Stories and stuff

(ii)

(Sem 2 Class 6)

On stories and the Qur’an

The Qur’anic way of explanation is different to that of the people. In human society, the purpose of storytelling is primarily that of entertainment, and certainly that is what it has been reduced to in contemporary society (1). When we read stories in the Qur’an, we approach them with this mindset, as if God is telling us a story to entertain us. Then, when we see gaps in the story as it is narrated, we seek to fill in the gaps, to know the omitted details in order to complete the story. However, we fail to grasp that in the Qu’an, nothing is for entertainment (2); in fact, nothing in the entire universe is for entertainment (3). Neither God’s Word, nor His world, ought to serve the purpose of merely entertaining you; they exist to convey His message and guidance (4).

Stories in the Qur’an are bayan, and there are different styles of bayan. At times, the believers may have asked a particular question, and Qur’an was revealed in response to that. At other times, there was no particular question asked or specific incident. However, this in itself indicates that what is being communicated is at least equally important, if not more so, than that which was revealed in response to a question or particular incident. This is because God knows that this is something that people may miss if left to themselves without being alerted to it, so He specifically draws attention to it. For example, there are repeated references to the Day of Judgement using very striking language such as oaths, to indicate the magnitude of the matter and the need to pay close attention to it. Otherwise, we would likely become too preoccupied with the mundanities of life to pay it any attention.

Because every story in the Qur’an is bayan, one ought to read each story and think carefully: which points has God mentioned here, and which have been omitted? The points that have been mentioned are the points that are important; they are more important than those you want to know about. Then consider: why? So, in such a situation that a prophet found himself in where there were myriad possibilities, why did he act in such a way? And what message does God what to convey to you by informing you about this? What does He feel is so important here that He draws your attention to it? Stories in the Qur’an are guidance, not entertainment.

One story mentioned repeatedly in the Qur’an is that of Banu Isra’il, and in surat ‘l-baqarah, many details are mentioned, and others are omitted. Additionally, the story is not in chronological order, and moves back and forth between different times. This was a really fascinating insight for me, because almost all my previous experience with tafseer, and certainly with this surah, has been about filling in the gaps in stories, rather than really looking at what has been mentioned and thinking about that (5). This makes me think that the argument about the use of israiliyyat in tafseer which concerns itself with the authenticity, or lack thereof, of reports, actually misses the whole point. Irrespective of authenticity, we fail to consider that whilst we fill in the gaps in the story, we do the message a disservice (6). God could easily have told you the particular details of that story and not compromised anything, yet He didn’t; not so that you could root around and spend your life arguing minor details, but so that you spent your time thinking about the issues that mattered.

I thought about it as similar to someone having a couple of hours to revise for an exam. Their friend had very helpfully collated all the main points that were highlighted from several textbooks and lecture-notes, cross-referenced them to the mark-schemes and past paper questions, and written them separately in a booklet for for you for some last-minute revision. Of course, you could then spend your limited time sifting through various websites to flesh out your succinct notes, but most people would think you were a bit of an idiot. Because, of course, only idiots pan for gold whilst ignoring the pile of gold ingots right next to them.

Toenotes

1) I need to think about this properly at some point. The qualification regarding contemporary society, by which I refer to modern secular Western society, was an attempt to acknowledge that this is not so simple. There are of course, other reasons for storytelling, and the purposes of education and cultural preservation certainly play a greater role in other cultures, though I stand by the assertion that storytelling in current times, is primarily about entertainment. In any case, this does not distract significantly from the point being made, which is essentially about the underlying human desire to create a particular personal, coherent narrative in their mind, and this may require seeking out additional information, even if unsubstantiated, from alternative sources to fill in ‘gaps’, where alternative sources could, and often do, include one’s own mind. The point is essentially about the danger of approaching the Qur’an with this mindset, despite having acknowledged God’s attributes and the reason for revelation as guidance which is explicitly and repeatedly mentioned in the Qur'an.

