Followers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

My Quranic Understanding: NO PRIESTHOOD IN ISLAM

1. The Quran does not in any way condone nor allow the establishment of priesthood in the lives of human beings. Relationship between the Creator and human beings is personal and non-delegable. We have a direct relationship with God without any intercessors. The non-delegable nature of faith in God is clear from the following verse:

"And behold! you come to us bare and alone as We created you for the first time: you have left behind you all (the favours) which We bestowed on you: We see not with you your intercessors whom you thought to be partners in your affairs: so now all relations between you have been cut off, and your (pet) fancies have left you in the lurch!" (Quran: 6:94)

2. There will be no one to defend us before God for our deeds on earth as our deeds will be self-explanatory. Due to this, there as never been, probably until recent times, any semblance of priesthood in the “Islamic world”. Priesthood necessarily implies a group of persons dictating and formulating what the structure of beliefs should be and how it should be practiced. Any departure from such established and accepted “priestly” considerations and agreements are frowned upon as deviating from the “accepted norms of the religion”.


3. In other words, in the world of man, it is always probable that priests will invent a religion in the name of God. However, the Quran clearly states that no man can dictate back to God what God’s Way (religion) should be. (I have written elsewhere that Islam is not a religion but a Way of Life ordained by the creator)

“Say: "What! Will you instruct God about your religion? But God knows all that is in the heavens and on earth: He has full knowledge of all things”. (Quran: 49:16)

“What! have they partners (in godhead), who have established for them some religion without the permission of God? Had it not been for the Decree of Judgment, the matter would have been decided between them (at once). But verily the Wrong-doers will have a grievous Penalty”.(Quran 42:21)

4. The Quran is abundantly clear that God and God alone is to be served and he alone is the source of all knowledge. Hence, any “religious knowledge” about Islam must primarily be obtained directly from the Quran. Any other knowledge from any other sources, including the alleged reported Hadith of the Prophet must not contradict the Quran. Likewise, any fatawas (views) of acclaimed “Islamic scholars” also have to be verified with the teachings of the Quran regardless of how learned the scholar is claimed to be. This is important because non-verification of teachings from other sources with the teachings of the Quran may lead to the unpardonable sin of syirik. Syirik is tantamount to alluding partners to God. For example, we accept blindly the teaching of an Islamic scholar or anyone as the teaching of God - we are placing our trust solely in him rather than in God. He now has become our god or gods. If we follow our vain desires as opposed to God, our desire becomes our god - this is syirik.

“And most of them believe not in God without associating (other as partners) with Him” (Quran 12:106)

5. Priests, by whatever name they may be called, are human beings. As human beings, they are subjected to the usual human temptations of wealth, glory and power. Allah has warned mankind that many priests prey on people’s need for faith, ignorance, fear and hope simply to enrich and glorify themselves.


“O you who believe! there are indeed many among the priests and anchorites, who in Falsehood devour the substance of men and hinder (them) from the way of
God. And there are those who bury gold and silver and spend it not in the way of
God: announce unto them a most grievous penalty”
(Quran: 9:34)

6. Most priests, doctors of religion and religious scholars have a tendency to promote themselves and hold themselves out to society as “men of God”, “the experts or the learned ones” and they invariably surround themselves with an aura of sanctity with diverse paraphernalia and language. These personas often mislead many unthinking people away from the path of God such that the word and opinions of these groups of persons are treated as godly. In time, they are treated as gods whose views cannot be opposed or challenged by others outside their circle.

“Have you not seen those who claim sanctity for themselves? No! – it is God who sanctifies whom He pleases. But never will they fail to receive justice in the least little thing”. (Quran 4: 49)

7. In the Quran, God has given the example of the Pharaoh who positioned himself as a god. None of the Egyptians are at liberty to have their own religious views other than that which is sanctioned or permitted by him.

“(Pharaoh) said: "Believe you in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you magic! be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm-trees: so shall you know for certain, which of us can give the more severe and the more lasting punishment!" (Quran 20:71)

8. God has stated in the Quran, that you have persons, by whatever name they are called, who will sound like they are quoting from the book of God but in fact, they distort and corrupt the true meanings to suit their personal opinions. This can only be done by people with knowledge but have a desire to manipulate things for their benefit.

“There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is no part of the Book; and they say, "That is from God," but it is not from God: It is they who tell a lie against God, and (well) they know it!” (Quran 3:78)

“Behold! how they invent a lie against God! but that by itself is a manifest sin!” (Quran: 4:50)

9. Even though the institution of priesthood is not allowed in Islam, it is evident that informal priesthood has evolved in the “Islamic world” where you have sections of so-called people of knowledge who take upon themselves as the final and sole interpreter of God’s words. In Iran, this is very evident where various “ayatollahs” have taken very active roles in politics. This new culture of religious persons/priests taking partisan stands often tends to bring people away from the path of God. This is because, the priests, now armed with political powers are able to coerce weak people into adopting their ideologies in the name of God even though it far from God’s teachings.

