The Taliban and Al-Khidr
October 30, 2012
Like a pigeon in a trap desperately beating its wings, the government has demonstrated that it does not have the spine to take decisive military action in North Waziristan where only the writ of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its terrorist affiliates prevails. It has done nothing other than make loud noises like the proverbial empty vessel on the hideous incident in which Malala Yousafzai was singled out and shot in the head. The TTP proudly claimed responsibility and then had the temerity to justify its barbarity as retribution mandated by the Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
It is on such distortions of Islamic tenets that the ideology of extremist violence is anchored. The irreversible defeat of terrorism is not possible without exposing the fraud that is enacted by extremist groups in the name of religion.
Those perched in high places in government, as well as the educated elite who love to indulge in all sorts of metaphysical disquisitions, have not dared to utter a word against the deliberate corruption of the actual teachings of Islam. They have all, without exception, writhed under the tyranny of those who consider the established law of the land a ridiculous institution of the philistines.
The devil, it is said, writes its own scripture. This found morbid confirmation in the reason advanced by the TTP for its ghastly attack on Malala. A disgustingly hypocritical justification was proffered that this was in accord with the allegorical passage of the Quran (18: 60-82) in which a boy, who had surrendered to the forces of enormous evil, was slain by a learned man of God. The Prophet Moses (pbuh) had desperately sought this unnamed savant in order to get even a fleeting glimpse of reality. The allegory is built around man’s intellectual life and quest for the ultimate truth.
The theme is that appearance and reality are intrinsically different and only God-given mystical insight can reveal to man what is apparent and what is real. But spiritual knowledge is inexhaustible and no created being, not even a prophet, can answer the unending questions that assail the human mind. These questions revolve around the concept of ghayb, wrongly translated as “the unseen,” but more accurately rendered as the ultimate reality that lies beyond the reach of human perception.
The ideology of the TTP and its terrorist affiliates is derived from notoriously subjective interpretations of Quranic allegories. Thus the Holy Book predicts: “...Now those whose hearts are given to swerving from the truth go after that part of the divine writ which has been expressed in allegory, seeking out (what is bound to create) confusion, and seeking (to arrive at) its final meaning (in an arbitrary manner); but none save God knows its final meaning...” (3:7).
The parable of Prophet Moses and the sage on which the TTP has tried to vindicate its despicable assault on Malala needs to be explained. The best explanation by way of introduction to the allegory is to be found in a well-authenticated tradition on the authority of Ubay ibn Ka’b, a companion of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), and recorded in several compilations by Bukhari (810-870), Muslim (821-875) and Tirmidhi (824-892). According to this hadith, Prophet Moses was once reprimanded by God for claiming that he was the wisest of all mortals. He was told that “a servant of God” who dwelt at the “junction of the two seas” had been blessed with mystical insight and was, therefore, superior to Prophet Moses in wisdom.
The Prophet Moses prayed for an opportunity to meet this man and it was revealed to him that he should embark on this quest and carry “a fish in a basket” with him. He should travel on and on and a time would eventually come when the fish would disappear and this would signify that the destination had been reached. Muhammad Asad (1900-1992) describes this tradition as an “allegorical introduction to our Quranic parable” and explains that the “fish” mentioned in the Quranic passage and the hadith “is an ancient symbol, possibly signifying divine knowledge or eternal life.”The Quran is silent about the identity of the enigmatic sage, but in the tradition attributed to Ubay ibn Ka’b he is referred to as Al-Khadir or Al-Khidr which means “the green one.” Commentators such as Asad believe that this is an epithet and not a name implying “that his wisdom was ever-fresh (green) and imperishable: a notion which bears out the assumption that we have here an allegoric figure symbolizing the utmost depth of mystic insight accessible to man.”As for the “junction of the two seas” mentioned in the Quran, through the centuries scholars have tried to identify the geographical location. This has been an exercise in futility and the places cited are far apart.
