An unwanted
reputation
Islam has picked up a very unwanted reputation somewhere along the line, as being the religion that forces people into the faith at the point of the sword. I do not know personally, if one delves around in the past, whether or not it is possible to find people who have actually been forced to become Muslims – but the whole notion is really absolute nonsense.
You cannot force people to believe anything, any more than you could force people to fall in love with each other. I suppose it is possible to force somebody to pretend to be a Muslim (or a Christian, or Hindu, or anything else) – but the commitment to a faith comes from the heart, from the depths of the soul.
God’s order to
Muslims was ‘No Compulsion’
The irony is, as regards Islam, that Allah specifically revealed concisely and with absolute clarity in the Qur’an that there was to be no compulsion in matters of faith. Any Muslim who tried to force a non-Muslim or any other Muslim to believe or do anything they did not wish to, must have completely misunderstood Allah’s clear command. Of course, it is always possible to find people who have misunderstood Islam, even to find highly religious Muslims who have misunderstood Islam – but the truths of Islam are always clear, and stand clear from error.
Surah 2:256 is the most forthright: ‘There is no compulsion in religion. True guidance has been made clearly distinct from error, and whoever (chooses it and) renounces the forces of Satan and believes in Allah has grasped the firm hand-hold that will never break. Allah, Whose hand-hold you have grasped, hears all and knows all.’
And Surah 10:99-100 – which is such a key text: ‘If it had been the Lord's Will for all who are on earth to believe, they would have believed! How do you, therefore think you can compel people to believe against their will? No soul can believe except by the Will of Allah, and He Himself places doubt (or obscurity) in the minds of those who do not wish to understand.’
What about jihad?
Some people have thought that the concept of jihad meant forcing people to become Muslim. In history, where a Muslim army conquered or took over a territory that had not previously been part of the Islamic world, people were always invited to accept Islam, after a period of instruction. They could most certainly choose to do so. If they were not able to believe what Islam taught, then the normal practice was to require a tax payment from them, the jizya. They were not expected to pay the full zakat tax required of practising Muslims, but some contribution was necessary for the running of the society etc. If an individual would not accept Islam, or agree to a treaty relationship and payment of jizya, they might well bt sent out of that society to go elsewhere. That did not seem unreasonable, and it does not seem so to me now. I expect all the citizens of the UK to pay their way in the UK tax-system if they are able to do so.
The definition of
a jihad according to Qur’an and
sunnah is not to force people to be Muslims, but a struggle or an effort that
is exerted in some undertaking in order to attain some end or result. The
latter can be a personal one, of ‘fi sabi’l illah’ – in the cause of
Allah. It is a personal one for one’s own cause if it involves some form of
hard work to accomplish something of value – such as passing our GCSEs or A levels,
finding the skills and patience to teach others, trying to overcome an
aggressor in a personal situation, trying to eliminate some unwanted personal
habit such as smoking or obesity. A jihad or struggle in the cause of Allah
involves an unceasing effort to eliminate evil in the form of wrong beliefs,
ideas, values etc that are projected via thoughts, words and deeds. Things like
racism, abuse, selfishness, laziness, miserliness, aggression, and oppression.
The Prophet
(pbuh) called this ‘inner’ jihad the jihad
al-akhbar – or the Major Battle, because all evil arises from the nafs or human soul that is trapped in
ignorance. Ignorance, followed by arrogance and lack of compassion, lie at the
root of virtually all evil, are the causes of all corruption, and the sources
of all suffering. The opposite of ignorance is knowledge (ilm) that gives rise to wisdom (hiqmah).
This jihad al-akhbar is therefore an act of devotion with so much of the
same significance as the Five Pillars of Islam that it is often called the
Sixth Pillar. ‘Striving after knowledge,’ said the Prophet (pbuh), ‘is the
sacred duty of every man and woman.’ (Ibn Majah).
Islam teaches
that while the struggle or jihad ‘with the sword’ may be a great act when it
comes to defending Islamic values, or the innocent and defenceless from
unjustified aggression, the jihad ‘with the word’ (dawah) to spread to the ignorant the teachings and values of Islam
was greater. It was the Prophet’s (pbuh) first command, (ie. ‘Iqra!’ –
Recite!) and he kept it up throughout his life until he had successfully
transformed a large population of initially ignorant people into a learned
community.
The Prophet could
only teach and warn – not force
Allah told the
Prophet specifically that this was why he was called. He did not, however, have
the right to go beyond that teaching and condemn – a role reserved only for
Allah Himself as Judge:
‘Your duty is only to convey the message.’ (3.20, 5.92,99).
