islam's position on
BEING IN THE WORLD WITH OTHERS
by
DAR AL-IFTA
___________________________________________________
PREAMBLE.
In the wide wake of a quarter century’s worth of Islamic
founded and funded terrorism, journalists, en masse,
have been quoting (indicting) the Quran, arguing that it is
– at its essence -- a manual of war, especially compared
to the more ‘benign’ Christian, Jewish, Hindu
and Buddhist holy texts. That Christianity is responsible
for more deaths than all other religions combined is a fact
that does not interest the cherry-picking
journalist for whom objective truth cannot
compete with the position or point of view he esteems. The
article below is intended for local consumption but its perhaps
unintended larger reach is to disabuse the West of its set-in-stone
presumptions about Islam, the Quran and what constitutes,
as a work in progress, proper conduct betweeen people and
nations. Ed.
The fundamental
delusion of humanity is to suppose
that I am here and you are out there.
Yasutani Roshi, Zen master
At the
heart of our lives in this world is the art of how to communicate,
interact and live with each other. Islam often is berated for
having verses that seemingly contradict having cordial relationships
with others, however, when one delves further in the text with
both context and insight, one comes to understand that the word
of God is comprehensive in how it encourages us to have healthy
relationships with each other. Humankind is wrought with internal
conflicts, conflicts that if left unchecked morph into arguments,
fighting and world wars that needlessly eradicate any semblances
of peace and lead to the loss of life and peace -- being the two
primary objectives that Islamic law aims to preserve. In an effort
to preserve life and peace, Islam, the divinely inspired path
of God, instructs its servants to stray away from anything that
may lead to disagreement and strife. It instructs the servants
that when strife does occur, how they should competently bring
light to a dilemma that might otherwise end in darkness. Surah
Al Hujurat illuminates a few of the vital steps needed to accomplish
the preservation of peace and life.
From
the 10th verse in this Surah, God refreshes the memory of the
believer that the Muslims are family. This exemplar is crucial
due to it alluding to the fact that like family, the believers
will disagree and there will be malice, envy and contempt. However,
despite these feelings, the family structure is integral to life
itself and that without it, societies are fragmented and unable
to achieve their greatest potential. “The believers are
but brothers, so make settlement between your brothers. And fear
God that you may receive mercy” (Quran 49:10). God throughout
the Quran reminds the believers that we were created for the purpose
of His worship, and a broken home cannot fulfill this goal. It
is only through reconciliation that we arrive at the station of
unity, and it is only through unity that we arrive at the essence
of oneness, that is the Divine attribute of God.
LET NO
PEOPLE RIDICULE OR DEMEAN ANOTHER
The goal
for us all is to live and worship as a community, to forgive the
shortcomings of each other and to continue progressing towards
a life that outlives this one. In the following verses God speaks
to the believers regarding how to secure unity in our communities,
we must first abate the harm that we inflict on others. “O
you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people;
perhaps they may be better than them; nor let women ridicule [other]
women; perhaps they may be better than them. And do not insult
one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames.
Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one's] faith. And
whoever does not repent - then it is those who are the wrongdoers”
(Quran 49:11). As mentioned earlier, a path to realizing unity
in our communities is first by abating the harm that we ourselves
cause to others. This is embodied in the Prophetic narration and
fundamental principle in Islamic law, “There should be neither
harming nor reciprocating harm.” The verse cautions believers
from causing emotional harm to others, this emotional harm being
the fissure that is the root reason for the collapse of individual
relationships and then the complete disintegration of a community.
It is
commonplace in comedy that you find jokes are made at the expense
of others, they may ridicule and mock others for the sake of amusement.
In other cases, people ridicule others for the sake of putting
others down and raising their own selves in rank in the sight
of others. This practice is antithetical to the demeanour Islam
calls us towards. One will find that the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad
(God’s peace and blessings upon him) did not demean others
whether he might have been joking or not for his character was
that of the Quran, and the Quran does not call towards that type
of behaviour. One of the many reasons why Islam calls us not to
look down upon others is because we are oblivious to their state
with the Divine, in fact it might be that we jokingly or purposely
demean someone when they hold the rank of being a friend of God.
The repercussions of harming a friend of God can be catastrophic
to one’s faith because God himself states in Hadith Qudsi,
“Whosoever shows enmity to someone devoted to Me, I shall
be at war with him,” (Hadith Qudsi 25). As such, it is infinitely
safer for the preservation of one’s own faith not to look
down upon the faith of those around them, as it may also be a
sign of the deficiency of one’s own faith.
Another
critical note in this verse is that God mentions both men and
women separately, whereas in most verses in the Quran you’ll
find that both men and women are included within a single phrase,
such as the oft occurring statement, “Oh you who believe.”
Here, God makes it a point of making the same declaration to both
men and women to affirm the verses’ importance. The purpose
is to make certain that both sexes realize the importance of this
order, and that none are exempt from it.
ASSUME
THE BEST
As we
move forward we come to the verse, “O you who have believed,
avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin.
And do not spy or backbite each other. Would one of you like to
eat the flesh of his brother when dead? You would detest it. And
fear God; indeed, God is Accepting of repentance and Merciful”
(Quran 49:12). It is commonplace that we will all come across
individuals that we may have unfavourable feelings towards, we
may even have a reason to do so. Therein, those negative feelings
may cause a deliberate and irrational process of thinking of the
sins that others have committed. One may even begin to do more
than think, but begin to investigate the lives of others in an
effort to prove their sins are correct. God instructs us not only
to cease doing this, but that doing this amounts to sin itself.
The practice
is so abhorred by God that He gives us a repugnant image that
shows us the severity of this sin. The image of one of our own,
a fellow believer and human being, dead. And instead of this death
being respected and the person being left alone, the flesh of
this person is being eaten. This is a scene that is sickening
to envision, however, God wishes to show us that by investigating
the sins of others, by backbiting them, we are doing precisely
this, eating the flesh of our dead brother/sister in faith. In
addition, to show the depth of the Arabic language, the word translated
as ‘spying’ gives a meaning of searching, and going
deep into something to uncover its mysteries. On the other hand,
the Quran has variant readings which were divinely revealed by
the Angel Gabriel, the word ‘spying’ in one of those
variant readings can be read to imply a blind person reaching
out trying to find a path or something to hold onto.
Alluding to the one harbouring negative thoughts, he has nothing
truly to latch onto but will begin to search blindly until he
finds something. This exhibits just how far some will go to unveil
the sins of others, and how disgusting the act is.
It was
narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of God (God's peace
and blessings upon him) said: “Whoever covers (the sin of)
a Muslim, God will cover him (his sin) in this world and in the
Hereafter.”
WE ARE
ALL EQUAL
The culmination
of these verses is found right after with the divine words, “O
mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made
you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed,
the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most righteous
of you. Indeed, God is Knowing and Acquainted” (Quran 49:13).
Once more, God chooses to address the readers by calling on the
believers. In this verse, He reminds the believers that He is
our Creator and that He made us in both male and female. An observation
to be made here is that God throughout the Quran often mentions
things in dualities, male and female, land and sky, light and
darkness. One should be mindful of this point because it shows
that both halves are vital to the message that God and are integral
to the perfection of His creation. There is no perfection of male
without female and likewise there is no perfection of the female
without male. It needs to be noted that while some may immediately
think this insinuates that the perfection of man and woman is
in their union (through marriage), I do not aim to make that point.
Rather, God endowed the male with certain gender specific attributes
and the female with certain gender specific attributes and it
is not until we are able to inculcate them both do we attain the
rank of perfection. For example, men are known for their strength
and no examples need be given on this, while women are known for
their mercy and care. In fact, throughout the Islamic tradition
examples of women or mothers are used to illustrate mercy and
care. The question then should be asked, does a man reach his
perfected state if he has no mercy? The Prophet (God’s peace
and blessings upon him) clearly disagrees with this absurd notion.
It was
narrated that Aisha, said: "Some Bedouin people came to the
Prophet (God's peace and blessings upon him) and said: 'Do you
kiss your children?' He said: “Yes'.” He said: “But
we, by God, never kiss (our children).”. The Prophet (God's
peace and blessings upon him) said: “What can I do if God
has taken away mercy from you?"
In this
scene, the Prophet clearly makes it clear that mercy is an attribute
that should reside in all human beings. Islam is a path of balance,
straying to one side at the exclusion of another is extremism
and leads to deficiencies in one’s faith and practice. The
merging of the two halves, male and female, is of the many aspects
of this world that gives the creation perfection.
God continues
the verse noting that He created humankind not only in the distinctions
of male and female, but also in various peoples, groups and tribes
and that these distinctions are for the purpose of knowing each
other. When one knows another, they may begin to see themselves
as equals, none being better than the other. However, if this
feeling of inequality, of pride does seep into the heart of the
believer, then God reminds the believer that none is better except
those with consciousness of Him. These verses found in Surah Al
Hujurat are filled with beneficial lessons and practices that
if acted upon could change the way all Muslims interact with fellow
human beings. These actions could be a source of raising the rank
of the believers in the sight of God and gaining His pleasure,
the result of which is Paradise. May God accept from us and cause
us to embody His words, Ameen.
This
article was originally published and copyrighted in Dar
Al-Ifta.
