Malfuzat - Volume IV — Page 113
113 Malfuzat – Volume IV both of these teachings in their own right are based on wisdom, they ought to be deemed as laws that are specific to a certain place or restricted to a particular age. They should not be considered everlasting and timeless laws. The Holy Quran—An Everlasting and Eternal Law The wisdom and commandments of God Almighty are of two kinds. Some of them are everlasting and eternal, while others are instituted in view of immediate or temporary requirements. Although the latter are constant in their own right, they are nonetheless temporary. For example injunctions surrounding the formal Prayer and fasting when someone is on a journey are different from when some - one is not travelling. When a woman goes out she wears her veil, but when she is at home she need not walk around with her veil on. In the same vein, the com - mandments of the Torah and Gospel were to serve temporary and immediate requirements. The divine law and book brought by the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was an everlasting book, an eternal law. Whatever has been stated in it is perfect and complete. The Noble Quran is an everlasting law. Even if the Holy Quran had not been revealed, the Torah and Gospel would have been abrogated eventually because they are not timeless, eternal laws. I have heard certain fools raise the question as to why this was done. As in, why did God Almighty abrogate the previous scriptures—was He lacking in knowl - edge? God ought to have sent a complete and everlasting, eternal law in the first place, they say. Such an allegation proceeds from utter foolishness. It cannot be stated as a general principle that every form of abrogation necessitates a lack of knowledge. If it was the case that every form of abrogation is evidence of a lack of knowledge, how would one explain the fact that the garments in which a child of one or two years is clothed are not worn by a boy of say five or ten years of age, or a young man of twenty-five? Can the same shirt made from a metre or half a metre of cloth be worn by a young man? Surely, no normal person would consider this appropriate; in fact, they would laugh at such foolishness. How clearly does this example demonstrate that it is not at all necessary that every form of abrogation shows evidence of a lack of knowledge. When it is obvious that our own beings are subject to change, our needs also continue to change accordingly. Now is the abrogation that takes place in view of these changes due to knowledge and wis - dom, or a lack of knowledge? Such an allegation is a sign of absolute ignorance and foolishness. Just as one cannot feed a newborn baby a solid piece of bread or p. 386