The New Nation - Internet Edition

When I arrived in Basra, I settled in a mosque. The imam of the mosque was a Sunnite person of Arabic origin named Shaikh 'Umar Tai. When I met him I began to chat with him. Yet he suspected me at the very beginning and subjected me to a shower of questions. I managed to survive this dangerous chat as follows: "I am from Turkey's Igdir region. I was a disciple of Ahmad Effendi of Istanbul. I worked for a carpenter named Khalid (Halid)." I gave him some information about Turkey, which I had acquired during my stay there. Also, I said a few sentences in Turkish. The imam made an eye signal to one of the people there and asked him if I spoke Turkish correctly. The answer was positive. Having convinced the imam, I was very happy. Yet I was wrong. For a few days later, I saw to my disappointment that the imam suspected that I was a Turkish spy. Afterwards, I found out that there was some disagreement and hostility between him and the governor appointed by the (Ottoman) Sultan.

Having been compelled to leave Shaikh 'Umar Effendi's mosque, I rented a room in an inn for travellers and foreigners and moved there. The owner of the inn was an idiot named Murshid Effendi. Every morning he would disturb me by knocking hard at my door to wake me up as soon as the adhan for morning prayer was called. I had to obey him. So I would get up and perform the morning prayer. Then he would say, "You shall read Qur'an-al karim after morning prayer." When I told him that it was not fard (an act commanded by Islam) to read Qur'an al-karim and asked him why he should insist so much, he would answer, "Sleeping at this time of day will bring poverty and misfortune to the inn and the inmates." I had to carry out this command of his. For he said otherwise he would send me out of the inn. Therefore, as soon as the adhan was called, I would perform morning prayer and then read Qur'an al-karim for one hour.

One day Murshid Effendi came to me and said, "Since you rented this room misfortunes have been befalling me. I put it down to your ominous ness. For you are single. Being single (unmarried) portends ill omen. You shall either get married or leave the inn." I told him I did not have property enough to get married. I could not tell him what I had told Ahmad Effendi. For Murshid Effendi was the kind of person who would undress me and examine my genitals to see whether I was telling the truth.

When I said so, Murshid Effendi reproved me, saying, "What a weak belief you have! Haven't you read Allah's ayat purporting, If they are poor, Allahu ta'ala will make them rich with His kindness'? (4)" I was stupefied. At last I said, "All right, I shall get married. But are you ready to provide the necessary money? Or can you find a girl who will cost me little?"

After reflecting for a while, Murshid Effendi said, "I don't care! Either get married by the beginning of Rajab month, or leave the inn." There were only twenty-five days before the beginning of the month of Rajab.

Incidentally, let me mention the Arabic months; Muharram, Safar, Rabi'ul-awwal, Rabi'ul-akhir, Jemaziy-ul-awwal, Jemaziy-ul-akhir, Rajab, Shaban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Zilqada, Zilhijja. Their months are neither more than thirty days, nor below twenty-nine. They are based on lunar calculations.

Taking a job as an assistant to a carpenter, I left Murshid Effendi's inn. We made an agreement on a very low wage, but my lodging and food were to be at the employer's expense. I moved my belongings to the carpenter's shop well before the month of Rajab. The carpenter was a manly person. He treated me as if I were his son. He was a Shi'ite from Khorassan, Iran, and his name was Abd-ur- Rida. Taking the advantage of his company, I began to learn Persian. Every afternoon Iranian Shi'ites would meet at his place and talk on various subjects from politics to economy. Most often than not they would speak ill of their own government and also of the Khalifa in Istanbul. Whenever a stranger came in they would change the subject and begin to talk on personal matters.

They trusted me very much. However, as I found out later on, they thought I was an Azarbaijani because I spoke Turkish.

From time to time a young man would call at our carpenter's shop. His attirement was that of a student doing scientific research, and he understood Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. His name was Muhammad bin Abd-ul-wahhab Najdi. This youngster was an extremely rude and very nervous person. While abusing the Ottoman government very much, he would never speak ill of the Iranian government. The common ground which made him and the shop-owner Abd-ur-Rida so friendly was that both were inimical towards the Khalifa in Istanbul. But how was it possible that this young man, who was a Sunni, understood Persian and was friends with Abd-ur-Rida, who was a Shi'i? In this city Sunnites pretended to be friendly and even brotherly with Shi'ites. Most of the city's inhabitants understood both Arabic and Persian. And most people understood Turkish as well.

Muhammad of Najd was a Sunni outwardly. Although most Sunnites censured Shi'ites, in fact, they say that Shiites are disbelievers this man never would revile Shi'ites. According to Muhammad of Najd, there was no reason for Sunnites to adapt themselves to one of the four Madhhabs; he would say, "Allah's Book does not contain any evidence pertaining to these Madhhabs." He purposefully ignored the ayat al-karimas in this subject and slighted the hadith ash-Sharifs.

Concerning the matter of four Madhhabs: A century after the death of their Prophet Muhammad 'alaihis- salam', four scholars came forward from among Sunnite Muslims: Abu Hanifa, Ahmad bin Hanbal, Malik bin Anas, and Muhammad bin Idris Shafi'i. Some Khalifas forced the Sunnites to imitate one of these four scholars. They said no one except these four scholars could do ijtihad in Qur'an al-karim or in the Sunnat. This movement closed the gates of knowledge and understanding to Muslims. This prohibition of ijtihad is considered to have been the reason for Islam's standstill.

Shi'ites exploited these erroneous statements to promulgate their sect. The number of Shiites was smaller than one-tenth that of Sunnites. But now they have increased and become equal with Sunnites in number. This result is natural. For ijtihad is like a weapon. It will improve Islam's fiqh and renovate the understanding of Qur'an al-karim and Sunnat. Prohibition of ijtihad, on the other hand, is like a rotten weapon. It will confine the Madhhab within a certain framework. And this, in its turn, means to close the gates of inference and to disregard the time's requirements. If your weapon is rotten and your enemy is perfect, you are doomed to be beaten by your enemy sooner or later. I think, the clever ones of the Sunnites will reopen the gate of ijtihad in future. If they do not do this, they will become the minority and the Shi'ites will receive a majority in a few centuries.

[However, the imams (leaders) of the four Madhhabs hold the same creed, the same belief. There is no difference among them. Their difference is only in worships. And this, in turn, is a facility for Muslims. The Shi'ites, on the other hand, parted into twelve sects, thus becoming a rotten weapon. There is detailed information in this respect in the book Milal wa Nihal].

The arrogant youngster, Muhammad of Najd, would follow his nafs (his sensuous desires) in understanding the Qur'an and the Sunnat. He would completely ignore the views of scholars, not only those of the scholars of his time and the leaders of the four Madhhabs, but also those of the notable Sahabis such as Abu Bakr and 'Umar. Whenever he came across a Koranic (Qur'an) verse which he thought was contradictory with the views of those people, he would say, "The Prophet said: I have left the Qur'an and the Sunnat for you.' He did not say, I have left the Qur'an, the Sunnat, the Sahaba, and the imams of Madhhabs for you (5).' Therefore, the thing which is fard is to follow the Qur'an and the Sunnat no matter how contrary they may seem to be to the views of the Madhhabs or to the statements of the Sahaba and scholars (6)."

(Source: Waqf Ikhlas, Istanbul)