This evening I watched this documentary about a group of children in Jenin, who were taught to act and draw, and to express their feelings of anger, both by forms of art and by demonstration and resistance, by an Israeli woman called Arna.

I won’t go into her story or talk too much about the documentary itself. The only thing I wanna talk about from the documentary is that Arna’s son, because of his interest in acting, etc, filmed this group of children when they were still about 9 and 10 years old. And then he filmed them again when they were teens, and then again most recently when they had grown up. It was a shock to find out that those kids acting the roles of animals as little kids, grew up to become resistance fighters.

Especially moving was the story of Yousef, who was the kid who always made everybody else laugh. His friends tell you the story of the events that changed him, and “hardened him on the inside”, causing him to drive into an Israeli market and shoot down civilians.  My tears started rolling at that point. One of Yousef’s friends was asked to explain his friend’s actions, which he did, in a way that really makes you cry. And you can tell that he was also expressing his own feelings, not just those of Yousef.

The director has a very shocking way of showing you the young men, all grown up, as fighters, and then suddenly showing a clip of them when they were little kids.

If you want to see the faces of the Palestinian fighters, martyrs, and suicide bombers- and then see what they were like when they were children… then you must see this documentary. I just never thought anything like this could have ever been possible. A must see!

During the summer of last year, the Azhar offered a summer program of teaching in the Azhar Mosque itself. This was a free and open program, started by the efforts of the imam of the Azhar, may Allah reward him amply for it, where scholars volunteer their time to teach lessons in the riwaqs (halls) of the Azhar mosque. It was meant to give the common person a taste of what it was like to get an education hundreds of years ago in the traditional system of education, before the Azhar became like your average modern university. In the old system, there were teachers sitting in every corner of the mosque, giving lessons on different subjects, and the students would go around listening to each one until they found a teacher they liked and stayed with him.

So I started attending the lessons, and I arrived one day to the Abbasid riwaq to listen to a lecture on Hadith terminology, but the previous class had not yet ended. Inside I saw that the hall was packed with men and women, listening to a very old shaykh giving a class on tajweed: proper recitation of the Qur’an. There was something about that old shaykh- something beautiful… I felt drawn to him, and decided to sit and listen to the last five minutes of his class.

The shaykh began talking about mankind’s ability to pronounce sounds, and how we differed from animals. But then, as a side note, he said: “Our shaykh, Saleh al-Jaafari- he was really the shaykh of all of us here at the Azhar, he gave us all tarbiya (spiritual upbringing)- he used to say to us: ‘Why don’t you go to the Zoo, to hear the Lion say “Allah, Allah!” as it roared?’ “. So I thought: alhamdulillah! I just found another piece of advice from my shaykh that I would not have found in books or in speeches about him!

And so a week or two later, I set off early in the morning to the Cairo Zoo…. But much to my horror, the Zoo was in an absolutely miserable condition. The birds looked like they were bored to death, and have surrendered themselves to just standing in the same position until they gave up their souls. The rhino- as mighty and powerful as it is- looked completely depressed, and very dirty, and I had no doubt that it was trying to think of a way to put an end to its miserable existence with its own horn. Cage after cage, I saw nothing but misery and depression… And likewise was the poor panther in its tiny cage, restlessly walking back and forth, no doubt feeling constricted, but helpless. But then, on the left, there was a cage for the lion, and another for the lioness. And I was completely surprised to see that, despite being in a cage no bigger than that of his restless neighbor, the lion was king. He sat there, his head held high, and he was proud. He was proud, and mighty, and awe-some. I just stared at it, mesmerized! Even in such horrible conditions, the lion remained a king.

Today I spent about two hours in the London Zoo, where animals fared much better than their Egyptian counterparts. I was delighted to be able to walk through special sections where the animals would be free to roam all around you, such as the African Birds section and a butterfly ‘house’. When I got to the Big Cats section, I went to see the tiger, who was fast asleep. Such a dangerous, such a powerful animal, was sleeping just three inches away from me, only a piece of glass separating us.

But then I heard roars. I quickly turned to the lions enclosure, to find a lioness roaring, and it was incredible. Then the lion, whose name was Lucifer, replied with a series of mighty roars…. And they were majestic. SubhanAllah! There’s just something about that lion, and his lioness… It’s like you can feel power coming out of them as they roared. It radiated from them..

Today I saw what is probably the most poisonous (and therefore dangerous) creature on earth: a tiny golden frog. And I saw the biggest (man-eating) snakes on earth. I also got to stand a few inches away from a tiger, and from the most dangerous hunting packs in the world- the African Hunting Dogs. But none of them deserve to even be compared to the lion, the undisputed King of the Jungle.

