Delving further into the theories and precepts of modern ‘American Islam’ and its fundamental list of principles and beliefs, we begin to see a list of beliefs concentrating and culminating on ‘ilm’.
3 ) Since Islam is a filter of good and bad, one needs to obtain ‘ilm’ (religious knowledge) in order to learn how to behave. Studying ‘ilm’ is paramount in Islam, and most ‘ilm’ is in Arabic.
4 ) What is taught by people in classes at seminars and ‘events’ is a translation and summarization of what is considered ‘ilm’.
5 ) Your status is defined by how much of this seminar-event-based ‘ilm’ you know.
6 ) Your source of English-’ilm’ is infinitely better than other peoples source of English-’ilm’.
7 ) If you learn Arabic yourself you will one day know exactly without a doubt that #6 is true.
8 ) ‘Ilm’ can be expensive.
As earlier stated, Suburban Capitalist Islam is inherently an American cultural product. What most Muslims in the West experience as the Islamic message is actually American culture filtered through certain Islamic injunctions. Under this paradigm, Muslims are able to argue day in and day out over details as to which particular filters/knowledge/’ilm’ they should apply in their lives, while ignoring the overarching logical breakdown and inconsistency between their belief system and their actual lifestyle, filled with TV, video games and shopping.
Since it is a fundamental aspect of the ‘modern Muslim ideal’ that life remains ‘Islamic’ as long as one abstains from certain aspects of Western society (drinking, gambling, clubbing), there is a psychological gap that needs to be filled. What are these cultural concepts replaced with? What are the youth to do with themselves while they are struggling in being ardent abstainers from these aspects of Western society? Surely, Islam must provide some alternative?
Largely this gap has been filled with the pursuit of ‘knowledge’. The message has been that through knowledge you are empowered to controlling your own Islamic future. While knowledge has been important to Muslims since the time of the Holy Prophet (S), it is only now that we see studying being associated so directly with piety and spiritual progress. ‘Knowledge’ has been set up as this idealized form of certainty and conviction. The more knowledge you get/purchase/sit in, the more everything about Islam makes sense, the more easier it becomes to justify the abstaining from the few ‘bad’ things surrounding us and also rationalizing our largely Western lifestyle as being halaal. And doesn’t everyone want self-justification and doesn’t everyone desire for it all to make sense?
If one notices, every one of the points that are held by Suburban Capitalist Muslims regarding knowledge are relating to the self. Self-esteem, self-certainty, self-motivation. On the other hand, historically, knowledge such as this was thrust onto people by their parents, curriculum, or just osmosis from the culture which surrounded them. There used to be very little ‘self’ to think about when it came to learning *facts* about the religion. This allowed the ego to be removed from the equation when it came to applying such facts.
The consequence? People were as proud of their ‘tajweed’ as today’s college graduates are of their basic pronunciation of English. In other words, it was hardly given a second thought, it was just done.
In fact, the entire realm of knowledge that institutes sell today was largely that which was taught to children. From Tajweed, to the Arabic language, the sunnahs of wudu, only a few really sincere people were studying these subjects well into adulthood in times of Islamic Empire, and if they did so, they were studying intricate details and they did it under guidance and permission of high teachers. But now the masses are doing so, through their own decisions, with a variety of levels of sincerity and ego.
American Muslims, proud in their knowledge, seem to actually be stamping ‘infantile’ on our foreheads.
Most of these ilm-sessions are set up as the Islamic equivalent to very secular self-help seminars. This cultural stand-in has allowed for competing institutes and community programs to emerge, each giving their own message of specific information-based knowledge. And it should be carefully noted that what is being peddled is information-based knowledge versus knowledge of the self or other forms of tacit knowledge which was how much of Islam was implemented in Muslim lifestyles.
It is also interesting to note that although they technically compete on the ‘message’ they deliver (with some specific differences on where they place their feet in ritual prayer or on what type of functions they allow in their Masjids), the lifestyle the people reach under varying programs is quite similar.
A primary consequence of this Western approach towards Islam is the productization of ‘Ilm’, religious knowledge. What does Western society bring if not the concept of marketing? Catchy slogans, professional videos ads, hype-machines and superstar personalities have been built up to bring ‘Islamic knowledge’ into our lives. No one could deny, if given the opportunity , ‘American Muslim Institutes’ would be clamoring for some sort of witty ad selling their wares during Superbowl commercials.
