MISCONCEPTIONS IN ISLAM
In every region of every continent, from the striking pyramids of Egypt to
the industrial cities of America, to the snow-governed suburbs of Moscow,
sonorous feisty voices of Muezzins and chanting of praises of Allah are
often heard reverberating from Mosque minarets. The followers of Islam,
estimated at over a billion, have unique characteristics that when combined
make Islam more of a way of life than a social club propelled by artificial
codes of imagination.
Many non-Muslims at the mention of Islam think of Muslims bowing and
prostrating towards Mecca. Others think of a bearded person wearing an
overflowing garb who is backward, fanatic and narrow minded in out look in
life. A plethora of vices ranging from terrorism, to polygamy and women
surbodination are often so blindly linked to this peaceful religion that has
answers to every ill of society.
However, in an open letter addressed to Israel’s politically diverse
parliament, Nasir Ahmed, a heroic resident of the trouble spot zone of West
Bank wrote “ I’ve passed through the tunnel into the light… I’ve fought and
struggled to reach the choice, and now it’s arrived, it daunts me. When I
look behind, I see the chains discarded on the ground and an empty black
void.” Though this moving description is a graphic experience of Nasir’s
existence in the West Bank, its general meaning is in fact a symbolic
representation of the state of Islam in our politically intricate global
village.
The Islamic ideology has all the elements and forces that make it
comprehensive and practicable, moderate and flexible. Its divine origin
reveals only the fundamental and inviolable principles. This flexibility in
Islam is a matter of fact a necessity. But because of their universal
outlook and cosmopolitan orientation, Muslims are often considered blind
fanatics or narrow-minded conservative people. And it is incredible that
such drastic and far-fetched incivilities come from sources presumably
knowledgeable and is passed to a public entitled to know.
Whether it is the neatly stacked files of West Minister or the computerised
strong rooms of the C I A, names and locations of Islamic Organisations,
countries and Muslim personalities are coded in secret files with footnotes
describing the listed institutions as “Islamic Terrorists.” Why and how such
a scathing judgement is arrived at is surely beyond the widest horizon of
the imagination of any one who thoroughly comprehends the basic tenets of
Islam. Indeed to juxtapose a peaceful religion with considerable strings of
tolerance and concern for human life, to the posture of terrorism, is both
an abysmal piece of hypocrisy and propaganda at work. This subject, simple
as it may appear, is becoming an effective mechanism in fighting a religion
that strongly condemns human vices, mostly entrenched clauses inserted in
Western constitutions.
Unfortunately, the apparent lack of inaction of the Muslim Ummah to respond
to these deadly pints of propaganda creates distrust and lack of respect for
Muslims. Travel to any country in Europe or America and call yourself a
strict Muslim proud of your religion. A confetti of rolled eyes would be
directed at you perhaps wondering if you are one of those terrorists
connected with Hamas or the Islamic Salvation Front. Further carry a bulky
bag in proper Muslim attire and the police would quickly search you.
The million-dollar question now arises: why is Islam often connected with
terrorism when it is indisputably the most peaceful and comprehensive
religion on earth? The answer is a technical one in that it is a problem of
deliberate misconception. Unless the West desists from substituting Arabs
for Islam or vice versa, the problem would continue to linger at the
detriment of genuinely practising Muslims. Acts of violence and terrorism
perpetrated by Arabs or any Muslim cannot, should not and must not be
patented on the parameters of Islam. The religion Islam meaning peace and
complete submission to Allah, has standardised codes and pillars that
denounce violence or destruction, more so the massacre of innocent people
regardless of their race or religion. More often than not, a Muslim by name
would out of stupidity and madness, throw a bomb in a public place killing
hundreds and destroying millions of dollars worth of property. The West
would jump in alacrity and label that renegade an Islamic Terrorist. A
similar move of equal magnitude done by say a Protestant would engineer a
different reaction. They would say he has a psychological problem after
falling out with a girl friend. Psychiatrists would then be invited to
examine him. Would he be called a terrorist? What an irony of fate!
