The Proof of Prophethood by Huseyin Hilmi Isik - HTML preview

FOOTNOTES (1-5)

[1] Jesus.

[2] The intellect admits a liar's displaying mu'jizas and says, "Since Allâhu ta'âlâ is Almighty, He can do this, too." This conclusion, which is not compatible with divine law, or even the rare occurrence of events suitable with this conclusion, does not harm our knowledge of events that are compatible with the divine law of Allâhu ta'âlâ. For example, killing or revivifying by the ad-Dajjâl, the liar who will come towards Doomsday, does not change our knowledge about his being a liar. The fact that Nimrod's fire did not burn Ibrâhîm ('alaih 's-salâm) does not change Allâhu ta'âlâ's law that gives a burning capacity to fire. However, the occurrence of events contradicting information acquired by the intellect through proofs gives harm to this information.

[3] “...: and none can know the forces of thy Rabb [Allâhu ta’âlâ], Except He. ...”(74-31)

[4] It is essential in îmân to accept the commandments, that is, to believe that is necessary to do the commands and to abstain from the prohibitions. One who believes most of the commandments but disbelieves only one of them and does not want to obey it will have disbelieved Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salâm). He will become an unbeliever. Being a Muslim requires, believing in all the commandments. If a Muslim, though he believes the commandments, disobeys them, e.g. does not perform salât out of laziness, or, following his bad friend or nafs, has alcoholic drinks, or, in case of a woman or girl, goes out with her arms and/or head uncovered, he or she does not lose their îmân or become an unbeliever. A person of this sort is a sinful, disobedient Muslim. If he does not want to obey even one of the commandments, that is, if he disapproves it, does not esteem it as a duty or slights it, he loses his îmân and becomes a murtadd (renegade). Such statements as, "What if I do not perform salât and go out with a bare head? Living and doing favours to people have precedence over salât,” mean to approve some of the commandments and disapprove others. Every Muslim must pay attention to this subtle point, and those who disobey the commandments must be vigilant lest they should lose their îmân. Neglecting the commandments is different from wishing not to obey them. These two should not be confused!

[5] Tawâtur is the state of being widespread or being reported by most people, which is a document for authenticity and makes denial impossible.

FOOTNOTES (6-15)

[6] Examples of these are given in the book Endless Bliss, refer to ‘idiosyncrasy’ and ‘allergy’.

[7] Furthermore, some medicinal preparations which have been found useful by scientists and doctors by means of experimentation and bought eagerly for considerable sums of money by everybody are frequently found out to be harmful afterwards. Lists of such preparations, each concluded with a sentence banning their sale, are regularly dispatched by health authorities to drugtores. Factories manufacturing such drugs are closed down by governments. It has become a usual topic for daily newspapers that some much-sought-after medicines have proven to be harmful afterwards. It has appeared again in daily newspapers repeatedly in recent years that hundreds of popular medicines that are called antibiotics cause heart disease and cancer and that some detergents are deleterious to health.

[8] Saj' means the continuous cooing of the dove. In prose, it means the ryming that occurs at the end of sentences.

[9] Abû Bakr Baqillânî died in 400 A.H.

[10] Heraclius died in 20 A.H.

[11] Ibrâhîm Nishaburî passed away in 400 After Hijra.

[12] The two sûras beginning with "Qul-a'ûdhu."

[13] Moses.

[14] They themselves did not like this, so they could not read it in the presence of Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salâm).

[15] As it is seen in the previous passage, a mu'jiza is created by Allâhu ta'âlâ. Everything is created by Allâhu ta'âlâ. There is no creator other than Allâhu ta'âlâ. Only, in order for there to be order in the world and in worldly affairs, He has made the creation of everything dependent upon some causes. A person who wishes something to be created applies the cause related to that thing. Most causes are things that can be found by thinking, experience or calculation. When the cause of something is applied, Allâhu ta'âlâ creates it if He wills to. The case is not so with a mu'jiza or karâma, Allâhu ta'âlâ creates these in an extraordinary way, without causes. Holding fast to the causes means to follow His law of causation. When He creates something without causes, He suspends His law and creates it exraordinarily. A mu'jiza happens only through Prophets. It does not happen through other people. Saying, "He performed a miracle," or "He was saved miraculously", which are said to praise someone, is the same as saying that the person in question is aProphet. In this matter, not the intention but the expression should be considered. It causes disbelief to ascribe prophethood to someone. He who does so loses his îmân. So is the case with calling anyone other than Allâhu ta'âlâ "Creator" or saying that somebody has created such and such a thing. Muslims must avoid uttering such dangerous words.

FOOTNOTES (16-20)

[16] The word ‘harf’, as it is written in the book Riyâd an-nâsîhîn, means dialect, reading. The copy of the Qur'ân al-kerîm compiled by Hadrat Abû Bakr contained all of the seven different kinds of readings. When Hadrat ’Uthman became the Khalîfa, he convened the Sahâbat al-kirâm and it was unanimously decided that the new copies of the Qur'ân would be written as Rasûlullah ('alaihi 'ssalâm) had recited it in the last year of his life. It is wâjib to read the Qur'ân as such. It is also permissible to read it in the other six ways.

[17] Here, al-Imâm ar-Rabbânî (quddisa sirruh), referring to the book Sharh-i mawâqif, wrote in detail that, according to a branch of knowledge called balâghat (rhetorics), the âyat “Hâdhâni lasâhirâni” is in a degree of i'jâz. We have not translated that part.

