The
Book and Tradition
The Book of God, the
Holy Quran, is the principal source of every form of Islamic thought.
It is the Quran which gives religious validity and authority to
every other religious source in Islam. Therefore, it must be comprehensible
to all. Moreover, the Quran describes itself as the light which
illuminates all things. Also it challenges men and requests them
to ponder over its verses and observe that there are no disparities
or contradictions in them. It invites them to compose similar
work, if they can, to replace it. It is clear that if the Holy
Quran were not comprehensible to all there would be no place for
such assertions.
To say that the Quran
is in itself comprehensible to all is not in any way contradictory
to the previous assertion that the Prophet and his Household are
religious authorities in the Islamic sciences, which sciences
in reality are only elaborations of the content of the Quran.
For instance, in the part of the Islamic sciences which comprises
the injunctions and laws of the Shari'ah, the Quran contains only
the general principles. The clarification and elaboration of their
details, such as the manner of accomplishing the daily prayers,
fasting, exchanging merchandise, and in fact all acts of worship
('ibadat) and transactions (mu'amalat), can be achieved only by
referring to the traditions of the Holy Prophet and his Household.
As for the other part
of the Islamic sciences dealing with doctrines and ethical methods
and practices, although their content and details can be comprehended
by all, the understanding of their full meaning depends on accepting
the method of the Household of the Prophet. Also each verse of
the Quran must be explained and interpreted by means of other
Quranic verses, not by views which have become acceptable and
familiar to us only through habit and custom.
Ali has said: "Some
parts of the Quran speak with other parts of it revealing to us
their meaning and some parts attest to the meaning of others."
And the Prophet has said, "Parts of the Quran verify other parts."
And also: "Whosoever interprets the Quran according to his own
opinion has made a place for himself in the fire."
As a simple example
of the Quran through the Quran may be cited the story of the torture
of the people of Lot about whom in one place God says, "And we
rained on them a rain," and in another place He has changed this
phrase to, "Lo! We sent a storm of stones upon them (all)." By
relating the second verse to the first it becomes clear that by
"rain" is meant "stones" from heaven. Whoever has studied with
care the hadiths of the Household of the Prophet, and the outstanding
companions who were the followers of the Prophet, will have no
doubt that the commentary of the Quran through the Quran is the
sole method of Quranic commentary taught by the Household of the
Prophet.
The Outward and
Inward Aspects of the Quran
It has been explained
that the Holy Quran elucidates religious aims through its own
words and gives commands to mankind in matter of doctrine and
action. But the meaning of the Quran is not limited to this level.
Rather, behind these same expressions and within these same meanings
there are deeper and wider levels of meaning which only the spiritual
elite who possess pure hearts can comprehend.
The Prophet, who is
the divinely appointed teacher of the Quran, says: "The Quran
has a beautiful exterior and a profound interior." He has also
said, "The Quran has an inner dimension, and that inner dimension
has an inner dimension up to seven numerous references to the
inner aspect of the Quran.
The main support of
these assertions is a symbol which God has mentioned in Chapter
XIII, verse 17, of the Quran. In this verse divine gifts are symbolized
by rain that falls from heaven and upon which depends the life
of the earth and its inhabitants. With the coming of the rain,
floods begin to flow and each river bed accepts a certain amount
of the flood, depending on its capacity. As it flows, the flood
is covered with foam, but beneath the foam there is that same
water which is life-giving and beneficial to mankind.
As is indicated by
this symbolic story, the capacity for comprehension of divine
sciences, which are the source of man's inner life, differs among
people. There are those for whom there is no reality beyond physical
existence and the material life of this world which lasts but
a few days. Such people are attached to material appetites and
physical desires alone and fear nothing but the loss of material
benefits and sensory enjoyment. Such people, taking into consideration
the differences of degree among them, can at best accept the divine
sciences on the level of believing in a summary fashion in the
doctrines and performing the practical commands of Islam in purely
outward manner without any comprehension. They worship God with
the hope of recompense or fear of punishment in the next world.
There are also those
who, because of the purity of their nature, do not consider their
well-being to lie in attachment to the transient pleasures of
the fleeting life of this world. The losses and gains and bitter
and sweet experiences of this world are for them no more than
an attractive illusion. Memory of those who passed before them
in the caravan of existence, who were pleasure-seekers yesterday
and no more than subjects of stories today, is a warning that
is continuously present before their eyes. Such men who possess
pure hearts are naturally attracted to the world of eternity.
They view the different phenomena of this passing world as symbols
and portents of the higher world, not as persisting and independent
realities.
It is at this point
that through earthly and heavenly signs, signs upon the horizons
and within the souls of men, they "observe" in a spiritual vision
the Infinite Light of the Majesty and Glory of God. Their hearts
become completely enamored with the longing to reach an understanding
of the secret symbols of creation. Instead of being imprisoned
in the dark and narrow well of personal gain and selfishness they
begin to fly in the unlimited space of the world of eternity and
advance ever onwards toward the zenith of the spiritual world.
When they hear that
God has forbidden the worship of idols, which outwardly means
bowing down before an idol, they understand this command to mean
that they should not obey other than God, for to obey means to
bow down before someone and to serve him. Beyond that meaning
they understand that they should not have hope of fear of other
than God; beyond that, they should not surrender to the demands
of their selfish appetites; and beyond that, they should not concentrate
on anything except God, May His Name be Glorified.
Likewise when they
hear from the Quran that they should pray, the external meaning
of which is to perform the particular rites of prayers, through
its inner meaning they comprehend that they must worship and obey
God with all their hearts and souls. Beyond that they comprehend
that before God they must consider themselves as nothing, must
forget themselves and remember only God.
It can be seen that
the inner meaning present in these two examples is not due to
the outward expression of the command and prohibition in question.
Yet the comprehension of this meaning is unavoidable for anyone
who has begun to meditate upon a more universal order and has
preferred to gain a vision of the universe of reality rather than
his own ego, who has preferred objectivity to an egocentric subjectivism.
From this discussion
the meaning of the outward and inward aspects of the Quran has
become clear. It has also become evident that the inner meaning
of the Quran does no eradicate or invalidate its outward meaning.
Rather, it is like the soul which gives life to the body. Islam,
which is a universal and eternal religion and places the greatest
emphasis upon the "reformation" of mankind, can never dispense
with its external laws which are for the benefit of society, nor
with its simple doctrines which are the guardians and preservers
of these laws.
How can a society,
on the pretense that religion is only a matter of the heart, that
man's heart should be pure and that there is no value to actions,
live in disorder and yet attain happiness? How can impure deeds
and words cause the cultivation of a pure heart? Or how can impure
words emanate from a pure heart? God says in His Book, "Vile women
are for vile men, and vile men for vile women. Good women are
for good men, and good men for good women." (Quran, XXIV, 26)
He also says, "As for the good land, its vegetation cometh forth
by permission of its Lord; while as for that which is bad, only
evil cometh forth (from it)." (Quran, VII, 58) Thus it becomes
evident that the Holy Quran has an outward and an inward aspect
and the inward aspect itself has different levels of meaning.
The hadith literature, which explains the content of the Quran,
also contains these various aspects.
