Prophet recommended we sit or squat to avoid constipation. He was very particular about keeping the private areas clean and therefore free of infection, the use of water and performing ablution afterwards. This is not detached from worship. The prayer that he, upon him he peace, said when he completed this final act of digestion sums up the approach of al-Tibb al-Nabawi. Al-Tibb is looking after one’s health, physical and spiritual and, at the same time, remembering the source of all food and all health. He used to say:

All praise belongs to God who took out from me that which harms me and left in me that which benefits me’.

As a youth, he was admired by the Quraysh nobility not only for his good looks and elegance but also for his keen mind and eloquent speech. Although still young, he had the privilege of attending Quraysh meetings and gatherings. He was thus in a position to know the issues which concerned the Makkans and what their attitudes and strategies were.

There was a burst of excitement and concern among the Makkans when Muhammad, known to them as al-Amin (the Trustworthy), upon him he peace, declared publicity that God had sent him as a bearer of good tidings and a warner. He warned the Quraysh of terrible chastisement if they did not turn to the worship and obedience of the One God, and he spoke of Divine rewards for the righteous. The whole of Makka buzzed with talk of these claims. The vulnerable Quraysh leaders thought of ways of silencing the Messenger. When ridicule and persuasion did not work, they embarked on a campaign of harassment and persecution.

Mus’ab learnt the Messenger and those who believed in his message were gathering in a house near the hill of al-Safa to evade Quraysh harassment. This was the house of al-Arqam. To satisfy his curiosity, Mus’ab proceeded to the house undeterred by the possibility of Quraysh reprisals. There he watched the Prophet teaching his small band of Companions, reciting the verses of the Qur’an to them, and doing salat with them in submission to God, the Great, the Most High.

The Prophet welcomed him, and with his noble hand tenderly touched Mus’ab’s excited heart. A deep feeling of tranquillity came over him.

Mus’ab was overwhelmed by what he saw and heard: the words of the Qur’an had made a deep and immediate impression on him. The decisive young man there and then declared his acceptance of Islam. It was a turning-point: the keen mind of Mus’ab, his tenacious will and determination, his eloquence and his beautiful character were now in the service of Islam and would help change the course of human history.

Mus’ab had one major concern – his mother. Her name was Khunnas bint Malik. She was a woman of extraordinarily dominant personality and could easily arouse fear and terror. When Mus’ab became a Muslim, the power of the Makkan nobles and their attachment to pagan traditions were of little consequence to him. However, the opposition of his mother could not be taken lightly.

Mus’ab decided that he should conceal his conversion to Islam until such time as God sent a way. He continued to frequent the house of al-Arqam, to sit in the company of the Prophet, and improve in his new faith.

It was not long before his acceptance of Islam became widely known. He was seen as he quietly entered the house of al-Arqam, by a man called ‘Uthman ibn Talhah. On another occasion, ‘Uthman saw Mus’ab praying in the manner of the Prophet, upon Him be peace: the conclusion was obvious. The news of Mus’ab ‘s acceptance of Islam was devastating for the Quraysh and it quickly reached his mother.

Mus’ab stood before his mother, his clan and the Quraysh nobility who had gathered to find out what he had to say for himself. Speaking calmly and humbly, he acknowledged his conversion. He recited verses from the Qur’an and tried to explain how the Revelation cleansed the hearts of the believers drawing them back to original purity of faith in the One God, and inspiring them with wisdom, honour, justice and courage.

As Mus’ab s mother listened to the son on whom she had lavished so much care and affection, she became increasingly incensed. She raised a hand to strike and silence him, hut the hand faltered before the serenity in her son’s face or her maternal love restrained her. Nevertheless, she felt she had to do something to avenge the gods Mus’ab had forsaken: she had him taken to a far corner of the house and firmly hound and tethered there. Mus’ab became a prisoner in his own home, guarded and prevented from any further contact with the Messenger and his faith.

Despite his ordeal, Mus’ab did not waver. He must have had news of how the harassment and persecutions of the idolators made life in Makka increasingly intolerable for the believers. When he heard that a group of Muslims were preparing to migrate secretly to Abyssinia for asylum, he determined to join them. At the first opportunity, when his mother and warders were off-guard, he managed to slip away and join the other refugees. Before long they sailed together across the Red Sea to Africa.

Although the Muslims enjoyed peace and security in the land of the Negus, they longed to be in Makka in the company of the noble Prophet. So, when a report reached Abyssinia that the conditions for the Muslims in Makka had improved, Mus’ab was among the first to return. The report proved false and he again left for Abyssinia.

Whether he was in Makka or Abyssinia, Mus’ab remained strong in his new faith and his main concern was to make his life worthy of his Creator.

When Mus’ab returned to Makka again, his mother made a last attempt to gain control of him. She threatened to have him tied up again and confined. Mus’ab swore that if she tried to do so, he would kill everyone who helped her. She knew very well that he would carry out this threat for she saw the iron determination he now had.

Separation was inevitable, and sad for both mother and son. It revealed a strong persistence in kufr on the part of the mother and an even greater perseverance in iman on the part of the son. She banished him from her house and all the material comforts she had used to lavish on him, and said:

‘Go to your own business. I am no longer willing to be a mother to you.’

Mus’ab approached near to her and said:

‘Mother, I advise you sincerely. I am concerned for you. Testify that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger.’

I swear by the shooting stars, I shall not enter your religion even if my opinion is ridiculed and my mind becomes impotent,’ she insisted.

Mus’ab thus left home and all its luxury and comforts. The once elegant youth was henceforth seen only in the coarsest of attire. He now had more important concerns, being committed to the acquisition of knowledge and the service of God and His Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace.

When several years later, Mus’ab came upon a gathering of Muslims sitting around the Prophet, they lowered their gaze on seeing him – some were even moved to tears. The sight of his old, fattened robe immediately recalled to them the days, before his acceptance of Islam, when he was a model of sartorial elegance. The Prophet looked at Mus’ab, smiled graciously, and said:

‘I have seen this Mus’ab with his parents in Makka.

They lavished care and attention on him and gave him every comfort. There was no Quraysh youth like him. Then he left all that seeking the pleasure of God and devoting himself to the service of His Prophet.’

He went on to say:

‘There will come a time when God will grant you victory over Persia and Byzantium. You will have one robe in the morning and another in the evening, and you will eat out of one dish in the morning and another in the evening.’

The Prophet thus predicted that the Muslims would become rich and powerful and enjoy material abundance. The Companions asked:

‘O Messenger of God, is our present situation helter or shall we be better off then?’

He replied:

‘You are rather better off now than you will be then. If you knew of the world what I know, you would certainly not he so concerned with it.’

