بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

اَلْحَمْدُ لِلّٰهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَ الصَّلاَةُ وَ السَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَ عَلَى آلِهِ وَ صَحْبِهِ اَجْمَعِينَ

BID’AH-INNOVATION - 2

Contents:

1: The basis of the people of bid’ah’s corruption

2: The bid’ahs of this time

 

The basis of the people of bid’ah’s corruption

Bediüzzaman summarizes the basis of the movement of corruption used by the currents of bid’ah as follows:

“I myself have frequently observed that people of corruption, who form ten per cent, defeat the people of righteousness, who form ninety per cent. I used to be astonished and curious. Investigating, I understood certainly that their victory results not from power, qoudrah but from corruption, baseness, destruction, taking advantage of disagreement among the people of haqq, sowing conflict among them, from playing on their weak veins and grafting them, and exciting the feelings of the nafs and personal hatred, and through working the evil capacities in human nature which are like mines of corruption, and through hypocritically flattering the nafs' tyranny in the name of fame and glory, and through everyone fearing their merciless destruction. Through shaytanic machinations like these, they temporarily triumph over the people of haqq. But in accordance with the mystery of the âyah, وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ1 and the rule,اَلْحَقُّ يَعْلُو وَلاَ يُعْلَى عَلَيْه 2 in addition to its not yielding any significant benefit for them, their temporary triumph is the means of earning Jahannam for themselves and Jannah for the people of haqq.3 ” The Flashes (121-122 )

 

The bid’ahs of this time

They also wrote, "One is guilty of irtijâ’ who says that reforms, such as the closure of the takkas4, zaviyes5 and the madrasas, the acceptance of secularism, the establishment of nationalist principles instead of Islam, the wearing of the hat, the abolishment of tasattur, the enforced use of the Latin alphabet in place of the Qur'anic alphabet, the adhan and iqâmah being recited in Turkish, the abolishment of religious instructions in schools, granting women the same inheritance and rights as men and the abolishment of polygamy are bid’ah, dhalâlah and ilhad.”

O unfair committee! If it is possible to deny numerous explicit âyahs of the Qur'an of Miraculous Exposition — the sacred samâwi guide of three hundred and fifty million people in every century, the programme of all their happiness and the sacred treasury of the life of the world and the âkhirah — that do not bear interpretation and are revealed about the tasattur, inheritance, polygamy, dhikr of Allah, instruction and dissemination of ‘ilm about the religion and the preservation of the shaâ’er, and if it is possible to make all mujtahids of Islam and all Shaykhs al-Islam guilty, and if you can abolish and remove the passage of time, the numerous court acquittals, the legal pardons, confidentiality and privacy, the freedom of conscience, the freedom of thought and intellectual and scholarly opposition from this country and governments, you can make me guilty of these things. Otherwise, in the court of haqiqah, haqq and justice, you will be terribly guilty!

 The Fourteenth Ray/Short indications of some of the errors in the indictment

 

The bid’ah of the establishment of nationalist principles instead of Islam

Thus, with its philosophy, present civilisation accepts 'force' as the point of support in the life of society. It considers its aim to be 'benefit', the principle of its life to be 'conflict' and the bond between communities to be 'racialism and negative nationalism'. Its aim is some 'trifling amusements' for satisfying the desires of the nafs and increasing man's needs. But the necessary consequence of force is transgression. Since the benefit is not sufficient for the desires of all, the necessary consequence of it is to throttle one another on it. The necessary consequence of the principle of conflict is collision. Since racialism is being nourished by devouring others, the necessary consequence of it is transgression. Thus, it is because of these principles of civilisation that, despite all its goodness, it has provided a sort of superficial happiness for only twenty per cent of mankind and cast eighty per cent into discomfort and poverty.

As for the hikmah of the Qur'an, it accepts 'haqq' as its point of support in place of 'force'. It accepts 'fadhîlah and the pleasure and acceptance of Allah' as the aim instead of the benefit. Instead of the principle of conflict, it holds 'the principle of mutual assistance' as the basis of life. Instead of racialism and nationalism, it accepts 'the bonds of religion, class and country' as the bonds of communities. Its aims are to urge the rûh to sublime matters and to satisfy its elevated feelings by building a barrier against the transgressions of the desires of the nafs that are prohibited by the Sharî’ah, and to make the man a human being by urging him to the perfections of humanity. However, the necessary consequence of the haqq is union. The necessary consequence of fadhîlah is solidarity. The necessary consequence of the principle of mutual assistance is hastening each other’s aid. The necessary consequence of religion is brotherhood and attraction. The necessary consequence of leaving the rûh free by tethering and reining in the nafs al-ammarah and whipping up the rûh towards the perfections is happiness in both realms.

