Understanding is a curse and sharing it a Blasphemy

They say, “Ignorance is bliss”, I’ve never realized this statement to be truer than in this growing phase of my life. But since I do possess knowledge (whatever lil’ amount) of the things as I see and interpret them, so I feel bound to share it with the rest of the world. Because none would tell it the way I would. If every author would’ve thought that there have been some great authors before in time and they’ve already talked about all the important aspects then what is the need for me to write? They would’ve never become Ibn-e-Sina, Shakespeare, Martin Luther or for that matter Arundhati Roy. But writing is essential and to write it’s important that we read and learn and then whatever we come to know we must share it with the world.

“With great powers come great responsibilities” – Spider Man, is one of my favourite quotes. I’m not sure if most people will reciprocate my sentiments about the subject matter, and the aforementioned quote but every skill or talent that I’m gifted by Allah or the privileges He keeps blessing me with, I feel indebted. It makes me feel responsible towards my society. Not in a way the term “White Man’s Burden” have been coined; by imposing my views on others. I only feel that if I am privileged to have the knowledge, (not just through financial means, but because of my upbringing or experiences or personal growth) I have a responsibility of giving it back. And so, I owe my society every bit of learning and positivism that I possess. I’ll give it back to them be it through teaching, reporting, blogging, photography or protesting by being vocal or doing all of it at once. I never have and I never would confine myself to just one medium.

  

The purpose of lamenting here was to give you all a backgrounder to a recent event that shook me to the core and kept me disturbed for a while. I think it’s time that I let it all out before it consumes me or affects another one like me in their struggle.

source: Pinterest

So this Ramadan I decided to “understand” Quran not just through the recitation or reading the translation but digging even deeper in the Tafseer, seeking answers to the questions never asked or answered before. I had come to believe after many failed attempts that my answers did not rest with a cleric or an entity but within this holy book and so, I decided to understand it myself with an equally curious friend.

I started off with the copies of Quran already available at home but they all offered very difficult translations and also the problem was that I found those tafseers with very limited information. Upon discussing this issue, a very dear friend of mine suggested me to try Maulana Maududid's translation and interpretation of Quran because it’s in a very simple and easy language.

The next day as I began my search in the city’s biggest bookshop, where I went through some 6, 7 different tafseers but none of them had what I was looking for. Yet I decided to buy the one suggested for some ease but what was shocking was the price range for those Qurans and tafseers.

I got myself Arthur J. Arberry's "The Koran" by Oxford and a single copy costed me ard 1800 rs. But the tafseers they were selling were all in a collection and the starting cost was Rupees, 24000. Not having the required amount with me at that time, I asked the shop keeper to give me just the first volume which alone was for 4000 rupees, to which he said, “We don't sell volumes separately, you will have to buy the complete collection.”

What paced through my mind was a thought that how expensive and far from the reach of an average Pakistani (or perhaps everyone in the world) the religion is and we the elites are responsible for that. Because we have made business out of everything, even the most prestigious institute of Education has been turned into a business and a very successful one. Be it worldly or religious knowledge the mediocre just can’t afford it.

In a country where "Husool e rizq e halaal sab se bari ibadat hey” (scrupulous and fair earning is the biggest religion in itself), where 40% of the total population lives below the poverty line and an average Pakistani earns per month not more than 20k, how can one afford such an expensive knowledge of the religion? If the one month's salary which is the food, clothing and shelter for the families, is costing them so much to learn anything they would prefer to meet their basic necessities of life and thus the religion there becomes secondary for so many people.

Adverting to the formal education system the schools and madrassas and tutors and clerics the situation is no more different. The quality of education even on the state level is suffering badly, whereas the private ones are beyond the affordability of a common man.

As the poet narrates:

Wo jiska ek hi beta ho bhooka aath peron se

Batao Ahl e Danish tum, wo gandum le ya takhti le?

Moving on to the climax of the story -- as you're all well aware of the concept of  'Quran buddy', this year I didn't have just one Quran buddy but two permanent and otherwise many that I made over the period of this one month. The purpose of more than one in my case of course was not a choice but it was the  instinct and urge in me that would keep pushing me to share my experience and learnings and extract more out of others to learn as much as I can and disseminate as much as I can on my part. (as lamented above)

As I started the Quran sessions with my detail oriented Ammu, who has the in-depth research of Quran's through years of experience and study. What followed these sessions were of course the detailed discussions often with my father who has, being an advocated a command on Islamic law and also a sister who has done Shariah law and has an adequate understanding of 'Fiqh'.

Some of you must be thinking why I'm introducing these figures and their 'résumés' out here; it will be later understood in conformity with the context.

In the first Asharah of Ramadan, during one of my initial Quran sessions, I came upon verses that were related to science and since I'm not very good with bio - chemistry, I thought of further discussing our (Quran buddies) understanding of those verses and getting an expert opinion. So I discussed it with my colleague - who happens to be a senior science teacher at our school the next day. When I put forward my question and we further dwelled into a deeper discussion, she only then realised how she never thought about this thing before but Quran explains it so beautifully. Yet it aroused some questions in her mind as well which she said she will further research upon and will revert to me.

I was quite happy with the entire outcome in the manifestation of these healthy and informative discussions, so I started doing this on regular basis with one or the other colleague. But one of those days, as many of us were discussing some verses on which my understanding and findings differed from the others and everybody brought forward the sayings and lectures of their personal favourite scholars to support their perceptions.

As this was going on and we were still exchanging views, one of my colleagues who was never even a part of this discussion turned around and started spewing at me every profanity in her 'oh so sophisticated manner' that she could. She began her distress and outburst by saying “Oh c'mon, who are you to interpret and understand Quran; it's not your right and job to do so. We humans just do not have the ability to understand this divine book. We are nobody to look into things like that.”

As I was quite shocked at this statement and so were others, but to my disappointment nobody questioned her. There was a moment of silence in there, firstly because of how she came at me and secondly because obviously she wouldn't let anybody else speak. This was my first real-life demonstration of what the term 'key-board jihadi' or 'Twitter trolls'. I could not believe how a person while talking about religion that too in the month of Ramadan can be so aggressive and temperamentally irrational.

I asked her then (though it was a struggle in itself to make myself heard) that, “What is the purpose then of revealing this book, If we can't even understand it”

She quite 'eloquently' said, “To just read it.”

“To read just the Arabic, without any understanding of it?” I tried asking again. I couldn't believe this remark was coming from a TEACHER who had an experience of past 8-10 years in this career. I felt pity for that one generation who had been reading and not understanding for these many years.

I quoted her the Quranic verses (as many as I could, given she would let me speak)

1. “This is the book about which there’s no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah” –Surah Al-Baqarah, verse No.2

2."This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion. But as for him who is forced by severe hunger, with no inclination to sin, then surely, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” - Sura Al-Maeda

It is the complete code of life when viewed in the last revelations of the Quran. Then how are are we to spend our lives without understanding this code?

3. “Verily there are signs for those who reflect.” – Surah Ar-Ra’d verse No. 3

4. “It is He who has sent down to you, [O Muhammad], the Book; in it are verses [that are] precise - they are the foundation of the Book - and others unspecific. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is unspecific, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation [suitable to them]. And no one knows its [true] interpretation except Allah . But those firm in knowledge say, "We believe in it. All [of it] is from our Lord." And no one will be reminded except those of understanding.” –Surah AL-Imran, verse No.7

But it all fell on deaf ears and instead she kept advising me on how I should just stick to the translation and If I'm so desperate to get into the details, I should only stick to the already available tafseers and not question anything or see things on the basis of my understanding and knowledge of Hadith and or Sunnah.

Also, the suggestion about listening to the lectures of different scholars was acceptable from her side; she said: “I can take their view because they have some credibility”. She told me, “This, what you are trying to do is equivalent to blasphemy.”

I wanted to ask her and I am asking the likes of her through this writing, that what's the criteria of that 'CREDIBILITY' and how can you say that so and so is credible but my family and friends whom you don't even know are not. So anything that you do not know about naturally gets dropped from the merit.

Everybody these days have a personal favourite scholar and a cleric beyond the understanding of whom they do not want to think. There are always personal likes and dislikes in this context, then according to this “WE - the petty ordinary humans” are being the judges and making 'SCHOLARS' sit on the pedestals that they are at.

Secondly, already written tafseers, translations and lectures? All these people who have rendered great services to Islam and Muslims must have started from somewhere too, some at the age of 21, 25, 30 or 35 perhaps. Had somebody like my colleague said the same to them that they do not have to interpret Quran or feel the need to understand it because they would be committing a blasphemy, where would we have been? We wouldn't have all these scholars available on Facebook, YouTube delivering lectures, expressing their opinions and answers to the queries of people had this been the case.

We wouldn't have Shah Waliullah to translate the Quran for us. Surely Mullahs even turned against him at that point in time too and imposed the charges of blasphemy upon him. But that did not stop him and this certainly would not stop me, because those of us do not seek validation from people but from Allah. He has given no criterion such as only to a cleric to understand Quran but to each one of us. Every human, regardless of religion, gender, race, age, status, cast, creed has the right to read and understand this book.

So you cannot pompously and fashionably coin the statements like “Okay, I did make mistakes, so what? Life doesn’t come with instructions.” No life for us did come up with instructions, with this complete code of life. But we were perhaps too ignorant to open it up and read it.

Thanks to the religious scholars, we have so many interpretations of Quran today. But had all these people also thought that since we already have one we don't need to write more, we wouldn't so many different perspectives today. So my question remains that “Why do we have to limit not just ourselves but others to in their search?”

My grievances and the attrition of the day did not just end there. Later in the day as I was leaving the school, another elderly teacher came to me with a piece of advice and said, "You did a good thing by not stretching that conversation and further dwelling into an argument. But you shouldn't even have started discussing this thing in the first place. We shouldn't talk of Religion and Politics these days and specially in the institutions. These are very dangerous things.”

I did not have any energy left in me to continue so I silently nodded and left.

But my mind remained stuck on this “piece of advice” and I couldn't quite digest the remark paid to a teacher (myself) who teaches religion in that school, that “religion shouldn't be discussed because it’s a dangerous thing”. We have subjects of political history, Religion and comparative studies but we should obviously not teach them but just read them. This is all that's being discussed in the whole world, being considered as the most important issues of the time but here we are not ready to leave the shackles of ignorance. We are too afraid to think out of the box let alone think inside one and instead prefer being  “kunwain ka maindak”.

What is the moral of the story?

That we do not want the Qurans and Islam to come out of our cupboards and rooms; it’s a monster that should remain confined behind the doors and walls carefully, to not be disturbed. Because we the so called Muslims of today are too scared to discuss the basics of our religions and it rather than uniting us would divide us ?!

I would end this lament here with this Nazm by Mahir ul Qadri: