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The Keep-it-Simple Rule and Islam
Are God’s expectations from humans easy to fulfil? If they are, should we not let others do what they are doing and not get involved in unnecessarily disturbing them by declaring what they are doing as un-Islamic? Also, should we not let non-Muslims remain what they are? Isn’t it an unnatural expectation from them to convert to a completely new religion? If we are expecting non-Muslims to convert, why shouldn’t Muslims be expected to conform to the truth within their own faith? Is changing from one religious view to another not difficult? If it is, how then is Islam easy to follow? Why can’t we follow the Keep-It-Simple rule in Islam?
God Almighty wants us to make things easy for us. This is what He has to say: “Allah desires ease for you; He does not desire hardship for you.” (2:185) The Prophet (sws) strongly urged his followers to “make things easy and don’t make them difficult. Give them good news and don’t scare them away.”1 However, easiness in religion has to be done in the way the Almighty wants us to do it. It should not be mistaken for casualness. Here are the outlines of the easy way, as I understand, the Almighty wants us to follow:
i) One has always got to remain open to truth. It is only in that way that one acquires true faith. Laziness in matters of truth is an offence, though hopefully a minor one, but unjustifiable stubbornness in the matter of truth is an inexcusable crime. By the latter what I mean is that you refuse to take interest in the truth simply because you are already attached to some other ideology and you don’t want a new one to disturb you. In the process of comparing the contestants for truth, if I am confused, the Almighty would accept it as a valid excuse, inshā Allah. Ignoring the truth, however, can never be a part of the otherwise desirable keep-It-simple formula.
ii) There is no Muslim vs non-Muslim divide in the eyes of God. No one is at a disadvantage in this trial of life. Muslims are expected to be open to truth quite as much as the non-Muslims are. Those non-Muslims who know that the message of Islam is from God and are still spurning it out of arrogance are criminal kāfir (the condemned disbelievers) in the eyes of their Creator. Likewise is the case of Muslims who are guilty of a similar crime in any aspect of the truth that comes from God. So long as a person is confused about whether a certain message is from God or not, he is not guilty. The ultimate decision on all such matters will be taken, thankfully, by the All-Knowing God Himself.
iii) In matters of practice, the rule is that you are expected to follow the truth as much as is possible. God has promised that His expectations are simple. However, we need to understand them in order to follow them. That strategy would ensure that things are kept simple.
iv) In matters of new findings on religion, science, or any other discipline, we again need to remain open. Of course, not everyone is interested in everything, but if someone tells me that what I am doing right now is not acceptable to my God, then I cannot take it lightly. Even in non-religious matters, once we jump into a discussion, we have to behave like truth-seeking believers and not like truth-spurning kāfirs.
v) God Almighty has promised that He is not going to make any soul accountable for anything more than what his potential is. He has also promised that He will forgive people who repent after realizing that what they were doing was wrong and that He will only punish those who were insisting on a wrong, criminal attitude knowingly. What better keep-it-simple approach could there be than this?
vi) One of the things I am expected to do as a good believer is to get involved in the process of correcting those who are closely linked with me. Likewise, I should allow others to influence me positively whenever I am going wrong. Such an attitude of mutual correction is a demonstration of the believers’ concern for the welfare of each other. In no way does it demonstrate an unnecessary interference in the affairs of others. In fact, not doing so would be indicative of a lack of interest in the spiritual and moral welfare of the other person.
Author: Dr Khalid Zaheer
Topic URL: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=294
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* General Discussion Forum: Understanding each Other
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Author
Javed Ahmad
Ghamidi
Insurance is a sort of contract for
mutual help in which people pay a fixed amount in installments. The purpose is
that if any of them is inflicted with losses relating to their persons or their
wealth they are compensated from this pooled money in a prescribed manner. The
money given is never returned and all the people or institutes which provide
this service are granted this right by people who enter into this contract of
mutual help with them that in return for this service they can spend the
accumulated money in whatever way they want.
This is an extraordinary scheme
which has been chalked out to compensate losses and to help people in difficult
circumstances. Its benefits are now acknowledged everywhere. After the
termination of the institutions of tribes, fraternities and ‘āqilah, this is the
best substitute for them which contemporary economic systems have provided to
this world. There seem to be no objection against it; however, Islamic scholars
generally regard it to be prohibited. Following are the objections they have
raised against Insurance:
1. The amounts which Insurance
Companies pay to their clients are generally more than the installments their
clients have paid them; this is interest and interest is forbidden in Islam.
Moreover, Insurance Companies further invest this money in interest-based
schemes. Some part of the interest earned by them is also used in paying off
their clients who had bought their insurance policies.
2. Insurance Policy holders
repeatedly receive large sums of money against death, accidents or losses. This
is gambling which is prohibited in the Islamic sharī‘ah.
3. The entity for which an Insurance
Policy is bought does not typically exist; the locus of the contract is also not
ascertained and the Policy holders do not even know the number of installments
and the time till which they will have to pay them. In the terminology of the
jurists these are called gharar (deception), jahālah (ignorance) and ghaban
(embezzlement) respectively in the presence of which no contract is allowable.
The Prophet (sws) has forbidden such deals.
A little deliberation will show that
all these three objections are baseless.
The first of these is not tenable
because the installments paid by an Insurance Policy holder are not loans. They
are given by him for the help and support of others on the condition that he too
could be the recipient. Thus they are never returned. If Insurance institutions
invest them in interest-bearing transactions, it is because they have been given
the right by the policy holders to use them. No responsibility of the nature of
this use rests on the Policy holders. If a person is to receive Insurance money
for the purpose he had bought an Insurance Policy, then as per the contract, he
receives it from the accumulated amount. This is the real nature of Insurance,
and it must be viewed on its basis.
The second of these objections is
not tenable because gambling is a game and a matter of purely chancing one’s
luck. People who buy Insurance Policies do so to become part of a system which
caters for helping one another in case of losses. The nature of the two is
entirely different, and the basis of religious directives is not marginal
similarity between two things; it is and should be based on the actual nature of
the two.
The third of these objections is not
tenable because the directives of the Prophet (sws) related to gharar
(deception), jahālah (ignorance) and ghaban (embezzlement) are not of the nature
of an absolute prohibition: they are meant to resolve disputes and to close the
door to ways which may result in these evils in cases of financial transactions.
Insurance, however, is not a financial transaction. It is a scheme which relates
to mutual help. It is executed and managed by individuals and institutions who
are given the right to use the accumulated money in return for the service they
provide. It is not appropriate at all to judge it by ignoring the nature of this
scheme.
(Translated from Maqāmāt by Shehzad
Saleem)
Read URL: http://www.monthly-renaissance.com/issue/content.aspx?id=1246
Read on:
http://www.studying-islam.org/forum/topic.aspx?topicid=3438&lang=&forumid=42
General
Discussion Forum
saba2
In Pakistan we
live in constant fear, violence is on the rise intolerance and isolation of
factions is leading to more and more to misunderstanding. Is this going to be
our legacy to our children? Will they be always looking over their shoulder?
Why cant we talk to each other accept each others' point of view, can all
people come together express their point of view without fear on this forum.
My first question
Pakistan was created for Muslims to practice Islam and live without fear.
Whose version of Islam? and are we living without fear?
aboosait
quote:
..........Whose version of Islam?.........
Of course the version of the
One who named us Muslims.
وَجَاهِدُوا فِي اللَّهِ
حَقَّ جِهَادِهِ هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ
حَرَجٍ مِّلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ هُوَ سَمَّاكُمُ الْمُسْلِمينَ مِن
قَبْلُ
وَفِي هَذَا لِيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ شَهِيدًا عَلَيْكُمْ وَتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاء
عَلَى
النَّاسِ فَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ وَاعْتَصِمُوا بِاللَّهِ
هُوَ
مَوْلَاكُمْ فَنِعْمَ الْمَوْلَى وَنِعْمَ النَّصِيرُ
And strive in His
cause as ye ought to strive, (with sincerity and under discipline).
"Why cant we talk to each
other accept each others' point of view, can all people come together express
their point of view without fear on this forum."
Thank you for the
warm welcome Hina.
Question:
According to
the Qur'ān, husbands are the guardians of their wives. Why is that so? Why
should they head a family?
Men and women are the two building
blocks of the smallest unit of the society: the family. The Almighty has made
them such that they complement one another. In other words, they are not
duplicates of one another; they are different from each other. By complement is
meant that they complete certain voids present in each other. This also is
precisely why they need one another to form a family. The Qur’ān says that for a
healthy society, both sexes should acknowledge each other's inborn qualities and
characteristics and not become jealous: URL:
http://www.studying-islam.org/querytext.aspx?id=967 Successful Participants |