Most Makkans remained hostile even ten years after Islam began to be preached to them. The noble Prophet then went to Ta’if seeking new adherents: he was repulsed and chased out of the city. Soon after this the Prophet appointed Mus’ab as his ‘ambassador’ to Yathrib (Madina) to teach a small group of believers who had come to Makka to pledge allegiance to Islam, and to prepare Madina for the day of the great Hijrah.

Mus’ab was chosen above older and more senior Companions, because of his nobility, excellent manners and sharp intellect. His knowledge of the Qur’an and his ability to recite it beautifully and movingly were also an important consideration.

Mus’ab understood the importance of his mission- to invite people to God and the straight path of Islam, and to prepare what was to be the territorial base of the nascent Muslim community.

He entered Yathrib as a guest of Sa’d ibn Zurarah of the Khazraj tribe. Together they went to people, to their homes and their gatherings, telling them about the Prophet, explaining Islam to them and reciting the Qur’an. Through the grace of God, many converted. This was pleasing to Mus’ab hot profoundly alarming to many leaders of Yathribi society.

Once Mus’ab and Sa’d were sitting near a well in an orchard of the Zafar clan. With them were a number of new Muslims and others who were interested in Islam. A powerful notable of the city, Usayd ibn Khudayr, approached in rage, brandishing a spear. Sa’d ibn Zararah said to Mus’ab:

‘This is a chieftain of his people. May God put truth in his heart.’

‘If he sits down, I will speak to him.’ replied Mus’ab, displaying all the calm and tact of a great da ‘iy.

Usayd was abusive and threatened Mus’ab and his host.

‘Why have you come to us to corrupt the weak among us? Keep away from us if you want to stay alive.’

Musab smiled in response a warm and said to Usayd:

‘Won’t you sit down and listen? If you are pleased and satisfied with our mission, accept it. If you dislike it, we will stop telling you what you dislike and leave.’

‘That’s reasonable,’ said Usayd and, sticking his spear in the ground, sat down. Mus’ab did not compel him to anything, nor denounced him, he only invited him to listen. He then expounded the truths of Islam and recited the Qur’an. Even before Usayd spoke, it was clear from his now radiant and expectant face that faith had entered his heart. He said:

‘How beautiful these words are and true! What does a person do if he wants to enter this religion?’

‘Have a bath, purify yourself and your clothes. Then utter the testimony of truth (al-shahadah), and perform salat.’

Usayd left the gathering, returned after a brief absence, and testified that there is no god but God and that Muhammad is His Messenger He then prayed two rak’ats and said:

After me, there is one man such that if he follows you, all his people will do so. I shall send him to you now. He is Sad ibn Mu’adh.’

Sad ibn Mu’adh was also convinced and satisfied and declared his submission to God. He was followed by another important Yathribite, Sa’d ibn Ubadah. Very soon, the people of Yathrib were saying to one another:

‘If Usayd ibn Khudayr, Sa’d ibn Mu’adh and Sa’d ibn Ubadah have accepted the new religion, how can we not follow? Let’s go to Mus’ab and believe with him. They say that truth emanates from his lips.’

The first ambassador of the Prophet, peace be on him, was thus supremely successful. Men and women, the young and the old, the powerful and the weak, accepted Islam at his hands. The course of Yathrib’s history had been changed forever; the moment for the eat Hijrah had arrived.

Less than a year after his arrival in Yathrib, Mus’ab returned to Makka, during the season of pilgrimage, with a group of seventy-five Muslims. At Aqabah, near Mina, they met the Prophet. There they solemnly undertook to defend the Prophet at all cost. Should they remain firm in their faith, their reward, said the Prophet, would be nothing less than Paradise. This second pledge which the Muslims of Yathrib made came to be called the Pledge of War.

From then on events moved swiftly. Shortly after the Pledge, the Prophet directed his persecuted followers to migrate to Yathrib where the new Muslims or Ansar (Helpers) had shown their willingness to give asylum to the afflicted Muslims of Makka. The first of the Companions to arrive in Madinah were Mus’ab ibn Umayr and the blind ‘Abdullah ibn Umm Maktum. ‘Abdullah also recited the Qur’an beautifully and, according to one of the Ansar, both Mus’ab and Abdullah recited the Qur’an for the people of Yathrib.

Mus’ab continued to play a major role in the building of the new community. The next momentous occasion for the Muslims was during the great Battle of Badr. After it, the Quraysh prisoners of war were brought to the Prophet who assigned them to the custody of individual Muslims.

‘Treat them well,’ he instructed.

Among the prisoners was Abu Aziz ibn Umayr, the brother of Mus’ab. Abu Aziz himself related:

‘I was among a group of Ansar. Whenever they had lunch or dinner they would give me bread and dates to eat in obedience to the Prophet’s instructions to them to treat us well.’

“My brother, Mus’ab, passed by me and said to the man from the Ansar who was holding me prisoner: ‘Tie him firmly…His mother is a woman of great wealth and maybe she would ransom him for you.’

Abu Aziz could not believe his ears. Astonished, he turned to Mus’ab and asked:

‘My brother, is this your instruction concerning me’?’

‘He is my brother, not you,’ replied Mus’ab thus affirming that in the battle between iman and kufr, the bonds of faith were stronger than the ties of kinship.

At the Battle of Uhud, the Prophet appointed Mus’ab, now well-known as Mus’ab al-Khayr (the Good), to carry the Muslim standard. The Muslims’ early success in the battle was reversed when a group of Muslims, against the Prophet’s orders, deserted their positions. The mushrikin forces rallied and counterattacked. Their main target, as they cut through the Muslim forces, was the noble Prophet.

Mus’ab realized this danger. He raised the standard high and shouted the takbir (Allahu akbar). With the standard in one hand and his sword in the other, he plunged into the Quraysh forces. A Quraysh horseman moved in close and severed his right hand. Mus’ab was heard to say the words: ‘Muhammad is only a Messenger Messengers have passed away before him.’ in this way he affirmed that, great as his attachment was to the Prophet himself, his struggle was above all for the sake of God and to make His Word supreme. When his left hand was also severed, he held the standard between the stumps of his arms, and repeated: ‘Muhammad is only a Messenger of God. Messengers have passed away before him.’ Mus’ab was then hit by a spear. He fell and the standard fell. The words he had repeated, each time he was struck, were later revealed to the Prophet and completed, and became part of the Qur’an.

After the battle, the Prophet and his Companions went over the battlefield, saying farewell to the martyrs. When they came to Mus’ab’s body, tears flowed. Khabbah related that they could not find any cloth with which to shroud the body, except Mus’ab’s own garment. When they covered his head with it, his legs showed and when his legs were covered, his head was exposed. The Prophet instructed: ‘Place the garment over his head and cover his feet and legs with the leaves of idhkhir (rue).’

