The Shariah and Its Application

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fter going through some articles on dawah by this author on the internet, one reader sent his strong reaction by e-mail. He rejected the point of view expressed in a hard-hitting manner. By citing certain instances from the article, he wrote that the point of view advocated by the author was quite contradictory to the Quran. The following is a part of what that he had to say:

Maulana Wahiduddin says: Muslims should exercise patience against atrocities committed by other nations and engage themselves in da’wah work. Whereas in the Quran, in sharp contrast to this point of view, God Almighty says:

And fight them until there is no more fitnah, and religion becomes Allah’s, in its entirety (8:39)

Then, whom we are to pay heed to, Allah or Maulana Wahiduddin?

This appears to be quite damning. But in reality, it is a total misapprehension. The error can be made plain if we may suppose for a while that if a complete Quran had been in people’s possession in Makkah, as it is in the possession of the person mentioned above, there might have arisen the same confusion in Makkah.

We find from traditions that in the early phase of Islam in Makkah, when the Makkan pagans had begun their cruel persecution of the Muslims, certain of the faithful, reacting to this grievous injustice, asked the Prophet’s permission to do battle with their persecutors. But the Prophet went on exhorting them to exercise patience, saying: “I have been commanded only to perform da’wah, communication of the message of God. I have not been given permission to do battle.” If the complete Quran in bound form had existed at that time, someone might have stood up and said: “See, Muhammad is asking us to exercise patience, while in the Quran God asks us to do battle with our opponents.” But no such thing took place in Makkah, for the simple reason that people did not possess the complete Quran as they do today.

This example shows wherein, those who raise such objections, have gone wrong. The actual error lies in their taking something out of context by misquoting the verses of the Quran. At a time when Muslims are in the stage of dawah and as such are might have required to perform their da’wah responsibilities by exercising patience, they have been mistakenly referring to the verses revealed to discharge the responsibilities at the stage of defense. In this way they have fallen into the error of wrong application of the verses. They are citing the verses applicable to such circumstances as prevailed in Madinah, while they find themselves in the situation that prevailed in Makkah.

History shows that the Prophet of Islam and his companions were faced with all the problems and hardships in Makkah, as the Muslims of modern times have allegedly been, facing. Yet when the Prophet of Islam asked his companions to follow the path of patience and avoidance, no one stood up to question why they must exercise patience, when the Quran enjoins them to do battle, simply because the complete Quran was not available. The truth is that the Quran was not revealed all at once in the form of a bound book, the one we have in our possession today. The Quran was revealed on different occasions over a period of 23 years, but in installments. Only those commands were revealed to the Prophet as were required by the circumstances. For instance, in the initial stage, the Prophet was given the command to perform dawah by observing patience (74:2-7). Later on, as circumstances warranted, the command to migrate was revealed (16:41). Subsequently, when circumstances further changed, the command to do battle was revealed (2:190), etc.

This shows that in the initial stage of Islam when the Quran was being revealed, the order of revelation tallied with the order of events. For this reason, people did not find any difficulty in understanding their role as soon as a command was revealed. But afterwards, all the verses revealed over a period of 23 years, relating to different sets of circumstances, were collected together in the form of a bound volume. It is this complete book which has remained in the hands of later Muslim generations till today.

By the very law of nature, circumstances keep changing, and this fact must be borne in mind that the divine book we possess comprised of revelations made at different times and collected together in the form of the Quran. These scriptures contain various commands, injunctions pertaining to all kinds of situations—all collected together in one book. Then how are Muslims of later times supposed to receive guidance from the Quran?

The answer is that the study of Quranic verses should be done in the light of the causes of revelation (asbabal-nuzul). That is, first of all, those in search of guidance should determine objectively the state of affairs in a given situation, then strive to find the verse or verses revealed in a similar situation in the first phase of Islam. And when that injunction is found, it should be applied to the present situation. That is, the purpose served by the immediate revelation in the first phase, will now be served by pinpointing similarity between the past and the present situations.

For a better understanding of this, one should take into account the four different stages of the period of prophethood of the Prophet of Islam:

(a) The first half of the Makkan period;

(b) The second half of the Makkan period;

(c) The first half of the Madinan period;

(d) The second half of the Madinan period.

Basically, these four periods keep repeating themselves throughout human history. By studying the Quran in depth, the parallels to present-day circumstances can easily be discovered: it is very necessary if guidance is to be received from the Quran in later periods of history.

As mentioned above, the Quran which exists with us today in its complete form was not available to the Muslims during the lifetime of the Prophet. Instead it was revealed in parts (installments). At that time only those passages of the Quran were revealed which were relevant to the circumstances, that is, whatever command was required pertaining to the actual situation only that was given to the believers. This way the believers had no problem in understanding their tasks and subsequently devoted themselves to performing them without any questioning.

For instance, when circumstances required full attention to be paid to the task of da’wah, this verse was revealed: