Honestly, I am confused. I’ve been challenging and trying to make sense of my own beliefs as a Muslim. The precedent that I set for myself was that it would be my inability to understand anything taught by Islam, Islam however is perfect and cannot be wrong. This gave me time to think properly as to why we pray, why we fast and why we do anything or follow or accept anything that Islam tells us to. I think I found my own answers for a few of those things, but I am still in the dark for a lot more.
A recent incident caught my attention and made me question my sense of understanding of what is right and wrong. On air, a very renowned personality, Maulana Tariq Jamil, loved and adored by many came on live national television to make Dua for the recent pandemic that has put a halt to the world quite literally. In it, the Maulana talks about various acts that the Muslim population has been faltering on, which could have very well angered the Almighty above which triggered His anger and sent an “Azaab” in the form of a worldwide pandemic.
In between, he talks about the immodesty that the Muslim population has displayed,
specifically speaking about women, and goes on to asks who is to be blamed and ultimately blames himself. I personally think it was a jab at us men that we are to be blamed for forcing women into being immodest which I don’t think is wrong. It would have been another case if the entire blame was placed over the indecent and “behaya” acts of women (and of men, men are behaya too) but most of the woke Facebook population of Pakistan was in an uproar as to how did Maulana Tariq Jamil put the entire blame on women for this pandemic while he himself is a racist who talks about voluptuous bodies of hoors in the afterlife.
At first I thought it was a clear misunderstanding of what the Maulana said because neither did he blame the women, he just pointed out the immodesty and wanted to find an entity to blame it on, however the opposition personally attacked the Maulana on his racist and sexist views which does not allow him to blame anyone in the first place. Whilst I defended the Maulana, slowly I got conflicted as to what is right and wrong.
You see, modesty is an integral part of Islam. There are many Ahadith and Quranic verses that put significance on the modesty of a Muslim. It is even said to be a branch of faith. There is ample evidence in Islamic history that defiance of God has led to the destruction of plenty of civilizations e.g. the one quoted by Maulana Tariq Jamil in his live telethon about the incident of Prophet Lut (A.S) and how his people were destroyed because of indulging in indecency. Many consider it a personal thing and boil it down to their relationship with God, which perhaps is not incorrect but within the Islamic context it made sense as to what the Maulana said. I particularly do not entirely accept this pandemic as a wrath of God upon defiant Muslims, but I can understand where this notion comes from.
I can also understand how the woke perspective comes in because the Maulana did say a few things I wouldn’t agree with, as some of it was clearly racist and objectified women. Is God really that petty to send a pandemic because a few women choose to wear revealing clothes, or dance in movies, or go out with men? Only God would know the answer to that and it’s too bad we can’t contact Him, but I guess we can take a hint from the literature He provided.
Addressing the accusations on the respected Maulana, yes, he has been racist in his Bayaan(s). Yes, by current standards how he describes hoor’s is total objectification of women and I would love to debate on that too but that is a debate for another time.
The thing is, morality in context to Islam is probably not debatable in context with the Universal morality that the world has arrived and decided on. Expression of opinion and views is not wrong but attacking and canceling a man who has spent a better part of his life spreading the message of peace and tolerance is probably wrong because at the end of the day we are all human and we are prone to mistakes and if we truly aimed for peace we would have demanded an answer from him for his mistakes rather than embarrassing him on social media. Cancel culture is quite low-key these days but it really felt like it bore its fangs yesterday. It’s also important to realize that an ignorant opinion is very harmful because it sets us on a terrible path.
My mind was in chaos last night, the world already is in chaos, yet it chooses more chaos. Maybe I am naïve in thinking like this, but I believe if everyone learned of empathy in its truest state, we wouldn’t have gone down this path. It lies on the educated to take the harder route and do the thinking and be patient in the face of ignorance and dogma.
By Ahsan Jamil,
Karachi, Pakistan.