Revised Understanding
By: Farhad Shafti
Some people think that a true scholar will never revise his/her views. I disagree! I think one of the essential features of a true scholar is that he/she is always in the process of reviewing his/her stance and is always keen to learn more and get to know new ways of thinking that may lead him/her to revise his/her views. As a keen student of Islam I too try to follow the footsteps of our great scholars and in doing so, the possibility of revising my views is never zero. I think what is important is to always remain honest, open minded and rational, as well as maintaining and improving the purity of our soul lest it may cloud the judgement of our intellect.
For many years I was thinking and analysing a few issues that were bothering me intellectually. At last during the last year and half I found time to focus on these issues and to study them seriously. This was one of the reasons that this website remained almost idle during the recent past. I am now in the position to reactivate this website and to reflect my revised views in my writings at this website.
The visitors of the website have every right to know my revised views and in fact I am looking forward to enrich and clarify my revised views through their questions and feedback. My revised views are in three levels. I do not want to provide reasoning and explanation in this short article but will very briefly refer to them as appropriate. All I can say at this point is that my revised views are entirely and wholly based on my understanding of the Qur'an, including numerous explicit verses. I pray to the Almighty to give me enough time and opportunity to document my reasoning in detail in the very near future, in the form of answers, articles and eventually a book:
1. The Sunnah of the Almighty in sending guides
According to my revised understanding God appreciates differences of languages and cultures and therefore sends guides for each community separately. God does not send one prophet and one book for the entire mankind. Accordingly the Qur’an and the prophet (pbuh) are sent as guides only for the community of Muslims. Every other community is supposed to follow their own paths towards God. For a Muslim, the Qur’an is the criteria for the truth and the false and therefore the follower of the Qur’an can recognise what belief or practice in the Muslim community or other communities may be wrong and unacceptable. Any preaching activity therefore should be aimed at discouraging wrong beliefs and practices by reason, rather than converting people to Islam.
2. The form versus the wisdom of shari’ah
According to my revised understanding, the shari’ah has a wisdom that is unconditional and the same for all followers of religious paths, but a form that is conditional. The form of the shari’ah can be different for the followers of different religious paths, due to differences in cultures and norms. Also within each religious path the form of the shari'ah needs to be evolved as the societies and communities evolve. This was in fact the practice at the time of the first Caliphs of Muslims after the demise of the prophet (pbuh). Accordingly if today our scholars find that part of the form of the shari’ah does not fulfill its wisdom any more, they need to revise that form to make it fit with the new conditions.
3. Zakah, Interest, Marriage with non-Muslim, Halal Meat
Zakah: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi rightly argues that zakah is in fact state tax. He however believes that the rates of zakah are fixed forever. He therefore concludes that Muslims today need to calculate what their due zakah is, compare it with the tax they pay and then only pay the balance (if any). According to my revised understanding the rates of zakah were not supposed to be fixed. They are in fact supposed to be determined by the state. Therefore the tax that a Muslim pays today is in principle the zakah that is due on him/her. Of course every Muslim is encouraged to pay even more as an act of charity (sadaqah).
Interest: There is a reasonable tightly-regulated and monitored interest and then there is usury. According to my revised view the riba that the Qur'an declares haram is the latter (usury) not the former. On this particular point my thinking is very close to that of scholars like Dr. Fazlur Rahman and Professor Abdullah Saeed.
Marriage with non-Muslim: According to my revised understanding, the preference is to marry with a Muslim, and in the second priority to marry with a monotheist believer. In any case the only groups with which marriage is haram are mushriks (those who openly believe in more than one God) or those with enmity towards the concept of God and Islam. This is partly in agreement with the views of Muhammad Rashid Raza and Shaikh Muhammad Abduh.
Halal Meat: According to my revised understanding the Qur’an has only made four things related to meat haram. Verses 2:173, 5:3, 16:115 and 6:145 make it clear that these are pork, poured blood, carrion and the meat that is taken from an animal that is slaughtered for idols. I agree with Imam Shafi’i and other scholars with the same view that verse 6:121 does not add a new condition (i.e. saying the Name of God) but is in fact referring to some of the same haram items in the above four verses (carrion and that on which name of idols is pronounced). Saying the Name of God for a Muslim who slaughters the animal is definitely sunnah. Also eating from the meat produced after saying the Name of God at the time of slaughter is definitely preferred. Also eating the meat that is slaughtered by a believer in God is definitely preferred than the one slaughtered by one who does not believe in God. However not saying the name at the time of slaughter (by Muslim or non-Muslim) does not make the meat haram for a Muslim, unless if the slaughter is done for idols.
*****
The above are my revised views in a nutshell. As I wrote I thought the visitors of this website have every right to know about my revised views. All the writing in this website are going to be on the basis of the above revised views (and I have updated some of the already given answers accordingly). I would have not been academically honest if it was going to be otherwise.
Like always, my concern is not to convince anyone about my views, but to make sure they are clear enough to be understood, and to make sure I also clearly understand any contesting views. I am very much looking forward for the thoughtful questions and feedback of the visitors of this website and I appreciate their tolerance and understanding.
