Faith, especially in the form of religion, refers to a heavenly-inspired system that leads people to goodness, but on the condition that they believe wilfully.

Religion is a divine system or a corpus consisting of systems. The most eminent feature differentiating it from human systems is that it is ordained by God, based on scripture, the good example of the Messenger that it was revealed to, and on how scholars have interpreted both. Arriving at goodness by means of religion is an absolute blessing by God; yet every human contributes to it by his or her choices.

Wisdom, on the other hand, has been decribed in many forms. In the case of Islam, the Qur’an states that wisdom has been bestowed to the Prophet in addition to the Book.1 Because of this fact, many interpreters have said that wisdom and the Book are not one and the same. It is decreed in another ayah that, “whoever is granted the Wisdom has indeed been granted much good.”2 Since the Prophet’s sunnah – his traditions, including his words and silent approvals – specifies the general issues of the Book, generalizes the specific points, and restricts its absolute topics by particular conditions and clauses, it is a great and abundant fountain of goodness. Therefore, some hadith scholars thought it was the Sunnah that “Wisdom” was actually refering to. Besides, the details of daily prayers, fasting, and hajj were determined by the Sunnah.

At the same time, as pointed out by Bediuzzaman, wisdom has been interpreted as the attainment of certain truths of faith and the universe, which have been concealed behind material veils, through spiritual inspiration and discoveries. All we see are a door, some windows, and four walls around us; however, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, decrees that, “I see what you do not see, and hear what you do not hear. The sky has resonated in such a way that you would laugh less and cry more if you saw what I see and knew what I know.” In this regard, reaching the veiled knowledge about the realm behind the physical world has also been considered wisdom.

This cognisance may take place through intuition or an expansion of the imagination, or through divination or direct witness. Whatever we know through rational deduction and certainty of knowledge (ilm al-yaqin) is endorsed by seekers of truth – first inwardly, in their consciences, and then outwardly, in their practices. This is another sign of abundance of goodness.

However, some have heaped the meaning of philosophy upon wisdom. There is a conflictual history between Islamic scholars and positivist philosophers. The struggle of Islamic scholars like Imam Ghazzali against philosophical deviance has become legend. Scholars like Ghazzali and Bediuzzaman used reason, logic, and other methods of philosophy to contest philosophers; so, if their efforts will be considered a part of philosophy, then it is certainly within the domain of wisdom.

One dimension of this conflict had to do with the literalists who interpreted all commandments exclusively and conducted them without question, even though this may have led to contradictions with other rules. Philosophers reacted to this movement, yet drifted to another extreme, where they went so far as to deny the essentials of faith. What we consider “wisdom” would be one that embraces rationality and logic in accordance with positive sciences and humanities, but is also in line with the overall message of the scripture as understood and practiced by the Messenger.

Searching for an accord between laws in nature and the regulations and laws of human life, and sensing and eliciting the concordance between the divine message and universe, are also considered within the territories of wisdom. Such a search for harmony between these dynamics is a key for success and serenity, both in this world and in the life to come after death. The science of jurisprudence in Islam and its applicative branches may be regarded as a vital manifestation of this correspondence and union. This science has been successful because it has been open to analogical reasoning and interpretation. Under current conditions, where such reasoning is missing, it is impossible to govern even the smallest district in any country.

After religion and wisdom, comes power. Unless the laws of wisdom and principles of faith and state are equipped with power, everything shall remain on paper and cannot evoke any sort of influence on people. Without power, how can the wisdom in minds and souls, and the piles of books in the libraries, transform into daily practice? As a matter of fact, we have been witnessing that it is not transformed, since those representatives of brute force who have turned their backs on scientific knowledge and absolute truth, and believe that they can sort out everything by power, have not let it be so; and it seems that they will not, either. In this regard, if a nation does not attach as much importance to power as as it does to wisdom, much of the performance of that nation in the name of national and religious values shall be uncertain. Besides, all three elements of religion, wisdom, and power must work together and in alliance. Otherwise, power not guided by faith and wisdom shall be a mere tool of cruelty and suppression; wisdom without faith shall be a wheel of intrigue; and faith not supported by legitimate power shall become just a mere “issue of conscience.” That is, the raison d’etre of faith and communicating it to people shall not be fully realized.

Notes

1. Surah Al-Baqarah, 2/129, 151, 231; Surah Âl-i Imrân, 3/164; Surah An-Nisâ, 4/113; Surah Al-Jumu’ah, 62/2.
2. Surah Al-Baqarah, 2/269.

An interesting scientific medical study, published in the British Medical Journal (No 6993, 10 June 1995), proved beyond any doubt the benefit of giving a new-born child sugar, in order to reduce the feeling of any painful procedure like heel pricking for a blood sample or before circumcision.

The study, entitled ‘The analgesic (pain killing) effect of sucrose in full term infants: a randomised controlled trial’, was done by Nora Haouari, Christopher Wood, Gillian Griffiths and Malcolm Levene in the post-natal ward in the Leeds General Infirmary in England.