By far the most plausible explanation is that of Abd Allah ibn Umar al-Baydawi (d. 1291) whose work Anwar al-Tanzil wa Asrar al-Ta’wil (The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation) is considered one of the most authoritative commentary on the Quran. He maintains that “the two seas” signify “the two sources or streams of knowledge.” One represents learning that is acquired through the observable phenomena and the other is knowledge that only the select few can attain through the Divine gift of intuition and mystical insight, and it was at the confluence of these “two seas” that Prophet Moses had sought to acquire the wisdom of the mysterious sage. Even then, as the Quran makes clear, the knowledge that the human race can possibly attain is extremely limited: “...they know but the outer surface of this world’s life, whereas of the ultimate things they are utterly unaware” (30:7).
In the Quranic parable, Prophet Moses is accompanied by “his servant” who is identified in ancient traditions as Joshua, the man destined to succeed him as the leader of the Israelites. When Prophet Moses eventually finds the mysterious savant at the “juncture of the two seas” his only request was: “May I follow thee on the understanding that thou will impart to me something of that consciousness of what is right which has been imparted to thee?” (18:66).
The reply of the sage sums up the lesson that is to be imbibed from the parable: “Behold thou wilt never be able to have patience with me – for how couldst thou be patient about something that thou canst not comprehend within the compass of (thy) experience?” (18:67-68). He was proved right as Prophet Moses was unable to “comprehend” within the limitations of his “experience” why the blessed divine, as narrated in the Quran, “made a hole” in the boat that had ferried them across the sea, killed the youth who was “an innocent human being,” and rebuilt a dilapidated wall of an inhospitable village without having “obtained some payment for it.” The reason is embedded in the future, which only the gifted sage, but not the prophet, could foresee.
Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi (1149-1209), one of the greatest theologians of his times, wrote that this Quranic passage shows that even a prophet of the stature of Prophet Moses was unable to understand the hidden reality of things. In his encounter with the sage, Prophet Moses discovered that appearance is often far removed from reality.
The fraudulent TTP interpretation of this allegorical Quranic passage as a justification to slaughter children in the name of religion is thus laid bare. Lost in the process is the biblical assertion, which is completely in accord with the Quran: “...give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called the trees of righteousness...” (Isaiah 61:3). The tragedy is that neither the government nor the shallow intellectuals of the country have done anything to expose the crass hypocrisy of the TTP.
The writer is the publisher of Criterion quarterly. Email: iftimurshed @gmail.com
It is on such distortions of Islamic tenets that the ideology of extremist violence is anchored. The irreversible defeat of terrorism is not possible without exposing the fraud that is enacted by extremist groups in the name of religion.
Those perched in high places in government, as well as the educated elite who love to indulge in all sorts of metaphysical disquisitions, have not dared to utter a word against the deliberate corruption of the actual teachings of Islam. They have all, without exception, writhed under the tyranny of those who consider the established law of the land a ridiculous institution of the philistines.
The devil, it is said, writes its own scripture. This found morbid confirmation in the reason advanced by the TTP for its ghastly attack on Malala. A disgustingly hypocritical justification was proffered that this was in accord with the allegorical passage of the Quran (18: 60-82) in which a boy, who had surrendered to the forces of enormous evil, was slain by a learned man of God. The Prophet Moses (pbuh) had desperately sought this unnamed savant in order to get even a fleeting glimpse of reality. The allegory is built around man’s intellectual life and quest for the ultimate truth.
The theme is that appearance and reality are intrinsically different and only God-given mystical insight can reveal to man what is apparent and what is real. But spiritual knowledge is inexhaustible and no created being, not even a prophet, can answer the unending questions that assail the human mind. These questions revolve around the concept of ghayb, wrongly translated as “the unseen,” but more accurately rendered as the ultimate reality that lies beyond the reach of human perception.
The ideology of the TTP and its terrorist affiliates is derived from notoriously subjective interpretations of Quranic allegories. Thus the Holy Book predicts: “...Now those whose hearts are given to swerving from the truth go after that part of the divine writ which has been expressed in allegory, seeking out (what is bound to create) confusion, and seeking (to arrive at) its final meaning (in an arbitrary manner); but none save God knows its final meaning...” (3:7).
The parable of Prophet Moses and the sage on which the TTP has tried to vindicate its despicable assault on Malala needs to be explained. The best explanation by way of introduction to the allegory is to be found in a well-authenticated tradition on the authority of Ubay ibn Ka’b, a companion of the Holy Prophet (pbuh), and recorded in several compilations by Bukhari (810-870), Muslim (821-875) and Tirmidhi (824-892). According to this hadith, Prophet Moses was once reprimanded by God for claiming that he was the wisest of all mortals. He was told that “a servant of God” who dwelt at the “junction of the two seas” had been blessed with mystical insight and was, therefore, superior to Prophet Moses in wisdom.
The Prophet Moses prayed for an opportunity to meet this man and it was revealed to him that he should embark on this quest and carry “a fish in a basket” with him. He should travel on and on and a time would eventually come when the fish would disappear and this would signify that the destination had been reached. Muhammad Asad (1900-1992) describes this tradition as an “allegorical introduction to our Quranic parable” and explains that the “fish” mentioned in the Quranic passage and the hadith “is an ancient symbol, possibly signifying divine knowledge or eternal life.”The Quran is silent about the identity of the enigmatic sage, but in the tradition attributed to Ubay ibn Ka’b he is referred to as Al-Khadir or Al-Khidr which means “the green one.” Commentators such as Asad believe that this is an epithet and not a name implying “that his wisdom was ever-fresh (green) and imperishable: a notion which bears out the assumption that we have here an allegoric figure symbolizing the utmost depth of mystic insight accessible to man.”As for the “junction of the two seas” mentioned in the Quran, through the centuries scholars have tried to identify the geographical location. This has been an exercise in futility and the places cited are far apart.
By far the most plausible explanation is that of Abd Allah ibn Umar al-Baydawi (d. 1291) whose work Anwar al-Tanzil wa Asrar al-Ta’wil (The Lights of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation) is considered one of the most authoritative commentary on the Quran. He maintains that “the two seas” signify “the two sources or streams of knowledge.” One represents learning that is acquired through the observable phenomena and the other is knowledge that only the select few can attain through the Divine gift of intuition and mystical insight, and it was at the confluence of these “two seas” that Prophet Moses had sought to acquire the wisdom of the mysterious sage. Even then, as the Quran makes clear, the knowledge that the human race can possibly attain is extremely limited: “...they know but the outer surface of this world’s life, whereas of the ultimate things they are utterly unaware” (30:7).
In the Quranic parable, Prophet Moses is accompanied by “his servant” who is identified in ancient traditions as Joshua, the man destined to succeed him as the leader of the Israelites. When Prophet Moses eventually finds the mysterious savant at the “juncture of the two seas” his only request was: “May I follow thee on the understanding that thou will impart to me something of that consciousness of what is right which has been imparted to thee?” (18:66).
The reply of the sage sums up the lesson that is to be imbibed from the parable: “Behold thou wilt never be able to have patience with me – for how couldst thou be patient about something that thou canst not comprehend within the compass of (thy) experience?” (18:67-68). He was proved right as Prophet Moses was unable to “comprehend” within the limitations of his “experience” why the blessed divine, as narrated in the Quran, “made a hole” in the boat that had ferried them across the sea, killed the youth who was “an innocent human being,” and rebuilt a dilapidated wall of an inhospitable village without having “obtained some payment for it.” The reason is embedded in the future, which only the gifted sage, but not the prophet, could foresee.
Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi (1149-1209), one of the greatest theologians of his times, wrote that this Quranic passage shows that even a prophet of the stature of Prophet Moses was unable to understand the hidden reality of things. In his encounter with the sage, Prophet Moses discovered that appearance is often far removed from reality.
The fraudulent TTP interpretation of this allegorical Quranic passage as a justification to slaughter children in the name of religion is thus laid bare. Lost in the process is the biblical assertion, which is completely in accord with the Quran: “...give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called the trees of righteousness...” (Isaiah 61:3). The tragedy is that neither the government nor the shallow intellectuals of the country have done anything to expose the crass hypocrisy of the TTP.
The writer is the publisher of Criterion quarterly. Email: iftimurshed @gmail.com