[18] People who study the English literature and linguistics must be familiar with types of verbal parallelism such as anaphora, cataphora, epistrophe, symploce, anadiplosis, epanalepsis, antistrophe polyptoton, and so forth.

[19] For those who wish to know about the beautiful life of Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salâm), we recommend the Turkish books Qisâs-i Anbiyâ and Mawâhib-i ladunniyya.Also, there is detailed information in the first part of the Turkish original, and in the first fascicle of the English version (Chapter 56) of Endless Bliss, under the heading Hilya-i Sa'âdat.

[20] Hadrat Muhammad and the Qur'ân, Part 2, Chapter 2; London.

FOOTNOTES (21-40)

[21] Weekly periodical, The Muslim World, Pakistan, August 26, 1972.

[22] Jean Mocheim, German theologian and historian, died in 1169 (1755)

[23] ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, Edward Gibbon, edited by Dero A. Saunders, pp. 650-660.

[24] Jacques-Yves Cousteau [1911-1997] French underwater explorer.

[25] Sayyid: a descendant of the Prophet.

[26] Âlim: Muslim scholar.

[27] Ahl as-Sunnat: the true followers of (the Companions of) the Prophet. Jerîde-i 'Ilmiyye Mecmû'ası, no. 48, p. 1484.

[28] Tamerlane, or Tamburlaine.

[29] Please see the twelfth chapter.

[30] faid: ma'rifa.

[31] harâm: act, thing, forbidden in Islam.

[32] ma'rifa: knowledge about Allah, inspired to the hearts of Awliyâ': pl. ma'ârif.

[33] karâmât: miracles Allah works through Awliyâ'.

[34] Adhân: the call to prayer.

[35] Rasûlullah: Hadrat Muhammad, the "Prophet of Allah.'

[36] Salât: namâz, ritual prayer.

[37] Sahâbî: a companion of the Prophet.

[38] Âbânî: white cotton material embroidered all over with small squares of yellow thread.

[39] Al-murshid al-kâmil: the perfect guide.

[40] Qutb: the highest Walî in one or several countries, with whom other Walîs consult about their problems

FOOTNOTES (41-60)

[41] Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca.

[42] Halâl: permitted, unquestioning.

[43] Îmân: faith, belief.

[44] Sunnat: those things done and liked by the Prophet.

[45] İmâm: A Muslim leading the congregational salât.

[46] Takbîr: the phrase "Allâhu akbar" (Allah is the Greatest).

[47] Ârif: a great Walî whose heart has gained knowledge about Allâhu ta'âlâ's Person and Attributes. One higher among the 'ârifs is called "kâmil." An 'ârif kâmil who can pour this knowledge into his disciple's heart is called a "mukammil."

[48] Sûfiyya al-'aliyya: the superiors of Tasawwuf: Awliyâ'

[49] Silsilat al-'aliyya: a chain of Walîs each of whom was a mukammil and who acted as an intermediary for the ma'rifa, nûr and faid to come from the blessed heart of Rasûlullah to that of a Walî. (Every Walî, murshid, has a silsila.)

[50] Wilâyat: the status of, state of being a walî.

[51] Khatm-i khâja: certain things recited silently by a murshid and his disciples, after which the names of the Awliyâ' in the silsila of the murshid are mentioned, and the blessings of what are recited are offered to their souls, whose faid and ma'rifat are then asked for.

[52] Rafîq al-a'lâ: the highest status in Paradise, which was the request of theProphet as his last wish.

[53] Shaikh-i subha: a Walî's second murshid (guide, shaikh) whom he knows to be higher than himself and at whose suhba (company, lecture) he attends after his own murshid's death (At this suhba both Walîs benefit from each other.)

[54] 1 lira is 100 kurushes.

[55] Sarf: Arabic ethymology or morphology.

[56] Nahw: Arabic syntax.

[57] Hüseyin Hilmi Işık's this first translation is quoted at the end of the fourth chapter of Endless Bliss, II.

[58] Awâmil: a famous textbook of nahw.

[59] Salâm: Islamic greeting expressing peace and good wishes.

[60] Sunnat: an act done and liked by the Prophet, yet a duty of lesser degree than a wâjib.

FOOTNOTES (61-68)

[61] Wâjib: an act never omitted by the Prophet, almost as compulsory as a fard.

[62] Marriage contract as prescribed by Islam. There is detailed information about nikâh in the twelfth chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss.

[63] Talqîn: words telling and making the soul and heart of a dead person hear through the effect of the knowledge of îmân.

[64] With its twelve hundred pages, the book, in Turkish, is a masterpiece and an ocean of religious and worldly knowledge. Part of it has been translated into English in fascicles, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Its Arabic translation is underway.

[65] Tekke: a school where a murshid trains his disciples.

[66] Sharî'at: the laws of Islam.

[67] Al-'ilm al-ladunnî: knowledge inspired by Allah to the hearts of Awliyâ'.

[68] Knowledge that is acquired not for the purpose of practising it with ikhlâs, will not be beneficial. Please see the 366 th and 367 th pages of the first volume of Hadîqa, and also the 36th and the 40 th and the 59 th letters in the first volume of Maktûbât. (The English versions of these letters exist in the 16 th and the 25 th and the 28 th chapters, respectively, of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss).