Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

For someone baffled by diversity of religions and comparable zeal and commitment shown by believers to their respective traditions and almost universal fact of someone born in some faith choosing to die in that faith, a few points call for attention.      Our situation resembles that of pilgrims travelling in the night to some unknown destination. Pilgrims are divided into different groups, holding different flags distinct identity of which is not clear during night hours. Pilgrims hold fast to their own groups imagining that others have misidentified the road to the destination. It is not quite clear if the destination is one or how to describe it for many pilgrims. Pilgrims are mostly mistrustful of one another’s travel documents. Many, however, imagine that they are following the well-trodden path of pious ancestors first lit by respective founders. During the dark hours it is not clear if the paths of different pilgrims criss cross. There are some pilgrims who stick t...

 There are, in the Muslim world, amongst masses, Sufis, poets, intellectuals though not amongst most of professional theologians, broadly, three attitudes regarding treating the religious other: a) Taking salvation of non-Muslim believing communities for granted, b) not worrying about it c) considering it to be not an object of enquiry here as it is God’s call while maintaining hope in the dominion of Mercy. Our view regarding salvation of religious other may be substantiated by noting how relations with it are here on earth as they figure in the historical record of community. One can’t here review all the major positions and events but only indicate possibilities that may or mayn’t have been fully realized so far at given place and time.     There has been general amnesty in principle to believers and nonbelievers of all kinds. The Islamic holy text can be and has been interpreted as extending freedom of religion to “disbelievers” or those outside the Abrahamic tra...

For Islam that requires affirming all revealed traditions/scriptures, known and unknown, as a condition for being a Muslim and has nurtured a civilization that assimilated/engaged with diverse religious/cultural forms and has, relatively, better record of peaceful coexistence with other traditions and great textual and other resources for building impressive non-exclusivist approaches as in Sufis, poets and Muslim sages, certain pluralistic ideas in the air today present an opportunity and not an embarrassment. The following is a selection from certain influential pluralists that echo Islamic tradition’s respect for difference without degenerating into groundless relativism that leaves no room for the Absolute and the emphasis on uniqueness and special access to truth of diverse traditions.  (It is ironic that exclusivist fundamentalism should have grown in Islamic lands in last two centuries and it is noteworthy that we can trace it to certain pathologies in colonial politics and ...

Exclusivist view of salvation of Muslims that holds sway amongst the laity and even theologians trained in seminaries has been a source of much debate amongst modern intellectuals and certain theologians influenced by modernity or postmodern hermeneutics. It has also been the Achilles’ heel of Muslim rationalism. Given widespread contacts between different faith communities in the face of globalization, classical attempts of defense of exclusivism need rethinking and certain more inclusive arguments need to be revisited.      Regarding apparently exclusivist verses “ Verily the religion, in the sight of God, is Islam… ” and “ If anyone desires a religion other than Islam never will it be accepted of him; in the hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost, ”  further observations made by several scholars are in order. Several Quran translators including M.A.S. Abdel Haleem insist on using the lowercase “i” suggesting that “islam is being used as a verb, w...

One of the most important problems in history is failure to admit that one doesn’t know or that there remain other options or possibilities besides the one’s chosen one or that one’s position is probable and could be questioned/reviewed by oneself or the other. Islam’s path breaking announcement expressed in its shahadah implied  bracketing all claims to finality/certitude  and recognizing that God alone is reality/truth/knowledge/certitude/beauty. From this metaphysical or ontological openness follow radical consequences including rejections of all absolutisms in the world of contingency. Even if we find certain statements in the canon so clear and unambiguous, the necessity of human filter/interpretation of it and multiplicity of contexts and possibilities of  change in their reception with time/situation introduce element of uncertainty or need to qualify one’s dogmatic absolutism. Without questioning the sovereignty of the Good and the absoluteness of the command and...

If the beauty of Muhammad (SAW) known to select saints and sung by such poets as Jami and Iqbal is known by any human, it is impossible to oppose it or ignore it. If Islam is submission to Truth/Reality who is against it? If this Reality is known or manifest by what is the Praised One, the Embodiment of all perfections that human nature aspires for, who can dare to oppose the later? If the beauty of Muhammad (SAW) known to select saints and sung by such poets as Jami and Iqbal is known by any human, it is impossible to oppose it or ignore it. If we note the distinction between Muhammad (SAW) as known by Muslims in history and Muhammad (SAW) as known by Homo religiosus as its own aspiration for transcendence/ideality or the image of perfection one adores, as the Messenger sent not only to all humans but all creation, as the Mercy of the worlds known and unknown, as the Envoy of the Absolute as such and not a person so and so, it needs to be debated whether it is possible or feasible to ...

Is heaven like a modern nation state that has restricted entry on the basis of birth in particular region/religion? Who says God has no reward for other faith communities? None of the towering scholars holds historical Islam has monopoly on salvation. Islam that alone is acceptable to God according to the Holy Qur’an embraces, as metaphysic, all revealed traditions and can’t be identified with Sharia tagged historical Islam given Sharia has kept changing previously but salvific efficacy hasn’t from Adam/Noah to Muhammad. The logic of salvation couldn’t change on any arbitrary date and none has so far fixed that date either. Islam questions those who maintain Judaic or Christian monopoly on salvation and can’t contradict itself by asserting its own monopoly. Salvation is primarily a function of metaphysical/esoteric core that stays/stayed unchanged across scriptures. Even if salvation of believers in other religions is theoretically not conceded, in practice when it comes ...

Nothing in Islamic culture makes sense except in the light of Tasawwuf . It was not till the 19th Century, under the influence of Orientalists, that Sufism began to be considered non-indigenous to Islam. Let us unfold these observations. Sufism understood as inner/spiritual dimension of Islam/ Ihsan and defined in terms of key aspects by various Masters – “attention without distraction,” awareness of the present moment, doing everything in style or with an eye on beauty, sincerity of purpose, guarding against nafs and all its guises, exclusive attachment to the Real, cultivating love/gnosis, science of stations/virtues, science of realization of freedom, adab , giving everything its due, seeing everything in terms of beauty, journey within from the self/ego/psyche to the non-self/Self/Spirit, to be truly oneself or just to be and share the treasure of one’s being or presence – has been of vital importance for understanding Islamic culture and much of intellectual-religious-spiritual ...