How Should We Speak to Them about Islam?
- Categories: Comparative Religion -
Muslims going to
America and Europe are faced with a flood of questions about Islam.
People have many ways of asking these question and different
motivations for doing so, but their questions are essentially as
follows:
Why does Islam permit polygamy?
Why is a woman counted as half a man in matters of inheritance and
when she gives testimony?
Why does Islam "belittle" women?
Is Islam a religion of terror since it prescribes jihad?
Who should we believe: Sunnis or Shiites?
Questions like these are what occupy their minds when they think
about Islam, since the Western media has actively maligned Islam as
a religion of lust and blood and nothing else. When our Muslim
youth goes to their countries, they often find such questions
awkward and try to evade them.
They might say things like: Permission for polygamy is conditional
upon justice between wives and justice between wives is impossible
to achieve. Allah says: "You will not be
able to be just between women even if you strive to do so."
[Sûrah al-Nisâ': 129] Whatever is conditional upon something
impossible is impossible itself. Therefore, polygamy is forbidden
in Islam.
In many cases, Muslims will come across a strange opinion on a
matter and promote it simply because it is more conciliatory.
When I visited America, I found that many Muslims who did not have
correct or sufficient Islamic knowledge suffered from such
difficulties. They really did not know what to do.
I used to tell them the following: Why should we be on the
defensive? Why don't we adopt a more assertive attitude? If they
confront us one question, we should respond with ten of our own. If
they ask us about jihad, we should ask them about America's openly
aggressive policies in many parts of the world, not to mention all
of their covert operations.
If they ask you about polygamy, ask them about the sexual
promiscuity that is rife in their societies that has brought
humiliation to so many women and allowed men to absolve themselves
of their responsibilities towards them and towards their
children?
If they ask you about inequalities in inheritance, ask them about
the reality in their own country where a woman earns only 60% of
what a man earns for doing the exact same job.
I do not mean that we should be evasive. However, it is not good
for you to respond when you are in a state of weakness and
difficulty where there is a danger that you might answer falsely
and misrepresent Allah's religion in order to appease someone
else.
You can move on to a more advanced level of discourse and
demonstrate that Islamic teachings are the solution to the problems
that they are suffering from. For instance, according to some
assessments, there are 119 women to every 100 men in the United
States. In some states, the number is more like 160 women to every
100 men. Polygamy is the solution to the problems that ensue under
such circumstances, since it requires some men to assume
responsibility for more than one woman and to be as just as humanly
possible in doing so.
We can stress how Islam teaches equality between all people. There
is no preference for anyone over anyone else except by a person's
piety and virtue. This is the way to do away with the problem of
racism that people in the West suffer from.
The Islamic teachings about jihad are what uproots oppression and
guarantees people the freedom to think and to choose their religion
for themselves without being under any compulsion. Islam seeks to
have people freely submit themselves to their Creator and not be
placed under the subjugation of any worldly dictator, race, tribe,
or nationality.
There are a few points that I would like to emphasize:
1. Matters of Islamic law are established by the unambiguous texts
of the Qur'ân and Sunnah. No one, regardless of who he is, has the
right to change, add, or subtract anything to placate anyone's
desires or fears. When someone who is calling others to Islam
meddles with Allah's ruling on a matter and misinforms people, he
is doing a disservice to Islam as well as deceiving others. He has
no right to meddle in matters of Islamic Law that are the
jurisdiction of Allah alone.
2. Matters that fall within the scope of juristic discretion and
allow for differences of opinion should be presented in a balanced
and objective manner by the person who is calling others to Islam.
He should take circumstances into consideration when doing so. He
should not select the most severe and restrictive opinion on a
matter and present it to the people as if it is Islam itself,
especially when he is trying to endear Islam to the people's
hearts.
3. Our objective should be to convince others of the correctness of
the Islamic ruling so that they will accept it. We must employ all
of our knowledge and reasoning abilities in achieving this
objective. We must provide all the relevant facts. We can employ to
our advantage other aspects of knowledge that we find to be of
benefit in convincing others of Islam, like the scientific miracles
of the Qur'ân, statistical information, circumstances and
experiences, and rational arguments. There is nothing wrong with
this. In fact, this is an integral part of conveying the truth to
the people.
4. We must instill in the hearts of our young people complete and
total confidence in every aspect of Islam, from the most general
teachings of their faith to the most specific. We must dispel any
sense of weakness or deficiency that they might possibly feel at
the hands of some of those who dispute with them.
We do a disservice to Islam if we lead the people to believe that
Islam is close to the life that they already living and that the
Islamic approach to life is not much different than their own. This
only makes the people feel that Islam is unnecessary for them and
encourages them to turn away from it. They are, in fact, trying to
escape from the hellish aspects of the lives that they are already
leading. They need to be presented with an alternative.
When they ask about Islam or even about something else, they are
looking for a way out. They are looking for something to rescue
them. Therefore, we must present Islam to them with all of its
uniqueness and show them clearly how it differs from their own life
experiences. In this way, we encourage them to think about
Islam.
We must present Islam to them in a logical manner with clear and
insightful arguments. Our responsibility ends here. Indeed, this
was the extent of the responsibility of Allah's Messengers (peace
be upon them). Allah says to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him):
"It is naught your duty but to convey the
message." [Sûrah al-Shûrâ: 48]
"It is your duty only to convey the
message. It is upon Us to take account." [Sûrah al-Ra`d:
40]
"So admonish them. You are but one who
admonishes. You do not control their affairs." [Sûrah
al-Ghâshiyah: 21-22]
It is not necessary for us to fancy that the whole world will
convert to Islam at our hands. However, we must be eager to guide
them and we must seek to do so in every possible and permissible
way. We should perfect our way of presenting Islam to them, taking
into account the age, circumstances, and level of knowledge of
those whom we are addressing. We must present to them the noble
Islamic values of freedom, justice, and human dignity and prove to
them that Islam is superior to everything that they already
know.
Above and beyond all of this, we must conduct ourselves in the
best, moth ethical manner and present our own lives as a practical
example of moral virtue.
Unfortunately, many Muslims call people to Islam with their tongues
while pushing them away from it with their ignoble, contradictory
conduct and with their narrow-mindedness.