Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

It is a shame and travesty that all too many Western, Christian, European and American scholars, thinkers and writers fail all too frequently to acknowledge the debt Europe and the Christian world in general owe to Islam, Muslims and the Qur’an. What the world seems to forget conveniently is that it was the Qur’an that provided the light and luminosity to the Enlightenment movement in Europe. That it was the Qur’an that laid the groundwork for and made possible the American Revolution and the French Revolution. That it was the Qur’an that made possible the writing of a book like The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine. That it was the Qur’an that provided the guiding spirit and broad theoretical framework for the drafting of the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson and led to the enshrining of the Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments) in the American Constitution.

The First Amendment that guarantees everyone the freedom of religion as well as the freedom of speech and the Press is almost a direct echo of the various relevant Aayats of the Qur’an on these topics. So, no matter how you look at it, Qur’an is the mother of all freedoms and human rights in this world. Yet, sadly and reprehensibly, there was no acknowledgment of the role of and debt to the Qur’an in any of this.

If any of our High School or University students behaved in this manner, and we determine it to be deliberate, we would call it intellectual dishonesty or Plagiarism. But the idea of Intellectual Property Rights itself did not catch on in much of the world until recently. But if it turns out that our students did it out of ignorance, we would send them back to the library to do more research. In either case we would hold our students accountable for their faulty scholarship or flawed character. Yet, not a peep or squeak is heard from anyone with regard to these most egregious examples of Plagiarism on the part of entire cultures and civilizations.

Here is the First Amendment for you to read and judge for yourself: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Now very quickly consider the following Aayats of the Qur’an with my very quick and partial paraphrases: Freedom of “Religion” in the Qur’an is absolute and unconditional.

Laa ikraaha fiddeen: There shall be absolutely no force or coercion of any kind in all matters pertaining to faith or “religion.”

Speech and expression are inherent to human nature and essence and, therefore, come under the category of inalienable human rights.

Arrahmaan. ‘Allamal Qur’an. Khalaqal insaan. ‘Allamahul bayaan: The most loving, merciful one. He taught the Reading – the Qur’an. He created the human being. He then taught him speech and expression.

Guarantee of untrammelled right of protest and petition for redress of grievance.

Laa yuhibbullahul jahra bis-soo-i minal qawli illaa man zulim: Allah does not like loud utterances and protestations of bad things except for the voicing and redress of grievances in the case of those who have been victims of wrongdoing, atrocity and oppression. Now you tell me which is which and what exactly is going on here.

Yet, absent a direct acknowledgment of the debt owed to the Qur’an, and not having full faith in and allegiance to the Qur’an, those who engaged in the lofty rhetoric of human equality and dignity in Europe and America could not bring themselves to embrace the basic human dignity and equality of all of humanity, including the original inhabitants of the American continents; the mostly Black and other slaves; European Gypsies; Jews; and women in general.

So, if you are looking to the mother of all rights and freedoms with regard to all human beings, then look no farther than the Qur’an. For that is where it all began.

And that is where it all seems to come back to in a world which simply does not have the faith or largeness of heart or generosity of spirit to guarantee and grant these rights to all human beings regardless of their colour or creed and regardless of whether or not they are part of your own cultural or national group. In all too many painful cases, the modern world seems to be only too willing to stop the recognition, granting and enforcement of these rights at its own national borders and frontiers.

Yet, it is this same Qur’an that gave freedom and education to the world that has become a stranger in lands that by right should be considered its own natural habitat. Many Muslims can barely read the Qur’an today. Many resort to English transliterations to be able to read the original text of the Qur’an which is in Arabic, a task which I consider to be impossible and therefore not generally permissible.

I have even seen a Tamil transliteration of Surah Yaaseen, which Tamil-speaking Muslims seem to use for doing their readings during various death ceremonies. Take it from me: starting from Aayat Number Five, it is a complete non-starter. I shudder to think what will be the fate of a people, both in this world and in the next world, who do not hesitate to cheat and cut corners in this manner. They seem to have made a mockery of the Qur’an even in death. What kind of Thawaab or Ajr do you expect to send to your dead when all you can manage is to read the Qur’an, and read Surah Yaaseen in particular which is the heart of the Qur’an, in English or Tamil or some other foreign transliteration?

Allah says about certain kind of people in the Qur’an that their hearts have become hard as rock if not harder. Then he goes on to say that there are certain kinds of people who flout the commands of Allah, and make a mockery of them, so brazenly and openly that Allah hits them with a punishment of utter helplessness and humiliation right here in this world. Does anyone reading this column think Muslims today by and large live a life of humiliation and abject helplessness? Does that surprise you given how we Muslims have turned the Qur’an into a stranger in our midst? Not just in matters of life but also in death? I don’t think even Mahirul Qadri would have anticipated anything like this in his famous poem Complaint of the Qur’an.

He was a good man, Mahirul Qdri. He feared and loved God in Heaven and dedicated his life to serving and helping God’s creation right here on earth. May Allah give him a place of honor in Paradise! He was a scholar of Islam and a poet who used his knowledge and his power of expression to sing the glory of Allah and to highlight the beautiful message of Islam and the Qur’an.

One of his most powerful poems was what he called Qur’an ki Faryaad – or Complaint of the Qur’an – which is my quick translation of course. I read and heard it as a child and its words and ideas so seared my mind that I never lost its memory. Then more recently I asked a friend of mine – a good and God-fearing man – to find a copy of it for me, which he most kindly and graciously did. Here is a rough rendering in my own very flawed and limited English of some the key ideas of this most beautiful poem in the most beautiful Urdu language:

Now they put me on the shelf,

And now they place me on their eyes.

Now they turn me into a talisman,

And now they wash my script

And drink the water as a potion.

The way some people teach their parrots

To utter some empty words,

That is the way they teach me these days,

That is the way I am learned.

When disputes break out,

And when arguments heat up,

And when it is time for taking oaths,

That is when they need me most,

And that is when they reach for me.

Hearts have lost their fire,

And tears turned to vapour,

And yet my chanting never stops

Whenever people have a chance to gather.

What festivity can there ever be without me?

Or what celebration where I am not an honoured guest?

And yet how sad and lonely is my life,

And how little known or understood is my pain!

That is my rough – very rough – translation of some parts of Mahir Saheb’s poem on the plight of the Qur’an, as they would say in India. But I don’t think the late poet would have understood the idea of entire generations of Muslims transliterating the Qur’an in a foreign language such as English or Tamil and then pretending to read it in its original Arabic text. That would have been too much of an outrage for him.