Islam's Reformers .pdf

when His attribute of Jamâl (Beauty) surrounds them, theyforget about the torture in Hell and the fear of Allâhu ta’âlâ; inthese states called ecstacy of tasawwuf, they utter wordsslighting love or fear, respectively, but when they recover, theyrepent for such words.The âyats “Those who work should work for these veryhappinesses!” (sûrat as-Sâffât, 61) and “Those who competeone another should compete for this,” (sûrat al-Mutaffifîn,26) order to work willingly for the blessings in Paradise.Ahmed Mithat, a so-called modernist reformer, in his bookNizâ-i ’Ilm ve Dîn (The Disputes Between Knowledge andReligion), tries to flout the belief in the Rising Day, which is afundamental of îmân, while he represents each of the blessingsof Paradise such as food, drinks and houris as conceptspleasing one’s greed and materialistic desires. It is glaringlyevident that the religion reformers, whose sole concern in thisworldly life is to run after these pleasures, who castigate theIslamic scholars because they do not state that the religiouspractices also should be intended to attain these worldlypleasures, and who say that people should devote themselvesto worship in order to attain these worldly pleasures, which, tothem, are more attractive, more delicious and more effectivethan anything else, expostulate about the existence of thesepleasures in Paradise for the purpose of maligning the Sharî’at.Such unpleasant allusions to Islamic scholars, who struggled toget Muslims absorbed in performing ’ibâdât in order that theymight attain the blessings of Paradise and escape punishmentin Hell, have been seen so often. For example, a Bektâshî said:“Whenever a zâhid [1] mentions Paradise,He talks about eating and drinking.”Such words direct unplesant allusions to the eighteenth âyatof the sûrat al-Wâqi’a. Another group in denial of the blessingsof Paradise and the punishments in Hell say that they are of novalue when compared to love of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Yet the fact isthat a person’s performing ’ibâdât for them does not indicatethat he does not love Allâhu ta’âlâ. Those whom Allâhu ta’âlâloves are in Paradise and Allâhu ta’âlâ is pleased with thosewho are in Paradise. Indeed, the greatest felicity is to attain His[1] A person who has much zuhd, i.e. who has freed his heart fromwhatever is worldly.- 76 -