Among the people, there are those who uphold baseless hadith, and thus divert others from the path of God without knowledge, and take it in vain. These have incurred a shameful retribution. [Quran, 31:6]
INTRODUCTION
I recall having a very interesting conversation with my friend last summer. In my search for a spouse partner, I tell him how hard it is to find a girl who is in between liberal and conservative. He agrees with me that it is in fact very difficult to find a moderate grounded woman who chooses the middle path. He has been there. Either she is a beer-drinkin' liberal who eats non-halal meat, or either she is an anti-pub gelatin-hatin' conservative. She is either holding an alcoholic beverage, or she is either holding a tasbeeh. She either dresses immodestly by openly exposing her bosom in public with short sleeves and a mini-skirt, or she either wraps up her head in a hijab not exposing a single strand of forbidden hair.
One might ask, why the two extremes? Why are Muslims either full-fledged liberals or full-fledged conservatives, and why is there no middle path. Generally speaking, Muslims are mostly on either end of the spectrum. Could a reason for this very well be the teaching of our imams and misleading scholars in many cases? I know Muslim girls who are forced to neglect praying all their life simply because they are told they cannot pray while wearing nail polish. It may sound funny, but it's true, and it is a real issue dealt with in our communities. It is an issue that may start with a man-made fatwa, but it doesn't end there, as it triggers many negative changes in people. Although it is not always so black-and-white, why is there an increasing number of anti-religious liberals and ultra-orthodox conservatives popping up in our communities?
THE STORY OF FATIMA AND AISHA
As an example, here is a story of Fatima and Aisha who are sitting together in the mosque, listening to a khutba (sermon) given by the legislating imam. The ladies are told that menstruating women are impure and therefore cannot pray, so they are forced to avoid spiritual activities. They are brainwashed into believing that being a good Muslim means praying 5 times a day and suffocating their hair with a hijab. The imam leaves each girl with a subconscious choice: it's either she prays 5 times a day, or she doesn't pray at all. If she prays, she is forced to cover up all of her hair, which means she must wear the hijab. If she doesn't wear hijab or pray, this Catholic-seeming God will send her to the Hell-fire. So what most likely can end up happening: Fatima turns away from religion and leaves the mosque, plunging her hands in her ears at any mention of Islam or God; while Aisha stays to become a conservative fanatic, blindly following everything that her imam preaches. As you can see, both of the Muslima girls had pure intentions and started with an earnest desire to become a better person.
Instead of turning towards God, Fatima turns away in the opposite direction. Instead of turning to the Qur'an which she is forbidden to touch since she does not have wudu, she turns away from Al-Islam. Even when she does read or hear the Qur'an, it is only in mere Arabic, and she can only understand English. When she does decide to pray, she finds her thoughts wandering off, as the meaningless words of Arabic echo through the room. Since Fatima doesn't fit in with the righteous Muslim girls who also judge her for not wearing a hijab, she finds her own place of belonging, with other not-so-good friends. Leading towards the path of sin and self-destruction, she may even resort to alcohol or unchaste ways, all because of this notion of what was preached to her as religion. Her soul may begin to rot inside, as it longs to soar free. Remember, all of this started with the imam's speech, turning her away from religion.
Luckily, Aisha turns towards God. But she offers lip-service salah with her meaningless words, quickly pecking her head down like a chicken in her ritual sajdah, and after prayer she enjoys gossiping (back-biting) about others. Aisha observes all of the man-made rituals and outwardly orthodox teachings set in stone, but she doesn't realize that her soul is rotten inside. While she is busy judging Fatima, Aisha is filled with religious ego (pride) and unable to see her own corruption, resulting in her being rather deaf, dumb, and blind. She thinks of herself higher than others, and in fact more righteous than the non-hijabi girls. She fits in nicely with her righteous Muslim girlfriends, yet she is prone to the same unchaste sins as Fatima.
WHO IS TRULY RIGHTEOUS?
Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the Christians, and the converts; anyone who believes in God, and believes in the Last Day, and leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve. [Qur'an, 2:62]
Is Aisha not the righteous girl, who chose to obey her imam and went in the opposite direction as Fatima? Fatima may give up drinking, and after realizing she is not an object that is solely used for the pleasure of men, she may even start to dress more modestly. Fatima can in fact repent and turn back to God, since the angels rejoice more for a sinner who repents than a righteous one who thinks he/she is sinless. On the one hand you may have an earnest Muslima Fatima, who respects and has love for all peoples, reading her Qur'an in English, yet not praying 5 times a day. And on the other hand you may have a conservative Muslima Aisha who treats people with ill, reciting her Qur'an in Arabic, and praying 5 times a day. Fatima feeds the poor and needy, holding the hands of the orphans, while Aisha simply gives her meaningless 2.5% zakah each year, slamming her door in the face of a homeless man.