Frankly, if given the opportunity, they would want their own team and hijab-laden cheerleaders.
In this way ‘modern ilm’ has begun to have more in common with Doritos than the sacred, sober and ecstatic people that claimed it a hundred years ago. Since we are customers of ‘ilm’, it needs to be made appealing and worthwhile to us. We are the consumer so we dictate what we want to hear. And therefore we are largely changing the messages to suit what meets our needs. Controlling student egos is hard to do when they are paying the bills and the goal is trying to fill up the hall as much as possible.
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the truth on 
m.a.kidwai,CME/IND.RLY.(retd.) on 
Having read several posts of your blog over the past few years, I’ve come to the conclusion that you are irreducibly enveloped in irony.
Brilliant piece. Unfortunately, most people will not be able to make sense of it as they are immersed.
Mashallah. Very good post.
May Allah SWT increase you in knowledge and hikma.
@Mustafa- Ehh.. thanks for reading?
@hammad Ameen. May Allah SWT increase you in all ways as well, Thank you!
Bismillah
Asalaamu alaikum.
Are you at some point going to point out how the consumerist mentality around ‘ilm has led to a classist situation whereby this “beneficial knowledge” that we are told ALL Muslims must know is actually withheld from those who cannot afford it? And then some Muslims (those who are the loudest champions of programs/seminars/etc.) proudly say that those who raise finances as a barrier to attending classes etc. “don’t have good priorities”? You are, of course, correct that what constitutes ‘ilm to the American mind is really the most basic of knowledge that children in Islamic societies learn (and yes, i know, we aren’t in an Islamic society where we learned these things as children so must find a way to learn it now as adults), so what that means is that it is knowledge that should be readily available to anyone and everyone. And yet the reality is that the knowledge comes with not only price tags (that are often rather ridiculous, i might add) but a whole host of expectations that make it clear that certain groups are not really welcome.
For example, ask any Muslim with a disability of any kind how frequently they are rebuffed or ignored when asking whether a venue (or website) will be able to meet their accessibility issues… clearly disabled Muslims need not apply. Or how about the convert with zero Arabic knowledge who is lost in discussions where Muslims with any Arabic knowledge pride themselves in tossing around the few or many Arabic terms they know and cannot be bothered to explain those terms so that the others participating can keep up with the conversation?
i would also raise the point of how so much of the lessons appeal, as you said, to how we can fit Islam into an American context and culture, but with no recognition whatsoever of the varied cultures we actually have in “America” or the “Western” world, and how to relate our Islamic practice within our own cultural norms. By which i mean, i’ve never attended a class or seminar or any gathering that helped me to understand how to relate Islam and my Native culture. i figured that out on my own, alhamdulAllah… but not without having to listen to a lot of ignorant non-Native Muslims who consistently say either that all Natives are pagan and there is nothing good in our cultures, or that all that is good in our cultures comes from early communication with Muslims. i have seen this with other cultures as well, though some (Latino) are now the flavor of the month and effort is made to pretend some conciliation towards cultural norms. Really, what i see in the realm of ‘ilm consumerism is a very middle class wannabe-white aspiration that is also heavily marketed as “how to be a Muslim but still be a good – and accepted – American”. So for those of us that are not particularly interested in being accepted as “good Americans” and who have other “strikes against us” in that regard beyond being Muslim, and/or are frankly just plain poor, the intentions behind the product of ‘ilm are pretty irrelevent.
So, the thing is, American culture controls what ‘ilm-teachings are offered, and how they are offered, as you say, and yet for many of us, it’s completely irrelevent and inaccessible anyway. So not only is it a romanticized American Islam that is being “created”, rather than a truly Islamic personality that happens to be American, but it is a strict ideal of what it means to be American that leaves out so many… while continuing to have little to do with what it really means to be Islamic anyway.
