Translation:
Say you: "This is my way: I do invite unto Allah,- on evidence clear as the seeing with one´s eyes,- 1792 I and whoever follows me. Glory to Allah. and never will I join gods with Allah."
Say you: "This is my way: I do invite unto Allah,- on evidence clear as the seeing with one´s eyes,- 1792 I and whoever follows me. Glory to Allah. and never will I join gods with Allah."
Translation:
Say [O Prophet]: "This is my way: Resting upon conscious insight accessible to reason, I am calling [you all] unto God 104 - I and they who follow me." And [say:] "Limitless is God in His glory; and I am not one of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him!"
Say [O Prophet]: "This is my way: Resting upon conscious insight accessible to reason, I am calling [you all] unto God 104 - I and they who follow me." And [say:] "Limitless is God in His glory; and I am not one of those who ascribe divinity to aught beside Him!"
Commentary:
104 It is impossible to render the expression `ala basirah in a more concise manner. Derived from the verb basura or basira ("he became seeing" or "he saw"), the noun basirah (as also the verb) has the abstract connotation of "seeing with one's mind": and so it signifies "the faculty of understanding based on conscious insight" as well as, tropically, "an evidence accessible to the intellect" or "verifiable by the intellect". Thus, the "call to God" enunciated by the Prophet is described here as the outcome of a conscious insight accessible to, and verifiable by, man's reason: a statement which circumscribes to perfection the Qur'anic approach to all questions of faith, ethics and morality, and is echoed many times in expressions like "so that you might use your reason" (la'allakum ta'gilun), or "will you not, then, use your reason?" (a fa-la ta'gilun), or "so that they might understand [the truth]" (la'allahum yafqahun), or "so that you might think" (la'allakum tatafakkarun); and, finally, in the oft-repeated declaration that the message of the Qur'an as such is meant specifically "for people who think" (li-qawmin yatafakkanun).
104 It is impossible to render the expression `ala basirah in a more concise manner. Derived from the verb basura or basira ("he became seeing" or "he saw"), the noun basirah (as also the verb) has the abstract connotation of "seeing with one's mind": and so it signifies "the faculty of understanding based on conscious insight" as well as, tropically, "an evidence accessible to the intellect" or "verifiable by the intellect". Thus, the "call to God" enunciated by the Prophet is described here as the outcome of a conscious insight accessible to, and verifiable by, man's reason: a statement which circumscribes to perfection the Qur'anic approach to all questions of faith, ethics and morality, and is echoed many times in expressions like "so that you might use your reason" (la'allakum ta'gilun), or "will you not, then, use your reason?" (a fa-la ta'gilun), or "so that they might understand [the truth]" (la'allahum yafqahun), or "so that you might think" (la'allakum tatafakkarun); and, finally, in the oft-repeated declaration that the message of the Qur'an as such is meant specifically "for people who think" (li-qawmin yatafakkanun).
1792 Islam holds fast to the one central fact in the spiritual world—the unity of Allah, and all Reality springing from Him and Him alone. There can be no one and nothing in competition with that one and only Reality. It is the essence of Truth. All other ideas or existences, including our perception of Self, are merely relative—mere projections from the wonderful faculties which He has given to us. This is not, to us, mere hypothesis. It is in our inmost experience. In the physical world, they say that seeing is believing. In our inner world this sense of Allah is as clear as sight in the physical world. Therefore, Al Mustafa and those who really follow him in the truest sense of the world, call all the world to see this Truth, feel this experience, follow this Way. They will never be distracted by metaphysical speculations, whose validity will always be doubtful, nor be deluded with phantoms which lead men astray.