Rasheed Gonzales

Please forgive me for this long introduction, but I wanted to mention how I came across this article.

Just the other day, I read an article that Dr. Marranci recently posted on his blog titled From the Taliban to the Taliban: the case of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh. In replying to a comment posted by “neoneo” in the comments section, Dr. Marranci referred him to a book titled Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity by an anthropologist named Talal Asad (looks to be an interesting book, by the way). I decided to do a bit of searching on the author, who I’ve never heard of before, and found his biography on Wikipedia.

Anyhow, after skimming through the biography (which mentioned some pretty interesting things, I might add) I asked a friend of mine who knows a bit about Western academic personalities if he’s ever heard of Asad, to which he answered no. As we were talking though, I mentioned some of the names mentioned in the “Interlocutors” section of his Wikipedia biography and came across the name Charles Taylor. This was a name that my friend was familiar with. Charles Taylor is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal who was Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University for many years. My friend mentioned that one of his Islamic Studies professors at uni told his class of a book that Taylor had written in which he argues against the common perception that religions are the cause of all violence in the world.

I did a bit of searching on the net for info about this book and found the following article and audio lecture. Both are pretty interesting and I thought I’d share them both with you here.

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I received the following email from brother Navaid Aziz. Some brothers here in the West had asked him for help in formulating a methodology for learning Islamic knowledge on their own. He encouraged those who received the email to forward it or post it to the various Islamic messageboard sites. I thought I’d post it here for those of you who visit my blog. Feel free to spread it to whoever you feel will benefit. I’ve edited it slightly (mostly spelling and translating some Arabic phrases into English), so if it differs from other copies you might receive, that’s why.

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For those of you in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), as previously announced,

Shaikh Khâlid al-’Anbarî is coming!!!

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Faith is Two Faiths[1]

§         A faith that saves from perpetuity, i.e., that faith in which its companion came with the root of faith, but squandered its branch. And with this faith i.e., faith’s root, the monotheists will exit from the Fire. Ibn Rajab, may Allah have mercy on him, said, “[It is] known that certainly Paradise’s entry is deserved through the attestation with the heart along with the tongue’s testimony, and by them both, whoever will exit from the People of the Fire will exit and enter Paradise.”[2]

§         And a faith that saves from entry i.e., the Fire’s entry, i.e., the faith in which its companion came with faith’s root and its branch. So he came with the attestation and the confirmation, and he complied with what he was commanded with and avoided what he was prohibited from. ‘Allâmah[3] Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah—exalted is He—have mercy on him, said,

And the verse, with Allah’s praise, contains no vagueness.[4] Allah, glorified is He, mentioned the reward of whoever intended the wordly life and its adornment by his deed i.e., the Fire, and He informed of his deed’s futility and invalidity. So if what saves him is futile and invalid, nothing remains with him of what saves him. And if a faith by which he did not desire the wordly [life] and its adornment were with him, rather, he intended Allah and the Final Abode by it, this faith is not included in the deed that is futile and invalid, and his faith will save him from perpetuity in the Fire, even if he entered it by the futility of his deed through which is the absolute salvation.

And faith is two faiths: a faith that prevents the Fire’s entry, i.e., the faith [that] motivates that the deeds be for Allah, by which one seeks His face and His reward; and a faith that prevents from perpetuity in the Fire, even if something from it is with the hypocrite, otherise he would be from the People of Perpetuity.[5]

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Faith is Not a Single Reality or a Single Thing (PDF), by Shaikh Dr. Ahmad bin Sâlih az-Zahrânî.

From the article:

This understanding is of considerable importance, I mean faith’s being numerous branches and not a single reality. For surely, this expression (i.e., that it and what it includes is a single reality) is the understanding of the People of Heresies from the Khawârij and the Murji’ah, to an equal extent since they believe that faith is a single thing and a single reality. If some of it ceases, all of it ceases. The Khawârij made this a rule and passed the judgement of the larger disbelief on the companion of the greater sin, whether it was doing a forbidden act or leaving a [religious] duty. They said because it is a part of faith and faith is a single reality, if something from it ceases from the servant, all of it ceases and does not remain. Thus, if the perpetrator of the greater sin died persisting upon it, he becomes a disbelieve residing in the fire of Hell [forever], because he has no faith with him.

Source: az-Zahrânî, Ahmad bin Sâlih. Sharh Alfâdh as-Salaf wa Naqd Alfâdh al-Khalaf fî Haqîqah al-Îmân. Abu Dhabi, UAE: Dâr al-Imam Mâlik, 2005. pgs.77-81.

QSSC has just announced that Shaikh Khâlid al-’Anbarî will be coming to Toronto, and the praise is Allah’s. He’s gotten his visa and will be arriving on Thursday, February 7, 2008, if Allah wills. He will be staying through till February 19th, 2008 giving lectures at the QSSC centre as well as various other mosques around the GTA. More details to follow, if Allah wills, so stay tuned, folks!