Creed of Imam al-Tahawi - Part 4

The Creed of Imam Al-Tahawi - Part 4

Religious Persecution in the Western Context

Racism is still here but religious persecution is very, it's something that really is so antithetical to the Western tradition and much of the bloodshed that was fought in the West was to free ourselves from religious persecution. And so the fact that Muslims now are being targeted religiously is something I think that should be very troubling for Western people. I think we should remind them of that but we also have to be a community that I think that really makes it clear to people that what our religion is truly about.

Knowledge Without Action and Action Without Knowledge

You mentioned several times the word actions and if I remember correctly Imam Ghazali who is known as the (حجة الإسلام - Hujjat al-Islam), he mentioned knowledge without action is vanity and action without knowledge is insanity. And I do believe it's a hadith if you can correct me if it's incorrect, where the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said the time will be approaching where the preachers will be many and the fuqaha will be few and in that time knowledge will be better than action.

Would you say we're living in that time we're passing through?

The Priority of Knowledge Before Action

Well there's definitely, you can't, yeah that's very important. There's a chapter in Sahih al-Bukhari which is called (باب العلم قبل القول والعمل - Bab al-Ilm Qabla al-Qawli wal-Amal), the chapter of knowledge before speaking or action. So knowledge has to precede action. When you act without, we have a lot of activists in our community and when you have activists that are not informed by sound knowledge they can end up doing a lot more harm.

I mean communism is a really good example of people that recognize wrongs and injustices in the world but because they didn't have a sound understanding of the world they ended up doing far more harm than good. I mean I don't doubt Che Guevara was very troubled by the problems of South America when he had his motorcycle trip through there as a young man, went to medical school and became a revolutionary. A lot of his instincts were probably very humane instincts but he adopted a type of ideology or philosophy that was brutal and inhumane. And that's why communist revolutions caused far more harm than they were alleviating.

The Dangers of Uninformed Activism

So the same is true for Muslims that adopt these types of ideologies and they want to bring about social justice. And there's a lot of Muslims, that's where they're rooted in social justice because from one perspective the world is intolerable. I mean if you look out there at the world today and look at how people are being treated and how, I mean just if you look at Iraq alone and the situation in Iraq, is it's unbelievable and the death and destruction

that's happened in the Muslim world at the hands of, you just all of this horrible slaughter that's been going on for a long time. Chechnya is a good example of that.

So Muslims, there are a lot of Muslims that are so troubled by these things they want to go out and change them. But if you don't change them within the constraints that God has placed on people then you cause more harm than good. And I think that's where the Muslims really were suffering right now.

The Hadith About Harj (Widespread Killing)

I find incredible that in one of the Hadiths where the Messenger of God mentions that synonymous or what occurs from a resulting of a taking away of knowledge is widespread killing. (هرج - Harj). Right. (هرج - Harj). And pretty much we're in war. Yeah that knowledge is taken from people and killing and slaughter. And the Companions they asked the Prophet what is (هرج - Harj) (يا رسول الله - Ya Rasool Allah)? What is this? So why did they ask that particular question because it was known to them in the Arabic language, (هرج - Harj).

Understanding Prophetic Terminology

Well they wanted clarification yet. The (هرج - Harj) is a word, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) used words like he used a word (وهن - wahan) and they asked what (وهن - wahan) is. (وهن - Wahan) is a type of weakness but it's a very specific type of weakness. And while it was their language they wanted to know because sometimes terms are used. I mean the Quran was changing meanings, don't forget that.

The Transformation of Arabic Terms in the Quran

For instance إِنَّ أَكْرَمَكُمْ عِندَ اللَّهِ أَتْقَاكُمْ

The most honored amongst you are the people with the most piety. While (كرم - karam) in the Arabic language before Islam in Jahiliyyah, (كرم - karam) had to do with getting drunk and being lavish.

That's why (كرم - karm) is the vine of the grape and wine is related to (كرم - karam). So the idea was the Arabs, you know, you got your guests really drunk and then you lavished on them everything that you had and that was a sign of (كرم - karam), you know that you were a (كريم - kareem). And so the Quran radically altered that understanding of (كرم - karam).

The Sahaba's Quest for Clarification

Many words in the Quran were altered so I think the Sahaba when they would ask what exactly do you mean by that? What does that mean specifically? They could understand a word in their language linguistically but how is it being used here? And that's also wanting a clarification because words have a lot of connotations. They don't just mean, you have a denotation what a word denotes, the specific first primary meaning, then you have connotations what it implies.

Divine Acceptance of Classical Texts

When I think of this book the creed of Imam Tahawi, I automatically remember Imam Nawawi (رحمة الله عليه - rahmatullahi alayhi) and I remember two books of his the (رياض الصالحين - Riyadh as-Salihin) and the (الأربعين - al Arba'in), and these two books like the creed are pretty much in everyone's homes because of divine acceptance.

I mean what was so special about Imam Tahawi? Why do you think over 1,100 years people like yourself have revisited his text and feel that it is required reading once again?

The Biography of Imam al-Tahawi

Well Imam Tahawi, one he was a brilliant scholar, he's recognized, he was Imam al-Muzani's nephew. His mother, (أخت المزني - ukht al-Muzani) is one of the great Shafi'i scholars. She actually has an opinion in the Shafi'i Madhhab in (باب الزكاة - Bab az-Zakah), she's quoted. And he was also, he was a son by (رضاع - rada') of one of the great muhadditheen of that time.

He was born into a family of incredible erudition and learning and because of that he was exposed early on. He was very bright and he mastered the Shafi'i Madhhab and then became a Hanafi. He preferred the Hanafi Madhhab which upset quite a bit of Shafi'is. I mean you can imagine, Imam al-Muzani is one of the great Shafi'i scholars, a direct student. Both his mother and his uncle were direct students of Imam Shafi'i, yeah. His father was a scholar as well but not as brilliant as his mother. I mean she was the better of the two in scholarship.

The Sincerity and Humility of Imam al-Tahawi

So he was born into that family. He was a wonderfully sincere human being and it's attested by many many stories of the lack of ego. And there's an interesting thing in our tradition, we actually believe that books get an acceptance what's called a (قبول - qabool) from God.