حسبنا الله و نعم الوکیل نعم المولی و نعم النصیر
Farhad Shafti
August 2016
Some people think that a true scholar will never revise his/her views. I disagree! I think one of the essential features of a true scholar is that he/she is always in the process of reviewing his/her stance and is always keen to learn more and get to know new ways of thinking that may lead him/her to revise his/her views. As a keen student of Islam I too try to follow the footsteps of our great scholars and in doing so, the possibility of revising my views is never zero. I think what is important is to always remain honest, open minded and rational, as well as maintaining and improving the purity of our soul lest it may cloud the judgement of our intellect.
For many years I was thinking and analysing a few issues that were bothering me intellectually. At last during the last year and half I found time to focus on these issues and to study them seriously. This was one of the reasons that this website remained almost idle during the recent past. I am now in the position to reactivate this website and to reflect my revised views in my writings at this website.
The visitors of the website have every right to know my revised views and in fact I am looking forward to enrich and clarify my revised views through their questions and feedback. My revised views are in three levels. I do not want to provide reasoning and explanation in this short article but will very briefly refer to them as appropriate. All I can say at this point is that my revised views are entirely and wholly based on my understanding of the Qur'an, including numerous explicit verses. I pray to the Almighty to give me enough time and opportunity to document my reasoning in detail in the very near future, in the form of answers, articles and eventually a book:
1. The Sunnah of the Almighty in sending guides
According to my revised understanding God appreciates differences of languages and cultures and therefore sends guides for each community separately. God does not send one prophet and one book for the entire mankind. Accordingly the Qur’an and the prophet (pbuh) are sent as guides only for the community of Muslims. Every other community is supposed to follow their own paths towards God. For a Muslim, the Qur’an is the criteria for the truth and the false and therefore the follower of the Qur’an can recognise what belief or practice in the Muslim community or other communities may be wrong and unacceptable. Any preaching activity therefore should be aimed at discouraging wrong beliefs and practices by reason, rather than converting people to Islam.
2. The form versus the wisdom of shari’ah
According to my revised understanding, the shari’ah has a wisdom that is unconditional and the same for all followers of religious paths, but a form that is conditional. The form of the shari’ah can be different for the followers of different religious paths, due to differences in cultures and norms. Also within each religious path the form of the shari'ah needs to be evolved as the societies and communities evolve. This was in fact the practice at the time of the first Caliphs of Muslims after the demise of the prophet (pbuh). Accordingly if today our scholars find that part of the form of the shari’ah does not fulfill its wisdom any more, they need to revise that form to make it fit with the new conditions.
3. Zakah, Interest, Marriage with non-Muslim, Halal Meat
Zakah: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi rightly argues that zakah is in fact state tax. He however believes that the rates of zakah are fixed forever. He therefore concludes that Muslims today need to calculate what their due zakah is, compare it with the tax they pay and then only pay the balance (if any). According to my revised understanding the rates of zakah were not supposed to be fixed. They are in fact supposed to be determined by the state. Therefore the tax that a Muslim pays today is in principle the zakah that is due on him/her. Of course every Muslim is encouraged to pay even more as an act of charity (sadaqah).
Interest: There is a reasonable tightly-regulated and monitored interest and then there is usury. According to my revised view the riba that the Qur'an declares haram is the latter (usury) not the former. On this particular point my thinking is very close to that of scholars like Dr. Fazlur Rahman and Professor Abdullah Saeed.
Marriage with non-Muslim: According to my revised understanding, the preference is to marry with a Muslim, and in the second priority to marry with a monotheist believer. In any case the only groups with which marriage is haram are mushriks (those who openly believe in more than one God) or those with enmity towards the concept of God and Islam. This is partly in agreement with the views of Muhammad Rashid Raza and Shaikh Muhammad Abduh.
Halal Meat: According to my revised understanding the Qur’an has only made four things related to meat haram. Verses 2:173, 5:3, 16:115 and 6:145 make it clear that these are pork, poured blood, carrion and the meat that is taken from an animal that is slaughtered for idols. I agree with Imam Shafi’i and other scholars with the same view that verse 6:121 does not add a new condition (i.e. saying the Name of God) but is in fact referring to some of the same haram items in the above four verses (carrion and that on which name of idols is pronounced). Saying the Name of God for a Muslim who slaughters the animal is definitely sunnah. Also eating from the meat produced after saying the Name of God at the time of slaughter is definitely preferred. Also eating the meat that is slaughtered by a believer in God is definitely preferred than the one slaughtered by one who does not believe in God. However not saying the name at the time of slaughter (by Muslim or non-Muslim) does not make the meat haram for a Muslim, unless if the slaughter is done for idols.
*****
The above are my revised views in a nutshell. As I wrote I thought the visitors of this website have every right to know about my revised views. All the writing in this website are going to be on the basis of the above revised views (and I have updated some of the already given answers accordingly). I would have not been academically honest if it was going to be otherwise.
Like always, my concern is not to convince anyone about my views, but to make sure they are clear enough to be understood, and to make sure I also clearly understand any contesting views. I am very much looking forward for the thoughtful questions and feedback of the visitors of this website and I appreciate their tolerance and understanding.
حسبنا الله و نعم الوکیل نعم المولی و نعم النصیر
Farhad Shafti
August 2016
