Comparative Religions in Islam

Brown's Muslim Chaplain will be talking about the necessity of reviving "comparative religions" from a contemporary Islamic theological paradigm. He will take about the intellectual and political challenges facing such a project, as well as the resources from classical Islam and contemporary Western Religious Studies that form the basis of a new discourse more attuned to the realities of contemporary Islamic thought and an increasingly pluralistic world.

Faiz Khan '15 on haya'

A recent khutba by Faiz Khan, Brown class of 2015:

There is a Hadith, narrated by Abu Huraira, that goes: the Prophet (saws) said, "Iman (belief) consists of more than sixty branches (i.e. parts). And haya is a part of faith." Now I’m not going to stand here and pretend I am fluent in Arabic or anything, but this term "haya" covers a large number of concepts which are to be taken together; amongst them are self- respect, modesty, bashfulness, and scruples). It shares a root with the Arabic word hayat, meaning “life.” Such an all-encompassing word is, I believe, generally taken to mean shamefulness in engaging in acts of impropriety derived from a fear of God. This sudden burst of compunction is a feeling that many of us possess when we sin, and it is something that drives us toward asking from forgiveness from Allah (swt). It would be impractical for me to describe all that haya entails in one khutbah, so I’m going to focus on one aspect and that is modesty. Inshallah I’ll clarify the ways modesty manifests itself both in the Quran and in our daily lives.

We often discuss modesty in everyday conversation as watching what we say around others and our elders, being humble when we achieve something, dressing appropriately, etc. What these actions or words all share in common is that they are simply actions and words- external, rather internal indicators of modesty. We can twist our words so that we sound externally modest, yet floating around in our heads may be pretension and narcissism. It is this differentiation between actions or words and intentions, the internal vs. the external, that is subtle but entirely necessary to understand, to reify an apparent virtue. It is this observation that also defines the difference between modesty toward your friend and modesty toward your Lord. Allah, unlike humans, knows both what we say/do and also what we think; He is a spectator of any intention or passing thought that surfaces in our brains. And that is why being modest in the presence of Allah is so difficult to do. But as a following Hadith implies, it is an essential part of our entire existence and something that takes work to understand and implement:

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud relates that one day the Prophet said, 'Be shy of Allah (God) Most High as much as is His due.' The companions present said, 'All praise to Allah, we are shy of Him.' The Prophet said, 'That is not the point. Whoever is shy of Allah as much as is His due, he should protect his head and that which it comprises (i.e. mind, mouth, ears), his stomach and that which is adjoining it (i.e. preserve it from unlawful wealth and protect the private parts from the unlawful), and he should remember death and that which is to come after it; and whoever desires the Hereafter should abandon the adornments of this world. Whoever fulfills these duties has been shy of Allah as much as is His due.'" (Musnad Ahmad)

It is through this hadith that true purification of body and soul is defined---it is something in which we can thoroughly analyze both the physical and abstract aspects of our life and not feel a resounding guilt in the presence of Allah. It is through a constant remembrance of God that we can be prudent in our endeavors and shield ourselves from a loss of control. And in this dunya of temptation and distractions, it is only Allah from whom we can request forgiveness and receive it when we do feel a weakness in our purity.

If haya, this modesty in the presence of God, is so important, what happens when we don’t have it? Or what happens when we treat modesty toward other people with greater importance than modesty toward Allah? The hadith from the start of this khutbah says haya is a branch of iman; if this branch is severed, them our iman suffers a blow as well. We stop thinking of God as a 24/7 spectator of our thoughts and actions and begin to let them go unchecked, no matter how small our transgressions may seem. We start living in fear of the things of this world because the armor that is our remembrance of God starts to rust. We forget that God has blessed us when we achieve and God does not burden our souls with more than we can bear when we struggle. In general, we forget that our actions, both good and bad, have consequences---effectively trivializing the purpose of our existence. Allah is aware that humanity has slipped into this mindset time after time, from the people of one prophet to another. He says in surah Mu’minoon: "So did you think that We created you for nothing, and that you will not be brought back to Us?"