‘The delivery of the message is the duty for
you, and the judgement is the duty for Us.’ (13.40).
‘Even if they turn away, you are responsible
only for the delivery of the clear message.’ (16.82).
Jihad with the
use of weapons was only to be resorted to by Muslims as a means of self-defence
against oppressors, or aggressors who had first attacked believers. Muslims
were not to begin the aggression. If they had been oppressed or attacked, they
had the right to defence, but they were not to try to force or coerce others
into beliefs they did not really hold.
Jihad with the
word is more significant than jihad with the sword because Allah’s aims are
always to promote peace. The word, whether preaching or ‘gentle persuasion’ or
encouragement, is designed to change and preserve humanity. It builds homes,
hospitals, progress and peace. The sword destroys, and brings losses, suffering
and grief.
It is impossible to force anyone to believe something without education. If you present the evidence, show the results and consequences of actions, present the proofs – then hopefully people will believe. Faith is not complete, or even worthwhile, when it is followed blindly or accepted unquestioningly. Human beings need to build faith on well-grounded convictions beyond any reasonable doubt and above uncertainty.
If you try to force
a belief on someone, the attempt is really ridiculous. It can only work through
tyranny and aggression, and the fear in the forced person of the consequences
of upsetting you. The way of dawah in
Islam is to make as clear as possible the evidences and proofs – but every
person must be allowed to believe or disbelieve what they want.
Nowhere does
Allah give permission to force or kill people who refuse to accept the message.
Let us see His word again: ‘The delivery
of the message is the duty for you, and the judgement is the duty for Us.’
(13.40). Allah is the Judge. It is for Him to decide, in ultimate terms, what
the fate will be of those who reject the message. It is up to us to show that
everything in the message is good, and promotes goodness and happiness and
progress and peace. You may be absolutely confident that Allah never asked
anyone to promote anything that was evil, or harmful, or hurtful either
verbally, physically, mentally or morally. His message was and is all good.
The unpleasantness of extremism
There are two highly unpleasant things about extremism in any religion. The first is that fanatics are always somewhat over-confident and lacking in humility. They always believe that what they believe is right, and that what everyone else believes is inadequate in some way, or just plain wrong. They are characterised by the practice known as takfir – accusing all those who do not agree with their interpretation of the faith as being kuffar (unbelievers). In reality, the real kuffar are those who do not believe in God or any kind of Divine Entity at all – so we could say that it might include Communists, but would not include Jews or Christians (who are properly known in Islam as the ahl al-kitab or People of the Book). It is possible that Buddhists do not believe in a Supreme Deity, but the Hindu concept of Brahman seems to encompass that. It is most certainly wrong and insulting to apply the name kafir to a practising Muslim.
The second is that fanatics claim they do what they do because God wills it. This is a gross and arrogant claim - He wills nothing of the sort. What the extremists are doing is projecting their own hatreds or interpretations on to what they dislike. And in so doing, although they may be highly religious people, they have unfortunately taken on the role not of dawah-spreaders but of aggressors.
It seems as if fanatical people scour the Qur’an and hadith texts for passages that promote hostility, intolerance, the desire to sacrifice everything for the ‘fight for the right’ – as if this was the charge Allah had laid upon them. We may be generous and not doubt their sincerity or fervour, but there are other highly important principles in Islam which have to be taken most seriously. It is these things that our extremist and fanatical brothers and sisters need reminding of, before their activities and preaching actually become the work of the Devil, Shaytan, rather than the work of Allah.
Arrogance, intolerance and bigotry
The arrogance and intolerance of those who try to compel others are examples of Bigotry. Bigotry is the sign of ignorance and lack of ethical sensitivity. It is extremely disturbing that even some scholars and imams display this anti-social trait, because they do nothing but damage the work of Allah. When you take a good look at it, all the constant criticisms of Islam that crop up in the media are not actually criticisms of Islam at all – but of the specific type of Islam promoted by bigoted people. Some Muslims do seem to enjoy embarrassing all other Muslims with their narrowness of vision and crudeness of sentiment. Some of them seem to be quite unconcerned that many of their preoccupations and statements that misinterpret Islam only serve to make all Muslims look irrational, hateful, oppressive, abusive and downright odd. When such statements are made by scholars it gives Islam a very bad name, and raises the question of what on earth have they been teaching their flocks?
Many different opinions within Islam
Real Islamic scholars know perfectly well that there are numerous schools of thought and interpretation in Islam, and no one school can claim to be right and the others wrong. They also know that hadith scholarship is a minefield, with literally thousands of false sayings attributed to the Prophet (pbuh) within a very short time of his passing away. The very first principle of judging whether or not a hadith is genuine is to test whether it rings true with the teachings and principles of the Qur’an. If it does not, it must be false, and treated with very great suspicion. Therefore, such peculiarities as claiming that one can be forgiven any sin, no matter how heinous, but if one dies without a beard one will not be able to enter Paradise, is frankly nonsense. Islam is a logical, commonsense way of life that follows principles rooted in wisdom. It does not teach irrational, illogical, nonsensical behaviour where the end results turn out to be absurd, embarrassing and harmful.
When in doubt about a particular teaching or course of action, the sensible thing to do is to go to the source – look up the reference in the Qur’an and check it out carefully. This means reading the exact words in the verse quoted, and also to go back to the verses before it which have to do with the subject, and follow on to the verses after it. Then it can be seen so often that what looks like a verse that might possibly support extremism has been taken out of its context. Give it all the surrounding thoughts and verses, and try if possible to find out the reason why or in what historic situation those verses were revealed – and all becomes clear.
The Taliban who occupied so much of last year’s news threw up all sorts of howlers – and much is the bloodshed that has come as a result. What a tragedy! Such teachings as that female Muslims should not only be rebuked for not covering their faces, but even physically attacked and abused. Most of the Muslim ladies in this country, for example, who are beautifully and correctly dressed according to the rules of Islam, would find themselves arrested and physically hurt for not being correctly dressed under the Taliban rule. Men were punished for not having beards of the correct length, or for playing football in shorts, or for having televisions, or musical cassette tapes. Women have been thrown out of their employment and girls from their education, in spite of Allah’s command that to seek knowledge was a vital part of out jihad, or striving, from cradle to grave .
The Devil loves division
Even more objectionable, most bigotry is not directed at non-Muslims, as it happens, but at fellow Muslims! Ever heard of the saying: ‘Divide, and conquer’? If Muslims become divided, who is it that will conquer, if not Shaytan? Being told what to do, and having it forced upon us, when we are not convinced that it is right or right for us, is extremely negative and divisive.
Encouragement, not enforcement
Of course, we have the duty to point out when we think something is wrong, and to explain our point of view in such a way as will convince – but this pointing out is to be done without arrogance or sense of superiority, and our explanations are to be given in the best possible way, polite and gentle ways that will not drive people away from Allah.
All teachers face the problems of how to get through to kids that are doing things wrong, while at the same time wishing them to learn as much as possible by experience – for that is the sort of learning that sticks and moves one forward. If you keep on and on finding faults and nagging, the poor student may in the end blow up, or give up, or give in to despair. It is not the way to teach.
I can remember when I came into Islam how hard I tried to find out all the things I was supposed to do, and do them. There was so much to learn – it was a huge mountain, a massive ‘learning curve’. I was just the same as a Muslim kid in a Muslim home trying to grasp it all and please my parents/Imam/everyone else that seemed to be watching me closely. Only in my case, I had no Muslim parents or Imam (at that stage). It seemed as if I had to give up virtually everything I had always done and liked. It was hard, too, to approach my local mosque and try to fit in there – I felt very shy and embarrassed, and very very foreign.
And I can remember clearly, after doing so much – as I thought – being pounced on by some woman who had spotted that I was wearing nail-varnish, and therefore I could not possibly have done proper wudu, and therefore it would not be possible for Allah to be able to hear my prayer. I thought she was completely mad, and very unkind. Of course Allah would be able to hear my prayer – even if I had done everything wrong, He would be able to hear me; and He would be pleased that I wanted to pray, and pleased that I had tried to do things right, even if I had got something wrong. Whenever religious people claim that Allah can’t do this or that, they are even trying to put Allah under compulsion!
I don’t suppose Allah would ever have thought to Himself – ‘well, I’m not going to take any notice of that woman! I’m not going to listen to her prayers!’ What happened was that my brain gradually became engaged, and I began to think out for myself whether or not something was suitable, and the change began in myself (as Allah knew it would), and then, as He said He would, I began to notice more and more how He was gently guiding my change.
Don’t fear Allah, if you
love Him
I ended up wondering how on
earth Muslims kept on going when all they did was fear Allah. I kept on hearing that, and it always made me sad. I
don’t fear Allah at all – I LOVE Him, and I always will. If a Muslim is trying
to make others fear Allah, then my fear is that there is something very
wrong with their faith. Allah loves us, just as we are, with all our faults and
weaknesses, and if we love Him then we will soon feel bad about the many things
we do wrong, and try to learn from our mistakes, trusting that He will forgive
us – for He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.
May God bless you all, wasalaam,
Ruqaiyyah.