Islam
Short
Answers
To
Key
Current Questions
Prepared
by the
Center
for Understanding Islam
www.cuii.org
Editors
Dr.
Robert Dickson Crane
Dr.
Mohammad Ali Chaudry
August
2003
CUI
The Center for Understanding Islam seeks to present an
enlightened understanding of Islam in
***
GOALS
·
Organize workshops and seminars on Islam
·
Publish discussion guides, articles, and
books on FAQs
(frequently asked questions) and build a library
·
Provide commentators for radio, TV, and
the print media
·
Marshal expertise of scholars on issues
of conscience
·
Organize retreats for Muslim and
non-Muslim youth and community leaders
·
Organize a Speakers Bureau on Islam
***
Publications
·
ISLAM, Short Answers to Key
Questions (2002, 2003)
·
Projecting a Common Vision for
·
Curriculum Supplement on Islam
(2003)
***
Media Outreach
CUI President
serves as community spokesperson on radio and in print media.
ISLAM
SHORT
ANSWERS TO
KEY
CURRENT QUESTIONS
Contents
CUI
Preface
Loyalty
……………………………………….. 5
Gender Equity
……………………………… 6
Democracy
…………………………………. 9
Jihad
………………………………………… 10
Fundamentalist Extremism
and Terrorism .. 11
Non-Muslims
……………………………… 14
Toward a Common
Vision for
Appendix: Presentation Materials You Can Use 24
The Spirit of
Islam
Outline of an
Introductory Presentation on Islam
for Use by
CUI Trained Speakers
Contact CUI ……………………………………… 27
PREFACE
The Center for Understanding Islam
initiated this project to help Muslims develop principled answers to key
currently popular questions about the teachings of Islam. Our strategy is to guide
a process of outreach to scholars within the wider Muslim community and other
interested persons in order to expand the following short answers and supply
them with quotations and citations from the Qur’an, Hadith, and commentaries
for publication as a book. This book and other scholarly analyses of these and
other questions will be posted on the CUI web site (www.cuii.org) as part of
the Center’s role as a think tank and as a clearing-house for similar efforts
by other Muslim groups.
The web site is updated regularly as new
material is developed through conferences of scholars, imams and educators in
order to keep up with the changing nature and priorities of questions raised by
contemporary trends and events. The overall purpose is to help Muslims offer a
common framework for explaining the wisdom of Islam in the contemporary world.
This modest booklet is a result of
intense discussions among CUI Board members and supporters and would not have
been possible without invaluable help from Mr. Ajaz
Ahmad, Sr. Hamida Amanat,
Dr. M. Ali Chaudry, Dr. Robert Dickson Crane, Mr. Akram
Choudhry, Dr. Shahid Haque, Mr. Mahmud Haq, Ms. Patricia McCann, Dr. Moiz-ul-Matin,
Dr. Athat Murtuza, Dr. Azhar Siddiq, Dr. Raheel Siddiq, and participation
from many dedicated supporters of the CUI mission.
I
Loyalty
Is there a conflict between Islam
and
Our country is
_______________
The good Muslim in
The Message of Allah is perfected in
truth and justice. (Surah al An’am 6:115)
And of those We
have created is a community that is guided by truth and applies it in the form
of justice.
The traditionalist movement that gave
rise to classical
The first civic responsibility of every
loyal American, both Muslim and non-Muslim, is to support the government when
it governs according to founding principles and loyal opposition when it does
not. A broader responsibility of Muslims in academia and in civic institutions
is to cooperate with concerned citizens and members of other faiths and beliefs
in shaping the framework of thought that governs the institutions of society.
In this way one can develop
and promote policy agendas that reflect the spiritual awareness and moral
vision of
Muslim Americans share with other
Americans universal religious values and principles and a commitment to abide
by them. Their contributions form an important complement to the American body
politic in its classic, ongoing challenge to serve as a non-hegemonic, moral
model for the world.
II
GENDER
EQUITY
What is the status of women in
Islam? What is their role in Muslim societies?
Women and men are equal in all human
rights. Muslim societies are beginning to revive and practice this fundamental
teaching of Islam.
_______________
The Qur’an affirms that there is no
difference in the souls of men and women, and they are equal in the sight of
God. Their rights are equal. The generic differences in their psyche and
physique, however, may call for different priorities in their responsibilities.
The Qur’an teaches that the first man,
Adam, and the first woman, Eve, came from the same source of life.
O humankind! Reverence Your
Guardian, Lord, Who created you from a single Person (soul), created, of like nature,
its mate, and from the two scattered (like seeds) countless men and women.
Reverence God, through Whom you demand your mutual
(rights), and (reverence) the wombs (that bore you), for God ever watches over
you. (Surah al Nisa’a
4:1)
O humankind! We created you from a
single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes,
that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily, the
most honored of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has
full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things). (Surah al Hujurat 49:13)
God judges human beings only by the
criteria of faith and acts of piety, irrespective of gender.
God has prepared forgiveness and a
great reward for Muslim men and women
[those who submit to the Will of God], for believing men and women, for
devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient
and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who
give in charity, for men and women who fast, for men and women who guard their
chastity, and for men and women who engage in God’s praises. (Surah al Ahzab 33:35)
Never will I suffer to be lost the
work of any of you, whether male or female. You are members, one of another. (Surah Ali Imran 3:195)
To men is allotted what they earn,
and to women what they earn. (Surah
al Nisa’a 4: 32)
The revolutionary liberation of women in
early Islam was unmatched anywhere in the world for the next 1,400 years. Women
owned property in their own right, rather than being property; they kept their
original names after marriage and had full rights to decide when to marry and
when to divorce; for the first 40 years of the Muslim community, the person
in-charge of the economy was a woman; and during the first 100 years, there
were 2,000 women judges. There are few ahadith about the right of women to
serve as leaders in society, because in the early years of Islam they served in
all capacities. The issue of whether they were entitled to do so did not even
arise until after the time of the first four caliphs when pre-Islamic cultural
practices began to be reasserted. In recent years, Muslim countries ranging
from
Despite this egalitarian spirit emanating
from the Qur’an, the actual practices in most Muslim societies have diverged
from it. With the passage of time and the expansion of the Muslim rule over
diverse areas with their own cultural traditions, the status and treatment of
women in Muslim societies deteriorated.
Therefore, it is not Islam, but Muslim
societies that need reform. Nowhere in the Qur’an does it state that men are
superior to women intellectually, spiritually, or morally; that men are
"in charge of women"; that men are natural leaders of society; that
men should ‘rule’ the family and demand obedience from women; that women should
not work outside the home; or that their participation in society is inherently
marginal.
In Islam a woman as a mother is superior
to man. For all other life situations she is equal to man and is allowed to do
anything and everything that a man is allowed to do.
Both men and women must dress modestly,
but women’s physique requires that more of a woman’s body be covered in public.
Modesty affects attire, demeanor, attitude, and movements. These general
guidelines become social traditions based on local customs.
And say to the believing women that
they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not
display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear
thereof; that they should draw veils over their bosoms and not display their
beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands’ fathers, and
their sons. (Surah al Noor, 24:31)
III
Democracy
Is Islam compatible with democracy?
Is the American system compatible with the shari’ah?
Islam requires representative
government based on recognizing the ultimate sovereignty of God and the rule of
law. Islam teaches that people should participate in decisions that impact
their lives.
_______________
Islam is compatible with democracy to the
extent that both are egalitarian ideologies that respect the individual person
as the subject and origin of sovereignty. Both Islam and democracy condemn the
concentration of power at the highest levels of human organization, because
this conflicts with the principle of subsidiarity
that underlies contemporary Islamic and Christian teachings. This principle of subsidiarity provides that all problems should be solved at
the lowest possible level in the political hierarchy, with resort to higher
governmental authority only to the extent necessary to achieve justice.
In his Farewell Message, the Prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned: "Beware of
Satan, for the safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will be
able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small
things."
The universal purpose or principle of
political freedom, known as haqq al hurriya in Islamic law, provides that political
authority should flow in practice from the bottom up rather than from the top
down. This gives legitimate authority to communities within nations, to nations
within the world community, and then to the community of nations in the world.
