Impure Reader of the Qur’an

Date: 27/5/2015
Location: Jaipur

A mufti to whom I had given the pledge invited me to a school called “Ḥanafiyya Madrasa,” which taught the memorization of the Qur’an. He asked me not to speak about the Ṭarīqa because of the mentality of the people at the school. After I met the students, one of them asked me from a paper of questions that he was holding:

How can you say that the Prophet (ṣallā Allah ʿalaihi wa sallam) is a light when Allah says in the Qur’an: “Say: ‘I am only a human like you’” (18.110)?

I criticized his understanding of the phrase “like you,” telling him:

I ask for forgiveness from Allah. Can you see behind you like you see in front of you?

This argument is a reference to the fact documented in the biography of the Prophet (ṣallā Allah ʿalaihi wa sallam) that he saw behind him as he saw in front of him. I then continued the argument with this sceptic about the light of the Prophet until I exposed him by saying:

Stand up and swear in front of everyone that you have ablution and that you do not go to sleep while you are in need of purification after having intercourse? Stand up and swear if you can!

The man did not say a single word, having been disgraced by Allah. He folded his paper, put it in his pocket, and lowered his head. I continued the preaching and spoke about the Ṭarīqa until fifty people took the pledge. The mufti also praised the preaching.