Islam & Extremism
Islam stresses a balanced approach to life and religion and discourages extremism and fanaticism. As an example, one cannot dedicate themselves totally to religion and Allah SWT so much so that they choose not to get married. On the contrary, Islam strongly encourages marriage as an important part of religion.
The Holy Prophet Muhammad Salal lahu Alayhe wa salam has said that marriage is half of faith.
“And He raised the heaven high and set up the (law of) harmony and balance (He explains this to you) that you should not violate the (law of) harmony and balance.” Al Quraan, 55:5.
When a person practices the ritual parts of our religion then there is that tendency that stems from our carnal desires to think that we are pious. Its normal to experience this kind of urge but it is wrong and we need to learn to overcome these urges.
Thinking of ourselves as being pious , if not controlled, will lead to us taking further steps towards showing off our piety.
The Holy Prophet Salal Lahu Alayhi wasallam has said: “seek refuge from the ‘valley of grief’ and when asked what it is, he replied that it is a valley in hell from which hell itself seeks refuge from 490 times a day, every day. And when asked who will enter it, He said: ‘the readers of the Quran who are ostentatious (praying to show off) in their deeds.’” Al Hadith, 1:4:8:122
What’s worse is that such individuals and Islamic movements that captilise on their ritual prayer to make themselves look pious would now progress towards finding faults in the way other Muslims practise Islam. This fault picking is so wrong because it leads to destroying some good practices in Islam and it causes divisions.
So, such people say things like, this is ‘bidath‘, that is ‘shirk‘, that is ‘haraam‘ and those people are ‘murtads‘…. All in an attempt to raise their own status by bringing down others.
Putting flowers on one’s fathers grave, as an example, or picking up ones hands by his graveside to pray for him, praying for the Holy Prophet Salal lahu Alayhe wa Salam after the “azaan’, listening to a devotional song, the remembrance of the martyrs of Karbala, or even the age-old custom of celebrating Meelad Un Nabi, are all made into issues by these self-proclaimed “pious” people. Whether these practices are right or wrong is another matter. The issue is the belittling of others as a technique used by these extremists to make themselves out to be important so as to become the ‘ameer’ (leader). This is wrong!
“You have strived hard, but you have not felt any intense spiritual feeling of love; therefore from deceit you strive to do something you have no right to
Intense Spiritual feeling of love belongs to the saints and prophets; on the other hand to do something you have no right to is the refuge of every imposter;
For they draw the people’s attention to themselves, saying, ‘we are happy (with God),’ though within (at heart) they are exceedingly unhappy.” Matnawi, chpt 3 verse 729.
Three persons came to Bibi Ayesha RA and enquired about the piety of the Holy Prophet Muhammad Salal lahu Alayhe wa salam….. (after hearing about the way he prayed, fasted and spent time with his family), the one said: “I pray all night long”. The other said that “I fast all day long and I do not break” and the third said “I keep aloof from women and shall never marry.” ..Imagine that. These people felt that they were more pious because they prayed more and fasted more …. The Holy Prophet Muhammad Salal lahu Alayhe wa salam later came to these people and told them “By Allah, I fear Allah more than yourselves and I am most dutiful among you to Him, but I still keep fast and break it and keep up prayer and keep awake at night and take wives. So whoever turns away from my way is not of me.” Al Hadith, 1:4:10:136
How beautiful was his reply. Piety is not about how much we pray and fast, but piety is about how much we fear our Lord and how dutiful we are to Him…
Islam is not about ritualistic actions only but it is more importantly about developing our characters and our spirituality. Our ritual actions in themselves is not the end product but these ritual actions must grow our spirituality, our wisdom, our characters and ultimately our faith. It is our faith that will count in the end and this is not something we can display but it is something within us.
A person with a good character will never belittle others or think lowly of others no matter how simple they are, or what they believe in, or how they conduct themselves. Islam stresses upon us not to look down on others. Its not for us to judge others or to force our religion and ways onto others but what is important, is that we put ourselves right and this is a mammoth task. Instead of finding fault with others we must find faults in our selves and put this right. (Remember that it is almost impossible to see our own faults).
On that Day, Allah SWT will question us about our behaviour and our conduct and not about what we did to improve on other people’s behaviour.
When it comes to propagation, or teaching others, such as our children; we must do this by setting the example and if we do talk, then we must do it positively and not by picking faults on others. We can teach religion without having to pick on others.
People, that think themselves pious and then go onto finding faults with others can eventually lead towards a terrorist mentality.
This is what a Non-Muslim UK Judge, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave, in sentencing a Muslim terrorist who tried to blow up a packed train had to say in his closing speech:
_“ ….You should understand that the Qur’an is a book of peace; Islam is a religion of peace. The Qur’an and Islam forbid anything extreme, including extremism in religion…… Islam forbids terrorism (hiraba). The Qur’an and the Sunnah provide that the crime of perpetrating terror to “cause corruption in the land” is one of the most severe crimes in Islam……”_
Above quote from Association of Muslim Lawyers (AML).
“O You who believe! do not forbid yourselves good and pure things which Allah has made lawful for you, and do not transgress. Verily, Allah does not like the transgressors.. And eat of what Allah has provided you of (things) lawful, good and pure. And take Allah as a shield, in whom you repose your faith.” Al Quran, 5:87
In 2016, in Indonesia, the country with the most Muslims, a non Muslim woman was sentenced to one and a half year’s jail time for ‘blasphemy’ because she complained that the azaan was too loud and it was hurting her hearing.
It does not make sense how complaining about the loudness of the Azaan can be blasphemy. That’s not all. On top of this, the Muslim community then went on a rampage to destroy 14 Buddhists temples because she was a Buddhist woman. The story is on Wikipedia. How, just how can people in power treat the weak so badly. This is not Islam. It is forbidden for us to destroy places of worship and oppress the weak.
In Overport, Durban, even the small, recently established jamaath Khanas are now competing to give an azaan that is louder than the centuries old mosques a few blocks away and they are even having the Jummah prayer in these jamaath khanas.
Imagine what they are going to do in another ten years, when there is new technology with louder speakers and much more newer Jamaath Khanas popping up like mushrooms…
There simply has to be balance and limits. Islam teaches us to be kind, considerate, loving and caring. This is what we need to work on.
Thinking we are pious, finding faults in others to become the ‘amir’, excessively loud Azaans and punishing people that plead with us to tone down our loudspeakers is extremism, and not a part of Islam.
Fault Finding.
Did an Internet search on putting flowers on a grave and it’s amazing just how ‘blown out of proportion this is’ made out to be. Its made out to be one really big thing. They are making a mountain out of a mole hill yet it’s something that is not even mentioned in the Holy Quran.
When it comes to picking faults, there is that wise saying: “When you point a finger then there are three pointing back at you.” This is what Islam stresses. We must study ourselves, find our faults and put them right. Allah SWT is not going to question us about other people’s actions but He is going to question us about our actions.
There are many important issues in our community that needs our attention such as the increasing rate of divorce, ritualism, westernisation, materialism and so forth. We should pay attention to this instead of creating trivial issues so that we can boost our image to ‘look good’.
NOTE 1: Watch our KZN Juloos Meelad un Nabi (PBUH) introduction: https://youtu.be/tf86eS-BQq4?feature=shared
NOTE 2: listen to a beautiful naath on this theme: The Light Of Muhammad (PBUH)
NOTE 3: Read our novel, also based on this theme – Doolhun The Bride.