Assalamu Alaykum,

* I went to pray at the main mosque in London, the one in Regent’s Park. There was a white british convert in the bookshop with a very long beard and a turban. He picked up the new book that’s out about 1001 Inventions by Muslims, and he looked at the drawings of the inventors, and started laughing. Then he took the book over to the shop owner and said, “Look. All the greatest Muslim scientists and scholars, the ones who drove the progress of the civilization, had very long beards. Howe come today they try to tell us that long beards are a sign of backwardness?” Reminds me of the weak (and some say fabricated) hadith (which I like) that goes something like this: Turbans are the crowns of the Arabs. If they take them off, they will lose their glory.

* [Removed at later date]

* I heard a German college professor say yesterday that London is the secret capital of the Middle East. He was talking about all the events that happen here that are related to the Middle East, etc. Hopefully I’ll get to experience some of that while I’m here.

* Poverty turned out to be a disease after all. A gender-specific one, hitting only women. They seem to have found a way to balance their budgets by wearing skirts with just enough fabric to cover two inches of their legs. And if it’s freezing cold? They just walk faster.

And finally, there’s some great people here. I’m really excited about living here for a while, and already thinking about the possibility of staying longer. So far it’s been a completely positive experience. Alhamdulillah.

My life is about to change. I’m moving from Amman, Jordan to London! Sure it’s short term, but it’s a big change, that I haven’t really prepared for mentally or spiritually or in any way really. Except today, being the last day before I leave,  I went to visit the two closest Sahaba to Amman: Abu Ubayda and Diraar. I asked them to pray for me, to ask Allah to surround me with his care, his lutf. I wrote all about them last year, at around this same time, in  my Eid Visits blog.

And I ask you to make duas for me as well..

La Ilaha Illa Allah Muhammadun Rasool Allah, (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam).

p.s.: might be difficult to blog for a while until I’m settled..

Most Muslims thinkers today, in their concern for the revival of Islamic thought, see the answer in overcoming taqlid or imitation and reviving ijtihad, the independent judgment that allows a person to make sound legal decisions on the basis of  the Qur’an and Hadith. However, Professor William C. Chittick - or “Shaykh Chittick” as I think he deserves to be called, based on what I’ve read from his book so far- disagrees with this view. Of course he is not saying that we should not revive ijtihad, but that there is a much more important issue  threatening Islamic thought today.

In Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul, he argues that “the real disaster that looms over Islamic tradition today has little to do with ijtihad and everything to do with tahqiq. A society without living mujtahids can continue to function more or less adequately on the basis of imitating the scholars of the past. A society without living muhaqqiqs, however, has surrendered the ground of intelligence. It cannot hope to remain true to its principles, because it cannot understand its principles. What I am saying is that tawhid can only be understood through realization, not imitation and certainly not through ijtihad. Once Muslims lose sight of their own tradition of understanding, they have lost the ability to see with the eye of tawhid.”

But what does Shaykh Chittick mean by tahqiq, and who is the muhaqqiq, the man who achieves tahqiq? The answer is in the same quote above: It is realization. You see, Islamic knowledge is divided into two types: Naqli (transmitted), and aqli (intellectual). The transmitted type of knowledge is what you get from scholars, such as how many times you should pray, how to pay zakat, etc. But there are other types of knowledge in Islam where you are not allowed to simply believe in them because that’s what scholars said to you. An example of this is iman: Believing in God on the basis of imitation is unacceptable to Allah, as scholars of Aqida (creed) will tell you. Instead, you have to realize its truth by thinking about the created universe and coming to a realization deep within your soul that it must have a Creator.  The way to achieve such knowledge, says Chittick, is “to find  it within oneself, by training the mind or, as many of the texts put it, ‘polishing the heart’.” It is the type of knowledge that becomes self-evident to you once you discover it, like knowing that 2+2 = 4. “We can no more deny its truth than we can deny our own awareness.”

The imporance of this knowledge, as noted in the first quote, is that it is the knowledge we need to truly understand the principles of Islam. “True thought,” says Chittick, “is to see things in relation to God. This is precisely the meaning of tawhid.” Without that, what we call Islam isn’t really Islam, because we are not really arranging our lives in relation to Allah and the order that He created in the Universe.  Tawhid must be our guide in the world: all our actions, all our pursuits, all our choices must be seen with the eye of tawhid- and tawhid  is based on realization.

