Shariah, Fiqh, and Fatwah

Talibans and Al-Qaida and their supporters talk about implementing Shariah law.  Therefore, I looked up Shariah's definition in Jasser Auda's book, "Maqasid Al-Shariah As Philosophy of Islamic Law, A System's Approach."  Mr. Auda is a contemporary Islamic scholar who has a Ph.D. in System Analysis from University of Waterloo, Masters in Islamic Jurisprudence from Islamic University in Michigan, and Ph.D. in Religion and Islamic Studies from University of Wales, U.K.  He is well versed both in science and religion, a rare commodity these days in the age of secular Muslims and Mullas of Islamic world.  Mr. Auda quotes Ibn al-Qayyim, a noted Islamic scholar of 14th century (d 1347 CE) as follows:

"Shari'ah is based on wisdom and achieving people's welfare in this life and the afterlife.  Shariah is all about justice, mercy, wisdom, and good.  Thus any ruling that replaces justice with injustice, mercy with its opposite, common good with mischief, or wisdom with nonsense, is a ruling that does not belong to the Shariah, even if it is claimed to be so according to some interpretation."

Mr. Auda also defines the terms Shariah, Fiqh, and Fatwah which are commonly misunderstood as follows:

1. Shariah
The revelation that Prophet Mohammad (SAAS) had received and made practicing it the message and mission of his life, i.e. the Quran and Prophet tradition.
2. Fiqh
The huge collection of judicial opinions that were given by various jurists from various schools of thought, in regards to the application of shariah to their various real life situations throughout the past 14 centuries.
3. Fatwa
The application of shariah or fiqh to Muslims' real life today.

Fiqh cannot be considered Islamic law in all instances, because each scholar did judicial reasoning for their own environments and times.  Fatwa cannot be always considered as Islamic law.  If the fatwa is copied verbatim from some classic book in the Islamic law, then it is quite possibly flawed because it is quite probably addressing a different world with different circumstances.  If the fatwa is allowing people to commit an act of injustice, discrimination, harm, or immorality, even if it were to be based on interpretation, then it is also wrong and un-Islamic.

Based on the above discussion by Mr. Auda, I believe that some of the Fatwas issued by so called Imams or Mullas may not be acceptable.  Case in point, the treatment of women and not allowing them to study or justification for suicide bombings by innocent youth convinced by their Imams Fatwas.    

Mosques and Bathrooms

Over the years I have visited mosques in Makkah, Medina, Riyadh, Pakistan, England, Spain, and USA.  Invariably, I found the cleanliness of the bathrooms much to be desired.  Now I make sure that I do not have to use the bathroom in a mosque.  If I am traveling, I may even stop at McDonald or Starbucks to do the wadu or use the toilet facilities before I go to the mosque.

It is so discouraging to see Muslims dressed in their best clothes come to the mosque and then how they treat the bathrooms and wadu areas.  They leave water all over including the toilet seats and wadu area seats.  They litter the place with toilet papers, coffee cups, stones etc.  Some of these things block the toilets which eventually cause huge disruption and inconvenience to the organizers.

I always wonder why the mosque establishments and Imams do not come and address this issue in their speeches and comments.  We always talk that Islam teaches you be clean and their are laws and regulations specified in the Quran about cleanliness,  I do not why we do not practice them when it comes to the bathrooms.  At times, I am tempted to post a rude note in the mosque which says, "Please clean the bathroom area after you finished unless your mother is going to come afterwards to clean it."   In Pakistan, I will modify the note to say, "please clean after yourself unless you have arranged for your christian maid to clean after you."

The worst experience about bathrooms I have encountered is when I fly into Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.  The plane bathrooms are usually in a terrible shape and not accessible.  The dirty water from the bathroom flows out of the bathroom on to the plane seating area.  I learned my lesson the first time I went for Umrah flying from Cairo to Jeddah.  There was no way I could go the bathroom and change clothes and wear Ihram.  I now tell everyone to wear Ihram before you board the plane when traveling to Saudi Arabia.

I believe, we need to have a training for bathroom use every few months in each mosque.  In addition, in Pakistan, every one who is flying out of country first time should be asked to take one day course on things to watch for overseas.  When I lived in Korea some 20 years back, the government will not issue a passport until the applicant has taken such a course.