Why is Aisha considered more righteous or religious than Fatima simply because she observes the hijab and prays 5 times a day? Does this make her more godly or virtuous than Fatima? Is this not the very twisted notion observed in our communities when imams preach outer values over the inner values? Does this illustrate how twisted our notion of religious teaching and true righteousness has become? It is the same law-abiding hypocrisy and backwardness that Jesus (Isa) faced when he confronted the Rabbis of his time. The Rabbis were allowed to divorce, according to the Law of Moses, yet some of them used this as a means of sampling different women. They scorned people for committing adultery, yet they married and re-married women as if it was nothing. They scoffed and ridiculed at the eating of un-halal (unlawful) meat that goes into one's mouth, yet they were careless and paid no attention to such harsh words that came out of their mouths. Does this not remind you of someone?
MISINTERPRETATION OF AL-QUR'AN
Had Fatima (or Aisha) been given a chance to read the Qur'an in her own language, she will be surprised to find that her Lord is Most-Merciful, and Oft-Forgiving (39:53). She will be amazed at how God will grant "those who believe and do good deeds" gardens (greenery) beneath which rivers flow (4:57). She is told that good deeds include acts of humanity, done for the sake of Allah (2:215). She is told that the al-Muttaqun, "those who guard" from evil, will be successful in the Hereafter (26:90). She will also be surprised to find that Allah only warns "those who deny" (kafir) the good ways, spread mischief on the earth, transgress, oppress people and do evil works--it is those individuals who God warns of the Hell-fire (16:88).
She will also be surprised to find that nowhere does this Qur'an state that menstruating women can't pray (2:222), including nail-polish-wearing women (5:6). She will also learn that the believing women are advised to hide their bosoms with a cover (khimar), and not their individual strands of meaningless hair (24:31). She will find that nowhere does God say He will punish us for not praying 5 times a day, but rather He tells us that remembrance (dhikr) of God is far greater (29:45). Furthermore, she will discover that we are not ordered to pray 5 times a day, but rather to "glorify Him" at night and at the "two ends of the day" (24:36, 76:25). Would this not be a most shocking discovery for the knowledge-seeking spiritually-deprived Muslima, Fatima? It could very well change her life, and bring her back unto the Straight Path, but our fake scholars and backwards imams are too busy preaching the opposite of what the Glorious Qur'an teaches. They are too busy with their meaningless outwardly man-made routines and lip-service teachings, while yelling, "Biddah!" They have become like the "lost sheep of Israel" (the Jews), misinterpreting the Divine Law (31:6), and forgetting the Spirit of Islam.
My cousin who works in the field once asked me if he must re-make his wudu for prayer, after passing gas. He also asked if he could touch the Qur'an without having wudu. After finding that the Qur'an endorses neither of these man-made beliefs, I told him he was free to glorify (not salah) his Maker even if he did not have wudu (3:191). I told him that nowhere does Allah state that the passing of gas invalidates one's wudu (5:6), and that he was free to perform salah (prayer) with his wudu. I also advised him that he can read the Scripture and verses of God freely without having to be in a state of wudu. I advised him that drinking alcohol is not good, but that doesn't mean God will indefinitely throw him in Hell. I told him even if he is committing a sin (to his own soul) or doing something which God advises us to avoid, to always turn to God and never stop praying. I told him all of this because that is what the Qur'an teaches, and that is what the Prophet (pbuh) upheld. But it is truly sad that people are forced to avoid prayer and scripture all their life, simply due to the man-made fatwas of the preaching imams.
CONCLUSION
Many people think that they either have to be a sinless saint or a sinful sap, but fail to realize that humans do make mistakes, like Adam. But learning from his repentance with prayer and constant reminders of the Holy One can help one to break free. Learning how to pray in our mother tongue (or the translation), and reciting the sacred Names of Allah need to be stressed more often than reciting meaningless Arabic words. Did our Prophet (pbuh) not pray in his mother tongue, supplicating unto his Lord in his own language? True modesty, and not simply covering one's hair, needs to be preached to our young Muslim girls.
We need to start teaching the inner values of Islam, and how cleansing your inner thoughts in wudu is more important than missing a chunk of your nail, due to nail polish. Why not teach our youth the translation of the salah (prayer) and how to focus and cleanse inner thoughts, rather than teaching them how to be overly-obsessed with outwardly things such as, where to place your hands or playing footsies with the person next to you.
If our Prophet (pbuh) was merely observed praying a certain way (or many ways!), yet never dictated to us that our arms should be outward/inward during sajdah, then why should we dictate these things? Imams fail to recognize that what may have been the Prophet's culture or preference, was not a religious mandate. While the Prophet (pbuh) stressed us to "Pray as though you see Allah", the imams stress our Muslims to separate their feet exactly 14.2 inches, forgetting that God wants us to pray unto Him in Spirit.
We need to show our Muslims the verses of Mercy and Compassion, and not just the verses of Wrath and Punishment intended for the wicked ones, who are rather made to "taste their own deeds" as a form of karma. We need to reach out to our youth and religious followers, helping them to leap towards spiritual freedom in the middle path, lest they become an extremity of Fatima, the hardcore liberal, or Aisha, the fanatic conservative.
All that was asked of them was to worship God, devoting the religion absolutely to Him alone, observe the contact prayers (Salat), and give the obligatory charity (Zakat). Such is the perfect religion. [Qur'an 98:5]
**And the word "Imamin" does not just mean an Imam or leader, but can also mean a record or road, illustrated here, found to be used in various places in the Quran.
