Question:
Assalamu Alaykum,
I would like to know the view on various martial arts such as kung fu as games of war are sunnah while in the Mercy Oceans book it is described as too much.
Jazzakullah Mulkhair
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Here are the particular words from the first Mercy Oceans book that, I presume, you refer to:
“This is not to say that we shouldn’t play or practice games of war. This is sunnah. Walking, swimming, riding horses, swords and shooting – those are sunnah. But the most beautiful game is the game with your wife!”
“How about the martial arts Karate and Judo?”
“It is too much. You must use your strength for useful things…In Islam there is no waste of time…”
We believe and hold to these words from the Sultan of Saints that are in keeping with the guidance of the Sultan of Prophets, peace and blessings be upon him. This guidance has also been expressed in the following Tradition related by Nasa’i and Bayhaqi:
“All that is without the Remembrance of Allah (dhikrullah) is false (batil) distraction and vain amusement except four accomplishments: the man who walks between the two limits of the archery field, trains horses, learns swimming, and pleases his wife.”
Truth from the Messenger of Allah, who is al-Haqq!
If these “four accomplishments” are not from batil, they are from haqq (truth). When this Tradition is considered carefully, it is clear that the act of shooting is not mentioned. After all, there are special formulas to be recited by the Muslim archer, just as there are others sanctifying the swordsman, and so these practices are not without the Remembrance of Allah. When even an archer’s walking is free from falsehood, he may attain in his practice a kind of “permanence” on the path of truth.
We must also be careful not to overstep the bounds established by this and similar Traditions, since other ahadith warn, for example, against substituting the Persian bow – or bow of Chosroes – for the Arab bow held vertically in the hand. Even if scholars have forgotten its meaning, the `ulama of the past knew that the “bow of Chosroes” was a crossbow; and if the use of the crossbow is against the sunnah, how much further from the way of truth is the use of firearms! Similar considerations could be made concerning the horse, and how technological innovations may never usurp its honor.
Are Karate and Judo to be included among the “four accomplishments?” Or have these martial arts transmitted formulas of dhikrullah? If not, then they are distractions from the path of truth, costing “too much” to pursue. Clear paths of chivalry have been established in Islam through lines of transmission that lead to the City of Knowledge; it is no doubt due to the darkness of ignorance that these paths have been obscured, or lost entirely. As I mentioned in an earlier post, martial arts are simply not in accordance with the sunnah if their practice does not avoid the striking of the face.
This is not to reject the principle of seeking knowledge even in China. I have more than once specified in this forum that among the Chinese Martial Arts – or to use your term “kung fu” – Tan Tui is worth considering in the context of transmitted formulas. To mention another example, the Green Dragon Sword style of Wang Ziping belongs both to kung fu and to the practice with swords.
Concerning games of war in the lands of Islam, religious authorities tried unsuccessfully to dissuade the great saint and sultan Nur ud-Din Zangi – may Allah sanctify his secret – from his dedication to the game of sawlajan or polo during the era of the Crusades. After all, this excellent method of training swordsmen as well as their mounts may easily be identified as one of the “four accomplishments,” even though it was not practiced by the earliest Muslim warriors. More recently, it may be observed that the Ottoman fighting game for swordsmen known as Matrak was gradually supplanted in the Empire by the art of Classical Fencing, in accordance with historical conditions, even though this martial art was developed predominantly by Christian masters of the sword.
Mahmoud Shelton
