Innovation and Adaptation

 

Question:-

Some of your articles, particularly those that recommend Economic, Political and Cultural reforms in Islam seem very much like innovations which are forbidden in Islam.

Answer:-

You have confused adaptation with innovation.

Innovation refers to what has been introduced into Islam that is incompatible with its principles, something from sources that Islam came to rectify or something that arises from speculation rather than through understanding of the Quran. The Quran is "guidance" not a straight jacket and Muslims are asked to seek knowledge. On the other hand Adaptation and application is something that Muslims are required to do by application of their God-given intelligence. Adaptation is possible because general principles can cover numerous particular cases. The change in conditions simply means that a set of particular circumstances gives way gradually to another set of particular circumstances.

However, one has to be careful - Religion came to transform man and his circumstances. It is, therefore, a contradiction of Religion if changed circumstances lead to changes in religion. A distinction has to be made between Religion and the conditions of life as there is between the inner psychology of man and his outer environment and between values and facts. This distinction is made in Islam between the Quran and the Hadith and the sayings of the Prophet as to the distinction between what was revealed or inspired in him and what came from his own ordinary mind.

The fact is that the Quran does not describe an Economic or Political or Cultural System and it is not a text book on Economics, Politics, Science, Technology, Ethics or Art, though it deals with all these subjects in a unified manner. It is a book on Religion that attempts to stimulate consciousness, conscience and will and deals with the general principles on which a Mental Attitude towards existence and a Way of Life adapted to Reality (Allah) can be constructed.

The second fact about Islam is that the Prophet Muhammad did create a Nation and a government by adapting the principles of the Quran to the conditions that he found himself in. And that is also what Muslim leaders should be doing now.

The third fact about Islam is that Muslims have been conditioned by traditions created by the past rulers and their supporters in Islam that came after the "Four Righteous Caliphs" who caused increasing amounts of corruption in Islam. It is they who caused the erosion in the understanding and application of Islam through deliberate selectivity and misinterpretation to serve their self-interest and introduction of innovations. And it is these sources of obscurity that require to be removed.

Unfortunately, as predicted by the Prophet himself we are living in times when Muslims in general with the exception of a minority exist in a general state of ignorance and degeneration. However, this appears to be inevitable before a revival can take place. People tend to get mentally conditioned when a tradition is created which leads to unconsciousness and unintelligent rigidity while external conditions keep changing. This results in increasing tensions and suffering. It is this suffering that leads to awakening in different people in inverse proportion to their conditioning and in direct proportion to their capacity for awareness.

It cannot be denied that there are a great number of ideas and practices among Muslims that have no justification in the Quran or the Hadith. Among these are the Burqa and female circumcision. As the Quran says:-

"When it is said to them: Follow what Allah has revealed, they say: Nay, we will follow the way of our fathers. What! Even though their fathers had no sense (or wisdom) at all or guidance?" 2:170

How is Righteousness described in the Quran:-

"Righteousness is not that you turn your faces towards the East or the West, but it is righteousness to believe in Allah, and the Last Day, and the Angels, and the Book, and the Messengers, and to spend of your wealth for love of Him, for your kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, for those who ask, and to ransom those in captivity; and to be steadfast in prayer, and practice regular charity; to fulfil the covenant (contracts) which you have made; and to be firm in patience in times of pain (poverty and deprivation), and adversity, and in periods of panic (or violence); these are the people who are true, and these are those who are Allah-fearing." 2:177

Adaptation to changing circumstances can also be seen in the following verses:-

"Whatever verse We may annul or cause you to forget, We will bring a better one than it, or one like it; do you not know that Allah has power over all?" 2:106

"Do not they see how many a generation We have destroyed before them, whom We had established more firmly than you, and sent them abundant rain from heaven, and made the rivers flow beneath them? Yet We destroyed them for their sins, and raised up other generations after them." 6:6

"Have they not travelled through the land? And have they not heart wherewith to feel (understand), and ears wherewith to hear? For, indeed, it is not their eyes that are blind, but it is the hearts which are within their breasts that grow blind." 22:46 and see also 35:44, 40:21

"But if you turn your backs, then I have conveyed to you that wherewith I was sent to you; and my Lord will replace you with another people. You cannot harm (frustrate) Him at all; verily, my Lord is Guardian over all things!" 11:57 and see also 14:19

"We, even We created them and made firm their frame, and when We will We will replace them, bringing others like them in their stead. Surely this is an admonition; whoever will, let him take a straight path to his Lord." 76:28-29

It should be noted that the ban on innovation is not a teaching in the Quran but derives from a misunderstanding of saying of the Prophet. He is reported to have said:-

"To proceed: the best discourse is Allah's Book, the best guidance is that given by Muhammad, and worst things are those which are novelties. Every innovation is error."

But this may be countered with:-

"If anyone establishes a good sunna in Islam he will have a reward for it and the equivalent of the reward of those who act upon it after him without theirs diminishing in any respect. But he who establishes a bad sunna in Islam will bear the responsibility of it and the responsibility of those who act upon it after him without theirs being diminished in any respect."

"Knowledge in the heart is the beneficial type; and knowledge on the tongue is God's allegation against human beings."

This apparent contradiction is resolved if we keep the distinction between spiritual truths and temporal changes in mind. Consider also the following:-

"Blessed is He Who has revealed unto His servants the Criterion, that he may be a Warner to the people." 25:1

"Say: O people of the Scripture! Stress not in your religion other than the truth and follow not the vain desires of folk who erred of old and led many astray, and erred from a plain road." 5:77

"My Lord! Grant me wisdom and unite me to the righteous..." 26:83

"Who hear advice and follow the best thereof. Such are those whom Allah guides, and such are men of understanding." 39:18

"Indeed We have made the verses distinct for a people who will utilize their understanding." (6:98)

"We have made the revelations clear to you, if you will use your reason." (3:118)

"And follow (or pursue) not that of which thou hast no knowledge; verily, the hearing, the sight, and the heart, of all of these it shall be asked (to give an account)." 17:36

"And unto thee (Muhammad) have We revealed the Book in truth, verifying what was before it, and preserving it; judge then between them by what Allah has revealed, and follow not their lusts, turning away from what is given to thee of the truth." 5:48

"Wherefore judge thou between them by what Allah has revealed, and follow not their lusts; but beware lest they mislead thee from part of what Allah has revealed to thee." 5:49

Consider also the following reported words of the Prophet:-

"Disputation about the Quran is infidelity. It was just on this account that your predecessors perished: They set part of God's Book against others, whereas God's Book was sent down only to be consistent; so do not use parts to falsify others. Speak about as much of it as you know, but where you are ignorant entrust it to him who knows."

"If anyone interprets the Quran in the light of his own opinion and is right, he has erred."

"The search for knowledge is an obligation laid on every Muslim, but he who commits it to those who are unworthy of it is like one who puts necklaces of jewels, pearls and gold on swine."

"If anyone seeks knowledge to use it in vying with the learned, or disputing with the foolish, or to attract attention to himself, God will bring him into Hell.......If anyone acquires knowledge of things by which God's good pleasure is sought, but acquires it only to get some worldly advantage, he will not experience the odour of paradise on the day of resurrection."

"Knowledge from which no benefit is derived is like a treasure from which nothing is expended in God's path."

"In every successive century those who are reliable authorities will preserve this knowledge, rejecting the changes made by extremists, the plagiarisms of those who make false claims for themselves, and the interpretations of the ignorant."

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