This universal principle acknowledges that sovereignty originates at the level
of the individual human without any intermediaries between the person and God,
and therefore rejects the secular concept of the "state" as the
ultimate and only sovereignty in human affairs.
Classical
The American founders and Islamic
scholars could not conceive of separating religion from public life, but they
guarded against the domination of one religious group over another.
IV
Jihad
What is jihad?
Islam supports peace based on justice.
It permits the use of force as a last resort to defend human rights. Muslims
are encouraged to stand against tyranny.
_______________
The term "jihad" is used both
by some Muslims and by most Orientalists and critics
of Islam to equal the Christian term "crusade" or "Holy
War." No war has ever been termed holy in Islam, because, like divorce, it
is the worst of all permitted actions. The necessity of armed conflict in
defense of human rights is accepted in Islamic law, but only the heroic actions
of individual Muslims in the cause of such defense can be honored and revered.
The Arabic term "jihad" means
effort and is of three kinds:
1. The jihad al akbar
or "greatest jihad" is the effort or struggle to understand the true
word of God and to control one’s human impulses in order to achieve real peace
by submitting to the will of God.
2. The jihad al saghrir
or asghrar, the lesser jihad, is the
community-approved joint struggle using armed force to defend the seven
universal principles of human rights against attack by armed aggressors.
3. The jihad al kabir or
"great jihad" is mentioned only in the Qur’an (Surah al Furqan 25:52), whereas the other two are mentioned in
both the Qur’an and the ahadith. This is the intellectual jihad, which is the
universal principle that requires respect for knowledge, including freedom of
thought, publication, and assembly. This jihad is a permanent effort. It is the
responsibility of concerned citizens and those in leadership positions to bring
the wisdom of Islam to bear on all issues of conscience.
V
Fundamentalist
Extremism and Terrorism
What are fundamentalism, extremism,
and terrorism?
Islam teaches
openness to others, balance, and kindness. It opposes exclusivist fundamentalism, as well as
extremism and terrorism in all societies and religions. Islam condemns
terrorism in every form.
_______________
The original meaning of fundamentalism
was taking the Bible as divine revelation word for word from God. Another
meaning of fundamentalism is believing and abiding by
the fundamentals of any religion. Today, fundamentalism in popular parlance
refers to narrow-minded extremism both in belief and in dealing with other
people. It can and sometimes does lead to violence and terrorism.
Such extremism violates several of the
universal principles of Islamic law, especially respect for the purity of
divine revelation, respect for human dignity, and respect for political freedom
and self-determination.
Be on your guard against
small-mindedness, for [it] destroyed those who were before you [by inciting]
them to shed blood and to make lawful what was unlawful. Hadith (Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1178)
Extremism is emphasis on one aspect of a
religion to the exclusion of the rest, combined with a commitment to impose
one’s views on either one’s co-religionists or
others. Extremism results from emphasis on the externals of a religion without
awareness or acknowledgement of its inner beauty and wisdom. This may result in
the manipulation or exploitation of religion for secular ends, such as
political power as an ultimate goal.
Extremism may also result from exclusive
focus on the spiritual essence of a religion without awareness or
acknowledgment of one’s responsibility to apply one’s insights in moral action.
Or extremism may consist of belief in an esoteric teaching of a religion that
conflicts with other basic teachings.
The dichotomy between Dar al Islam
and Dar al Harb, which is touted by many extremist
Muslim scholars and Orientalists, is foreign to the
Qur’an. It cannot be used to demonize all non-Muslim countries as enemies. Some
legitimate distinctions, however, are used, such as Dar al Ijaba, which means the lands of those who have accepted
Islam, in contrast to Dar al Da’wa, which
means the lands where Islam still must be explained, or Dar al Taqwa, meaning the land of those who stand in loving
awe of Allah, in contrast to Dar al Ahd, which
means the lands of those with whom one has treaties of friendship and
cooperation.
