The best speech is the book of Allah that is the Quran and the best way and in fact the only way to live your life is to follow the religion of Islam by the way of Muhammad SAW. And of all the things in religion, the worst of them are those matters that people newly introduced into the religion, matters that have not been taught to us by the Prophet Muhammad SAW. But people have introduced those things into the religion. These are the worst things in religion. And these new things that have been brought into the religion practices, attitudes and beliefs were not practiced and believed in by the Prophet Muhammad SAW and his companions. It is called in Arabic, Bidaah or religious innovations. And all of these newly invented matters in the religion are misguidance, and are going away from the straight path. And everything that goes away from the straight path, it is only leading to the direction of Hellfire.
Hence, this topic is so important to the Muslims today because most Muslims today, what they are following today is not so much Islam but as their culture. It exists everywhere. Many Muslims are Muslims because of culture but not because of conviction. There are Muslims who are Muslims because of tradition not because of learning or studying, reading, understanding and comprehend it.
Islam is not a family alum that you pass down from generation to generation. Islam is a guidance that has been revealed by Allah, the All-Knowing and Most-Wise, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth. He knows us better than we even know ourselves. And in His Mercy, He has send down guidance, in the form of the Quran. And He gave us a Messenger, a human being like us. A man who ate food, breathe air, who was born and who died and who had desires and forgot things and who made mistakes. He is a human being, but a very special human being. He is the most honest and the most truthful and the most trustworthy and the most sincere and the one with the most high and noble character. This man is Muhammad SAW.
And all of the Messengers are human beings. As the Quran quite clearly tells us, “If there were angels walking and living on the Earth, then Allah would have sent to them an Angel “ (16:95), but it is humans. So Allah gives us a Messenger who is a human being. Why? There is an important wisdom behind this. The reason is because psychologically, (and Allah understands the mind, because He is the Creator of it,) the human being would say, "Oh you are an Angel, and you are telling me not to do this and not to do that, that is very easy for you to say because you are an Angel. You don't have desires like me; you don't need to eat like me.” Hence, we have so many excuses not to follow what that Angel is teaching us. This is because that he will never represent a living example. But because Allah has chosen and made the Prophets and the Messengers human beings, that means we human beings can follow their example. We don't have an excuse. We have a physical example in front of us of a human being who is behaving in a certain way, which means that we know psychologically that we can also follow that example. Maybe not to the same degree, but certainly we can follow that examples. This is the wisdom of Allah sending the Messenger as human beings. Muhammad SAW was such human being. He is the practical example for us of how we should worship Allah. His example is and his life in reality is Islam. It is the Sunnah, the way, the teaching, the approval of Muhammad SAW that constitutes the basis of our worship and our lives as Muslims.
This is very important to understand because to be a Muslim, means that we are submitting ourselves. We have surrendered ourselves to Allah SWT not to our desires, not to our culture, not to our parents or tribes, not to the ideas prevalent to the society. Being Muslim means, I willingly choose to obey Allah and submit myself to God by following the examples of Prophet Muhammad SAW. This is the essence of Islam. This means Islam is what we can call Taufiqqiyah. It is based upon guidance from Allah. We cannot invent for ourselves and imagine for ourselves how to worship Allah. It is not permissible. Worshipping Allah is based upon the guidance of the Quran and the example of Rasulullah SAW.
And this is the case of every other Prophets and every other guidance that Allah gave. That is the case with the guidance that Allah gave to Isa ibn Maryam to whom Allah sent the Injeel. But the religion of Isa was Islam, the same religion as the religion of Muhammad SAW. And the guidance that Allah gave to Musa AS was in the form of Taurat. But the religion that Musa AS followed was also Islam that is willing in submission to the will of God. So the guidance of all the Prophets was based upon this. Allah also sent guidance to Ibrahim AS. Allah mentioned Prophet Ibrahim AS a lot in the Quran. He was mentioned as a great example for us to follow. The Quran tells us, "Who abandons the way of Ibrahim except a person who makes a fool of himself" (2:130). Ibrahim Hanifan, the one who surrendered himself to God and who follows the natural religion, submission to God. In fact, the Prophet Muhammad SAW told us that every child is born upon the Fitrah, Hanifan, naturally incline to worship Allah alone, it is only their environment that takes them away from that (Sahih Muslim). It is the influences from the outside that take them away from that nature upon which they were born.