60 healthy infants of gestational age 37-42 weeks and postnatal age of 1-6 days, were randomized to receive 2ml of one of the four solutions: 12.5% sucrose, 25% sucrose, 50% sucrose, and sterile water (control).

The first group of 30 babies received sugar syrup before a routine blood test (heel pricking, which is usually painful) done to detect jaundice. The other 30 babies were given only sterile water as a control group.

Placing 2ml of a 25% or 50% sucrose solution on the tongue before pricking the heel significantly reduced crying time, compared to babies who got water. Also, their heart rate returned to normal more quickly. The stronger sugar solution had the greater effect, crying being reduced further with increasing concentration of sucrose. From which we may conclude that sucrose (sugar) placed on the tongue may be a useful and safe form of analgesia for use with new born infants.

Blass and Hoffmeyer also showed that 12% solution of inter-oral sucrose significantly reduced the duration of crying in new-born babies subjected to heel pricking or circumcision. This study was reported in The Independent newspaper (Friday 9 June 1995) as well as in the British Medical Journal article.

The practice of the Prophet, upon him be peace, is recorded in the collections of his sayings and reports about him, of which the most revered are the two Sahih collections of Bukhari and Muslim:

Abu Burdah reported from Abu Musa, who said: ‘I had a new-born baby; I took him to the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who called him Ibrahim. The Prophet chewed a date then he took it and rubbed the inside of the baby’s mouth with it.’

There are many other reported incidents like this one.

The date contains a very high percentage of sugar (70-80%); it has both fructose and glucose which have high calorific values, it is easily and quickly digestible, and very helpful to the brain. The date contains 2.2% protein, vitamin A, vitamins Bl, B2 and nicotruic acid (against Pellagra); it has traces of minerals needed for the body such as potassium, sodium, calcium, iron, manganese, copper. Potassium, of which percentage is very high, has been found to be very effective for cases of haemorrhage, such as the occasions of birth or circumcision.

We may note that the Sunnah also commends dates for the breaking of the fast in Ramadan. Dates should be eaten, if available, before the sunset prayer-this is medically and nutritionally the best way and the Sunnah.

The great worth of dates is also indicated in a famous and beautiful passage of the Qur’an, surah Maryam, verses 25-6:

And shake towards you the trunk of the palm-tree and it will drop on you fresh ripe dates. So eat and drink and be comforted.

This was the prescription of God, the Creator, for the blessed Virgin Mary at the time of the birth of Jesus, the blessed Prophet of God. It was a prescription to make the delivery easy and comfortable.

As in the example we have briefly recorded in this article, we believe further research will confirm for those who still doubt the full worth and truth, the wisdom, of the teachings of Qur’an and Sunnah.

We shall show them our signs on the furthest horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is witness over all things? (Fussilat, 41.53)

As the authors of the medical study referred to intend trying new sugary or sweet substances, we shall recommend that they try dates for the newborn for the relief of pain.

Finally, we hope Muslim medical scientists and researchers lake this new discovery on board, and that many more ideas and practices in the teachings of Islam needing investigative research and objective, scientific study will get the attention they deserve.

The Qur’an is read by Muslims as an act of worship and also for consolation on occasions of crisis. Both very proper purposes Dr Ghorab shows how it can also be used for guidance, as a means of analyzing and understanding major current events. Specifically, he applies the verses about Muslim relations with non-Muslims (2.109; 2.120; 3.64; 4.138-40; 5.51; 45. 18-19; 47.22-9; 61.8; 59.14), and some ahadith on the same subject, to carry out a convincing ‘institutional analysis’ of a new kind of centre for Western scholarship about Islam. (Some necessary background knowledge about the old kind is supplied in a compact sketch in chapter 1.)

The need for these new centres was felt at the beginning of the 1980s when the revival of Islam entered the news as the revival of an ancient threat to the values and interests of the West. What is new about these centres is (a) that Muslim scholars work together with non-Muslims to do research on Islam and to produce materials for the teaching of Islam; and (b) that they are housed in prestigious Western universities as ‘affiliates’ but funded almost entirely by Muslims (individuals and governments). In this context ‘Islam’ is a subject area that includes matters of faith and creed, law and formative history: in other words, research work at these centres is not confined to patterns on rugs or inscriptions on coins; it touches on the very essentials.

What is wrong with Muslims and non-Muslims working together? Any moderate Muslim is bound to hope that these new ‘centres for Islamic studies’ or for ‘Christian-Muslim dialogue’ represent, at last, a willingness on the part of Western scholars to reciprocate the courtesies and respect generally accorded to them by Muslim scholars, to open their minds to the influence of Muslim perspectives about Islam. As Dr Ghorab demonstrates, these are false hopes. Indeed, the danger is, as he sees it, that Western hostility to Islam and the effort to weaken the Muslims’ commitment to the establishment of an Islamic order in their lives, can be more effectively pursued with the participation, and using the resources, of Muslims themselves.

