Dr Saheb Sahu
Recently, I read a book titled “Being Muslim Today”by Saquib Iqbal Qureshi. Mr. Qureshi is bestselling author, film producer, and Fellow of London School of Economics and Political Science. The book is a compelling and courageous call to twenty-first century Muslims to assert their freedom to interpret Islam for themselves and for their generation.
Brief Introduction to Islam
What is Islam and who is a Muslim?
Islam is a monotheistic religion (like Judaism and Christianity) founded in the 7th century CE based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. A Muslim is a person who follows Islam. Muslims believe in one God, Allah, and follow the Quran, which they consider the literal words of God as revealed to Muhammad. The Five pillars of Islam are: Faith, prayer, almsgiving, fasting during Ramadan, and pilgrimage to Mecca.
Islam emphasizes submission to God’s will, compassion, and justice. It is the second- largest religion in the world, with 1.9 billion followers (Christianity 2.3 billions).
What is the Hadith?
The Hadith is a collection of traditions containing sayings, actions, and approvals of the Prophet Muhammad. These records are considered important texts in Islam, second only to the Quran. They were compiled by various scholars over several centuries after Muhammad’s death.
What is Sunnah?
Sunnah refers to the broader practice and example set by Prophet Muhammad, encompassing his sayings, actions, and tacit approvals. It represents the lived example of the Prophet and is consider a model for Muslims to follow.
What is Sariah or Sharia?
Sharia, also spelled Sariah, is the Islamic legal and moral code derived from the Quran, the Hadith, and other Islamic texts. Sharia is interpreted and applied differently across the Muslim world, often influenced by local customs and traditions.
Quotes from the book “Being Muslim Today”
Chapter-1 – Hadith, Jurists, and Sariah
“Prophet Muhammad, like all of us, was human- he was not God”.
“The Quran refers to earlier prophets- Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Solomon (all from the Old Testament).”
“The Good news is that the Quran appears to have been compiled quite early. More than forty Quranic manuscripts, albeit in partial form, survive from Islam’s first century”.
“Most of Muhammad’s sayings and traditions, early Islamic rules and historical records simply do not exist in their original form. Not only that, the versions we have do have are hard to accept as accurate.”
Chapter-2- The Quran- A Compendium of Messages
“All Muslims treat every word of the Quran as divine. Poetical, melodic, and lyrical, the Quran focuses on beliefs, ethics, and morality. Its messages are primarily concerned with vindicating its divine origin and persuading its audience to believe in God, the previous Revelations, and in the forthcoming Day of Judgement.
Beyond that, there are several recurrent themes in the Quran, sublimely summarized as “God is one. Injustice is bad. Charitableness is good. You’ll live, you’ll die, and you’ll live again- in heaven or in hell. Purify yourself if you want paradise. God is one.
… Virtues include regular prayer to God and supporting orphans and society’s poor.
It is also important to lay out what the Quran is not. It is not a legal manual or a synonym for Sharia or Islam. The three are very different. The Sharia is the path that Muslim scholars considered that we should take in life, while Islam is the name given to the religion, derived from various sources including the Quran. And even though it includes some of the same personalities as are in the Bible, such as Jesus, Mary and Moses, and portrays the “Day of Judgement” in strikingly similar fashion, the Quran is distinct from the Bible.”
Chapter-4- The History of Hadith
Hadith are the reported sayings of Muhammad-and initially of the companions too (they got dropped in the eighth century”… The first post – Prophetic Muslim did not feel they needed the hadith to practice their religion.”
Chapter-6- Revolutionary Equality
“In fact, once you look closer, far from lowering women’s status, the Quran’s messages promote gender equality. Muhammad ensured women and men were treated equally, with identical rights to own property, seek employment, gain knowledge and divorce, epitomized in Sura 3:195 “ I will not allow deeds of any one of you to be lost, whether you are male or female, each is like the other ( in rewards)”
… No other religion had women play as central a role in its infancy as did in Islam. Early Judaism and Christianity did not let women learn or teach the Holy Scripture. In contrast, Aisha (one of prophet’s wife) was a source for about 15 percent of the Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence based on Sharia).”
Chapter7- Jihad
“One of the many commonalities between extremists Muslim and anti- Muslim is their take on Jihad.
Jihad is mentioned four times in the Quran and broadly means striving, struggling, or fighting. The messages to Muhammad while he was in Mecca suggest a non-fighting Jihad.
In contrast, in Yathrib, jihad as physical fighting was introduced as a last resort and with strict limitations. In Sura 42:40-42, God approved fighting for self-defense or to stop oppression and injustice. In Sura 22: 39-40, that defense extended to places of worship including churches and synagogues”.
Conclusion
“There’s an awful lot about Islam that we don’t know. But we know Mu’tazila, Rumi and al –Shaft thought about Islam in radically different ways- all while remaining Muslim. And we know that the hadith and Sunnah have been both rejected and re-crafted at some point by significant Muslim communities. And we know that, despite all the uncertainties, the messages of the Quran, hard as they are to make sense of, overwhelmingly tend to peace and instill a radical template for morality that remains as vibrant and modern as ever.
Give yourself permission to ask questions. Because in those questions that you can develop a deeper, cleaner, and more robust faith”.
Sources
1-Saquib Iqbal Qureshi. Being Muslim Today. Reclaiming the Faith from Orthodoxy and Islamophobia. Rowan and Littlefield; London, 2024
2-Chat-Gpt