Although realistic in approach, Islam never tolerates aggression nor does it
entertain aggressive wars. Muslims are strongly commanded by Allah not to
begin hostilities, or embark on any act of violence. Indeed Dr. Mangum
Ceesay, one of Gambia’s erudite scholars once said in his brainstorming
weekly telecast on G R T S that “war is not an objective of Islam nor is it
the normal cause of Muslims. It is only the last resort and is used under
the most extraordinary circumstances when all other measures fail. Islam is
the religion of peace: its meaning is peace; the daily greetings of Muslims
are peace; paradise is the house of peace; the adjective “Muslim” means
peaceful. Peace is the nature, the meaning, the emblem and the objective of
Islam. If there is any religion or constitution to guarantee peaceful
freedom of religion and forbid compulsion in religion it is surely Islam”.
The Qur’an makes this assertion stronger in the verse: “let there be no
compulsion in religion. Truth stands out from error; whoever rejects evil
and believes in Allah has grasped the trustworthiest handhold that never
breaks. And Allah hears and knows all things.”
Whether or not critics accept authentic views along these lines, the fact
nakedly remains that Islam is the religion of peace in the fullest sense of
the term; that unjust war was never among its teachings; that aggression was
never in its tenets; that force was never employed to impose it on anyone;
that the expansion of Islam was never due to compulsion or oppression. As
the religion of Allah, it survived under the most difficult conditions and
it will survive to be the safe bridge to spiritual development and eternal
peace.
HUMAN RIGHTS
In late 1995, when I was preparing a research brief for my “A” level
examination at the National library in Banjul, a brief-case trotting human
rights activist was saying to a dozen of students that “Islam does not have
a readily accessible source of reference for human rights”. Surprised by
these unholy statements and shivered by anger and disappointment, a young
Muslim with in the audience paced towards him and whispered in his ears;
“LIAR and TRAITOR”. Apparently demoralised by lack of interest in his
lecture, the human rights activist grabbed his briefcase and marched out in
frustration like a disappointed politician.
Indeed, to many human rights activists devoid of a proper Islamic
perspective, Bills of Rights and Declarations are seen as exclusive domains
of the United Nations. For them the context of human rights and its advocacy
are bi-products of the numerous universal declaration of rights promulgated
over the decades under the aegis of the UN. If a scathingly erroneous
statement is to be nominated as fallacy of the century, this line of
thinking ought to be considered without hesitation. Indisputably the Qur’an
had already addressed in detail every issue of human rights centuries before
it was brought up at any intellectual platform. But the enemies of Islam had
always deliberately ignored this otherwise established phenomenon.
In Islam the Qur’an is the greatest gift of God to humanity; a comprehensive
document whose objective has been and shall always be to focus on God, open
new horizons of thoughts for mankind, free the mind from doubts, liberate
the soul from sin and emancipate the conscience from subjugation. It
embraces all works of life and covers the principles of the entire field of
human affairs from the most pointing personal matters to the intricate
subjects of world politics. In short, it’s a true embodiment that
comprehensively encompasses duties, responsibilities and obligations of
human beings and other creatures.
The glorious Qur’an is replete with verses that point out the full
recognition of the individual and his sacred rights to life, property and
honour. Paramount to these packages of rights is the Right to Life. In
Islam, life is the existence of any creature whose life span is the sole
prerogative of Allah. Therefore any encroachment on it devoid of a
justifiable bearing tantamount to the violation of the spiritually coded
laws of Sharia. This is why anybody who deliberately kills a person ought to
be killed in the eyes of Islam. But herein lies the subtle irony often
subject to a bout of logically unbalanced criticism and myopic analysis
honeycombed with distortion. More often than not a man would cold-bloodedly
slain a fellow being or even massacre dozens more out of a violent temper
tantrum or psychological defaults. The same society that stood by as witness
to these heinous crimes would in turn vociferously claim for the human
rights of such a culprit against the victims of an unjust cause. But human
rights for whom and for what?
