Peace Be Unto Those Who Follow Right Guidance.
Recently, I have been reading Amr G. Sabet's Islam and The Political: Theory, Governance and International Relations (2008, London: Pluto Press). It makes for interesting reading and I hope to review some of the arguments presented in the next few entries on this blog.
However, in this article I want to briefly compare an observation made by philosopher Isiah Berlin which appears in the second chapter of Sabet's book ("Islam and The Appropriation of Modernity", p.85) with some Qur'anic signs/messages (ayaat) which bear on the issue of Tawhid (that is, the oneness and uniqueness of God/Allah and of the Islamic worldview/weltanschaaung):
First, the quote from Berlin:
There exists a great chasm between those, on the one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think and feel - a single, universal, organising principle in terms of which all that they are and say has significance - and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related by no moral or aesthetic principle; these last lead lives, perform acts, and entertain ideas that are centrifugal rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects, for what they are in themselves, without consciously or unconsciously seeking to fit them into or exclude them from any one unchanging ... at times fanatical, unitary inner vision [emphasis added].
And now, the signs/messages (ayaat) from The Qur'an:
(12:39) [Joseph/Yusuf said:] O my fellow prison inmates! Consider this: Are a number of separate lords/rulers (arbaabun mutafarriqoon) better, or God/Allah, One (in Person and Unified in Attributes), All Encompassing/Overpowering/Irresistable?
(17:42) Say: Had there been other gods/ultimate authorities (aaliha) with Him (God/Allah), as they assert, they would surely have sought a way (of opposition) to the Lord of The Throne.
(21:22) Had there been gods/ultimate authorities (aaliha) in addition to God/Allah, both (the heavens and the earth) would have been despoiled...
(23:91) God/Allah has not begotten a son, nor is there any god/ultimate authority (ilaah) besides Him. Had there been so, each god/ultimate authority would have taken away what he had created with him, and some would have risen over others (la-'a-laa b'aaduhum 'alaa b'aad)...
(59:14) [The hypocrites/opportunists] will not fight you in a body except in fortifies cities, or from behind the walls. Their conflict among themselves is great. You think they are united, but their hearts are divided (shatta).
(22:31) Turn uprightly to God/Allah without associating others with Him; for he who associates anyone with God/Allah is like a thing that falls from the sky and is either snatched away by birds or carried far away by the wind.
Peace
