The Impact of Desert Culture on the Interpretation of Islam

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