A group of Muslim jurists once got together, and because they could not think of anything better to do they proceeded to talk on trivial matters. One of them asked: “During a funeral procession, should one walk on the right side of the coffin or on the left?”
Immediately the group was confused and extremely divided by a difference of opinion. Some argued that one would walk on the right side, while some others maintained that one would walk on the left.
Each group fanatically believed their argument to be better than the other. Unable to solve their problem, they finally went to Mulla Nasreddin and asked for his fatwa. Nasreddin listened to each group carefully and then said: “It does not matter on which side of the coffin you are, just as long as you are not on the inside!”
A legendary satirical Sufi figure, Nasreddin in the aforementioned anecdote gets his messages across in the manner of profound simplicity: simply put, the Muslims should be on their guard against idle conjecture.
Indeed, wasting time in vain controversies is rebuked by Allah in the Qur’an (al-Kahf, 18: 22, 26). It is ‘in vain’ to argue over religious truths with no authority based on true knowledge (Ghafir, 40: 56). Allah commands in the Qur’an, do not imitate these quarrelsome people who love mischievous controversies.
Barren controversies waged concerning Religion reflects a false conception of knowledge. On the one extreme, there are those secularists who assume that science, which is only relative to the phenomenological, is the only authentic knowledge, including the philosophy derived from it.
On the other extreme, there are also those who restrict knowledge (al-‘ilm) only to the domain of jurisprudence (ahkam fiqhiyyah).
Such attitudes cause an inability to define real issues, and the inability to isolate real problems from false problems. If real problems are not identified in the first place, certainly there will be no hope to provide for right solutions.
It is a characteristic of the feeble minded and shallow to enjoy endless controversy and disputation – polemics of insignificant issues, polemics of unnecessary legalistic details, and scholastic hair-splitting trivialities.
Muslims must be wise enough to distinguish between peripheral and marginal issues from major ones, which directly concerns humanity and his knowledge concerning the purpose of life and ultimate destiny.
It is a pseudo problem to emphasize differences between the various madhahib (Islamic legal schools). It is also false to emphasize trivialities within those legal schools and argue obstinately for adherence to them. Hurling accusations of irreligiousness and unbelief against the other will not solve anything.
It is also erroneous to attempt an ignorant interpretation of Qur’anic verses whose meanings are obscure (ayat mutashabihat), for example on the question of fate and predestination (qada’ and qadr).
Rather, the Muslims must emphasize the main business of Religion, which emphasises authority of knowledge against conjecture; and education with moral purpose and spiritual significance (al-ta’dib). Throughout history, the foregoing was emphasized by sincere scholars and scholars of keen intelligence and profound insight.
Those scholars who had intellectual integrity and honoured the trust of right spiritual leadership classified the various sciences in relation to their priorities and placed each one according to its correct order of priority. This ensured integrated knowledge, of which there is always equilibrium between two types of knowledge; knowledge of the world as well as knowledge of reality, truth and values.
Imam al-Shafi‘i (d. 204/820) once remarked, “Knowledge has a dual nature: concerning bodily matters, and concerning religious affairs.” (Al-‘ilm ‘ilman: ‘ilmul abdan wa ‘ilmul adyan.) Al-Shafi‘i’s remark conveys the true conception of knowledge as it faithfully reflects human nature itself.
The worldview of Islam defines mankind as one possessed of a sublime ruh or spiritual subtlety created by Allah (al-Hijr, 15: 29). Composed of body and soul, at once physical being and spirit-out of these two, there is constituted a third entity called man (al-Mu’minun, 23: 12-14).
Al-Shafi‘i further remarked, “knowledge is not what is memorized, but only what benefits (humanity).” Integrative knowledge is a means of attaining humanity’s good, wherein the physical aspect must be integrated in a profound and inseparable way to the spiritual and intellectual aspects.
As one’s knowledge with all its branches must extend its fruits in the form of one’s useful and helpful actions in the best interests of one’s soul and society, the Prophet Muhammad took refuge in Allah from knowledge which does not benefit (narrated by Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr and Ibn Majah).