Understanding the Theme of History in the Quran
Towards the end of this journey with the themes of the Quran, we will stop today with a theme that has a lot to do with the methodology, as our guide throughout the themes that we talked about. It is the theme of history in the Quran.
Understanding the Theme of History in the Quran - About Islam
The History of the Bible and the Quran-Part 2
There is a lot of history in the Quran, and we can say that the whole Quran could be useful for historical reflection. There are parts that are directly related to history and historical stories, what the Quran calls “Al Qasas”.
The word history in Arabic is “Tarikh” and it has to do with dates and centuries…
Al Qasas is to follow the events that are not really stories, but they are history. History in the Quran is a major theme and it teaches us major lessons.
First of all, lessons that are related to our identity because the Quran gives us history of humanity and history of Islam that if we internalize and we associate ourselves with Muslims, with believers, with how the Quran defines Muslims and believers, then we have a different identity actually from the identity we associate with when we read books of the Islamic history.
Islamic history is a science that appeared throughout the Islamic civilization and historians did us a huge favor by giving us historical accounts of what happened.
But there is a difference in the history of the Quran, the Islamic history there is versus the Islamic history that you read in At-Tabari, Ibn Kathir, Adh-Dhahabi, or any of these great scholars that gave us history.
It All Started with Adam
The first difference in the Quranic theme of history versus the Islamic books of history is the definition of Islam. Islam is not just a religion of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the Islamic history did not start with the message of Muhammad, it actually started with Adam (peace be upon him).
Adam was a Prophet of Allah of Islam, and Noah, Saleh, Hud, and so forth.
So, Islam is the religion from the time of Adam until today. The history of Islam is a history of faith and truth from the time of Adam. In fact, before the time of Adam, Allah told us about Al Jinn, other beings that He created; he told us that some of them are Muslims and some of them are not.
The Eternal Challenge: History & Prophecies in the Quran
Therefore, Islam is before that. All the creations that Allah created and gave the choice to believe or disbelieve are part of the history of Islam in that sense.
Therefore, it is part of the history of Islam to study the history of Christianity from an Islamic point of view; it is part of the history of Islam to study the history of Judaism from an Islamic point of view, from the point of view of Moses as we understand Moses (peace be upon him) in the Quran.
History of the Rise & Fall of Civilizations
The Islamic history, as well, as the Quran is telling us about, is the history of rise and fall of civilizations. But the rise and fall of civilizations, according to the Quran, is not the rise and fall in power, or military might, or the richness, gold, and palaces, or even civilization in the sense of the material roads, bridges; this is not the rise and fall of the civilizations according to the historical account of the Quran.
The history of the Quran defies the rise and fall of civilizations as the moral rise and fall, the rise and fall in faith. The higher the faith is, the brighter the history is. This is the history of the Quran, and it is not about the artifacts and the material.
Even though the artifacts are good if they are going to be part of the history of faith, but not good if they are going to be part of history of tyranny, or history of might and certain families that had authorities…
When we look at the Islamic history or many other accounts of history, they are the history of ruling families, and historical centuries are divided according to the ruling families. Therefore, we have of course after the guided caliphs, after Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), we have our Islamic history divided according to the Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimides, and the Ottomans…
All of this is a mixture of good and evil. Some of these kings were good caliphs in the true sense of the Muslim leader, and some of them were not. Therefore, not all of them are the same when it comes to the Islamic history, and we should not associate ourselves with that history in total, but we associate ourselves with the good sides of that history.
Gaps in Islamic History
The history of civilization, according to the Quran, is not just the history of the politics of that civilization, but the other sides of that history.
We have a great gap in our Islamic history when it comes to the history of science in Islam, the history of societies, the history of arts in Islam… all of these are part of the Islamic history.
stories incomplete
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When the Quran talks about the past, it talks about everything with faith at the core of that; but it also talks about how people trade, how people build buildings, how societies lived, and how language was practiced…
All of these are dimensions of history that have to be taken into account. And all of these we learn from the thematic interpretation of the Quran that looks at the theme of history.
Integration of History
Also, the stories that are mentioned in the Quran are mentioned not for entertainment but for the sake of the high examples that they give.
Therefore, the stories cannot be fragmented; they have to be integrated in our thematic interpretation that has to do with history. We look at all the bits and pieces of the story of the children of Israel, for example, to understand the history of Judaism from that.
We look at all the bits and pieces of history of Christianity, according to the Quran, in order to understand Christianity and its history very well.
Without that integration, then we fragment the history.