The Prophet felt deep pain and sorrow at the number of his Companions killed at the Battle of Uhud, among them his uncle Hamza whose body was horribly mutilated. The Prophet stood over the body of Mus’ab with great emotion. He remembered Mus’ab as he first saw him in Makka, stylish and elegant, and then looked at the short burdah covering him, the only garment he possessed. Then the Prophet recited the verse: Among the believers are men who have been true to that they have pledged to God.

Then, casting his compassionate eyes over the battlefield once more, where lay the dead companions of Mus’ab, he said: ‘The Messenger of God testifies that you are martyrs in the sight of God on the day of Qiyamah. He turned to the living companions around him he said:

‘O people! Visit them, send peace on them for, by Him in whose hand is my soul, to any Muslim who sends peace on them until the day of Qiyamah, they will return the salutation of peace.’

Peace be on you, O Mus’ab…

Peace be on you all, O martyrs.

Peace be on you and the mercy and blessings of God.

trembling like the candlelight. At break of day

he walks amid mountains splitting with grief;

and he would desire their time of happiness,

though himself in Paradise.

Wherever he looks, darkness prevails:

lush-green hills, jewel-like islands, all are

bathed in gloom. For him each new day

begins a new autumn: the people’s hopes

tumbling like leaves, his spirit bowed

under the weight of their sorrows.

His heart beats in fear of new misfortunes,

his eyes burn with the fever of anxiety:

nights are slow and long: mornings freshen

hopes and pass; on his lips still linger

the songes of endurance.

At times brimful of high, ecstatic hopes, so

exalted he could touch the edge of the Infinite,

he calls out in a voice like impassioned thunder.

and if the people hear, their hearts echo

his passionate ardour.

Unseen by others, noble aims wrestle in his mind;

the holiness of his cause colours the ground he treads.

He resolves to set, each day, one fellow-traveller

upon the right road, in the hope that day is the day

when the gloom shall disperse.

At times, forces of unbelief knock him, everyone,

senseless; and persecutions, like bloody spikes.

are thrust into his soul. At times, spring fragrances

fan the air around him and gentle breezes blow

with diverse, subtle perfumes.

***

Where the school is situated effects the quality of education it can provide. Ideally it should be detached from urban centres. Noise and disturbance around the school can be just as disruptive as noise within the classroom. The easy access in town to cinemas and cafes, to sports stadia, to shopping or amusement arcades, prevent the pupils from committing themselves fully to their school life. Away from these temptations, pupils will be able to devote more time to reading and relevant conversation and, when they need to relax, to active, useful pastimes in each other’s company. In this way, they will have the freedom to become more broadly cultured. They will develop self-reliance, and independence and will be able to concentrate more on their academic achievement. Also, the beneficial effects of exposure to the freshness and restful colours of a rural setting are well known – to say nothing of the advantages for students of nature, whether artistic or scientific, of having the real thing outside the window

Physical design

As well as setting, the design of the school buildings and equipment are vitally important. For example, desks and chairs that are too comfortable may encourage an over-relaxed, even lazy, attitude in pupils; on the other hand, if they are too luxurious and ugly they may cause distress and restlessness in class. Each individual pupil should be assigned a desk and a locker specifically for his or her use. This would free pupils of the burden of carrying too much around with them from lesson to lesson. The general character of the school buildings should, I suggest, be traditional. At present, the primary consideration in the design of buildings is cost – the ‘best’ design is the cheapest. By contrast, in the past, efforts were made to surround the schools and universities with green, with trees and walks in wooded lanes, rivers and ponds, besides which the pupils could relax. Consider how well the learning environment was designed and presented in the ancient seats of learning like Oxford or Cambridge – their buildings seem, in a sense, to improve as they age. They used stone to build thick walls and walled many interior spaces with quadrangles and cloisters which owe their form and function, ultimately, to Islamic originals in the Maghreb and Spain.

Nosy cost-cutting has led to the building of separation walls so thin that teacher and pupils can hear what is being said in the next room:the resulting distraction can lead to irritability and loss of learning time. Lighting is another important factor, too often neglected. Artificial lighting is not as satisfactory as natural light. As well as being costly to run, many pupils daim that it leaves them feeling tired at the end of the day The maximum possible use should be made of natural light. Apart from being ‘free’, it is conducive to the well-being and cheerfulness of both teachers and pupils. Similarly air circulation should depend on openable windows rather than on noisy (and expensive) air coolers and fans.

It is necessary to give adequate attention to the maintenance of a mean temperature that is neither too hot nor too cold. In view of the cost of heating, it may be advisable to invest in a system that, although costly to install, may be cheaper in the long term, such as solar energy.

Tower block construction is quite unsuitable for educational buildings as it inhibits direct, physical contact between students. Again, telephone or computer networks, important as they may be, are no substitute for direct personal contact which is indispensable for teaching and learning.

The detachment of the school from the urban centre means that its buildings complex must be self- dependent. Facilities need to be provided on or very near the school so that leisure activities, vital to the enhancement of study can be easily accessed. They should include sports fields and gymnasia. It is important that the school caters for the needs of pupils so as to allow them to play and compete in a proper way: failure to do so will only encourage truancy.

The ethos of the school should encourage self-discipline and self- improvement. The school should not, in other words, try to mimic the society at large, rather it should aim to reform and improve that society. To this end, chewing gum and smoking and other such habits should be banned altogether, not only in certain areas or at certain times. The walls and halls of the school should bear the portraits, or record the achievements, of the men and women who have set a good example in their particular walk of life. The decor of individual buildings or rooms should, as far as possible, reflect their particular character and purpose: a biology laboratory should look and feel different from a chemistry laboratory; the walls of the dining room should not be the same as those of the classroom, and so on.

The school library should be one of, if not the, most important resource and access should be made easy. It hardly needs saying that books and periodicals should be as up to date as possible, that many kinds of newspapers should be made available to enable students to keep up with (and have informed discussion about) current affairs. In general, the equipment used by pupils should be the best and most modern available. It seriously damages morale if the pupils know that, for instance, the computers they are using are obsolete models. Also, the relevance of what is learnt using certain equipment is significantly diminished if that equipment is no longer in service outside school.

Relevance is a principle that needs to apply to course design as well as to decor and equipment. Unfortunately; too much of what is taught in existing schools is known (and felt) by pupils to be merely ‘academic’. It is particularly important in science and technology that pupils have the opportunity to try out, to apply in practice, what they have learnt in theory. Otherwise, pupils will leave school with a mass of information into their heads but no experience of how to translate that knowledge into practical design or actual manufacture.

The teachers

The teachers are the essential key to whether an educational institution succeeds or fails. A good teacher is one who stays abreast of the latest developments in his or her field and knows how to pass on that knowledge to others. Although there are worthy arguments against doing so, I favour the regular resting of teachers to ensure that they are keeping up in their subject areas. There are, alas, too many teachers who use the same notes they used twenty years before, and whose work (for the pupils as well for themselves) lacks freshness and appeal.

