Part 17

In support of this, one may refer to the following tradition, reported by Al-Tirmidhee, among others. The Prophet % said:

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“Have haya’ in respect to Allah in the right sense of haya’!” “And what is haya’ in the right sense?” the Sahabah (Companions) asked. He said, “It is to control the head with what it perceives, the belly with what it contains, and to be mindful of the tomb and decay.”? In another tradition, the Prophet said:

“If you feel no haya’ (shame), then you can do anything.”

This last tradition is best understood in the way Abu Ubaid and the majority understood it, that it is a threat, rather similar to the purpose in the following Qur’anic verse:

“Do what you will,” (41: 40); or the other verse:

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“Eat and take your ease on earth a little.” (77: 46)

; Reported by Ahmad, Al-Tirmidhee and Al-Hakim; the last said about the line

of reporters: authentic, which was corroborated by Al-Dhahabee. Al-Baihagee reported it in his: “Shu‘ab Al-Eeman”. Al-Albanee rated the tradition as ‘good’, in: sahih Al-Jame’ (1/318)

, Reported by Al-Bukharee (10/523), by Al-Baghawee in Sharh Al-Sunnah, by Ahmad (4/121), and Al-Baihagee in “Al-Sunan Al-Kubra”.

According to others, the above tradition is a permission and allowance, in the sense that if you feel inclined to do something, then think before you embark on it: if it is such that you would feel afraid of Allah or of people when doing it, then do not do it; and if it does not cause you to feel haya’, do it, for it is not a sinful deed.

In my opinion, the above tradition is grammatically in the form of a demand; its real meaning is factual, rather similar to the common saying that he who has no haya’ (sense of shame) will do what he desires: it is not a permission or a direct threat. It has the effect of presenting a fact; it says that the deterrent to bad behaviour is only haya’, while a person who _ has no haya’ will do what he likes. The sense has been expressed in the form of a fact for a very curious reason, that a human has two commanders and prohibitors, a commander and prohibitor on behalf of haya’, which, if he obeys, it would make him abstain from doing all that he desires; and another commander and prohibitor on behalf of desire and nature. A person who fails to obey the commander and prohibitor representing haya’ will invariably obey the commander and prohibitor representing desire and caprice. By using the imperative, the above meaning is included, unlike the saying: “If you feel no haya’, then you can do whatever you desire.”

Consider now Allah’s mercy in endowing man with the two forms of expression, the oral and the orthographic. They have been stressed by the Almighty in the course of listing His graces to man. We can see this in the opening verses of the first surah revealed to the Messenger of Allah, 38:

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“Read in the name of thy Sustainer, who has created — created man out of a germ-cell! Read — for thy Sustainer is the Most Bountiful One, who has taught man the use of the pen — taught man what he did not know!” (96: 1-5)

See how Allah condenses in the above verses all the phases of creation; how the verses describe most concisely, coherently and beautifully the four levels of existence. He starts with creation in general, which is the conferring of external existence; then, since man is the target of attention here, He turns to the uniqueness of the creation of man to point out the significance of the creation, which, He emphasizes, is wondrous. By just considering his own creation, man can observe the many aspects of Allah’s bounties. In this place, the Qur’anic text only mentions the development of the human from a clot, while in other contexts it mentions the stages that preceded it. The first matter from which the creation of man was started is earth and mud, or ‘sounding clay’. In some other locations in the Qur’an, however, another material of creation is stressed, the liquid of little worth (i.e. semen). The Qur’an mentions here the first stage of formation, the clot. Prior to this, there is the drop of semen, which directly leads to the clot.