But, why did the story go in more than one chapter?
Because every chapter has an objective, and every part of a story that fits in a particular objective goes under that chapter that had that objective. Therefore, when we read the chapter, it takes us throughout a journey that leads to a particular objective of the chapter that integrates the different bits and pieces of stories within that chapter.
But a thematic look at the stories, or histories in the Quran, will have to integrate and have to take these bits and pieces of the story of Adam and integrate them in order to understand our history from the time of the beginning of humanity with Adam (peace be upon him).
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Real Heroes in Islamic History
Lessons have to be learned from that history so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that some civilizations had committed when they took care of their material welfare and basically ignored the moral side of their societies.
That is when civilizations start to fall, and that’s how civilizations fell according to the Quran. And they rose when they were faithful to Allah, and their morals, and built their civilization based on that. That lesson of history is very important for the sake of our identity and how we define rise and fall.
People who tried to change the course of history in order to bring back the principles of Islam and therefore, sometimes put their lives in danger and sometimes even gave their own life for the sake of trying to change the course of history from going down to trying to go up according to Islamic criteria, are historical heroes.
Sometimes when we read in the Islamic history, the heroes are defined according to other criteria other than the definition of the Quran for heroes who might lose their lives, but they support the truth.
This is how the Prophets died for the sake of Allah and this is how some great people in history had given their lives for the sake of the truth, and this is how great people in our Islamic history had also given their lives for the sake of the truth.
And following the example of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Al Hussein, the example of the other caliphs like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, Umar ibn Abdul Aziz… who gave their lives really in defense of the truth that they stood for. Most of them actually lost their lives by assassination because they stood for the values and principles of Islam. That is how history is made according to the Quran.
What Are the Objectives of Quran?
Dr. Jasser Auda
11 May, 2020
One of the major themes of the Quran are the objectives (Maqasid). The maqasid are the main mode of thinking in the Quran.
When Allah talks about the universe, He gives objectives why He created the mountains, skies, and heavens, why He created us?
Therefore, the objectives are not a partial theme of the Quran, they actually represent everything in the Quran because they are interstated as objectives.
There are Arabic tools of rationalization or reasoning that mean the reason of, because, for the reason of… or they’re not stated like that but they are obvious for those who reflect upon the Quran to see how Allah aims at particular objectives from the (divine) discourse itself.
How the revelation is read is very important, and it’s very important to read the purposes in the Quran.
The Quran focuses on the purposes and objectives. It’s a very futuristic book because every objective that you come across is actually talking about achieving that objective in the future, whether individually I’d like to achieve the worship of Allah, taqwa, heedfulness, thankfulness… or as a communicate, we’d like to be united, we’d like to stand for the truth…
All these objective are looking into the future and encouraging us to try to plan and try to see what tools can we follow in order for us to get to that future of achieving these purposes.
Also purposes and objectives are deep in the logic of the Quran. The Quran is a book of the critical thinking; there is a why for everything: why I pray? To remember Allah, and therefore, if I don’t remember Allah enough while praying, my prayer is not valid because I’m not achieving the purpose of prayer.
Why do I fast? Because of taqwa.
Because of the why thinking, the Quran is teaching to be critical of ourselves and of the reality we look at. The Quran is also a very practical book because it doesn’t give anything unless there is benefit for our hearts and for humanity.
It’s a practical book in that sense because it has this theme of objectives. It’s also a very holistic book because once you talk about the purposes, the high level of objectives, you’re actually looking at the bigger picture, you’re looking at how the system itself works in order for the objective to be achieved.
Therefore, if you look at the objectives of Quran, you’ll start to have this thinking of yours moving towards this very important methodological advantages.
It takes a lifetime to really look at the sub-themes of the objectives. The objectives of the Quran are not three, five, or seven, or ten, as some scholars have given us in some literature, they are much higher than that.
In order to understand the objectives theme of the Quran, we need to draw a complex and highly interconnected web of meanings of these objectives connecting themselves, leading to each other and then circling back.
There are so many dynamics in the objectives of the Quran, but we can think about a few examples. If you look at humanity and the objectives ‘why humanity’?
Worship Allah
Worship is something that every Prophet had ordered his people first. It’s a command, an objective, it’s a major concept: the oneness of Allah is tied to this and is leading to worship Allah. Belief is leading to worshipping Allah. Taqwa leads to worship Allah. Thankfulness leads to worship Allah.
Worshipping Allah is not just carrying rituals, this is a small angle that we look at, but worshipping Allah is an objective when you reach, then everything in your life is directed towards Allah and everything in the collective life is directed towards Allah.
Not just our worship and what we do in the mosque, but what we do in the lab, what we do in the business, what we do in the street, and what we do with our families, and our sports, our arts… everything should be directed towards that objective of worshipping Allah.
Rectifying the Earth
There is an objective for humanity: to rectify earth.
The rectification of earth is a major objective and a major theme in the Quran. It’s not only the material rectification, but also rectifications in terms of morals and meanings.
We can’t just maintain our material life on earth, hence, rectifying the material inside of our lives. But we mess up the balance and morality as we do these days.
Part of the mischief, which is the anti objective of the rectification, is for people to disbelieve in Allah, for people to be immoral about their conduct in life, to people who lie or carry hypocrisy in their hearts, or to cut what Allah has ordered us not to cut like family ties, neighbors ties, relatives ties… All of these are mentioned in the Quran as corrupting the earth.
Guarding Life
Saving and dignifying lives is a major objective in the Quran and that includes dignifying our families, taking care of our children so that they can grow, not just healthy in terms of their bodies bit also healthy in terms of their hearts.
That form of dignifying the human being and saving the lives. A life is a concept that has to do with the afterlife. In fact the afterlife is the real life, that’s one of the major concepts and it’s a theme in many ways when you look throughout the stories and similes in Quran, throughout what Allah says in the life and the afterlife, you will see that Allah is forbidding everything that compromizes life and is telling us how we can save lives in many ways.
And saving lives of the people is tied to saving the minds and the intellect, their existence and their dignity.
Dignity is defined as a term of faith and it has major punishments for those who go against the human dignity.
It’s actually a universal term that not only encompasses the current generation, but the future generations, something that secular definitions of human dignity didn’t even reach, except for the alternative theories and post-modern theories in partialistic ways.
But the basic objective of the human dignity and saving the human life in the Quran is very comprehensive and progressive.
The Quran has the objectives for the ummah as part of humanity in order to witness upon mankind what is good and what is evil.
If we look at the themes of the Quran this way, then we are able to discover meanings that are highly applicable in our lives.
We ask Allah to allow us this kind of knowledge.
Main Concepts in the Quran
Dr. Jasser Auda
21 May, 2020
We are going to talk about the theme of concepts (mafaheem). It’s a major theme in the Quran. It’s a major concept on its right because it’s tied to what the Quran calls “the names” or “the words”.
Allah (SWT) says in the Quran:
Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “If the ocean were ink for ˹writing˺ the Words of my Lord, it would certainly run out before the Words of my Lord were finished, even if We refilled it with its equal.” (18:109)
So, we see in this example in the Quran, if the oceans are ink for writing the words of Allah, the ocean will not be enough to write them.
And Allah taught Adam all the names.
The names in the Quran or the words that are revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have particular meanings, and particular authority.
For every word in the Quran, for everything that Allah said in the Arabic language that He revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), there is an authority. An authority of meaning, an authority of implication, an authority of what the word translates to.
When you translate it to a system of society or whatever it is, the word itself defines what the system is going to be.
Main Concepts in Al-Fatihah
When you read the Quran, every word has a meaning. From the beginning, “Bismillah” (in the name of Allah) is the first name of Allah talks about whether you read from Al-Fatihah or you read from Al-Alaq.
So the name of Allah is the first concept that is introduced in the Quran in whatever order you read the Quran with.
Then “Ar-Rahman, Ar-Raheem” (The Most Merciful) two other names that deal with the value of mercy.
“Alhamdulillah Rabbi Al Alameen” that is a concept to thank and praise Allah.
“The Lord of the worlds” the world is a concept, and the “worlds” is another concept. And linguistically speaking, that is tied to knowledge.
“Maliki yawmi deen” (the King of the Day of Judgment). “Deen” is a major concept in the Quran and “yawmu deen” is one of the sub-concepts of that where there is the Hereafter or the day of balance, the day of rectification.
“You we worship and seek help.”: Worship is a major concept, seeking help and tawakkul is another major concept.
“Guide us to the Straight Path”: Guidance to the straight path is a concept that has to do with worshipping Allah.
Surely Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him ˹alone˺. This is the Straight Path.” (3:51)
“The path of those who You have blessed”: Blessing is a concept.
“Not of those who You have evoked anger”: Wrath that Allah had upon those who do not believe in Him or spread corruption on earth.
“Or of those who go astray.”