Clearly, the telescopic eyes of Islam are too graphic and too sharp to bear
frivolous analysis bereft of good judgement, logic and reason. No matter
what critics say, a person who deliberately kills deserves to be killed. But
this does not make Islam violent in any way or unsympathetic in the main. As
mentioned earlier, Islam is a peaceful, tolerant and considerate religion
that freely extends its leverage of mercy and welfare from the symbolic
objects of the skies to the tiniest creature on mother earth. Indeed a
prophetic saying has it that a man was docked in hell for putting his cat
under lock and key for three days without food.
The domain of human rights in Islam is very lofty, sound and comprehensive.
Among these substantial elements Dr. Abdallati buttressed, are “sincere love
for one’s fellow human being, mercy for the young, respect for the elders,
comfort and consolation for the distressed, visiting the sick, relieving the
grieved, extending genuine feelings of brotherhood and solidarity, respect
for the rights of other people and finally enhance mutual responsibility
between the individual and society”.
WOMEN IN ISLAM
In a calm but suspicious September afternoon in 1945, an old man walking
through the bloody streets of Berlin came to an abrupt halt at the sight of
an artistic, but gruesome painting, poetically depicting war as a brutal
enterprise. Looking further down, this old man saw a woman knelt before her
two helpless kids weeping in despondency and disappointment. Although in a
state of failing health, the old man however, offered to rescue this
desperate woman from the brink of atrophy. The woman, nodding in symbolic
frustration, pleaded to be left alone, as society stood by to bear witness
against these innocent victims of an unjust cause.
The rights of women in contemporary times were not earned through natural
channels or divine teachings. Indeed history asserts that in predominantly
non-Muslim societies, women had to undergo rigmarole of struggle in hard
scrabble conditions for centuries offering painful and costly sacrifices to
gain their natural rights. In the United Kingdom for instance, women
actively participated in the 1800s protest marches sojourning with the
Chartists Movement and the March of the Blanketeers, primarily venting out
the suppression characteristic of the oppressive powers that were. During
these periods countless of women died in horrendous circumstances; some
hacked to death in pregnancy, others raped, while a large number
“disappeared”, unseen for ever. In other parts of Europe, women started
voting and owning property only years after World War 1.
On the other hand, Islam had, right from the beginning, given women a
comprehensive and inexhaustible package of rights and privileges which they
never could enjoy under other religious or constitutional systems. The
rights and responsibilities of women are equal to those of men but they are
not fully identical with them. The Qur’an attests this to in this verse:
“God has fashioned mankind according to the nature designed by Him; there is
no altering the creation of Allah.”(30:31).
The fact that Islam has given them equal rights, but not identical,
significantly reveals that it holds them into due consideration,
acknowledges them, and recognises their independent status. What Islam at
all times emphasises is the notion of equal partnership. “O mankind! Verily
we have created you from a single pair of a male and female, and made you
into nations and tribes that you may know each other.”
Indisputably, Islam has entrenched spiritually pedalled codes that glorify
women, give them full security and protect them against disgraceful
circumstances and undesirable channels of life. As a renowned scholar
pointed out, “it is not the tone of Islam that brands women as the product
of the devil or the seed of evil. No does the Qur’an place men as the
dominant lords of women.” They have equal rights to enter into a contract,
set up business enterprises, earn and possess independently. Their marital
lives are elaborately defined and guarded by Islam. This is an important
aspect of Islam that both the Qur’an and prophetic hadith address in detail.
In his historic farewell sermon delivered on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah,
in the Uranah valley of mount Arafa, the holy prophet (S A W) said: “O
people, you have rights over your wives and your wives have rights over you.
Treat your wives with love and kindness. Verily you have taken them as the
trust of God, and have made their persons lawful unto you by the words of
God. Keep always faithful to the trust reposed in you, and avoid sin.”
Abou Jeng
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