Here, despite the virtues that present civilisation has received from the previous samâwî religions, in particular, the Qur'an’s guidance, it has thus been defeated before the Qur'an in the view of haqiqah.

The 25th Word-Second Radiance

 

“The idea of nationalism has greatly advanced this century. The cunning European dhâlims, in particular, awaken this among Muslims in a negative fashion, so that they may divide them and devour them.

Furthermore, in nationalism is a thrill of the nafs, a pleasure of ghaflah, an inauspicious power. For this reason, those occupied with social life at this time cannot be told to give up the idea of nationalism. However, nationalism is of two kinds. One is negative, inauspicious, and harmful; it is nourished by devouring others, persists through hostility to others, and is aware of what it is doing. It is the cause of enmity and disturbance. It is because of this that the Hadith states: اْلاِسْلاَمِيَّةُ جَبَّتِ الْعَصَبِيَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةَ6 And the Qur'an decrees:

اِذْ جَعَلَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا فِى قُلُوبِهِمُ الْحَمِيَّةَ حَمِيَّةَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ فَاَنْزَلَ اللّٰهُ سَكِينَتَهُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ وَعَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَاَلْزَمَهُمْ كَلِمَةَ التَّقْوَى وَكَانُوا اَحَقَّ بِهَا وَاَهْلَهَا وَكَانَ اللّٰهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمًا7

This noble Hadith and âyah reject in definite terms any negative nationalism and racialism. For positive, sacred Islamic nationhood leave no need for them.

What race is there that has three hundred and fifty million members? And which racialism can gain for those who subscribe to it so many brothers -and eternal brothers- in place of Islam? Negative nationalism has caused untold harm in history….

…As for the present, when the nations and tribes of Islam are most in need of one another, and each is more oppressed and more poverty-stricken than the others, and they are crushed beneath foreigner domination, to regard one another as strangers due to the idea of nationalism and to consider one another to be enemies, is such a calamity that it cannot be described. It is quite simply a lunacy like turning one's back on dreadful serpents so as not to be bitten by a mosquito and struggling with the mosquito-due to the idea of nationalism-to attach no importance to the Europe, which are like huge dragons, at a time when with their insatiable greed their claws are open, indeed, to help them in a ma’nawî manner and to nurture enmity against fellow-citizens in the Eastern Provinces or brother Muslims to the South, and to take up positions opposed to them, is extremely detrimental and dangerous. In any event, there are no enemies among those to the South so that they should be confronted. What comes from the South is the nûr of the Qur'an; the light of Islam came from there; it is present among us, and is found everywhere.

Thus, to be hostile towards those fellow Muslims is indirectly harmful to Islam and the Qur'an. And hostility towards Islam and the Qur'an is the hostility of a sort towards the lives in this world and in the âkhirah of all those fellow-citizens. To think one can serve their social life in the name of patriotism while destroying the foundations of their two lives is not patriotism but stupidity!” The Letters (380-381 )

 

“The destructive ahl al-bid’ah are of two kinds:

The First Kind, as though on account of religion and in the name of loyalty to Islam, as though to strengthen religion with nationalism, says "We want to plant the luminous tree of religion, which has weak, in the earth nationalism, and so to strengthen it." They show themselves as supporting religion.

The Second Sort, in the name of the nation and on account of nationalism, in order to strengthen racialism, says "We want to graft Islam onto the nation," thus creating bid’ahs.

To the First Sort, we say “O unhappy ' ‘ulamâ as-sû’ ' who confirm the title 'loyal fools,' or majdhûb, unthinking, ignorant Sufis! The Tuba-tree of Islam, whose roots are founded in the haqiqah of the universe and branches spread throughout the haqiqah of the universe, cannot be planted in the earth of imaginary, temporary, partial, particular, negative, indeed, baseless, rancorous, tyrannical and dark racialism! To try to do so is to attempt something foolish, destructive and bid’ah.”