From Concepts to Conceptual Framework
Every word that your read in the Quran is going to introduce to you a concept. And as we mentioned about the objectives, the concepts for a highly connected web of meanings that if we connect and we start to look at the central concepts, then we start to frame a conceptual framework in the believer’s mind.
That is the objective of the concepts: to form this framework. And that framework defines the worldview of the believer. The believer looks at the universe, at life in a particular way because of the conceptual framework, or concepts that the Quran teaches the believer.
The Quran defines the words and everything in it in a different way, and it is quite revolutionary. It defines health and sickness in a different way; it defines richness and poverty in a different way.
Richness and poverty in the Quran are moral richness and moral poverty. And health and sickness are faith and lack of faith… Therefore, it builds a framework through which you look at the universe that is different and that is unique.
The War on Concepts
These days we have a war on concepts, and everybody is trying to be hegemonic in a particular way, economic, political, social, cultural… They invade the conceptual framework of cultures in general and Islam in particular.
As Muslims, we have to defend our conceptual framework and our concepts of the Quran that is a major theme. We define family in a particular way in Islam and we are fixed with that, we are constant with that.
We’re not going to change the definition of family because of people’s whims that they would like to apply to the world and change the very concept of family that is defined through the concept of marriage and the concept of adultery.
Marriage is marriage and adultery is adultery, we should not mix these things in a way that defies the Islamic concepts. That is something to defend, because that is the Muslim identity and the family identity.
Financial Concepts
We have a particular definition of usury in Islam.
Anything that goes in addition to a capital that is not due to a particular risk, or at least observing equity in a particular way, is usury in Islam, whether small or big, whether with a bank or individually between people.
That is a particular concept of usury that we have to defend. And based upon that, there is a whole economic system that Islam proposes that is based on charity or waqf or tasbeel (make it in the way of Allah).
Endowment (waqf) is a particular concept, a pattern upon which you build the whole economic system, a system in which most of the transactions are protected by the waqf and most of the institutions like educational and health institutions.
We have a problem today with our Islamic institutions because they are not based on waqf, not based on the Islamic concept of charity. They are based on all sorts of business and trade and ‘social responsibility’… that corrupted the Islamic institutions in the sense of not protecting them.
Now that we have an economic crisis, the Islamic institutions are suffering because the concepts upon which we built the Islamic institutions of learning, of charity work, of research, education… in a business model rather than a waqf model that gives them stability.
So the concepts here are very serious. The concept of marriage, the concept of awqaf, the concept of knowledge is a comprehensive concept in Islam. It’s not just science, it’s not just academia. ‘ilm is a whole range of information that has to do with knowledge.
Not just the material knowledge and not just something that you can prove by the five senses, but also the knowledge that is revealed to the Prophets about things we don’t have proof for. But they are truth because they are part of that conceptual framework.
Protecting Our Identity
It is very important that we protect the intellectual identity of the believers by referring to the concepts as the major theme in the Quran and giving these concepts the authority that Allah gave them and not apologize for the ‘invading concepts’.
You’re talking about development, how do you define development? And is it really compatible with the Islamic concepts of success (falah) or the human welfare?
How do you define human rights? Are they compatible with the Islamic concepts of rights?
When talking about any system that is based on words or concepts, you have to have authority from the revelation for these words. Otherwise we will have to critique these
words and understand them in a way that agrees with what they agree with in terms of the Islamic concepts and disagrees with what they disagree with when it comes to the Islamic concepts.
Understanding the Concept of Groups in the Quran
A Thematic Interpretation of the Quran - 4
Dr. Jasser Auda
02 June, 2020
The major theme we are going to talk about is the theme of groups, or parties. The Quran uses a number of words for this theme; the terms “ta’ifah” and “firqah”, “hizb”, “fi’ah”…
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The Quran uses groups of people to be described with a word that means a party or group. This is a word in the Quran that has authority because that description gives certain attributes for these parties, who they are, and how can we describe them.
Most of the time, the Quran doesn’t give names to parties, except for the parties that we need to know by name, because they’re part of history that is significant.
This for example is like the people of Ad, the people of Thamud, the people of Makkah or Madinah… But the Quran generally doesn’t give specific names of parties.
General Groups in Quran
The companions for example are mentioned of three parties: the muhajirun, the Ansar, and those who followed them in good terms. The Quran describes them as “al–ladhina” meaning “those who…” and then a verb comes after, like “those who have been given the Book” “those who have believed”, “those who have rejected the belief”… etc.
The word “Al-ladhina” makes the Quran general in its terms, it doesn’t give particular names of tribes or parties or groups that are known for certain names.