Although scholars have advanced more than
one hundred definitions of terrorism, an official
In general, terrorism is the use of
violence against innocent people to affect the behavior of those with whom one
disagrees for ideological or political reasons. Acts of violence against
innocents are always condemned by all religions, including Islam. According to
the Qur’an, terrorism is never legitimate against anyone, because it violates
the basic right to life:
If anyone slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it
would be as if he slew the whole people.
(Surah al Ma’ida
5:35)
Do not kill women or children or
non-combatants.( Hadith)
The use of physical force in Islam is
permitted only to defend the human rights of oneself
or others against aggressors or armed occupiers. The requirements for the
legitimate use of force in either internal revolution or external war are
strict and are clearly spelled out in the Qur’an, hadith,
and legal texts.
Fight in the cause of God those who
fight you, but do not transgress limits. (Qur’an 2:190; 4:175, 5:9; 6:151, 22:39-40; 42:41-43)
The use of non-violence as a strategy to
combat evil has been employed in the appropriate circumstances by some of
Islam’s greatest leaders.
Nor can goodness and evil be equal.
Repel [evil] with what is better. … And
no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and
self-restraint, none but persons of the greatest spiritual blessing. (Surah
Ha Mim 41:34-35)
Risking one’s life in the course of
either legitimate violence or non-violence is permitted, even if the
probability of death is very high, but deliberately ending one’s life is
suicide and is never permitted in any circumstances.
Do not kill yourselves. (Surah al Nisa’a 4:29)
VI
NON-Muslims
Are all non-Muslims kafirs who are going to hell? Can
non-Muslims be friends with Muslims?
Sincere seekers of truth who practice
good works may go to heaven and may be friends of Muslims. Protecting religious
freedom of all peoples is an act of worship in Islam.
_______________
The Qur’an distinguishes among
non-Muslims between "those who have a disease in their hearts" (Surah
al Ma’ida 5:55) and those who do not: "There
is from among them a party on the right course, but many of them follow a
course that is evil" (Surah al Ma’ida 5:69).
This is followed by the clarification that Muslims and non-Muslims alike may go
to heaven to the extent that they believe in God and His judgment and practice
good works.
Those who believe [in the Qur’an]
and those who follow the Jewish [scriptures] and the Christians and the Sabians and who believe in God and the last day and work
righteousness shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear
nor shall they grieve. (Surah al Ma’ida 5:72; also Surah al Baqara
2:62)
Non-Muslims can and should be friends
with Muslims, but Muslims should never rely on non-Muslims as spiritual
guardians or awliya, which unfortunately has
often been translated simplistically as "friends."
God only forbids you to make
friendship with those who fought you on account of your faith and drove you out
of your homes and backed up others in your expulsion. (Surah al Mumtahina 60:9)
Let there be no compulsion in
religion. (Baqara,
2:256)
Your duty is to make (the message)
reach them; it is Our part to call them to account. (Surah Thunder, 13:40)
The term kafir
is used in many senses in the Qur’an, with denotations ranging from those who
simply have not made the profession of faith as a Muslim to those who have a
disease in their hearts and are self-declared enemies of all Muslims. Confusion
results when a person calls another person a kafir
with the intent to assert that he or she is going to hell simply because of a
difference in belief. Calling another person a kafir
in this sense violates freedom of religion as an essential element of human
dignity, because it refers to one use of the root k-f-r
meaning deliberately to hide something. To brand someone a kafir in this sense is to assert that the person is
deliberately denying and hiding what he or she knows to be true of Islam. This
cannot apply to all non-Muslims, because conversion to Islam is an act of God
and is not within the sole discretion of the individual person. Since only God
can know what is in a person’s heart, whenever one calls another person a kafir to imply that this person is going to hell,
one is usurping the role of God.
