Bensalem Himmich - A Muslim Suicide

These topics about which Alexander differed with Aristotle are ones that I have raised in an artificial manner, something you can tell from reading the works of other people. Once I had realized that the matter was already well known per se, I decided not to refer to it or go into any detail, even though you yourself only wish to know what is generally accepted on the topic. For that reason, I have only discussed with you those aspects about which you had asked me. When we meet, we will be able to discuss these matters faceto-face, and that is much more satisfactory. So please be aware of all thisand God grants success through His beneficence, generosity, and grace. Here ends the discussion concerning the Sicilian questions.

From this section of my response Khalid concluded that I was encouraging the king to meet me so that he could profit from my learning face-to-face and be looking at me as I spoke. He asked me when the text had been sent, and I told him almost a year ago. He then asked me if I was sure that the text had in fact reached its addressee, to which I replied in the positive, noting that I had received a short sealed message accompanied by a set of gifts that I had asked the governor of Tangier to return to the king.

Khalid rubbed his hands together in disbelief. "Is it conceivable, you people," he asked in amazement, "that the king should admire Muslim scholars so much and receive from a senior representative of that group a request to hold a meeting with him, and yet not reply?"

"Maybe political issues have distracted his attention," I replied, "or else there have been problems with religious authorities or even emergencies that we know nothing about."

"Will you allow me, master, to give you my own reading of these circumstances-and God knows best?"

"Feel free to do so, Khalid."

"I have no doubt whatsoever that your response to King Frederic was abridged and altered by whoever it was to whom you entrusted its delivery. I suspect that the governor of Sabta and his aides made sure to remove your request to meet the Sicilian king."

"But Governor Ibn Khalas is a man of high reputation," I objected. "I cannot imagine his doing anything such as you have suggested. I say that even though I have yet to meet him."

`Ali looked at me in amazement. "Master," he said, "you have a good opinion of this governor even though you've never met him or checked on the validity of his reputation?"

"That's true enough, master," Al-Sadiq interrupted assertively to underline what his colleagues had already said. "Are you really willing to trust someone, when others in a similar position and with even more power and authority have already done you considerable harm?"

"By God," said 'Adnan by way of comment, "politicians are all of one stripe on both sides…"

I remained silent for a moment while I contemplated the opinions of the group regarding my letter to the Sicilian king and the possibility that malicious hands had distorted its contents. I decided that the best thing to do was to give my students a copy of the original document so that they could make copies and distribute them to their colleagues and anyone else who was interested. They all thought that was a good idea and promised me to circulate the document in Granada, Almeria, and their environs as well. Khalid went even further, and volunteered to travel to Sicily whenever he could with a view to finding out what had actually happened and maybe even asking for a meeting with the king and questioning him in his own language. I welcomed my colleagues' suggestions, even though some of them gave me pause.

There was a gentle knock on the door that I assumed was a woman's. "Who is it?" I asked, and in response I heard Fayha" s sweet, gentle voice. I allowed her to come in and introduced her to my students, who had all stood up. From beneath her diaphanous veil she offered them her welcome and greetings while they looked at her briefly with expressions of thanks and congratulations on our blessed marriage.

`Abduh," she said, "these then are the young men about whom you have been talking and longing to see so much. God be praised now that you have met them again under this blessed roof!"

She asked them all to stay until dinner-time and to spend the night in the guest quarters, but they refused the kind offer with all due apologies, said their farewells, and departed. I accompanied them to the door, where I spotted 'Abla standing close by watching them all. When we came closer to the door and her eyes met those of the young men, Hafsa grabbed her by the arm and marched her off, scolding her as she did so. I bade my students farewell, in the hope and expectation of meeting them again at a session in the great mosque. With that I retraced my steps, with the intention of sitting with my wife and discussing with her a number of issues of varying degrees of importance.

FOLLOWING THE NOON PRAYER on Monday I headed for my rendezvous and found a huge crowd awaiting my arrival. My quartet of closest confidants welcomed me and sat me down on a small pulpit. I had no idea what to focus on during the lesson or what the people present expected me to say. I leaned over and asked `Abd al what he thought, and he replied that he only knew a few of the students who had come. In his opinion the best thing was to treat them all as virtual novices. They would thus prefer clear presentations and relatively simple content; that way any diffidence they might have about understanding and learning about complicated matters would be gradually overcome.

I signaled everyone to quiet down, whereupon they all stretched their necks and stared straight at me, notebooks and pens at the ready to take notes on what I had to say. I intoned the phrases "In the name of God" [Bismillah] and "God alone possesses the power…" [Hawgalah], greeted them all and spoke as follows:

"In Surat al-Zumar (Companies [Sura 39]) God Almighty says in the ninth verse, `Say: Are those people who know to be the equal of those who do not know? Only possessors of intellect remember'-God Almighty has spoken the truth. In this context `Those who do not know' refers to the common people, and they come in two categories: those who realize their ignorance and try to rid themselves of its trammels; and others who fail to realize their ignorance and thus fall victim to the clutches of indifference and sheer folly-and may God and His light protect us all from that. Those who know also fall into two categories: those who make a big show of how much they have learned, however little it may turn out to be; and those whose learning is rich and blessed, people who make due acknowledgement to God and to the extent possible use their knowledge to people's benefit.

"In this fractious and broken era the domains of theology and law are utterly gutless. Every so-called expert is satisfied with the knowledge that he has, applying whatever he knows and peddling it as part of his assessment of the status quo, his own static ideas, and his long-buried sense of initiative. Stultifying debates and inane disputes occur, where incidentals regularly win over essentials, branches supersede roots, and froth overwhelms substance. The word of truth is lost in the process of plowing fields consisting of stones and sand. Existence itself is peeled off its edifice and sense of unity, causing splinters to fly and bounce off in scattered fragments.

"So avoid this kind of religious learning, turn your backs on such people, and avert your gaze. Instead you should sit on different riverbanks and undertake research into other spheres and enlightening values, spheres that will take you away from mere quantities and divisions and lead you toward the framework of true understanding, something that will produce a profound sense of well-being and complete bliss. However, without genuine passion and a quest for the circles of proximity and fulfillment you will never manage to achieve such a state.