NULLIFIERS OF ISLAAM -10

By

A. Haroun (Abu Imran)

The belief that the Guidance of someone other than the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) is more perfect than his guidance; or that the Ruling of other than the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) is Better than his Ruling.

This one is going to be a bitter pill to swallow for some!

It goes to say that the depth of a person's spirituality and belief in the religion he subscribes to is proportional to the depth of his knowledge and understanding of that religion. So I beg to ask the question; "how much of Islaam do (many) muslims truly know?". 

I must confess that the level of ignorance among muslims has reached unprecedented levels! So when we talk about the 'guidance of the prophet' or the 'sharee'ah', many muslims do not even know what is being talked about. In fact, the only thing many muslims understand by the word sharee'ah is the definition that enemies of Islaam have attached to it, definitions meant to poison the heart towards it.

There are muslims today whom all their lives have lived and dined outside the confines of Islaam and the only source of laws they know are man made laws as enshrined in the constitution. They know nothing about the laws of Allaah let alone contemplate it's superiority. Perhaps you will now understand why having more ignorant muslims perfectly suits the grand scheme to surpress Islaam. 

It is not possible to hang on the balance as a Muslim; one leg in Islaam and one leg out of it. Allaah says "O you who believe, enter into Islaam completely (whole heartedly) and follow not the footsteps of satan. He is to you an avowed enemy" (Q 2:258). You cant be identifying as a muslim (proud muslim as some say) and still consider the rules other than those of Islaam to be superior. It's one or the other!

This nullifier speaks of basically two things:

Those who believe that the guidance of someone other than the prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is superior. Guidance in this context is the entirety of the way of life of the prophet (peace be upon him) upon which he strived to put us on. This includes his speeches and behaviors. It is the (expected) belief of every muslim that muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم) is the best of mankind, and the guidance he brought to us, is the best of guidance. For one to believe that there could be any better than his', such a belief is capable of nullifying one's Islaam.

Allaah says “But no, by your Lord! They can have no Faith until they make you (O Muhammad) the judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission”. (Q 4:65).

The second is believing that the judgement of other than that of the prophet (peace be upon him) better than his'. People can be divided into two based on this;

1- Those who judge and agree to be judged by rules other than that of Allaah, believing that these are better and more preferable to the rules of Allaah and his messenger, then they are the ones explicitly called by the Qur'aan; kaafiruun (disbelievers), faasiquun (hypocrites) and dhaalimoon (evil doers/oppressors). In one of such verses Allaah says “And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are the kaafiroon (disbelievers).

2- those who judge by, and accept to be judged with rules other than those of Allaah and his messenger, but believe in their heart that the rules of Allaah are superior, and only permit doing so because they lack an alternative, then their case may be placed under the umbrella of 'conditional permissions'. This very simplistic summary requires further elaboration which may not be found in this discuss, because of the complexity and intellectual competence required for it's elaboration.

However, we will note that the second category of people typicaly describes our predicament in Nigeria. I would quickly add that, we can observe from the foregoing that this nullifier is one occassioned by the action of the heart (belief). It is therefore important as muslims to pay attention to our hearts at all times, lest it gets too attached to the Islamic abnormalities around that we soon begin to consider it the norm forgetting the dictates of Allaah and his messenger, drifting farther and farther off the coast of Islaam.

May Allaah ease our affairs and forgive our shortcomings.

TO BE CONTINUED IN SHA ALLAAH....