Unto every one of you have We appointed a [different] law and way of life. And if God
had so willed, He could surely have made you all one single community; but [He
willed it otherwise] in order to test you by means of what He has vouchsafed
unto you. Compete, then, as in a race with one another in doing good works! (Surah al Ma’ida 5:51)
VII
Toward a
Common Vision for
by
Dr. Robert Dickson Crane
Within the shadow of Ground Zero across
the Hudson River in northern New Jersey, three like-minded organizations, the
Center for Understanding Islam, the Center for Spiritual Enrichment, and People
of Peace and Justice, have cooperated in an interfaith outreach effort of
education and coalition building to counter the hatred and bigotry that
developed within the majority Christian community as a result of the 9/11
attack on America. This ecumenical outreach effort has focused also on
overcoming the fear and loss of self-confidence that threatened to radicalize
elements of the minority Muslim community and paralyze any efforts by the
mainstream Muslims in self-defense.
A fundamental purpose of this interfaith
effort is to develop awareness of the fundamental identity between the wisdom
of the great classical scholars of Islam and the wisdom of classical
An important step in this outreach effort
has been the consensus reached among the three lead organizations, the Center
for Understanding Islam, the Center for Spiritual Enrichment, and People of
Peace and Justice, on the definition of justice as a set of specific human
responsibilities and rights that derive from the spiritual nature of the human
person.
The initial formulation presented by the
Center for Understanding Islam was based on what the Muslim participants
described as the "Legacy of the Prophet." In their ecumenical
perspective, the legacy of all the Prophets of God , ‘alayhi al salam, is the revival of the essence of all
religion, which consists of four essentials. He revitalized personal awareness
and loving awe of God, which Muslims call taqwa,
and a resulting commitment to truth and justice. These two essentials of faith
in Islam and of every world religion reinforce each other. The neglect of
either one can result in extremism. Without love and mercy, the pursuit of
justice can result in cruelty and oppression. And without a commitment to
establish a just society wherever one lives, one’s love of God can not have
real meaning in the world.
The other two essentials are the basic
philosophical principles known as tawhid and mizan. Tawhid refers to the concept that
everything in the universe is interrelated with everything else in a coherent
whole, and that this unity is the inevitable result of the Oneness of the
Ultimate, the Creator of all, whom the Muslims and Arab Christians refer to as
Allah, the non-Arab Christians call God, and the Jews call Elohim
or Jehovah.
The second philosophical principle, known
as mizan, comes from the first one. Mizan means balance. Since God created the universe
as a balanced whole, as expressed throughout the Qur’an, a task of every human
is to help perfect this balance by avoiding extremism. When one over-emphasizes
any one pursuit or goal in life, one can become an extremist by neglecting the
others.
A framework for maintaining balance in
life is provided by Islamic law and is its very purpose. This framework is a
hierarchical system of human responsibilities and rights. For example, one has
a responsibility to defend one’s family and community, and one has an equal
responsibility to respect individual human life. Those who kill innocents in
the alleged defense of their community clearly have lost balance. This violates
the design of Allah. It is extremist and therefore immoral.
The indignities of miserable poverty and
cruel oppression can produce alienation, desperation, and extremism.
Unfortunately, Muslims have suffered more than their share of both these causes
and effects in the world, but this is no excuse for the resulting extremism.
Regardless of how understandable it might be, extremism and the resulting
violence is immoral and un-Islamic.
Extremism does not have to result from
indignities, but it will unless there is a source and framework for hope. The
source must be spiritual, based on taqwa. The
framework must be a coherent body of human responsibilities and rights, based
on a mutually reinforcing combination of divine guidance through revelation, wahy, and natural law, which Muslims call the sunnatu Allahi or
signs of divine order in the universe. Without this intellectual framework,
people wander in an intellectual void, and this, in turn, can produce a
spiritual malaise.
Over the long run, the most productive initiative
by the still largely silent majority of Muslims in marginalizing Muslim
extremists is to fill the intellectual and spiritual void that serves as an
ocean in which the extremists can swim. This initiative can provide the
favorable environment needed for Muslims to ally with like-minded Christians
and Jews in order to show that classical Islam and classical America are
similar, even though many people do not understand or live up to the ideals
common to both.
Teaching and emphasizing that the founders
of
Shifting from a threat mentality to
an opportunity mentality requires hopeful commitment to peace through justice
in reliance on God. Justice is another word for the Will or Design of God, the mashiyat. It is also considered to be another term for the
body of Islamic normative law. These norms or general principles, according to
Islamic thought, provide the intellectual framework to understand and address
all of reality.
The entire purpose of the Qur’an is
implied in the last verse of Surah Ibrahim: "Here is a message for
humankind. Let them take warning therefrom and let
them know that He is (no other than) One God. Let persons of understanding take
heed." Yusuf Ali comments: "Here is another aspect of the Truth of
Unity. God being One, all justice is of one standard,
for Truth is one, and we see it as one as soon as the scales of phenomenal
diversity fall from our eyes. The one true Reality then emerges."
For the scholar, the best short
introduction to this framework of Islamic thought may be found in the
monograph, "Usul al Fiqh al Islami: Source Methodology in Islamic
Jurisprudence," by Shaykh Taha
Jabir al ‘Alwani, who for
more than fifteen years has been President of the Fiqh Council of North
America, a member of the OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy in
Jeddah, and a founding member of the Council of the Muslim World League in
Makkah. This monograph, published by The International Institute of Islamic
Thought in
For discussion among scholars, it is
important to note that the art of Islamic normative law is part of the Islamic
science of ‘usul al fiqh
or the roots of the shari’ah, and
specifically was developed within the sub-context of maslaha
mursala, which addresses the good of the
community. Within this discipline of maslaha,
normative law was developed over the centuries by the use of three distinct
methodologies. The first is maslaha al mu’tabara, which is based exclusively on an explicit hukm or ruling in the Qur’an or Sunnah. The second
is based on istislah, which denotes restoratrion or reform, based on the root s-l-h, which
means peace and prosperity through right order. This methodology is based on
the values of Islam revealed in the Qur’an and Sunnah through induction from
the parts to the whole. The third is based on istihsan.
This comes from hasana, which means simply
to be good, and is the most free-wheeling of the three. All reject ra’i or personal opinion in developing
jurisprudential guidance and preserving the purity of divine revelation. These
three can be mutually compatible and reinforcing, particularly in developing a
framework not merely for law in a narrow sense but for public policy and for
the development of Muslim think-tanks.
In order to fill the intellectual void
both in the Muslim global community and in the minds of some Muslim
intellectuals, Muslims need to emphasize the universal principles of Islamic
normative law, known as the maqasid al shari’ah, especially as developed by the greatest
master of the art, Al-Shatibi, using the methodology
of istislah. These principles spell out
precisely the human rights that some skeptics have asserted do not exist in
Islam. These maqasid, following the
methodology instituted by the Prophet Muhammad and perfected in the
architectonics pioneered six centuries ago by Al-Shatibi,
are considered to consist of seven responsibilities, the practice of which
actualize the corresponding human rights.
Al Shatibi
taught that the number of maqasid is flexible,
as are the subordinate levels and architectonics of purpose, the hajjiyat and tahsiniyat,
because the entire field of Islamic normative law is a product of ijtihad
or intellectual effort. This commitment to ijtihad, which has been
almost dead for six hundred years, is called for specifically in the Qur’an as
the jihad al kabir, "And strive with it [divine revelation] in a
great jihad," wa
jihidhum bihi jihadan kabiran (Surah al Furqan 25:52).
The first maqsud,
known as haqq al din, provides the
framework for the next six in the form of respect for a transcendent source of
truth to guide human thought and action. Yusuf Ali notes in reference to Ssurah al Baqara 2:193
that din is one of the most comprehensive terms in the Qur’an and can be
translated simply as justice but with associated meanings in English expressed
as duty and faith, all of which for a Muslim constitute religion. In his
monumental translation and commentary (tafsir),
Muhammad Asad translates din in this verse as
"worship" of God as the ultimate being. Like many words in the
Qur’an, the word haqq also contains many
associated meanings, including God, truth, and human rights.
God instructs us in the Qur’an, wa tamaat
kalimatu Rabika sidqan wa ‘adlan,
"and the word of your Lord is perfected in truth and justice."
Recognition of this absolute source of truth and of the responsibility to apply
it in practice are needed to counter the temptations toward relativism and the
resulting chaos, injustice, and tyranny that may result from de-sacralization of public life.