It is possible, as stated, to possess a constant haya toward God; but it is a dangerous thing for this haya to be superseded by the modesty and shame we face in the presence other human beings. It is a sort of pathologic, patterned ignorance of our responsibilities toward God when focused on our peers. It sounds bad, yes, but most likely 99% of Muslims have been through something of the sort before, no matter how tiny it may sound. We’ve missed prayers while out with friends, we’ve been in public settings where there is nowhere else to pray but in the sight of other people, and thus decided not to pray. We’ve prayed toward God but without God in mind. We’ve turned from God and turned back again. To enumerate these totally human errors would be an inhuman task; but does that make us all damned to the fire? In Surah Az-Zumar, Allah (swt) disagrees: "Say, 'O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful.'"

If we forget that we can be forgiven for our sins by simply and genuinely asking for Allah’s forgiveness, our haya will start to suffer. Our sins will start to compile to the point that we will convince ourselves we are not actually doing anything wrong. We will set personal conditions for our responsibilities toward God while abandoning what has been decreed by our Prophet (saws) and the Quran. The cure or preventative method for this state of mind is to be aware of ourselves through the lens of our deen. It is to recognize that because God is constantly vigilant of us, we must be constantly vigilant of ourselves and our words, thoughts, and actions. And it is to realize that even the best of us are constantly sinning. By no means do I call my observations rules or anything, but I’ve seen that the majority of Muslims make dua retrospectively—that is, they realize they sin and they seek forgiveness. Yet the best of Muslims learn to make dua both retrospectively and prospectively-both for the sins they have caused and the sins they will inevitably make as human beings. I pray Allah grants us all this awareness.

***

And then there is the modesty that comes with possessing knowledge of Islam—that is, modesty in the face of our fellow brothers and sisters. As Muslims, we are told to view Islamic knowledge more preciously and reverentially than material goods, than a house or a job or money. But holding this knowledge does not make us immune from parading it around our fellow Muslims in a manner that both belittles and intimidates. And may Allah give us the strength to avoid such behavior. This behavior, however, goes beyond a simple declaration of superiority—it is exactly what creates a line between those of who do know things and those of us who do not know things. It is what prevents beneficial knowledge from being spread amongst our community. This is where it is absolutely necessary for us to keep haya in mind. Those of us who possess Islamic knowledge or any kind of knowledge, and that means ALL of us, should feel shyness in the presence of Allah (swt) in having this knowledge. We should feel a responsibility toward other people in creating a setting of approachability and comfort so that others can come to us if they wish to seek information or better themselves. If I make a mistake during Salah or come late to Jummah, I should not feel intimidated or fear that the khateeb or Dave or whoever noticed and is going to thrash me if I approach him or her afterwards. And I say alhamdulilah because here at Brown, we make extra strides to make each Muslim feel comfortable, no matter their level of knowledge or level of practice. I am so grateful to Allah that I can approach students  and ask them what a certain word from the Quran means or ask them how to refine my prayer without feeling dumb or inferior. And it is in college where we should feel blessed that these zones of comfort, these opportunities for casual Islamic conversation, are readily available for us to take advantage of. For those of us who do know when others don’t, it is not as if we are not benefiting if we give somebody else advice, especially if it is Islamic in nature. If there is one thing I can take from the Principles of Economics class here, and no I’m not here to start an economic debate or anything, it is that trade can potentially benefit everyone involved. And this works equally well with an Islamic exchange of ideas. If I approach a friend about an Islamic question, the information I receive from him betters me and elevates me in the presence of Allah. If you take it from the friend’s side, though, the fact that he or she delivered information that benefits a fellow Muslim will in itself elevate him or her in the presence of Allah. Why pass up this opportunity for mutual benefit and strengthening? And once again I say alhamdulilah because I am so happy the MSA here is a place where such exchanges can readily occur

Lastly there is one more place where modesty in holding Islamic knowledge is essential, and this is toward our non-Muslim companions and ourselves. It is indeed important for us to treat Islam as a way of thinking, a way of life and a constant source of truth and understanding. At the same time, however, it is possible for us to become closed-minded Muslims whose ideas and life experiences are centered around those who think like us. Especially on a campus like this, we all probably recognize the importance of open discussion with those who are like us and those who are not like us—but it is very easy to at least transiently drift into a state of mind in which we think the only people who are right are those who think like us. This can be on a large scale or a small scale; for example, Muslims may think of themselves as so morally upright compared to non-Muslims that they find themselves immune to committing sins or dwelling in the trivialities of secular life. But to say this, and again I utter these words to remind myself as much as others, is to deny the humanity we all share whether or not we identify ourselves as Muslim. Rather, Muslims should think of their status in a way only a close friend of mine could so eloquently state and this is: “Don’t think of Muslims as better than others or above sin. Think of them as those who know where to look for forgiveness.‘ And it is exactly through practice of haya that we can recognize when we sin, strive greatly to avoid sinning, and seek forgiveness from God when we do sin.

I pray Allah gives us the strength to practice haya and I pray we maintain this beautiful community that has been established for our learning and our living. And lastly, forgive me and I ask Allah’s forgivness for mistakes I made during this khutbah. Ameen.

No More Walls

A beautiful piece written by one of our students after a visit to our campus by Imam Suhaib Webb (hafidhahullah - may God preserve him):

I've grown up going to a masjid in which the men and women are separated by a wall. To compromise between the camp that wanted the wall and the one which didn't at the time of the masjid's construction, the wall had a large window. Then, the women who did want a wall covered the large window with duct tape, so the men on the other side would not be able to see them. For all of my adult life, there was something about this arrangement that I knew I didn't like, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Was it my western notions of equality that were impeding my ability to understand the preferences of some of the men and women in the congregation? Was it my naivety, assuming that the wall was a symbol of rampant sexism when it was actually a trivial matter? Was I simply unable to understand that the wall was put up for the sake of convenience, so the wails of children could be localized to the women's room and be kept away from the men during prayer? Was I being foolish in arguing that in the time of the Prophet Muhammad (SA) there was no separation, and that the same convention should still be followed?

During Ramadan, 2011, the women in my Masjid were asked to pray in the trailer because they were running out of room in the masjid. This, I was told, would be a temporary arrangement, and the one woman on the masjid committee had given her tacit approval that this would be a decision supported by the women of the congregation. Although the decision was reversed after several nights of tantrums and tears and late night meetings, it was repealed, and the committee members apologized profusely for allowing something that could be construed as sexist to pass.

Yet, my soul was still left with a great unease. It wasn't until last night that I could fully understand the cause of it. When Imam Suhaib Webb, who was recently appointed to be the imam of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, came to visit our university's campus in Providence, Rhode Island, all of those feelings of unease made sense and I could finally admit to myself that my discomfort was NOT a product of my western upbringing, or flawed idealistic logic. The agitation I felt stemmed from the feeling that the wall, or the trailer, or whatever else it would be, fundamentally opposed my concept of what it means to be a Muslim. Islam, as Imam Suhaib said, came as a religion that dignified the human experience. It gave people meaning, purpose, and beauty, it instituted principles of democracy, fairness, and justice. The deen was never meant to chastise, it was meant to elevate. Imam Suhaib listed many examples of situations in which he and those he knew tried to act on this principle of preserving human dignity. He argued that this should be one of the foundational principles on which we practice our religion, and that we should never turn anyone away. If you see someone who's struggling with a problem, help them, he instructed. Everyone has their own faults. Islam, he said, is weakened by the way that most of us are now inclined to think of it: as a force that always says no.

