Seventh Section

          The Seven Signs

[These  seven  signs  are  the  answers  to  three  questions.  The  first question consists of four signs.]

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

So believe in God and His Apostle, the unlettered Prophet, who believes in God and His Words; follow him that [so] you may be guided.(7:158) * Fain would they extinguish God’s Light with their mouths, but God will not allow but  that  His Light  should  be perfected,  even  though  the unbelievers  may detest [it].(9:32)

FIRST SIGN

Like all the bad things they do, the arguments which those people who are attempting to change the marks of Islam cite to support themselves spring from their blind imitation of Europe. They say:

“In London, Europeans who have embraced Islam translate many things like the call to prayer and iqama into their own languages in their own country. The World of Islam says nothing in the face of this and does not object. That must mean it is permissible according to the Shari‘a, since they are silent?”

T h e   A n s w e r : There is such a glaring difference here that no conscious being could make such a comparison and imitate them. For the European lands are called the Abode of War in the terminology of the Shari‘a, and there are numerous things that are permissible in the Abode of War that are not lawful in the Abode of Islam.

Furthermore, the lands of Europe are the realm of Christendom. They are not an environment that communicates and instils the meanings of the terms of the Shari‘a and concepts of the sacred words, so necessarily the sacred meanings have been preferred to the sacred words; the words have been abandoned for the meaning; the lesser of two evils has been chosen. In the Abode of Islam, however, the very environment teaches the people of Islam the abbreviated meanings of those sacred words. The conversations of Muslims about Islamic traditions and Islamic history and the marks of Islam and the pillars of Islam, all continuously instil in them the concise meanings of those blessed words.