2) Al Tariq, 86: 13-14 

3) Al Mu’minoon, 23:115

4) This is an opportunity to mention a pet peeve, or rather, a horrid swarm of pet peeves (what is the collective noun for peeve?) relating to Qur’an recitation and associated arts or industries, if one may call them that. I may be just growing grumpier in my old age, but I find myself increasingly unable to tolerate showy recitations, mimicking popular reciters etc., and whilst I would previously just try to avoid these things, I now find them really insulting. Also, I think I might think that mudood and entertainment sit on the same spectrum, though I grant not necessarily in immediate proximity of one another; one wonders whether that particular spectrum ought to be abolished altogether in the interests of sadd ul-dhara'i' (blasphemous, I know!). Yes, S., there is possibly only one person in the world who really understands that sentence so of course I anticipate your rolling eyes…

5) I mean this in terms of primarily relating to the contemporary resonance of the story to our situation both as individuals and collectively. This should make more sense later - I initially began writing this post as something on religion and culture, and this was the prelude to that discussion, but became worthy of a post in itself; I'll do that next inshaAllah. 

6) Something similar has been mentioned by Sh. A. previously regarding israiliyyat in tafseer which he isn’t a great fan of so I don't think I completely made this up. I don’t have this to hand right now but will try to remember to reference it to this when I come across it. 

In the beginning...

Bismillah il-‘rahman il-‘raheem

I’ve decided to act on impulse and start this quickly, because I’m sure I won’t ever get to it otherwise. Also, it feels opportune tonight: S. leaves for Dar ul-dafaadi’ tomorrow (1); and there is a certain poetry about it being nearly the start of Dhul-hijjah, my sitting in a little room in a residential library with a window overlooking the church and graveyard, having spent the afternoon reading the Psalms and wanting to cry (2) and feeling desperately like grabbing a stranger to say, “Look, look, look at this! Will you be the glass into which I pour my effervescent insights?”, after walking through a red door in the morning (3), and spending three hours in the woods with myself and God (4). A degree of impulsivity in good is good of course, and rewarded with Nearness (5); I sometimes wonder if I would’ve been the person who ran endlessly through the pros and cons of saying “Make du’a that I am from them”, but Ukkaashah got there first (6). Or maybe His mercy envelops the I-thought-it-first-but-the-voice-wouldn’t-stops too, and then He makes them from Them anyway? 

Anyway.

The aim was to have some way of ensuring that I remembered to notice the twinkle of my increasingly starred margins of surat ul-‘baqarah notes because the light pollution was making it almost impossible to notice anything. Plus, S. is going, so there won’t be anyone to intermittently listen to my inarticulacy about how crazy it is that the whole surah is basically about us, us the new children of Israel, the embodiment of our own bête noire.

The notes are from sh. Akram Nadwi’s monthly tafseer classes with Cambridge Islamic College (7) which have been running for about a year now. I’ve been intending to go through them properly and type them all up, but as realistically that is unlikely to happen ever, it would be remiss of me to wait for such an occasion. Almost every class there are some really profound points that the shaykh makes which are more generally applicable, or I feel impact me significantly in some way, perhaps by drawing attention to something I have read hundreds of times but never really tasted and eaten and digested (8), or by differently conceptualising some basic tenet which I did not even consider that I did not understand, or even just (and of course, not just) reminding us repeatedly of The Point Of It All and not losing sight of the wood for the trees.

I’m not going to do this in any specific order, or determine any regular frequency of posting at the outset, though I will, insha Allah (9), attempt to post more than this one post(!). Also, I’m not exactly clear yet how I ought to write these, and perhaps that requires further time to think through, the luxury of which I do not have tonight. If possible, I would try to separate class notes from reflections, though in practice I suspect I will write some form of amalgamation of the two. Also, there will be some implied understanding and associations which would be obvious in the flow of the whole text though must be sacrificed here in posting excerpts; this seems, regrettably, unavoidable at this point.

I pray that this serves as a reminder for me and others. Wa billah il-‘tawfiq.



(i)

(Sem 2 Class 6)

On du’a and its essence

At first glance, du’a appears to be the most inefficient of actions. If you want something to happen, then du’a itself cannot realise that thing. If you are hungry, you need to obtain food, and then satisfy your hunger. Why then, did the prophets make du’a? Why did they not instead use the proper procedure and most efficient method of solving a particular problem, rather than ostensibly wasting time making du’a? The answer is that Du’a brings nearness to God. It causes one to correct the starting point, after which other things will follow. The reason He made you hungry was not simply that you obtain food, and then eat and drink; animals can do that too. It was in order than you obtain nearness to God – this is the real purpose. Assuaging your hunger through eating and drinking is a supplementary matter.

