Muharram 10: ’Ashura: Commemorating Imam Hussain- The Prince of Martyrs

Re: # 103

You have a great sense of humor. I guess sometimes it is a little misplaced :)

kaalchakra,

Nasah is pretty spot on with his translation of Al-Ikhlas, though Urstruly is right that in Quran the third person singular is used. Nasah is also right that this is the `intellectual` understanding of this verse, while the `Mullah` understanding is what you lament that how did it get translated into ``there is only one true god and his name is allah?``.

Al-Ikhlas, to me, is the most effectively condensed explanation of man`s relationship with time & space, and with the ultimate reality of his existence. Further references towards each of this Surah`s individual components are sprinkled all over Quran.

The statement of ``He has no beginning, He has no end -- He is the ALL in ONE and He is the ONE in ALL`` relates to statements like ``He is Everywhere and He is Nowhere`` and ``He is Omnipotent and He is the Most Humble`` quoted several times in Quran (though perhaps not in this exact form) as well as the 99 names (or descriptions) of Allah. It all translates, at-least to me, to what I had said in # 105 that nothing separates any animate or inanimate object from God.

This brings us to the question of what Tauheed actually means. Going by the above argument that according to Al-Ikhlas, nothing separates any animate or inanimate object from God, it would mean `Oneness with Allah`, or `Total Submission to Allah`. This same interpretation is the basis of the Sufi literature in which it is called `Falsafa-e-Wahdanyat`
or `Philosophy of Unity with a single reality`. But Naqsh is more of an expert on the subject.

You may be familiar with Hussain Mansour bin Al-Hallaj, the great Islamic Saint said to be the founder of the Sufi train of thought to whom many miracles are attributed. He was declared a heretic for repeatedly uttering the words `Ana-ul-Haq` meaning `I am the Truth`. This was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God. He was ordered to either recant or go to the gallows but he still kept saying the same thing. It goes in Islamic tradition (Zikratul Anbia) that his limbs were torn apart, put in a sack, burnt and the ashes thrown in the Euphrates, but still the sound of Ana-ul-Haq kept resonating from his ashes. This episode is very controversial in modern Islam and references to Al-Hallaj are mostly considered heretical and bordering on Kufr. However it appears to me he had reached that ultimate state of `Unity with God` whereby he felt compelled to say `I am the Truth`.

Re use of the word in Quran, tauheed is a derivative of the arabic `Wahda` which simply means `One`, and is used several times, and explained, such as in the following prayer recited at Hajj:

``La ilaha illa Allah wahdahu la shareeka lah, lahu al-mulku wa lahu al-hamdu wa huwa `ala kulli shai`in qadir.``

(There is no god but Allah. He is One and has no partners. To Him belongs the sovereignty and all praise. He has ultimate and absolute power over all things.)

Finally, the word Allah is not interchangeable with God, again because of Al-Ikhlas`s definition that Allah is incomparable to anything, and unique. I believe that Allah is the `mysterious tune` that Einstein referred to in his famous quote.

Thanks all for your interest. Would love to have more insight from our learned interactors on the subject. I apologise to anyone to whom my sometimes unconventional interpretations may seem abhorrent.

Rgds.

Kalchakra

The concept of Tauheed i.e. Oneness of Creator is the raison d`etre of Islam and Qura`n. Tauheed is the message that was brought by close to 124,000 Prohets of God to every nation of humanity, starting from Adam (pbuh) and ending at Mohammad (pbuh).

In particular, Qura`n emphasises on no other concept more than the Tauheed. Qura`n has presented unrefutable arguments to every possible set of people - atheists, agnostics, deniers, Christians, Jews, naturalists, the people who look into macrocosm to find God, people who look into the microcosm to find God, and polytheists etc. each argument is different and tailored to address the people from these mindsets.

The first two set of beliefs that Islam puts forth are that ``There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad (pbuh) is his Prophet``. All other beliefs (close to 36) are a subset of this core belief. The third belief in this list is that ``Allah is Absolute``; which means that one has to have a belief that any idea that contrdicts the Absoluteness of Allah must be wrong. Therefore, such questions, where one asks whether God have parents, siblings, or offspring; does He eat, sleep, or procreate; what was before Him or what will be after Him; what is inside of Him or what is Outside of Him; is He bound by time and space are all invalid questions because such questions contradict His absoluteness. By the same token we Muslims are very sensitive to the notion of One in all and All in one (Zeemax should have been careful) because the extrapolation of this idea is the core reason behind Polytheism. Instead we Muslims prefer to say that everything belongs to Allah. Similarly, a question is why can`t we see God, the answer is that it contrdicts the principle of Absoluteness. Similarly, why can`t God have an image, because it contrdicts the principle of Absoluteness.

The Chapter of Qura`n which has been discussed in several posts below is an affirmation of one`s belif in the Absoluteness of Allah. It is like an oath and that is the reason it starts with the word SAY:. It is an oath of one`s sincerity to the belief in Tauheed and Absoluteness. Hence the name of the chapter is ``Sincerity``. Here is the translation:

Sincerity (Al-Ikhlas) 112: 1-4

Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;

Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;

He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;

And there is none like unto Him.