And then, he got into the issue of the wall. When he spoke, the matter suddenly seemed so clear. Why should women pray behind a wall? There was no wall in the Prophet's time. Yet, we've now come to accept the wall as a part of the standard American masjid. How can someone praying behind a wall have a dignified human experience? If the simple act of going to the mosque to pray comes with it the principle that women should be not seen, not heard, but shoved away in the back, how can they feel that their religion is empowering them? Why are we letting this become an acceptable social trend?

With regards to the women who themselves want the wall because they believe the brothers are "looking at them," Imam Suhaib argued passionately that this played into the hyper-sexualization that he considers one of the biggest challenges to Muslims in America today. This hyper-sexualization leads to even more problems between the genders. Nowadays, he said, if a brother greets a sister with salam, it can be considered inappropriate, even though salam is one of the rights of every Muslim. He said: "You are coming to pray in the House of Allah. And if you are using that to check out some aunties, I would say you've got some mental issues. And if you are the old aunties going to your imam and saying that that's what happening, you've got some issues too." 

Imam Suhaib also told a story about a masjid in which there was not enough room for the men to pray, so some of the men asked the imam if the women could be moved upstairs. The imam's response was to ask the men why they were asking him instead of the women. This made me think back to my own mosque, and remember that when the women were asked, many of them considered the matter a non-issue, and many of those who did consider it an issue wanted to be in the trailer. They wondered how more separation from the men could ever be a bad thing. Yet, to me, the matter was, and is still, simple. It was religiously ordained that men and women pray separately. Men in the front, children in the middle, and women in the back. We are taught that we should strive to follow sunnah in every dimension of our lives- who am I to claim that the women praying behind the men is not enough of a separation if it was enough for the Prophet (SA)?

I am a Muslim woman growing up in America. I am a student at one of the most liberal institutions of higher learning in America, and I absolutely love it. The Muslim Students Association here is a place in which I have been able to practice my faith in the most rewarding and uplifting ways possible. I don't say that because we believe in rewriting the rules that Allah (SWT) set for us. We do not contradict Quran or Sunnah. But we do believe that Islam is a beautiful religion and that, as Muslims, we are meant to appreciate the inherent beauty and equality in Allah's creation- and that includes both men and women. As I grow up, mature, and learn more about Islam, I am touched by all of the beautiful facets of it I've never noticed before. And every time I think of walls, or duct tape, or trailers, my faith in my religion does not waver, but my faith in humanity does. We are living in a day and age when we Muslims are already seen as close minded and backward. Why do we ourselves continue to box ourselves in to these stereotypes? As Imam Suhaib so elegantly put it, "The Cold War is over- so why do we still put up walls?"

Letter: Editorial examines prejudice - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891

Letter: Editorial examines prejudice - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891

Editorial: The persistence of prejudice - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891

Editorial: The persistence of prejudice - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891

BMSA Letter of Thanks to Yale's President

The Brown Muslim Students Association (BMSA) recently sent a letter of thanks to Yale's President, Richard Levin, for his response to the recent relevation that the NYPD has been spying on college students in NY, NJ, and CT.

February 28, 2012

Dear President Levin,

The Brown Muslim Students’ Association would like to extend sincere thanks to you for your recent statement about the NYPD and its surveillance of Muslim student groups around the Northeast. Your words demonstrate an unequivocal, genuine support for the principles of freedom of expression and religion - principles that are at the heart of what Muslim students’ associations stand for. Your statement has fortified our spirits and driven us toward a higher level of commitment to our activities with both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities at Brown.

Muslim students at Yale recently organized an Ivy Muslim Conference that successfully engaged students from diverse Muslim backgrounds in candid discourse. The news about the NYPD’s investigation into college MSAs came at an especially inopportune moment, as your students must be exhausted from all the work they put in to arranging the conference. The Brown Muslims Students’ Association would like to reassure Yale and its MSA members that they have our full support in light of this situation, and we applaud the stance taken thus far.

Sincerely,

Brown Muslim Students’ Association

‘Activist intellectual’ discusses social change - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891

‘Activist intellectual’ discusses social change - The Brown Daily Herald - Serving the community daily since 1891