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Source: Transcript of Interview with Shaykh Hamza Yusuf Hanson by Michael Enright on the September 11 Tragedy
Aired on September 23,
2001
http://www.ihyaproductions.com/articles/hyCBCtranscript.htm
Michael: When you read the coverage in some of the more fulminating columnists and commentators, it comes up time and time again, this business about the Qur’an promising the martyrs or the suicide bombers that if they die in the course of their mission they will go immediately to heaven where they will be greeted by ten or fifteen or sixty-eight or something or other, virgins. You must have seen that. What is that?
Shaykh Hamza: You know, again this is the problem with religious language for the modern mind. The Qur’an, just to give you an example, says that there is nothing like God and immediately after that – it’s in a chapter called Shura (The Council) – and immediately after that it says and He is the All-Seeing, the All-Hearing. So here’s a verse that says there’s nothing like Him and then it’s immediately followed by saying He hears everything and He sees everything. Well, how do we know what seeing and hearing is if we don’t have a likeness in this world of it .So on the one hand there is pure transcendence and on the other hand there’s the imminent aspect of God’s manifestations, his attributes in the world. If you look in the Qur’an about the pleasures of paradise, the definitive verse in the Qur’an is that the pleasures of paradise are those, which no eye has seen, no ear has heard of, and has never occurred to the heart of a human being. So that is the definitive verse about the pleasures of paradise. Now, there are some Hadiths, it’s not in the Qur’an, there is mention of beautiful youths as well as beautiful women, and that’s more metonymy in rhetoric.
Michael: It’s an allegory.
Shaykh Hamza: Exactly, it’s
an allegory, exactly.
Comment:
The interpretation of the Quran on the pleasures of Heaven above was after September 11th, 2001. Before that date Br. Hamza had a different opinion about the 'beautiful youths in paradise' being 'allegorical'.
In the Quran, the verse no.19 of surah 76, Allah mentions some of the pleasures of Paradise. The translation of the verse is: “ And around about them will (serve) boys of everlasting youth. If you see them, you would think them scattered pearls. ”
When interpreting this verse, Hamzah Yusuf in his tape titled 'Surat al-Insan said part 2' (side B) says:
“These are creatures that are created for service. This is what they love to do. There is no exploitation or anything like that in the modern politically-correct world we live in. These people are created for this. This is their I’badah (worship) to Allah. If you –the prophet SAAWS- saw them you would consider them scattered pearls and this is just indicating how beautiful they are”
It seems painfully clear that the brother is referring to living creatures here and is denying there existence above, which one is correct ?
We wonder, is it normal for true scholars of Islam to change there opinions about the Quran. If this revelation has not been changed in 1400 years why doesn't the brother just go to a Tafseer (explanation) and read what is really said about this subject!!
To return to the main comments on Interviews after Sept 11th page click here.
Below are our previous comments on the statements made by Hamza Yusuf in the interview above :-
Shaykh Hamza: You know, again this is the problem with
religious language for the modern mind. The Qur’an, just to give you an example, says that there is nothing like God and
immediately after that – it’s in a chapter called Shura (The Council) – and immediately after that it says and He is the
All-Seeing, the All-Hearing. So here’s a verse that says there’s nothing like Him and then it’s immediately followed by
saying He hears everything and He sees everything. Well, how do we know what seeing and hearing is if we don’t have a likeness
in this world of it
Comment:: When it comes to the attributes of Allah the scholars of Islam discuss these
attributes from 2 distinct, yet related, perspectives:
1.
‘The how’: This means, how does Allah actually see? How does His hand –that He has mentioned in the Quran- look?
The stance
of the Companions of the Prophet, the Tabi’een (those who came after the companions) and those who follow, the major scholars of
Ahul-Sunnah including the 4 Imams stated that: We do NOT know anything about the
‘how’ of the attributes of Allah SWT because Allah SWT did not tell us anything about them.
2.