What They Do NoT Preach in the Mosque

"If you avoid the great sins, which you have been enjoined to shun, We shall efface your (minor) bad deeds, and shall cause you to enter an abode of glory." Chapter 4, Verse 31. Then how come preachers in the mosque talk about things length of the pant should be above the ankles, which step should be placed first when you enter in the mosque, type of haircuts, length of beard, timing for Iftaar and Sehar etc.

These preachers do not tell their so called devout merchants and businessmen that: "O You who have attained the faith| Do not devour one another's possessions wrongfully -not even by way of trade based on mutual agreement." Chapter 4, Verse 29. These merchants and businessmen in Pakistan inflate the prices of commodities required by common man during Ramadan and charge ridiculous profits of 100 to 300 percent. The same merchants in USA sell halal meat products at the double the price of non-zebiiyah products at the super market. I know from experience that it does not cost 100 percent more to procure zebiyah meat. Costco Warehouse profit margin is uniform 12 percent.

Town Hall Meeting with Pakistani Ambassador, Hussain Haqqani

On June 20, 2009, I attended a town hall meeting addressed by Mr. Hussain Haqqani, the Pakistan's Ambassador to USA. The meeting was arranged by Pakistani Diaspora living in Washington DC metro area. Since it was the first time a Pakistani Ambassador in USA was coming out of his cocoon in the last 15 years to meet Pakistani expatriates, I decided to go and listen to his words of wisdom.

Before going to the event, I decided to check Mr. Haqqani's bio on the internet. I found out that before his appointment he was an associate professor at Boston University and has been a TV show host, author, and columnist. However, the item that caught my eye was that he was a minister or ambassador when Mr. Nawaz Sharif of Muslim Leaugue and Ms Benazir Bhutto of People Party was prime minsiters of Pakistan. This is an incredible since both parties have completely different agenda. Obviously, this raises questions about his integrity and in Pakistani terms he can be considered a great Chamcha or Lota.

I was presently surprised by his speech at town hall meeting. He seems like a person with good analaytical and verbal communication skills. His central theme revolved around three points. Pakistan needs to fight terrorism, allow democracy to flourish even though some of the current leaders may be corrupt, and educate the 58 percent of the kids who go to school and the remaining 42 percent who do not to a suitable curriculum whic does not brainwash them about hate and extermism.

His speech was followed by question and answer session. As expected from the Pakistani expatriate audience who belong to the so called educated upper middle class, the questions were about how to tackle Talibans and Al Qaida, corruption and accountability, and leadership of the two main political parties which does not change. Mr. Haqqani was very eloquent in his answers. He stated you can make changes by working within the system. However, I was surprised that there was no discussion about the econmic disparity between the rich and poor. While the avreage sons and daughters of the army generals, corrupt breaucrats, and feudal elites go and study in elite private schools and then sent overseas to USA or UK universities spending $50,000.00 per year, the average Pakistani kid in the village can only to the Madrassas run by Talibans or their supporters. Unless this inequity is addressed, Pakistan will never wipe out the Talibans or Al Qaida. The Madarrassas will keep producing more Talibans. With the current president of Pakistan net worth of one billion dolars without ever having worked in his life, the leader of opposition net worth of $700 million, and average net worth of an army general in excess of 8 million dollars, it is apparent to me that the gross ineqity of wealth is the root cause of Talibanisation of Pakistan and it will unfortunately continue towards a violent revolution. I am afraid that Mr. Haqqani either does not understand it or intentionally dismiss this thought because in response to a question he stated that inflation of 20 percent during the last year is of no consequence.

Marriage Between Muslims and Non-Muslims

Recently I watched Dr. Asrar Ahmed answering audience questions on TV in Britain.  He is considered to be an expert on Islam and Quran, and has a large following among the elite Pakistanis who are religiously observant.  I was amazed by his advice to the audience that in the current environment of the Western countries, it is not advisable even for Muslim men to marry non-Muslims even though it is allowed by the sharia.

Having lived in the West for 40 years now, I reflected on the marriages of some of my friends and relatives who married non-muslims.  I did not have to look too far.  My two brother in laws married two non-muslims who as I observed intially converted to Islam at the time of marriage with no serious commitment.  Both of these women later on became examplary Muslims and raised great Muslim kids (See one of them Kwon Shaikh at a hearing for a Silicon Valley Mosque (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyqjgyzSBj0).  They both ended up as principals of Sunday schools of the largest Islamic centers in California.   One of them even became the principal of a full time Islamic school.  Another of my relative's mom of Christain faith married a fellow Muslim Algerian graduate student.  She now runs a much needed community center for Muslims in California. This is the only center that I know of in USA which has a developed a modified 12 step program for alcoholics.  Alcoholism is a wide spread among Muslims and the traditional mosques in USA seems to think that it does not exist in the Muslim Americans.