And, in my opinion, it is the very commercialization of ‘ilm, i.e. the americanization of knowledge, that is the root of the problem. It is common for people to talk about the cost of providing for our teachers, renting venues, etc. when they try to justify the costs of events and classes. But it is the sunnah that teachers would be taken care of to begin with and not have to command high rates for their teachings. It used to be that teachers lived simply and the community as a whole saw to their needs, but here in the U.S., at least, not only do our communities fail to look after the needs of our teachers because we are caught up in “getting ahead” ourselves, but our teachers expect to also “get ahead”! Whereas cost could be saved by allowing teachers to stay in homes of community members when visiting, for example, instead we find that some teachers demand to be set up in the higher priced hotels. What this tells us is that being a teacher has become a profession, rather than a mission. This is, again, due to a desire to fit our lifestyles to American/Western norms of academia and achievement that are, perhaps, not haram in themselves but that are being applied to a situation where they set up a completely different set of expectations and norms from the truly Islamic life. So if a teacher has bought into the notions of normal American class achievement, it is no wonder that he will then tailor his teachings towards compromise with those norms rather than Islamic norms.
Any teacher who is sincere about teaching for the sake of Allah, teaching because he or she has beneficial knowledge to share, is left out because they are not viewed as “professional”. AlhamdulAllah, it is safe to assume that Allah will bring sincere students to the sincere teacher, and the teacher will have avoided a lot of fitnah. Any Muslim who sincerely desires to learn is left out of seminars, classes and events, but inshaAllah they too are protected from fitnah and egoism while left to their “simple” understanding of the true roots of Islamic practice, which is devotion to Allah. So perhaps it isn’t even worth my complaining about all that is offensive, hurtful and wrong about this “American Islam” and consumer-driven deen… maybe i should just be grateful to not be a part of it. But for those who are part of it and still feeling empty, or those who have been made to feel like losers because they can’t be a part of it, there is an alternative… and i assume that will be discussed in a future post, dear brother.
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Alaykumsalam
I think you said it better than me Aaminah
AA,
As an organizer and at the same time antagonize of the plethora of “Institutes” that are ever emerging on the Western Islamic landscape, I agree with much of the criticism in the article and comments, but would point out that there is a serious disconnect to the reality on the ground. I am appalled at the pricing and frankly the bourgeoisie vacations that pass off as seminars and moreover the false sense of knowledge it impugns on a persons heart. For the most part young people have been the lucrative source for pop culture in America going back to Raccoon hats and Disney’s Davy Crocket marketing, and the same is true over the past 20 years or for Muslim-Americans.
While there is money to made, on the flip side many of the young student of knowledge just returning from an often romanticized experience are left penniless with no communal support. Imams enjoy little job support and the internet is an accessible way to reach the masses. If you go to a mosque in America odds are you have seen your share of Imams passing through. Institutions then become a source livelihood for individuals seeking security and who have in most cases have not been trained in any viable career path.
We should recognize the efforts of our forefathers in establishing mosques and schools built to instruct the next generation on the basics of faith and practice, but in the modern world we live in we have to realize that the great majority of people do not, or will not invest the time and study to learn the basics or the fine points of their deen. Most Muslims in fact operate on a Sunday school thinking that is ill equipped to challenge and answer the “educated” persons in the secular humanistic system that challenges all belief. The populist appeal of speakers and institutes is a mechanism to get community to a reading level, but should not be confused with real study.
Moreover the learning of details of fiqh or speculative theology has never proven themselves alone as paths to spiritual bliss. But true gnosis in most cases requires a prerequisite knowledge put into practice is a spirit of divine love. I would further argue that a transformative change in peoples throughout Islamic civilization was never brought about by legalist but rather by the Awliya. Any further advancement of Islam in a meaningful necessitates the cultivation of those who live for Allah. I help run a national institute that while appearances may give the notion of profit, we have none. Our staff is volunteer and our mission is singular in that we hope to imprint love of the Prophet, sallahu alayhi was Salam, and Allah, jalajallahu. We are not creating scholars but lovers by combating notions of faith that leave a person thirsty. I know there are groups out that that make thousands of dollars each session, while not contributing to the local communities they function in, and in many cases cause fitna between the youth and the local leadership. These groups often contribute and profit off the alienation Muslim youth may feel. Alimentation that leads to hate, that has lead many down a dangerous path. Its interesting to note that “underwear bomber” and the 5 DC area youth in Pakistan all had attended one institute’s seminar….yet nothing communally will ever be said. Our Prophet (SAW) deserves better.
