ISLAM TODAY - What in God's Name do We do now? Part 3

Carla Power, “If the Oceans were Ink”

“We made an odd little caravan, the Sheikh and I, a pious believer and a skeptical secularist.”

So says Carla Power (CP), raised by secularist parents in the US Midwest and in several Middle Eastern countries. She met Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a 27 year old conservative Islamic scholar, teacher and writer at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies in the late 90’s.

The book chronicles their unusual friendship over many years, as journalist Carla seeks to go beyond just covering the Middle East, eager to absorb truths about the Qu’ran and Islam from an expert. (He turns out to be the expert we all need to help us sort out the intrinsic truths of the Qu’ran set against the Islam we usually experience today.)

Sheikh Akram (SA) agrees to let her follow him everywhere he goes for a full year. She meets his family in England and his relatives in India. She travels with him to Mecca. They dialogue about Qu’ranic verses in cafes, family settings, while traveling and after his robust lectures, filled to overflowing with enthusiastic Muslims and non-Muslims alike. We discover that his Islam is non-negotiable, as he never swerves from its rituals and teachings, performing his tasks with a rigor and discipline hard to imagine outside of a monastery. And yet he teaches in England, and has almost unlimited compassion for Carla and everyone else he encounters.

A project the Sheikh had begun a few years earlier would become his life’s work in the literary arena, entitled ‘al-Muhaddithat: The Women Scholars in Islam.’ He started with Aisha, the aforementioned young wife of Muhammad, and began researching other Muslim women scholars of the ages, thinking he might find a few dozen. Instead, paraphrasing only to update statistics....

CP: "…He produced research that chipped away at the belief that Islam had never allowed women freedoms. Over the years, he uncovered a long-forgotten history of female Islamic scholarship, blotted out by centuries of cultural conservatism: a tradition of women authorities stretching back to the days of the Prophet… Ten plus years on, forty volumes, over ten thousand women, including ones who lectured, dispensed fatwas, and traveled on horse - and camelback in pursuit of religious education. The sheikh’s work on women scholars challenges bigots of all types. The Taliban gunman who shoots a girl for going to school. The mullah who bars women from his mosque. The firebrand who claims that feminism is a western ideology undermining the Islamic way of life… It stands as a riposte to the notion, peddled from Kabul to Mecca, that Islamic knowledge is men’s work and always has been.”

SA: “I do not know of another religious tradition in which women were so central, so present, so active in its formative history.”

CP: ‘Men still used the Quran to legitimize their actions when they beat their wives. Bin Laden had used the Quran to declare war on all those he deemed infidels.’

SA: ‘People just use it for whatever point they want to make. They come to it with their own ideas and look for verses that confirm what they want to hear. (Works purty good with the Bible too, don’ it?)

The Qu’ran admits of ambiguity, but suggests that the pure of heart will follow its verses without faltering:

“It is God who has revealed the Book to you in which some verses are clear statements (which accept no interpretation) and these are the fundamental ideas of the Book, while other verses may have several possibilities. Those whose hearts are perverse follow the unclear statements in pursuit of their own mischievous goals by interpreting them in a way that will suit their own purpose.” S3:7 (thumpers by any other name…)

Akram also sounded off on Islamic practices that ring hollow, seemingly trying to replace piety with shows of religiosity:

“... Bring in a state-imposed Islam, and hypocrisy will come...When a culture focuses on the outer aspects of a faith – like a headscarf – their religion just becomes about identity. At the end of the day, people are carrying around a dead body, with no soul.”

CP asked Akram about surah 4:34, wildly promoted, discussed and interpreted, because it is the one that mentions that men can 'beat’ their wives. Here is a fairly gentle translation, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali:

“Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband’s) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part you fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first); (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).”

Variant starts to the ayat: ‘Men are protectors of (women,) in charge of, superior to, have authority over, are managers of, the support of, maintainers of, ever upright managers of, overseers of,’ etc. Lots of interesting variations, and plenty of room for controversy, just like the 27 or so interpretations available when you type in any chapter and verse from the Bible.

The 'beating’ part is a last resort, and Muhammad is seen in Hadith to warn against hurting women at all: "He is the most perfect Muslim whose disposition is best; and the best of you are they who behave best to their wives." Let’s also remember here that OT and NT verses show that women were minimalized (starting with Eve?) in many ways. Here’s just one from each:

“If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.” Deuteronomy 25:11-12

“Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” Ephesians 5:24

Akram’s take on it begins with describing how the surah begins: “O humankind, be conscious of your Lord, who created you from one soul, and created its mate from it and propagated from the two many men and women.” S4:1

He continues: “Islam grants men and women equality in light of honor and respect before God. They both have the same soul, and they both have the same Creator, so they are both subject to the same laws.”