To the Second Sort of nationalists, we say this “O you drunken pseudo-patriots! Perhaps the previous century could have been the age of nationalism. This century is not the age of racialism! Communism and socialism occupy all matters, destroying the idea of racialism. The age of racialism is passing. Eternal and permanent Islamic nationalism cannot be bound onto temporarily unstable racialism and grafted onto it. And even if it is grafted,  it will not only corrupt the Islamic nation, but it can also not reform racialist nationalism. Yes, there appears to be a pleasure and temporary strength in a temporary graft, but it is very temporary and the consequence is dangerous.” The Letters (512-513 )

 

“In accordance with which principle is it to propose through a corrupt and bid’ah fatwa, "performing the iqâmah in Turkish," in a way completely contrary to Turkish nationalism, which is sincerely religious and sincerely respectful towards religion and has since early times blended and united with Islam, in the name of Turkism, which has the meaning of Europeanism, to those like me who belong to another nation? Yes, although I have friendly and brotherly relations with true Turks, I have in no respect any relation with the Turkism of imitators of Europe like you. How can you propose such a thing to me? Through which law? Perhaps, if you abolish the nationhood of the Kurds, of whom there are millions and who for thousands of years have not forgotten their nationhood and language, and are the true fellow-citizens and companions in jihâd of the Turks, and make them forget their language, then perhaps your proposal to those like me who are reckoned to be of a different race would be in accordance with some sort of savage principle. Otherwise, it is purely arbitrary. The arbitrary whims of individuals may not be followed, and we do not follow them!” The Letters (503-504 )

 

 

The bid’ahs of absolute equality, recognition of equal rights for women and inheritance and the abolition of polygamy

“It is said by ahl ad-dunyâ that: "Why have you become offended at us? You have kept silent and not once have you applied to us. You complain about us bitterly and say “you are oppressing me!”. Whereas we have a principle. We have our particular rules, as demanded by this age. You are not accepting these to be applied to you. Those implementing the law cannot be deemed as dhâlim.  One who does not accept the law is rebellious. For instance, in this age of freedom and new republican era which we have inaugurated, one of the rules of our legal foundation is to abolish oppression and ban the subjugation of others based on equality. Yet, it is understood from your apparent behaviour and your adventurous life in your earlier years, that whether by assuming the position of hoja or of being an ascetic, you try to draw the public gaze on yourself and attract attention, so to secure a power and social position outside the government's influence. This behaviour may have won favour within the despotic subjugation of –what is today called- the bourgeoisie. But since our principles of absolute socialism and bolshevism, which have emerged with the rising awareness and ascendancy of the common people, are more conformable with our interests, we have accepted them. Your position in spite of this is disagreeable to us; it opposes our principles. It is for this reason that you do not have the right to be offended and complain about the distress we cause you."

The Answer: If one who starts a movement in human social life does not act in conformity with the fitrah laws in the universe, he cannot be successful in beneficial and progressive works. All his actions become on account of sharr and destruction. Since there is an obligation to comply with the fitrah laws; surely, absolute equality can only be applied by changing human fitrah and removing the fundamental hikmah in mankind's creation. Yes, in terms of lineage and lifestyle, I am from the common class. I am one of those who by the method and intellectually have accepted the way of 'equality of rights.' Through compassion and the mystery of justice, which originates from Islam, I have always opposed and have been actively working against the despotism and oppression of the elite class called the bourgeoisie. For this reason, I work with all my strength in favour of absolute justice and struggle against dhulm, subjugation, oppression and despotism.

However, human fitrah and the mystery of its hikmah are contrary to the law of absolute equality. Because, in order to demonstrate His perfect qoudrah and hikmah, just as Al-Fâtir Who is Hakîm produces many crops from a few things, and writes many books on a single page, and causes many duties to be performed by a single thing; and in the same way, He causes the duties of thousands of species to be carried out by humankind.

It is due to this great mystery that Janâb-i Haqq has created humankind with a fitrah that would produce the shoots of thousands of species and display the levels of the thousands of other species of animals. No limit was placed on man's powers, subtle faculties, and senses like the other animals. They have been left unrestricted and have been given such a capacity to journey through endless ranks while being one species, mankind became like thousands of species. And for this reason, man is considered as the khalîfah on earth, the result of the universe, and sultan of all living beings.

