The Influence of the Traditional Understanding of Al-Islam on Muslims The traditional understanding of al-Islam has seriously corrupted our minds and has caused us to stagnate in our thinking of al-Islam. The fateful error of defining religion exclusively in terms of the performance of the rituals of al-Eman, and the false labeling of these rituals as pillars of al-Islam, has meant that religion was defined in isolation from ethical laws that are universally applicable. It meant that a person’s religiosity was measured solely by his or her fulfillment of ritual obligations, regardless of that person’s moral or social behavior in society. The confusion of al-Islam with al-Eman has produced other conceptual difficulties, for example, the confusion between several different degrees of ‘permission’ and ‘prohibition’, such as, a) al-halal / al-haram, what is absolutely allowed / absolute taboo (and which can only be decreed by God), and b) al-masmūh / al-mamnū’, what is permitted / forbidden (which is decreed by positive law), c) al-ma’rūf / al-munkar, what is prescribed as right / proscribed as wrong (the result of popular practice and social conventions), d) al-hasan / al-qabēh, what is good or bad (and which is subject to the personal taste of each individual). This confusion between legal, social, and moral rules, and the muddling of the many different levels of jurisdictions, has created this dreadful current trend among many Muslims to excessively label things as absolute taboos (i.e., harām), for which there is no evidence in the divine text of the Book. We hear, for example, that for a woman to show her face in public, to hear a woman’s voice, to play musical instruments, to make sculptures, to take photographs, or, for fear that the devil might slip into someone’s mouth, to yawn with one’s mouth open, even to clip one’s fingernails at night, all things that are normal everyday activities, have suddenly become absolute taboos! We should remember that the great sins in al-Islam are only those acts that transgress the ten commandments of the universal furqān. Everyone who claims that there are seventy major sins, or even seven hundred, has been thoroughly misled. What is the distinction between al-Islam and al-Ēman? To be continued …
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 12:52:33 +0000
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