Imran N. Hosein
I have just received the very sad news of the death in Malaysia, of the distinguished Sudanese Islamic scholar, Dr. Malik Badri (رحمه الله). May Allah have Mercy on his soul and forgive him his sins. May He grant that he might sleep peacefully in his grave, and that he might be raised on Judgement Day, and by His Kindness and Mercy, be blessed to enter Jannah. Ameen!
I will forever cherish his memory as one of my truly great teachers. I read his pioneering book in Islamic psychology, The Dilemma of Muslim Psychologists, when I was still a college student in my native island of Trinidad. It thrilled me, and opened my appetite, as great books do, for more knowledge on the subject.
I was truly honored to meet Dr. Badri in person for the first time in 1987, when we both attended an International Conference on Islamic Education in Cairo. Despite his status as the most highly acclaimed and internationally recognized Islamic scholar in Islamic Psychology, he took time to sit with me at that conference to try to satisfy my thirst for more knowledge from the author of that great book. His humility and charm, and simplicity of style in discussing with me subjects of profound importance, were all signs of a great teacher, and a great servant of Allah Most High.
I realized over the years that Dr. Badri was gifted by Allah Most High with internal Nūr, or light, with which to penetrate the reality of things, and hence was never deceived by appearances. His profound psychological analysis of the reality of modern Western civilization made a significant input, in later years, assisting me in my own work in Islamic eschatology.
When I visited the International Islamic University in Malaysia for the first time, in 1991, and renewed my fraternal scholarly ties with a great teacher, he honored me by inviting me to deliver a lecture at the university. My incipient expertise in ‘Islam and International Affairs’ was in great demand, and the invitation was repeated several times at the university, and again at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, when he became Dean of the Institute.
We spent numerous memorable evenings together in small gatherings at private residences, sharing dinner in Malaysia, with other learned scholars, all of whom had a common trait – they were independent thinkers and were not muzzled with 9/11 chains around their necks. It was always a thrilling experience for me to sit in those informal gatherings with Muslim scholars whose scholarship ranged from the Qur’ān and Hadīth to Psychology, Sociology, Economics, History, Philosophy, and Politics to my own International Affairs, and who could exchange views with mutual respect and fraternal scholarly decorum.
I invariably emerged from those long and fascinating dinner discussion sessions with more knowledge. I tried to learn from Dr. Badri the abiding value of humility, charm and simplicity of style, while discussing difficult subjects. It was at one of those sessions that he gave me an autographed copy of a recent book of his, entitled Contemplation: An Islamic Psycho-spiritual Study.
I turned to Dr. Badri in 2002, to ask him to write the Foreword of my book entitled Jerusalem in the Qur’ān; and then again, soon after, to write the Foreword of another book of mine entitled The Qur’ānic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. On both occasions he responded positively to my request.
The 9/11 terrorist attack on America had just occurred as Jerusalem in the Qur’ān was being prepared for publication. It was a book which turned to the Qur’ān to expose Dajjāl’s fraudulent State of Israel. It was a time when many scholars, particularly those resident in the USA, were afraid to even mention my name. Twenty years later they are still too afraid to even mention my name. But Dr. Malik Badri was not afraid, at that moment in time when the war on Islam and Muslims had grown from a storm to a tempest, to accept my invitation and to write what is now recognized as a historic Foreword to a book which became my bestseller. Dr. Badri was not afraid to call a spade a spade – and that is the profile of a true scholar.
In his Foreword to my book on The Quranic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, Dr. Badri was uncompromisingly forthright in exposing the danger posed by modern Western civilization. The insatiable demand for drugs in the West was exposed as a symptom of an unbalanced secular civilization which had lost its way, and was yet was adamantly refusing to the take the road to recovery and to health offered by the Qur’ān.
I remember that in my last dinner/discussion session with him, at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, 2 or 3 years ago, he was frankly disturbed by the forthright and uncompromising way that I argued my view that a Hadīth in Sahīh Bukhārī, which declared that Nabī Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) married a child, was fabricated, since it was in conflict with the Qur’ān. His response to my views, advising a gentler way of dealing with the subject, caused me to realize that it would indeed be a very difficult task to persuade the world of Islamic scholarship that the Qur’ān must sit in judgement over the Hadīth literature.
Perhaps the most important intellectual legacy of this great scholar of Islamic psychology was his warning of the danger posed by modern Western civilization to the social and psychological health of mankind.
