بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
نحمده ونصلى ونسلم على رسوله
الكريم
The eighteenth chapter of the Suhuf-i Mutahhara with its
unmistakeable apocalyptic theme embodies an important lesson for the Muslims of
the latter days when it narrates the story of the As-Hab al-Kahf or the
youth who sought refuge in a cavern:
إِذْ أَوَى الْفِتْيَةُ
إِلَى الْكَهْفِ فَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا آتِنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً وَهَيِّئْ لَنَا
مِنْ أَمْرِنَا رَشَدًا
When the youths retreated to the
cave they said: “Our Lord, grant us from Yourself mercy and facilitate for us
from our affair in the right way.”
(Sura 18: 10)
وَإِذِ اعْتَزَلْتُمُوهُمْ
وَمَا يَعْبُدُونَ إِلَّا اللَّـهَ فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم
مِّن رَّحْمَتِهِ وَيُهَيِّئْ لَكُم مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرْفَقًا
“And when you withdraw
from them and what they worship except Allah, then retreat to the cave. Your
Lord will spread for you of His mercy and will facilitate for you from your
affair in ease.”
(Sura 18: 16)
The theme of withdrawal and retreating away from the
false society is especially important as a lesson for the present day Muslims
in the midst of all sorts of trials which they must resist in order to protect
their faith. The ‘Uzla (withdrawal) discussed in Surah 18: 16 is in fact
twofold; 1. withdrawal from them, i.e., the society of Jahiliya
(ignorance, “barbarism”) 2. withdrawal from their objects of worship, their
false “gods”. The second is obviously a spiritual withdrawal, to remove
oneself from their false religion, practices, and system, and purify oneself
from the uncleanliness of idolatry, as Allah Most High commands:
وَالرُّجْزَ فَاهْجُرْ
And keep away al-Rujz
(unclean idols)
(Sura 74: 5)
وَالَّذِينَ اجْتَنَبُوا الطَّاغُوتَ أَن يَعْبُدُوهَا وَأَنَابُوا إِلَى اللَّـهِ
لَهُمُ الْبُشْرَىٰ
And
those who avoid al-Taghut (false gods) lest they worship them, and
(instead) turn to Allah; for them are glad tidings
(Sura
39:17)
But in order to enact the second
type of withdrawal as per Sura 18: 16, the turning away from and avoidance of
the false “gods” and idols, the youths of the cave first enacted withdrawal
from the people and society. It is this first type of ‘Uzla which I am discussing
in greater depth:
This withdrawal from a society
consumed by Jahiliya, infused with idolatry, disobedience to Allah, and
corrupt to the core takes on several forms. The youths of the cave represent an
example of true Believers who took their withdrawal to a physical level of
separation by actually retreating into a cavern. The Prophet ﷺ
foretold his own Umma that a time will come with his followers too will have to
enact this kind of physical withdrawal from society in order to safeguard their
faith:
يُوشِكُ أَنْ يَكُونَ
خَيْرَ مَالِ الْمُسْلِمِ غَنَمٌ يَتْبَعُ بِهَا شَعَفَ الْجِبَالِ وَمَوَاقِعَ الْقَطْرِ،
يَفِرُّ بِدِينِهِ مِنَ الْفِتَنِ
A
time will soon come when the best property of a Muslim will be sheep which he
will take to the top of mountains and the places of rainfall (valleys) so as to
flee with his Religion from trials.
(Sahih
al-Bukhari: Kitab al-Iman; Bab Min al-Dini al-Firaro min-al-Fitan)
إِنَّ الْهِجْرَةَ
خَصْلَتَانِ إِحْدَاهُمَا ، أَنْ تَهْجُرَ السَّيِّئَاتِ وَالْأُخْرَى ، أَنْ تُهَاجِرَ
إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، وَلَا تَنْقَطِعُ الْهِجْرَةُ مَا تُقُبِّلَتْ التَّوْبَةُ
، وَلَا تَزَالُ التَّوْبَةُ مَقْبُولَةً ، حَتَّى تَطْلُعَ الشَّمْسُ مِنَ الْمَغْرِبِ
Verily,
al-Hijra (emigration) is of two types: the first is to emigrate from
sins, and the second is to emigrate to Allah and His Messenger. And al-Hijra
shall not cease as long as repentance is accepted, and repentance shall not
cease to be accepted until the sun rises from the west.
(Musnad
Ahmad b. Hanbal)
Then there is also a psychological,
emotional, and social separation from the society one lives in. This too is
imperative for the believing Muslims who happen to live in a society of Jahiliyya
and corruption but are unable to physically emigrate to another land where
Islam is established and there is no corruption or retreat into the remote
areas in order to safeguard their faith.
Two illuminous companions of the
Prophet ﷺ,
namely, Abu Dharr al-GhifariRA and Salama b. al-AkwaRA,
retreated into the desert of Rabadha to live among the Bedouins for the purpose
of fleeing from trials. When the oppressor al-Hajjaj b. Yusuf taunted Salama b.
al-AkwaRA because he imagined that Salama had committed apostasy by
retreating into the desert to live among the Bedouins, Salama replied:
لاَ وَلَكِنَّ رَسُولَ
اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَذِنَ لِي فِي الْبَدْوِ
“No,
but rather the Messenger of Allah ﷺ permitted me
to stay with the Bedouins.”
(Sahih
al-Bukhari: Kitab al-Fitan; Bab al-Ta’arrubi fil-Fitan)
Retreating into remote areas, such
as caves, mountains, rainfall valleys, and the desert is all for the purpose of
safeguarding one’s faith and fleeing from the trials and afflictions of the
world. Some may argue that it is akin to cutting oneself off from the Jama’a
of the Muslims, but that is not the case, as the Hadith of Salama b. al-AkwaRA
illustrates. That is not to say that a wrong intention and motivation for
departing from the Muslim society, such as that which came to characterise the
Kharijite factions, is not condemnable and dispraised. But in the latter days
especially, behavior which resembles the khuruj of the old Kharijites in
leaving urban centers and withdrawing to form separate, small communities for
the purpose of safeguarding the faith will in fact be considered as practing
the Sunna, as long as an attitude of mass-Takfir (excommunication) of
Muslim societies is avoided. Hence, the As-Hab al-Kahf represent a model and
inspiration that Allah has cited in the Holy Qur’an for especially Muslims of
the latter days to emulate.
In his book, Gilles Kepel discusses
the type of ‘Uzla that was practiced in Egypt during the time of
President Anwar el-Sadat:
“The imprisoned Islamicist militants
were divided in their reading of Signposts. While the old-guard
supporters of Hudaybi defended established dogma against heresies by publishing
‘Preachers, Not Judges’, the youth soon split into various factions. These may
be classified in two major currents, which disagreed as to the proper
interpretation of Qutb’s term mufasala, or ‘uzla (‘separation’, ‘withdrawal’).
One tendency held that withdrawal from society meant only spiritual detachment,
while the other felt it meant total separation. Those who preached ‘spiritual
detachment’ from society called themselves the jama’a al-‘uzla al-shu’uriyya
(Spiritual Detachment Group). They argued that contemporary Egyptian jahiliyya
society had to be excommunicated (takfir), but they were aware of the
dramatic consequences any enunciation of takfir could have, since they
found themselves in a position of ‘weakness’ (istid’af) relative to the
enemy jahiliyya society. Since they continued to live within society,
they concealed their views, pronouncing the takfir secretly in their
hearts while awaiting the advent of the phase of ‘power’ that would enable them
to excommunicate a society which they would then have the capacity to combat
without beeing doomed to defeat. Not unlike the Shi’ite sects that practice kitman
(concealment), every Friday they pretended to pray before an imam whom they actually
held to be an infidel…The other faction, which preached mufasala kamila,
or ‘total separation’ from society, agreed with the first tendency that jahiliyya
society had to be excommunicated. They were also aware of the danger of
pronouncing this excommunication while they were still living in society in a ‘phase
of weakness’. But their method of averting danger was to withdraw from society
and to create, on its margins, a little Society of Muslims, which would then
excommunicate jahiliyya society without ‘concealment’.” (Muslim
Extremism in Egypt: The Prophet and Pharaoh, pp. 74 – 75)
“In May 1975 the Cairo daily
newspaper al-Akhbar published an article about Shukri and his disciples,
calling them ahl al-kahf (people of the cave), an expression used in the
Koran to designate the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus and, by analogy, any others
who sought withdrawal from the real world. The group’s wanderings in the
mountains seem to have made an impression both on the authors of the police
reports and on the journalists who copied them. In reality, however, the group
had lived only very briefly in the grottoes. Most members lived together in
furnished rooms in the poor neighborhoods ringing Cairo and other cities.”
(ibid, p. 77)
The latter group described by Gilles
Kepel was the Jama’at-ul-Muslimin led by Shukri Mustafa (1942 – 1978).
They were nicknamed Takfir wal-Hijra by the Egyptian media. Undoubtedly
a pure Kharijite group, Takfir wal-Hijra was highly influenced by Syed Qutb’s Signposts
(or Milestones) and moulded by the political atmosphere created by
Nasser’s modernist, secularist and pan-Arabist regime in Egypt. But throughout
the history of the Umma, including its modern history, there have been various
tendencies and sects among the Muslims who practiced ‘Uzla to different
degrees. These groups often bore the unmistakeable mark of Kharijism, Shi’ism
and Sufism. These particular expressions of Islam share with each other a sense
of protest and dissent from the Muslim mainstream and political
establishment. I believe that a healthy dose of this expression of spiritual
and political dissent from the mainstream and the establishment is not only Islamic
but is, upon deep introspection, the very theme and flavor of pure Islam.
However, extreme manifestations of ‘Uzla such as mass-Takfir of
Muslim societies, terrorism against the State and even worse, against
civilians, and the doctrine of ‘concealment’, represent a fundamental
divergence from the Qur’anic and Sunni expression of ‘Uzla.
The Prophet ﷺ warned specifically about many groups emerging from the east,
their distinctive sign being their shaven heads (Sahih Muslim: Kitab al-Zakat).
This description fits many sects and subsects of Kharijism, Shi’ism and extreme
versions of Sufism based in the eastern lands, especially Iraq. To compare
these kind of misguided groups to the As-Hab al-Kahf is obviously a
mistake.
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