So, what is culture? From my research, there's no easy definition of culture. Culture is the things that people do, or believe, the customs that people follow; it is in fact the social and physical environment in which people live. Culture can be good or bad. As Muslim, the criterion or the means that we should judge our behaviour therefore is not based upon culture. It not based upon what the people around us do. It is not based upon what our parents do. That is not what our religion is based upon. The religion of Islam and being a Muslim is based upon what we have already said, the guidance of Allah in the Quran and the examples of Rasulullah SAW. This is the basis of being Muslim and Islam.
Some people will say, "Are you telling me that my ancestors are misguided?" In response to this, we should ask them back, "Are you telling me that your ancestors are infallible, that they can make no mistakes that they could possibly fail to misunderstand Islam?" If you know that you have made a mistake, will you follow their mistakes? If you know that they have done something wrong, will you keep following them in wrong? If that is your choice, how can you claim to be a Muslim? If you know of what your ancestors did and what your cultures teach are against the Quran and the teachings of the Prophets Muhammad SAW, then what does it mean by "Muslim"? Do you submit to Allah, or do you submit to your Culture? Make your choice, because no Prophet came to his people except they said to the Prophets exactly this, "We are following our ancestors".
We should read and understand the Quran. The first word that Allah SWT reveals to Prophet Muhammad SAW was to read. Read, in the name of your Lord who created you from a clot. Read and your Lord is the Most Generous. He taught mankind by the use of the pen that which they did not know.
Reading the Quran in Arabic is an act of virtue that you will be rewarded even you don't understand it. It is the speech of Allah in Arabic. However, in the Quran, Allah tells us in Surah al- Baqarah (1-2). "Alif Lam Mim. This is the book, without doubt, it is guidance for the pious people." But people have a habit where some people would wrap the Quran in cloth and put them in a high place or shelves. And they say that they are honoring the Quran. They didn't understand Islam from the Quran, but they only understand Islam from their parents that have taught them. So they look at Islam as something that is part of their culture. Muslims should learn the Quran by reading in the language that they understand.
Culture is usually a type of systemized way that human being developed in order to cope with their environment. For example, food which is usually associates with our culture. Originally, the food is based upon what we could get from the land around us. Hence, the flavour, the taste and style of the food is based upon what is available around us. In another words, our culture is influenced by our geography, like the trees, plants, amounts of water, etc . Or by the political and social geography. For example, many people's culture is something that is a product of one group of people imposing their authority on another group of people. For example, a system of control, like feudalism in Europe. Or maybe like a class system in India. So our culture develop how do we behave or what is our attitude. These are things that stay with people. These ideas are very hard to remove. Some of them are survival mechanism, where people adapt with to in order to survive in their environment. But other things from culture are not to do with that. Some of them are really misguided and wrong things. They are very detrimental and harmful to the human affairs. Let's see how it relates to us Muslims. Being Muslims, we should look at ourselves.
Let's look at the Arabs before Islam. They were among the most barbaric and backward and primitive people. In fact in one Hadith, the Prophet Muhammad SAW mentioned that Allah looked upon the people of the world, the Arab and the Non-Arab and He hated them all, except a few from the Ahlul Kitab. Because the world was such in state of corruption and disobedience to God and they are so far away from the guidance that Allah has revealed. Arabs, when they are bad, they are really bad. And when they are good they are really good. And in the time before Prophet SAW came, they had sunk about as low the human being could go. Think about when you take a 5 year old daughter when that's the time this child is the most sweetest, cutest and show you the most affection, but you dug a hole in the sand of the desert and you pushed her into the hole you have dug and you buried her alive. And you go back to your people and you boast about it. You can't get lower as a human being much lower than that. You can't get more perverted than that. These were the people to whom the Prophet SAW said. This is the evil of their religion and this was their culture along with the worship of idols and drinking and fighting. This was the culture of the Arabs before the time of Islam. They called it Jahilliyah or ignorance. And these people claimed that they were following the religion of Ibrahim.
The Arabs in the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW used to pray to Allah. They did not disbelieve in Allah in the sense that they did not deny the existence of Allah. They believed that Allah was the Creator. But that did not save them. They were people who were far from Allah's guidance and they used to worship things besides Allah. They used to believe that the idols were intercessors between them and Allah. And some of the idols were pious people who were buried near to Kaabah and they used to pray to them thinking that they would be intercessors between them and Allah. And because of this, this was their disbelieved. And they attributed it, that is their culture and custom that they invented themselves, they attributed it to Allah. When the Prophet Muhammad SAW came to them, they said to him," Are you criticizing our ancestors? Are you insulting our forefathers? This is the religion of our ancestors and we are going to keep on doing what they were doing". "This is our culture, this is our way".