Although Dr. Badri is no longer with us, he still lives on in the illuminating books which he wrote, in particular, “The Dilemma of Muslim Psychologists”, “Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study” and “Sustenance of the Soul”. I urge that these books be read again and again. I have also attached his Foreword to two of my books at the end of this tribute.
The best tribute of all that can be given when a great scholar dies, is to issue the call of Abdal, i.e., when one dies on the battlefield, others must rush forward to take his place in the scholarly battlefield of Islamic psychology and Islamic spirituality. It is with this call that we say goodbye to our beloved and learned brother, the distinguished and fearless scholar of Islam, Dr. Malik Badri (رحمه الله).
with sadness,
Imran N. Hosein
Jumādā al-Ākhirah 26th 1442/ February 9, 2021
FOREWORD
Jerusalem in the Qur’ān is a great book that thrilled and delighted me in a number of ways. I am surprised that such a meticulously documented book had to wait for such a long time before seeing the light.
It is now more than half a century since the Zionists began their appalling oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people whose only offense is that they happened to live in a country considered by the Jews to be their promised holy land. The Zionists have continuously referred to distorted scriptures from the Torah and other Biblical material to justify their atrocious behavior and to motivate the Jews to establish a State of Israel that extends from the Nile to the Euphrates with Jerusalem as its capital.
For example, David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, is quoted to have said, “The Bible is our deed to the land of Israel”.
Muslim scholars, on the other hand, have largely failed in refuting Zionist claims from authenticated historical and religious sources and have also failed to accomplish their religious responsibility in clearly documenting this question from the Holy Qur’ān and the Blessed Ahadith of our beloved Prophet (PBUH). As far as I know, whatever is written on this subject is rather superficial and emotionally tainted or simply stating facts in a cool manner.
May Allah Ta’ala reward Brother Imran Hosein for writing this scholarly document, which will indeed fill up this intellectual and religious gap and serve as an academic reference to Muslims in all parts of the world. As I write this introduction, this book that was published only this year is already being translated to Arabic and Bosnian. In a short time it will be rendered into other European languages and to all the other tongues of the Islamic world.
It must be reported however that the importance of writing a book about the Holy Land in the Qur’ān has not escaped the vision of far-sighted and creative Muslim thinkers such as Dr. Kalim Siddiqui, Founder-President of the Muslim Institute for Research and Planning, and Professor shaheed Ismail Al-Farouqi. I am surprised at the vision of the former scholar who asked Imran Hosein to write this book as early as 1974. He urged him saying that Jerusalem is the key to understanding the historical process of the Middle East and the world at large. Shaikh Imran successfully accomplished this task after 27 years.
Though seemingly late, but it has come at the right time in which the whole world is being shocked by Jenin and what happened in Sabra and Shatila. Ismail Al-Faruqi actually put this issue in writing in his book, “Islam and the Problem of Israel” that the author referred to. He strongly stated that Israel poses a greater danger to Muslims than the Euro-Christian Crusades of the Middle Ages or the Euro-Colonialism of modern times. “Israel”, he wrote, “is neither of these, but that it is both and more, much more”. He therefore urged Arabs and Muslims not to accept the Jewish State as an integral part of the world nations of Asia and Africa. He also incited Muslim scholars to investigate this issue in depth.
I am sure that if both of these great Muslim thinkers were alive, they would have acclaimed this classic book as what they have aspired for. I am amazed by Imran’s style of writing. Though Jerusalem in the Qur’ān, is a meticulously written thesis combining religious and historical documents with political events and penetrating interpretations from the Qur’ān and Hadith, it runs like a story. Once you begin reading it, it is hard to stop. This is the general quality of a novel. The person would read it once and throw the book away – but not that of a serious thought-provoking dissertation like the book that Brother Shaikh Imran published. It is a reference that one needs to keep and reread whenever the subject is to be researched.
I believe that this eloquence of the Shaikh must be the result of a natural gift that has interacted with his indefatigable work as a preacher and da’iyah and the Divine Blessings for his sincerity.
Finally, in spite of the seemingly depressing situation of the Muslims in general and the Palestinians in particular, reading the book would certainly give one a warm surge of optimism about our future; a bright light that shines at the end of our long dark tunnel of history. We are living at the end of time. This is the age in which the prophesies of the Holy Qur’ān and the Blessed Hadith are unfolding right before our very eyes to prove to humanity the truthfulness of our faith.
