In Defence of Harun Yahya.

Bismillah, for the sake of barakah

This article is very lengthy, and honestly I have not found the best way to organize it, since it deals with so many points, It would be great if you could read it slowly so as to follow my flow, because throughout writing this article, I do encounter some difficulties in putting across the words in the most effective and comprehensible manner. I wish to engage as many of the readers with regards to points raised in this post, so do keep your comments coming! Jazakallah Khairan Jaza!

I watched a clip on youtube about a certain person unfairly criticizing Harun Yahya and accusing Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi of being a kafir. As far as possible, I do not like to mention names, but I guess for this one, out of practicality and in pursuit of effectiveness, I have to post the link here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OhSMKAGh70

I am no one in the Islamic Academic world, but what I heard is, to the majority of us, an unacceptable pain.

1) The issue of takfeer (accusing a muslim of disbelief and therefore out of the fold of Islam) is a serious one. In legal definition, the term takfeer means to deem anything that the Prophet s.a.w had brought to be a lie, i.e to accuse a person of claiming that the Prophet s.a.w. lied.

In Imam Ghazali’s Faisal At Tafriqa, he explains that the literalists accuse the Ahlus Sunnah of claiming that the Prophet s.a.w. lied (takfeer) with regards to the verse “Yaddullah fawqa aidihim” the Hand of God is above their hands because the Ahlus Sunnah reject the idea of God having a ‘Hand’ as we know it.

The Ahlus Sunnah on the other hand, correctly point out that to accept a literal Hand, as we know it, for God would be to deem that the Prophet lied when he brought the verse “Laisa kamithlihi shaiun” Nothing whatsoever is like unto him

And so the issue boils down to language and use of metaphors in Arabic Literature (which is, as expected, rather common). Ahlus Sunnah accept the verse “Yaddullah” and other similar verses not on a literal interpretation of it, but more of a metaphorical one. That way, the Ahlus Sunnah do not deny anything that the Prophet s.a.w brought to us.

My personal take on this; why does it take so much for some square-headed people to realize the commonness in the usage of metaphors in languages? I dare say all languages adopt the use of metaphors; It is only natural and human. And with regards to knowledge that is as vast as the Islamic Tradition, surely there ought to be the use of metaphors! They need not master the field of using metaphors; they just need to realize that metaphors exist in order to be able to peacefully accept that some verses cannot be interpreted literally!

Even the most staunch of the Literalists have to concede to metaphors when an authentic Hadith says:
The heart of the believer is in between the Two Fingers of the All-Merciful
If I were to be literal, then they must surely refer to my ribs! Because literally and anatomically, my heart (perhaps not mine, if I am not yet a believer) is encaged in my ribs.

Anyway, the same is true when they belittle the Prophet s.a.w. just because the Prophet s.a.w. humbled himself. Why so inflexible and square headed?! The Prophet is just an ordinary human being…Just? What gibberish! He is the Most Beloved and the Best of Creation!

And now on to the sciencey bit first, before I go back to the specific Issue of the takfeer of ibn ‘Arabi, Muhyiddin.

2) Bilal Philips rightly pointed that the colours we see are just different frequencies of energy. And hence colours are merely perceptional and not absolute or real. But he made a factual mistake when he said Harun Yahya claimed that the material world is not real because on the molecular level, molecules are vibrating. The solid table is not real because its molecules are vibrating, therefore the appearance of the table as being solid is illusionary. (5:35 in the clip)àThis is a big factual error! The table that we perceive as a result of the input from our five physical senses is not the essence of the table, it is just a perception of the electrical signals (nervous impulses) relayed along our neurons and perceived in our brains!

What Harun Yahya is saying is that the table is illusionary to us because we perceive it and know about it only via our neurons! And definitely not because of something so superficial such as the fact that on the molecular level, molecules of solid substances are vibrating! Of course they are vibrating! All molecules/particles have Entropy unless when at the hypothetical Absolute Zero (0K or -273.15 deg cel)
*In Thermodynamics, Entropy is the positive measure of disorderliness in a system, ie. More Entropy means more disorderliness. Entropy is also positively related to temperature.

We are all insyaAllah familiar with the secondary school MCQ question depicting a frog whose sensory neuron connecting the skin responsible for the sense of touch to the brain is cut and therefore not being able to perceive heat or hotness, despite the fact that its appendages are being burnt. The same is true for the other senses. They all make copies, ie neurons, to be perceived, and hence we have no way to experience the real essence of matter. For all we know, it could very well be that matter does not exist and that Absolute Existence is Allah Alone. Laa mawjuuda Illa Allah, Nothing Exists other than God.

That is why the Prophet s.a.w. said that our life in this world is like a dream when we are asleep, we wake up only when al-Yaqin, ie. Death, comes. Notice how Transcendent Allah’s Wisdom is (Subhanallah! Allah!) when He referred to Death as al-Yaqin (The Certainty) in the verse:

wa’bud rabbaka hatta ya’tiyakal Yaqin.
And Worship your Lord until Yaqin(Certainty) comes to you.

The Prophet s.a.w. made specific tafsir of this verse and in this context, Yaqin/Certainty definitely meant Death, and not a conviction; because if it meant conviction, then a person can say “I am convinced/certain/yaqin God exists and therefore I can stop worshipping Him.”

3) This reality about matter, increasingly being affirmed by modern science, is not Wahdatul Wujud like what Bilal Philips claimed in the clip.

The extreme in Wahdatul Wujud claims that God did not create, how can this be? He is Al-Khaliq(The Creator)! The only answer is the reality that Creation is different from Creator.

He wrongly attributed Wahdatul Wujud to Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi, the term never appeared in the writings of Ibn ‘Arabi!

In fact, Ibn ‘Arabi had a perfect understanding of this reality which is now being confirmed by sciences of Physics and Biology, an unlikely combination in schools, since it bypasses Chemistry but yet it reveals a transcendent Reality. Allah…Just that of course during Ibn ‘Arabi’s time (13th century), there was no such advance understanding in science, so it was difficult for Ibn ‘Arabi to relate to the general masses.

Ibn ‘Arabi once declared that anyone who claims he Exists, if he knew the truth, then he is a kafir. Today, this is not difficult to comprehend, since science can now tell us that matter as we know it is not Absolute Existence, therefore The only Absolute Existence is Allah. Laa mawjuuda Illa Allah.
To put a claim on Absolute Existence would be to wrestle from Allah His Rights and to associate (syirik) Absolute Existence with something other than Allah.

Read: http://us2.harunyahya.com/Detail/T/EDCRFV/productId/4352/THE_SECRET_BEYOND_MATTER_IS_NOT_WAHDATUL_WUJOOD

4) The Takfeer of Ibn ‘Arabi

Those who charge Ibn ‘Arabi of Takfir do not know.
And in authentic Orthodox Islamic Tradition, Muslims abstain from takfeer as much as possible, especially when there can be ambiguity or multifarious interpretations. If Takfir does not go to the accused, it about-turns and returns to the accuser.

Just take this learning point from the life of the Companion Abu Hurairah ra, who was granted long-life and a close relationship with the Prophet s.a.w. Sayyidina Abu Hurairah was given many secrets, many of which would be misunderstood by the masses, about which he said something like this. “Some of the knowledge I received from the Prophet s.a.w. I deliver them to the masses, others I keep them to myself, for if I were to reveal, they would surely sever my head.”

From this, we should expect to encounter issues that would be vastly differently interpreted by people, perhaps even diametric opposites! And Ibn ‘Arabi’s case was just one of them, so was al-Hallaj’s.

So, as people who know little about the religion, we ought to accept that confusion arises only because we lack knowledge, whereas these people are speaking at a higher level.

How can Ibn ‘Arabi be labeled a Kafir when the rest of the Islamic World hail him as Muhyiddin?!

Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jailani Q commented on the executions of Sufis who made “extravagant” claims:
“The Scissors of Syariah are being used to trim the extent of their sayings” for the benefit of the masses who would otherwise be burdened by confusion.
Nevertheless, these Sufis enjoy a high position in their God’s Sight!

Do not fall into the error of accusing Ibn ‘Arabi a kafir, God forbids.

