By
A Faizur Rahman
February
25, 2021
On
January 30, The Washington Post published a report that came as a pleasant
surprise to Muslim reformists. It said that Saudi Arabia was purging its
textbooks of anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist content.
Among
the passages that were removed was a section that supported capital punishment
for homosexual relations, adulations of extremist martyrdom and its
characterisation as the highest aspiration of Islam, misinterpreted Quranic
verses that extolled the superiority of men over woman and justified domestic
violence, and a statement attributed to the Prophet that spoke of the killing
of all Jews by Muslims as one of the signs of the Day of Judgement.
This
momentous theological shift is without doubt a kairotic moment in the
history of Sunni Islam and needs to be welcomed by all Muslims. The Islam
propagated by Prophet Muhammad was never meant to be a supremacist ideology (mazhab).
It was an egalitarian social system (deen) that sought to include in its
benignant embrace the whole of humanity.
To
emphasise this, the Quran described God as rabb al aalameen (the
cherisher of humanity) and the Prophet as rahmatal lil aalameen (the
embodiment of universal compassion).
The
“Muslim” too was not defined in identitarian terms nor was Islam
presented as a propitiatory creed. Islam was the House of Peace (daar as-salaam),
and Muslim, the one who walked the “paths of peace” (subulus salaam)
to come out of darkness into light (10:25, 5:16).
Islam
not anti-Semitic
Sadly,
this universalism did not last long. The emergence of newfangled messianic
beliefs after the passing away of the Prophet and Muslim expansionism,
especially the Umayyad Caliphate launched by Muawiya in 661 CE, saw the otherisation
of rival tribes and communities using fabricated Prophetic statements (hadiths)
with the aim of scripturally bolstering the dynastic ambitions of the
imperialists.
Anti-Jewish
ascriptions to the Prophet too were probably forged during this period.
The
possibility of the Prophet having made such statements can be easily ruled out
based on the fact that neither he nor the Quran demeaned any community. On the
contrary, in two places (2:62 and 5:69) the Quran showcases its salvific
inclusivity by offering divine redemption to Muslims, Jews, Christians, Sabians
and anyone who recognises accountability to God and undertakes constructive
humanitarian work.
The
Quran also underscores (in 22:40) the importance of protecting non-Muslim holy
places such as sawaami’u (monastries), biya’un (churches), and salawaatun
(synagogues) because the name of God is invoked in them in abundant measure (feeha
usmullahi kaseera).
The
Prophet on his part included the Jews within the larger Muslim ummah
(community) in a covenant called Meesaaq al-Madina signed with them in 622 CE.
Thus there is a huge difference between condemning Israel for its atrocities against
the Palestinians and imagining the entire Jewish community as an enemy of
Islam. While the former is justifiable, the latter is wrong. There are scores
of Jews within and outside Israel who oppose Islamophobia and Zionist
extremism.
Muslim
misogyny
This
suppression of Quranic egalitarianism has also resulted in Muslim
misogyny. For centuries, androcentric ulema have been arrogating
to themselves the ultimate right to interpret religion and promoting a
paternalistic anatomisation of Islam where women are subservient to the
authoritarian male.
The
most draconian aspect of this infantilisation is the pervading belief
that men have the divine right to beat their wives. This attitude which has
hardly been subjected to any ethical investigation is based on a
misinterpretation of the Quranic verse 4:34. Maulana Wahiduddin
Khan, who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan this year, translates
it as: “...as for those [wives] from whom you apprehend infidelity, admonish
them, then refuse to share their beds, and finally hit them (lightly)”.
The
parenthetical insertion of “lightly” is an attempt to moderate the violent
rendition and indicates the Maulana’s feeling of guilt about the wrongness of
his translation. For how could anyone be sure that God expects men to beat their
wives only “lightly” especially when that word is not part of the Arabic text
of the Quran?
The
fact is that the Quran does not allow wife-beating. For a detailed discussion
on the issue, readers may refer to an earlier article I have written on the subject.
Likewise,
the conviction that Islam gives primacy to men over women is based on
misinterpretations of the Quran and uncritical acceptance of questionable
Prophetic traditions such as the one which states that women are both
intellectually and Islamically deficient, and that they will outnumber
men in hell because of their imprecatory tongue and ingratitude towards their
husbands (Kitab al-Haiz, Sahih Bukhari).
It
is astonishing that clerics who propagate these narrations do not for a moment
pause to ask how the Prophet could have held misogynist views even while
reciting verses from the Quran about gender equality. These verses do not just
declare that wives and husbands have rights and responsibilities on a par with
each other (2:228), they envision an equal, collaborative partnership (wilayat)
between men and women in pursuance of peace through support for good causes and
resistance to evil (9:71).
More
needs to be done
The
Saudis therefore deserve to be commended for taking steps to protect school children
from the harmful effects of Quranic misinterpretations and inauthentic hadiths.
However, a drastic change in Muslim attitudes is not possible without seriously
rethinking the isolationist theology that has tied the community up in knots
for centuries, and otherised non-Muslims using mistranslated terms such
as kafir and mushrik.
Indonesian
Islamic scholar Yahya Cholil Staquf has rightly called for the “recontextualisation”
of Islamic teachings by drawing on the peaceful aspects of Islam to encourage
respect for religious pluralism and the fundamental dignity of every human
being.
This
entails overhauling the outdated madrasa curriculum to open up Islam to
modern interpretations within the framework of its original sources, inculcate
a sense of tolerance among Muslims for different points of view and equip them
to respond positively to the requirements of multicultural societies they live
in.
If
Muslims manage to assert their independence and succeed in pressuring the
anachronistic custodians of Islam into modernising their thought, it could
herald the beginning of a transformative relationship with the non-Muslim world
– one in which confrontation makes way for cooperation, and Islamophobia
stands back to let trust prevail.
--------
A Faizur Rahman is the Secretary-General of the
Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought. His email address is
themoderates2020@gmail.com.
Original headline: Moderating Muslim theology: It’s time to open up Islam to modern interpretations
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