Beside intellectual and teaching ability teachers should be trained and selected for a number of other qualities:

1. strict punctuality – the teacher should not arrive late to class;
2. fairness the teacher must have an understanding of the personal frictions that can develop between teacher and pupil and how to overcome them;
3. sense of humour – while retaining some distance and authority the teacher should not be solemn for the whole of a teaching period, but vary and lighten the tone of the teaching in order to keep the attention of the pupils;
4. openness to innovations – new equipment and new techniques are always coming onto the market:the teacher should seek to exploit these effectively not avoid them because it might mean changing established methods and habits;
5. freshness – the teacher should seek to adapt and combine different teaching styles and methods in the way most effective for pupils doing that particular subject at that particular level: in language training, for example, some ready- to-use courses require the teacher to lecture, others to merely observe, others to participate with pupils, etc.- a good teacher should know how to mix and match from what is available to suit his pupils’ needs;
6. sensitivity – the teacher should be alert to the social and cultural norms of his pupils and go with care when mentioning or discussing ideas or symbols which have special resonance for them, even when he or she does not share the same norms.

Teachers need to be well-trained to start with. However, they also need to be provided with opportunities to further their knowledge and skills, if necessary going abroad on a direct or exchange basis with foreign establishments. And finally, to secure high morale among teachers and commitment from them in a taxing profession, they need to be much better paid than they are at present in Turkey for example: many, alas, have to devote some of their time and energy in a second job, simply to make ends meet.

The pupils

An effective class is one made up, more or less, of pupils of the same ability at the same level. To achieve this, testing of pupils before, and perhaps also after, they are admitted is essential. Mixed ability schools are one thing but mixed ability classes are quite another and impose intolerable burdens on the teacher who cannot know how to plan the pace and level of difficulty of what he is teaching: going too slowly he or she risks losing the attention of the brighter pupils, going too fast risks driving the weaker pupils to opt out of the lessons altogether.

It is important too for the school to screen the pupils it admits for personality or character as well as for academic potential. If such information is available to teachers, they will not overreact when a pupil with, say, a record of bullying or stealing, bullies or steals. Too harsh a punishment by a teacher could further intensify the pupil’s problems which would, in turn, affect class and school performance.

To diminish the effects of social class differences, at least during school time, pupils should wear a uniform or the same or very similar clothes. Teachers can be expected to behave more fairly towards pupils if they appear the same.

The administrators

Administrators, especially principals and heads of school, should be authoritative and serious. Their concern for discipline should be equitable, and focus on teachers as well as pupils. They should encourage and enable parent-teacher meetings at the school to discuss an individual pupil’s progress with his or her teachers. It is the duty of administrators to see to it that the school is clean and fit for all normal activities. It also falls on them to advertise the school effectively so as to raise its image in public perception and so attract more pupils.

Finally administrators need to keep abreast of the latest developments in educational psychology and innovations in methods or equipment.

The family

Parents mostly entrust their children to schools (rather than teach them themselves) and for many ‘out of sight, out of mind’ applies. However, education and upbringing are very much within the responsibilities of parents to children. The parents may be disappointed by their child’s performance but must not blame the teachers for it. Rather, they should openly acknowledge the effects of family life on the stability of children’s character and on the quality of their performance. Parents should exhort children to do their homework, to take part only in such leisure activities as are beneficial, and help their attendance at school by accompanying them to it.

Instruction and teaching materials

Instruction hours should not be overly prolonged as pupils’ attention span is limited. Particularly to be avoided is the habit some teachers now have of combining two periods into a double period which is simply much too demanding for ordinary pupils. Instructional material exists in great abundance hut only appropriate use of it benefits pupils. TV and video need not be a means of passively wasting time; they can be applied to the job of teaching many hundreds of pupils at the same time.

Computers, will never replace human contact but are useful tools which ease organizational problems and can stimulate children. They may match certain temperaments and help children over specific learning difficulties.

Always relevant are the traditional instructional materials such as pictures, tables, diagrams, maps and illustrations. But the technology exists to operate these maps and diagrams through the computer by scanning images, or transferring them to overhead projector slides for a modern version of the blackboard.

Lofland and Skonovd (1981) distinguish six types of conversion patterns-intellectual, mystical, experimental, affectional, revivalistic, and coercive. Of these six, the patterns most common among the 70 converts to Islam studied for this paper, are intellectual, affectional and experimental. The affectional pattern (which may be defined as ‘example and imitation’) and the intellectual pattern (‘response to teaching’) cover the most significant characteristics of conversion to Islam, usually accompanied by the experimental pattern (‘trying it out’). Mystical and coercive patterns were also found though the latter is extremely rare. The revivalist motif, in which the individual undergoes highly emotional stimulation, was non-existent.

The intellectual pattern was found in 50(71%) cases. The affectional and experimental motifs also played a role in conversion, but these individuals revealed how scepticism about their previous beliefs and their intellectual discovery of the ‘logical consistency’ of Islam prompted their conversion. The affectional motif was dominant in 46 (66%) cases who cited personal contact with Muslims as an important factor. These Muslims, whose opinions or behaviour are valued, offered living examples of the Islamic faith, attractive to those with whom they came into contact. Some converts had been most affected by the Islamic concept of brotherhood. Others were deeply affected through periods of stay in Muslim countries where they saw how the religion can really influence the society.

No matter what the motivating factors, the majority of converts went through a period of ‘experimentation’. 42 (60%) came to Islam after studying or spending a considerable amount of time among Muslim friends, families, or in Muslim countries. As well as getting information and impressions from Muslims, and reading about Islam, they visited mosques and attended meetings and even joined the prayers to see and try it out for themselves. 10 (14%) converts reported having a mystical experience before they decided to embrace Islam.

As for the most important motivating factors, the converts cited response to the teachings of Islam with regard to religious beliefs, moral and social issues, and the spiritual aspects of Islam (see chart). 

The converts entered Islam by various paths and for a variety of reasons. Some accepted it after long study, some in order to marry a Muslim, or after marrying a Muslim. Whatever the reasons and purposes of their choice to convert, conversion rarely happened without human contact. All but 9 converts had been in contact with Muslims in one way or another over a long period of time before they made their decision. It is, therefore, suggested that personal contact with an adherent of Islam is nearly always a contributory factor in the conversion of individuals to the faith. However, it must be emphasized that converts were already oriented towards a religious quest, and then found intellectual satisfaction with what was offered to them.