Exactly as our Prophet told us, we have seen the barefooted-poor shepherds of sheep and goats in the Arab Peninsula competing with each other in building higher and higher skyscrapers. And we have witnessed the Muslims exploding in numbers but weakening in character and subdued by their love of this dunyah and their fear of death thus confirming the authenticated Hadith. And exactly as our Prophet told us, the strong enemies of Islam are now devouring our countries as though they were a hungry group invited to a large cauldron of food. And as Allah Ta’ala Himself told us in his Revealed Holy Qur’ān, the Children of Israel, who had been scattered all over the earth during their Diaspora, have returned to the Holy Land. And as recorded in the Qur’ān, they have indeed committed much corruption and have become powerful and elated with mighty arrogance. Just as we have seen these incidents as though we were watching a horror movie, we will indeed see its imminent happy ending that was prophesized to us in the Qur’ān and the Sayings of our Prophet.
The Muslims will wake up from their slumber and the Jews will receive their promised Divine punishment. The Zionist State will be destroyed and whatever they have built will be raised to the ground.
The book gives a detailed beautifully written exposition of these episodes with brilliant interpretations from the Holy Qur’ān and Sunnah. Though some may differ with him with respect to his interpretations of some of the Qur’ānic Verses or the Blessed Prophetic sayings, no one would fail to appreciate his penetrative thought and his spiritual depth. I therefore recommend the book very much to scholars and laity.
Malik B. Badri
Professor of Psychology and
Dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
FOREWORD
(The Quranic Method of Curing Alcoholism and Drug Addiction)
It is indeed a great honor for me to be asked to write this preface to Ustāz Imran Hosein’s valuable booklet on the Qur’anic approach to solving the problems of alcohol and drug addiction. I have intentionally used the word “addiction” and avoided using the modern term of alcohol and drug abuse since this psychiatric change in terminology is in fact a civilizational manipulation which implies that the use of these poisons is OK but it is only its abuse which is bad and should to be treated.
Islam prohibits any intake of alcohol or drugs and both user and abuser are equally sinful. Modern psychiatry has clearly shown the wisdom of this uncompromising prevention since all the therapeutic endeavors towards “social drinking” has utterly failed, while the unyielding approach of the Alcoholics Anonymous groups has at least shown greater success.
Ustāz Imran is one of the very few authors who can write simply, eloquently and convincingly. In a few words he has clearly revealed that western modernity, by embracing godless secular humanism as its new religion has saturated its land with alcohol and doped its people with drugs. And since globalization is now affecting all mankind, alcohol and drug dependence have become universal.
In depriving man of his soul and the spirituality of his “inner eye”, western modernity has come to view him as a machine totally determined by external environmental changes. I believe that it is this mechanistic concept of human nature which blinded western modernity from seeing the only way that could have really healed their addicts; to change their hearts, minds and values; to guide them to submit to the One Almighty God and accept His prohibitions. The only other option left to it is the “external eye”. To spend billions on outer means like fighting drug traffickers or paying millions of dollars to less developed countries so that they do not grow the dangerous stuff. Such external strategies have failed and will always fail.
As I mentioned in earlier publication, whenever governments develop more sophisticated methods to fight traffickers, they devise new technologies and tricks that outwit these governmental efforts. Also, many developing countries that receive millions to compensate them for not growing the dangerous plants from which psychoactive drugs are produced, are either unable or unwilling to stop such practices. Other external strategies include funding research to discover new drugs which can help addicts to get over their addictions! Such external pharmacological interventions have also failed.
If western countries have their philosophical and cultural reasons for limiting their failing campaigns against drug and alcohol dependence to the hopeless strategies that we have mentioned, why are Muslim countries following them into secular lizard’s holes like unthinking emulators? Isn’t it shameful for Muslim countries to seek the assistance of European professionals to help them with their alcohol and drug problems when these so-called specialists have failed to solve their own drug problems at home? Isn’t it really a disgraceful imitation of the West to see most of the airports in Muslim and Arab countries having duty-free shops for selling alcohol simply because this addicting material, prohibited by their religion, is freely sold in western airports? Isn’t it really humiliating and senseless for a Muslim society that has been honored with the shining light of Godly Revelation which can open their external and internal eyes or their basar and baseerah, to seek guidance from a one-eyed Dajjāl civilization?
This is indeed the end of time; the age of fitan. The only way to be saved is that of Ihsān; to worship God as though you see Him with your inner vision. It is sad to say that this spiritual epistemology has been neglected even by those who claim to be members of modern Islamic movements. It is hoped that the works of devoted and spiritually motivated authors like brother Imran Hosein would help to awaken hypnotized hearts and open sleepy eyes.
Malik B. Badri
Professor of Psychology and
Dean of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia