‘They Are Your Garments And You Are Theirs'

‘They Are Your Garments And You Are Theirs:

Marital Relation and the Metaphor of the Garment

Reflections on surat –al-Baqara 2:187

هن لباس لكم وأنتم لباس لهن

By Maulana Dr M Mansur Ali

Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain. (Khalil Gibran, The Prophet)

Marriage is the oldest traditions known to mankind. It is a continuation of that holy communion that took place between our first parents Adam and Hawwa (May Allah’s peace be on both of them) in the garden of al-Firdaws. Adam (as) enjoyed the bounties of his Lord in paradise. He knew no needs. However, as time passed by he yearned for human company. For love and warmth, for someone to share his thoughts with, to be intimate with, someone who can understand the beatings of his heart and deepest of his thoughts. Allah created his wife Hawwa (as) for him and thus filled the void in his heart. Together they roamed around in paradise, eating from its many delicacies when and whatever they wished. However, due to a momentary lapse of judgement caused by the whispering of the devil, together, they violated the only one restriction that Allah has commanded them to refrain from. As a result of this trespass divine Grace left them and they became acutely aware of their nakedness.  It is then that both Adam and Hawwa felt a second need, the need to cover themselves up.  They ran to the trees of paradise and started covering their innocence with its leaves. ‘Where can you run away from me Adam?’ said his Lord to him. ‘I’m not running to get away from you my Lord’, he replied ‘I’m running to hide from you out of shame and modesty’. (al-Tabari, Al-Araf: 7:22). The need for company and the need for clothes were two of the first needs that Adam (as) experienced in paradise, it then comes as no surprise that Allah refers to the relationship between a husband and wife using the metaphor of clothes and garments.

‘They (your wives) are your garments and you are theirs’ says Allah in the Qur’an. The metaphor of the garment is a very powerful one as it brings home the message. It creates in the mind a crystal clear picture of the relationship needed for a happy and healthy marriage. Clothes are a basic necessity for humans. They are used for warmth as well as beauty. 

Clothes have many qualities and functions. One of its qualities is that it keeps us warm. The sign of a healthy marriage is when the husband and wife feel warmth in each other’s company. Their very presence brings tranquillity to the hearts of their spouse, and the whole world feels like a cold empty void without the other.  

Our clothes are physically the closest object to our bodies. They trespass beyond the boundaries of what is socially accepted as ones comfort space. The husband and wife should be close to each other like the closeness of the garment to the naked body.  They should be able to share the most intimate of thoughts with each other without the fear of being judged by the other. They should be open and transparent with each other and should be able to communicate their feelings, frustrations, desires physical, spiritual and emotional with honesty and without embarrassment. 

Clothes are also a form of protection. They protect from harsh weather conditions as well as conceal physical imperfections such as a scar on our body. Here the analogy is three-fold: first and foremost the husband and wife should physically protect each other not only from outside threat but also from themselves. It defies all laws of human compassion and dignity that a man beats up his wife and then comes onto her like a beast for no other purpose than his gratification. He further adds insult to injury in the process by saying ‘I love you’.

Furthermore, it is the duty of the spouse to make sure that people are not bad mouthing their spouse, at least not in their presence and if they do then they should put them straight. That marriage is in a sorry state when one of the spouses is the centre of ridicule in the presence of the other and he/she does nothing about it. Even worse is when the spouse starts divulging intimate details and imperfections to others. It is in line with Prophetic practice that the spouse should conceal each other’s imperfections. Like the way our clothes conceal our physical imperfections, similarly we should conceal the imperfections of our spouse.

Similarly, our clothes function as a barrier from toxins and other harmful bacteria from coming on to our body.  Marriage is about faith and trust, it is a commitment made in the presence of God and in the presence of the community. A couple should not let any third party come between them and pollute their holy communion. Indeed it is one of the devil’s greatest triumphs to cause a split between the spouse by casting doubts on their fidelity and honour.

Obviously being human one will have ups and downs in their marriage. There is nothing un-human about this. ‘Marriage is a bed of roses’ says sister Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood, ‘but a bed of roses with many thorns.’ However, it is a test of character as to how one rises up from these problems. Once in a while our clothes get dirty. We wash our clothes in order to clean them. We may also add fabric conditioners for extra softness. Conflict resolution is an art one needs to master. One needs to have an understanding for the other’s point of view, listen to them attentively and try to understand their grievance. It won’t do anyone harm if a dollop of love conditioner was added in the process. People wash their own clothes in their homes. Similarly the first call of duty should be to resolve any problems amongst themselves without resorting to any third party. A common problem amongst some women is that they get their families involved in every little argument that they have with their husbands. This at times will only make the situation worse rather than better. It is only when the stain is really stubborn or the blanket is too big that one needs to take it to the laundry. When all avenues of conflict resolution have been exhausted only then should one resort to close ones and elders for help. And if the argument is about who is to do the next laundry, just remember the fabric conditioner.

Remember our clothes are ours, they are made to fit us, even if someone else wears exactly the same clothes it’s still not our clothes. Couples should take great care that they don’t drag their parents in to their arguments. Husbands should not search for their mother in their wives and wives should not search for their father in their husbands. ‘My mother used to do everything for me’ or ‘my father used to treat me like a princess’ are common sledgehammers used against each other.  If you really want to make a comparison with your parents [???], then it is better to make a horizontal comparison rather than a vertical one. How does your father treat your mother or vice versa? Accurate results will only yield when the comparison is being made between two husbands or two wives and not a father and a husband or a mother and a wife.

Many people boil down marital disputes to clash of personalities. However, unless the clash is severe, why should we see it as something detestable? Don’t we have differences and tensions in all phases of life? Shouldn’t we be celebrating our differences and respecting the other person’s likes and dislikes. Difference (ikhtilaf) in Islam is never seen as a bad thing, it is a part of the divine design of the cosmos to which we belong. What is abhorred is dispute (khilaf), antipathy and animosity. What is the joy of living in a monolithic world where everyone looks and thinks the same? Where is the challenge in this? A little bit of chilli and pepper brings out the kick in the curry and only enhances its flavour. The fabric in a cloth is made up by weaving strands of yarn vertically and horizontally. Although the fibres go in different direction they interlock at the intersection. Without the horizontal-vertical weaving the fabric will not exist. Their differences make the fabric. Without any differences there won’t be any spark in the marriage. Like the fabric our differences should be viewed as complimentary and not contradictory. As the Persian poet says: har gulera digar rang wa bu ast (every flower has a different colour and fragrance).  

From time to time clothes need repairing. It’s the little stitches that keep the clothes intact. Presenting one’s spouse with a big present at valentine whilst being neglectful towards her the whole year round will not mend the already big hole in the clothes. It’s the everyday little appreciations, coy remarks and playful gestures that will keep the stitches of the marriage intact.            

Despite being so close to us, we still need to take off our clothes and hang them in the closet at night. Similarly, despite being intimately close, we should give our spouse their own space lest they feel suffocated by our love. ‘Loving to death’ may not cause one to die, but it can result in a very unhappy spouse who needs time to herself. We need to understand that although we are bonded together as a couple, however we are individuals. And the sooner we understand this human condition the happier we will be in our marriage. As Gibran says:  And Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music … stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart.

There now remains one piece of analogy which will throw the whole metaphor of the garment in jeopardy. What should one do when it is time to change their old clothes? If this is your case then it is high time that you buy your wife a new SAREE.

Literary Aspects of the Qur’an: Al-Baydawi’s interpretation of Alif Lam Mim Using the Rules of Tajweed

By Maulana Dr M Mansur Ali

The Qur’an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy, invigorated the barren hearts of camel shepherds and transformed them in to guiding stars for humanity. That eternal and unimpeachable writ, which laid the foundation of a civilization that carried the knowledge of late antiquity in its bosoms and brought Europe out of its darkest hours. It had occupied the minds of philosophers, theologians, jurists and politicians of yesteryears. It had informed poetry, grammar, arts, aesthetics and belles-lettre. Umar II’s politics, Al-Rumi’s gazals, Al-Razi’s logic, Al-Ghazali’s ethics, al-Hariri’s prose, al-Attar’s poetry and Ibn Al-Arabi’s metaphysics all find their origins in this heavenly mandate. It had inspired the Sufi’s chanting of the souls, the music of the dervish’s reed, the literalism of the Salafi and the speculation of the rationalist. And yet its ultimate reality lies with Allah blessed be He in Whose hands is Dominion; and He over all things hath Power.

