I det vi sang i dag, peges vi på centraliteten af Allahs Sendebud, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, og at vi må overveje ham og hans rolle i tilværelsen. Jeg ønsker at fremdrage et enkelt aspekt, som er implicit i hans sirah, men som sjældent bliver ekspliciteret: blandt sendebudene, fred være med dem, var han civilisationens profet, dvs. Madinah, byen par excellence. Madinah blev etableret under vejledning af åbenbaring. Der er en parallel til Skibet Nuh, fred være med ham, som Allah sagde om, det som betyder: “Byg skibet under vores opsyn og som Vi åbenbarer.” (23:27) Imam Malik forbandt vores tema om Madinah og Nuh-skibet med hans ord: “Sunnah er Nuhs skib: den der går om bord på den, bliver frelst, og den der holder tilbage fra den, druknes.” Således har han givet os navnet på Madinan-ordenen: Sunnah. Sunnah er ikke kun længden af skægget eller tøjstilen. Det er et sødygtigt fartøj, der kan transportere et helt samfund. Et andet ord for Sunnah er hikmah – visdom. Allah, ophøjet er Han, beskriver sin profet, fred være med ham, som “at lære dem bogen og visdommen“, og folket i Koranens kommentarer forklarer, at visdomen her er Sunnah.
Nøglen til alle profeternes lære er i deres ord, som citeret i Koranen: “Så hav Allahs taqwa og adlyd mig.” Taqwa er eksemplificeret i tre dimensioner: Islam, Iman og Ihsan, som forklaret i Jibrils hadith. De giver os tre forståelser, for det arabiske ord fiqh betyder forståelse: forståelsen af handlinger, både tilbedelse og almindelige hverdagslige; forståelsen af hvad der kan siges om Allah, Sendebudene og om eksistensen; og forståelsen af ??hjertet og dets tilstande, både prisværdigt og bebrejdende. Denne sidste forståelse, som vores qasidah påpeger, er selve kernen, essensen af helheden.
Med profeternes bortgang tilfalder lydighed mod dem en gruppe blandt muslimerne nævnt i Surat an-Nisa’: “I der tror, adlyd Allah og adlyd Sendebudet og dem, der har kommandoen blandt jer.” Vores paradoks er, at opgaven for os i mange tilfælde er at skabe den gruppe for at adlyde dem, og desuden gøre det uden at udgøre en udfordring for eksisterende borgerorden, hvad enten det er i muslimernes eller ikke-muslimernes lande.
I alt dette må drivkraften være, som nævnt i vores sidste dhikr, kærlighed til hinanden, en kærlighed der altid vil udvide sig for nye mennesker, og kommer til udtryk i de ædle karakteregenskaber, som Budbringeren, fred være med ham, var sendt til perfektion, som er sammensat i ét arabisk ord: futuwwa, nogle gange oversat som ridderlighed.
Og det moderne menneskes dominerende vrangforestilling er ‘viljestyrke’. Den såkaldte civilisation i dag er en manifestation af menneskets vilje, og selv når det vil godt, er det katastrofalt. Allah siger, det der betyder, “så enhver der vil, skal tage vejen mod sin Herre. Men du vil ikke, medmindre Allah vil. Allah er Alvidende, Alvis.”
In what we sang today, we are pointed to the centrality of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and that we must contemplate him and his role in existence. I want to bring out a single aspect, which is implicit in his sirah but rarely made explicit: among the Messengers, peace be upon them, he was the Prophet of civilisation, i.e. Madinah, the city par excellence. Madinah was established under the guidance of revelation. There is a parallel with the Ship of Nuh, peace be upon him, about which Allah said, that which means, “Build the Ship under Our supervision and as We reveal.” (23:27) Imam Malik connected our theme of Madinah and the Ship of Nuh by his words, “The Sunnah is the ship of Nuh: whoever embarks on it is saved, and whoever holds back from it is drowned.” Thus he has given us the name for the Madinan order: Sunnah. Sunnah is not merely the length of the beard or the style of clothing. It is a seaworthy vessel, one that can carry an entire society. Another word for Sunnah is hikmah – wisdom. Allah, exalted is He, describes His Prophet, peace be upon him, as, “teaching them the Book and the Wisdom,” and the people of Qur’anic commentary explain that wisdom here is the Sunnah.
The key to all the teachings of all the Prophets is in their words as cited in the Qur’an: “So have Taqwa of Allah and obey me.” Taqwa is exemplified in three dimensions: Islam, Iman and Ihsan, as expounded in the hadith of Jibril. They give us three understandings, for the Arabic word fiqh means understanding: the understanding of actions, both worship and ordinary everyday ones; the understanding of what can be said about Allah, the Messengers, and about existence; and the understanding of the heart and its states, both commendable and blameworthy. This latter understanding, as our qasidah points out, is the very core, the essence of the whole.
With the passing of the Prophets, obedience to them devolves on a group among the Muslims mentioned in Surat an-Nisa’: “You who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger and those in command among you.” Our paradox is that in many cases the task before us is to bring about that group in order to obey them, moreover doing so without posing a challenge to existing civic order whether in the lands of the Muslims or the non-Muslims.
In all of that the motive power must be, as mentioned in our last dhikr, love for each other, a love that will always expand for new people and is expressed in the noble qualities of character that the Messenger, peace be upon him, was sent to perfect, which are comprised in one Arabic word: futuwwa, sometimes translated as chivalry.
And the dominant delusion of modern man is ‘willpower’. So-called civilisation today is a manifestation of man’s will, and even when he wills good, it’s catastrophic. Allah says, that which means, “so whoever wills should take the Way towards his Lord. But you will not will unless Allah wills. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise.”