Why?
In order to keep the definition of the party general. When Allah (SWT) says:
Be heedful of Allah and be with those who are honest. (9:119)
“Those who are honest” is a party that we don’t have to define in terms of names of the companions that the Quran is talking about in a particular incident, but the incident is meant to be an example for a more general definition of the party of those who are honest.
The same applies to those who are patient, those who struggle in the way of Allah, those who spend in the way of Allah, those who are standing for the truth…
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When Allah (SWT) mentions a party, He mentions a number of attributes related to that party. The rulers or commanders in the Quran, for example, are not mentioned to include any commander. They are mentioned with particular attributes that the commanders have to watch, have to observe, and have to abide by in order for them to have the authority that we are talking about as concepts.
Group of Rulers
Not any commander is a good commander or is a legitimate commander for that matter. And therefore, Allah mentions about the commanders, for example, they are not corrupt:
And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly or send it [in bribery] to the rulers in order that [they might aid] you [to] consume a portion of the wealth of the people in sin, while you know [it is unlawful]. (2:188)
Therefore, that is a definition that defines that legitimacy of these people. So when you talk about rulers, you have to tell me whether they have the attributes that the Quran is giving for this party, or they have the attributes of the other party that are “the tyrants.”
Both are rulers, but there is a difference between the Pharaoh and the just king that Allah (SWT) talked about in chapter Yusuf. Both were from Egypt, but the Pharaoh is different. He was part of the party of corrupt leaders, while the other king was part of the party of good leaders.
Group of Scholars
When you talk about scholars, what do you mean by that?
Is this a kind of theological description that an institution gives to people according to a certain certificate? Or is this tied to a way of dressing?
The party of scholars are those who fear Allah alone, those who say the truth whatever it is. They are those who practice any kind of knowledge that takes them closer to Allah.
You could be a scientist in a lab, and you are part of the scholars, if your study of biology or medicine takes you closer to Allah. That is the party of scholars in the Quran, not just a title that people give you based on a certain interest.
Contextualize The Quran
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Yes, you could be a scholar and you work with a certain government, in a particular capacity for a particular cause. But there are differences between scholars who are loyal only to the Ummah, and scholars who are loyal to the authorities.
So even if the authorities tell them to say something against their values, principles, and the best interest of the community, they refuse.
When you have this group of rulers, scholars, or mujahideen… there are certain descriptions in the Quran that do not allow the mujahideen for example to be terrorists. But when you talk about terrorists, what do you mean by that party?
If you mean those who are unjust, who harm innocent people and compromise human life, I agree with that concept of terrorism and the group of terrorists. But that same group of terrorists must also include anybody who harms innocent civilians, not just particular groups that are labeled politically.
Group of Muslims
Those who are followers of the Prophets, are they true followers?
Who are those who are Muslims? The word Islam is not just the deen of Muhammad (peace be upon him). It’s the deen of Adam, Moses, Jesus… It’s the deen of all the Prophets and the followers of the Prophets are called Muslims. That is the Quranic definition of that particular
party; it is not based on a race or a geographical location, or a country where the majority are Muslims. Muslims are the followers of Allah’s Prophets.
Yes, some followers of the Prophets deviated from the original message of the Prophets, corrupted their books…etc. The Quran also teaches us about that. But every follower of the Prophets, including Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), is part of that Muslim Ummah, that party that the Quran is teaching us about.
Interpreting the Quran Through the Quran Itself
The Party of Hypocrites
There is a party that is very important which the Quran is talking about, that we don’t use in our day-to-day language: the party of hypocrites. They are those who say they believe, but inside they are not believers. Allah (SWT) says:
And of the people are some who say, “We believe in Allah and the Last Day,” but they are not believers. (2:8)
The party of hypocrites is also an important party by which we can describe part of our reality.
So, this is a theme in the Quran describing the groups and this is part of that framework or that network or web of meanings that we talked about that.
It is very important to internalize this theme in the intellect and in the heart of the believer so that the believer has the right conception of reality based on the right concepts and the right objectives of the revealed word of Allah (SWT).
Understanding Allah’s Universal Laws in the Quran
A Thematic Interpretation of the Quran - 5
Dr. Jasser Auda
10 June, 2020
We’re going to discuss this time the universal laws of God (Al-Sunan Rabaniyyah). Allah created this universe according to a number of laws. He says in the Quran:
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{… But you will never find in the way of Allah any change, and you will never find in the way of Allah any alteration.} (35:43)
The universal laws are mentioned by the term “sunan” in six or seven places. But the universal laws of Allah are a major theme of the Quran because they’re mentioned in many ways of showing that they are laws.