Thus, the most important leaven and mechanism for the varying of degrees in humankind is the true fadhîlah arising from îmân, which is achieved through competition. Removing the fadhîlah can only be done so by corrupting the nature of humanity, by extinguishing the mind (aql), killing the heart (qalb), and destroying the rûh. Yes, while this age, which harbours an awesome tyranny beneath the veil of freedom, deserves to be struck in the face with it; the following mature words were said to a most important person, who did not deserve to be struck and who had them unfairly brandished in his face:

How impossible it is, to destroy freedom with dhulm and injustice;

If you are strong enough, work to remove perception from humankind.

In place of these words, I will say the following to strike the face of this age:

How impossible it is, to destroy haqiqah with dhulm and injustice;

If you are strong enough, work to remove the heart from humankind.

Or I will say,

How impossible it is, to destroy fadhîlah with dhulm and injustice;

If you are strong enough, work to remove the conscience from humankind.

Yes, just as the fadhîlah arising from îmân cannot become a means of oppression, neither can it be the cause of tyranny. Oppression and tyranny is the absence of fadhîlah. And the most important path for the people of fadhîlah, in particular, is to interfere in human social life with impotence, poverty, and humility.”  The Flashes ( 225-227 )

 

Civilisation does not accept polygamy. It considers the Qur'an's decree to be contrary to itself and opposed to mankind's benefits and hikmah. Yes, if the hikmah of marriage were only to satisfy lust, there should be polygamy. But as is testified to by all animals and corroborated by plants that marry, the hikmah and aim of marriage is reproduction. The pleasure of satisfying lust is a small wage given by rahmah to encourage the fulfilment of the duty. Since, according to haqiqah and hikmah, marriage is for generation and the perpetuation of the species, and since a woman, who can give birth only once a year, can be impregnated only half of the month and after the age of fifty falls into despair, is mostly insufficient for a man, who can mostly impregnate till a hundred years old, civilisation has been compelled to accept numerous houses of promiscuousness.

Third Principle: Unreasoning civilisation criticises the âyah because, in inheritance, the Qur'an apportions to women one-third. However, most of the laws concerning social life are according to the majority, and a woman mostly finds someone to protect her. As for the man, he is compelled to have a partnership with someone whose sustenance will be carried by him and who will be a burden on him. Thus, in this way, if a woman takes half of her brother’s from her father's legacy, her husband assures her of her shortfall. If the man receives two parts from his father, he will give one part of it to provide for the livelihood of the woman he has married; he becomes equal with his sister. Here, the justice of the Qur'an requires it to be thus; it has judged it in this way. {Note-1: This is a part of the defence I wrote to the Appeal Court that was against the court and silenced it. It became a note for this subject. “I say to the court of law: if there is any justice on the face of the earth, surely it will reject and demolish an unjust decision that has convicted a man who made the tafsir of a most sacred, right principle of Allah that has been in force in the social lives of three hundred and fifty million people in each century for one thousand three hundred and fifty years by relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following the beliefs of our forefathers for one thousand three hundred and fifty years.}

The Twenty-Fifth Word/1st Light/3rd Ray/2nd Principle

 

The bid’ah of banning of tasattur

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

يَا اَيُّهَا النَّبِىُّ قُلْ ِلاَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلاَبِيبِهِنَّ8

to the end thereof... This âyah orders the tasattur. As for the dissolute civilisation, it opposes this decree of the Qur'an. It does not consider the tasattur to be appropriate to fitrah; it says, “It is a slavery.” {Part of the defence that is written to the Appeal Court, which opposed the Court and silenced it: "I say to this court of law that if there is justice on the face of the earth, it will surely refute this unjust decision and overrule this judgement, which convicts a man who, through relying on the confirmation and consensus of three hundred and fifty thousand tafsirs and following our ancestors’ beliefs they had for one thousand three hundred and fifty years, has made the tafsir of the most sacred, true and right principle of Allah applied in the social life of three hundred and fifty million people, in every age, for one thousand three hundred and fifty years!..."}

The 24th Flash

 

The bid’ah of immodest pictures

Bediuzzaman describes one of the general destruction of the insidious current like this:

Just as the Qur'an severely prohibits the ‘ibâdah to idols, so does it forbid the ‘ibâdah to images, which is a sort of imitation of the ‘ibâdah to idols. Whereas, considering the images as one of its virtues, civilisation has wanted to dispute the Qur'an. But images, whether possessing shadow or not, are either dhulm transformed into stones, embodied riyâ, or embodied desires of the nafs. By whipping up the desires of the nafs, images encourage mankind to dhulm and riyâ and to follow the desires of the nafs. Moreover, in order to preserve the respect shown to them, the Qur'an compassionately commands women to wear the veil of hayâ so that those mines of compassion will not be crushed under the feet of the vile desires of the nafs nor be a worthless commodity that is an instrument satisfying lust. {Note-2: The Twenty-Fourth Flash of the Thirty-First Letter on the tasattur of the women has decisively proved that tasattur is appropriate for women’s fitrah and the abrogation of tasattur is contrary to fitrah.} As for civilisation, it has drawn women out of their homes, torn their veils and corrupted mankind, whereas family life can continue with the mutual love and respect of man and woman. But immodest dressing has destroyed sincere respect and love and poisoned family life. From the following, it can be understood that especially ‘ibâdah to images appallingly shakes morality and causes the degradation of rûh: just as looking lustfully and with desire at the corpse of a beautiful woman who is in need of pity and compassion destroys morality, so too does looking at the images of dead women or the images of living women, which are their little corpses, in a way that nurtures the desires of the nafs shake the elevated human feelings from their very roots and destroy them to that extent.

The Twenty-Fifth Word/3rd Ray/2nd Radiance/Fourth Principle

 

The bid’ah of women and men intermingling 

Disseminating immodest clothing and women and men intermingling in the social life destroys the ma’nawî life.

 

Women Left Their Homes and Led Mankind Astray, They Must Return To Their Homes

اِذَا تَاَنَّثَ الرِّجَالُ السُّفَهَاءُ بِالْهَوَسَاتِ ٭ اِذًا تَرَجَّلَ النِّسَاءُ النَّاشِزَاتُ بِالْوَقَاحَاتِ9

{*This is the basis of Risale on Tasattur. Twenty years later, a court of law that made that risale the cause of its author's conviction eternally shamed and convicted itself and its judges.}

Vile civilisation made womankind fly from their homes; it destroyed their blessedness and respect towards them and made them common goods.

As a rahmah, the Sharî’ah of Islam invites them to their real homes. It is there, they are respected; their comfort is in their homes, in family life.

Cleanliness is their adornment; goodness of character is their splendour; innocence is their grace and beauty; compassion is their perfection’s beauty; their children are their amusement.

Despite so many causes of corruption, she has to be as strong and firm as steel so that she can withstand them.

When a beautiful woman enters a gathering of brothers, riyâ, rivalry, envy and selfishness stir the veins. Sleeping desires of the nafs suddenly awaken.

Increased freedom of womankind has caused a sudden unfolding of bad morality in mankind.

Little corpses, the smiling deads, which are called images, have played a great role in the violent-tempered rûh of civilised mankind. {**Just as to look lustfully at a dead woman shows extreme despicability of nafs, in the same way, to look with carnal desires at a beautiful picture of a helpless female corpse needy of compassion extinguishes the elevated feelings of the rûh.}

The statues and images prohibited by the Sharî’ah are either dhulm transformed into stones, embodied riyâ, or frozen desires of the nafs. Or it is a talisman attracting those evil rûhs.

 The Words-Gleams

 

In the riwâyât, it was mentioned that "the fitnah of the âkhirzaman will be so terrible that no one will restrain his nafs." It is because of this that all ummah have sought refuge with Allah (isti‘âdha) from that fitnah for one thousand three hundred years, on the command of the Prophet (asm). مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الدَّجَّالِ وَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ آخِرِ الزَّمَانِ10 became the wird of the ummah after seeking refuge from the torments of the grave.

اللّٰه أعلم بالصواب11 , a ta’wîl of it is this: those fitnahs will attract the nafs of people to themselves and infatuate them. People will perpetrate them voluntarily, indeed, with pleasure.

For example, in Russia, men and women bathe naked together in public baths. And since, by fitrah, women have a strong inclination to show off their beauty, they willingly plunge themselves into that fitnah and are led astray. Men, too, who worship beauty in their fitrah, are defeated by their nafs and, with drunken joy, fall into the fire and are burned. By means of attraction, entertainment, kabâir and bid’ahs of that time, such as dance and the theatre, draw those who perform ‘ibâdah to their nafs around them, like moths, and daze them. But if this occurs through absolute compulsion, since the will is invalidated, it will not even be a sin.

The Fifth Ray-Sixth Matter

 

هَدَينَا اللّٰهُ وَ اِيَّاكُمْ اِلَى الصِّرَاطِ الْمُسْتَقِيمِ

سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا اِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا اِنَّكَ اَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الْحَكِيمُ