Each of these seven universal principles
is essential to understand the next and succeeding ones. The first three
operational principles, necessary to sustain existence, begin with haqq al nafs or haqq al ruh, which
is the duty to respect the human person. The ruh
or spirit of every person was created by God before or outside of the
creation of the physical universe, is constantly in the presence of God, and,
according to the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, is made in the image of God. This is the
basis of the intimate relationship between God and the human person as
expressed in the Qur’anic ayah, "We are closer to him than is his
own jugular vein."
This is also the basis of the prayer
offered by the Prophet and by countless generations of Muslims for more than a
thousand years: Allahumma, inna asaluka hubbaka
wa hubba
man yuhibbuka wa hubba kulli ‘amali
yuqaribuni ila hubika, "O Allah! I ask You
for Your love and for the love of those who love You. Grant that I may love
every action that will bring me closer to Your
love."
At the secondary level of this principle,
known as hajjiyat or requirements, lies the duty to respect life, haqq
al haya. This provides guidelines in the
third-order tahsinniyat for what in
modern parlance is called the doctrine of just war.
The next principle, haqq
al nasl, is the duty to respect the nuclear
family and the community at every level all the way to the community of
humankind as an important expression of the person. This principle teaches that
the sovereignty of the person, subject to the ultimate sovereignty of God,
comes prior to and is superior to any alleged ultimate sovereignty of the
secular invention known as the State.
This principle teaches also that a
community at the level of the nation, which shares a common sense of the past,
common values in the present, and common hopes for the
future, such as the Palestinians, Kurds, Chechens, Kashmiris,
the Uighur in
The third principle is haqq al mal, which is the duty to respect the
rights of private property in the means of production. This requires respect
for institutions that broaden access to capital ownership as a universal human
right and as an essential means to sustain respect for the human person and
human community. This principle requires the perfection of existing
institutions, especially those that maintain a monopoly of access to credit, in
order to remove the barriers to universal property ownership so that wealth
will be distributed through the production process rather than by stealing from
the rich by forced redistribution to the poor. Such redistribution can never
have more than a marginal effect in reducing the gap between the inordinately
rich and the miserably poor, because the owners in a defective financial system
need not and never will give up their economic and political power.
The next three universal principles in
Islamic law concern primarily what we might call the quality of life. The first
is haqq al hurriya,
which requires respect for self-determination of both persons and communities
through political freedom, including the concept that economic democracy is a
precondition for the political democracy of representative government.
The secondary principles required to give
meaning to the parent principle and carry it out in practice are khilafa, the ultimate responsibility of both
the ruled and the ruler to God; shura,
the responsiveness of the rulers to the ruled, which must be institutionalized
in order to be meaningful; ijma, the duty of the opinion leaders to
reach consensus on specific policy issues in order to participate in the
process of shura; and an independent
judiciary.
This universal principle of Islam was
observed only in the breech throughout much of Muslim history, and especially
in the modern era. All of the great Islamic scholars were imprisoned, often for
years and even decades, for teaching this requirement of political freedom.
This speaks well for those who have tried to preserve the purity of divine
revelation, but poorly for those who pretended to practice it.
The second of these last three maqasid is haqq
al karama or respect for human dignity. The two
most important hajjiyat for individual human
dignity are religious freedom and gender equity. In traditional Islamic
thought, freedom and equality are not ultimate ends but essential means to
pursue the higher purposes inherent in the divine design of the Creator for
every person.
The last universal or essential purpose
at the root of Islamic jurisprudence, which can be sustained only by observance
of the first six principles and also is essential to each of them, is haqq al ‘ilm or
respect for knowledge. Its second-order principles are freedom of thought,
press, and assembly so that all persons can fulfill their purpose to seek
knowledge wherever they can find it.
This framework for human rights is at the
very core of Islam as a religion. Fortunately, this paradigm of law in its
broadest sense of moral theology is now being revived by what still is a
minority of courageous Muslims determined to fill the intellectual gap that has
weakened the Muslim umma for more than six
hundred years, so that a spiritual renaissance in all faiths can transform the
world.