On a more personal take, the fount of the Ahmadiah Idrisiah Order, Sidi Ahmad Ibn Idris ra, debated with a Wahhabi at Sabya, and guess what? One of the points of contention was the takfir of ibn ‘Arabi.
To which, of course, Sidi Ahmad Ibn Idris made it clear he did not see Ibn ‘Arabi a kafir, rather a Muhyiddin! And Sidi Ahmad Ibn Idris gave a practical advice;

If you see in the writings(of Ibn ‘Arabi) matters that to you constitute disbelief, then you can say that the writing constitutes disbelief, but do not accuse the author of disbelief.

4) Atlas of Creation and the big hoohaa surrounding it, and other Harun Yahya books.

MasyaAllah, Harun Yahya has recently published a massive tome proving the truth of creation and fallacy of Darwinism. The Atlas of Creation, consisting several volumes, printed on glossy paper, with quality printing and colourful graphics, is a pictorial collection of millions of Fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago of organisms that have not changed, or evolved. Those fossils from eons ago, are exactly the same as their living counterparts, indicating no evolution took place and that organisms were created fully formed. The fact is, despite all the claims Darwinists make about evolution affecting all organisms in their vision of the tree of life, they so far have only a few specific case-studies in their attempt to show gradual evolution, the more famous ones would be like the dino-bird intermediary, Archaeopteryx. Even so, claims about its evolutionary evidences are heavily disputed in the Biological World. If they were right, then there would be many, many cases of intermediary organisms!

The Atlas of Creation has been sent to Universities all over Europe, creating a shock among Darwinists lecturers. You can read various news reports on the Atlas of Creation at http://www.harunyahya.com/

The Atlas does show many, perhaps even more than enough pictures of various organisms, all with the same pattern; the million-year old fossils being similar to living counterparts. The point to take note is the reaction of universities in Europe to the Atlas. They discredit the Atlas and other Harun Yahya books for a few reasons, the fact that Harun Yahya has no formal accreditations in the realm of science, and that his books are all not typical of academic university-level texts.

Perhaps many do not know how Harun Yahya works; he has a pool of contributors who contribute materials to his books, so they are more like anthologies. These contributors are mostly anonymous to the public. After reviewing and editing, the appropriate materials are then published as books.

As for his books being atypical of university texts, well that is true, which university text is printed on 100% glossy paper with those fanciful pictorial frames on their covers? And because of this, many discredit Harun Yahya, even among muslims. My take is this, let us accept truth for what it is, without so much bothering where it comes from;
al-Haqqu min rabbika, falaa takuunanna minal mumtareen,
Truth is from your Lord, so do not be among those who Doubt.

Arguably the most compact Harun Yahya book against Darwinism is Darwinism Refuted, which I have read from cover to cover. The points raised in this book are wide encompassing, with scientific evidences to back up. Some of the points are even thought in my A-Level Bio. Some of them expose factual falsification and forging of reports especially the one on Ernst Haeckel’s drawings showing evolution in embryology. Mind you, why would the scientific world unreservedly believe in drawings??

Many condemn Harun Yahya as not having credibility, possibly because of the physical nature of his printed books that are atypical of university texts. Why don’t we take the effort of going through all his references, and in Darwinism Refuted alone, there were more than 400 references! If Harun Yahya is concocting his own stories out of fantasy, then we can unanimously denounce him. But many have not even bothered to check his references, which quote from places like Yale, Harvard and John Hopkins, and can be verified on the Internet!

Even if you abhor him out of a strictly personal feeling, then use his books as a collection of references that refer to academic materials that refute Darwinism.

Louis Pasteur, a key figure in biology, also often referred to by Darwinists, is a staunch attacker of Darwinism, and a believer in God. Many of us do not know this, why? Because the university texts generally do not reveal this about Louis Pasteur, but Harun Yahya brings it forth for us to see. The same is true for geneticists Gregory Mendel, from whom came Mendelian Genetics. Francis Crick, the one who co-founded the structure of DNA with James Watson, upon knowing the structure of DNA had confessed that such a complex molecule like the DNA can never be a product of chance.

Pasteur said:
The more I know, the more does my faith approach that of the Breton peasant (i.e., the faith which is serene, complete, unquestioning)

Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him.

I guess for now I will end here, my eyes are fatigued after an entire evening of typing, but Alhamdulillah the beautiful music of qasidah by Shaykh Fakhrudin Owaisi kept up my spirits. If there is anything further, I will add on InsyaAllah.