In the present context, a third phase is mentioned, teaching by the pen, one of the greatest blessings bestowed by the Lord on His servants, since it is the means for preserving sciences, confirming rights, transmitting teachings, recording witnesses, and reckoning the accounts of dealings among people. It is by means of writing that knowledge about ancestors is preserved for their progeny. Without writing, the events of bygone periods would be inaccessible to a later period, traditions would fade away, rulings would become confused, and the succeeding generations would be ignorant of the convictions of their ancestors; the major hurdle to

efficiency in people’s worldly and religious affairs would be oblivion, which blots out the items of knowledge from their minds. Writing is the vehicle that preserves knowledge from being lost, in the same way that cabinets preserve possessions from getting lost. Next to the Qur’an, writing is one of the most valuable of Allah’s blessings. Although acquiring knowledge by the pen is realized by intelligence and skill, the means by which this is made possible (i.e. writing) is a sheer blessing freely conferred by Allah, a free grant from Him and an additional bounty that raises man’s capability. It is the Lord who taught man reading and writing, notwithstanding man’s effort to learn. Man’s act of learning is in response to the Teacher who taught by means of the pen; He taught man, and man learned, rather in the same way as He taught man speech, and he spoke.

Besides, Who gave man the mental power that enables him to perceive incoming messages, the tongue that expresses what he desires to state, the fingers that commit it to paper? Who provided his mind with the ability to acquire knowledge, an ability that all other animals were denied? Who enabled man’s tongue to make utterances and his fingers to make dexterous movements? Who supported the fingers with the hand, the hand with the arm? Many a sign of Allah’s teaching with the pen do we pass by heedlessly!

Let us dwell for a while on the case of writing! Consider yourself, how you hold the pen, an inanimate object, apply it to the paper, another inanimate object, and from the meeting of the two objects emerge all sorts of wisdom and all branches of knowledge, the great variety of correspondence, sermons, prose and verse and treatises on specific issues. Who, then, caused ideas to occur to your

mind in a flux, and impressed them on your memory? Who caused the utterances that represent those ideas to run along your tongue, then to be inscribed with a movement of your fingers? It is an amazing inscription that emerges there, implying even more spectacular wonders than its visible form; it enables you to fulfill your wishes, to represent what you conceive in the depths of your mind, and transmit it to far off lands and various territories; it functions there as your emissary, representing what you have to say; it announces what your tongue would announce, plays the part of your messenger, often more effectively than a human messenger. Who but He has taught with the pen, taught man what he did not know?

Teaching by the pen implies all three levels of existence: the levels of mental existence, verbal existence and orthographic existence. Teaching by means of the pen is an indication that the Almighty is the One who bestows those levels; the word ‘created’ in the above verses is an indication that Allah bestows material existence. In a most concise, effective and eloquent way, the above verses assert that all levels of existence are attributed to the Almighty, in creation and in teaching. He mentioned two creations and two acts of teaching, a general creation and a special creation, a general teaching and a special teaching. He also mentioned here, referring to Himself, the attribute ‘Akram’ (the most generous, the noblest, the most perfect) which implies all good and perfection: all perfection belongs to Him as an attribute, and all good proceeds from him as action; He is the ‘Akram’ in Himself, in His attributes, and in His actions. The creation and teaching mentioned here are attributable to His generosity, liberality, and bounty; they do not proceed from any necessity that requires them: He is the Rich, the One deserving thanks.

If we consider another group of verses:

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“The Beneficent has made known the Qur’an. He has created man, He has taught utterance,” (55: 1-4), we find that they denote that the Almighty has conferred all levels of existence. When He says: “created man”, He is describing the bringing into existence in the external, concrete sense; and here, as mentioned above, the focus is on man. The expression “made known the Quran”, is a statement about the endowment of mental-intellectual existence. Man only learnt the Qur’an by being taught, in the same way that he was man by being created as man: it is He who created him, and taught him. The next verse says: “taught utterance”. Utterance (or expression) covers three levels of existence, each of which is called expression. One is mental expression, where information is conceived; the second is verbal expression, where this information is encoded and represented to others; and the third is orthographic visible expression, in which the uttered expressions are given a graphic shape, so that one can decode the sense by looking at the inscriptions, in the same way thata hearer perceives the sense by listening to sounds; the former addresses sight, the latter addresses hearing, and the mental expression addresses the mind. These three levels are often mentioned together in the Qur’an, as you see in the following verses:

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“The hearing and the sight and the heart — of each of these it will be asked. ” (17: 36)

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“And Allah brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and hearts that haply ye might give thanks.” (16: 78)

In other places in the Qur‘an, the Almighty rebukes those who fail to benefit from these channels to attain to