“O people, by Allâh I have visited kings. I went to Caesar, Chosroes and the Negus, but by Allâh I never saw a king whose companions venerated him as much as the companions of Muhammad venerated Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allâh be upon him). By Allâh, whenever he spat it never fell on the ground, it fell into into the hand of one his companions, then they wiped their faces and skins with it. If he instructed them to do something, they would hasten to do as he commanded. When he did wudû’, they would almost fight over his water. When he spoke they would lower their voices in his presence; and they did not stare at him out of respect for him.” ( al-Bukhârî, 3/178, no. 2731, 2732; al-Fath, 5/388).
Muhammad ibn `Umar said: “(Imam) Malik’s circle was a circle of dignity and courtesy. He was a man of majestic countenance and nobility. There was no part for self-display, vain talk, or loud speech in his circle. His reader would read for all, and no-one looked into his own book, nor asked questions, out of awe before Malik and out of respect for him.”
Is it possible to take the typical second, third, fourth generation Muslim and shoehorn them into the circles described above? What would be their experience?
More than likely it would be filled with boredom, confusion, and criticism all stemming from how very different this circle is than any other gathering they have participated in earlier in the day.
Sitting cross legged is already difficult enough for us, much less being surrounded by air which is infused with odd things such as ‘awe’, ‘nobility’, ‘dignity’, ‘respect’. We don’t know how to handle or envision such words in literature, and we certainly are unprepared to be faced with the practical reality of them.
Which movie prepares us for this environment? Which show? Which video game?
None.
In this void, awkwardness fills us and most peoples chests are pressed with an instinctive reaction to remove ourselves from the heat of uncomfortably.
Surrounded by people that are genuinely devoted to another individual on the basis of their superior knowledge and religious practice is disturbing in a culture which raises us towards complete self-reliance and the total equality of all men in all aspects.
Add a dash of some form of group expression of faith that we are unfamiliar with, and the field is ripe for the ego to rebel.
There are just so many ‘outs’.
The convenient (yet arbitrary) distinction between religious life and the life dedicated to this world, especially when it is intertwined with the buzzword of ‘innovation’ gives us the most convenient of explanations to categorize our reaction.
*I don’t like it, because it feels weird.*
Self knowledge tempers this.
When one realizes the weakness of ones own faith, prayer, worship, it makes it more difficult to come to grandiose conclusions condemning people who dedicate themselves to the same. Humility dictates to us that we aren’t good judges, much less good prosecutors of others.
It is only when one confronts their own bias, in which one finds the reflection of sworn self-esteem and pavlovian pride, that one get past this haze which limits spiritual awakening.
The arbitrary categorization of ‘innovation’ when applied to worldly life vs religion, contains within it the supposition that life is separate from religion. A conclusion which has far hitting impacts.
In this model, watching TV feels quite alright, at least if you try to avoid some ‘bad scenes’. And watching 25 pictures per second on a wall mounted LCD screen is for some reason, so much harder to complain about than having a picture of a holy man who reminds us of prophecy, faith, improvement.
Under this mentality we think: Rock groups haraam? Let us have Islamic pop stars. Let’s have Muslim comedians. Muslim fiction writers. Muslim movie studios. Muslim news channels. All the while, we don’t exclude ourselves to the ‘Muslim’ version of these institutions of mimicry. So they do not help in creating a Islamic culture in the West, what they do is create a bridge of acceptance.
To watch a ‘Muslim pop star’, you still have to enter a concert hall. And to see a ‘Muslim film’ you still have to sit on a couch. There is still a stage for the ‘Muslim comedian’.
These issues reflect the implicit approval by the Muslim community of dramatic shifts away from the cultures which underwent a millenia of Islamization. Instead, we’ve accepted the inclination towards that which has challenged those cultures at every turn.
Islam was so much more than a filter of existing cultures, it brought something new. And these accomplishments are written in sand swept stone of Mughal architecture to the grand prayer halls of the Ottomans, to the poetry of Mevlana Rumi (ks) and the ironic statements on humanity from Nasruddin Hoja (ks).
This system has put the final wall up between knowledge and practice. It’s done this by actually turning Islam away from traditional values and a culture in which people of dramatic faith and unique characteristics were raised and nurtured.
Modern institutions catering to Muslims have been continuing the century old transition from Muslim culture and values to Western ones, all under the name of preaching Islam. And its not always so obtuse and obvious as the recent Azhari ban on niqaab. Pay-as-you-go ‘Islamic classes’ have cloaked an entirely foreign idea of Western style instruction in the mantle of religiosity.
And when examining this issue of cultural adoption, what we have chosen is not hamburgers over curry. We have settled for abandoning circles of dignity.
the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
Assalamu Alaikum sidi,
While I agree in general with the ideas you’ve drawn (ie. watering down of Islam and destructive compromise), there is one thing that needs to be considered which I don’t think you’re taking into account.
The wise man is the one who understands his times. We are not living in the time of the great forefathers and our own blessed Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). While our religion has given us the tools we need to cleanse ourselves and make us real human beings, the challenges we face are different from the ones that existed 14 centuries ago. Evil is much more prevalent than it was back then and it’s harder than ever to distinguish it from good. New technologies, devices and instruments are within our reach that force us not to water down, but to reinterpret many of the Sharia rulings for own times. New scientific knowledge has come our way which requires us to re examine many of the older fatwas (eg. smoking) etc.
While the danger of watering down Islam and making it a parody of itself is a real and present danger (as the Niqab ban I feel, shows), we musn’t kid ourselves and imagine that if we did everything *exactly* the way it was done 14 centuries ago, things would be perfect. The rather silly and dangerous precedents set by the Islamised versions of TV shows and music bands are dangerous and you’re right in speaking out against them but (and pardon me if I’m wrong here) I read between your lines a certain bitterness about everything we have to see/face in our daily lives. It’s our job to live upto the high standards set for us by our blessed master (Allah bless him and give him peace) while at the same time fulfilling our worldly responsibilities which as you’ve noted have branched and moved away from the core of our faith.
Wassalam
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Salamu’alaykum,
I don’t think its possible to do *everything* as it was done 14 centuries ago. But there is something to be said for trying to do *a lot* that way.
-Yursil
I totally concur.
But really that is besides my point I think… ‘doing things’ is only as relevant as the consequences of the personalities and situations it results in.. I don’t think that there is an inherent problem with, say, driving a car, but there is something -different- about a man today who can also ride a horse. In a similar way, many of modern activities we participate in change us in ways most people don’t even realize…
Even if we just focused on the idealization of the non-serene, the information loaded… how does that change us? the question I was mulling over was the circles of dignity in the past… how have we been changed or altered so that such an environment has become completely foreign to us…
Much of the stuff that’s around us these days (especially in secular societies) makes deen hard or alien rather than natural.
To a non Muslim, washing oneself and praying 5 times a day would be totally weird as well I imagine.
A good amount of detachment is a step forward. However, there is a risk of falling into a kind of cynicism and bitterness which I thought I read in your post.
Salam alaykum,
Noufal, he’s referring to the ‘weirdness’ *Muslims* of our generation and beyond would feel, when sitting in circles of zikr:
“Is it possible to take the typical second, third, fourth generation Muslim and shoehorn them into the circles described above? What would be their experience?
More than likely it would be filled with boredom, confusion, and criticism all stemming from how very different this circle is than any other gathering they have participated in earlier in the day.”
This is a short evaluation of the current state of affairs of communities that I encounter day in and day out. I’m very fortunate that I was able to choose an alternative path. In fact, I’m very happy that I was able to do so. I usually focus on the fruits of that.
But this is my perspective on the alternative path… which as far as I can tell, is not a path of success. If it makes me appear bitter to point it out, so be it.. it may be a consequence of my desire to share goodness.
Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim
Asalaamu alaikum.
Forgive me, but i don’t think it is bitter or cynical to point out how far removed we are from the traditions we come from. Yes, we have challenges and are bombarded by secularism and temptation everywhere. Even religious people look askance at our attempts to deepen our spirituality (take as an example how quickly “religious” and sincere people question the legitimacy for tasawuff. i was recently told, for example, by someone who considers himself to be striving hard to be a “good” Muslim, that it was “wrong” for me to take on the “extra burden” of tasawuff when it can be hard enough just to maintain 5 daily prayers). And it is just this fact that is exactly why we need to look back to the original way Islam was lived and retain as much of that in our own lives as we can, inshaAllah. It doesn’t mean that we don’t still live in this world… we still go to work each day, in our high-tech offices, and we still take the bus or subway or car to get there. But is that the center of our day? Is it the purpose and goal of our day? If we have a choice between the radio or Native Deen or a sohbet on our ipod, which do we choose most often, and why? Surely the ipod is a difference in our generation… and yet it can be put to noble use, acceptable use, or haraam use. So maybe it’s not the cynical suggestion to chuck the ipod, but the reminder to consider how we use it, and to use it in moderation… turn it off and read the Qur’an, turn it off and make dhikr.
Now, i myself know that i expend far too much time and effort in not-the-best ways. So i’m not trying to romanticize the “old” days, nor do i think Yursil is doing so. What i understand of his suggestion is to recapture the benefits of those days, to reconnect to our traditions. Not to disengage entirely from modern life, but that we should remember and recognize our tradition and make time and effort to continue it. Today so many of us never sit in a circle of dignity, so many of us cannot even imagine subsuing our ego for one hour to do so. That isn’t bitterness to admit, it is just the truth, a painful truth that we need to hear.
Salamu ‘Alaykum Sidi,
Wonderful piece. I once read how the Ottomans had a systematic structure for assimilating foreign cultures with “Islam”. What saddens me is that after having read that, I see the same principles used, except that now such “images” and “cultural symbols” are being forced down the throats of the Ummah.
It is a (post) – modernized “islamization” of western assimilation, and sadly I fear that the next generations of Muslims that come forth from the bastions of kufr; lead by America and the west will be so spiritually castrated, that the very name of their Lord will no longer cause their bodies to shiver, and Salah only becomes a distant “ritual” that their grandparents did.
Jazakum Allahu Khayran,
Abu Layth
Assalamu Alaikum Yursil,
My apolgies if I sounded like I was accusing you of being a cynic. That was not my intention at all. I just felt an undercurrent which I don’t usually feel when I read your posts. Perhaps it was just me but I wanted to point it out to you.
@Aaminah – Your question about whether the job is the center of our lives totally resonates with me. It’s been something that’s annoying me for a VERY long time and something which has affected the way I look at life. I’ve taken some drastic steps to fix that and to delegate ‘employment’ into something that I need to do to keep living rather than the central focus of my life.
Please remember me in your Duas.
Wassalam.
Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim
Asalaamu alaikum Noufal,
i know what you mean, and it can be so difficult. We are raised that we are what we do professionally, we are what our degrees (or lack thereof) label us. And it is true that we have a difficult time to work for paying our obligations but not out of wanting more.