Law of Condition
When Allah gives a cause and an effect, or a conditional statement as they say in Arabic, that this will not happen unless this happens. For example:
… Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves… (13:11)
This is a universal law because He is giving a condition here. Also when there is a consequence:
… and seized those who wronged, with a wretched punishment, because they were defiantly disobeying. (7:165)
So there is a consequence of injustice which is trials and corruption on earth. So there is something that human beings do, and then there is a consequence. Allah says this is always the case:
And We did not send into a city any warner except that its affluent said, “Indeed we, in that with which you were sent, are disbelievers.” (34:34)
The people that are basically in the life of luxury, people who are too much in the indulgence of lives… these people always say that, “we do not believe in the Prophets”, because the truth would impact the way they do life.
And this is a universal law that the Prophets always start with the weakest in their societies, people who could see the truth despite the fact that they are poor or they are disadvantaged in the society, but they have enough intelligence to see the truth.
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And then eventually, the laws of Allah would dictate that some other people would start to see the truth from the powerful in the society, and that is when the truth starts to be fortified and starts to prevail.
Allah had made these laws consistent for both worlds: the natural world, and the human world. These laws are not only for us as humans in terms of societies, but the same laws apply to nature.
Law of Communities
Allah discussed in the Quran, for example, the law of community. He says:
And there is no creature on [or within] the earth or bird that flies with its wings except [that they are] communities like you. We have not neglected in the Register a thing. Then unto their Lord they will be gathered. (6:38)
This law of communities is a universal law; it’s not just humans, but everybody. If you think deeply about that, you will find a philosophical basis, if you wish, for a number of biological sciences that is different from the philosophical basis, from the material philosophy, or from the approach that doesn’t believe in a higher being that gives the universe laws.
For example, in the neuroscience literature, you will see that most neuroscientists don’t believe in consciousness outside the human being. Or if they believe in consciousness for animals, they don’t believe in it for plants.
The Quran is telling us that all of this is aware of Allah; animal, plants, insects, marine life… Everybody has their own way of making sujud and glorifying Allah. They understand, they have a memory.
They have their communal way of leadership and their communal way of finding their ways in forests, in nature in order for them to live their lives.
That basis is a different basis because it gives us a different respect and a different kind of approach to the natural biological communities that’s different from the approach of using them as some sort of a utility only, and that is a very different approach.
Science Lover
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When Allah has told us that He taught Adam the names, and that the Prophets from Adam until Muhammad (peace be upon him) brought faith and morality as a message to people.
Allah talked about a number of these civilizations from the time of Noah, when he built a whole ship. That is a different philosophical basis from the schools of anthropological sciences that look at humans at the early stages as primitive and be very surprised if they have some complex tool that is a very simple stone tool. That is different from what the Quran is telling us.
Or the claim of Egyptologists, that it was the Egyptians who invented the unity, or the oneness of God, it was them who invented the thought of the afterlife. All of this is contradictory to what the Quran is saying as sunan (universal laws) as how history evolved.
History evolved in cycles up and down. Yes, perhaps after the time of Noah (peace be upon him) humanity had to start again somewhere primitive, but it’s always in these cycles. It is not that the first human knew no language, no God, and no law, and it was the Iraqis, the Egyptians, and the Phoenicians who started to do that. That is a different kind of a philosophy of science when it comes to sciences that have to do with history and anthropology.
That sunan are important at the basis of these sciences so that we approach them in a way that is Islamic and that does not bring philosophies that don’t belong to Islam.
The evolution, not as a fact, it’s a fact that every scientist agrees to, but as a belief or as a religion is a different story, where we only think that it’s only us, human beings, homosapiens on earth and everybody else before us were kind of ancestors for us and then we evolved from them.
That is a different philosophy from what Allah is giving us in the Quran. A sunnah of being successors. Adam was a successor of creatures before Adam that lived on earth. Allah told us about the Jinn that lived on earth before Adam, for example.
Understanding Allah’s Universal Laws in the Quran - About Islam
Knowledge & Its Importance in Islam
When we find sculls or when we find remains of civilizations that have been on earth for two hundred million years, it’s a different philosophy from the Islamic philosophy to interpret them in a way of evolution vs. in a way of cyclical succession that Allah is telling is a sunnah, a universal law, that after every specie, Allah creates a different specie and sends it to earth.Socially, as well, the universal laws have to do with how Allah created the universe in terms of societies.