The reason God presents you with problems in life is not so that you find a solution to them; that anyone can do. One need not be a muslim (10) to bear, or find the solution to, a particular difficulty. The problem is presented to make you nearer to your Lord (11), that you turn to Him and ask Him, and that is in fact the essence (mukh) of worship. Why is that? Because it reminds you of the reason for your whole being, and that of all the whole universe. Therefore, the difficulty makes you closer to God, as it is a means for your du’a. It is not that difficulty inherently makes you closer to God, or is a positive thing.

Du’a is the actual solution, because the apparent solution (e.g. food, or relief of your distress), you will get anyway, albeit after many years. Then imagine, you will have your solution, in addition to years of du’a and the ensuing closeness to God! God could give you what you want straightaway; He is able to do this, but He allows you to draw nearer to Him in your difficulty. The problem is not that you have a problem, but that you don’t use the problem to gain nearness to God. Try to understand what God actually wants from you. The real purpose of the problem was not that you simply solve it, but that you use it to gain nearness to Him.

On the significance of being from as-haab ul-jannah  2:82

Being in the garden means being in the neighbourhood of God. His companionship is what gives value to the garden. It is not merely that there will be aesthetic pleasure derived from beautifully landscaped gardens beyond what your eyes had ever seen. In the world, perhaps beyond a certain amount of beauty, one can become satiated, or there is no longer a proportionate effect. The pleasure then will be due to being in the companionship of God and close to Him; there can be nothing greater than that.  

Toes

(1)  To S. With the greatest sympathy for your plight; to you I dedicate this humble endeavour; please accept it as a token of my sincere commiseration (I have really been reading way too many handwritten messages in books, sorry, I got a bit carried away :))

(2)  Obviously I didn’t; I already stuck out like a sore thumb in my unironed jilbab and brown skin, without weeping histrionics over >100-year-old precious Bibles and their tafaseer. In the interests of honesty, I confess to an occasional sharp intake of half a breath or slipping out of half a wistful sigh before I had the chance to snatch it back.

(3)  Not quite my secret country, but it I'm sure it'd do on a nice day. “Most of us, I suppose, have a secret country but for most of us it is only an imaginary country. Edmund and Lucy were luckier than other people in that respect.” (C.S. Lewis, Voyage of the Dawn Treader). And there is a link coming later about gardens and nearness and God shouting to you in your adversity.

The red door...

(4)  And intermittently various dogs with their humans, but that sounds slightly less romantic. That was great fun even though my feet hurt because I wore some boots which are really comfortable right up until they become uncomfortable, and then they’re really uncomfortable. The heady mixture of excited awe and sore-toe induced throbbing pain reminded me of the last time I felt like that (same boots) which was at the Louvre, except that time I was looking at statues of Greek men en déshabillé, I mean, err..other things, and this time I was looking at roots of trees.

(5)   Al Waqi’ah 56:10-11

(6)   Was it possible to ask that - what is the correct etiquette if asking the Messenger to make du’a you are from them – is there even an etiquette; is there a precedent for this – what if it’s a stupid question – what if it’s technically sort of cheating – what if he (s) says no – does that imply I won’t be from them at all, or just not them them – what if he (s) says yes – will I become lazy and not do anything else ever – can it be undone if he (s) says yes – should I put my hand up or stand up – should I say “Err, sorry to interrupt, but..” or wait for a natural break in the spee – Oh look, cool-name-guy beat you to it.

(7)  Here is how you get to it: http://www.cambridgeislamiccollege.org/course/diploma-in-advanced-quranic-and-tafsir-studies-surah-baqarah/ 

(8)  Today I was reading an explanation of Ezekiel 3:3 - And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness  to mean “admit this revelation into thine understanding, take it, take the meaning of it, understand it aright, admit it into thy heart, apply it, and be affected with it; imprint it in thy mind, ruminate and chew the cud upon it; take it as it is entire, and make no difficulty of it, nay take a pleasure in it as thou dost in thy meat, and let thy soul be nourished and strengthened by it; let it be meat and drink to thee, and as thy necessary food; be full of it, as thou art of the meat thou hast eaten.” That's pretty cool. 

Ezekiel 3

(9)  Note to self: remember to write up why sh. A says saying bi idhnillah would be a travesty of Arabic language

(10) I will write muslim with a small m as opposed to a capital letter M to differentiate between the person in the state of submission to God, from the identity of being a follower of a particular religion or having some association with, or affinity to a particular culture. This is something sh. A mentions often and is very relevant to this surah - it will likely come up somewhere at a later date when I will address it in more detail then insha Allah. 

(11) “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis)
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