“Generally speaking, four major areas were considered the proper domains of realization: metaphysics, cosmology, spiritual psychology, and ethics. …It should be noted that the center of attention in all four domains was nafs- the self or soul. The human self is the key issue because it alone can come to know God and the cosmos. The way it does this is by developing and refining its own inner power, which is called “intellect” (aql) or “heart” (qalb).

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I haven’t yet finished this book- In fact today I read chapters three (”Intellectual Knowledge”) and four (”The Rehabilitation of Thought”). And subhan Allah  I have been listening to Shaykh Ratib al-Nabulsi’s biography of the Prophet Muhammad- salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam- and tonight I got to the fourth lecture: about the Prophet’s intellect. What struck me are sayings of the shaykh, and Quranic  and Prophetic sayings that he quoted, that fit so perfectly with the teachings of Shaykh Chittick, so I ended up pausing the lecture many times to write down what he said in the book, next to the relevant words of Shaykh Chittick. They are the reason I am writing this.

Here are some examples:

Shaykh Chittick:

I said that there is a fundamental difference between the Islamic intellectual tradition and modern learning. One way to understand this is to see that Muslim intellectuals were striving to achieve a unitary and unified vision of all things by actualizing the transpersonal  intellect, the divine spirit latent in the human soul. In contrast, modern scientists want to achieve an ever more exact and precise understanding of things, one that allows for an increased control over the environment, the human body, and society. (Pg 55-56)

In the intellectual tradition, we can understand takthir (lit: to make many, the opposite of tawhid) as  the divine principle that makes multiplicity appear appear from the One. Tawhid can then be understood as the complement of takthir. It designates the divine and human principle that reintegrates the many into the One…. The Islamic worldview  might be characterized  as takthir in the service of tawhid. In contrast, the scientific worldview can be characterized as takhthir without tawhid. Take for example, the ever more specialized nature of the scientific, social, and humanistic disciplines; the disintegration of any coherent vision of human nature in the modern univeristy…. (pg 53-4).

Shaykh Ratib:

“Intelligence is concerned with the parts. Intellect (aql) is concerned with the whole (totalities).  He who knows Allah Most High and Transcendent, and knows the secret of life, and knows the message of mankind in life is the intellectual. As for him who specializes in a narrow field and excells in it: He is intelligent.”

“The intellect can move from the concrete to the abstract, from the seen to the unseen, from the part to the whole. This is the absolute mission of the intellect.”

Shaykh Chittick:

We are too busy to remember God and apply the principles of tawhid to life, a principle that guides all true thought back to the One Origin of thinking. Without the constant reorientation of thought by the remembrance of the One, people can only forget their innate human disposition. (Pg 43)

Shaykh Ratib:

Quotes the Quranic verse:  “Only those who possess albab will remember/ are mindful.” (Both translations are possible, 39:9)

Note 1: Albab is plural  of lubb, which literally means kernel. The word is used here to mean the inner power of the soul, which is the intellect (aql), and that is why the word has come to mean “mind”. Translators of the Qur’an have usually translated it as “intelligence”  or “understanding.”

Note 2: It is the well developed intellect, the inner power and kernel of one’s soul, that keeps one mindful of Allah at all times, and thus the person “worships devoutly during the hour of the night prostrating himself or standing, who takes heed of the Hereafter, and who places his hope in the Mercy of his Lord….Only those who possess albab are mindful.” (39:9)

It is also what reminds him of the knowledge of Tawhid that exists in his fitra, his innate disposition. The  knowledge of Tawhid, of the cosmos, and of one’s self and its place in the Universe- all that exists in the fitra, but we must “remember it” by actualizing the intellect. (See Chittick, pg 29-30). “Say: Are those who know and those who do not know alike? Only those who possess albab will remember.” (39:9)

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Shaykh Chittick:

Having become an actual intellect, the soul lives in harmony with God, the universe, and other human beings. (Pg 28)

The theoretical and practical sides of the intellect need to be developed in harmony. The role of the theoretical side is to know things as they truly are (or as he puts it on page 29: metaphysical reality), and the role of the practical side is to discern proper activity and beautiful behavior. (Pg 33).

Shaykh Ratib:

Quotes the Hadith: “The summit of the intellect, after iman, is hayaa’  and good character traits.”

Note 1: Hayaa’ is one of the most important character traits of Muslims. It means to have a sense of bashfulness or shame (from  Allah and others) that keeps one modest and humble, and restrains him from doing something unacceptable in the eyes of Allah.

Note 2: This hadith shows that the first thing that an actualized intellect does is give you iman, through discovery of Tawhid and the existence of Allah (knowledge of the metaphysical reality). The next most important result of this intellect is its practical side: to help the person discover the proper and beautiful  behavior that agrees with the order of the cosmos and the will of Allah, and to instill these virtues in the intellectual person.

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Despite this book being absolutely amazing so far, I will not recommend it before having finished it. So until then, I recommend one of my favorite little books of all time and a prime example and champion of this ancient intellectual tradition of ours:

Ibn Tufayl’s   Hayy ibn Yaqzan, the title being the name of the main character, called “Alive, son of Awake.” The name, as explained by Chittick, “refers to the soul that has been reborn by actualizing the intellect.”

Dr. Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti is one of the greatest scholars alive today, and I thank Allah for allowing me to sit in one of his lessons in the Umayyad Mosque a couple months ago. The most famous of his works is probably Fiqh al-Sira: The Jurisprudence of the Prophet’s Biography, which both gives a great account of the life of Allah’s Messenger - salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam- and teaches important jurisprudential rulings that can be understood from it.

Tonight I just finished another great book of his called  Al-Salafiyah: A Blessed Era Rather Than an Islamic School. And before I continue, let me start by giving the book 5 stars out of 5, despite the need for more examples in some matters that I will discuss below.

This book is unique in its approach: In fact you could say that it is the only approach that can effectively tackle the issue of the Salafi movement and bring about agreement and reconciliation between Muslims. That is because the book does not deal with discussing the jurisprudential rulings of the Salafi movement, or their ideological beliefs in matters of creed. In fact, Dr. Al-Buti himself subscribes to many of their jurisprudential rulings. However, the difference between him and the Salafis is that they have taken a certain number of rulings and beliefs, and made out of them a new Islamic school of thought, which holds that these opinions represent the opinions of the salaf (the first three pious generations of Muslims), and that everyone who subscribes to a different opinion has deviated from the way of the salaf and has become an innovator in the religion.

Dr. Buti’s main concern in this book, then, is to show what is meant by the way of the Salaf. He destroys the notion that it is a group of opinions in matters of belief and jurisprudence, as there was great divergence among the most famous and most pious of the salaf on all these issues. So how could a  group in modern times come and choose some of these opinions and hold that they represent the opinions of the salaf, when the salaf themselves differed on these opinions?

Instead, Dr. Buti shows that to properly follow the way of the salaf is to follow the methodology that they used in order to reach their opinions. The proper methodology that the salaf used was based on knowledge of the Arabic language, and other logical rules that are known as the “Rules for Understanding the Texts”, which are part of the science of Usul al-Fiqh, the Principles of Jurisprudence.

You see, the Arabic language has certain rules that guide one’s understanding of texts. For example, there are rules on understanding what  a word means: should it be understood in its apparent meaning, or should it be explained  according to another meaning that is also used by the Arabs, because the context gives weight to the fact that the second meaning is the one here intended. The sum of  these rules that were agreed upon by the salaf as the proper way to understand the religious texts is the methodology that one must use, in order to reach a proper understanding of the texts. However, there is disagreement on some issues within this methodology which allow for differences of opinions. The outcome of this is that there are issues of belief that are not contested by anyone following the proper methodolog, and thus must be accepted by all Muslims (and Dr. Buti gives many examples). And there are issues that are shown to be definitly false and must be rejected by all Muslims (and Dr. Buti gives many examples as well). But finally, there are many more issues of belief and jurisprudence in which there can be a difference of opinion, because they are reached by different methods that all fall within the accepted methodology (and Dr. Buti devotes the largest chapter of the book to a discussion of these issues).

All opinions that are based on rules that fall within the acceptable methodology are to be respected, and the people who hold them must be viewed as Muslims. If, however, people try to understand the Qur’an and Sunna without following the accepted methodology and the proper rules of the Arabic language, thus explaining away the words of the Qur’an that do not fit their pre-held belief in a way that makes no logical sense from the standpoint of the Arabic language or the methodology, then these people are to be viewed as being outside the fold of the Muslim community. But to call Muslims as unbelievers because they hold different opinions that fall within the category of opinions on which  there is no consensus is something that the salaf never did, and to do that now is an unacceptable innovation in the religion.