The overwhelming majority of the converts speak of a gradual process involving conversation with Muslims, reading of the Qur’an, and/or other Islamic literature, and in some cases journeying to Muslim lands. 16 (23%) people’s first contact with Islam was through literature. 16 (23%) people were first introduced to Islam when they travelled to a Muslim country. 26 (37%) reported they first knew about Islam through conversations with Muslims. 10 (14%) came into contact with Islam through male/female relations. This included 3 female converts who followed their English husbands’ conversion while 2 had one of their family members or a relative convert to Islam (see chart).

Conversion age

Early studies, at the turn of the century, of converts to or within Christianity found conversion to be primarily an adolescent phenomenon (Starhuck, 1911, p.38 Hall, 1920, pp.288-92). By and large this trend seems to continue today (Argyle, 1958, p.61). In contrast to studies of conversion within Christianity, studies of conversion to contemporary religious cults indicate that conversions take place at a later age, in the late teens or early 20s (Ullman, 1989, p.110).

The conversion age for Western converts to Islam presents a striking contrast. In fact, Poston’s (1992) questionnaire study of European and American converts to Islam found the average conversion age to be 31.4 years. The average conversion age for the English converts to Islam is 29.7; ranging from 15 to 61 with the vast majority falling into the 23-45 year- old age group.

In Britain less than 15 percent of the population attend church each week. Over half of those who attend at the age of 13 have ceased to do so by the time they are 20. Furthermore, by school leaving age, very few young people still claim any allegiance to the Christian churches (Francis, 1984, p l0). This is, in fact, what most of the converts to Islam experienced in their late adolescence. Some had been religious in their pre-adolescent years, but this religiousness had disappeared, in part because they had been taught at secondary school, or by society in general, to think rationally about religious matters. They then lost their capacity for religious experiences, and Christianity lost its plausibility for them. They became restless with the religious tradition of their family or society, questioning critically its intellectual, moral and religious adequacy. Tony, 17, bitterly criticized the society:

‘This society doesn’t make you know about religion. It is wrapped up in the wrong way of life; just working, sleeping, drinking. Religion is not mentioned to people. I went to a Christian school. They taught us we came from apes. That’s the evolution they believed in, not God. So it was a Church of England school believing in Christianity … their own church made us believe in evolution, whereas evolution is about not believing in God. My age-group now is being taught nothing about religion at all. So this society just wants to bring you up not to live in God or not to worry, just to think about the world.’

Adolescence was the age that the future converts to Islam began questioning the application of their religion in the larger society, or looking for answers to life’s basic questions, or raising questions about the basic creeds of the religion they were taught to believe in in childhood. Again, it was in adolescence that they attempted to fashion a consistent personal code of moral behaviour in a changing culture of uncertain values. Yet it was not in adolescence that they converted to Islam. If we take the figure of 16 years as the age of conversion in a Christian context and 29 for the present sample, this gives over 10 years during which time the person was neglectful of religion or was experimenting with other alternatives. This period may well be explained by Erikson’s concept of a ‘moratorium period’. Erikson observed that many adolescents struggling with the integration process opt to ‘retreat’ for a period of time in order to work out a plan of self-reorganization or integration without disturbance from mundane realities (Erikson, 1962: 43-4). During the ‘moratorium period’ most adopted secular identities by which they accomplished integration without resort to conversion, and some tried to explore other alternatives. Yet this was only a temporary and perhaps incomplete integration, as they eventually searched for a religious alternative. As one convert put it:

‘They let the religious thing lie asleep’ at the back of their minds for a few years.

Conclusion

Conversion is necessarily a multifaceted experience, and it is obvious that not all conversions are of the same type. However, conversions to Islam are usually a complex and gradual process which is prepared by individual conditions over a long period. They are voluntary; not the result of a sudden resolution of spiritual conflicts but, generally, conversions of adults often oriented to points of doctrine. In the light of this study, a process model for English converts to Islam may be outlined as follows:

Firstly, for the religious conversion to occur, the individuals must have rejected the religion and values presented by parents or society in early or late adolescence and enter a period of ‘moratorium’ that lasts several years. At the end of this period they must still he experiencing disillusionment with the old religion and the society at large. During this period they must have either cognitive concerns, sometimes leading to a search for answers from other religions or emotional distress resulting from personal problems like divorce which in the end leads to contemplating religion as the possible answer. Apparently, because of the earlier dissatisfaction with the old religion, the possibility of returning to it is ruled out. By the end of the first stage, the individuals must have something in their background experience that makes them in some measure sensitive to the message of Islam. 

Secondly, by this stage the new perspective (Islam) must be available. The potential converts must encounter Islam through social relationships (this could he through pre-existing ties like marriage or chance encounters), and mass media or any other available source of information. Affective ties to Muslims, though not always necessary, are usually developed. The individual must he favorably affected by the good example of Muslims or by the ethos of Muslim institutions (as they are perceived), and at the same time question the truth of Islam, eventually accepting it.

Thirdly, the individuals go through a preparational period. Before announcing conversion, the individual has to play the role of convert by gradually learning some practices of Islam, and adopting a life-style which becomes a part of a new self-definition. The potential convert investigates the acceptability of the religion, to test it out through an ‘experimental’ orientation to it, rather than blindly embracing it without considerable thought. The decision to convert is therefore rightly characterized as intellectual’, the end result of a deliberate choice made after careful examination and consideration, as opposed to one stemming from a purely emotional response.

We are often told that the West believes in freedom of expression for all. If this belief were practised sincerely, would we not see many different images of the many peoples and cultures in the world, images as diverse, rich and plural as the reality is? But we do not. We see overwhelmingly one view of the world, one way of living in it and understanding it. In theory, an individual is free to make and put on air whatever images he or she likes, but in practice whatever does not conform to that dominant one view does not get much exposure and so remains without effective influence. If you own all the motorways in a country; you do not need to close down the little byways and side-roads; you can be sure that all the big traffic will move on the big roads. Indeed, leaving the side-roads enhances the comfortable (but false) impression that one is free to move as one likes, to pick one’s own route through life. In the same way, when a whole system of media networks are constantly putting out a particular image or idea, it really doesn’t matter how many little ‘slots’ are left open for those who wish to express a contrary image or idea. That different image is never on the air long enough to persuade significant numbers of people who are inundated with the dominant image the rest of the time. Besides, how many individuals can afford to set up a radio or TV network; and even if they can, how do they get or keep a license to broadcast if their perspective is subversive of the dominant culture?