This, foisted on a culture who murdered many of its girl children as liabilities, must have caused quite an uproar in 7th c. Arabia!

In one lecture Q&A, Akram was asked by a young man, ‘What should a Muslim man look for in a wife?’ His answer shows the irony (that accompanies the stupidity) of keeping girls from school: “The wife’s job is to educate the children. So the primary criterion to look for in a wife is to look for someone educated.”

And, on the important topic of Jews and Christians: SA speaks as a pure Muslim, irrespective of difficult passages in the Qu’ran, and especially of much of the contentiousness of Islam today. He sees Muhammad as part of the line begun by Jewish Prophets. “God wanted to be fair with everybody. He’s sent different messengers, but the real differences are about language, or culture, or history. The main message is the same: to believe in God… When it comes to Jews and Christians, we respect them, because of their scriptures. They don’t belong to the same community, but that’s fine.”

An early proclamation (Hadith) of Muhammad in the first community in Medina makes certain the message was for all the 'people of the book’: “He who wrongs a Jew or a Christian will have me as his accuser on the Day of Judgment.”

And finally, CP, years into this unusual relationship and its plentiful insights, with a rather different take from Wafa Sultan’s on ‘inshallah’ (God willing) as a weakness of Muslims:

“When my mother died, I remember thinking how sensible it was, the Muslim practice of saying ‘inshallah’ after every plan, every promise, no matter how minor, since only God can be sure whether next Wednesday’s lunch date will indeed be kept. It was a comfort, in a season of grief, to hang out with a community that honors this world’s uncertainties.”

This is a book filled with beaucoup cultural nuances and intersections.

If you choose to read just three books about Islam, to deepen your understanding and broaden your outlook, I suggest this one, ‘A God Who Hates’ and ‘Allah, Liberty and Love.’

CIVIL WAR

It's clear that there is civil war in Islam today, brewing continuously between Sunnis and Shi’ites, between the people and their (mostly) despotic rulers, and between moderates and ticwms.

The ticwms, though small in number, are obviously well armed and frighteningly dangerous. And the reality of most Muslim countries includes mistreatment of women and girls, and for some, the law has ‘canonized’ it, and free speech is beleaguered, meaning the moderate and the reformer are still way outgunned. Individuals who hope for reform and who begin to search for truth must often be stealthy in seeking out kindred spirits to promote the ideals that nourish them. And as we can see, women reformers have it soooo much worse than their male counterparts.

I still believe that true reformers are making good noise, incorporating media and technology into their activism, and that they will, in time, bring down both the ticwms and the tainted Islam the 'good ol’ boys’ governments continue to propagate as of 2020.

Groundswells of resonant voices and kindred spirits must join together for direction and support, as individuals forge on to their own 'greater jihad,’ searching their hearts for answers to crucial questions. Here are a few that come to mind...

1. Can I, a Muslim, live peacefully in a community, country, world, with Muslims of different sects?

2. Do I believe that Islam can coexist with other world religions?

3. Can Islam coexist with other nations (not run as fundie theocracies), with their freedom of worship and assembly, with rock 'n roll and rye 'n ginger, with porn, free speech, gays, equality for women, etc?

4. Do I believe that girls should be taught alongside boys, and should be out of the shadow of their fathers’ and brothers’ control, free and equal citizens of the earth?

5. Do I believe that women are equal to men in God’s eyes and heart, and that I must mirror that truth and encourage others to do the same?

6. Do I believe that (current Islamic institutions which allow) the persecution of women, including beatings, rape, genital mutilation, child brides and 'honor killing’ of all kinds should be eradicated from the earth, as abhorrent and inhuman acts?

7. Can we as Muslims stand, individually and collectively, for increased freedom and diversity, within our own countries and in the world? Do we believe in worshipping from our hearts, if we choose and as we choose, without fear of reprisal from ticwm enforcers and their threats toward all but the most repressive, fundie Muslims?

8. Desirous of that freedom and diversity, how do we best unite, so as to defeat repressive governments and repulsive ticwms? How do we bring about separation of mosque and state in our countries?

9. Can I say without hesitation that I believe a good Jew, Christian or atheist is better in Allah’s eyes and heart, and therefore, in mine, than an evil Muslim?

Other voices piercing through the fog

With the full recognition of where Islam has been taken in modern times, K.H. Abdurrahman Wahib, the former president of Indonesia, (with more Muslims than any other country in the world) gives us this thought-provoking lesson:

“All too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam, which teaches one to be lenient toward others and to understand their value systems… the essence of Islam is encapsulated in the words of the Qu’ran… 'for you, your religion; for me, my religion’. That is the essence of tolerance. Religious fanatics… pervert Islam into a dogma of intolerance, hatred and bloodshed... our goal must be to illuminate the hearts and minds of humanity, and offer a compelling alternate vision of Islam, one that banishes the fanatical ideology of hatred to the darkness from which it emerged.”