With further reflection and private discussion, i realized that i think part of what Yursil is also getting at is our need to be entertained. So that we are incapable of listening to a sohbet or khutbah, incapable of watching or participating in a dhikr circle, incapable of concentrating on Qur’an or dhikr or even salat at home on our own. Because they bore us. Because we are waiting for jokes that will make us laugh, or the fantasy that will take us away from our day-to-day stresses and worries. We don’t want to listen to a shaykh or khatib tell us what we really need to hear, we want them to tell us thru jokes and stories and keep us laughing rather than truly reflecting. And we say that our youth are pulling away but that the way to keep them in Islam is to make Islam fun for them. This is what the Christian churches do now, where they have youth groups and the kids listen to “Christian” rock (i’m not knocking music per se here) and dance and socialize and maybe maybe maybe, they have a contest where they can win an ipod for memorizing a lot of Bible verses. This weekend i witnessed a church where at the morning service, all the young children were dressed up for Halloween, as movie and cartoon characters, as rock stars, etc., because the church was hosting a party after the service and a costume contest. This is what i see a lot of mosques moving towards. In order to keep the kids, we don’t teach them how to behave in the masjid with respect, we let them run amok because “they’re just kids” and shouldn’t associate the masjid with anything but fun. And we make a party out of Ramadan with Qur’an recitation contests where Muslim children too can win an ipod or $100, but we don’t teach Qur’an or the character that goes with it, and we don’t have contests or recitations any other time of the year. i disagree with these ways. Children should love the masjid not because it’s a fun time where they can be wild and their parents won’t correct them (i do truly wonder if they are allowed to behave so badly at home, and somehow i doubt it), but because they connect with Islam there. They should be working on Qur’an memorization all year long and we should get together as a community for the kids to recite without expecting financial gain from it, and not just once a year. But why expect kids to “get it” when we as adults rarely do? We applaud the Muslim blogs that make us laugh more than those that make us think and soberly reconsider our lives. We want comedians and fiction writers and to cheer on Muslim athletes and movie stars, just because they are Muslim, not necessarily because they are actually Islamic or giving us pause to consider things from an Islamic perspective. We live for entertainment and financial gain, and we encourage our children thru entertainment and financial gain. Rather than doing because it’s right and teaching our children that they too need to do things just because it’s right. This is why we have children who we pay for every little task we ask them to do around the house or who we bribe with Chuckie Cheese or a movie, rather than in my day when we had assigned tasks that we did because it was part of communal living and it was a rare treat to get McDonalds. To ask the children to help us to clean the mosque when they don’t even make their own beds? Their first question would be “how much are you paying me?” and adults don’t say it, but that’s what most of us are thinking too! In the same way, we cannot sit for the khutbah or properly participate in a dhikr circle because we get antsy, we grow bored, we start to fall asleep, we are incapable of staying physically still and attentive. And it shows on our faces and in our bodies. And it shows when we start making excuses to not attend.
Much of what you’ve described seems, atleast to me, to be a predominantly western phenomenon. I’m in India and while the idiot box and associated devices are destroying the fibre of the society, children practice deen for religious reasons. It’s not as important in their lives as listening to the newest song I’ll admit but atleast they do it with some sincerity of intention. Also, avenues exist for children and parents who are serious about their faith and there are children who show up every week for the Dhikr gatherings and the like.
Things are not as good as they were in my fathers time but the ‘selling out’ that some western mosques/religious gatherings seem to do is not there.
Wassalam
Assalamu Alaikum Bhai,
This is a wonderful piece. Losing the circle of dignity is one of the consequences of the popular (and mostly flawed) attempts to bridge gaps, gain acceptance and avoid demonization.
But as Noufal Ibrahim said in the first comment, “The wise man is the one who understands his times”. The changes happening in this world necessitates one to adapt and move forward. This in itself is a non-issue for people in Allah’s path, for they are safe with right decisions under Allah’s guidance. They move forward with the time and preserve their light with them. But the problem comes from the ‘popular’ adaptations because only very few of the ‘wise’ people are actually wise. Everyone starts with what they feel right according to their knowledge. And we get to judge the merit of their decisions only by the results. It may have seemed very good and even necessary at the beginning, but it would do all the damage by the time we realize.
Day by day, I’m only losing hope about the popular Islam. The solutions it puts forward for its problems are only adding to its troubles. The problems they face are consequences of their own weakness. A characteristic aspect of this era, as I see it, is the trend of living for the public. Regardless of the religion and ethnicity, people seems to strive for the acceptance of the public above anything else. This is evident from the emphasize on the celebrities and fashion. A woman today is more concerned about what the public thinks about her than what her husband feels.
Muslims too, out of their weakness in faith, have placed the public as an ‘ilah’ and started worshiping it. You can be in a position to add value to the society and enrich it only if stop acting like a slave of it.
I’m happy that I got a Shaikh for my guidance. This has expanded my heart and pacified my mind. Much of the ‘problems’ ‘Muslims’ face and struggle hard to solve don’t even touch me. But for the course that the mass takes, I have no hope. Rasoolullah (SAW) told, “A time will come when muslims will be big in numbers. But they will be worse than the wastes flowing through the drains”.