We should look at ourselves today and look at what we called Islam. We should ponder whether our Islam is really based upon the Quran and the Sunnah.
Many people around the world today think that Muslims encourage forced marriages. That is forcing a woman to marry someone she doesn’t want to. This is not even in Islam. In Islam, it is not valid. It is a condition of the validity of the marriage that the two people who are getting married agree. And yet, Muslims are famous for forced marriages.
In some of the Muslims country, you will find that one of the things that Muslims do is they visit the grave of the dead pious people. First of all, they build huge domes over their graves eventhough the Prophet Muhammad SAW, he said to Ali bin Abi Talib and he ordered him with two things, if you see any grave higher than a handspan, level it. (Sahih Muslim).This is an authentic Sunnah of Rasulullah SAW. But you still find Muslims visiting the graves and making tawaf around them. And they call upon the dead thinking that they will become the intercessors between them and Allah. What is the difference between that and what the pagan Arabs used to do to some of the idols in Kaabah which were dead people? Is this not the same Shirk that the people were doing in the time of the Prophet Muhammad SAW? But people will never think to give it up! Why? Because they think it is Islam. But find the resources where the Prophet SAW ever taught any of his companions used to do these things? None. If it wasn't a religion for them, how it is religion for us??
Another example is where people gather together on the 40th day after a person dies. And they read a Quran together in a Jamaah. No one said this is part of the Deen. But this is something we have invented. Did any of the Companions of Rasulullah SAW do this? No. If they didn't do this, how can you make this part of the religion? From where did you get this information? Did Jibrail come to you and tell you to do this?
It is dangerous to think that these kinds of examples are Islamic and is part of the guidance. This is because when you think it is religion, you will not do Taubah. Why would you repent if you think you are getting close to Allah? You think that this is part of Islam but when you search from the Quran and you look at the actual Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad SAW, you will not find that they did this. And if you look at the Sahaba, you will not find that they ever did these things.
If you don't study or read the Quran, even there are people who are alim or they've gone through many courses, but all they know is what their Madzhab says, maybe they never read the Hadith like Bukhari or Muslims which is the basis upon which our religion is the Sunnah.
So we have to ask ourselves, where are we going to go as Muslims and where we are going to be as Muslims in this Dunya and in the Akhirat. We are going to be before Allah and Allah is going to ask us and before that the Angels will question us in the grave. We are going to be questioned about what we did. Some people are ignorant and Allah knows who are the people who have excuse. Some people are ignorant. They don't even know how to know. They wouldn't even know where to start looking in order to know who is the person of knowledge and who is not. Because they don't have enough knowledge who the Scholar is. Maybe this person they have an excuse. Allah knows they are doing their best to follow the right way. But how about the person who has a degree and educated, yet they cannot understand the Quran. They think the Sunnah is too complicated. On contrary, this religion is not complicated. The basics to understand the essential aspects of the religion is not complicated. You can read the Quran in the language that you understand.
In Islam, it is considered everything from the world is good. The general rule is everything from the worldly things is Halal except what Allah and His Messengers have forbid. In the things of the life in the world, our culture is fine. Islam did not come to take away the good things and the Arabs they had some good qualities. For example, they were very hospitable and friendly. So the Prophet didn’t say to give this up. But he told them to keep it and encourage it in them. The British have a sense of punctuality and being on time. This is a good thing and it's a part of our culture. But Islam didn't ask to give this up. So in general, this thing is not a problem. But, you have a filter, and the filter for us is the Quran and the Sunnah. This is the guidance from Allah SWT. In order to do that, you have to know what is in the Quran. Read it, understand and contemplate its meaning and then apply that in our lives. If you don't know, then ask somebody who knows. In general, the religion is not confusing and difficult to understand. And of course we need to refer to true Scholars who apply to the Quran and the authentic teachings of Rasulullah SAW.
We shouldn't become Muslim because of culture or to become part of the culture. But we become Muslim to worship Allah and to follow the Sunnah of Prophet Muhammad SAW. Hence we should study this religion and then you will know and you will not have culture confusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment