Debating Islam
…
the mainspring of thinking of both these groups,
indeed all Islamic scholars of all schools of thought was Quran and except in
the case of Mutazillah, Hadith. All of them may have violently disagreed with
one another, even thrown each other in prison and got one another lashed, but
they were all very sincere seekers of the Truth of Islam. The proof of their
sincerely lies in the fact that not one of them recanted, despite facing
extreme persecution by the Khulafa of their times. And the source of their
thinking was Quran alone in the case of Mutazillah and Hadith and Seerah too in
the case of others. Apart from Zahiris and Hanbalis, all of them had studied
Greek philosophy, but their primary faith was in Islam and Islamic scriptures.
Reform of Muslim personal law is the need of the hour. A demand for this has been made for decades in conferences, seminars and marches, organised by several progressive Islamic organisations including New Age Islam Foundation. These demands need to be intensified and peaceful demonstrations organised on a large scale, demanding that the government reform these laws. It will inevitably be opposed and equally inevitably expose the two-facedness of Islamic fundamentalists in the country. This would lead to a much needed debate on the hypocrisy of our ulema.
Faced with a barrage of questions, the ulema have now decided to challenge the progressive Muslims on their theological knowledge and more importantly, the courage, to stand up to their beliefs. At the same time, they are blaming them for encouraging courts to intervene, while taking their regular subversive position that courts and government should not intervene in matters of Muslim Personal Law as it is a matter of faith.
Rather than being cowed into silence or even dismiss this challenge as an effort to obfuscate matters, progressive Muslims should pick up the gauntlet and battle it out. This should be used as a great opportunity to breach the total stagnation that has prevailed in Islamic theological debates in the country. This will not only help the victims of our Anglo-Mohammedan Personal Law but also help open up issues related to violent extremism that is attracting our youth more and more in the absence of debate. For instance, accepting that triple talaq is not a part of Quranic teachings or even Hadith (sayings of the Prophet). A classical Muslim scholar, Hafeez Nomani, has asked if Quran alone is legitimate Islamic scripture and whether a bid’at (innovation) like triple talaq ordered by the second Caliph Hazrat Umar cannot be considered legitimate. He then goes on to ask that if triple talaq cannot be accepted, as it is a bid’at, then what about Quran, which in its present form is itself an innovation ordered by the same caliph and completed by the third Caliph Hazrat Usman.
These are among the issues that Muslims need to debate urgently for the wider good of the community as well as the nation and the world. We must never forget the solemn warning issued by Canadian scholar Winfred Cantwell Smith in mid-20th century that a healthy, functioning Islam is crucial for world peace. Clearly, the Islam today is not healthy and functioning. So it is not only the Muslims but the nation at large that should welcome an opportunity to debate and understand Islamic theological issues.
Different Muslims,
uncomfortable with these violent verses in Quran have tried different ways of
dealing with them. Some have rejected Islam as a divine religion and become and
are now becoming in larger numbers "ex-Muslims." Some have taken the instructions
to heart and adopted radical extremism and terrorism, as a way of quick
transition to Heaven through martyrdom. Others engage in what is called taaweelat
or allegorical interpretations. Some Muslims try to change the very meaning
of Arabic words used in these verses and say that Arabs have not understood
Arabic of the Quran in all these centuries. The consensus theology is that it
is every Muslim’s religious duty to help Islam conquer the world and extirpate
all other religions, including those that were brought by previous prophets in
whom all Muslims must believe to be a Muslim. Most mainstream Muslims accept
the consensus theology but do nothing about achieving this religious goal.
However, they do applaud, if not openly, at least in their hearts, when someone
appears to be doing something about it....
Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
Naseer Ahmed, New Age Islam
If people act in good faith, and without negligence, or without rejecting what they come to know as the truth, the door of Allah’s forgiveness is open to them whether they are “believers” or “disbelievers”. As to the question whether all the Mushrikin are Kafirin or not, the simple test is to substitute Mushrikin for Kafirin in any verse of the Quran, and discover the contradictions that this leads to. There cannot be a better proof than this, that not all the Mushrikin are Kafirin in any verse of the Quran. Why are people then reluctant to accept it? It is because of our Fuqaha who have made shirk such a dreaded word in their anxiety to ensure that the believers remain well with the limits that our minds refuse to accept that if the same strict rules are applied to other people, it would be unjust. Let us not continue to blaspheme God by refusing to recognize and accept the differences as divinely ordained. Let us not judge everyone by the yardstick that applies only to us....
Sufi poet
Jalaluddin Rumi describes this universe as a battlefield where atom struggles
with atom like faith against infidelity. In this struggle some benefit and
others suffer. Islamic metaphysics of the future blends chance,
unpredictability, and limited levels of free will to form our universe, within
the providence of a Most Compassionate, Most Just, and Omnipotent God. Based on
the Islamic metaphysics of the future, God proposes and humankind as well as
other creatures together transcribe divine proposals, arriving with the future,
into monuments of divine creation in the material world....
I am throwing open my debate with
Yunus Sb by summarising the discussion. It would be great if all
the scholars supporting NAI can reach a consensus on the common understanding
of Islam which is detailed at the end of the article which will go a long way
in defeating the false ideology of the extremists. Please therefore debate with
me with the intention of clarifying all your reservations before accepting what
I have proposed. …
There are thousands of debates on the internet regarding jihad. If on the one hand Muslim moderates are putting their utmost efforts to prove that Islam is a religion of peace, opponents are presenting some Quranic verses pertaining to Jihad and our own Hadith literature to prove the opposite. Ulema Islamic scholars) are maintaining a studied silence on this subject except giving general statements. … Clearly, Ulema need to go beyond making pious declarations of Islam having nothing to do with the offensive Jihad going on in several parts of the world today. They must take a stand and clarify why Islamic theologians over the centuries including reputed Indian ulema have interpreted war-time Quranic verses as calling for offensive jihad. These verses are being used both by Jihadis and Islamophobes to justify their respective viewpoints. It’s the religious duty of Ulema to come clean and clear the air, both for the sake of Muslim youth who are joining the Islamic State in growing numbers and non-Muslims who have come to fear Islam for obvious reasons
Concubines and Slavery in Islam
The Middle East Media Research Institute
Concubinage is
allowed with two conditions if you meet the conditions as they met in the eras
of Prophet [Muhammad] or of pious caliphs after him or during the caliphates
after them... If you meet the conditions today you can keep concubines.
"The first condition is that if during waging of jihad the women who come
with the enemy forces to support them are captured and the emir of the army
distributes them, it is his discretion, we can keep them as concubines. Second,
if we explore and find some market where slaves and concubines are sold and the
sale is established as a social institution there, the women you buy from there
will be concubine....
Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam
Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam
Dr. Ibrahim Saleh has explained that The Window to Paradise is a very popular programme in the Salafi Islamic televangelism. It has also greatly helped the Salafist preachers in propagating an anti-pluralist theology and exclusivist religious ideas.
Debates over the validity of pronouncing Talaq, divorce, three times in
one go or over three months offer no solutions. Both methods find
permissibility in schools of Islamic Fiqh, jurisprudence. Unilateral divorce
allows men to commit grave injustices by stripping women of honour and dignity,
inalienable rights both in Islam and the Indian Constitution. It is unwise to
expect reform from the community whose religious leaders have historically
treated women as subjects and not equals.....
This is what the Quran says about divorce: “al-Talaqu Marratan” (divorce
twice) – and after that “either cohabitation as per the law or parting of ways
in kindness.” In pre-Islamic society, men used to torment their wives by
pronouncing and revoking Talaq again and again. The Quran abolished the mean
practice by proclaiming that a Talaq can be revoked only twice, and that it
should be pronounced the third time only if the marriage has irretrievably
broken down and must be dissolved in the interest of both parties....
Related
Article:
Reform
Muslim Personal Law, Use Debate on Triple Talaq as an opportunity to Breach the
Stagnation in Muslim Religious Thought
Amid an ongoing debate in
the country over “Bharat Mata ki jai”, Darul-Uloom Deoband, the leading Islamic
seminary of the Indian subcontinent, on Friday said that chanting of the slogan
was against Islam. …
But scholars like Sultan
Shahin, editor of NewAgeIslam.com, a website which talks about advocating
reforms in Islam, slightly disagreed with the way the seminary interpreted the
slogan 'bharat mata ki jai'. While
the Darul-Uloom Deoband said chanting the slogan means “hailing and
worshipping” the goddess “bharat mata',
Mr. Shahin said, the slogan did not amount to worshipping 'bharat mata' and hence did not go against the idea of 'tauheed' (the belief in oneness of God).
“Primarily the idea of tauheed is believing into one God.
However, there is a variety of interpretation of god and tauheed in Islam. The idea of tauheed
(oneness of god) is vast enough to accommodate the idea of praising the
motherland and showing love for her. I would not like to go into literal
translation of Vandana or saying 'bharat
mata ki jai' because I find the controversy unnecessary and irrelevant as
there are enough controversies around the idea plaguing us,” said Mr. Shahin.
Talking about a variety of
interpretations of 'tauheed', Mr.
Shahin presented the instance of Sufis traditions in Islam and said that “a
section of Islamic scholars, find even Sufi practices like going to Sufi
Dargahs and praying to Sufi saints as against the idea of tauheed. Does
that make Sufism un-Islamic? I do not think so. All versions of oneness of God
are right but none should be forced on anybody”.
But Mr. Shahin also said
that the slogan 'bharat mata ki Jai'
should not be forced on anyone as the Constitution did not require anyone chant
the slogan.
Javed Ahmad
Ghamidi is one of the few sane scholars of Islam who calls for moderation,
tolerance, pluralism and core values of Islam. He enjoys mass appeal among
youth, as he can communicate to them unlike the traditional sectarian scholars
and mullahs. He needs to be listened and appreciated for articulating a
moderate, tolerant and inclusive interpretation of Islam. The attempts of low
rung mullahs and sectarian scholars who enjoy little appeal among masses will
in no way hamper the mission of Ghamidi, but it certainly points out a
disturbing trend in Valley where pluralism of interpretation of religion is
being curtailed through Unitarian efforts of sectarian censorship. This needs
to be discouraged at every level because Muslims are not a monolith and in our
tradition of Islam and Rishism, dissenting, alternative voices have never been
curtailed by demeaning, labelling and branding them as conspiracy against
Islam.
A person becomes a Kafir when he denies the truth in spite of being convinced that it is the truth. Since it is humanly impossible for a person to determine whether some person is denying the truth or not, it is only on the basis of information provided by the Almighty that a person can be called a Kafir. In the times of when He sent His Messengers (Rasul), He chose to impart this information to his Messengers through Wahi; however, after the departure of the last Rasul Muhammad (sws), people who have deliberately denied the truth cannot be pinpointed since the institution of Wahi has been terminated. No Muslim preacher is in a position to reveal the truth in a manner a Rasul is able to, nor can he ascertain who among his addressees is guilty of deliberately denying the truth.....
In one’s own country, without migrating to an independent piece of land, jihad is not allowed. The tale of Abraham (sws) and other verses pertaining to migration testify to this. The Prophet’s life (sws) also supports this view. The reason for this is that if jihad is not waged by a person who holds political authority, it amounts to anarchy and disorder....
For many centuries now, Islamic punishments have remained one of the hottest subjects of debate both inside and outside the Muslim world. “Islamic punishments are barbaric”, “Death to the death punishment”, “Civilized societies do not flog, stone to death or amputate hands” are a few of the typical slogans and comments that echo and reverberate among the intellectual elite of this Ummah. Without refuting the fact that Islamic punishments are indeed very severe, two things may perhaps help the modern mind in understanding the nature and logic of this severity.....
As many as 120
ulema from around the world belonging to most schools of thought have sent an
Open Letter to ‘Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’, And To the Fighters and Followers of the
Self-Declared ‘Islamic State.’
Written in over
14, 000 words, this is a valuable document. It shows what is wrong with
self-styled Khalifa Baghdadi's rulings. But, more importantly, it also shows
what is wrong with moderate Islam at the present juncture; why this refutation
will not work, and other such refutations do not work; and why our children
will keep running away to ISIS and other terror centres. In fact, read between
the lines, this moderate fatwa does not leave any leg for moderate Islam to
stand on. ...
This is not to
say the Open Letter is entirely useless or totally counter-productive. It is
good as far as it goes. It does criticise Baghdadi and his clique, and quite
vehemently, at least, for faulty implementation of Islamic principles, even if
it agrees with him on the basics in several areas. But to expect the Open
Letter to stem the tide of gathering support for the so-called Islamic State
will be futile.
Extremism has
been endemic in Islam, present almost from
the beginning of Islamic history. Muslims fought among themselves and
quite vehemently even before the creation of Hadees and Sharia, which they now
consider divine. Muslims have still not found an antidote to militant verses in
the Quran that are now available to anyone with access to internet. Calling all
verses of the Quran as of eternal value is not going to solve the problem.
Calling Hadees and Sharia divinely inspired is no answer to the questions of
the day.
Muslims will
just have to abandon the theology that
leads to violence and supremacism and look for a new theology, a coherent
theology of peace and pluralism, consistent in all respects with the teachings
of Islam, and suitable for contemporary and future societies....
Related
Articles:
Open Letter
to Dr. Ibrahim Awwad Al-Badri, alias ‘Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’, And To the
Fighters and Followers of the Self-Declared ‘Islamic State’
URL of Part
One: http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/open-letter-to-dr-ibrahim-awwad-al-badri,-alias-‘abu-bakr-al-baghdadi’,-and-to-the-fighters-and-followers-of-the-self-declared-‘islamic-state’-–-part-one/d/104327
URL of Part
Two: http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/open-letter-to-dr-ibrahim-awwad-al-badri,-alias-‘abu-bakr-al-baghdadi’,-and-to-the-fighters-and-followers-of-the-self-declared-‘islamic-state’-–-part-2/d/104339
URL of Part
Three: http://www.newageislam.com/radical-islamism-and-jihad/120-leading-religious-scholars-and-academics/open-letter-to-dr-ibrahim-awwad-al-badri,-alias-‘abu-bakr-al-baghdadi’,-and-to-the-fighters-and-followers-of-the-self-declared-‘islamic-state’-–-concluding-part/d/104348
Firstly, a husband and wife safeguard the chastity of one another by providing one another a legitimate means of satisfying the sexual urge. This protection of chastity is essential for the preservation of the family unit – the very institution on which the stability of a society hinges. Hence anything which puts chastity in jeopardy is disliked by the Almighty.....
This misconception has arisen because of a wrong translation of the Arabic phrase Naqisat-i ‘Aql wa Din. The word Naqs has generally been translated as “defective” keeping in view the Urdu meaning of the word. However, in Arabic, the verb نَقَصَ (Naqasa) means “to reduce” and the word عقل (‘Aql) here means “worldly affairs” since it is used in conjugation with the word دين (religion).....
Consequently, Muslims must never break the laws of the country they live in and if a situation comes when, owing to some law, they are not able to follow a directive of their religion that seems imperative to them, they should first of all bring the matter in the notice of the authorities. ...
It alleged that the Qur’an has variant readings. Typically a verse may have more than variations. It is generally believed that these variations have been divinely revealed. The first person to record these readings in the form of a book was Abu ‘Ubayd Qasim Ibn Salam (d. 224 AH). He recorded twenty five readings; Abu Ja‘far Tabari (d. 310 AH) recorded over twenty readings, while it was Abu Bakr Ibn Mujahid (d. 324 AH) who selected the seven famous ones........
Like any
scripture, and indeed any text, the Qur’an is open to different
interpretations. Some interpretations are plausible, others are possible but
unlikely, and many more are impossible so they can only be forced on the text.
Among the latter category are interpretations that accuse the Qur’an of
supporting unjustified violence, such as waging war against others for no
reason other than being non-Muslims. Such misinterpretations are used by Muslim
terrorists, such as ISIS, but they are also favourites of critics of the Qur’an
who have their own agendas. While people with particular agendas deliberately
use certain misguided methods to force certain misinterpretations out of the
Qur’an, anyone reading and interpreting the Qur’an may inadvertently use those
flawed approaches......
Shiv Malik
Shiv Malik, Ali Younes, Spencer Ackerman and Musta
Today, Maqdisi counts the leader of al‑Qaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as a personal friend, and he is held in the highest esteem by the rest of al-Qaida’s regional heads, from North Africa to Yemen. His numerous books and pamphlets are required reading for Islamic militants around the world, who eagerly follow the latest proclamations on Maqdisi’s website, the Pulpit of Monotheism and Jihad. But he may be best known for personally mentoring Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded the organisation that would later become Isis, while the two men were jailed together on terrorism charges in Jordan in the mid-1990s. Zarqawi was released in 1999 and, after swearing allegiance to al-Qaida, went on to become one of the most notorious figures in postwar Iraq, unleashing a brutal campaign of sectarian terror, which led Maqdisi to publicly upbraid his most famous student in a series of devastating public critiques....
The collapse of the Soviet Union energized Islam, both because the Mujahideen defeated the Soviets in Afghanistan and because the alternative to Islam was left in tatters. Moreover, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait took place in parallel with the last days of the Soviet Union. Both countries are remnants of British diplomacy. The United States, having inherited the British role in the region, intervened to protect another British invention — Saudi Arabia — and to liberate Kuwait from Iraq....