Studying Islam

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[quote]4. The Final Authority
The Qur'an is a mi#za#n (scale that tells good from evil) and a furqa#n (distinguisher between good and evil) on this earth and a muhaymin (guardian) over other divine scriptures:

اللَّهُ الَّذِي أَنزَلَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ وَالْمِيزَانَ (17:42)
It is God who has revealed with truth the Book which is this scale [of justice]. (42:17)

In this verse, the letter waw is for explication, and thus the word mi#za#n is actually used to connote al-kita#b. The verse means that the Almighty has revealed the Qur’a#n which is a scale of justice meant to distinguish good from evil. It is the only scale that weighs every thing else, and there is in no scale in which it can be weighed:

تَبَارَكَ الَّذِي نَزَّلَ الْفُرْقَانَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ لِيَكُونَ لِلْعَالَمِينَ نَذِيرًا (1:25) 
Blessed be He who has revealed al-furqa#n to His servant that it may warn the whole world. (25:1)

The Qur’a#n is also a furqa#n in the same sense, ie a book which the final and absolute verdict to distinguish truth from falsehood. This word also connotes the fact that this Book is the standard on which everything needs to be judged and is a decisive word on matters which relate to religion. Every one must turn to it only to resolve differences of opinion. Nothing can be a judge on it; it shall reign supreme in the dominion of religion and every person is bound not make it subservient to any other thing:

وَأَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْكِتَابِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ فَاحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَا أَنزَلَ اللّهُ وَلاَ تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَاءهُمْ عَمَّا جَاءكَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ (5: 48)
 And [O Prophet!] We have revealed to you the Book with the truth in confirmation of the Book before it, and standing as a guardian over it. Therefore, give judgement among men according to the guidance revealed by God and do not yield to their whims by swerving from the truth revealed to you. (5:48)

Here the word used to connote the above sense is muhaymin (guardian). It is an adjective formed from the wordsهَيْمَنَ فُلاَنٌ عَلَى كَذَا which means “a guardian” and “a protector”. In this verse, the Qur’a#n has been regarded as a muhaymin on the previous scriptures. It means that the Qur’a#n is the real authentic and trustworthy version of the Book of God. Thus when the texts of other scriptures were lost to posterity and their translations were greatly tampered with, it was this Qur’a#n which was reposed with the status of judging between the right and wrong of those scriptures. Whatever it declares to be right is right and whatever it declares to be wrong is wrong and must necessarily be rejected. 
This is the status of the Qur’a#n which it has asserted about itself. Thus on the basis of this status, the following principles need to be adhered to:
Firstly, no divine revelation extraneous to the Qur’a#n and not even the Prophet (sws) to whom this Qur’a#n was revealed, can specify a general directive of the Qur’a#n or alter any of its directives. Everything shall be accepted as religion or rejected that it is not on the basis of the Qur’a#n. Everything accepted in our religion shall be rigorously scrutinized under the light of this Divine Guidance. All basis of belief and faith shall be directly derived from it. Every revelation, inspiration, research and opinion shall be subservient to the Qur’a#n, and it shall be acknowledged that even the works of great jurists like Abu# H@ani#fah and Sha#fi‘i#, scholars of H@adi#th like Bukha#ri# and Muslim, theologians like Ash‘ari# and Ma#turi#di#, su#fi#s like Junayd and Shibli# must be weighed in the scales of this mi#za#n, and nothing can be accepted from them which is not in consonance with it.

Excerpt from Ghamidhi's book meezan[/quote]

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