Living The Quran
From Issue: 665 [Read full issue]
Whims
Al Jathiyah (Kneeling Down) - Chapter 45: Verse 23
"Have you seen the kind of person who takes his own whims as his gods? God has left that one astray - sealing his hearing, veiling his heart and covering his sight. So who can now guide him after God (has withdrawn His support)? Won't you take a reminder?"
One who comments on the eloquent text of a great man of letters or a great poet must study it closely and make fine distinctions in his commentary until he has explained the intended meaning of the text. The research gives expression to the purpose of the author of the text, and it sustains the meaning commensurate with the rhetorical norms of the writer. This is more obligatory and necessary when the text is a religious or sacred one, such as the text of the Quran, or a text of the Prophet, which attained the summit of human eloquence, and which turned within the horizon of the Quran, clarifying and detailing from the Prophet what was in the Book revealed to him.
It is enough for some words that one refers to the dictionary of the language for their explanation. However, some words are not understood except in the light of their context, and their purposes, and their local and historical situations.
We see how some have intruded what is foreign in the sciences of the Law, play in commentary on the words of the Quran and the hadith. It is a matter of regret to all with a kernel of knowledge, and to all with a conscience, for these are commentaries that do not rely upon the logic of religion or of language or of science. They are following only their whims, and as Ibn Abbas puts it, whim is the worst of what is worshipped on earth.
Compiled From:
"The Holy Quran: Guidance for Life" - Yahiya Emerick, p. 360
"Approaching the Sunnah" - Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, pp. 182, 183