***
Appendix
Outline of an Introductory
Presentation on Islam for Use by CUI Trained Speakers
The
Spirit of Islam
Prepared
by Dr. M. Ali Chaudry
Basic Beliefs
Islam means
submission to the Will of God; root word, Salam, means Peace. (Followers of
Islam are called Muslims.)
Belief in angels
and revelation
Belief in all
prophets -- Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, …
Belief in the Day
of Judgment and life hereafter; accountable for deeds
Belief in God as
the ultimate planner of the universe and of our lives
Belief in the
necessity of spiritual effort to seek knowledge
Sources of Spiritual Guidance
The Holy Qur’an,
the word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad through angel Gabriel.
Contains 114 Surahs
(chapters), including one entitled Maryam (Mary,
mother of Jesus)
Hadith - Sayings of
the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (PBUH)
Ijtihad
– Intellectual Jihad - Interpretations of the Qur’an and Hadith by Islamic
scholars as an indirect source of learning, which continues today with a focus
on how to follow the will of God and do good deeds.
The Five Pillars of Islam
Shahada (Declaration of Faith)
"There is no god, but God and Muhammad is His Messenger."
Three important aspects of this declaration
are worth noting:
Personal commitment
made by the individual, directly to God
Allah is Arabic for
the same one God, the Almighty creator worshipped by other people of faith
While Muhammad is
considered the final Messenger of God, Muslims believe in all prophets,
including Jesus, Moses, Abraham, … that God sent to
different communities
Salat (Prayer to remember God; required of
all adult men and women)
Daily
Prayers, five times a day (at dawn, early afternoon, mid-afternoon, after
sunset, night). The first chapter
of the Holy Qur’an is recited in each unit of prayer and a prayer is said for
Prophets Muhammad and Abraham and their progeny after every two units of
prayer. These prayers vary in length and may take 5 to 30 minutes.
Congregational
Prayer is held on Friday afternoon, Jumm’a - the Day
of Gathering. Men are expected to perform this prayer in a mosque; women may
join in, but are not required to go to a mosque.
Taraweeh Prayers in the month of Ramadan during which the Imam
recites the entire Qur’an from memory.
Saum (Fasting
during Ramadan (9th month of the Islamic calendar)
Learning
self-restraint and submission to the Will of Allah
Practicing
compassionate charity.
Zakat (Charity: 2.5% of wealth each year is to be given
to charity)
This fund is meant
to help the needy in the community
It not to be used
to build a mosque or pay an Imam, the spiritual leader
It cannot be given
to any descendent of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)
Hajj (Pilgrimage to
A series of
symbolic acts that constitute an educational summary of all the teachings of
Islam, a veritable "university" of Islam
A symbol of
equality of all Muslims regardless of gender, race, national origin, and
wealth, and a symbol of loving submission to God
The Hajj changed
Malcolm X and the African American Muslim community.
Important Islamic Holidays
Muslims follow a
lunar calendar with each month beginning based on sighting of the moon.
Eid-ul-Fitr following the end of fasting during the month of
Ramadan, 9th month on the Islamic calendar.
Eid-ul-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice at the end of the hajj,
which commemorates the sacrifice Prophet Abraham was willing
to make of his first born son, Ishmael. Muslims sacrifice a lamb or another
animal. The meat is divided into three portions – one third for the needy, one
third for neighbors and relatives, and only one third may be consumed by the
family.
Other Key Dates
Lailat-ul-Qadr (The Night of Power) - one of the odd nights during
the last third of Ramadan commemorating the initial revelation of the Qur’an.
Birthday of Prophet
Muhammad – Reflecting on the life example of the Prophet; practice varies.
Ashura, tenth day of Muharram, the first month in the
Islamic Calendar – commemorating the tragedy of the
death of the grandson of the Prophet, Imam Hussain at
Dietary Injunctions
Alcohol, pork,
blood, and carrion are forbidden
All food should be
prepared with a blessing in order to be halal
Customs
Hijab (veil): Men and women are expected to dress modestly
at all times. The practice of wearing the veil varies in different Muslim
countries according to local customs.
Shaking Hands: Some Muslim women may not shake hands with men and
vice versa.
***
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