The name of muslims and Islam has been and will continue to be forcibly dragged back into the public spotlight. With this renewed spotlight comes interest, both positive and negative. Those against the community often frame them as a foreign, non-American, ‘Other’, and point to misconstrued aspects of the tradition in order to justify it. These attacks are harmful to the Muslim community, but oftentimes, the ire within a community regarding other muslim groups overrides any ire or action against outside harm. As one proverb goes, “Two men in a burning house must not stop to argue,” yet that is exactly what is happening. In an age of both rising islamophobia and religious disaffiliation, the muslim community needs to practice a revitalization of Islamic thought, and shift our thought to be encompassing, just, and move forward as a community.
We must be wary, however, not to simply dig up thoughts of the past. Resurrecting the issues of the past in the form of ossified schools creates scholars and preachers who are unable to effectively deal with modern issues, and go on to preach irrelevant or not of use to the rest of the Ummah whose issues are not being addressed. Opinions from the early centuries simply don’t solve our issues. Reading from a textbook will not help navigate modern gender norms; it won’t help with political issues in the modern day, or secularism and atheism. This maxim is taught, “Fatwas change with the changing of times, places, customs, and circumstances”, but we simply aren’t applying it.
Frankly, there has been an ossification of the tradition that counters the fluidity really of early and classical scholarship. While debates over different understandings of Islam have always existed, their nature has changed dramatically. While muslims differed on the status of the Prophet’s companions and the hadith corpus, the created nature of the Qur’an, the role of reason, Islamic Kalam, and mysticism, among other things, the fact is these past issues have caused two problems in our modern day. One, it has led to an ossification of the tradition that counters the fluidity of early and classical scholarship, and many modern trends have created themselves by lumping together answers to the questions above. Muslim intellectual, theological, and legal thought became largely stagnated, and with this stagnation, a new issue has come: intolerance. Levels of intolerance and strictness in certain modern trends supersede even those of the early Hanbali – which is extreme – along with the overwhelming sense of assurance that they are holding in their hands an untouched perfect diamond that is their understanding of Islam. That their understanding of Islam and their groups of scholars have a clear-cut, passed-down understanding of Islam that traces perfectly back to the Prophet and the companions. Frankly, however, each group can make the same claim, and has, since the beginning of their time. While that is expected and natural, it’s having unprecedented effects on our current-day relations, and these effects are taking an unfortunate turn.
Within Muslim communities, these sectarian issues have lost the value that they once had. The issues of our day and age are not in regard to classical debates. As scholars argue over age-old debates and dogmas, such as ‘What does ar rahman alal arsh istawa mean’ and is it metaphorical or literal, those questions are simply not relevant. While scholars argue over archaic issues of fiqh, or over the attributes, their children are debating whether Allah is real and whether the prophet is a true role model for all of mankind. While we try to preserve the tradition, we end up losing relevance to regular muslims.
These issues aren’t just confined to personal issues, however, but rather bleed into external issues. When intra-muslim debates are weaponized to pit muslims at home and abroad against each other, and Muslims are more willing to engage in interfaith dialogue rather than intrafaith, there is clearly a problem. Muslims are dealing with rising Islamophobia in the U.S., but are unwilling to deal with their fellow muslims; it is frankly unhealthy. Issues of whether God is in the heavens directly above us or this language is metaphorical should not lead to hatred among Sunni groups. Between the Sunni and the Shia, or Salafis and Sufis, our emotional debates and differences should not lead to us making bold accusations of kufr and, for the former, hatred against people in countries that lean towards one trend. As the Quran itself says, “Do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness.” (Quran 5:8) And yet, we are missing that justness.
If the Muslim community wants to thrive in the modern world, changes in our religious discourse, dialogue, and intrafaith conversation are a must. The attitudes and harshness of a time past are not binding upon us, but rather what is binding on us is understanding and compassion. Understanding that causes us to realize what harm we’ve caused each other and to take steps forward. Compassion that causes us to treat each other in the true Islamic brotherly nature. And perhaps, just perhaps, this will be a recipe for true unity.
