Innovation & Adaptation
Altway
Some of your articles, particularly those that recommend Economic, Political
and Cultural reforms in Islam seem very much like innovations which are
forbidden in Islam.
Answer:-
You have confused adaptation with innovation.
Innovation refers to what has been introduced into Islam that is
incompatible with its principles, something from sources that Islam came to
rectify or something that arises from speculation rather than through
understanding of the Quran. The Quran is "guidance" not a straight jacket
and Muslims are asked to seek knowledge. On the other hand Adaptation and
application is something that Muslims are required to do by application of
their God-given intelligence. Adaptation is possible because general
principles can cover numerous particular cases. The change in conditions
simply means that a set of particular circumstances gives way gradually to
another set of particular circumstances.
However, one has to be careful - Religion came to transform man and his
circumstances. It is, therefore, a contradiction of Religion if changed
circumstances lead to changes in religion. A distinction has to be made
between Religion and the conditions of life as there is between the inner
psychology of man and his outer environment and between values and facts.
This distinction is made in Islam between the Quran and the Hadith and the
sayings of the Prophet as to the distinction between what was revealed or
inspired in him and what came from his own ordinary mind.
The fact is that the Quran does not describe an Economic or Political or
Cultural System and it is not a text book on Economics, Politics, Science,
Technology, Ethics or Art, though it deals with all these subjects in a
unified manner. It is a book on Religion that attempts to stimulate
consciousness, conscience and will and deals with the general principles on
which a Mental Attitude towards existence and a Way of Life adapted to
Reality (Allah) can be constructed.
The second fact about Islam is that the Prophet Muhammad did create a Nation
and a government by adapting the principles of the Quran to the conditions
that he found himself in. And that is also what Muslim leaders should be
doing now.
The third fact about Islam is that Muslims have been conditioned by
traditions created by the past rulers and their supporters in Islam that
came after the "Four Righteous Caliphs" who caused increasing amounts of
corruption in Islam. It is they who caused the erosion in the understanding
and application of Islam through deliberate selectivity and
misinterpretation to serve their self-interest and introduction of
innovations. And it is these sources of obscurity that require to be
removed.
Unfortunately, as predicted by the Prophet himself we are living in times
when Muslims in general with the exception of a minority exist in a general
state of ignorance and degeneration. However, this appears to be inevitable
before a revival can take place. People tend to get mentally conditioned
when a tradition is created which leads to unconsciousness and unintelligent
rigidity while external conditions keep changing. This results in increasing
tensions and suffering. It is this suffering that leads to awakening in
different people in inverse proportion to their conditioning and in direct
proportion to their capacity for awareness.
It cannot be denied that there are a great number of ideas and practices
among Muslims that have no justification in the Quran or the Hadith. Among
these are the Burqa and female circumcision. As the Quran says:-
"When it is said to them: Follow what Allah has revealed, they say: Nay, we
will follow the way of our fathers. What! Even though their fathers had no
sense (or wisdom) at all or guidance?" 2:170
How is Righteousness described in the Quran:-
"Righteousness is not that you turn your faces towards the East or the West,
but it is righteousness to believe in Allah, and the Last Day, and the
Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers, and to spend of your wealth for
love of Him, for your kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer,
for those who ask, and to ransom those in captivity; and to be steadfast in
prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the covenant (contracts)
which you have made; and to be firm in patience in times of pain (poverty
and deprivation), and adversity, and in periods of panic (or violence);
these are the people who are true, and these are those who are
Allah-fearing." 2:177
Adaptation to changing circumstances can also be seen in the following
verses:-
"Whatever verse We may annul or cause you to forget, We will bring a better
one than it, or one like it; do you not know that Allah has power over all?"
2:106
"Do not they see how many a generation We have destroyed before them, whom
We had established more firmly than you, and sent them abundant rain from
heaven, and made the rivers flow beneath them? Yet We destroyed them for
their sins, and raised up other generations after them." 6:6
"Have they not travelled through the land? And have they not heart wherewith
to feel (understand), and ears wherewith to hear? For, indeed, it is not
their eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts which are within their
breasts that grow blind." 22:46 and see also 35:44, 40:21
"But if you turn your backs, then I have conveyed to you that wherewith I
was sent to you; and my Lord will replace you with another people. You
cannot harm (frustrate) Him at all; verily, my Lord is Guardian over all
things!" 11:57 and see also 14:19
"We, even We created them and made firm their frame, and when We will We
will replace them, bringing others like them in their stead. Surely this is
an admonition; whoever will, let him take a straight path to his Lord."
76:28-29
It should be noted that the ban on innovation is not a teaching in the Quran
but derives from a misunderstanding of saying of the Prophet. He is reported
to have said:-
"To proceed: the best discourse is Allah's Book, the best guidance is that
given by Muhammad, and worst things are those which are novelties. Every
innovation is error."
But this may be countered with:-
"If anyone establishes a good sunna in Islam he will have a reward for it
and the equivalent of the reward of those who act upon it after him without
theirs diminishing in any respect. But he who establishes a bad sunna in
Islam will bear the responsibility of it and the responsibility of those who
act upon it after him without theirs being diminished in any respect."
.. "Knowledge in the heart is the beneficial type; and knowledge on the
tongue is God's allegation against human beings."
This apparent contradiction is resolved if we keep the distinction between
spiritual truths and temporal changes in mind. Consider also the following:-
"Blessed is He Who has revealed unto His servants the Criterion, that he may
be a Warner to the people." 25:1
"Say: O people of the Scripture! Stress not in your religion other than the
truth and follow not the vain desires of folk who erred of old and led many
astray, and erred from a plain road." 5:77
"My Lord! Grant me wisdom and unite me to the righteous..." 26:83
"Who hear advice and follow the best thereof. Such are those whom Allah
guides, and such are men of understanding." 39:18
"Indeed We have made the verses distinct for a people who will utilize their
understanding." (6:98)
"We have made the revelations clear to you, if you will use your reason."
(3:118)
"And follow (or pursue) not that of which thou hast no knowledge; verily,
the hearing, the sight, and the heart, of all of these it shall be asked (to
give an account)." 17:36
"And unto thee (Muhammad) have We revealed the Book in truth, verifying what
was before it, and preserving it; judge then between them by what Allah has
revealed, and follow not their lusts, turning away from what is given to
thee of the truth." 5:48
"Wherefore judge thou between them by what Allah has revealed, and follow
not their lusts; but beware lest they mislead thee from part of what Allah
has revealed to thee." 5:49
Consider also the following reported words of the Prophet:-
"Disputation about the Quran is infidelity. It was just on this account that
your predecessors perished: They set part of God's Book against others,
whereas God's Book was sent down only to be consistent; so do not use parts
to falsify others. Speak about as much of it as you know, but where you are
ignorant entrust it to him who knows."
"If anyone interprets the Quran in the light of his own opinion and is
right, he has erred."
"The search for knowledge is an obligation laid on every Muslim, but he who
commits it to those who are unworthy of it is like one who puts necklaces of
jewels, pearls and gold on swine."
"If anyone seeks knowledge to use it in vying with the learned, or disputing
with the foolish, or to attract attention to himself, God will bring him
into Hell.......If anyone acquires knowledge of things by which God's good
pleasure is sought, but acquires it only to get some worldly advantage, he
will not experience the odour of paradise on the day of resurrection."
"Knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which
nothing is expended in God's path."
"In every successive century those who are reliable authorities will
preserve this knowledge, rejecting the changes made by extremists, the
plagiarisms of those who make false claims for themselves, and the
interpretations of the ignorant."
Hamid S. Aziz