The main aim of institutional analysis is not to disclose hidden conspiracies or conspirators: that, if it happens is an accidental by-product. The proper aim of such analysis is to show how power is disposed and managed across different structures in order to achieve particular outcomes. Dr Ghorab gives specific analysis of one UK institution and names particular individuals involved in its establishment, financial support and so on. The concrete detail, the naming of names, is regrettable but unavoidable – how else make the general argument convincing and realistic? In a careful account of the academic journal produced by this UK institution, the author distinguishes the journal as an institution from the individual contributions in it. As the product of a Western academic institution, the journal is procedurally and practically constrained to take the usual Western academic line about Islam. He shows very clearly that, even if the individuals writing in the journal intend the very opposite of what the journal as an institution is intended to achieve, it is the journal, not the well-meaning individual Muslim contributor, that will win most of the time. (Anyone familiar with super-power manipulations of the United Nations will understand the distinction between well-meaning individuals and well-phrased moral principles, and what the institution really achieves.)

In the colonial era, Western-backed individuals and institutions in Muslim countries were easily recognized as such and rejected by the mass of Muslims. The individual Muslims, engaged in these new centres, whatever their intentions (and they may be good), are less easy to distinguish. Moreover, their working alongside non-Muslims gives legitimacy to Western assumptions about Islam and to Western intentions for the reform of Islam. Why does it matter so much to keep a clear line between Western scholarship about Islam and Muslim scholarship?

Muslims do differ with other Muslims on issues having to do with faith, law, history, etc. But they differ within a shared framework: the differences they have with non- Muslims are worlds apart. Dr Ghorab lists the minimum conditions for Muslim study of Islam:

(1) To study Islam as a revealed religion (this means to study it as the truth from Allah whose authority is not to be challenged but to be understood and, therefore, confessed intelligently. (2) To take Islam from its own original and authentic sources (i.e. the Qur’an and Sunnah). (3) To take it as knowledge and practice … [i.e. not as academic pastime for libraries or museums. (4) To take it from qualified Muslim scholars. The qualifications in question are iman (faith), ‘ilm (knowledge) and taqwa (fear of Allah).

He then contrasts these with the minimum conditions for Western study of islam:

(I) Western scholars must not accept that Islam is a revealed religion. Their work will be condemned if they regard the Qur’an as the Word of Allah. (2) They must not take Islam from its own sources… they must specifically look outside those sources to get a true’ picture… Orientalists regard Qur’an and Sunnah as the least reliable (sources), and others must be preferred in cases of conflict. (3)They must not under any circumstances promote Islam as a way of life or even of belief. It must be seen as a thing of the past… (4) They must not have a personal commitment to Islam… Any Muslims… working in a Western academic environment must learn to suspend their beliefs while they study Islam.

It would be an injustice to Dr Ghorab not to make clear what he makes clear: non-Muslims cannot be expected to support or help the cause of Islam, and they have a clear right to set up institutions and to work for their own objectives and according to their own methodologies. But, by the command of the Qur’an, it is not right for Muslims to be allied to, or to be financing, those objectives and methodologies. There is an easily understood space between a positive, respectful tolerance and the kind of alliance or allegiance which concedes to non- Muslims the upper hand in the affairs of Muslims.

Dr Ghorab’s argument does not end negatively, saying only what is wrong, what not to do. He writes:

….it does not suffice to only know what is wrong and feel badly about it. It is a part of Muslim conscience to take the next necessary steps – to proclaim and publish that which is wrong so that…, the will begins to form in the community to do something about it…. The further duty is to put right that which is wrong that means sitting down with like- minded Muslims to discuss, and then establish, ways of getting the appropriate education to Muslims, of giving them access to Islamic perspectives on Islamic history and civilization.

Dr Ghorab goes on to make practical suggestions on how to proceed, step by step to set up institutions which, though small and lacking funds and prestige, would have the merit and reward of respecting and protecting Qur’an and Sunnah.

As indicated above, names are named in this book – something regrettable but unavoidable. But there is a duty in this regard which the author has fallen short of. Firstly, the institutional campaign against Muslims is only a part of a wider strategy of news and information management in the West. The book could have pointed this out – consider, for example, how carefully and subtly the mood of the non-Muslim public in the West has been handled on the war in Bosnia. There are many perspectives, not only the Islamic, which are not aired, and therefore left to choke. Muslims, as Muslims, owe a wide sympathy to fellow human beings, all of whom must be regarded as Muslims of the future. Secondly, the author needs to have discussed what is to be done with the particular institution and individuals named in the book: are they only to be shunned and criticized? Is it not also a part of defending the Sunnah to reserve final judgement to leave room for some level of contact to be kept going, in other words, to maintain hope for them? Criticism of what is wrong is a duty; but it is also a duty to put that criticism (so far as possible) in the form of practicable counsel, not rejection.