This book, then, is not about the Salafi movement, or about refuting or defending their opinions. This book aims to introduce to the  reader the science of Usul al-Fiqh, and the sciences that fall within it, through which the Islamic Texts can be understood, using the methodology that was accepted by the great scholars of the salaf, no matter how much they differed in certain rulings and beliefs. Only when Muslims properly understand what this methodology is all about, will they come to accept differences of opinion between different Muslims, in matters in which this methodology allows for differences to exist. And only then will Muslims understand that the way of the salaf was not a frozen set of beliefs and opinions, but a methodology that ensures that the Qur’an and Sunna are understood properly without deviations that occur because of people’s whims and fancies. And all those who follow this methodology are following the salaf, and they are known by the name that was agreed upon by this salaf: Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jamaa’a. There is no need then for a new Islamic school that calls itself Salafiyah, claiming to be the only true followers of the Salaf- in fact, that is an innovation in the religion that did not exist in the time of the salaf, nor did it exist for almost 14 centuries.

The book’s only shortcoming is that it does not give enough examples from the science of Usul al-Fiqh, which I think could have made the methodology easier  to understand for those who haven’t studied it before- especially the areas in which differences of opinions can lead to different rulings.

I also have issue with Dr. Buti’s criticism of some forms of Quranic intrepretation done by Sufis, where certain words  are understood to be symbols of other things. For example, a “village” in a Quranic story might represent the human soul. Dr. Buti argues that such interpretation is not based on the accepted methodology and is thus wrong, and cannot be attributed to “true Sufis” whose interpretation of the Qur’an is always strict in adherence to the proper methodology. I agree with him if these “sufist” interpretations are based on one’s imaginations or feelings of what some words can symbolize. However, I do believe that the Quranic verses have different layers of meanings, and that at one level, such words can symbolize other things, as long as it is understood that in no way could one level of interpretation contradict the  first, or apparent, meaning of the Quranic words. And second, this interpretation must not be based on feelings but on the light of baseera (inner vision) connecting this word to its other meaning, so that this other meaning can be clearly seen by the Sufi (in the form of kashf), and is no mere guess.

The book is in Arabic,  and published by Dar al-Fikr (www.fikr.com). It is not just highly recommended- it should be required reading!

The Light of the Worlds, Sayyidna Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam said,

“Rajab is Allah’s month, Sha’ban is my month, and Ramadan is the month of my Ummah.”

And Dhun-Nun al-Misri said,

“Rajab is for leaving wrongdoing, Sha’ban for obedience and good works, and Ramadan for waiting for blessings and gifts from Allah.”

Since it is the month of the Muslim Ummah, and the month of blessings and gifts from Allah, I thought it fitting to talk about one of the greatest gifts and blessings  that were given to this Ummah, and it is the following Aya of the Holy Qur’an in which Allah Most Merciful says to his Messenger, sayyidna Muhammad:

“And certainly thy Lord shall give unto thee, and thou shalt be satisfied.” (93:5)

As one scholar said in joy after contemplating this verse:

قرأنا في الضحى ولسوف يعطي * فسرّ قلوبنا ذاك العطاء

وحاشا يا رسول الله ترضى * وفينا من يعذب أو يساء

We read in Surat al-Doha “thy Lord shall give unto thee”

and this giving has brought pleasure to our hearts

And God forbid, oh Rasool Allah, that you would be satisfied

when amongst us are those who are being hurt or tortured. [1]

The great Qur’an commentator and Hadith expert, shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi, wrote in his commentary on this verse:

“It is said that this is the most hope-giving aya in the Qur’an, and so said the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, (for) he said: “I will not be satisfied when someone from my ummah is in the Fire.” And it is known that the speech of the Prophet is  truthful, and that it is impossible for what he says to not be as he said, and so is the speech of Allah Most High.

And what this means in the end, is that Allah Most High will not be satisfied unless the entire Ummah is out (of the Fire), and his satisfaction is something that will happen without doubt. If you want to show this outcome by rational proof and logical reasoning, it is  thus: (1) The ummah coming out of the Fire satisfies the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and (2) the satisfaction of the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam will happen without doubt…

The proof of the first is his saying, salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam: “I will not be satisfied…”

And the proof of the second is His saying Most High, “and thou shalt be satisfied.”

The outcome of this: Is that the entire ummah will come out of the Fire, without doubt.  [2]
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[1] Muhammad bin Alawi al-Maliki,  Al-Dhakha’er al-Muhammadiyya, Cairo: Dar Jawaami al-Kalim.

[2] Ahmad ibn Idris,  Al-Fuyoodat al-Rabbaniyya, Cairo: Dar Jawaami al-Kalim.