10. One of the techniques of social and political persuasion used by priests to force their ideas onto the ordinary believers is by using the logic of majority or consensus. I humbly suggest that the argument of consensus and majority, however expedient it may be for administrative purposes, does not guarantee the truth nor is it relevant to the determination of a person’s true faith. A thousand lies agreed upon by a thousand people repeated a thousand times from generation to generation do not make it a truth. Once upon a time, the majority believed that the world was flat. Ideally, truth must be founded on facts and reason and must be consistent with the “natural laws”. True faith cannot be born from compulsion.

“Were you to follow the majority of those on earth, they will lead you away from the way of God. They follow nothing but conjecture: they do nothing but lie”. (Quran 6:116)


The Creator knows best.

Peace!

6 comments:

Khalid said...

I think you are being vague on point 9. I think we have to be absolutely clear on the role of ulama in Islam. Who qualifies to be ulama? Is there a conferring body ? Is it a sin to speak up against ulama? If ulama are the beneficieries of the anbiya, who were the ulama during the prophets time? can a doctor be an ulama or must he go to sekolah pondok first?Is the doa by an ulama better than the doa of an individual so we have to invite the Pak Lebai to read doa during a khenduri? These are questions which i think need to be clarified.

Jahamy said...

Khalid,

God willing, I will be writing my views on who is an "ulema" as distinct from "religious teachers" soon.

For the moment, it is my view that religious scholars are for centuries wrongly called "ulemas" when the correct term from the Quran is "habr".

peace !

ramsys said...

I believe it was due to our ignorant that breed these people.

Anonymous said...

Great Article bro . not only iran , in Egypt we have azhari imamas make themselves the new priesthood of islam and the so called correct doctrines the same in saudi arabia and among salafists and shias , it's so bad , they are the ones responsible for all the havoc in the world they are just paying lip service saying there is no priesthood in islam while they are the new priesthood of islam with their stupid institutions , ISLAMIC PRIESTHOOD MUST BE ABOLISHED FOREVER . they are bunch of hypocrites they believe that they are the only ones responsible for interpreting quran hadeeth and giving fatwas what a mockery ! they even launch inquisition against anyone differ with them , like in Egypt there was a muslim thinker who was accused by al azhar of heresy and declared kafir ! they even decided to force him to divorce his wife ! against his will and against his wife's will ! then they fled to holland together to run away from such stupid tyranny of al azhar idiots islamofacist bastards the real heretics the real betrayals of the prophet the filthy pigs even daring to criticize the catholic inquisition and mocking christian tyranny while they are blinded of their own tyranny and their own establishment of islamic inquisition , we became the mockery of the nations because of such bastards , WE MUST CRUSH THE AUTHORITY OF IMAMS AND SHEYKHS . blessings bro , Greetings From Egypt .

NAUSHAD said...

This verse “Were you to follow the majority of those on earth, they will lead you away from the way of God. They follow nothing but conjecture: they do nothing but lie”. (Quran 6:116) is a prima facie contradiction of hadith: "my people shall not agree upon an error, therefor follow the majority". To clear the contradiction, the verse is talking about all people, Muslim and non-Muslim. Whereas the hadith is talking only of Muslims.

NAUSHAD said...

The Prophet (pbuh) battled the idol worshippers until he won. We have a new breed of worshipper, the deaf, dumb and blind Muslim pagan worshipper. One who threw the Quran away and adopted pagan teachings of the Mesopotamians (caliphate, monarchy and secularism), Greeks (philosopher King and Sufi'ism), Syrians (marry the rapist and honour killings), Egyptians (female genital mutilation), Jews (ulema, mathaibs and fatwas), Zoroastrians (12 Imaams/commanders of the Shia), Christians (clergy), etc. And of course logical fallacies: "my people shall not agree upon an error" converted to "my ulema shall not agree upon an error", 4 witnesses required for adultery converted to 4 witnesses required for rape, etc. Adopting laws subject to the context of the 7th century: slavery, colonialism, war booty, huddod, Jizya, apostasy laws, observation of the moon with the naked eye, etc. Then lots of lies attributed to God and His Prophet too. When God says the people must obey the Quran and Sunnah (which is a democracy because God is asking the people to obey. How do they obey? When the people themselves pass laws.), the Ulema says no, the Ulema must obey the Quran and Sunnah (which is what happened with mathaib formation in the 9th century which is nothing but an ecclesiocracy). “There is among them a section who distort the Book with their tongues: (As they read) you would think it is a part of the Book, but it is no part of the Book; and they say, "That is from God," but it is not from God: It is they who tell a lie against God, and (well) they know it!” (Quran 3:78) I wonder what the punishment for the Ulema will be on Judgement day for taking this burden of lies, innovations and logical fallacies on their necks. I will never carry a burden like this. Pagan Islam is a chaotic mess. And now we can understand why our duas for Allah to help the Syrians, Palestinians, Yemenis, etc are falling on deaf ears. "They have taken their rabbis and their monks (as) Lords besides God and the Messiah, son (of) Mary. And not they were commanded except that they worship One God. (There) is no god except Him. Glory be to Him from what they associate (with Him)" (9:31). The pagan Muslims who worship their imams, sheikhs, etc should ponder this verse. Even if this verse applies to the Christians of the 7th century, it applies equally to the Muslims of today.