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Understanding Islam
His earliest specialty was hadith, or the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, which form the basis of Islamic laws as well as guidelines for the daily life of devout Muslims. Over those years, he uncovered a long-forgotten history of female Islamic scholarship, blotted out by centuries of cultural conservatism: a tradition of women religious authorities stretching back to the days of the Prophet. As I recall, the New Testament is much nicer to women than the twelfth-century Church. Power-hungry men spinning what most could not read for themselves. Or understand. He'd discovered nearly 9,000 women, including some who lectured, dispensed fatwas, and traveled on horse- and camelback in pursuit of religious education. The Sheikh's work on women scholars challenges bigots of all types. The Taliban gunman who shoots a girl for going to school. The mullah who bars women from his mosque. The firebrand who claims that feminism is a Western ideology undermining the Islamic way of life. The Westerner who claims that Islam oppresses women, and always has. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody knows the crayon is jam-packed with hatred of the infidel. "Sheikh," I opened hesitantly, "I've never actually read the Quran." I've read most of the Bible, at least once, and there is a lot of killing in the Old Testament. "Most Muslims haven't read it either," Akram said brightly, buttering his scone. "And even if they have, they don't understand it. The Quran is alien to them. Usually, they'll just go to the books of law. Or if they're interested in piety or purifying the heart, they'll read Ghazali"-a philosopher-"or Sufis like Rumi." Like reading Barclay's Bible Commentaries. I knew, of course, that many graduates of the Muslim world's lesser seminaries hadn't really read Islam's scriptures. The boys in village madrasas, rocking back and forth, lisping lines from the Quran in classical Arabic, a language they didn't understand, might have been literally reading, but not much more. The suicide bombers and jihadist foot soldiers who had been promised a reward of seventy-two virgins in paradise were duped. Nowhere does the Quran mention such rewards for murder. Right. It's 72 Virginians. With baseball bats. Starting with Jefferson. "Even people who go to good madrasas don't necessarily know it as well as they should," said Akram, briskly brushing scone crumbs off his khakis. "In fact, the Quran is often the weakest part of the madrasa curriculum. Far more effort and class time is given to the texts of jurisprudence or hadith." The branches of Islamic knowledge that came after the Prophet's death, like law and philosophy, had only made the Muslim world's injustices and divisions grow, he continued. They'd moved mankind further from the source. The message of the Quran and the sunna, the example of the Prophet Muhammad, had been buried by a mountain of academic debate. But the fatwas are all rooted in the crayon, not in the minds of fallible men! Right? Why not just go back to the Quran? "People can be lazy." Consulting scholars and obeying their rules was safer and easier, said the Sheikh. "You don't need to read, or question, or think. You've got other people thinking for you. If you become open, it's a challenge." Chortle. They'd rather be democrats. "You see, Carla, what's happened, really, is that we in the Muslim world have destroyed the whole balance. We've become obsessed with these tiny details, these laws. What does the Quran keep repeating? Purity of the heart. That's what's important! Why has cutting off a thief's hand-something it mentions once!-become of such importance to some people?" Akram smiled conspiratorially. "People are really very shocked when I tell them that the four schools of law aren't really that important," he said. "If people would just read the Quran, most of these differences would finish." Sure, all the Bible scholars agree on everything! Re-examining beliefs-most importantly, your own-lies at the heart of the Western secular tradition It's from a book, a non-fiction Pulitzer-prize finalist. But it's still an opinion. Posted by: Bobby 2016-07-24 |
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