Playing God

"All rights of this book are reserved for the publisher and the author. This copy is for reading purpose only. This copy cannot be uploaded on any website except those of the publisher and the author." Appendix: Brief Biographical Notes 77 online from www.tv-almawrid.org . Gh ā mid ī has drawn heavily from the Qur’ ā nic thought of his two illustrious predecessors, Ham ī d al-D ī n al- Far ā h ī and Am ī n Ahsan Isl ā h ī presenting many of their views in a more precise manner. However, many of his contributions to Islamic thought are original. Both these fea tures can be witnessed in his ongoing annotated tr anslatio n of the Qur’ ā n, al-Bay ā n . It takes the reader close to the classical Arabic of the Qur’ ā n in which ideas are conveyed with brevity and terseness. Words and co ncep ts which are understood are suppressed and left to th e perspicacity of the reader. To achieve this brevity, various devices are employed in classical Arabic which are not found in most other languages. Gh ā mid ī has tried to unfold the meaning of the divine message by taking into consideration these devices within the text of the translation. Another original contribution of Gh ā mid ī is his categorization of the contents of religion. According to him, the Qur’ ā n itself divides the contents of Islam in two categories: al-Hikmah and al-Shar ī ‘ah . Whilst the former refers to topics related to the philosophy of religion, the latter to those that relate to law. Gh ā mid ī further classifies these two categories into sub- categories. The former comprises two sub-categories: Faith and Ethics and the latter comprises ten sub- categories: The Shar ī ‘ah of Worship Rituals, The Social Shar ī ‘ah , The Political Shar ī ‘ah , The Economic Shar ī ‘ah , The Shar ī ‘ah of Preaching, The Shar ī ‘ah of Jih ā d , The Penal Shar ī ‘ah , The Dietary Shar ī ‘ah , Islamic Customs and Etiquette, Oaths and their www.javedahmadghamidi.com www.al-mawrid.org