I wanted to clarify that my previous post was not intended to be simply an anti-Saudi-establishment rant. In fact, I’ve previously criticized the unfortunate expat pastime of whining and bashing against the Saudis.
Although I focused on the Mutawwa and their less-than-logical techniques, I truly believe their methodology typifies the ill-advised approach to reform employed by so many Muslims around the world.
We Muslims are all about window-dressing. Our idea of self-improvement is akin to putting make-up on a pig.
It's never about replacing the rotten core.
It's ‘religiously’ easier to grow a beard than to suppress your anger.
It's easier to don the scarf than to bite your tongue.
It's easier to memorize a host of ahadith than to crush your pride.
It's easier to use a miswak than to mend a broken relationship.
It's easier to lower your gaze and turn away from a sister than to help her with her groceries.
It's easier to regulary attend the local masjid than to turn away a bribe.
It's easier to correct others than to master the art of silence.
It’s so much easier to tackle the demons within by covering them with a thin coating of religiosity.
Whether it’s your self, your child, or your society, dealing with the outer forms of the sickness is quicker and less tasking than dealing with the inner essence of the problem.
Internal change (Islah) requires coming to terms with the repulsiveness of your true self, accepting scathing criticism by those more knowledgable, and adopting a long-term strategy to rectification.
Very painful, very difficult and very ugly.
Sadly, we are all the Mutawwa, in one form or another. We are all resistant to the pressures and pains of true internal reform, preferring the relative comforts of piety of the exterior.
WAW
2 days ago
7 comments:
I agree with this post and your previous post on the Mutawwa entirely. But something that you've not mentioned is that this approach to Islam and reform comes from a 'literal reading' of the Quran and a 'utopian' delusion.
We have become like 'Quran bashers', where we command the letter of the law to the last dot, whilst ignoring the tradition/ spirit of the law. Much of this ideology has unfortunately been exported to most muslim countries, and together with our western conditioning, we insist on treating the symptoms and not the cause within.
Salaam Naeem, I thought this was especially true, and I'm glad you said it:
It's ‘religiously’ easier to grow a beard than to suppress your anger.
It's easier to don the scarf than to bite your tongue.
It's easier to memorize a host of ahadith than to crush your pride.
It's easier to use a miswak than to mend a broken relationship.
It's easier to lower your gaze and turn away from a sister than to help her with her groceries.
It's easier to regulary attend the local masjid than to turn away a bribe.
It's easier to correct others than to master the art of silence.
It really helps illustrate your point as well. I think I understand it better now too. :-)
We have become like 'Quran bashers', where we command the letter of the law to the last dot, whilst ignoring the tradition/ spirit of the law. Much of this ideology has unfortunately been exported to most muslim countries, and together with our western conditioning, we insist on treating the symptoms and not the cause within.
Salams sister Farzana,
Allahu’alam, but it seems command the spirit of the law may not necessary immune us from the pitfalls of the literalist approach. To be honest calling to the "spirit" or letter of the law isn't so much the issue. Allah's Speech has no need for hearers such that the letter or the spirit of it may become a subject of contention. He Spoke (the Truth) without any need for anyone to hear it. His Speech is nothing but a "resonance" of His Praise for Himself and His Witnessing of His Own Truth (Shahidallah anahu la ilaha illa Allah...).
Anyway, without getting into eschatologies, the point here is that we have to respond to Allah first and foremost. In the sense that the Prophet (saw) was calling people to Allah Exclusively, he wasn't calling to himself, nor to the letter or spirit of the "quran" and "sunna", to some "hadiths", to "aqeedah", to "fiqh", etc. The people who responded to his call (i.e who responded to Allah) were rewarded (as a "mercy") with his sunna(saw) i.e. iman bi llah, understanding of the quran, his sunna, hadiths, aqeedah, salah, fiqh, and whatever comes as guidance from him. But we seem to have put the cart before the horse.
" If you (had) loved Allah, then follow me, Allah will love you".
When they responded to Allah, He rewarded them with the itiba’a of Muhammad (alehi salatul wa salam). And when they started following his sunnah, they realised it was an honour and gave thanks accordingly because they realised they were better off than before doing, they discovered that before that they were in manifest error.
And by giving thanks, Allah increased them in Guidance (towards Himself).
They didn't set out to follow any so-called "straight path", rather they set out for Allah and Allah guided them to the path. Then, they gave thanks....which brings us to the cruicial point- that there needs to be shukr and hamd i.e. thanking Allah for the Prophet Muhammad (saw), for Iman, for the guidance found in the Qura'an for one's praying, fasting, obedience, etc. Because if we don't thank Allah for these things it is as if we don’t acknowledge that they are a result of his favour and mercy to us. This only happens if we think we are great Islamic thinkers/reformers…. acting like we are intelligent, we know fiqh, we now hadith, we know aqeedah, islamic studies. Jokers!
If there is no shukr, the heart will not move forward.
"If you (had) all given thanks, I shall surely increase you".
What do you think he is going to increase you with? Toothpicks, nose-picking skills, money, cars, etc. Perhaps some of those, but He will increase you with something, if you like, a bit better than those: qurbah, closeness to Himself.
So, for every salah we pray, every fast we make, every spec of hair we try to grow as a beard in order to follow the sunnah of the Prophet (alehi salatu wa salam), we have to thank Allah for it, you have to thank him for inspiring you to do those things. Because through these actions he is preserving and protecting us. Don't you see that the people who are unable to do those things, i.e unable to follow his guidance are busied with other miserable pursuits, littering the earth with filth and useless inventions....wasting their efforts in this world and thinking they are perfecting technology.
The problem in general is that there is nobody calling to Allah. People are obsessed with all the other good things (and rightly so). But you can't put the cart before the horse. People are calling to the "letter" of the law, the "spirit" of the law, they are calling to "Quran" and "Sunna", "virtues",... and that is all well and good. Yet, we can't see anything. All we see is people who love the world more than anything else. People who will invest their wealth is endless and trivial pursuit and amazingly at the same time thinking they are furthering the cause. How come?
Only Allah inspires to the Dar Al-Salam.
Perhaps another problem is that not everyone can call to Allah (in the precise sense). Surely, we can all do our part. However, Ph.Ds, and magisteri in Islamic Studies from some holy university is not the criteria to undertake this task in its wholesome sense. We need callers with isnad. Isnad back to the Prophet (saw). A heart surgeon without the training and approval of another qualified heart surgeon, and so on back to the chief surgeon is nothing but a butcher. An approved surgeon is risky enough!
I hear people ask me, don't you know shaykh such and such, he is from the akabir,etc. I ask him back, who is his teacher? And then we are staring at each other blank as if I had asked about his wife, as if I had asked a strange question.
When we talk about tradition and the reason why it has to continue through generations via (verifyable) isnad, the brothers/sisters think you are astray….since there is databases and USB memory sticks to record all the hadiths.
Some one told me the following: "as long as the hadith has isnad, that is all that is required. The learning of the ulama does not require isnad".
Little wonder he is silent when the khuluq al-fasida are promoted through television and he is hot with punishment, as the Qur'an and Sunnah requires him, when people act immoral. One step backwards, one step forwad.
Little wonder he is happy when the latest technology comes to make life "easy" and he is worried and confused, rightly so, when the shababs are inert.
And so on
Anyway, this is as much as one can talk about these things, the Reality of the matter is even further.
AA- Farzana,
Good point. I've always felt the letter-over-the-spirit approach to be extremely shallow, but as I alluded to in my post, its just so much easier.
AA- Anon,
Wow, what an amazing comment!! Very impressive and simply spot on! I enjoyed it so much that I read it twice...eventhough it was longer than my post...LOL!
Comment of the year, most def...
Excellent post. Getting to the heart of the matter.
wa alaykum salam Naeem,
Alhamdulilah you enjoyed my 'comment'. Sorry it was a 'bit' longer than yours. I will try to be brief this time.
I wanted to add that we should never be tempted to lose sight of the fact that every action prescribed/prohibited by the Shariah carries its own light and its own specific reward/punishment,
and this is haqq.
So that at *every* level each soul may strive and be rewarded without being wronged in any way.
This is Ultimately a Mercy from Allah: That He 'hukumed' (Ruled) bodily actions with all its inherent deficiencies
and dodgy intentions to have something to do with His Pleasure.
And it appearst to be no other than a testament to the Unique Rank of the Prophet (alehi salam) through Whom Allah 'demonstrated' such actions/prohibitions to us as a means to earn His Pleasure.
So, there is something for everybody. May Allah Give Us the Highest Motivation.
Whoever wants the reward of duniya, we will give him; whosoever wants the reward of akhira we will give him; And We will reward the Grateful (apart).
The original point however stands absolutely irreducible -
that a wage hunter or labourer is not the same as a slave; the male is not like the female? ...
and it is not befitting for a labourer with his helmet and boots to carry the mirror in front of the King, or to deliver/interprete His Message.
The task of Delivering or Interpreting the King's Message and Reflecting His Desires is better entrusted to a slave, someone with no ulterior motive.
Naturally, the slave is not ashamed to work longer and harder than labourers - spending sweat and blood - since he won't and doesn't feel cheated. He learns from other Slaves, who learned from other Excellent Slaves, who learnt from The Most Excellent Slave (sala Allahu 'alehi salam)
how to content himself with the honour of being under The Master, King of kings - who oppresses not, who Reigns on the Throne, |Al-Rahman|.
Talking about Labourers (of which I am one), they are notoriously ungrateful and unreliable. Even when you give them better conditions, they just can shake off their old habits.
When push come to shove, they have no concern past that isolated pay check or if sophisticated they want to be the employee of the year.
Anyone who works for money gets tired at some point...when he makes enough wages or is given some bonus, he is proud and lazy, and should the King out of wisdom withold his pay cheque for one month he gets grumpy and says verily my boss has screwed me...
and then you will see his true colour ...
So, the Slave is not like that: He rises fresh every moment with a Huge Sense of Duty, Purpose, Love and Gratitude - all at the same time. And that is not possible for anyone except a Slave.
Sorry to bore you guys, I am really more concerned about adding the first paragraph about the prescriptions/prohibitions of the Shariah. The Letter is just as important as the spirit.
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