The marriage of Muslim women to non-Muslim men who convert for convenience of getting married has also been beneficial to Muslim community at large.  I remember one physcian in Augusta, Georgia who married a fellow Muslim woman physcian.  I remember him coming to the mosque every Sunday early in the morning when no one else was there to cut the grass and maitain the lawns.  He and his wife later donated one million dollars to the top and famous liberal arts college, Swarthmore, to establish a center of Islamic studies.  

I find that in the current climate, it is extremely difficult for young Muslim men and women to get married in USA.  The immigrant parents of both the boys and the girls are looking only for physcians and no one else.  A quick check of Muslim matrimonial websites and adevertisements in Muslim magazines will confirm this.   The mate selection is solely a business proposition.  The concept of dowry from the sub-continent is still practiced in USA.  However, instead of the money and household goods the dowry is the financial prospects of the groom or the bride.  This is specially true of the mothers of the would be grooms and brides.   This concept is alien to the young Muslims who are brought up here and want to get married.   I believe, we should encourage young Muslim women and men to marry with persons who are different faith but who are willing to convert before the marriage and are of good character.

I summary, I beg to differ with Dr. Asrar Ahmed in this instance.  

Graduations

Forty years ago, I participated in the graduation ceremony at Southampton University in United Kingdom.  I do not remember any thing about the the ceremony except that I had to rent a black gown with a blue hood.  I wore my black off the shelf interview suit with brown hush puppy shoes over the objections of my sister and brother in law who were my two guests.   I was constantly reminded of this bad fashion statement whenever some one saw my only photograph of the event shaking hand with the chancellor of the university in my brown hush puppies.  I do not remember who the key note speaker was and what was the subject of his speech.

I found that the things have not changed much in forty years while attending graduation ceremony of one of my relatives who was part of graduating class of the of the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia today.   I pity one of the students in the parade who wore light blue trousers.  He will be reminded for ever about it future like me.  

The only difference this time was that I paid attention was to the speech by 2006 Noble Peace Prize reciepient, Dr Younus of Bengladesh.  He described the history of Garmin bank and how it changed the lives of millions in Bengladesh and several other countries.  He advised the freshly minted MBAs from the world's top most institution that they should try do things contrary to traditions.  He stated that while the large banks have gone bankrupt by lending to rich people with lot of collateral and written deeds drafted by lawyers, the Garmin Bank remains solvent becuase it lends to poor women who are not considered credit worthy by big banks.  The remarakable thing about Garmin bank is that it started with a total capital of $27, and by now has lent more than a billion dollars around the world without paperwork and lawyers.

Dr. Younus told the graduates that making money in itself should not be an end but a means to bring a social change in the society.  I sat there and wondered how many of the 890 freshly minted MBAs will follow his advice since they spent $200K in fees and expenses to buy the MBA degree from Wharton.  They have to repay the loans for years and will start chasing money at all costs.  The sad part is that 45 percent of these MBAs do not have a job yet due to the financial crises created mostly by MBAs who graduated over the years.  I consider myself lucky since I bought a graduate degree in engineering from Southampton for a meagre 400 dollars which is worth today about $3000 accounting for inflation over 40 years.  The return on this investment of $400 over forty years is better than any of the top performing stocks or mutual funds.

  

Quran's Guidance About Interpersonal Relations

Translation of a portion of Chapter 46 of the Quran

049.011

O you who believe! let not (one) people laugh at (another) people perchance they may be better than they, nor let women (laugh) at (other) women, perchance they may be better than they; and do not find fault with your own people nor call one another by nicknames; evil is a bad name after faith, and whoever does not turn, these it is that are the unjust.

049.012 

O you who believe! avoid most of suspicion, for surely suspicion in some cases is a sin, and do not spy nor let some of you backbite others. Does one of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? But you abhor it; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, surely Allah is Oft-returning (to mercy), Merciful.

049.013 
O you men! surely We have created you of a male and a female, and made you tribes and families that you may know each other; surely the most honorable of you with Allah is the one among you most careful (of his duty); surely Allah is Knowing, Aware.

We all have committed sins by backbiting.  I hope and pray that I can change my habits.