The task of the enormous media output generated by the West, in particular by the United States, is global management of public tastes and options. It does not work by forcing individuals to think or say or buy particular things; it works by limiting the possibilities of what might be said or bought. You do not need to chain people up in order to control their movements; a more efficient way (certainly where large numbers are involved) is to control the whole of the space in which they can move. Control is exercised by regulating the scope – the horizons – of what is possible. This form of control is the most insidious and dangerous ever devised: any individual, at any individual moment, has the illusion that he or she can think, say, wear, do, whatever he or she, at that moment, pleases. But when the sum of moments is added up, it shows, for the overwhelming mass of people, a staggering uniformity of perceptions, tastes, choices, actions. That is why, for example, in India where the vast majority of people (Hindus) support a prohibition on the eating of animal flesh, Macdonald’s hamburgers ear be a great commercial success, or why the poorest people in the ‘Third World’ come to believe that they have at last got their share in the good things of this world when they spend their scarce earnings on a bottle of Coca-Cola. The cultural diversity of the world is being systematically reduced:for the great mass of people, it becomes harder and harder to imagine even that there should be, let alone could he, alternatives. At the same time, because the alternatives are, so to speak, off the air, people become culturally orphaned, lose contact with their past and struggle to hold on to any identity except as isolated individual consumers in the international market-place.

You may say images are only images; nobody believes that they are real. After all, people do not believe that the commercials they see represent reality. Of course they do not. But that does not prevent them being powerful. The greatest teachers of mankind in every culture have taught through the imagination: they used poems, parables, similitudes, stories. The reason is that in such forms, the whole resources of language are employed, not just, for example, the rationality or logical power of words. A well-told story that depicts sacrifice is more deeply affecting, more deeply persuasive, than any number of beautifully argued philosophical treatises explaining the merits of sacrifice. That is why a constant barrage of films, TV series, commercials, showing the success of ‘the American way’, alongside the failure or irrelevance of any other way is so potent a Weapon in cultural (and therefore political and commercial) dominance. The effectiveness of images cannot he overestimated: if there is a danger, it lies in underestimating their power.

Why is it managed in this way?

It is tempting to explain why the West promotes itself at the expense of other cultures as a political or economic conspiracy. But the reasons may he deeper than that. Historically, in stark contrast to Islamic civilization, Western civilization has never been assimilative: it has not wanted to acknowledge the virtues of other peoples and cultures except when it could insist that those virtues belonged to the past (and now belong in an anthropological museum), or could confine them to very specific skills – such as the making of silk or the use of acupuncture among the Chinese, or calligraphy or geometric ornamentation in the Arabic-Muslim world. By contrast Western popular consciousness is incapable of assimilating, for example, the historical fact that serfdom was first abolished in Europe not by the rulers of the European Enlightenment, but hundreds of years before them by the Muslim Turks – which is only one of the reasons why Turkish rule in Europe was so popular (even with non- Muslims) and endured so long.

Western expansion has always been based on the conviction that, in what counts, the West had everything that was good to offer, and it was the historical destiny of everybody else to accept it. That is why to this day, even the most transparently selfish, aggressive policies are represented as altruistic: the West still claims to be sending aid to Africa, Asia, Latin America, when in reality those parts of the world are being drained of their wealth to sustain the West’s affluence – the flow of wealth (in cash as well as materials) is not from but to the West In the past, when Europeans conquered lands and peoples, the vast majority of them genuinely believed they had given to the conquered peoples the necessary first lesson in liberty. The degree of self-delusion on such questions is so deep-seated that almost no amount of history (and there is a great deal) can shift it. What is the source of this self delusion?

It seems likely that the twin roots of this attitude are certain Christian doctrines and Greek-Roman legal practice. From the Jews’ concept of themselves as the only favorites of God, the Christians inherited the idea of being special, chosen to be ‘saved’ through the mystery of believing in Christ. It is hard to understand now, but it really was a part of formal Christian belief to say that non- Christians could never be virtuous – an irrational idea which eventually led to the invention of ‘limbo’, a place neither heaven nor hell, to which non-Christians who had been virtuous or great (Socrates and Plato, for example) could go. Because believing was already equivalent to being ‘saved’, Christians, when they obtained political power, felt justified in suppressing or even eradicating non-believers and heretics. The sincere horror in the modern West of anything resembling ‘religious’ government derives from memories of their long history of incapacity to be both religious and powerful and tolerant at the same time. 

After secularism was established as the ‘civilized’ form of governance, the idea of being special and ‘saved’ came to be transferred to the ‘nation’. This was truer of Protestants who (unlike Catholics) had separate national churches which broke off allegiance to the Pope in Rome. The ‘nation’ was made up of ‘citizens’ or ‘subjects’ who – following the pattern of the ancient Greeks and Romans – enjoyed full legal status as ‘persons’. Non-nationals did not enjoy such status. The Greeks’ term for non-Greeks was ‘barbarians’ (a cultural rather than racial distinction). This term, varied as ‘heathen’, ‘savage’, ‘primitive’, etc., was indiscriminately applied to any peoples the European nation-stares conquered. The conquered peoples were denied the very privileges and dignities which the Europeans daimed as a justification for taking complete control of their lands and resources. If and when the Europeans judged that the ‘barbarians’ were sufficiently ‘civilized’, then (in theory) some sort of status approaching that of Europeans might be extended to them. How reluctantly such rights were granted, if ever, is too well- known to need rehearsal.

Of course, in very recent times, official attitudes (and constitutions) have changed: in the Western countries themselves, all people are supposed to enjoy the same status. The difficulty has been that die legal constitutions do not fit well with the mental and emotional constitutions of the vast majority of Western people: popular culture necessarily reflects the still popular feelings of cultural and racial superiority – that to be Western is to be good and to be non-Western is, at the very least, to be most unfortunate. There was nothing unusual or odd about Western commentators during the Gulf War speaking of ‘bringing Saddam Hussein to heel’ – an expression normally used of disobedient dogs which must be brought under control. Despite the far more appalling crimes of a Karadzic or Milosevic in Bosnia, it is quite inconceivable that any Western commentator would dare to say that ‘Karadzie must be brought to heel’. Similarly the genuine sense of shock and dismay at the events in Bosnia is directly related to those events happening in Europe. The implication is that the same events elsewhere are not dismaying – thus, the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Muslims from Burma (about half a million have been expelled) has passed without comment, so too have the horrors against Muslims in Armenia, or the frequent massacres of Muslims in India which (in deference to the sensitivities of the Indian government) are invariably described in the Western media as ‘communal disturbances’.

The ethos, the make-up, of Western self-image needs this dichotomy of ‘saved’ and ‘un-saved’, ‘us’ and ‘them’, needs an ‘alien’ to hate and fear. Now that the ‘evil empire’ of Communism has collapsed, it is Muslims who will increasingly be called upon in the popular imagination of the West to play the part of ‘them’.

What can be done to resist?

First of all, it is necessary to understand that making propaganda images is a slow subtle activity. Its effectiveness is general and collective, not particular and individual; it operates in the background rather than the foreground; it has a long wavelength, not a short one. It is not a question of a sudden burst of abuse against an enemy, like one angry individual throwing a heavy lump of dirt. No; it is more like the force of gravity – the most powerful in the universe – it operates unseen (mostly unquestioned) over huge distances upon the whole mass of a culture. The ground has to be prepared, the image built up steadily with every individual opportunity exploited as it arises. The negative image of Islam has been available to Europeans since the Middle Ages; it can he argued that Christian Europe defined its own identity as against the Dar al-Islam whose prosperity and power it had envied for so many centuries. It is therefore easy to build on this background consciousness whenever the foreground presents an opportunity – a terrorist attack, a rise in the price of oil, a rich Arab mistreating his wives or servants, and so on. All such occasions provide the material out (if which popular fictions are woven – films are only one example of such fictions.

Secondly; it is necessary to seek nut and hold to the truth in spite of the power and pervasiveness of the negative images. It is necessary to demonstrate and affirm the humanity and inclusiveness of Islamic civilization. Wherever die Muslims governed, they enhanced (and not diminished) the quality of life and culture of the ‘native’ people. They became a part of the people they ruled so that, in a very short rime, it was hard to tell them apart in terms of role or relevance in the culture of the region as a whole: East and West have only ever been united as one civilization under Islam.

Finally, it is necessary to answer false images with true ones. As well as complaining that the recent film of Columbus starts with the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Spain (minarets pulled down, etc.), Muslims need to demonstrate that Columbus was not setting off into the unknown hut following paths long since travelled by Muslims – nor Arabs, in fact, but black men from Mali who sailed to South America – some six hundred years before Columbus did – and drew maps of it, intermarried with the ‘native’ people, then sailed tip the Mississippi to meet and intermarry with the Iroquois – for all of which there has been reliable documentary and archaeological evidence (including a map of the ‘New World’) made available by Western scholars for seventy years. Rut that evidence is something that does not fit at all with the cinema image of blacks as indolent savages and Europeans as eager explorers bursting with white-man’s courage and curiosity. Muslims should not hope that the Western imagination, while it retains its character as Western, will correct its own false images – it may correct its facts but (for reasons already explained above) no amount of documentary facts can ever compete with a good story. It is tip to Muslim’s themselves to provide both facts and the telling of those facts in a form that can put the false images right.

‘They have run away again. We warned them not to do it, but our words don’t have much influence on them. This is the third time.

‘Why do they run away?’ asked a teacher

‘I don’t know. Perhaps because they want to be vagrants, wanderers.’

‘How did you manage to find them the last time?’

‘The first time we caught up with them in the bus-station. The last time they were seen sleeping on park benches. There was martial law at the time and soldiers patrolling the curfew spotted them and kept an eye on them – then, we were informed and fetched them. We told them very clearly that such behaviour would get them into serious trouble but, as I say, our warnings have proved useless.’

The three like-minded friends had made up their minds to escape this time by train. After they had bought their tickets, they tried to get onto the platform. An experienced ticket-collector was able to recognize that they were fugitives. However, he said to them:

‘It is not safe here, there are a lot of thieves about. Give me your tickets and money, and I shall keep them safe for you until the train comes. Believe me, I think of you as my own children.’

The young boys believed the ticket-collector and gave him their money and tickets. The ticket-collector informed security and asked them to find out who the students were and then to inform their school authorities.

A station security officer came up to the students and chatted to them in a kind, friendly way. When he found out what he wanted to know, he informed the school authorities.

The house-master came to the station before the train was due to leave. He collected the students and returned them to their dormitory. This time they would get a beating, he thought, because every kind of warning had been given to them. On the way to the dormitory, they met the Headmaster. When the situation to him was explained to him, he said to the house-master:

Bring me three iron bars. I am going to give a lecture and these students should attend it.

As the house-master went to get the iron bars, he thought: ‘Good Lord! Isn’t one bar enough? Is it likely to break?! Anyway, there must be some reason for it, though I can’t imagine what it is.’

He brought the three iron bars to the Headmaster .The Head then lectured the students, who listened to him in a bored, anxious way like patients waiting for an operation. Then, he said:

‘OK. Now, come, follow me.’ He led them all into the next room. Surprisingly, he spoke first to the house-master:

Take off your shirt, as I am taking off mine. And you boys, pick! It is we who deserve the beating. If we had set a good example, if we had been able to recognize and encourage the humanity in your souls, you would never have wished to be runaways. We stand before you, naked to the waist. Strike us as you wish!’

The boys who were already worn out when they entered this room, now flung themselves to the floor in misery:

‘Do whatever you want to us, but please forgive us,’ they said tearfully.

The Headmaster had not been joking. He had meant what he said. He had reached his conclusion only after serious self-examination. When he recognized in the boys’ manner and tone a desire to return voluntarily, he changed his mind about punishment. None of the boys ever ran away again.

Glory be to Him who created in pairs all things that the earth produces as well as their own kind (selves); and other things of which they have no knowledge. (Va Sin. 36.36)

a) The verse opens with ‘Glory to be to Him’ as if to emphasize that God Himself is beyond possessing a pair, a likeness, or an equal. It goes on to draw attention to the inner meaning of the pair-wise existence of created beings. Pair-wise existence indicates opposition simultaneously with complemantarity, the most obvious case of which is male and female. The scientific definition of pair creation also implies complementary opposites. Thus, hot and cold constitute a pair; in other words, two entities may have almost identical properties and yet be opposed to each other in the nature and effect of those properties.

b) The most interesting aspect of the verse is the examples of pairs it provides. Saying ‘We created beings in pairs’, God gives three examples:

1. ‘Pairs’ that the earth produces,

2. Pairs of selves,

3. Other things created in pairs, of which we have no knowledge.

In order to understand the hidden meaning of this verse, let us first recall the conclusions science has reached in the light of recent research.

The discovery of the positron by the physicist Anderson is regarded by some as a major turning-point in contemporary physics. It was Maurice Dirac who first postulated parity or pair-wise creation, now recognized as a basic principle of modern physics. Every particle in the universe has a certain charge and/or spin. When a particle is formed, its opposite twin or antiparticle is produced together with it, for beings are always created in pairs. The most famous of these are – electron and positron; proton and anti- proton; neutron and anti-neutron, neutrino and anti-neutrino.

It is basic principle of nuclear physics that every particle exists together with its opposite twin – we shall return to this subject in detail below.

Hence, the verse 36 informs us of a basic law of creation in the declaration: ‘We created beings in pairs’.

We may turn now to the general meaning of the verse. With the expression ‘Glory be to God’ in the opening phrase, the verse underlines the fact that God, and God alone, is without equal or likeness. The habit of analogy, of discerning a thing through its opposite, is rooted in our comprehension. But all beings that have opposites or similar partners are mortal or finite. God, on the other hand, is the Glorious: He is without likeness and beyond all. He has, however, created beings in pairs (complementary opposites).

1. Those the earth produces

This part of the verse has been interpreted by some scholars as referring to the plant kingdom. This interpretation is, however, incomplete, for had God wished, He would have specified plants. The meaning certainly includes plants but is not restricted to them.

This first category of pairs delimits the third, It would be wrong, for example, to understand the sentence to mean: ‘I have created many more pairs of which you have no knowledge’ in relation to, for example, electricity or magnetism: those belongs to the pairs produced by the earth.

Pairs produced by the earth, then, maybe listed as follows:

a) Similar pairs that differ in their physical and chemical characteristics, e.g. metals and non-metals,

b) Biologically complementary pairs: the male and female sexes of plants and animals,

c) Physically opposed pairs: e.g. positively and negatively charged ions, and hence the reversal of electric charge (polarity): the two poles of a magnet referred to as North and South, respectively.

d) Phenomena of analysis and synthesis that alter the structure of life in the soil: the vivification of plants by the action of synthesis by bacteria which fix nitrogen: the destructive and dispersive effects of bacteria that break down organic materials and cause decay, and similar complementarities.

2. Pairs ‘of their own kind (selves)’

A range meanings are inherent in this part of the verse:

a) Male and a female (opposite partners).

b) Complementary personality traits (cruel/kind, brave/cowardly, generous/miserly, etc.).

c) Traits which are similar but subject to opposed value judgements, such as recklessness/courage:hypocrisy/ courtesy: simplicity/naivete, etc. Some of these terms denote values which are very near to each other and become negative or positive according to fine judgements about circumstances and/or intentions. For example, hypocrisy is to fake goodness or consideration in order to obtain some favour or advantage unjustly:courtesy may also involve some degree of showing consideration for another individual but in that case with the good intention of winning that person over for a good cause, to become a friend etc.

3. Other pairs ‘of which they have no knowledge’

The law of parity covers all concepts of matter and energy, in the sense that quanta and the systems composed of them manifest themselves as paired or complementary opposites.

a) Processes of energy emission and absorption which physics and astrophysics have, recognized only in recent times, are an example. We have yet to fathom the secret of these processes. However, we do know of black holes where energy is drained and annihilated, and of quasars which concentrate unbelievable amounts of energy. These two regions are places which appear as twins, but exert opposing influence with respect to each other.

b) Another example is forces of attraction and repulsion: in particular, gravity counterbalanced by centrifugal force. If the opposition between these forces did not exist, all planets would either fall into their respective suns or be flung into outer space.

Gravitation and rotational motion together support a dazzling system of equilibrium in the universe. We encounter a mind-boggling harmony when we inspect this equilibrium from the standpoint of our earth and the universe. Besides forming the solar system together with the earth, the neighbouring planets also strike a similar rotational balance with their own satellites. These smaller systems then complete a further revolution around the sun. Thus, the nine planets and their many satellites all revolve around the sun in different orbits. These heavenly objects thereby avoid falling into the sun. In return, the sun balances these planets in their orbits, preventing them from escaping into space. But this is not all. A further and larger rotational motion is simultaneously taking place: the Milky Way galaxy to which the solar system belongs rotates on its axis together with our sun. This journey is completed in about 250 million years for each revolution. Our galaxy in turn is on an immense journey around the centre of the cluster of galaxies to which it belongs. Hence our earth, in the effort to sustain the balance between all these pairs of attractive and repulsive forces, rotates in four different orbits that are finally measurable by a billion years.

In Islam, asking questions is considered a legal obligation where knowledge of the obligatory duties is the issue; and it is, correspondingly, considered a virtue in the case of knowledge of the supererogatory observances. It is encouraged in the Qur’an which orders us to: Ask those who recite the Book before you (Yunus, O: 94), and Ask the people of remembrance if you do not know; with the clear signs and the Scriptures. (al-Nahl 16.43-44). The Messenger, upon him be peace, said: ‘A good question is half of knowledge’. The Companions of the Prophet and the generation that followed them encouraged those around them to ask as many questions as possible. The jurist and ascetic, Sufyan al-Thawri would leave any town where its people did not ask him questions. He would say, ‘This is a town where knowledge dies.’ Al-Shibli, the great scholar of Baghdad, if no question was put to him in his teaching circle would recite: And the word shall fall upon them because of their wrongdoing; they do not speak (al-Nahl, 27.85).

I was once fortunate enough to attend a teaching session where many questions were put to Fethullah Gulen. Lawyers asked him about certain legal practices in the light of Islam. Doctors asked him about foetal development as described in the Qur’an. Since that day, I have been waiting for the publication of this book. It has answered many questions put to me by Muslims who are keen to practise their religion hut still cannot address certain controversial issues. A good example of this is ‘Why did God not endow his servants equally? Why did he create some of them blind, disabled or afflicted in other ways?’

His answer begins with a statement of his own certainty. God is Sovereign. He is the Lord of earthly and spiritual dominions. He wills and creates whatever in them and however He pleases. After quoting the relevant verses, he does what very few scholars are able to do. He explains in simple terms our relationship with the Creator. ‘It is God who created every cell of every tissue of every thing and the whole of inanimate creation besides. It is God who bestows our human nature upon us. We have given nothing to God but He has given us everything without our deserving it. What claim or right have we therefore over anything’?’ With this approach, he makes the reader think. If we have given nothing to God, how can we impute injustice to Him. Injustice comes from not giving what is due. Is it right for the person who has been given a body with one arm to complain about not being given a second’? He makes the reader think about his or her own situation. There are creatures around us who are in some ways inferior or superior, yet we would not want to change places with them. He inspires gratefulness.

Fethullah Gulen looks, in this question and in many others, beyond the simple wording. He often sees a deeper disturbance in the questioner. He identifies, in this particular question, a misunderstanding of or unwillingness to accept the notion of Divine Providence. He explains:

God may deprive an individual of something he or she values, but grant that individual a manifold return for that loss in the Hereafter. By means of that loss, God makes you feel your need, your powerlessness, your poverty in relation to Him. In this way, He makes you turn to Him with a weightier sincerity, a fuller heart, and so makes you worthier of His Blessing and Favour. Thus, your apparent loss is in reality a gain. This is comparable to death in the way of God or martyrdom for which the return is heaven.

The martyr may he dismembered but that would not mean a loss in relation to what he has gained. This is the same for most people who suffer losses or disabilities. Most of them do not feel rejected and cast down. A few may stray from their faith, but many have their faith strengthened by these ‘misfortunes’. He warns those who may put such questions that ‘it is not correct to pretend to an exaggerated, indeed false, sympathy with the disabled as a pretext for disbelief. Far better is it, even essential, that an ardent yearning for eternal life be aroused in such people, for then they are worthy for an immense reward in eternity.’

Fethullah Gulen answers every question in such a reasoned, easy style. As a teacher, I have found this book both spiritually uplifting and practical in answering real questions put to me by enquiring minds. It is a great key to great knowledge.