Introduction:
Despite the fact that Islam is an Abrahamic
religion like Judaism and Christianity, but we still see unique and different characteristics
of Islam in comparison to the two previous religions, Muslims insist that this
uniqueness of Islam come from the specialty of being the last of all religions denying any
connection between traditions and its influence over the interpretation of
Islam as well denying any connection between Islam, Christianity and Judaism,
maybe because of the fear to lose their identity, or their desire to reserve
Islam as they always knew, but do they really reserve Islam or they are giving
legitimacy to their traditions by claiming it to Islam.
Through my paper I will try to touch the sensitive
relation between Tradition and Islam and discover if some of the most
controversial issues had a stronger link with tradition or with religion
through presenting different opinions and logic in a bold attempt to break the silence
of the Muslim world.
Why Islam is so special?
Most Muslims always try to add a special holiness to
Islam ignoring the fact stated by Quran itself that Islam is a completion for Christianity
and Judaism and was not sent to cancel them, despite everything promoted by
scholars Quran considered Abrahamic religions a whole unit complete and correct
each other but what we find in reality is totally different of what was
promoted by Islam, we find Muslims denying other Abrahamic religion and
describe them as distorted religions, we still find Muslim scholars trying to shift
Islam from the main goal of
acknowledging God to add some new legislations to protect the holiness of Islam
by weak claims.
For logical Muslims Islam was religion of all
people and Quran was the holy book of all Muslims and here the name “Muslims”
was not monopoly for the people who followed Prophet Mohammed but was a name
for all people who believed in God without asking a proof and who worship God
selflessly and asking for return, even Quran called Abraham the first Muslim, but
after the end of Islamic Caliph by the Death of Ali ben AbiTalib the Islamic
culture and religion start to take a new turn where traditions took the major
rule of manufacturing legislations and changing the whole concept of Islam from
the relation between a person and God to a set of rules and laws to control
society in certain manner to gain power through
manipulation of religion as the fastest why to reach people’s hearts.
Again I will ask why Islam is special. I will take
my chances in answering this question by saying that Islam is special because
it was able to control people’s mentality and life for over 14 century and was
so successful in keeping them under control with great satisfaction from their
part. That would be the only special thing about Islam which will have a great
impact on what so called “Islamic legislations” which actually did implement and
kept traditions by name it Islam.
The Controversy of Hijab
The debate of Hijab was going for so long but
still the scholars couldn’t reach an agreement about this personal issue
because of several reason, the most important reason is that the Quranic text
was not conclusive about Hijab and its properties which leave the ground almost
empty for the jurisprudential debates. The second reason is that head cover was
entirely traditional costume in the Middle East (for both men and women) which
will make the task of tracing the origin of the appearance of what so called “Islamic
Hijab” very hard. The third reason that Hijab is a personal choice for women
but the scholars tries to connect it to the chastity and goodness of society though
if we judged the issue fairly we will find that it is wrong to connect the goodness
and chastity of a society with the clothes or personal choices of people
because usually religions connect morals to chastity and really about.
The Guardianship of Women
Any expert in the history of the Middle East will
agree that women were oppressed for a long time in the Arab countries and the
whole world before the existence of Islam and even after that, though many
researchers and scholars try to claim that Islam is the first religion which
gave the base for women rights but still this statement will contradict with
the reality of Muslims women, I may agree on the statement says Islam slightly
effected the reality of Muslim women but I can’t agree that it gave a base for
the women rights, Quran was fair in addressing women but didn’t put into force
anything that can protect women from the influence of men, taking in
consideration the fact and reality of women’s life in the Middle East. We can
see that Islam treated women equally on the text of Quran but gave the upper
hand to men in reality.
Through revising the Quranic texts regarding to
women issues we find that Islam did present huge improvement for women of that
time when it dealt with divorce and inheritance but in the other hand neglected
her as a human when it considered her testimony a half of the man testimony, as
well when allowed the man to punish his wife if he felt recalcitrance from her,
another important point we find the Quranic text always promise men of a
beautiful wives in paradise, bliss and
happiness but never
mentioned what will happen to the good Muslim women after death which leave
Muslim women living in great despair because of such neglect. One question may
women ask after all of this, why women are accountable for everything like men
but was not treated as men in this life or after the judgment day? And it will
be fair question to ask!
Death Penalty for Apostasy and adultery!
Death Penalty for Apostasy and adultery still the weirdest
of all Islamic legislations, because it wasn’t mentioned by Quran at all, in
fact Quranic text was very precise when it comes to the death penalty and was
so clear that this penalty can be implemented only under one violation, which
is killing an innocent soul with premeditated but the scholars debate that Prophet
Mohammed sayings are accredited source of legislation, but when we search for
the origin of this practice we will find it was practiced long time ago in the
Middle East by Jews, were the old testimony was so clear about these two death penalty and conclusive, in the
contrary we find Quran dealt with Adultery and Apostasy with great tolerance,
were the punishment for adulterers (men and women) were abandonment until they repent, and considered Apostasy is
the right of every human being but in the judgment day God will judge every
person for what really in his heart and soul, after all of that we find some
scholars who disagree with this and try to go around the clear Quranic text to serve
political goals and gain influence.
Conclusion
In sum, if we look to Islam as practice we will
find traditions have the major influence of everything that practiced as Islam
today, we will find that Islam is just a thin shell over a pile of old, rusty traditions
for people who seek power and influence, where every tradition was practiced in
the dessert before 14 century is still in practice today not taking in consideration
the change that occur to the world during these 14 century, not taking in consideration
the message Islam was trying to convey to the people by spreading morals and
ethics.
Islam was a good religion, called for equality,
justice and good but after the end of the Islamic Caliph by Muawiya takeover and
the establishment of the Umayyad rule, Islam as a religion and culture
completely changed not only by the quality of the Umayyad state but as well by
the new practice of Islam that Umayyad rulers chose to introduce for Muslims,
and which Muslims accepted though it was uncommon for them. Before the Umayyad
rule there was no scholars influence over religion matters but Muawiya after
the takeover tried to control peoples’ mind through religion so he planned very
well the accident of raising the Quran in Battle of Hattin to seek the
assistance of his scholars to defend his argument, and since then scholars
gained there influence as instrument in the hands of the ruler to gain power
through using religion to achieve their goals, which finally effect the whole system
and made Islam an empty religion in practice, and the only way to go back to
what Islam really about is through education and denying the influence of
scholars because Islam was the religion for all people and Quran will be the holy
book of the common with a clear language that it cannot be mistaken.
References:
Islam versus Islam – Al-Sadek Al-Nahyuom
Dilemma of Distorted Culture – Al-Sadek Al-Nahyuom
Freedom of thought and belief in Islam - Jamal
al-Banna
Muslim women between the Quran’s liberalization and
scholars’ restrictions - Jamal al-Banna