Muslims believe that the Qur’an is a literary miracle. An entire body of literature called ‘ijaz al-Qur’an had been developed to understand this miraculous aspect of the Qur’an. It uses eloquent Arabic language of the highest standard as well as a plethora of literary devices, the hallmark of any magnum opus. At times it employs short and fast paced verses resembling the beatings of the heart, whilst other times slow, meticulous and clear instructive verses are used to lay down points of law. Clear, unambiguous words, similes, alliterations, onomatopoeias, hyperboles, rhetorical questions, imageries, allegories, metaphors, aphorisms, euphemisms and ironies are its common features.

Whilst some verses of the Qur’an are clear in their meanings, others are somewhat ambiguous and veiled. Allah in his infinite wisdom had decided to keep some of the knowledge of his words concealed from public consumption, and it is only those who have been touched by divine aurora have been made privy to some of its mysteries. Some of these unclear verses constitute a set of cryptic letters found in the beginning of some chapters of the Qur’an, the meaning of which only Allah knows. These are known as al-huruf al-muqatta’at the disjointed letters, or al-huruf al-fawatih the opening letters such as Alif Lam Mim, Ya Sin, Ta Sin, Kaf Ha Ya ‘Ayn Sad. This did not stop scholars from exercising their God given intellect in trying to decipher these letters. For example where the majority of the scholars remained reticent to interpret the three letters Alif Lam Mim found in the opening section of sura al-Baqara the second chapter of the Qur’an, other scholars ventured to understand them. Some have interpreted them to mean Allah, Jibril and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), others opined that the Arabs were already familiar with these types of letters in their poetry, hence they were not a cause of confusion and contention for the immediate Arab audience of the Qur’an. A third group of scholars maintained that by employing simple letters of the Arabic alphabet, the contrast was being made between the literary works of the Arabs and the divine writ. That these were the very same letters employed to write both sets of writings, but how different are the outputs when the one is authored by the transcendent God and the other by mortal beings.

One scholar who attempted to appropriate some meaning to these letters was Qadi Abdullah b. Umar al-Shirazi al-Baydawi (d. 684/1286) a seventh/thirteenth century Shafi exegete of the Qur’an. Al-Baydawi’s interpretation is interesting as he makes an attempt to understand them using the rules of Arabic elocution (tajweed). The alif (in this instance a hamza) is a glottal letter (al-harf al-halqi) that emanates from the lowest point of the larynx closest to the lungs (aqsa al-halq). The letter lam is an alveolar letter (al-harf al-dhalqiyya) which articulates when the tip of the tongue makes contact with the roots of the upper incisors and the letter mim is an endo-labial letter (al-harf al-shafatayn) where the sound is forced through the lips by closing and opening of the inner lips.

Qadi al-Baydawi says that the vocal apparatus and the places of articulation (makharij al-huruf) are the same organs used by the respiratory system. The letters of alif lam mim cover the entire gamut of the respiratory system from the lower trachea to the outer lips. Since they constitute the words of Allah, al-Baydawi says that what can be learnt from them is that each and every breath that we take and every word that we utter should be in accordance with Allah’s will and pleasure.

These are human attempts to understand that which transcends our feeble minds as absolute truth only remains with The Absolute Truth (al-Haqq). After exercising their intellectual faculty, one is required to humble his knowledge in front of the Omniscience and all Muslims are required to concede in humility the emphatic statement Wallahu A’lam, and Allah knows best.

Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran

THE HISTORICAL PHILOLOGICAL APPROACH

By Mansur Ali

With the rise of European colonialism of the Middle East, the West became greatly interested in the Orient. Edward Lane’s ‘Customs of 19th century modern Egypt’ is a good example of this. Colonialists discovered large amounts of manuscripts tucked away in boxes in mosques and other religious centers. This led to a deeper academic interest. Upon studying these manuscripts orientalist scholars felt that the Muslim method of source criticism to be unscientifc and unscholarly, therefore they decided to study the Qur’an using their own parameters and methods of inquiry taking their cue from social theories and methods of Biblical criticism. This was the turning point in the study of the Qur’an in the west, which is still carrying on today not only by Western scholars but also by Muslims, sometimes to their own peril, as Taha Hussain and Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid had found out.

There are many methods of Biblical study and social theories, which have been employed to understand the Qur’an. To name a few; (a) Historical sociology and psychology, (b) Structuralism, (c) Hermenutica sacra, (d) Anthropological method, (e) Feminism and the theory of liberation and (f) the Historical philological approach.[1]

The historical philological approach is a method of Biblical study, which is used to find the answers to ‘when’, ‘what’, ‘how’, and by who. In the study of the Qur’an this method will be used to find the answers to when the Qur’an was written, what were the stages by which it came into being, how did it reach us and by who was it written?[2]

The historical critic in his search for the truth will apply the following criticisms to the Qur’an: (a) Form, (b) Term, (c) Text and (d) Literary criticisms.

Form criticism is a complete historic reconstruction of the Qur’an. This will be done through bypassing all auxiliary and subsidiary disciplines such as Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh. This is because the historical critic believes that Hadith and Tafsir are the product of a later generation, therefore they will not give us an accurate understanding of the Quran, rather the understanding of the Quran of a later generation.

Term criticism tends to find the implication a word had in the milieu that it was revealed in, and not what it means in the present. Text criticism finds answers to the question, ‘What were the earliest sources for the text?’ Again this is done by going directly to the Qur’an by working backwards. If two texts talk about the same subject, the historical critic sees it very necessary to establish a chronology of which text came first and which text came second. Literary criticism helps to determine anachronisms in a sentence.

In short it can be said that the historical critic is interested in the genesis of the text. The processes that the text went through are more important to them than the end product. It can be seen that this approach is diachronic in nature and not synchronic.[3]

Muslim scholars undertook the study of foreign vocabulary in the Qur’an, long before the Orientalists came unto the scene. The origin of this study stems from the claim of the Qur’an itself that it is a book written in pure Arabic (‘Arabiyyun mubin).[4] The tenth century scholar al-Suyuti (d.911) dedicated a whole monograph to this subject called ‘al-muhadhab fi ma waq‘a fi al-Qur’an min al-mu‘arrab’. He then summarized this book and included it as a chapter in his compendium of Quranic sciences called ‘al-Itqan fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an’.

The first modern orientalist to write on this subject was Aloys Sprenger, who came into contact with a lot of Arabic books, including al-Suyuti’s al-Itqan, whilst he was acting as a principal in the middle of the 19th century in a madrassa in Calcutta. Being a child of his time, Sprenger had a romantic streak in his study of Islam. He penned an article on the foreign vocabulary of the Quran, basing his article on al-Suyuti’s work. This article was published in the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ for 1852.[5] Another scholar by the name of S. Fraenkel followed suit in 1880. This was a more serious and detailed study.[6] Basing his article on the works of his predecessors, the great scholar Theodore Nöldeke wrote an essay on this subject for the 9th edition of the ‘Encyclopedia Britannica’ 1891.

Subsequent scholars who have dealt with this subject have generally adopted and reiterated the Sprenger- Nöldeke view. The most elaborate study in this field had been carried out by professor Arthur Jeffery, an early 20th century scholar of Semitic and Islamic studies.

Professor Jeffery studied at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he attained his degrees (BA 1918, MA 1920) and a degree in theology (B.Th 1926). In 1929 he received his PhD from Edinburgh University and a D.litt in 1938.

He was a teacher at Madras Christian college in India, when a center for Oriental and Islamic studies was founded in Egypt called the ‘School of Oriental Studies’ (S.O.S), affiliated with the American University of Cairo. Part time missionary scholars such as Dr. Zweimer and Dr. Watson did much of the work at SOS. In addition to these part-time teachings, the school needed the services of a competent orientalist with professorial status. Dr. Jeffery was chosen for this job. He Left Cairo in 1938 to occupy the chair of Near Eastern and Middle Eastern languages at Columbia University. One of his major interest was the textual criticism of the Quran, which he carried out throughout his life. He has contributed many books on this subject. Just to name a few: The Quran as a scripture; the textual history of the Quran; A variant text of Fa>tih}a; the orthography of the Samarqad codex; Materials for the history of the text of the Quran and the Foreign vocabulary of the Quran.

What is the driving force behind this extensive and intensive study of the Quran? Badeau answers this for us by saying, “As a minister of the Methodist church, he was devoted to the missionary, enterprise and exemplified in his own life and interests a deep Christian concern. His Scholarship had a Christian purpose, for he believed that only by a pain staking and exacting study of the Islamic materials could that faith be understood and a Christian contribution made to these who followed it.”[7]

In the introduction to his book, ‘Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran’, Dr. Jeffery writes, “One of the few distinct impressions gleaned from a first perusal of the bewildering confusion of the Quran, is that of the amount of material therein which is borrowed from the great religions that were active in Arabia at the time when the Quran was in process of formation.”[8] One way that Jeffery goes about proving this contention is by tracing words back to its philological origin. He lists over 300 words. The proposition is that if a foreign word is found in the Quran, then this will prove; (a) that the Quran has contradicted itself by claiming to be in pure Arabic, and (b) “ We are able to estimate to some extent the influences which were working on Muhammad at various periods in his mission.”[9]

Jeffery builds up his argument by summarizing the facts that al-Suyti mentioned about the difference of opinions amongst Muslim scholars regarding foreign vocabulary in the Quran. He then produces a list of all the foreign languages that al-Suyuti mentioned which are found in the Quran. He dedicates the rest of the introduction in expanding on these languages. He comes to the conclusion that Muslim scholars were incompetent in their analysis of foreign words in the Quran, as they did not possess adequate knowledge of these languages, also Western scholars have found many more foreign words in the Quran than Muslim scholars have ever found. Jeffery writes that when Muslim scholars found non Arabic words in the Quran, of the origin of which they don’t have a clue, they cloak their ignorance by saying it is of Berber or Nabtaien origin.[10] He says, “As a general rule, the philologers were at their best when dealing with Persian words, a fact which may perhaps be explained by the Persian origin of so many of these savants themselves.”[11]

Coming from a methodological point of view, it seems that Dr. Jeffery did not stick strictly to this approach. It can be seen that in his form criticism he did not always go direct to the Qur’an. Sometimes he went direct whilst other times he used the ideas of other scholars who came before Al-Suyuti. At times he resorted to Sprenger and Nöldeke, but he mostly depended on al-Suyuti.

Text criticism is applied to find out which words and versus of the Qur’an are ideas which pre-dates Islam, and which are the spiritual property of Muhammad. In the words of Jeffery, “To ascertain whether an idea or expression was Muhammad’s spiritual property or borrowed from elsewhere, how he learnt it and to what extent was it altered to suit his purposes.”

The application of literary criticism is to find anachronism in Muslim scholars’ interpretation of the Qur’an. An example of this can be seen in Jeffery’s analyses of the word ‘taht’. He blames the Muslim scholars for twisting the meaning of Arabic words and making them into non-Arabic words so that it corroborates with a borrowed idea.

The word ‘taht’ in Sura 19:24 is a proper Arabic word meaning ‘beneath.’ Muslim scholars have interpreted it to mean ‘bat}n’ meaning womb. This is because there is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars as to who spoke, was it the babe or was it the angel Gabriel from the bottom of the hill, this gave rise to variant readings of verse 19:24. Is it in the genitive case (fa na daha min tahtiha), or is it a subject (fa na daha man tahtaha)? Muslim scholars saw in Biblical sources that it was the babe that spoke therefore they readily accepted this view and interpreted ‘taht’ as ‘batn.’ In order to justify themselves they branded the word to be of Ethiopic origin.

Professor Jeffery identifies the foreign vocabulary of the Quran to be of three distinct kind: (a) Words which are entirely non Arabic such as istabraq and namaariq, (b) Words which are of Semitic origin, but have become naturalized into Arabic, and (c) Words which are genuinely Arabic but have been influenced in their meaning by the use of cognate language.

Dr. Jeffery gives his view as to the reason why there are foreign words in the Quran. He makes two assumptions, the first being that the Quran reiterates over and over again that the religion of Muhammad was something new to the Arabs, therefore new words had to be introduced to explain the new ideas. The second assumption is in the words of Jeffery, “ Muhammad had a penchant for strange and mysterious sounding words, he loved to puzzle his audience with these new terms though he himself had not grasped correctly their meaning.” [12]

In my critique of Dr. Jeffery it could be said that excluding the proper names he mentioned, we are left with about 275 words about which Montgomery Watt says, “About three quarter of the words in this list can be shown to have been in use in Arabic before the time of Muhammad ... Of the remaining seventy or so, though there is no written evidence of their earlier use, it may well be true that they were already employed in speech”[13]

Dr. Jeffery assumes that the Quran again and again mentions that it has brought something new. I disagree with him because in my reading of the Quran, I have found that it repeatedly asserts that Islam is not a new concept, but rather it confirms the teaching of the previous Prophets, and the people of Arabia where familiar with it because of their contact with these people, as acknowledged by Dr. Jeffery. As for the redundancy of the Arabic language, it can be said that the foreign words are equivalent to one percent of the holy Quran. It is an established fact that the Quran in its Arabic is a literary masterpiece.

In conclusion I can say that professor Jeffery very skillfully traces the origins of words back to its roots. It shows that he has a good command over the Semitic languages, and his application of the historical critical approach is very scholarly. Jeffery’s book, in my opinion, is an appraisal and annotation of al-Suyuti’s work, and an extension of Sprenger and Nöldek’s work. Although it cannot claim originality it certainly is an excellent exhibition of the of historical phillological approach.

Bibliography

Published work

Ali, Mohar, The Quran and the Orientalists, pp. 305-313, Jamiyt Ihya Minhaj al-Sunna, Ipswich 2004

Jeffery, Arthur, Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran, Baroda, Oriental institute, 1938. Online print http://www.answering-islam.org.uk/books/jeffery/vocabulary/

John Barton, The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation

Khan, Muhsin, The interpretation of the meaning of the Noble Quran, Da>r al-sala>m publication, Riyadh

Al-Suyuti, Jalal al-din, al-Itqan fi ‘ulum al-Qur’an, pp. 271-287, Dar al-kutub al-‘ilmiyya, Beirut.

Articles

Arthur Jeffery-A Tribute, Moslem World, vol. 50 (1960) pp. 230-247

Unpublished work

Notes by Dr. Andreas Christmann on theories and the study of Islam.
[1] Taken from notes provided by Dr. Andreas Christmann
[2] John Barton, The Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation, p. 9
[3] Taken from lecture delivered by Dr. Christmann on 10/02/2005
[4] cf. Surah 12:20, 14:4, 41:44
[5] J.A.S.B. 1852, pp. 109-144
[6] S. Fraenkel, De Vocabulis in Antiquis Arabum Carminibus et in Corno Pregrinis, Leiden, 1880
[7] Arthur Jeffery – A Tribute. Muslim World, vol. 50 (1960), pp. 230-247)
[8] Arthur Jeffery, Foreign Vocabulary of the Quran, p. 1, Baroda, Oriental institute, 1938, abbreviated after this is fvq.
[9] Fvq p. 2
[10] Ibid p. 31
[11] Ibid p. 32
[12] Ibid pp. 38-39
[13] Watt, Bell’s Introduction p.85, cited by Mohar Ali in The Quran and the Orientalists, p. 313