Bismillah
Alaykumsalam
Thank you for your honest and forthright comment, Noor. valuable perspective
Bismillah
Asalaamu alaikum Noor,
“I would further argue that a transformative change in peoples throughout Islamic civilization was never brought about by legalist but rather by the Awliya. Any further advancement of Islam in a meaningful necessitates the cultivation of those who live for Allah.”
This is, i think, the crux of the matter, and the point that i suspect brother Yursil is trying to make. Love for Allah is not something that can be “taught” thru formal classes, seminars, retreats, etc., nor is it something we can put a price tag on. It is something that children in Islamic cultures imbibe from their first breath when they see their mother stop everything to make salat… regardless of where and how she places her hands and feet! In the same way, those of us that have not been reared in such an environment must have a teacher whose life is an example to us, someone who we witness living for Allah and cultivating an Islamic lifestyle even while living in this society and yet not of it.
Salam alaikum,
Here again the great American belief that all in “the West” have adopted a sort of Americana-Lite culture. In fact this is hardly the case at all. Is the above quotation applicable to Danish Muslims, French Muslims, German Muslims, British Muslims?
In Britain we have a large South Asian population, who happened to build most of our mosques and Muslim institutions. Therefore our experience of Islam is quite likely to be coloured by the experience of Pakistanis, Indians and Bengalis.
Germany’s Muslim population is largely of Turkish origin, France’s of North African origin.
Though Americans like to flatter themselves with the idea that the rest of us have adopted their culture (if there is such a thing), everything looks slightly different on the ground.
The numbers of Muslims on the periphery of these groups are rather small, but likely bring with them varying cultures. Where do Somali refugees look to? Where Yemenis? Where the Lebanese? Where the Malays?
Going on my experience, it is a tiny minority outside America that looks to America for Islamic guidance, and therefore imbibes the special distillation you speak of.
But then, given my experience of the multitude of ethnic groups in Britain, I do wonder whether the “American Islam” you speak of really exists. Are Somalis stakeholders in this vision? What about Bengalis or Turks? And do Salafis have a say?
Bismillah
Asalaamu alaikum Tim.
i really would suggest that you start at the beginning of the series before commenting. Yursil has made it very clear that he is talking about American Islam, because he does, afterall, reside in the U.S. and can really only speak to what he sees happening in the U.S. It’s really downright obnoxious that commentors keep bringing up “but it’s different in Europe! Why are you talking about this like it’s all of the West?”. He’s not talking about all of the West, he’s not talking about Europe. He’s talking about the U.S. Your comment that “Americans like to flatter themselves with the idea that the rest of us have adopted their culture” is frankly insulting because it’s so utterly clueless about the topic at hand and argumentative for no good reason. It is FACT that here in the U.S. – which if you took the time to read these posts before leaving thoughtless comments you would know is the ONLY place being discussed – Muslims talk ALL THE TIME about an “American Islam”, even misappropriating the term “indigenous” to reference this “brand” of Islam, and that immigrant Muslims are well known here for being much more concerned with upward mobility (other than refugees, they are, in fact, some of the most affluent folks in this country) and being “good” Americans. Again, you say: “it is a tiny minority outside America that looks to America for Islamic guidance” but NO ONE is talking about ANYONE outside America. We are talking about Muslims IN America. It is quite clear that you are commenting without any awareness of what you are commenting on. Dear brother, i really expect this sort of argumentation and thoughtlessness from others but not from you. Please. Take the time to read the first post and then subsequent posts in order. Reserve your comments until they are relevent to the discussion. And consider that as a Briton, you really don’t know the first thing about “American Islam” or the situation on the ground here – which i certainly agree is probably very different from Islam in Europe – and that’s what Yursil is trying to impart, inshaAllah.
Salam alaikum,
I apologise for going off on a tangent. I was commenting soley on the sentence I pulled out — short attention span, you see.
Perhaps in future you could avoid using the abiguous term “the West” when you mean Americans, or Suburban Capitalist Americans, as this term is more often used refer to the nations/cultures/ideologies of Western Europe, North America, Israel and Australia in general.
