Alam as-Sagir: the small world, i.e., the human being.

Alam al-Kabir: the big world, i.e., the universe.

A human being should think about his sins and repent for them and think about his worships and thank for them. He should also ponder about extremely beautiful and delicate arts and systems and their relationships to each other on his own body as well as on other creatures in order to appreciate greatness of Allahu ta’ala. The totality of all creatures and other beings are called world (Alam).

[“Alam” consists of three parts, the world of bodies, the physical world or corporeal world (Alam al-ajsad), the world of spirits (Alam al-arwah), and the world between the spiritual and the physical worlds (Alam al-misal). “Alam al-misal” is not a world of existence. It is a world of appearance. Every existent in other two worlds has an appearance in “Alam al-misal.” The world of spirits (Alam al-arwah) are the things outside of the ninth heaven (Arsh). They are not made of material. They are also called the world of command (Alam al-amr). “Alam al-ajsad” is the world of material. This is also called “world of creation” (Alam al-halq). This is also made of two parts. Human being is called “Alam al-sagir.” Everything other than the human being is called “Alam al-Kabir.” Everything which exists in the “Alam al-kabir” has also a representation or likeness in human being (Alam al-sagir). Spiritual heart (Qalb) of human being is a door with openings to the world of spirits. This door is closed and destroyed in the hearts of disbelievers. For this reason, disbelievers are not aware of the world of spirits. The only possibility, the only prescription in order for the spiritual heart to obtain life, in order for it to open its door to the world of spirits is through believing and becoming a Muslim. A believer should strive hard in order to enter from the door of spiritual heart and then make progress in the world of spirits toward endless life. The comprehensive knowledge of Sufism (Tasawwuf), which is one of the main eight branches of knowledge of Islam, teaches this kind of striving. The specialists of this knowledge are called friends (Wali) of Allah and enlightener (Murshid). The most famous among all “Murshids” is Imam ar-Rabbani Ahmad Faruqi, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him. He passed away in India at 1034 Hijri, 1624 A.D.

It is not possible for a sensible person, who studies in the medical and scientific universities to observe the delicate art and balance in the creatures and sees and understands their delicate relationships to each other, not to believe in the greatness, knowledge, and power of Allahu ta’ala. A person who does not believe after observing and understanding all of these either has to be an abnormal, retrogressive, and ignorant or stubborn and stupid person who runs after appetite or a person who became a slave of his soul and who enjoys torturing. He must be a sadist and oppressive person. If one studies the life stories of disbelievers, it becomes clear that they belong to one of these categories.]

In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “Have belief in Allahu ta’ala by thinking the order among the created beings.” Belief of a person will increase by studying the astronomy and understanding the order between the earth, moon, sun and all other stars and their spinning and travel in the space and intricate calculations between them with respect to their distances. There are several benefits and uses in the creation of mountains, metals, rivers, seas, animals, vegetation, and even microbes. None of them were created for a useless purpose. Clouds, rain, lightening, thunderbolt, underground-waters, energy materials and air, in short, every created being perform certain functions and services. Human beings, up to date is able to understand very little about these innumerable number of services rendered by these innumerable beings. Is it ever possible for a mind which is not capable of understanding the creatures to ever comprehend their creator? Islamic scholars who understood the greatness of Him were bewildered and stated that they understood that it is not possible to understand Him. One of the followers of Moses (Musa), peace be upon him, prayed thirty years. A cloud made shade to protect him from the sun. One day, the cloud did not come and so he stayed under the sun. He asked the reason to his mother. She said to him that he probably committed some sin. He answered to her by saying that he did not commit any sin. She said, “Didn’t you look at the skies? When you see them, didn’t you think the greatness of their creator?” He said, yes he looked at them but made error in pondering about. She answered, “Is there any other sin bigger than this? Make repentance right away.” A sensible person should not forget about duty of pondering. Is there anyone who has any guaranty that he will not die tomorrow? Allahu ta’ala did not create anything without any use. The uses that are not understood by human beings are much more than the uses they are able to comprehend so far. Pondering can be accomplished in four ways. Pondering about the beautiful arts of Allahu ta’ala which manifest on human beings causes one to believe in Him and love Him. Pondering about the rewards promised by Him for the worships would cause one to perform those worships. Pondering about the punishments informed by Him causes one to be afraid of Him and thus causes one not do any evil to anyone. Pondering about one’s being slave to his soul and committing sin and living in a state of heedlessness regardless of all the blessings bestowed by Him causes one to have shame from Allahu ta’ala. Allahu ta’ala loves those who ponder about and takes heed by seeing the beings that exist on the skies and on the earth. Following hadiths reports, “There is no higher valued worship than pondering.” And “Pondering for a moment is more valuable than sixty years of worships.” Pondering (Tafakkur) is explained in detail by Imam al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, in his book written in Persian, Kimya as-Sa’adat.

In the following hadiths Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “Do not make ill-prayer, i.e., do not curse, for yourselves and for your children. Be content with the Decree of Allahu ta’ala. Pray to Him so that He may increase His blessings for you.” And “The ill-prayers of parents about their children and an oppressed person’s ill-prayer about the oppressor will not be rejected.” A person who prays that another Muslim should become a disbeliever becomes a disbeliever himself. Desiring that an oppressing person should die as a disbeliever so that he may suffer eternal punishment, would not cause disbelief. We are informed in the Qur’an that Moses (Musa), peace be upon him, made such a prayer. Imam al-azam Abu Hanifa, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, said that desiring that someone should become a disbeliever causes disbelief for the desiring person. It is forbidden to make ill-prayer for persons other than oppressing persons. It is permissible (Jaiz) to make ill-prayers for an oppressing person as much amount as equal to his oppression. The permissible amount should be commensurate with his oppression. Not making ill-prayer, being patient and even forgiving the oppressing person is a better act. It is not permissible to say “may Allahu ta’ala give you long life” to any disbeliever or to a non-Muslim citizen of an Islamic state. It is permissible to make such a prayer with the following intentions, e.g., in order for him to become Muslim or in order for him to pay his taxes so that Muslims would become stronger. A person who gives greetings (Salam) to a disbeliever in a revering manner becomes a disbeliever. Saying any word which would come to mean a reverence to a disbeliever causes disbelief. For example, saying “My master” to a disbeliever causes disbelief.

Giving improper-names to a Muslim or repeating improper-names given by others is not permissible (Jaiz). In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “A person who has a improper name should change it to a good name.” For example, one should change the name of “Asiya” to “Jamila.” It is permissible (Jaiz) to give nice-names to Muslims. One should not name his children with names which come to mean praising, e.g., Rashid or Amin. Names like Muhyiddin or Nuruddin would be a lie and “Bidat.” Calling sinners (Fasiks), ignorants, and apostates with such names is “Makruh.” These names include meaning of praise thus they cannot even be used in a metaphoric sense. Some said that it is permissible to give these kind of name to one’s children so that it may bring good omens. It is permissible and useful to use these names for those scholars who are famed as being “Salih” persons.

[Famous scholar Ibn al-Abidin, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, in the fifth fascicle of his book Radd-ul-Muhtar says that the best and most proper names for the Muslim children are Abdullah, then Abdurrahman, then Muhammad, then Ahmad and then Ibrahim in that order of priority. It is also permissible (Jaiz) to give names of Allahu ta’ala such as Ali, Rashid, Aziz. But it is necessary to have respect while saying these names. A person who knowingly shows disrespect while mentioning these names becomes a disbeliever. For example, saying “Abdulkoydur” instead of Abdulkadir, or “Hasso” instead of Hasan, or “Ibo” instead of Ibrahim would be degrading these names {Some of these slanted names has certain ill-meanings in Turkish but, one may apply this logic to other languages, i.e., slanting the names to different forms is not acceptable.} Even though saying these words would not cause disbelief when one does not intend to degrade them, it is better to avoid using such words which would appear as causing disbelief. If a child dies right after birth, he should not be buried without giving a name. Even though it is permissible (Jaiz) to use the name Abdunnabi, it is better not to use it. Hadrat sayyid Abdulhakim Arwasi, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, preached for twenty-five years after the afternoon prayer every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at the Bayazid mosque in Istanbul until he passed away in the year 1362 Hijri Qamari, [1943 A.D.] During one of his preachings he stated the following, “A child has three rights on his parents: giving a Muslim name at birth; teaching him reading/writing, knowledge (Ilm), and crafts upon reaching the age of understanding; and marrying him when he reaches the age of puberty.” Some degenerate people in Europe and America are raised in an irreligious and non-ethical manner and are given fake diplomas and professorship titles and then send to Islamic countries. These ignorant disbelivers are appointed to high schools and universities as teachers or professors. They trap Muslim children with their position and make them irreligious and non-madhhabite. These children influenced by them easily become murderers and traitors. Those parents who send their sons and daughters to these schools are throwing their children to the hell with thier own hands.]

Rejecting an excuse shown by a Muslim is disliked (Makruh.) Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “It is a sin not to accept an excuse shown by a Muslim.” Accepting excuses and forgiving shortcomings are attributes of Allahu ta’ala. Allahu ta’ala will be angry with and punish a person who does not act as such. There are three ways of showing excuses. In the first case, one may say, “Why did I do that thing?” or “I did that thing for this reason.” In the second case, one might say, “I shouldn’t do that thing,” or “I did it but I will not do it again.” In the third case, one might say, “I did not do that thing” in order to deny it. Saying “I did it but I will not do it again.” would be repentance. A believer will wait for an excuse to be shown in order to forgive him. Hypocrites want others’ shortcomings to be exposed. In the following hadiths, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “You should be chaste. Do not commit ugly things. Also, let your wives be chaste.” And “If you yourselves are chaste, your wives would also be chaste. If you give gifts to your parents, your children will also give gifts to you. A person who does not accept an excuse of another Muslim will not drink water from the Kawsar lake in the next world ‘Akhirat’.” This hadith applies to the Muslim who does not know that his Muslim brother committed an evil action and also he doesn’t know that his excuse is a lie. Because, refusing his excuse would amount to “Su-i zan.” Accepting his excuse while knowing that he is lying comes to mean forgiving him. Forgiving in such circumstance is not necessary (Wajib) but “Mustahab.”

“Tafsir” means informing and discovering. It is the process of informing and explaining. “Tawil” means pulling back or escaping. “Tafsir “ comes to mean giving a meaning. “Tawil” is selection of one of the meaning among many meanings. It is not permissible (Jaiz) to make “Tafsir” according to one’s own opinion. “Tafsir” is performed according to the rules of transmission (“Riwayat” or “Nakl”). On the other hand, “Tawil” is done according to one’s knowledge and capabilities. In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “A person who interprets the Qur’an according to his own opinion is in clear error even if he is right.” It is not correct to say such and such is the meaning of the speech (Kalam) of Allahu ta’ala without investigating first whether that such and such is in any way commented by Rasulullah, peace be upon him, or by his companions or that whether it conforms to the interpretations (Tafsirs) of the previous scholars or to the methodology of the knowledge of interpretation, or without knowing the Arabic language that was spoken at the time of Rasulullah, peace be upon him, i.e., the “Quraish” dialect, or without thinking about reality (Haqiqat) and metaphoric (Majaz) aspects of it, or without being able to differentiate whether it is general, personal, concise (Mujmal), or detailed (Mufassal), and without investigating the reason of why that such and such verse (Ayat) was revealed, or whether it is “Nasih” or “Mansuh.” “Tafsir” means one’s being able to understand from the sayings of Allahu ta’ala what Allahu ta’ala meant with that saying. Even if one’s interpretation according to his own opinion is correct, since it is not derived by following the proper methodology, it is a mistake. If one’s interpretation according to his own opinion is not correct then, it would cause disbelief. Similarly, transmitting hadiths without knowing whether they are correct (Sahih) or corrupt, whether it be they are correct (Sahih) or not, would be a sin. It is not permissible (Jaiz) for such a person to read hadiths. It is necessary to get a diploma (Ijazat) from hadith scholars in order to make hadith-transmission from the hadith books. In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “A person who invents a phrase and says that it is hadith, will be punished in hell.” It is permissible (Jaiz) for those who do not have diplomas (Ijazat) from the interpretation (Tafsir) scholars to talk or write about verses of the Qur’an by looking at the interpretation books written by interpretation scholars. The people who possess above written conditions can make transmission (Nakl) of interpretation and hadith without having a written diploma. It is not permissible (Jaiz) to receive money in order to give diplomas. It is necessary (Wajib) to give the diploma to a person who demonstrates the necessary qualifications. It is forbidden to give the diploma to those who do not possess the necessary qualifications.

In the following hadiths Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “Those who give meaning to the Qur’an without having the necessary qualifications will be punished in hell,” and “Those who say something as hadith without knowing it, will be punished in hell,” and “Those who give meaning to the Qur’an according to their own opinion will be punished in hell.” The corrupt persons (Ahl al-bidat) who recite or quote hadiths or verses of the Qur’an in order to prove their corrupt paths are of this kind. [Shiis, Wahhabis, followers of the Tablig al-Jamaat, Mawdudi, and Sayyid Qutb are of this kind. Yusuf an-Nabhani, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, expalins these corrupt tafsirs at length in his book Shawahid-ul-hak. Those who assert that Qur’an has an inner meaning as well as a literal meaning in order to give meanings according to their own opinions are also of the type which are mentioned in above hadiths. Those who make interpretations by using the meaning of the words that are prevalent in their current time are also among the above-mentioned types.

One of the Ottoman scholars Nuh bin Mustafa Konawi, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, who passed away in 1070 Hijri, 1660 A.D. at Cairo, Egypt says the following in his translation of the book Milal wa Nihal which is written by Muhammad Shihristani, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him: the people who are in “Isma’iliyya” group are called as such because they say that they are the followers of Isma’il, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him, who was the elder son of the Ja’far as-Sadik, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him. They are also called “Batiniyya” group. Because they said that Qur’an has an inner meaning (Batin) as well as a literal meaning. They said that the literal meanings of the Qur’an are the limited meanings which are cast by the “Fiqh” scholars and the inner meaning of the Qur’an is like an endless ocean. They believed in the inner meanings that are fabricated by themselves instead of following the literal meanings of the Qur’an. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, transmitted the literal meanings of the Qur’an to his companions, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with them. Leaving the literal meanings aside and following fabricated inner meanings causes disbelief. They tried to destroy Islam from within by this kind of tricks. Fire worshipers (Majusi), especially, their leader Hamdan Kurmut, in order to stop the spreading of Islam, invented these tricks and established Karamuta State. He killed the persons who were making pilgrimage (Hajj) to “Ka’ba” and moved the “Hajar al-aswad” from “Ka’ba” to the Basra. They fabricated such sayings as, “Jannat is following the worldly pleasures and hell is following the rules of the religion.” They named prohibited actions (Harams) as fine arts. They lead the youngsters to hedonistic, pleasure-filled life style by deceiving them and saying to them that those things that are decreed as prohibited actions and sins (Fuhush) by Islam are moral-exercises. Their state perpetrated much harm to Islam. They were destroyed in 372 Hijri 983 A.D. by the Divine wrath.]

Interpretation (Tafsir) should be done according to the principles of transmission (Nakl). In order to perform interpretation, one should be knowledgeable about the following fifteen kinds of knowledge (Ilm): language, dialect or words (Lugat), syntax (Nahv), grammar (Sarf), etymology (Ishtikak), meaning (Ma’ani), explanation (Bayan), ornament of speech (Badi’), reading (Kira’at), methodology of religion or bases of religion (Usul-i din), Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh), reason or cause of the revelation of the verses of the Qur’an (Asbab-i nuzul), the one which cancels a previous verse (Nasih) and canceled verse (Mansuh), methodology of Islamic jurisprudence (Usul-i fiqh), Hadith, and knowldege of spiritual heart (Ilm al-qalb.) It is not permissible (Jaiz) for one who does not know these subjects to make interpretation of the Qur’an. The knowledge of spiritual heart (Qalb)” or “Mawhiba” is a kind of knowledge which Allahu ta’ala sends without an intermediary to pious scholars who follow Islam minutely. In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “Allahu ta’ala teaches the secret things if one practices the things one knows.” It is not permissible (Jaiz) for anyone who does not know above-mentioned fifteen subjects to make interpretation. If one performs interpretation without knowing them then one will be doing it according to one’s own opinion and will be deserving to be punished in hell. In one hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “A person’s heart will be filled with wisdom (Hikmat) by Allahu ta’ala and he will start to tell them if he practices Islam with sincerity ‘Ikhlas’ for forty days.” Anyone who gives meanings to the metaphoric (Mutashabih) verses of the Qur’an will be considered as one of those who performed interpretation according to his own opinion. The interpretation of corrupt persons (Ahl al-bidat) who deviated from the right path is of this kind.

There are three types of knowledge (Ilm) in the Qur’an. Allahu ta’ala did not inform anyone about the first type. The reality of His Person (Zat) and His attributes and telling about unknown are in this category. The second type is the secret knowledge He revealed to His prophets. Prophets may reveal these to those whom Allahu ta’ala chooses. He taught the third type of knowledge to His prophets, peace be upon them, and ordered them to teach this knowledge to all of their followers (Ummat). The third type is also divided into two sections. The first one is learned only by hearing. Knowledge about the Doomsday (Qiyamat) is of this kind. The second one is learned by observing, examining, reading and understanding its meaning. Knowledge which pertains to belief and Islam is in this category. Even, “Mujtahid” Imams could not be able to understand with certainty Islamic knowledge which are not informed through the “Nass” clearly and had different opinions. Thus, various schools of thought (Madhhabs) came into being with respect to practice (Amal). The activity of those who derive meanings by following the fifteen subjects mentioned above is not called interpretation (Tafsir) but instead it is called “Tawil” because, these meanings include his own understanding. In other words, he selects one among the many meanings that are apparent to him. If the one he selects does not conform to the literal and clear meanings of the verses of the Qur’an and hadiths or to the unanimity (Ijma), then, it is invalid (Fasid). The book Barika, while explaining that the dancing is forbidden (Haram), includes the following, “We are not ordered to practice our religion according to the interpretation books. We are ordered to follow the Fiqh books.”

Forming strong intention (Kasd) for committing a sin, then committing the sin for a little amount will be insistence. Having “Kasd” will be through forming intention, through willing and through deciding. If one decides and carries out the act then it will be insistence. If he steadily forms intentions and steadily decides but never carries out the act then it will not be insistence. If he continuously decides to do and commits the sin once and then repents and does not do it again then it will not be insistence. If he does it one more time and then repents again still will not be insistence. Doing many times during a day and repenting after each occurrence will not be insistence. While one is repenting, one should feel sorry and discontinue sinning immediately as well as intent not to do it again. Without doing these three conditions, just saying certain words is no more than lying. Insisting on committing small sins is a grave sin. It is a greater sin than committing a grave sin once. When he repents, the grave sin will also be forgiven. Considering small sin as a small act is grave sin. Bragging about committing a small sin is grave sin. It would also be grave sin if one presumes a person as a scholar (Alim) or pious (Salih) while that person commits small sin. When one commits a small sin, one should be afraid of Allahu ta’ala and His punishment. It is grave sin if one is not ashamed of Allahu ta’ala and does not think that He will punish.

Telling shortcomings of a believer (Mumin) or a non-muslim citizen (Zimmi) to others in their absence in order to make them look lowly or in order to put them down is backbiting Backbiting (Gibat) is forbidden (Haram.) It will not be a forbidden action if the person, who listens to, does not know the person being backbitten. If the person who has been backbitten would be sad when he hears these, then it is backbiting. When a person is being talked about some shortcomings with respect to his body, his family-tree, his ethics, his business-affairs, his speech, his religion, his worldly-affairs, his clothing, his house, his animals and if that person becomes sad when he hears that talk, then, the talk is backbiting. Doing it through hints or body-language or writing would be forbidden just like if it was done through talk. When someone mentions a sin or shortcoming of another Muslim in the presence of religious persons or memorizers (Hafizs) of the Qur’an, and those who are present there say, “Oh, thanks to Allahu ta’ala! We are not like that!”, their expression would be the worst kind of backbiting. Also, while someone is being mentioned, if the people there say, “Thanks to Allahu ta’ala, He did not make us unethical like that person” in order to put that person down, that would be the worst kind of backbiting. It is backbiting to say that such and such a person is a very good person but it would have been better if he wouldn’t have such and such shortcomings in his worships. The following was ordered in the “Hujurat” chapter, 12th verse of the Qur’an, “Do not backbite each other!”. Backbite is talking behind each other in others’ absence. It has been said that backbiting someone is like eating flesh of a dead human. In the following hadith Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “On the day of Judgement, a person’s reward-book will be opened. He will say, Oh my Lord! While I was in the world I performed such and such worships but they are not recorded in the page. He will be answered by the following: they are erased from your book and written to the books of the persons whom you have backbitten,” and “On the day of Judgement, a person’s good-deeds-book ‘Hasanat’ will be opened. He will see there the worships he never performed. They will tell him that these are the rewards ‘Thawabs’ of those who have backbitten you.” Abu Hurayra, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him, related the following: we were sitting down with Rasulullah, peace be upon him. One of us got up and left. Some of us said that he has left because he was disturbed. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “You made ‘Gibat’ of your friend. You have eaten his flesh.” Aisha, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with her, said the following: I said by Rasulullah, peace be upon him, that such and such a woman was tall. He replied, “Spit out whatever is in your mouth!” I spat out. A piece of meat came out of my mouth. Allahu ta’ala has power to manifest attributes and specificities as material objects. Backbiting is telling something behind some religious brethren or behind a non-muslim citizen such that upon hearing the spoken shortcomings, they will become sad. Allahu ta’ala sent the following revelation to Moses, peace be upon him: “Those who backbite and then repent for it will enter to the Paradise, last. Those who backbite and do not repent for it, will go to hell first.” One of the great friends of Allahu ta’ala, namely, Ibrahim bin Athham, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, was invited to a reception. While they were around the food-table, someone mentioned that one of the invited persons was not there. Someone else replied by saying that he is a slow person. Ibrahim bin Athham, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, said that his remark was backbiting and left the place. In the following hadith, Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “If a shortcoming which is attributed to someone exists in that person, that will be backbiting. If it doesn’t exist in that person then it will be slandering.” Telling shortcomings with respect to religion would be backbiting. For example, saying that he doesn’t pray his “salats”, or he drinks wine, or he steals, or he carries words between persons constitutes backbiting. Telling worldly-shortcomings such as he is deaf or squint-eyed is backbiting. If the religious shortcomings are communicated in order to make him look evil then, that is backbiting. If it was said by thinking about his reformation or pity then, it won’t be backbiting. Talking in generalities does not constitute backbiting. For example, there are people in this town who don’t pray, or there are communists in this town or there are thieves would not be backbiting because a specific person was not intended.

Suppose, a person performs his daily prayers, fasts but also harms people by his actions. For example, he beats others, steals or takes others’ properties by force (Gasb). Also, he harms people by his talk. For example, swears, slanders, backbites, carry words from one to another. Telling his openly committed sins to others won’t be backbiting. In general, if one shamelessly commits Harams and “Bidat” or “Fisq” openly then, informing others about him would not be backbiting. It would not be a sin if one informs the government so that the government would prohibit that person from committing those prohibited actions. While son of a person is committing prohibited actions secretly by hiding from his father and another person in the community knows what he is doing. That person should tell or write to his father if he knows for sure that his father will stop him from doing the prohibited actions. It would not be permissible (Jaiz) to inform his father if one does not know for sure that he will stop him. Informing him in that case would cause animosity between them. If someone is harming others with his actions, informing others about him won’t be backbiting because the intention is to save others from his harm. Also, it would not be backbiting if one tells his harm to others because one pities and feels sorry for him. Telling his harmful behavior in order to make him look evil would be backbiting. In six instances telling shortcomings and mistakes of a person to others in his absence would not be backbiting. One tells it because one pities and feels sorry for him. One tells so that they may stop him. Telling in order to get a legal decision (Fatwa). Telling in order to protect others from his harm (Sharr). If a shortcoming became a nickname of that person, one is forced to call him by his nick name in order to describe him. Telling his oppression, sin, “Fisq” or “Bidat” which is known to everybody. Telling by getting mad and with the intention of making him look evil would be backbiting. Telling fault of a merchandise to a prospective buyer would not be bacbiting of the seller. Telling shortcomings of a girl to a person who wants to marry to that girl would not be backbiting but would be giving advice. It is necessary (Wajib) to give advice to a person who does not know anything about it. If a person commit some prohibited actions secretly and some prohibited actions openly, telling his secretly committed sins to others is backbiting and telling his openly committed sins or oppression (Zulm) to others is not backbiting. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “It would not be backbiting to tell about a person who took off the shame-Jilbab”. “Jilbab” is the large head-cover of the women folk. In this case, taking off the “shame-jilbab” means committing prohibited actions (Harams) openly. This hadith points out that this type of person does not have any shame. Imam al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, and some other scholars said that whether one’s ill-talk or talking about the openly committed sins is backbiting or not does not depend on the intention of the talker. The ill-talk is backbiting regardless of the intention, i.e., it is not necessary to have an intention of making him look evil. For this reason, we should be very careful not to backbite anyone.

There are many reasons which lead a person to commit backbiting. We will inform eleven of them at this point: animosity toward him; thinking that he should be joining to the people around himself; ill-speaking about a person who is not loved in a society; letting others know that he does not commit such sins; letting others know that he is superior to him; being jealous of him; to make others laugh; in order to make joke; in order to tease him; in order to show astonishment for someone one never expects that he would do such an action; in order to show one’s sadness or pity toward him; or in order to show one’s dislike about him because of his comitting sins.

Backbiting causes decrease in one’s rewards (Thawabs) and causes others’ sin to be added to his own. Thinking about these all the time saves one from committing backbiting.

Backbiting is of three types: in the first instance one says that one did not commit the backbiting, one only expressed what existed in him. Saying in this manner causes disbelief because it comes to mean that he is asserting that a forbidden act (Haram) is permissible (Halal). In the second case the intention is to let the person who has been backbitten to hear these. This would be a grave sin. This kind of backbiting will not be forgiven only through repentance. It also requires to get the forgiveness of the person whom one has backbitten. In the third case, the person who has been backbitten would not be aware of this. This kind of backbiting is forgiven by repentance and by praying for him.

A person who realizes someone is backbiting in his presence should prohibit it immediately. It was reported that the following was said by Rasulullah, peace be upon him, “Allahu ta’ala will help a person in this world and in the next world ‘Akhirat’ if he helps some religious brethren of his in his absence” and “It is enough sin for one who does not help one of his religious brethren while he is powerful enough to do so when he is backbitten by someone” and “If a person protects honor of his religious brethren in the world, Allahu ta’ala will save him from hell fire by sending an angel” and “If one protects honor of his religious brethren, Allahu ta’ala will save him from hell-fire.” While backbiting is committed, a person who is present there should stop it with words if he is not afraid of the backbiter. If he is afraid of him then he should reject it through his heart otherwise he will be sharing the sin of backbiting. If it is possible to stop him or possible to leave, he should do one or the other. Using sign language, e.g., his head or hand or eyes is not enough. It is necessary to tell him that he should stop backbiting.

The atonement (Kaffarat) for backbiting is the feeling of sadness, repentance, and asking his forgiveness. Asking his forgiveness without feeling sorry is no more than hypocrisy, which is another sin. [It is written in Ibn-i Abidin’s book Radd-ul-Muhtar, 5th volume, page 263 that it is forbidden to backbite a dead person as well as a non-citizen disbeliever (Zimmi).]

Repentance (Tawba) is the sorry feeling after committing a forbidden action and then having the fear of Allahu ta’ala and having a strong resolution (Azm) not to do it again. One’s repentance due to the fear that he might be punished by worldly disasters would not be repentance. While one is committing several different types of sins, one’s repentance for some types of sins would be valid (Sahih) while one insists committing some other types of sins. After repentance, one’s repeating the same sin again and then repenting again would be valid. Repeating this chain of repenting, committing the sin again, repenting again several times would be valid. Forgiveness of a grave sin certainly requires repentance. Five daily “salat” prayers, Friday “salat” prayer, fasting during the month of Ramadan, going for pilgrimage (Hajj), making repentance, avoiding committing grave sins and all similar worships would be a reason for the forgiveness of small sins. Repentance for disbelief and other types of sins, when done according to their conditions, would surely be accepted. A pilgrimage carried out by sincerity and by observing all of its conditions is called “Hajj al-Mabrur”. “Hajj al-Mabrur” causes all types of sin to be forgiven except the sin earned due not performing the obligatory duties on their prescribed times and sins earned due violating others’ rights. In order for these two types of sins to be forgiven, one has to carry out those omitted obligatory duties and one has to compensate the right owners for their violated rights. “Hajj al-Mabrur” does not cause forgiveness of the sins earned due not performing the obligatory (Fard) duties but, it causes forgiveness of the sins earned by not doing the obligatory duties on their prescribed times. After the pilgrimage, if he does not immediately start to perform the omitted obligatory duties, the sin of postponing the obligatory duties will start again and as time passes it will increase many folds. Postponing is a grave sin. Everybody should understand this point clearly. The hadith, “The sins of a person who performs “Hajj al-Mabrur” will be forgiven. He will be like a newly borned,” points out that the sins other than the sin earned due not performing the obligatory duties and sins earned due violating others’ rights will be forgiven. We are also informed that the prayers done by Rasulullah, peace be upon him, on the night of “Arifa” and at the place of “Muzdalifah” for the forgiveness of the sin of the pilgrims are of this kind. There are also some scholars who stated that the sins earned due not performing the obligatory duties and sins earned by violating others’ rights are also included in the forgiveness. Their statements are for those who make the repentance but who are physically unable to carry out those “Fards” or unable to compensate the violated rights of others. The 114th verse of “Hud” chapter of Qur’an states, “Good deeds ‘Hasanat’ will annihilate sins.” Scholars interpreted this verse as when the unperformed obligatory duties are performed then the sin will be forgiven. When one hears that someone has backbitten him, if he becomes sad because of what has been sad then this will be an additional grave sin for the backbiter. The good deed (Hasanat) which will cause forgiveness of that grave sin is to get the forgiveness of the backbitten person.

Repenting as soon as comitting a sin is obligatory. Postponing the repentance for that sin is a grave sin. Repentance for the postponement is also necessary. The sin earned by not doing the obligatory duties will only be forgiven when the respective obligatory duty is carried out. For all kinds of sins, repenting through spiritual heart, repenting by tongue and compensating through the body is necessary. Saying “Subhanallah-il-azim wa bi-hamdihi” hundred times, giving alms and fasting for one day is very beneficial.

Thirty first verse of the “Nur” chapter of the Qur’an states, “Oh believers! Turn (repent) towards Allah.” Eighth verse of the “Tahrim” chapter of the Qur’an states, “Do perform ‘tawba al-nasuh’ to Allah.” The word “nasuh” in this verse was interpreted twenty-three different ways. The most famous interpretation is having the sorry feeling and saying the repentance through tongue and deciding strongly not to do it again. 222th verse of the “Baqara” chapter of the Qur’an states, “Allah loves those who do repentance ‘Tawba’.”

Following hadith states, “The best of you is the one who do repentance ‘Tawba’ immediately after committing a sin.” The biggest sins are disbelief, hypocrisy, and losing one’s faith or apostasy (Irtidad).

[A person who did not become or refuses to become a Muslim is called a disbeliever (Kafir). The disbeliever who pretend to be Muslim in order to deceive Muslims is called hypocrite (Munafiq) and (Zindiq). A person who becomes a disbeliever while he was a Muslim is said to be committed apostasy (Irtidad). A person who commits apostasy is called an apostate (Murtad). If these three categories of persons believe from their hearts sincerely, certainly they will become Muslims.

The following is written in the section of disasters of the tongue in the books Barika and Hadika and in the Majma’ul-anhur: a man or woman Muslim will lose his or her belief and will become an apostate if he or she willingly says a word or does a deed, even without thinking the meaning of it, without being coerced to say it or to do it, e.g., just to make a joke, while he or she knows that saying or doing it will cause disbelief according to the unanimity of scholars. This is called disbelief due stubbornness (Kufr-i inadi). If he or she willingly says a word or does a deed without being coerced and without knowing that doing or saying will cause disbelief, he or she still becomes an apostate. This is called disbelief due to ignorance (Kufr-i Jahli). Because, it is obligatory (Fard) for every Muslim to learn those things that he or she must know. Not knowing is not an excuse and it is a grave sin. Those who become an apostate (Murtad) due to “Kufr-i jahli” or “Kufr-i inadi” will lose their marriage contract (Nikah). He should first get a proxy (Wakalat) from his wife and then he should renew the marriage contract (Tajdid an-nikah) by either in the presence of two witnesses or in the mosque (Masjid) together with the congregation (Jama’at). It is not necessary to make “Hulle” after more than two renewals (Tajdid an-nikah). If he says the word which causes disbelief by mistake or by metaphoric language which can be interpreted differently or by coercion then he will not become an apostate and it will not be necessary to renew the marriage contract. If the word which is used by a person willingly without any coercion is not decided by the unanimity of the scholars as a word which causes disbelief then the person does not become an apostate. But, as a precautionary measure he should make repentance and renew his marriage contract. We cannot think that those Muslims who go to the mosques will ever become apostates through “Kufr-i jahli” or “Kufr-i inadi” (see above) but we can only think that they may lose their belief due to this last described state. For this reason, the “Imams” of the congregation (Jama’at) should direct the congregation to read the following prayer in order to make repentance and to renew their marriage contract (Nikah): “Allahuumma inni uridu an ujaddidal-imana wannikaha tajdidan bi-kawli la-ilaha illallah Muhammmadun Rasulullah.” By doing this, the commandment ordered in the hadith, “By saying la ilaha illallah renew your belief.” will be carried out.

The belief which does not conform to the belief taught by the “Ahl as-sunnat scholars” is called deviation (“Bidat” or “Dalalat”) from the right path. The greatest sin after the disbelief is to become performer of “Bidat” (“Ahl-i Bidat” or or man of “Bidat”.) Among the “Ahl-i Bidat”, those who try to spread their “Bidat” among the Muslims will be committing many folds of sins. The followings would be necessary to deal with these people: the government officials should strike them with heavy punishments; the scholars should advise them through speeches or through their writings; and the lay Muslims should avoid associating with them or reading their books and magazines. One should be very alert in order not to be deceived by their lies, slanders and provocative words. At present, the “la-madhhabiyyas”, the followers of Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb, and ignorants who are called Tabligh al-Jama’at and finally those who surface under the name of pseudo shaikhs and pseudo leaders of Sufi paths (Tariqats) are using all kinds of means in order to spread their corrupt and deviated beliefs. They are preparing all kinds of unimaginable and unthinkable tricks and traps in order to deceive Muslims and in order to smash and destroy “Ahl as-sunnat” through their souls (Nafs) and through the help of the devil. They continue their cold war against the “Ahl as-sunnat” by spending their properties and millions of dollars. It is necessary for the youngsters to learn the religion of Islam and the right path (Haqq) from the books of “Ahl as-sunnat scholars”. Who does not learn will get caught and drawn in the corruption floods of “Bidat” and “Dalalat” and will be lead to worldly and other-worldly disasters. Leaders of the deviated (Bidat) groups are giving wrong and corrupt meanings to the Qur’an. By using these unjustly given meanings they are asserting that they are proving their deviated ideas through the verses of the Qur’an and hadith. Only those who know the truth (Haqq) would be able to protect themselves from these people. It is almost impossible for those who do not know the truth not to fall into the traps and whirlpool of deviation and corruption (Dalalat). These people with corrupt belief will become disbelievers if their deviated beliefs do not conform to the belief-knowledge which is clearly recited in the Qur’an and in the hadith and with the information related by the unanimity of the “Mujtahid” Imams and with the knowledge which is widespread among the community of Muslims (Ummat). This type of disbelief is called “Ilhad” and those who fall into this position is called “Mulhid”. Books teaching faith (Aqaid) write that the “Mulhids” are considered as disbelievers with no books (Mushriks).]

Repentances of the persons who deviated from the right path (ahl al-bidat) are also accepted. In order for them to have repentance, they have to learn the “Ahl as-sunnat knowledge” and believe accordingly as well as feel sorry for their previous corrupt beliefs.

A person who believes the importance of the obligatory duties but does not perform them due to laziness does not become an apostate (Murtad) and does not lose his belief. But, a Muslim who does not perform an obligatory duty commits two types of grave sin. The first one is passing the duration of that obligatory duty without praying or in other words the sin due to delaying the performance of the obligatory duty. In order for this sin to be forgiven, it is necessary for him to make repentance or in other words he has to repent and feel sorry and decide not to delay it again. The second one is the sin due not performing the obligatory duty. In order for this grave sin to be forgiven, he has to make “Qada”, e.g., perform the missed obligatory duty immediately after its due time. Delaying performance of the missed obligatory duty would be another grave sin.

[Great Islamic scholar (Alim), renewer (Mujaddid) of the fourteenth century, the specialists of external knowledge (Ilm al-zahir) and internal knowledge (Ilm al batin), the professor of sufism (Tasawwuf) at the university which gave PHD degrees (Madrasat-ul-mutahassisin), namely, Sayyid Abdulhakim Effendi, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, in his lectures or in his preaching at the mosques or in his conversations (Sohbats) has often said, “It is a grave sin not to perform an obligatory duty without any excuse on its due time.” It is also written in the books that it is a grave sin not to perform its “Qada” right after its due time. As a matter of fact, this is written in the previous paragraph as such. After an obligatory duty’s due time passes, if one does not perform its “Qada” without any excuse, in a time period which is equal to the time period which takes to perform the obligatory duty, the sin of delaying increases one fold. After this, if one does not perform it again in the next time period which is equal to performing the obligatory duty, the sin of delaying increases another fold. In this manner, when each time period which is equal to performing the obligatory duty passes, the sin of delaying increases by folding over and over again and reaches to an amount unthinkable and uncountable. Thus, the sin of not performing the “Qada” of an obligatory duty increases many folds. For example, for the five-daily obligatory “salat” prayers, the sin of an unperformed salat prayer increases five folds in one day. One should realize gravity of the situation for a person who did not perform his five-daily obligatory “salat” prayers for months or years. One should look for all sorts of means to save himself from this terrible and awesome sin. Anyone who has belief and who has his senses altogether should try to perform “Qada-salat” prayers day and night in order to save himself from the terrible hell-punishment of not performing the obligatory “salat” prayers. We are informed that one will be punished in the hell for 70,000 years for one “salat” prayer which is not performed due to laziness and without any excuse. When a Muslim ponders the amount of punishment one will suffer in hell for not performing innumerable “salat” prayers as explained hereinabove, he will lose his sleep. He will stop eating and drinking and feel great distress. Yes, anyone who does not recognize the obligatory “salat” prayers as obligations and duties will become a disbeliever and an apostate. An apostate will be punished in hell forever. Anyway, such a person does not believe in hell or punishment or importance of the obligatory “salat” prayer. He lives in this world like an animal. He does not think anything other than his pleasures and collecting the money which provides the pleasures. His principle in life is to obtain the money irrespective of how others will be affected or suffer. He does not think for a second, how others may sacrifice for his pleasures. He has neither belief nor intellect (Aql). This type of person would not have any mercy. He would be more dangerous than the monsters and wild animals. His talks about humanity, mercy, and goodness are nothing but like writing into the air. They are traps for others in order for him to satisfy his appetite and worldly benefits.

Making “Qada” of the “Salat” prayers which were not performed for years became like an impossible task to accomplish. There is no blessing (Barakat) left in the world because human beings left the “Shari’at”. In other words, they stopped obeying the commandments and dived into committing the prohibited actions. They departed from the beautiful and comfortable path shown by Islam. Sustenance became scarce. The meaning of the verse in the “Taha” chapter of the Qur’an is the following, “If you forget Me, I will decrease your sustenance ‘Rizq’.” For this reason, the iman-rizq, health-rizq, foods-rizq, humanity and mercy-rizq, and many other sustenances have been decreased. The saying, “Huda never makes oppression ‘Zulm’ to His slaves. Everyone suffers because of their own doings,” is taken from the meaning of “Nahl” chapter, thirty-third verse of the Qur’an. Today, in many households, man and woman both work day and night just to obtain sustenance (“Nafaka”) for their family. Even both of them work day and night but they still have difficulty of providing themselves a comfortable way of living. This difficulty in obtaining sustenance is due to the darkness of disbelief, and the ignoring of Allahu ta’ala and His Prophet, peace be upon him, and the lessening blessings due ignoring Islam in general. It is impossible to stop the flood of disasters and wrong doings (Dalalat) unless they live according to Islam, unless they practice the beautiful moral character of His beloved Prophet, peace be upon him. Under these afaromentioned difficult conditions, in order to pay back the “Qada” of the unperformed “salat” prayers of the past, every day, one should perform “Qada-salats” while one is performing the “Sunnat-salats” of the four daily “fard-salat” prayers other than the morning “salat” prayer. In order to do that, one should form his intention to perform the very first “Qada-salat” that one did not perform at its due time. By following this methodology, every day, one would be able to perform one day’s “Qada-salat” prayers and also one would be performing “Sunnat-salat” prayers. This matter is explained in detail in the book Se’adet-i Ebediyye.

Centuries ago when the “Fiqh” books were written, Muslims had strong belief and had fear of Allahu ta’ala and fear of hell-punishment in their hearts. No one could ever imagine, not performing the “salat” prayers at their due times. It was unthinkable that there could be a person who would deliberately not perform the “salat” prayers. At those times, only a few “salat” prayers could be missed due to an excuse. This would be an occasion of distress and worry for the person who missed the “salat” prayers. The following were the reasons for missing the “salat” prayers: not being able to wake up from the sleep; forgetting; not being able to find an opportunity to perform the “salat” prayer even by sitting during the war or travel. Missing the “salat” prayer due to one of these excuses is not a sin. But, when the excuse is over, it becomes obligatory to perform the missed “salat” prayer immediately. It is permissible to delay the performance of the “Qada” prayer of the missed “salat” prayer as much as to earn enough money to support one’s family. It is not necessary to perform the “Qada” prayer of the missed “salat” prayers in place of the “Muakkad-Sunnat” prayers. The writings in the “Fiqh” books which state that it is better not to make “Qada” prayers in place of the “Muakkad Sunnats” are for the “salat” prayers that were missed due to an excuse. It is obligatory to perform the “Qada” of the “salats” immediately that were not performed without any excuse. It is necessary to perform these in place of the “Sunnat-salat” prayers. Imam ar-Rabbani, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, in his 123rd letter of his book Maktubat says, “If the ‘Nafila’ prayer becomes a cause for missing a ‘Fard’ prayer then the nafila prayer does not become a worship but becomes a non-beneficial act ‘Ma-la-ya’ni’ and becomes a harmful act.”]

[Great Islamic scholar Ibni Abidin, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, says, “Praying two rakats of namaz upon entering to a mosque is sunnat. This is called ‘Tahiyyatul-masjid’. Praying any one of the Farz, sunnat or kada prayers is considered as accomplishing the ‘Tahiyyatul-masjid’ namaz. It is not necessary to intend for the these prayers by specifying that they are also for “Tahiyyatul-masjid” prayer. The namaz prayer which is specified with two intentions, i.e., the “Fard” and “Sunnat” prayers of the present time (Waqt) namaz is different. In this case only the “Fard” namaz prayer would be acceptable (Sahih). Because the “Fard” and “Nafila” are two different types of prayers. When one of those prayers mentioned above was prayed the “Tahiyyatul-masjid” was considered as prayed. For that reason the “Tahiyyatul-masjid” was the same type of prayer. {Reader’s attention is drawn to the weight given to the “type of prayer” in this context.} While praying any type of prayer, one is considered as performing any other prayers which are the same type without making any other extra specific intention for performing them. But in order to get rewards (Thawab) for it one must perform intention for it. Because, there won’t be any rewards for a prayer without making an intention for that prayer.” The sunnat namaz means any performed namaz other than the fard namaz. Since the description of the kada namaz which is prayed before or after the fard prayer fits into the description of the sunnat prayer, it is considered as being the same type of prayer as the sunnat prayer. According to Ibni Abidin, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, when one performs the kada namaz, he also performed the sunnat namaz. It is apparent from these writing that when a person performs kada namaz instead of sunnat namaz, he will not be considered as disserting the sunnat namaz. When kada and sunnat intention formed simultaneously, one will be getting rewards for the sunnat namaz too.]

If a person who intends to pray the “Qada-salat” prayers as described above starts to pray them and then becomes very ill, he should make a will (Wasiyyat) saying that after his dead there should be a “salat-kaffarat” performed for him. His executer of the will should carry out his will. The executer (Wali) is either designated by him or he is one of his heirs. In case, one misses one of the “Wajibs” of the “salat” prayer or commits a disliked action (Makruh) during the “salat” prayer, it becomes necessary (Wajib) to reperform that “salat” prayer during its prescribed due time. It is also necessary to reperform a “Nafila-salat” prayer within its prescribed time if something happens to annul the “salat” prayer during the performance of the “salat” prayer. It is always necessary to perform “Qada”, i.e., make-up for the unpaid obligatory almsgiving (Zakat), “Sadaqa-i fitr”, and unperformed “Nazr” and “Qurban” animal sacrifice. A person who becomes poor later on in life should perform “Qada” of them through a process called “Hila-i shar’iyya”. If he does not become poor, it is “Makruh” for him to use the “Hila-i shar’iyya” process.

Repenting secretly is enough for the sins that involve only Allahu ta’ala and the person who committed the sin. In other words, the sin should not involve violating others’ rights. It is not necessary to inform others, e.g., the imam of the community. Giving money to the clergy in order to get forgiveness is a custom of Christians. There are no such things in Islam. The following are types of sin which does not involve violating others’ rights: one’s reading Qur’an while he is “Junub” or sitting in the mosque or speaking worldly affairs, eating, drinking and sleeping in the mosque or holding Qur’an without spiritual washing (Wudu); playing musical instruments; drinking wine; committing adultery; women folks going out to the street without covering their heads, hair, arms and legs. It is very difficult to get forgiveness for the sins which involve animal rights. The following constitute animal rights and they are sin: killing an animal without a proper cause or beating or hitting it at its face, forcing to walk beyond its strength, loading extra heavy loads, not giving its food or water at its due time. One has to make repentance for it as well as repent and beg for its forgiveness.

There are five types of violations of others’ rights: pertaining to property, pertaining to soul (Nafs), pertaining to honor, pertaining to “Mahrams”, and pertaining to religion. Rights pertaining to property are as follows: stealing, wrongful seizure, selling some property by deceiving and by lying, giving counterfeit money, harming others’ property, harming someone’s property by giving false testimony or by informing the oppressor (Zalim) or by giving bribe. Repenting and getting the consent and forgiveness of the person involved even if it involves only one penny is necessary. For property rights, it is also necessary for the children to pay back and get the consent and forgiveness of the right owner. If one does not get the consent and forgiveness in this world, in the next world (Akhirat), they will make justice by giving the violating-person’s rewards to the right owner. If the owner of the right is passed away, the payment should be given to his heirs. If there is no heir or one does not know the owner of the property then the payment should be given to the poor and the reward of it should be sent to the right owner. If there are no pious (Salih) poor Muslims then it should be paid to the trusts (Waqf) and societies which perform services to Muslims. Giving to his pious (Salih) relatives or to his poor mothers, fathers, and children as present is also permissible (Jaiz). Anything which is given to the poor as a present would constitute alms giving and will produce rewards (Thawabs). If one is not able to do these, one should pray for the forgiveness of the rights owner and himself. Geting the consent and forgiveness of the disbeliever for his violated property rights is also necessary. If his consent and forgiveness is not obtained, it will be very difficult to get the forgiveness in the next world.

Others’ rights pertaining to soul (Nafs) or life is murdering or destroying a part of a person. One, first of all, has to make repentance and then he should go and resign himself to the executer (Wali) of the dead person. The executer may forgive him if he desires or may make peace with him for a certain amount of money or property or alternately he may apply to the court and ask for his punishment. It is not permissible (Jaiz) for the executor to punish him on his own. [There is no blood-fued in Islam.] Violation of others’ rights with respect to honor is backbiting (Gibat), slandering, making fun of or swearing and cursing at someone. It is necessary to make repentance and get the consent and forgiveness of the person involved. In this type of rights violation there is no paying back to the heir of the dead person.

Violation of others’ rights with respect to “Mahram” is to be malicious to someone’s wife and children. One performs repentance and “Istigfar”. If there is no possibility of raising instigation (Fitna), he should ask forgiveness from her husband. If there is a possibility of instigation, in that case, he should pray for him and give alms for his sake. Violation regarding to the religious rights is not performing the duty of teaching religious knowledge to his relatives and to his family members. Also, prohibiting these or all other human beings from learning their religious knowledge or doing their religious duties constitute violation of their religious rights. Calling others as disbeliever or sinner (Fasik) is also considered as violation of religious rights. It is permissible (Jaiz) to say, “please forgive me for the rights that I owe you” or some similar phrases which reflect a meaning of generality instead of specifically telling him which right of his one has violated.

It is very rewarding (Thawab) to forgive the debt of a poor person.

Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “One who repents (Tawba) resembles the one who never committed the sin,” and “The one who makes istigfar with his speech but who never feels sorry for the sin he committed is the one who will continue committing sin. He is teasing Allahu ta’ala.” Making “Istigfar” means is to say the word “Astagfirullah”. Muhammad Osman Hindi, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, [He passed away 1314 Hijri or 1896 A.D.] in his book Fawaid-i Osmaniyya which is written in Persian says the following, “You are asking me to write some prayer (Dua) which would be recited for healing (Shifa). Make repentance and repeat “Istigfar” often to receive healing (Shifa). [In other words, recite the following: “Astagfirullahal’azim al-lazi la ilaha illa huw al hayyal kayyuma wa atubu ilaih!”] It is good for all kinds of troubles and distress. This dua is written at length in the 344th page of the Turkish book “Hak Sozun Vesikalari.” The meaning of the “Hud” chapter, 52nd verse of the Qur’an is, “Say Istigfar! I will attend your problems.” Repentance (Istigfar) will make one to attend all kinds of happiness and desires.

The followings are stated in the hadiths, “Allahu ta’ala would forgive a person even before he makes ‘Istigfar’ if he commits a sin and then feels sorry for the sin,” and “Even if your sin is so much to reach to the skies, when you repent, Allahu ta’ala will accept your repentance.” These hadiths are for those repentances which do not involve violating others’ rights. In another hadith, it is communicated, “Three types of sin are: the sin that will not be forgiven in the last Judgement day (Qiyamat); the sin that is not discontinued; and the sin which will be forgiven if Allahu ta’ala wishes.” The sin surely which will not be forgiven in the last Judgement day is, “Shirk”. “Shirk” in this context is all kinds of disbelief. Sins that are not discontinued are the sins which involve violating others’ rights. The sins which will be forgiven if Allahu ta’ala wishes are the sins which do not involve violating others’ rights.

One must desire to learn the knowledge of ethics. One cannot be forced to learn it. Every optional (Ihtiyari) action can be achieved by learning two of its prerequisites. First, one should understand the essence of the matter. Secondly, one should have a first-hand knowledge of what will be gained by doing it. In addition, it is a widely accepted method by learned man that one should learn the sub-branches of the subject in order to understand the main (basic) knowledge easily. We will also follow this method and explain the three branches of the subject in the preface. Furthermore, we will add two additional sections.

FIRST TOPIC: ethics of Islam will be divided into three categories,

1– The knowledge of ethics, (Ilm al-akhlaq) teaches us the actions of a person, whether they are good or evil, while he is alone (and not thinking others.) When a person is alone, he regulates his conduct according to his nature. For example, a person who has a gentle nature, who is generous and who has a sense of shame has these qualities whether he is alone or he is in the presence of others. The knowledge of ethics informs us these type of actions which do not change by being alone or in the presence of others.

2– The second category of ethics examines a person’s behavioir towards his family members in his home. This is called manners of family management (Tadbir al-manzil).

3– The third category of knowledge of ethics covers duties and behavioir of a person and how he could be useful to everyone in society. This is called social manners (Siyasat al-madina). It is written in Akhlaq an-nasiri by Nasiruddin-i Muhammad Tusi that when a human being does something, whether it is good or evil, it is for a reason. This reason is either due to his nature or to his obedience to laws and orders. The things he do due to his nature are the things he do according to his intellect, thought and experience. This type of things do not change by time or the influence of society. When the reason is due to his obedience to laws and orders, his actions can change in time because laws change with time. Sometimes, these laws are established by the collective consciousness of a community or a society. They are called customs (Rusum). Other times, these laws are established by a famed scholar or by an experienced, authoritarian person such as prophets, friends (Saints) of Allahu ta’ala, kings and dictators. The laws sent by Allahu ta’ala and taught by prophets, friends of Allahu ta’ala and scholars are three kinds. The first kind is the law that must be obeyed by every person individually; they are called laws (Ahkam) or worships (Ibadats). The second kind are the laws that must be obeyed mutually by the members of a society. They are marriage laws (Munakahat) and business laws (Muamalat). The third kind are the laws that involve countries and societies. They are called matters which pertain to laws and politics (Hudud). All of the three kinds of laws are called “Knowledge of Fiqh.” The “Knowledge of Fiqh” and the laws which make up this knowledge can change from one country to another, from one nation to another, and from one time to another but they can only be changed through the information given by Allahu ta’ala. The religious laws (Shari’ats) that were canceled or changed were this kind. For example, during the time of Adam, peace be upon him, multiplication of the human race was a necessity; so it was permissible for a man to marry his sister; but when the human race multiplied, it was no longer a necessity. Consequently, this permission was canceled and it became forbidden (Haram).

SECOND TOPIC: in this section we will explain the usefulness and application of the knowledge of ethics.

When a person studies his environment, such as the earth and the skies, or contemplates the balance and order in the universe, that is, how billions of stars in space continue to move in their orbits without colliding with each other for centuries, or how the construction, movement and amount of atmospheric pressure, temperature, air and water are delicately balanced to allow life to flourish on earth, or when he observes the delicate order in the construction of human beings, animals, plants, inanimate objects, atoms, cells or, in short, the numerous creatures which are studied in the science courses taught in high schools and universities, he will feel compelled to believe in the existence of an all-powerful and all-knowledgeable creator, who creates all the orderly systems and creatures. A person with intelligence will understand and appreciate this great, delicate balance and order in the universe and will readily believe in the existence of Allahu ta’ala and become Muslim. When a philosophy professor from Switzerland who converted to Islam in 1966 was asked by a newsman about his conversion, he replied: “By studying Islamic books I understood the true (Haqq) way and the greatness of Islamic scholars. If Islamic religion would be exposed in a correct manner, everyone in the entire world who has intelligence would accept it by lovingly and willingly.”

When a person becomes Muslim by studying nature and himself and then studies the books written by Islaimic scholars and learns the life story and beautiful moral conduct of Muhammad, peace be upon him, his belief will strengthen. Furthermore, by studying the knowledge of ethics he will understand good and ill temperaments, useful and harmful matters. By doing good deeds, he will become a mature and valuable human being in the world. His worldly affairs will be orderly and they will materialize easily. He will live in comfort and peace. Everyone will love him. Allahu ta’ala will be content with him here. Also, He will treat him compassionately and give him many rewards in the hereafter. We would again like to emphasize that a person needs two things in order to attain happiness. The first of these two is that one should possess the correct knowledge and belief which can be acquired through learning scientific knowledge and reading the life story and moral conduct of Muhammad, peace be upon him. The second one is that one should be a gentle-natured human being with good behavior. These things can be acquired by learning the knowledge of “Fiqh” and “Ethics” and by practicing them. Whoever acquires these two things will attain the consent and love of Allahu ta’ala because Allahu ta’ala knows everything with His infinite knowledge. He gave much knowledge to angels and prophets. The angels and prophets do not possess anything shameful, faulty or ugly. In contrast, human beings have very little knowledge and their beliefs are either smeared with corrupt habits or stained by ill conduct. For this reason, human beings are very distant from Allahu ta’ala, angels and prophets. They are deprived of honor of joining their presence. If a human being does not attain the real belief by avoiding studying scientific knowledge and observing nature; and if he does not strengthen his belief by knowing Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the properly prescribed manner, he will be the one who stays in infinite wickedness and distress. Alternately, if he obtains the real belief and refuses to follow his soul (Nafs), and follows the orders of Allahu ta’ala by abstaining from prohibitions set by Him, he will not be deprived of receiving the mercy and forgiveness of Allahu ta’ala. He will not be deprived from attaining happiness. He will be punished only for his wrong doings; he will burn in hell and it will be difficult for him to receive the mercy of Allahu ta’ala. Eventually, because of his belief he will obtain the mercy of Allahu ta’ala. Hell fire will cleanse the dirt of his evil deeds and will purify him so that he will be suitable to enter heaven.

It is apparent that the most important of all the blessings and comforts is to possess perfect belief. Everyone should strive to cleanse his heart from wrong beliefs and doubts. If one obtains the correct belief and has a good character and does good deeds, one will resemble supreme spirits such as Prophets, friends (Saints) of Allahu ta’ala, and angels. He will get close to them and be attracted by them toward higher ranks in a manner similar to the law of gravitational force. They will attract him towards higher highs similar to a small pin’s attraction by a high electromagnetic force generated by a huge electromagnet or a small pin’s attraction by a huge magnet as big as a mountain. Then, one will pass the “Sirat-Bridge” with lightening-speed and will be one of those who are comforted eternally in the Gardens of Paradise with blessings which are appropriate for his spiritual heart and spirit.

Couplet:

The knowledge of ethics is the knowledge of cleanliness of spiritual heart (Qalb) and spirit (Ruh). It is similar to the knowledge of medicine’s being the science of preventive health for the body. Vices are diseases of the spiritual heart and spirit. Evil deeds are symptoms and signs of these diseases. The knowledge of ethics is a much honored, valuable and necessary knowledge. Evil qualities of the spiritual heart and spirit can only be cleansed with this knowledge. The health and strengthening of the spiritual heart and spirit could only be possible through this knowledge. Also, strong spiritual hearts and spirits will become good-natured ones through the help of the knowledge of ethics. The good and pure hearts and spirits will also improve their purity and maintain this state with the help of this knowledge.

[Spiritual heart and spirit are two different things although they look very much alike. In this book, when the spirit is mentioned alone it should be understood that we mean both of them.]

Does one’s character change? Is it possible for a human being to give up his character and acquire another one? There are several differing opinions but they can mainly be categorized into three groups:

1– The character (Habits) never changes because it is an entity a human being is not capable of changing.

2– Character is of two kinds: the first one is created at birth and cannot be changed “innate, inherent with the self.” The second one is acquired later through repetition and is “habit.” This acquired character can be altered or changed.

3– The whole character (Habits) is acquired after birth and can be changed by external influences. The majority of Islamic scholars accept the third notion. Divine laws (Shari’ats) which prophets brought prove that this third notion is correct. The student-training methods instituted by religious scholars and Sufi masters function under the light of the third notion.

According to which suitable nature human beings come into this world? This is also an unresolved question up to now. The opinion of the majority of scholars is that human beings are born suitable for goodness and to make progress. Later, evil desires of the soul, not learning good morals and associating with evil friends forms evil character. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, “Everybody was born suitable to accept Islam. Later, their mothers and fathers make them Christian, Jews or disbelievers.”

Couplet:

According to some scholars, the spirit of human being came to this world as an impure entity. The spirit itself was clean but when it was united with the body, it became corrupt due to the necessities of the body. However, those whom Allahu ta’ala chooses to save and decrees goodness will not remain impure as they were born but will return to goodness.

Some other scholars said that the spirit is neither good nor evil from birth. It is in a neutral state. It could turn either way. A person who learns goodness will attain happiness and maturity. They said that a person who associates with evil people and learns vices and ugly things will be a wretched and evil person.

Galen, a Greek physician and writer of medicine and philosophy, 130-200 A.D., said, “The spirits of human beings are of three types. The first are the ones which were created good; the second are the ones which were created evil; and the third is neither of the first two types but afterwards can be either one of them. There are very few people who have a good nature, but there are more people who have evil qualities from birth and who want to do evil things constantly. The number of persons who can become evil when associated with evil ones, and who can become good when associated with good ones are somewhere in between the first two types.” According to this, the nature of some people can be changed, while the nature of many people cannot be changed. [Since the Greek philosophers were not aware of the spiritual heart, they only mentioned the spirit. Most of those Muslim authors who have written books about ethics followed them in that respect.]

According to the majority of scholars, everyone’s nature can change. No one’s nature will stay the way it was created. If natures would’t change, the religions communicated by prophets would be futile and unnecessary. The training and punishment methods established unanimously by the scholars would be absurd. All scholars taught knowledge and manners to their children and it has always been known that education and training provided useful results. For these reasons, it is obvious as the shining sun that the nature of human beings changes. However, some habits are established very intensely and became a quality of the spirit. Changing and annihilating these type of habits would be very difficult. They mostly exist in ignorant and mean people. Changing these habits requires undertaking intensive “Riyazat” and “Mujahadat”. One’s struggle with himself in order not to fulfill the evil desires of his soul is called “Riyazat”. “Mujahadat” is doing things one’s soul do not like. Ignorant people do not practice “Riyazat” and “Mujahadat”, thinking that one’s nature will never change. They do not cleanse their vices. If we accept their argument and let everybody follow desires (Hawa) of their souls and do not punish the guilty, humanity will be pushed toward immorality. For this reason, Allahu ta’ala through pity for His human creatures sent prophets to train the people and teach them good and evil natures. He chose His beloved Muhammad, peace be upon him, as the greatest among all the teachers. He changed all the previous divine laws with his divine law (Shari’at, religion), i.e., “Shari’at al-Muhammad.” His religion became the final religion. Thus, his shining religion included all of the goodness and methods of training. Those who have wisdom and can distinguish good from evil should read the books of ethics which are derived from this religion and learn it. They should plan their business accordingly so that they may reach comfort, peace of mind, happiness and salvation of this and the next worlds and contribute to the order of family and social life. This is the most important duty of a human being. Everyone should read and learn this book, which we named Ethics of Islam attentively because, with the help of Allahu ta’ala, we have gathered the information which pertains to the aforementioned topics.

THIRD TOPIC: we had divided “Ethics of Islam” into three parts. In order to understand them clearly, we will explain supplementary information. Every knowledge and science has many branches. Sometimes all the branches unite on some points. At these points, all the branches of that science become one. This one point is the subject of that science. For example, the science of medicine has many branches but every branch unites at the study of illnesses and health of the body and this is the subject of medicine. In order to learn a science easily, first, we must understand its subject. The subject of the knowledge of ethics is the human spirit. It teaches how to cleanse the evil qualities of the spirit and how to fill it with virtues. First, we should learn about the spirit and then the evil and virtues. Imam ash-Shafi’i said the following couplet:

We will explain the knowledge in three steps in order to recognize the heart and spirit as much as possible and explain its apparent and hidden forces, as well as the things that cause its happiness and destruction.

FIRST STEP: WHAT IS SPIRITUAL HEART (Qalb) AND SPIRIT (Ruh)? These two entities are named “Nafs al-natiqa” or in short soul (Nafs) by the Greek philosophers and their imitators. [But Imam ar-Rabbani, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him, who was a great scholar and a specialist in the knowledge of “Tasawwuf” and ethics, said that soul, spirit and spiritual heart were different entities.] In the 85th verse of the chapter of “Isra” of the Qur’an Allahu ta’ala says, “They ask you about the spirit ‘Ruh.’ Answer them by saying that the spirit ‘Ruh’ is an entity among the other beings that my Lord has created.” This verse prohibits revealing information about the spirit. For this reason, the majority of the Guides (Masters, Shaikhs) of the Sufi Paths known as “Tariqat al-aliyya” (a specialized Sufi group) and scholars of Islam abstained from talking about the spirit. It is understood from the Qur’an that discussion is prohibited about the essence of the spirit but discussion is not prohibited about its special forces and peculiarities. Majority of scholars informed their students and those who inquired about the spiritual heart and spirit that the spiritual heart and spirit are not matter (substance) but rather they are “Jawhar al-Basit” (will be explained later). It is the spiritual heart and spirit which understand the information grasped by the intellect, receive the sensations coming from the sense organs to the brain and govern all the forces and the movements of the body. The great leaders of the Sufi paths and the scholars of “knowledge of faith” told us about the spiritual heart and spirit in the above-mentioned manner. [Those who wish to obtain detailed information about the spiritual heart and spirit should read the books Awarif al-ma’arif and Maktubat. Awarif al-Ma’arif was written by Shaikh Shihabuddin Umar Shuhrawardi, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with him. He was a scholar who followed the “Shafi’i” school of thought (Madhhab). He was born 539 Hijri Qamari, [1145 A.D.] and died 632 Hijri, [1234 A.D.] in Baghdad. He received spiritual enlightenment from Shaikh Abdulqadir al-Geilani, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him The book Maktubat was written by Imam ar-Rabbani, may Allahu ta’ala be well pleased with him. He was born 971 Hijri Qamari [1563 A.D.] in Sarhand/India and died at his birth place in 1034 Hijri, [1624 A.D.] Abdulqadir al-Geilani, may Allahu ta’ala be well please with him, passed away 561 Hijri Qamari at Baghdad.]

We will now expand and explain the above-mentioned description of the spiritual heart and spirit in six sections.

1– SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT EXIST: the existence of the spirit is obvious. There is no need for proving something obvious. The most obvious and evident thing for a human being is his existence. A human being does not forget himself for a fraction of a second. Spirit never forgets itself even while it is sleeping or drunk. There is no reason for trying to prove that whether or not a human being recognizes his own existence. But it is permissible to prove whether the spirit is material or not, or whether it exists by itself or along with something else and some other special attributes similar to these. Many of them are obvious but reviewing them at this point would be beneficial. Thus we will write them in five steps.

2– SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT ARE SUBSTANCE: this means they exist. Ruh is called as “Djan” in the Persian. When an animal dies, we say its “Djan” departed from it. It means its spirit separated from its body. Every created being is either substance (Jawhar) or attribute (Araz). If something is substance, it does not need anyone else’s help for its existence. It stays in existence by itself. If something is an attribute (Sifat, Araz), it can’t stay in existence by itself. It would need the help of something else for its existence. Matter and objects are substances. Their colors, smell and shapes are their attributes. Color exists in an object. If there is no object, the color cannot exist. There are two types of substance. The first one is non matter being (Mujarrat). It does not have weight, shape or color and it doesn’t affect the sense organs. The second one is matter. The non matter substance cannot be perceived through sense organs and cannot be divided. Intellect (Aql) and spirit are examples of this group. In contrast to this, matter that is the second type of substance can be perceived through sense organs and can be divided. When matter takes a certain shape, it is called an object (Jism). It has been proven by many different ways that spirit is a non matter substance. The simplest way of proving is the following: attributes exist in a substance. Substance possesses the attribute. Everything which is sensed or thought is carried out by spirit. Therefore, spiritual heart and spirit are substance. They are not attributes. Some people reject this type of proving by saying that sometimes an attribute can exist with an attribute such as velocity which is an attribute exists with motion which is also an attribute.

3– SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT ARE SIMPLE: something which cannot be divided into parts is called simple. The opposite of simple is composite or compound. According to this definition, the elements in chemistry which are called simple are really compounds because they can be divided into their atoms or into their molecules. The matter of spirit’s being simple can be logically understood in the following manner. Spirit can understand something which is simple. If spiritual heart and spirit were compounds and could be divided into parts, something which is simple could not stay with it. If spirit could be divided, the simple thing which stays with it should be divided. But the thing which is simple cannot be divided, therefore the spirit cannot be compound or composite. Thus, it is simple.

4– SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT ARE NOT OBJECTS: a substance which has dimensions such as height, depth and length is an object. It is also defined as matter which has shape or form. The thing which exits through objects (Jisms) are called corporal (Jismani) or materialistic or related to object. Since attributes exist in objects, therefore it is called “related to objects.”

5– SPIRITUAL HEART AND SPIRIT UNDERSTAND AND GOVERN: they know themselves. They also know that they know themselves. They comprehend colors through eyes and sounds through ears. They run the nervous system and move the muscles thus they utilize the body to perform certain actions. These types of actions are voluntary actions.

6– SPIRIT CANNOT BE PERCEIVED THROUGH SENSE ORGANS: materials and things made of materials can be sensed. Since spirit is not an object or related to an object, it cannot be sensed.

SECOND STEP: what happens to the spirit when a person dies? When a person dies and his body rots, his spiritual heart and spirit will not be destroyed. Death parts them from the body. When they leave their body, they go back to a non matter world. They will not be annihilated [until the Doomsday (Qiyamat) ]. Religious personages, philosophers and men of science who are not fanatics share this view. Only a few of the naturalists departed from this unanimity and slipped from the right path. They likened human beings to grass which grows in the desert. They said that human being, like grass, comes into existence, grows and disappears; his spirit does not stay in existence forever. For that reason, this group of naturalists are called “Hashashi” or “Grassers.” Philosophers and religious scholars refuted their corrupt philosophy with various proofs.

[Allahu ta’ala created many elements, 105 of which have so far been discovered each having different and special characteristics. Every element comes into being through atoms. He made every atom, like a micro generator, a great source of energy. He created molecules and ion configurations by bringing atoms together. Then He created organic and inorganic compounds, cells, various tissues and systems. Each of them has such fine subtleties, natural laws and harmony in their creation that the mind falls into wonderment. For example, the cell which can only be observed under the microscope is like a giant factory which has many departments. The human mind so far has only seen a few of the machinery that exists in this giant factory. Functioning of millions of cells which make up a human body requires existence of thousands of proper conditions inside and outside the body. If one of these thousands of conditions and harmony breaks down, the body of a human being cannot function and will come to a halt. Allahu ta’ala, who is most powerful and knowing runs the body machine automatically by creating limitless order and harmony. The spiritual heart and spirit are like the electric power of this machine. When there is a small failure in a generator, the electric power goes out. Likewise, if there is a failure in the order and harmony which exist inside and outside the body, the spirit departs from the body and thus the human being dies. No motor or machine in the world can function indefinitely. They all wear out in time and are discarded. This is a general law of nature. The body also wears out in time and decays. When the body of a human being decays in the grave, none of the cells or elements become nonexistent. Decaying of the body means organic molecules which make up the body are decomposed into smaller molecules, like carbon dioxide, ammonia, water and free nitrogen with the influence of earth and inaerobic microbes (aerobic-inaerobic is similar in form to organic-inorganic). This decomposition is a physical and chemical reaction. Today, it is known with certainty that the matter is not annihilated during chemical and physical reactions. The French chemist Lavoisier who lived in the 16th century proved through experimentation that the matter is neither annihilated nor created out of nothingness during the chemical reactions. He supposed that everything can only happen through chemical reactions and by chemical laws and thus stated, “In nature, nothing is created and nothing can be annihilated.” Today, newly discovered information about nucleus and nuclear reactions show that matter converts into energy and disappears, thus proving Lavoisier was wrong. Today, scientists clearly see that further advancement in science, new discoveries, and inventions add new strength to Islamic religion and refute the slanders of enemies of Islam and destroy and disgrace the atheists who worship materialism. Unfortunately, there are individuals who have graduated from college but do not understand the real scientific principles. Yet they pretend to be men of science and try to attack Islam on the basis of their pseudo-scientific understanding. Their lack of religious knowledge and their pseudo scientific understanding cause them to say that Islam caused us to lag the modern world. These kafirs with diplomas try to deceive pure youngesters by saying such lies, e.g., “Islam is backwardness. It prevents progress. Christians are progressing. They are inventing all sorts of scientific and technological vehicles. Their new inventions in the area of medicine, defense, and communication are dazzling our eyes. Muslims are not aware of any of these advancements in science and technology. We have to follow Christians.” They encourage youngesters to depart from their beautiful Islamic morals and Muslim brotherhood and follow the Europeans and Americans. They say that following them is progression. They try to make youngesters irreligious and enemy of Islam like themselves and thus try to lead them to disasters. In reality, Islam orders us to progress in science and technology. Christians and all other disbelievers do what they have learned from their forefathers and masters. They add small modifications to the things they learned from their fathers and do them again. If their forefathers didn’t do any of these, today’s generation wouldn’t be able to do anything. The saying, “Takmil al-sana’at is through talahuk-i afkar” has been said centuries earlier. This phrase states that perfection of technology (sana’at) is accomplished by adding and combining thoughts. History shows that new things in science and technology are all done by Muslims. They advanced the science and technology to the level of last century. This was accomplished through the Islamis religion and through the governments and states who implemented orders of Islamic religion. Christians saw that they could not destroy Islamic states through the crusades. They accomplished their aim internally through political intrigues, lies, and cheating. They formed governments through secular and masonic (irreligious) persons in their lands. But they cannot destroy Islam. These secular and masonic people are tring to get credit for today’s advancement. But all they did was to add small modifications to the earlier technological advancement done by Muslims. Since Islam exposes baseness of the actions of those who only think their own advantages and pleasures, they in turn attack Islam by saying that Islam prevents progress. Whereas Islam orders to be progressive and work for the advancement of science and technology. Everyone around the world including Christians, Jews, and even idol worshippers believe in heaven and hell. Churches and Synagogues are full to capacity and even over-crawded with their congregations. It is apparent that since they are not calling these believers as backward and retrogressive, that comes to mean that they are not calling science and technology as advancement instead they are calling their pleasure driven life style and immorality as advancement and progress. This type of undeserved attacks to Islam first designed and generated by British. Please read the book, Confessions of a British Spy published by our Hakikat Kitabevi. At this point of history it is necessary for Muslims to unite and attach themselves to the religious and scientific knowledge ordered by Islam and establish a huge industry in order to produce new inventions and in order to serve humanity and provide humanity with happiness better than the Christians do.

The matter which is contained in the constitution of the human body comes from earth, water and air. Living beings are in need of these three sources. When the body rots after death, it decomposes into these three sources again. Life after death will be possible by the composition of these three groups of matter or composition of some materials which are similar to these three groups.

Neither the spiritual heart and spirit nor the angels can progress or attain higher grades. They stay in the same state as they were created. When spiritual heart and spirit join with the body, they acquire attributes through which it becomes possible to make progress, or to become a disbeliever or a sinner so that they descend to the lowest of the low.

Every object in the material domain is known by its qualitative attributes. Every object is a composition of elements and molecules. Elements change from one molecule to another and therefore, objects lose their homogenous composition and deteriorate and turn into other objects with different qualitative attributes. Even though matter does not become annihilated in these types of changes, the objects change over time. They become nonexistent and other types of objects replace their existence. In the early ages matter was called “Hayula”. The matter which take a shape was called figure (Surat).

Since the spiritual heart and spirit cannot be dissolved into pieces and are not made up of parts (Incorporeal), therefore they never change, deteriorate or disappear from existence. In physical events, objects do change their shapes or forms. For example, when water receives extra heat, it changes to vapor. It turns from liquid to gaseous form. Liquid form of water disappears and gaseous form of water comes into existence. In chemical reactions, the composition or constitution of the object changes. The matter which makes up an object becomes nonexistent while another object with different composition or matter-structure comes into existence. In physical phenomenons, objects change their forms or shapes but the matter which makes up that composition or constitution does not change. In chemical reactions, an object in one form becomes nonexistent then existent in another form. Therefore, matter changes but it does not become nonexistent permanently. Alternately, in nuclear reactions, matter also becomes nonexistent and turns into energy.]

THIRD STATE: the spiritual heart and spirit have powers. These powers are not like the powers of plants or animals. Plants and animals also have spirits which are proper for their constitution. Spiritual heart only exists in human beings. Every living creature has plant-spirit. This type of spirit performs such functions like birth, growth, feeding, getting rid of harmful deposits, reproduction and death. These functions are carried out in human beings, animals as well as plants. Details of these functions and how they are carried out are taught in biology. The growth in these living beings is not continuous throughout their life spans. It stops after reaching a predetermined level. This level in humans on average is twenty four years. Becoming obese is not growth. The function of feeding is continuous throughout the life span. Because life cannot be sustained without getting necessary nutrition.

In addition to plant-spirit, humans and animals also have animal-spirit. Its location is the chest. This animal-spirit is the source of voluntary-movements. In human beings, it does this through the order of the spiritual heart.

Humans additionally have another spirit. When we refer to spirit in humans, it is automatically understood that reference is made to spiritual heart and spirit together. This spirit does things like reasoning, thinking, and laughing. It does these things through the spiritual heart. Animal-spirit has two types of power. The power of comprehension and the power of movement. The power of comprehension is a force which understands things. This understanding manifests itself in two ways. The first is comprehension through physical sense organs. The second is comprehension through unseen organs or inward faculties. There are five physical sense organs. The first physical sense organ is skin. Through skin, warmth, coldness, wetness, dryness, softness and hardness are understood. When an object touches the skin, the animal spirit understands whether this object is warm or not. This type of sensing is stronger on the inside of the hand (palm). The second sense organ is smell, done through the nose. The third is the organ for taste, accomplished through the nerve system on the tongue. The fourth is the organ for hearing, which is done through the nerves in the ears, and lastly, the fifth is the organ for seeing, and it is done through the nerves in the eyes.

There are also five unseen internal sense organs:

1– Common sense (Hiss al-mushtarak): it is located in front of the brain. The external sensations, coming from sense organs to their respective parts of the brain are gathered in this part.

2– Imagination (Hayal): its location is the front of the first space of the brain. Sensations that are perceived and comprehended are stored in imagination. When one looks at an object, that object causes sensation in the common sense part of the brain, when the object is removed from the eye sight. The sensation stops at the common sense but its image is transported to imagination and continues to exist for a long time. If imagination did not exist, everybody would forget each other and no one would recognize anyone.

3– Perception (Vahema): it is the mental process by which sensory stimuli are given meaning by us, e.g., nonverbal communication. Perception is mentally organizing impressions and labeling them. Animosity or truthfulness cannot be sensed through a sense organ but a person who is an enemy or a friend can be sensed or can be seen with an inner power. This inner power is called perception (Vahema). If perception did not exist, a sheep could not understand that the wolf is its enemy and would not run away from it, leaving its lamb unprotected.

4– Memory (Hafiza): it stores what is understood through perception.

5– (Mutasarrefa): it is a faculty of the mind which compares the received sensations and perceptions and arrives at new conclusions. For example, it can think of an emerald mountain. This faculty is very well developed in poets.

The power of movement which is the second power of the animal spirit is also two types. The first one is appetite or carnal power (Shahawi). Human beings and animals through this power desire things they need or crave. This power is also called animal instinct or bestial (Bahemi). The second type is called wrath, anger or rage (Ghadabi). Through this power, they defend themselves against things that present danger to them. These two types of power are also called “beastly powers.”

The power that causes movements needs the power of comprehension. Things should be sensed first through sense organs so that they can be judged good or evil, then according to this perception, they could either be desired or repulsed. All of these sensing and movements are carried out by the central nervous system. Spiritual heart and spirit exist only in human beings. This spirit also has two powers. Human beings are differentiated from animals through these powers. The first one of these powers is the knowing power, i.e., the mind or intellect (Quwwat al-alema and Mudrika). The second is the power that has an effect upon application, or the force that does or performs things (Quwwat al-amela). [There is not a corresponding word in English language. Let us call this “causative power.”] The mind or intellect is also called reason (Aql, Nutq). This power has two types. The first one is theoretical knowledge (Hikmat al-Nazari). It is good for obtainig scientific knowledge. The second is practical knowledge (Hikmat al-amali). This power is used for possessing the knowledge of ethics. Theoretical knowledge which obtains scientific knowledge is useful for understanding the reality or essence of the material world. On the other hand, the practical knowledge, which possesses the knowledge of ethics, discriminates virtues and deeds from vices and vices.

The spirit’s power, which we will call “Causative power”, accomplishes things that are useful to humans. It achieves accomplishments according to the information obtained by the mind or reason. As we have mentioned, the power that causes movements in the animal spirit is used for desiring or rejecting things according to its perception of good or evil. In humans, causative power follows the faculty of reasoning. If it comprehends things through reasoning as good or useful, it performs them. If it reasons that the final result would not be beneficial to itself, it does not perform them or even repulses them. Human spirit, in addition, also manages the carnal and wrath forces of the animal spirit through the spiritual heart.

Most people carry out the majority of their affairs through the forces of their animal spirits or souls (Nafs). In other words, they do them through “Wahm” and “Hayal.”

Imam Muhammad Al-Ghazali, may Allahu ta’ala be pleaed with him, and some of the renowned Sufi masters, may Allahu ta’ala be pleased with them, said, “Those forces of the spirit are angels. Allahu ta’ala, by pitying us, gave some of the angels to the command of the spirit. They will be under the charge of the spirit until the person dies and his spirit departs from his body. There are also some signs to this effect in some of the hadiths. For example, sometimes wonderful things materializes through some people who do not possess a quality to produce wonderful things. Therefore, this is proof for their argument.” Human beings realize maturity through these two powers of the spirit.