‘The meaning’: What is the meaning of the attribute of hearing, seeing, etc? The stance of the Companions of the
Prophet SAAWS, the Tabi’een (those who came after the companions) and those who follow, the major scholars of Ahul-Sunnah
including the 4 Imams is that: We KNOW the meaning of the attribute of Allah SWT. We
know what mercy means when Allah says about Himself that He is merciful. We know what hearing means. We also believe that His
attributes are perfect. For example, Allah has the attribute of knowledge and humans have that attribute too. The difference is
that Allah’s knowledge is perfect in the sense that there is no beginning for His knowledge and there is no end, it is not
limited by time nor space, it precedes everything, etc. Human knowledge, on the other hand, is far from being perfect. Human
knowledge is preceded by ignorance, it is limited by time, space, one’s mental capacity, and it is followed by a lack of it when
one ages.
There is no contradiction in the verse that Hamza Yusuf speaks about. When Allah SWT states that “there is nothing like Him and He is the All-Seeing, the All-Hearing” this actually means that there is nothing like him in: [1] manifestations of (How) and [2] perfection of attributes (meaning). Actually, the scholars consider this very verse as the corner stone of the Islamic creed (Aqeeda) when it comes to the attributes of Allah SWT since this verse negates any resemblance between Allah and his creation, however it also affirms that He has attributes.
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Shaykh Hamza (continues): So on the one hand there is pure
transcendence and on the other hand there’s the imminent aspect of God’s manifestations, his attributes in the
world.
Comment: Please note how he has introduced a ‘supposed contradiction in the Quran.’ “Does Allah have a
likeness to something in this world.” He will now use this, below, to convince the reader not to take the Qur’anic verses
regarding Paradise literally.
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Shaykh Hamza (continues): If you look in the Qur’an about the pleasures of paradise, the definitive verse in the Qur’an is that the pleasures of paradise are those, which no eye has seen, no ear has heard of, and has never occurred to the heart of a human being. So that is the definitive verse about the pleasures of paradise. Now, there are some Hadiths, it’s not in the Qur’an, there is mention of beautiful youths as well as beautiful women, and that’s more metonymy in rhetoric.
Michael: It’s an
allegory.
Shaykh Hamza: Exactly,
it’s an allegory, exactly.
Comment:: There are many issues
here:
1.
With all due respect to Hamzah Yusuf, he is wrong: The statement “the pleasures of paradise are those which no eye has
seen, no ear has heard of, and has never occurred to the heart of a human being” is not in the Quran. It is part of a Hadith.
(Please see hadith 1760, page 857 in Sahih al-Bukhari, published by Dar-us-Salam Publications). If someone claims it is in the
Quran, let him show us the Surah and the verse number.
2. In addition, beautiful youth and women are mentioned in the Quran contrary to his
statement. See for example the following verses:
a. Surah 52 Verse 24
b.
Surah 55 Verse 56 &70
c.
Surah 56 Verse 22,36,37
d.
Surah 76 Verse 19
e.
Surah 78 Verse 33
Please refer to what the scholars of the commentary on the Quran have said about the meaning of the
aforementioned verses. You may read Imaam at-Tabari, Imam Ibn Katheer, Imam al-Qurtubi, Imam al-Shawkani, etc.
3. The reward for a martyr is also mentioned in Ahadith. And it is not limited to what has been stated above. See Riyad-us-Saliheen [English], vol. 2, pages 967-992. Published by Darussalam, 1999)
4. Hamza Yusuf claims that the pleasures of Paradise are “an allegory”. This statement is in contradiction with the consensus of Muslim scholars. There are clear Ahadeeth describing in detail the types of pleasures awaiting the believing men and women in Paradise. Unfortunately some early philosophers –who were not considered Muslims by Muslim scholars- claimed that the pleasures of Paradise are not real, but rather are only allegorical. As a general rule though, all the statements of the Quran must be interpreted literally unless there is an evidence for them to be interpreted metaphorically. In fact, this is the case in all sorts of texts (e.g. American Constitution- the US law).
reviewed: NOV 21st 2001