Shari’a & reform of Islam
The recent media storm that swirled around Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, following his 7th February lecture on Civil and Religious Law in England: A Religious Perspective, prompted our Office of External Affairs to ask Dr Moojan Momen, author of An Introduction to Shi’i Islam and Islam of the Baha’i Faith to give us a short seminar on the subject of shari’a. Shari’a is a hot topic in the UK right now and we thought it would be helpful to try and get a better understanding of the shari’a, its history and application in the world today.
The Nasirol Molk mosque in Shiraz, Iran © travfotos under a Creative Commons licence.
I found this diagram, drawn by Dr Momen, showing the sources of the shari’a particularly helpful. Please note that most of it refers to Sunni Islam. The words and arrows in red refer to Shi’i Islam, which takes a different approach to shari’a in some respects, although the use of extreme punishments in Iran, the main Shi’i Islamic state, is just as marked as it is in Sunni regimes such as Saudi Arabia.
I asked Dr Tarek Heggy, who visited the UK Baha’i Centre on 28th February, what he thought about the move by the Turkish government to reinterpret some of the hadith, particularly those that have regressive effects on the rights of, for example, women. I got the impression that he thought this was an excellent idea. In fact, he seemed to want to go further and to delete the hadith altogether as unreliable and to rely only on the Qur’an. He was utterly dismissive of the narrow focus of much of the shari’a and of the way Muslim jurists use it to try to control every aspect of the lives of individuals and whole societies. This, he thought, was utterly destructive of individual initiative. Surely, he said, God is not concerned about trivialities such as whether men can wear gold or not - he himself wears a gold wedding ring, an act for which he has been admonished by fellow Muslims on more than one occasion. God is much more likely to be concerned about the love we show for our fellow human beings.
It’s worth reading this essay (and others) by Tarek Heggy, a Muslim who is actively seeking ways of reforming Islam and saving it from the destruction that faces it if Muslims continue in the militant model into which many have stepped.
Dr Heggy would, if I understand him correctly, like to see a much more flexible approach to personal life, law and government in Islam. Can this be done? Or is the Baha’i Faith already the reformed Islam that he would like to help bring into existence?
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Islam, sharia, reform
Related posts:
10 comments
Very instructive diagram. I’ll copy it, if you don’t mind.
Ditto on the diagram!
As to your interesting question, dear Barney, Baha’u'llah teaches that the Baha’i Faith is the renewal of the Faith of Islam and of the Faith of God; even if it were possible, there is no longer any need for us humans to struggle and reform the Religion of God. In any case, who are we to do what is God’s to do? The Baha’i Dispensation is God’s new dispensation of His eternal Faith, and with its coming the Dispensation of Islam has ended. I do also see, however, the efforts of learned ones like Dr. Heggy to be due to the inevitable influence of God’s newest Revelation on the entire creation, and on the minds of humanity. In the end, no human being, no matter how learned and well-meaning, can do for the Faith of God, what He Himself chooses to do.
Yes, that’s from the point of view of those who accept Baha’ullah as a God-sent ‘reformer’ of religion, like Muhammad was. There is understandable scepticism, I think, against reform initiatives, of which there are many in the world religions. Some lead to some form of fundamentalism: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam ‘as it was originally intended’, based on one of many possible interpretations of history and scripture. Others reforms are more directed at reshaping (a) religion to ‘fit’ our modern age, with the danger of bending God’s laws to our convenience. Both types of effort are limited by our fallible human perspective and availability and reliability of historical records. One way out would be ’scientific consensus’ by a large, respected, unbiased group of scientists. I doubt that will happen, but who knows? Another is Divine Interpretation, in the way that for Christians, (God through) Christ was the Divine Interpreter of the Old Testament, (God through Gabriel through) Mohammad the Divine Interpreter of all previous dispensations and God (through Baha’ullah) again of all previous dispensations.
Still, I think any serious individual effort to honoustly try to understand and apply the ‘original intent’ of any of the divine revelations is greatly enriching and is a path towards unity.
Hmmm - I wouldn’t agree with the diagram (as someone who teaches Islamic studies) I might have a go at how I would diagram it.
One of the wonderful things that happened to me, when I began learning about how Muslims think about Islam as opposed to how Baha’is think about Islam, is that I learned how inherently flexible shari’a is. It is not a codified book of law, you can’t pull “the big book of shari’a” off the shelf. It’s a living concept.