Succinctly put, and for me, quite insightful.

Even Hayrettin Karaman, prof. emeritus of Islamic law and a conservative columnist for a pro-Islamic newspaper, has defended pluralism, including apostasy from Islam without punishment, and the rights to 'un-Islamic' beliefs and practices of non-Muslims (to be free) in an Islamic state. He proclaimed that the ideal Islamic political vision is "not a world in which everyone is a Muslim, but a world in which Muslims protect all peoples and freedoms.” He also spoke out for a reconsideration of religious interpretation to reflect changes in society. This is reflected in his observation that a handshake between members of the opposite sex, which would have had sexual connotations 1400 years ago, has none now, and has become a necessity in modern society.

It doesn’t get any clearer than a statement by American Walter Russell Mead: "In the end, when and if Islam makes its peace with the dynamic society, it will do so in the only way possible…pious Muslims of unimpeachable orthodoxy, conspicuous virtue, conservative principles and a great passion for their faith will show the world what dynamic Islam can be. Inspired by their example, vision and teaching, Muslims from all over the world will move more deeply into the worlds of their religion even as they find themselves increasingly at home in a dynamic, liberal and capitalistic world that is full of many faiths and cultures.”

In a series entitled What the Qu’ran really says, Sheikh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi offers some poignant observations about scripture and truth:

“The fundamentalist Muslim program to use Islam as an instrument for political warfare against Jews finds a major obstacle in the Qur'an itself. Both the Bible and the Qur'an state quite clearly that the right of the Israelites to the Land of Israel does not depend on conquest and colonization. This right flows from the will of almighty God Himself.

“Both the Jewish and Islamic Scriptures teach that God, through His chosen servant Moses, decided to free the offspring of Jacob from slavery in Egypt and to constitute them as heirs of the Promised Land. Whoever claims that Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is something new and rooted in human politics denies divine revelation and divine prophecy as explicitly expressed in our Holy Books (the Bible and Qur'an).

“The Qur'an relates the words by which Moses ordered the Israelites to conquer the Land:

"And [remember] when Moses said to his people: 'O my people, call in remembrance the favor of God unto you, when he produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave to you what He had not given to any other among the peoples. O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has assigned unto you, and turn not back ignominiously, for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.' s5:20-21

“Moreover - and those who try to use Islam as a weapon against Israel always conveniently ignore this point - the Holy Qur'an explicitly refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment - where it says: "And thereafter We [Allah] said to the Children of Israel: 'Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.' s17:104

“The Qur'an recognizes the Land of Israel as the heritage of the Jews and it explains that, before the Last Judgment, Jews will return to dwell there. This prophecy has already been fulfilled.”

Let’s pray for words like these to incite peace all over the world.

Lastly, Egypt’s Pres. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, speaking on New Year’s Day 2015 to an assembly of Egyptian clerics:

“It's inconceivable that the thinking that we hold most sacred should cause the entire Islamic world to be a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world… It's antagonizing the entire world! Does this mean that 1.6 billion people (Muslims) should want to kill the rest of the world's inhabitants - that is 7 billion - so that they themselves may live? Impossible!​... I say and repeat, again, that we are in need of a religious revolution. You imams are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting on you. The entire world is waiting for your word... because the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands."

Amongst the doom and gloom coming from the Muslim world, how can we not find it refreshing and hopeful to hear words like these from prominent individuals who pierce the fog with rays of light. The potential for peace and reform is there, and we all need to do our part to help achieve it.

A tough subject, the Qu’ran, Islam and Muslims. Tough, divergent, foreign, complex, elusive and mysterious. And while it doesn’t have as many denominations as the equally complex Christianity, surely aspects of Muslim life in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Indonesia, Nigeria and the US are about as diverse as they could be.

I say 'listen and learn’, read, study and engage. We really have to allow for the true Islam to peek out from behind these dark curtains and into the light. Yes, we need to express outrage against oppressive regimes and intransigent imams, and especially against ticwms. And many millions of Muslim men need a tremendous amount of unlearning and educating about women’s rights. But I personally don’t believe for a minute that the repression we encounter represents the majority of Muslims deep in their hearts.

I choose to see Islam as a religion in turmoil and in flux, and rightly under extreme pressure from within and without to undergo significant reformation. If nothing else, we non-Muslims should cheer on all reformers, offering up any support we can muster.

And prayers for all of us.

Salaam. Shalom. Namaste