I’ve written before on the blessed interaction between two of the greatest prophets, Muhammad and Musa (may Allah bless them both) during the Isra/Miraj journey of our Prophet (saw). Indeed we greatly revere and assign a lofty status to Prophet Musa (as), whose amazing tale begins in his infancy when he was miraculously rescued from the clutches of Pharaoh and ends with his flustered attempts to return Bani Israil to the Promised Land.
But at the same time, we proudly realize that our very own Prophet (saw) has a standing before Allah (swt) that is unmatched. And this subtle difference between the two is further substantiated by the Word of Allah (swt).
First let us examine how Allah (swt) discusses His meeting with these two special Prophets.
When we hear from a dear, old friend who may happen to be passing through our locality, we will eagerly rush to him and take him by the hand back to our home in our best attempt to honor and respect him. And when another acquaintance contacts us wishing to see us, we may simply arrange for a meeting at some convenient location and ask him to come at a certain time. The latter is not rude or impolite – it’s just that the former approach is reserved for the select few.
When Allah (swt) referenced our Prophet’s Night Journey, He revealed:
In these spiritually uplifting days of Ramadan, I was reminded of this post from several years ago about my best friend. Looking back, I felt it may have been a bit too cryptic. As you read through it, are you able to conclude that I was referring to my relationship with my sajdah (prostration)?
Anyways, I hope we all can appreciate this most powerful of blessings bestowed upon us by our Lord. The joy of humbly joining head to ground is one never felt by the vast majority of mankind.
Take advantage, especially in the remaining days of Ramadan!
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You are my best friend.
Words cannot describe how I feel when you visit.
When you and I sit together, I feel so …refreshed?…liberated? ...fulfilled? ...comforted? ...drained? ... depressed? …remorseful? I feel so…me. I don't need to pretend to be what I am not. You accept me for me.
When we talk, you give me a head rush. Really, my head goes into a spin with all my varying thoughts. Yet I never tire of our sittings.
When you visit, all my other activities are put on hold. You force me to concentrate solely on you. Normally I wouldn't accept such pretentiousness from anyone, but from you it's different.
When I'm with you, no one bothers us. No one. People see us together and they know to leave us alone. The world may think I'm crazy when they see us conversing, but those who understand your beauty, they understand.
And it's amazing how our visits last without you uttering a single word. I do all the talking. You quietly listen. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I smile. Often we both sit and stare at each other. Other times I release all my frustrations. Always you quietly listen.
I most enjoy our late night sessions. Your cold long stares empower me to confront the ugliness of my past. You sit quietly looking into my eyes, motionless, expressionless, undaunted by the heaviness of the moment. You strip me of everything, leaving me quivering in the cold of the night.
Then you grab hold of me. Your warm embraces give me hope, reminding me of the Mercy of the Merciful. Alas I do not have Jibreel (as) to come take hold of me, for that was unique to our dear Prophet (saw) when he was commanded to read. But your embraces will suffice for this meager soul.
But to be honest, for a best friend you don't visit me often enough. Yeah, I know it's my fault that I don't invite you, but sometimes I wish you would come over uninvited, like you used to. Remember those days? I would be engulfed in some tedious task or maybe just daydreaming my time away and out of nowhere you'd drop by. Those were the days! Oh how I wish to return to those days of spontaneous love!
I've tried thinking about Allah (swt) when you aren't around, but its just not the same. The sweetness of dhikr is absent without your presence.
Few are the creations of Allah (swt) that when gazed upon act as an instant reminder of the Creator. You my friend are one of those rare creations. You remind me of my Creator. He blessed me the day I met you. He blesses me everyday that I meet you. And I dread the day that He takes you away from me.
What will I ever do without you?! You are truly my best friend.
The Atlantic has a stunning collection of photos from the regions ravaged by the flooding. The first few pictures showing the before and after are especially amazing.
Very humbling. Make a special dua'a for them tonight when you break your fast.
As I was repeating some of the Prophetic adkhar the other day, I began wondering why we Muslims are so obsessed with the continuous remembrance of our Creator.
Surely Allah (swt) is in no need whatsoever of our verbal recitals of His Perfection.
Nor are we attempting to repay the impossible debt owed to our Sustainer.
Good deeds, maybe? Sure, we all accrue badly needed good deeds for our day of accountability in front of our Lord. But there are so many other ways to do so – including ways that may additionally benefit others (charity, visiting the sick, helping the environment, etc.).
I think most people, who regularly recite the name of Allah in the various forms of dhikr, believe they are achieving higher states of spirituality. Actualizing a state of constant divine remembrance is undoubtedly one of our greatest aspirations - a means of realizing divine nearness (qurbah).
But I had an epiphany about another possible explanation for repeating over and over and over the praise and glorification of Allah (swt).
It’s akin to the athlete (or any type of performer for that matter) who practices for countless hours shooting the basketball or kicking the football or practicing whatever his sport/art may be. His goal is to perfect that action, not for the sake of itself, but in preparation for that one moment when it will be most required.
For that one moment, in the heat of the battle, when the game is on the line, in front of thousands of spectators, in the face of an equally determined adversary, when he will either succeed or fail.
The more sweat, blood, and tears that he has poured into his practice sessions; the more likely he will succeed. His actions in the game will become automatic and simply an extension of his being. His movements will come to him naturally. His performance will flow effortlessly. While concentrating on the goal, all distractions will melt away and his perfected form will smoothly enable him to succeed.
Similarly, we are all in an epic battle against our avowed enemy. When he comes knocking on the door of our hearts, with his minions in tow, we will come under his sustained attacks – anger, jealousy, arrogance, miserliness, hatred, sloth, indulgence. That is when our countless hours of dhikr will come to our defense. We must be prepared to call on Allah (swt) without a second thought. We must all become like Yusuf (as), when he instinctively called to Allah (“Ma’adh-Allah!”) in the face of devastating temptation.
When the pressure is on, spurred on by the whisperings of an enemy who knows our weaknesses better than we know ourselves, we have not the luxury to step back and reflect on our situation.
We must react.
We can’t call a timeout.
We can’t look to teammates for assistance.
We can’t ask the coach for guidance.
We are in the spotlight and we must respond.
And only those who have “practiced” - losing sleep, forgoing food, repeating dhikr ad infinitum, sacrificing countless delights and pleasures – only they will react with composure.
Under the immense pressure of the situation,
when a spouse unjustly reproaches them or
when an unexpected compliment threatens their ego or
when their parent undeservedly disparages them or
when their sibling purchases the same car they’ve been dreaming of,
only those who have put in the effort will intuitively call on Allah (swt) instead of succumbing to the calls of their lower selves.
Every now and then, we are struck with gentle reminders by the Most Subtle - Al-Lateef - (swt) that our fast-paced life is not the most conducive way to gain nearness to Him. This video is one of those reminder:
(h/t Deenport)
All too often we take our Wudu for granted, whizzing through it without any sense of spiritual awareness. Even this most basic act of worship, which many of us learned in our childhood, has the potential to be a refreshing spiritual experience.
But only if we allow it.
I found this video very effective in injecting some life into one of my more 'programmed' acts of worship. I really need more humanity in my worship. I guess that's what happens when we gain all our knowledge from books and mp3 lectures.
(Sigh)
‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’*
This oft-repeated question heard across countless primary schools quite nicely sums up the problem with schooling. For the purpose of school is not about what you want to achieve when you grow up or how you want to improve society, but about which career path you wish to choose. The purpose of schooling is to get you a job. The purpose is to create cogs for the economic machinery – you may become a dull cog (garbage man, waiter, teacher) or a shiny cog (lawyer, doctor), but cogs you will all become.
Schooling creates career professionals. This is pounded into students from day one with the constant question of what you want to become.
This is the major concern for high schoolers when they choose a university to attend.
This is the major concern at the university level when students choose which degree to pursue.
And this is the major concern when the college student graduates and ‘enters’ into society.
Education has always taken a back to seat to careerism.
After all, every society has its own barometer of success. Hunter-gatherer societies placed a premium on those with adept hunting skills. Societies based on warfare deemed an individual with excellent fighting skills as successful. Tribal societies perceived strength in numbers, so a large number of sons was considered invaluable. In our modern capitalist society, one who has a ‘nice job’ and thus has accrued the most wealth is considered most successful.
But as Muslims, we have our divinely-sanctioned definition of success – faith and piety. Regardless of how good or bad we may be at hunting, fighting, or shopping, our success is measured by our level of spiritual development and servitude to our Lord.
And so, schools have failed at developing humans and have merely become the gatekeepers for the job-based professional economy as well as the national military. They have perfected the means for churning out ‘human resources’, citizens pliant enough to subserviently fit into the capitalistic model or become unquestioning soldiers in the battlefield. Schools excel at producing eager consumers and smoothly functioning bureaucrats.
Additionally, I am convinced that sending our kids off to school for 8 hours a day to be raised by complete strangers contaminates the parent-child bond. It plants the seed of deviation away from the parent’s thought-process. It paves the way for the child to accept, maybe even celebrate, a difference of opinion with his parents.
Once this reverence is corrupted, the child ceases to see the parents as sources of guidance deserving ultimate respect, viewing them instead as guardians charged merely with the child’s physical well-being and sustenance. The influence and sovereignty of the parents is eventually replaced by outside institutions such as school, government, or pop-culture.
Instead of impressing upon them the importance of family, religion, and community (social values that schools of the past focused on), modern day schooling hammers into our children’s minds that the most important goal is to get into a good college. And they must get into a good college in order to get a good job. And they must get a good job so as to live a comfortable life.
And that, my fellow readers, is the crux of the schooling failure.
The essential goal of schooling is materialistic success. Anything more is icing on the cake. Enlightening of the child’s mind, if it occurs, is merely accidental. To say otherwise is naïve at best.
I’m choosing not to be naïve.
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*I ranted in a previous post on my issues with a similar socio-cultural phenomenon - the casual question of 'What do you do?'
Having two school-age children (ages 12 and 10), education is of the utmost importance to me. I have sent both of them to school since KG and after years of persistent frustration, I have come to the conclusion that modern-day schooling is one of the greatest wastes of time.
I am convinced that schools are in the business of training, not educating, our children - in the same manner that animals are trained. Schools are factories of mass human training. They replicate the industrial model found in automated factories, churning out graduates in the same way factories churn out cars or laptops.
Schools produce graduates, not human beings. Schools excel at preparing their end-product for a capitalistic life in modern society. Schools provide a hierarchical education for a hierarchical society, embodied by the cubicle corporate lifestyle. Schools are perfect at producing docile, obedient citizens content with the status quo. Schools fill the role of creating cogs necessary for the machinery of society.
Schools do not engender a strong family or culture or religion. In fact, they undermine all of the above, replacing them instead with loyalty to the self, nation, and institutions.
The potential of most every child is stunted by this schooling system. I refer not to the ‘educational’ potential – that potential measured by report cards and SAT scores. Rather, I refer to the human potential – that potential to be a complete Adamic human being, who understands the true nature of the universe in ways the angels cannot even comprehend.
Our humanity is measured by more than grades and report cards. Life is more than homework and tests. Knowledge is more than some concocted curriculum taught at school.
Children and young adults need to understand man’s place in the universe. They need to actualize the higher purposes of life. They need to learn about the spiritual even more than the physical. They need to embody higher morals and ethics.
And this is not material that can be covered a few hours a week at Sunday schools. These subjects are the crux of our very being and yet, we have all accepted a model of education where these fundamentals are given lip service at our local Masjid. We have silently fallen in line with the rest of society, choosing to focus our children’s intellectual efforts on worldly studies.
And it’s not as if the schools excel in the worldly studies. In addition to the incredible absence of spiritual guidance, the schooling system fails to prepare children for the real world. Schools leave them disconnected, existing in a created space dedicated purely to children.
We fail to engage our children in mature topics, viewing them as mere receptacles for useless information such as Social Studies, Health, and Language Arts. When will they learn the affairs of the adult world? We coddle them in a manner that stunts their maturation process, leaving us with 23-year old adults playing video games and watching UFC.
Manufactured concepts, such as teens and tweens, thrive and take over the mind of young adults, robbing them of their productive place in greater society. Instead they are relegated to the periphery, in classrooms and study halls, playing nary a role in society at large.
After years of schooling my own children in this failed system, I have cast aside the artificial importance placed on my child’s ability to memorize data and regurgitate it for testing purposes. I have rejected all the counterproductive efforts required for homework, school projects, and exams. While the schooling system may prepare my child for the next grade or a good college or a good job, it fails miserably at producing a complete human being.
So I’m choosing to focus on educating my children instead of training them. Maybe they won’t become ‘successful’ engineers or lawyers or doctors (only a small percentage of all schooled children actually do), but my definition of success is not dictated by mainstream society.
It is well known that in the Islamic Spiritual Sciences destroying one’s nafs is the key to Paradise. As one sheikh stated, “Eternal bliss is achieved in two steps. First, step on your nafs, then take the next step into Jannah.”
And it was with this in mind that I read this NY Times op-ed piece, ‘It’s Not About You.’ David Brooks writes about the outgoing class of college graduates who have been misled by baby-boomer theology oozing with ill-advised individualism: “Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself.”
He talks about a world that operates on individuals committing to something – a family, a job, a cause – but this new generation (I would argue this extends to the past few generations) is being brainwashed with talk of freedom, autonomy, “finding your passion and pursuing your dreams”.
“Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task.”
While the author didn’t have this in mind, the ultimate goal for a Muslim is to dissolve his/her self (nafs) not into some task, but into pleasing Allah (swt). And by way of centuries of experience gained by the masters of the spiritual path, we have come to know that one cannot satisfy one’s self while struggling to satisfy one’s Lord. It can only be one or the other.
That’s why I love how the author wraps up his piece:
“The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.”
Lose yourself in the struggle for the company of Allah (swt).
Lose yourself in the company of Allah (swt).
Lose yourself in Allah (swt).
After all, isn’t that the supreme aspiration defined by the one who most perfectly embodied this process of losing one’s self, the Prophet (saw), when he uttered these sublime words of Allah (swt) in a famous hadith qudsi:
“...and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him. When I love him I become his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his leg with which he walks...".
Because it's never to early to start getting ready for Ramadan.
Rajab is here and so we're two months away. Here's a nice post on the blessings of Rajab.
"The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: “Rajab is the month of Allah, Sha`bān is my month, and Ramadan is the month of my Ummah.”...Imam Abu Bakr al-Warraq said: “in the month of Rajab you sow the seeds, in Sha`ban you irrigate them and in Ramadan you reap the harvest.” He also said: “Rajab is like a wind, Sha`ban is like a cloud and Ramadan is like rain.”"
I wholeheartedly urge all of you to watch this 90-minute presentation called "Sugar: The Bitter Truth". This specialist in childhood obesity from the University of California, Dr. Robert Lustig, gives an extremely convincing argument for looking at sugar as a poison or a toxin.
And if you find that 90-minutes is too long, then read this NY Times article summarizing Lustig's argument. I watched the presentation a few weeks ago and I read the article just yesterday and I actually preferred the article. Easier to keep up with the nuances and details.
And if even the article is too long for you, then allow me to summarize them both:
SUGAR SUCKS!
According to a 1986 FDA-sponsored study on sugar, individuals limiting themselves to 40 pounds of added sugar (the sugar beyond what we get from fruits and vegetables) per year demonstrated no conclusive proof of harm. Forty pounds per year amounts to 200 calories of sugar per day or the equivalent of a can and a half of soda or two cups of apple juice. Unfortunately, in the 80's, it was estimated that the average annual consumption of sugar was around 75 pounds a year!
So even back then, our levels of sugar consumption were potentially problematic according to that conservative study. "By the early 2000s, according to the U.S.D.A., we had increased our consumption to more than 90 pounds per person per year."
So clearly our diet has resulted in an unmaintainable rate of sugar consumption. But getting fat is the least of our worries. Recent studies are showing a strong correlation between sugar and insulin resistance.
"...if the fructose hits the liver in sufficient quantity and with sufficient speed, the liver will convert much of it to fat. This apparently induces a condition known as insulin resistance, which is now considered the fundamental problem in obesity, and the underlying defect in heart disease and in the type of diabetes, type 2, that is common to obese and overweight individuals. It might also be the underlying defect in many cancers."
The way our body metabolizes sugar and high-fructose corn syrup is extremely problematic.
"It very well may be true that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, because of the unique way in which we metabolize fructose and at the levels we now consume it, cause fat to accumulate in our livers followed by insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, and so trigger the process that leads to heart disease, diabetes and obesity. They could indeed be toxic, but they take years to do their damage. It doesn’t happen overnight."
That being said, scientists haven't been able to conclusively correlate the increased amounts of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, or some forms of cancer.
Yeah, even cancer.
"Cancer researchers now consider that the problem with insulin resistance is that it leads us to secrete more insulin, and insulin (as well as a related hormone known as insulin-like growth factor) actually promotes tumor growth."
So, eventhough many studies are inconclusive, two of the leading experts on cancer and its potential link to insulin, Craig Thompson and Lewis Cantley have both taken the extreme measure of removing sugar from their diets.
"“I have eliminated refined sugar from my diet and eat as little as I possibly can,” Thompson told me, “because I believe ultimately it’s something I can do to decrease my risk of cancer.” Cantley put it this way: “Sugar scares me.”"
Indeed, sugar scares me as well.
With young children of my own, I am struggling to wean them from the high levels of sugar in their diet. So much of the food and snacks available nowadays is full of sugar. For now I'm focusing on two basic rules in our home: no sugar-infested drinks (replaced with milk and water) and lots of fruits. Simple steps that I suggest everyone else take as well.
Wow.
Of all the articles and posts I've read on the OBL kill, Chomsky's has been the MOST powerful.
No one but Chomsky could get away with saying these keepers:
"There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement."
"In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany."
"We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region."
And finally, this golden quote really won it for me:
"Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”"
This past week I read this well-written post over at MuslimMatters. The author, Ibnabeeomar, logically presented his case on many Muslims missing the forest for the trees when they go to extremes in arguing for Halal/Zabiha meat all the while riba-based transactions plague their personal finances. It’s a beautiful piece that I recommend all of you take the time to read.
Many Muslims living in the West are understandably bothered by the petty arguments and polemics surrounding recurring hot topics such as Halal-vs-Zabiha, moonsighting, and participating in elections. They make the case for moving on and focusing on ‘bigger fish to fry’.
I couldn’t agree more.
Here in Saudi Arabia, while many of the issues particular to the West are non-existent, the same disease (‘missing-the-big-picture’-itis) plagues Muslims here as well. The problem here, as I see it, is that Muslims are stuck in neutral with their non-stop focus on Aqeedah.
This constant infatuation with perfecting one’s Aqeedah is like a never-ending cycle of mastering one’s basic math skills. It’s not enough that a class full of children is able to proficiently add and subtract, but they must all do it in exactly the same manner. It matters not that one student uses his fingers to add while another draws lines on paper to subtract or another does it all in her head. They must all continue studying this basic skill until it’s absolutely flawless.
I see this same counterproductive approach to this most fundamental of Islamic sciences. These Muslims, whose sincerity I do not question, overlook the social, educational, political and economic tragedies currently facing the Muslim world, believing the root cause of all our problems is our imperfect Aqeedah. If we simply focused on properly understanding Tauheed and all its ramifications, they claim, then Allah (swt) would shower His blessings down upon us all.
Actually, I can’t argue with this last statement – except with the narrow scope of how they define the ramifications of true Tauheed. For them, it means studying books on Aqeedah ad infinitum. I, on the other hand, take it to mean a Tauheed-inspired worldview in which every aspect of our life, not just the theological minutiae of Aqeedah, are dictated by the One (swt).
The Oneness of Allah (swt) is not rocket science, folks. Everything we need to know we learned in Kindergarten Sunday School.
The Prophet (saw) declared, "By Allah! I am not afraid that you will worship others with Allah after my death, but I am afraid that you will fight with one another for this dunya.” So if our dear Prophet (saw) did not fear overt shirk becoming established amongst his Ummah, then why are we so engrossed by it?
We have lost sight of the bigger picture – connecting our hearts to Allah (swt) while directing our energies towards a world where Divine justice reigns supreme – choosing to instead focus on the gory details of where is Allah (swt) or exposing those who 'worship graves'.
Disclaimer #1: I am not trying to undermine the importance of studying Aqeedah. But just as basic arithmetic skills are critical in creating a foundation for higher maths, Aqeedah is but a foundation for higher Islamic endeavors.
Disclaimer #2: Saudi Arabia is not alone in her ‘missing-the-big-picture’-itis. Every Muslim land suffers from this disease in one way or another. I just picked on their over-infatuation of Aqeedah as emblematic of the problem.
Most Americans are well aware of the recent travails of the US Government in finalizing their federal budget. In making his case for balancing the budget, Obama argued that “every day, families sacrifice to live within their means. They deserve a government that does the same."
However, Ted Rall makes his counter-argument against this myth that American families are thrifty and keen on balancing their personal budgets. In addition to informing us of the facts (the average family has a debt of nearly $11,000), he posits this interesting scenario:
“If consumer credit vanished, the corporato-capitalist system currently prevailing in the U.S. would deteriorate from its current, merely unsustainable form into total chaos. Without credit cards and other loans citizens would seethe, trapped between the mutually irreconcilable forces of falling wages and the aggressive advertising and marketing of products they would never be able to afford. There would only be two possible long-term outcomes: revolution, or the ruling classes would be forced to pay substantially higher wages to workers. To corporate elites, the latter choice would be too unpalatable to countenance.”
Of the two possible outcomes of a credit-free society that Rall discusses, the latter (paying higher wages to workers) is a very intriguing situation. It would undoubtedly cut into the colossal wealth of the top one percent, but the resulting economic justice would provide for a far more acceptable standard of living for the majority.
Such a course of action, I believe, is promoted by the Islamic economic ethos. This is but one example of what the Shariah would provide to its participants – a more just economic system, where capitalistic greed is not given the absolute free reign it has been afforded by modern-day capitalism.
Too bad such intellectual thought exercises are missing from the discussions on Shariah.
Instead, let us continue the fear-mongering and adventures in disinformation. After all, why bother trying to understand the intricate details of Islamic economic jurisprudence when it’s so much easier to simply pass off scary images of bearded Mullahs, honour killings, and dhimmi taxes as wholly representative of Shariah?
I just finished reading this CNN piece written my Muslim Comedian, Dean Obeidallah. In it, he addresses the recent GOP-concocted ruckus over the role of Sharia in the US. It’s not the least bit surprising that politicians are using islamophobic rhetoric to stoke the flames of fear among the masses. It’s a tactic that has been successfully used since 9/11.
But what is surprising is the troubling attitude that American Muslims have towards the Sharia. Why are so many Muslims so quick to write off the Sharia as an ideal system for all of humanity? Shouldn’t we be confident that the divine precepts set forth within the Shariah provide what is best for all of mankind?
I understand that due to decades of misinformation, the Shariah is equated with oppression, stoning, and forced conversions. But instead of working to clear up these blatant misconceptions and properly present the beautiful, humane aspects of Islamic law, why are so many of us turning our backs on the Shariah and agreeing with the public sentiment that it has no place in America?
Huh?!
Why have we become so ashamed of the Shariah, like that proverbial crazy uncle whose embarrassing antics make everyone uncomfortable, eventually wishing he would just go away?
After all, if the commandments of Allah (swt) had been in place in America, I am convinced that the catastrophically oppressive system of interest-based banking would not have bound countless struggling families by the economic shackles that have enslaved them to their financial masters.
If the Shariah were implemented in America, hundreds of billions would not have been squandered on the military-industry complex at the cost of healthcare programs, educational reforms, and battling poverty.
If the Shariah ever became a legal reality in America, the beautiful Prophetic axiom “Do not harm and do not reciprocate harm” (La Darara wa La Dirar) would become the overarching principle of America’s foreign policy.
If the Shariah ever found its way into the Supreme Court, carbon emissions, climate change, and other environmental concerns would trump every corporation’s right to grotesque profits.
If the Shariah laws were applied in America, human dignity would return to its proper place above the politically manipulated concept of human freedom.
If the Shariah was the law of the land, universally acknowledged vices such as gambling, alcohol, and pornography would not be sanctioned by the state.
If the Shariah came to be at the national level, economic hitmen and corporate jackals, with the support of the American government, would not freely roam the earth looking for lands to rape and populations to fleece.
The Shariah covers all aspects of human life and contrary to the picture some American Muslims are presenting about the Shariah, it is NOT restricted to one’s personal life. It provides guidelines for politics and economics, international relations and domestic policies, scientific research and spiritual purification, social relations from the nuclear family all the way to the global level.
It does away with man’s arrogant proclamation that he knows what is best for him. Verily, his Creator knows better.
So, I would boldly declare that I am a strong proponent of the Shariah becoming established not only in America, but throughout the world. Just allow me the time and respect to explain what that entails.
The New York Times has a very profound piece on Sh. Yasir Qadhi (here is his response to the NYTimes piece). I found the article very telling because of the way the writer is able to communicate the internal struggles of an American Muslim leader in navigating the murky waters of 21st century Islam in a politically charged America.
While there are many points worthy of addressing, I would like to focus on the Jihad issue, not because it is a core Islamic principle or a major concern for Muslims worldwide, but because it was used to demonstrate the difficulties Sh. Yasir is facing. It’s clear from the article that he is struggling to tread a fine line. And sadly, I think his lot will be of someone attempting to simultaneously sit on two stools only to fall flat on the floor.
His sincerity I do not doubt. His rejection of the pseudo-salafi movement is proof enough for me. I am simply weary of any efforts, and this includes the sincere efforts of his contemporaries, such as Imam Zaid Shakir, to appease American sensitivities while remaining faithful to our deen.
In their efforts to find this hallowed middle ground, are they leading American Islam through a ‘maturation’ process that will leave it emaciated, a hollow skeleton of its original teachings? Will we conveniently cast aside the teachings that find little resonance in modern-day Western life? I speak not of polygamy or wearing the niqab or growing a beard, but of the more substantial, macro issues such as Islamic governance or an economic model based on the Quran and Sunnah or the concept of Prophetic Jihad.
I find Western society, with all its declarations of human rights, deviously lulling for the modern-day Muslim. It will definitely award him the freedom to behold to his faith and practice all the personal rituals required of him - admittedly, moreso than most any Muslim nation in the world. But are personal rituals all that the Quran and Sunnah ask of us?
While I realize that Muslims across most of the Muslim world are incapable of voicing their thoughts on how to fully practice their faith, the issue with Islam in America is that too many Muslims have convinced themselves that they are being afforded the freedom to comprehensively practice their deen.
And that simply is not the case, as Sh. Yasir illustrates in quite a convincing fashion.
The fact that he has a legitimate reluctance in discussing the "J-word" demonstrates a lack of freedom of religion and speech. A police state isn’t the only way to quash these freedoms. An ignorant public in combination with pandering politicians and a willing media are equally as effective.
How many generations will it take to so completely water down basic Islamic teachings, such as Jihad, that they will become historical footnotes, kept alive in old dusty books in old dusty libraries?
Indeed, most of the Muslim world lags behind the Western world when it comes to basic rights, but at least there is no pretense of freedom. Muslims realize they are not free to practice their religion in the manner the Prophet (saw) and His companions did. And so, Muslims are biding their time, keeping alive the vision of a holistic implementation of Islam, waiting for the opportune time wherein such steps can be taken in a manner befitting the authentic teachings of the Prophet (saw).
Can the same be said of Muslims living in the West, where the latest manifestation of American Islam is pointing us towards a horizon where certain topics are simply eliminated from religious discourse? Scholars aren’t merely stating that these contentious issues are better left unaddressed – the trend is clearly headed towards a steady state where such issues are simply removed from the American Muslim conscious.
While Sh. Yasir may be struggling to walk this tightrope, I seriously fear that his future progeny may not even be given this opportunity.