Location: Courtyard of the noble Masjid al-Azhar

Left: Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari (d. 1979): Qutb of his time, Imam and teacher at the Azhar Mosque. Spiritual teacher of a whole generation of great ulama from all over the world. He lived for 50  years inside the Azhar Mosque, only leaving it for Hajj, Umra, and visits to the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam and the Ahlul Bayt, so that he became equated with the Azhar itself. Loved by all, his Friday lessons were among the greatest and most popular in the history of the Azhar, filling the Mosque’s courtyard with people from all walks of life and all strata of society, so that his teachings became a beacon of light and a fortress for Islam at a time when Communist ideology was deeply entrenched in Egyptian  society. He was a descendant of Jaafar bin Muhammad (al-Sadiq), descendant of sayyidna al-Husayn. To read more  about him (in Arabic): www.algaafary.com/ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=27

Right: Shaykh Abd al-Halim Mahmoud (d. 1978): After becoming the Grand Imam (Al-Imam al-Akbar) and Shaykh of the Azhar, Shaykh Abd al-Halim Mahmoud is credited with restoring to the Azhar its glory, dignity, and respect in the eyes of Muslims all over the world, after it had been stripped of its authority and power because of political reasons. Thought of as the “leader in sincerity”, his tireless efforts in da’wa made him the pioneer of Islamic thought in the modern age. He also became known as the “Father of Tasawwuf of the modern age” and the “Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili of the 20th Century.” To read more about him (in Arabic): www.jabhaonline.org/viewpage.php?Id=772

In the words of Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari:

وكم من عابد يمشي * مع الأقطاب والخضر

And how many are the worshipers  that walk * with the Qutbs and with Al-Khadir.

 The next generation:

Left: Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Jaafari (may Allah preserve him in good health): Son of shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari and shaykh of the Tariqa Jaafariyya Ahmadiyya Muhammadiyya, which has become the paragon and exemplar for Sufi orders in Egypt and abroad, stressing and practicing love of the Messenger of Allah salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam and close following (mutaba’a) of his sunna.

Right: Shaykh Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki (d. 2004):  Known as “The Scholar of the Hijaz” and “The Hadith Scholar of the Two Sanctuaries (Mecca and Medina)”. He came from a line of great ulama who have taught in the Sacred Mosque of Mecca for centuries. He obtained his PhD at the Azhar where his father Al-Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki, who was one of the greatest ulama of Mecca of his time, had told him to seek “the Meezan al-Ulama Shaykh Saleh al-Jaafari”. His books are treasured by Muslims in all corners of the world.

The Messenger of Allah salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam said that Allah Transcendent said,

“Fasting is Mine and I reward it”.

In the great Arabic dictionary Lisan al-Arab, when explaining the root word j-z-y (from which comes the word for “reward”), the great scholar Ibn Mandhur mentions this hadith qudsi and lists many different explanations of the hadith, including different explanations of the first half, “Fasting is Mine.”

He says that the best one is this:

“That ‘Fasting is Mine’ means that fasting is one of the characteristics or attributes of Allah, because He Transcendent does not eat, and so the faster is characterized by one of the characteristics (sifaat) of our Lord, and that does not happen in any of the works of the limbs (jawarih) except in fasting, while there are many among the works of the heart, such as Knowing, and Willing.”

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The great hadith scholar and Qur’an commentator,  Shaykh Ahmad ibn Idris al-Fasi, explains it and the rest of the phrase, saying:

“Fasting is Mine and I reward it”: Meaning that fasting is one of My characteristics, as He Most High said, “And He feeds and is not fed.”  And there is a hadith that says “Adopt the qualities of Allah”. So He Most High and Transcendent has ordered His slaves to adopt this characteristic, which is to not eat, for a specified period of time. Thus His saying “Fasting is Mine” means: It is in Truth- in Reality- Mine, because I feed and am not fed.

“And I reward it” means: I am its reward. Because he has adopted one of My qualities, so I made his reward: Looking at Me, and so I am his reward. For a man said to the Prophet salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam, “Give me advice”, and so he said to him: “Fast, for it is something that has no equal.”

If the explanation of this hadith  was not as such, it would have no meaning- high and exalted is Allah above saying something that has no meaning! For if we took the hadith according to its apparent meaning, fasting would be like all other actions, because all actions are done for the sake of Allah, and He Most High and Transcendent gives their reward.

—–

Sources:

Ibn Mandhur, Lisan al-Arab.

Ahmad ibn Idris, al-Iqd al-Nafees, Cairo: Dar Jawaami’ al-Kalim.