If you read my comment in the light of my understanding of what I thought you meant by “the West”, you may understand what annoyed me.
But I take the point of the response above, that in the context of the series of posts you were clearly talking about American Islam. I accept this, and in future I shall endeavour to read a series in the correct sequence.
However I should add that I was not familiar with the motif “American Islam” as refering to a particular brand of practice within America. I took it to mean Islam in America, which I’m afraid I took as too broad a brush to seriously entertain. So again, perhaps a little clarity for those of us not immersed in that milieu.
Now I have read your intial post, I have the term “Suburban Muslims” firmly lodged in my mind. I shall keep it in mind as I redigest, inshaAllah.
BismillahriRahmanirRahim
Alaykumsalaam Tim,
Yes more than likely, it’s understandable that one sentence from a series of posts about the subject of the Suburbanization and Capitalization of Islam in America would be potentially unspecific, on its own. I think that’s not unsurprising really. I suppose that’s part of not being a real author like yourself.
No that’s part of me being a simpleton. I have acknowledged my error and apologised.
Bismillah…
As-Salamu `Alaykum wa Rahmatullah…
Sayyidi, I have to comment on the following point:
“it is only now that we see studying being associated so directly with piety and spiritual progress”.
What do you mean by knowledge? Do you mean knowledge which does not benefit such as the detailed rulings on trade when you are not a merchant, those on the Hudud when you are not a Qadi etc, or do you mean the `Ilm al-Hal? If you mean the latter, this is obligatory, and piety is a result of sincerely acting upon it, thereby arriving at the praiseworthy Ahwal.
Piety – I assume you mean Taqwa – is defined by Imam al-Haddad as “fulfilling the commandments of Allah and avoiding His prohibitions both inwardly and outwardly while feeling adoration and reverence for Allah as well as awe, fear and dread” – Nasaih.
Now, this is only possible in the presence of outward and inward knowledge.
Not all those who attempt to devote a portion of their lives to `Ilm in the West have the intentions that you describe. I am a student at SP, for example, and my intention is for what I study to increase my Taqwallah. Don’t be quick to generalize, especially about the way of life such people.
As for the incentives, I can only speak for myself here, so `Afwan. There are two main incentives, the first led me to the second:
1. To understand exactly what being a Muslim entails and its value.
2. To help me tread the Tariq al-Akhirah successfully.
I totally understand and agree with your point on condemning Kibr and Riya’ which was exactly what Sayyidi Hujjat al-Islam Radhiyallah `Anh did. However, he also affirmed the need for the Shari`ah al-Gharra in his noble Ihya’. What was the first chapter about? Knowledge and encouragement to seek what is benefcial of it and avoid what is not.
Keep me in your Duas, Sayyidi, was-Salam
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Salamu’alaykum,
To answer your question: I mean different things in different contexts. In context of this post it is the packaging of what is sold as ‘religious knowledge’. I believe this is a counterfeit of real religious knowledge, because real religious knowledge comes from saints as a whole package.
Classification and separation in texts (of knowledge) is an academic exercise necessary for the centuries where real knowledge was present, whole, and part of an entire lifestyle. Today’s ‘knowledge’ is the opposite situation, knowledge has been fractured and one is nearly impossible to find, and the other is ubiquitous.. What was it the Prophet (SAWS) said about knowledge in the end of days?
There is a time and place for the type of knowledge that these institutes teach, but as noted in my article, the essentials can be taught to children. It needn’t need be an alternative college with a degree program. In fact, I’m of the opinion that this is anti traditional.
People looking for increase in Taqwa at such locations may find a temporary high, but the fact is without the ego in check, such knowledge easily overpowers one in pride. And it is pride, anger, and jealousy which are not allowed in Paradise. On the other hand, in an age of faucets, knowledge on details of the purity of a standing body of wudu water is hardly a barrier for entry.
The more you know, the more you are also responsible for. Self study of these matters is a western concept. It is better, on the other hand, to pursue real external knowledge at the direction and specific instructions of a spiritual guide who knows exactly what you should concentrate on and what is best for you, and who the best teachers are for you.