Shari’a literally means “the path to the watering hole” as well as “the watering hole” itself. And as you can imagine for desert dwelling Arabs, that was the path of life itself. If you didn’t know the path to the watering hole, you would quickly die of thirst in the desert.
Consequently, shari’a is the divine will for how we should live our lives. How Muslims understand shari’a is up to interpretation of the sources, which leads to fiqh “understanding” (which is why the diagram is wrong). And that has always been flexible depending on the context of the community that is living the shari’a. It is why there is no need for “reform of Islam”, because Islam itself is the final, most complete expression of religion. It is now up to human beings to implement God’s final revelation into their communities in the diverse cultures into which Islam spreads.
[...] Barney Leith, who is a Baha’i, has a post up tangentially related to how the Western media is misreporting that Turkey is trying to “reform Islam.” He has a diagramme that attempts to show the sources of Islamic sacred law, but as there were a few errors (Prophet Muhammad is not the source of the Qur’an; fiqh is not a source of shari’a; hadith and akhbar are the same category of material; the Ja’fari (Shi’i) school of law got left out etc.) I thought I’d take a stab at it: It’s not perfect, but I am trying to get across that shari`a is a concept: it is sacred law; the divine will for how we lead our lives; and that fiqh is how human beings understand shari`a. Consequently, for us shari`a does not need reform, we need reforming so that we can better live the shari`a. [...]
I’d also quibble with “many have stepped” into militant models of Islamic interpretation. It’s not backed up by research findings, in fact the opposite is the case.
“Strong opposition to terrorism was found among Muslims in seven out of ten countries polled by Pew. This is especially true in the Muslim populations of Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey, where six in ten or more say that “suicide bombings and other forms of violence against civilian targets” are “never justified.” The TFT poll of Indonesia and Pakistan found even bigger numbers rejecting all attacks on civilians. Pew also found complete rejection of terrorism among very large majorities of Muslims living in Germany, Britain, Spain and France. Trend line data available for some countries also show a significant increase in those taking this position in Indonesia and a remarkable 23 point increase in Pakistan. Only Turkey showed a slight downward movement.” http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/221.php?nid=&id=&pnt=221&lb=brme
You might be interested in grabbing a copy of _Who Speaks for Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think_ when it is released, Barney, as whilst I have respect for your position as a Baha’i authority, sometimes your statements about Islam and Muslims are a little on the prejudiced side of the things. (Sorry for being blunt).
I’m grateful for all the comments on this posting. Umm Yasmin, I’m sorry I didn’t make it clear in the posting that the comment about Muslims following a militant model of Islam is Dr Heggy’s, not mine. Having said that, thank you for providing the Pew and TFT statistics. Well grounded facts are certainly preferable to wild generalizations.
Of course, this could open up a discussion about the contrast between the stated views of Muslims as shown in the opinion polls and people’s perceptions of what Muslims think and how they act (including the perceptions of some Muslims, it would seem).
I’d certainly be interested in reading “Who Speaks for Islam” - a pity that Amazon.co.uk is not sure when or if it will be in stock.
By the way, I’m grateful for the complement, I repudiate any suggestion that I am a Baha’i “authority”. As you know, the authority in the Baha’i community is with its elected institutions. What I write here reflects my own very limited understanding.
Thanks for your reply Barney, I guess I’m a little touchy about the topic, because the research that I and my colleagues are involved in, really suggests that misconceptions about Islam and Muslims is a troubling trend among some sections of government and the media, and that the views of the majority of Muslims are not being accurately reflected–particularly in the media.
“The research suggests that conflict between Muslims and the West is not inevitable, and is in fact more about policy than religion. However, until and unless decision makers listen directly to the people and gain a more accurate understanding of these misperceptions, extremists on all sides will continue to gain ground.”
Esposito and Mogahed’s research comes out this month.
I don’t know Dr Heggy so I do not feel at liberty to comment on his reflection, except to say that it is not being reflected in any studies that I am currently looking at. Pew has it’s faults, but there are some interesting take-away points from various studies it does, particularly on the gap–as you point out– between actual beliefs and attitudes of Muslims, and what the non-Muslim population thinks Muslims believe.
(As for men not wearing gold - we observe that rule out of love and respect for our Prophet who asked men not to wear gold, and our scripture informs us that we have a beautiful pattern of conduct in the Prophet.)
Umm Yasmin, thank you once again for your helpful comments. I shall be sure to look out for Esposito and Mogahed’s research.
[...] (source - hadith are the sayings and doings of Muhammad and his companions) [...]
Leave a Comment