Hamza Yusuf's Blog, page 2

We Shall Overcome

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

– Proverbs, 31:8-9

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

– H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

A South politician preaches to the poor white man “You got more than blacks, don’t complain

You’re better than them, you been born with white skin” they explain

And the Negro’s name

Is used it is plain

For the politician’s gain

As he rises to fame

And the poor white remains

On the caboose of the train

But it ain’t him to blame

He’s only a pawn in their game.

– Bob Dylan, Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature, 2016

 

Last month, I attended an awards ceremony in Washington D.C. to honor a friend. I sat next to a prominent African-American Christian minister and leader. Invariably, the conversation turned to Trump.

“He’s going to win,” the minister said.

“I can’t believe that,” I replied.

He went on to explain that the reason Trump would win is that he has ignited a fire of resentment in the hearts of millions in the hard-hit areas of America: “These are people who were always told, ‘Don’t complain; at least you’re not a N….’ Well, they’re realizing they actually are N…s, and that’s why Trump is going to win. He’s promising to restore their America, an America where at least they aren’t N…s.”

It was a sobering conversation. I still did not believe that a man, who publicly mimicked a reporter’s palsy, called Mexican migrants rapists and criminals, does not mind that his wife had posed nude, expressed no disapproval when his own daughter was referred to lewdly in a conversation he was engaged in, and boasted of sexually assaulting women in the most explicit language, could ever be elected president—not in the United States, surely. Well, I was wrong. He is about to be seated in the highest office of the land.

History is rife with injustice, persecution, and blatant discrimination. If the improbable internment for Muslims, Mexicans, or another maligned minority comes, it won’t be the first time in relatively recent history that large numbers of people have been rounded up because of their religion or ethnicity. But that is a highly unlikely scenario because we are not the people we were when the Japanese were interned in the U.S. or the Jews in Germany. Great strides have been made since then.

Here in America, we witnessed a major struggle over racial equality and civil rights being waged for over two hundred years, which came to fruition in the late 1950s and early 1960s; we have not reached the end of that struggle—far from it—but we made plenty of headway, and we owe it to all those who lost their lives in that struggle not to fall into despair. Last week’s election is a temporary setback, not much more.

My mother joined the struggle for social justice in the 1950s; she organized, she marched, and she opened her house to others to plan their efforts. Her mantra was “We Shall Overcome,” so much so that we sang it at her funeral this past August. Every Election Day, my mother would call to remind me to vote. She believed in the process but felt it only worked if enough people participated or were willing to work to make it better.

America has never been perfect, not even close; it has always been a work in progress, an ongoing pursuit towards forming “a more perfect union.” We must continue the struggle for a just and equitable society, even as we celebrate the major milestones of our progress. Eight years ago, we elected an African-American as our nation’s president, a man whose father was born into East African poverty and whose mother was of English ancestry and born in Kansas. Nevertheless, a majority of Americans, including many from the Red states, voted him into office. On a frigid January morning in 2009, I stood with Imam Zaid Shakir in Washington D.C. watching Obama being sworn into office; we had come not to support Democrats or even Obama but to celebrate a major milestone in overcoming bigotry: the first elected Black person inaugurated as head of state in a major Western country.

Soon enough, though, things turned sour again. While supporters of Obama point to his many achievements despite an obstructionist Congress, like most politicians, he made promises and turned out to be a disappointment. Not the least of Obama’s failures was that the “banksters” (a term coined during the Roosevelt Administration following the Wall Street Crash of 1929) were let off scot-free for bringing the global economy to the brink of collapse in 2008 as a result of their unethical economic schemes.

There is no doubt that today, much is deeply wrong, and people are angry and frustrated. The “public debt” in the United States is now more than $18 trillion; we have an economy based upon warmongering and financial instruments of mass destruction; and the decline in manufacturing has laid waste to cities across the nation.

Many say they are shocked that people, especially the uneducated working class Americans, voted for Donald Trump; but a few visionaries are shocked at those who are shocked. Michael Moore, the documentary filmmaker, predicted in July that Trump would win. Moore is well aware of a world most Americans in the East or West Coasts are oblivious to: the world of blue-collar Americans with simple home-spun values, people perceived as country bumpkins and Rust Belt rabble, who don’t understand political correctness and couldn’t afford arugula even if they knew what it was. They don’t relate to Beyoncé or Jay Z, but they cheer the angry rants of Ted Nugent, a gun-toting rocker. Trump’s outsider status and his talk of upending the Washington establishment resonated well in the heartland that New York and California forgot existed, a world populated with Vietnam veterans, hunters, and the poorly educated. Many Trump supporters are decent, hard-working people whose lives have been shattered, families broken, jobs evaporated, and who now live in derelict cities and towns, all but forgotten by Washingtonians.

I don’t believe the Trump victory is a victory of the Republican Party; it is the first Independent Party victory since George Washington. Let us not forget that the majority of the Republican leadership denounced Trump; many didn’t even show up for the Republican National Convention, including the former Republican presidents. Trump infiltrated the splintered Republican Party and ran as a Republican but, in reality, had no allegiance to any party. He represented a segment of the population that identified itself as traditional, conservative Americans, who, because of a lack of education and articulation, have been left behind. Trump led an insurgency, a Spartacus-like revolt of the slaves, people who felt they had been ignored or denigrated by the powers that be in both the political and corporate worlds. They have been angry and embittered, and they lined up behind Trump because he was the only one who was aiming for the ramparts. Let us not forget also that many of those who voted for him were Democrats and Independents. His was not a victory of a political party but a victory of people fed up with the political parties.

This is not a time for fear. We know that something is deeply wrong, and there is a lot of anger and confusion. But too much is deeply right for us to despair at this point. Our youth largely reject racism and sexism and embrace idealism and hope; they want a better world. There has never been more tolerance for minorities in American history than now. Our nation’s laws against discrimination and for equality are unparalleled in the world. Immigrant Muslims, like all other immigrants, came to America yearning to breathe free, and most have flourished here and love this country. A great African-American Muslim leader led the prayer at the Democratic National Convention, and another Muslim did so at the Republican National Convention. The DNC is even seriously considering an African-American Muslim congressman to head their party.

We cannot allow the divide-and-conquer strategy to pull us further apart now, not at a time when we have never been closer together. It is important for us to recognize that many good-hearted people voted for Trump and many for Clinton; the same is true of people who voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson.

The racist backlash that has emerged before and after the election is a fringe element. We live in a time where we consume, gluttonously and indiscriminately, what is fed through the media and the internet—where all that is negative and dark is magnified grossly and unjustly. Yes, an African-American woke up with the N-word painted on his car with Trump’s name next to it; yes, some Muslim women have been accosted and harassed; yes, some LGBTQ people have been attacked; yes, an elderly White man with a Trump sticker was dragged from his car and brutally beaten by a group of hooligans. This is all true, but it is far from the norm; yet if one watches the litany of these assaults online, it is easy to conclude that the world has been turned upside down; and if we dwell on it, it will depress us.

Life on earth is an ebb and flow, contraction and expansion. For people in many places around the world, life is not going very well. Here in the West, we tend to be a very self-indulgent people. It helps to place things in perspective if we, for instance, look at Syrian refugees fleeing and risking their lives to find shelter in places where they are unwelcomed, despite their necessitous conditions. What we are now facing in America is the result of a free and fair election, a result decades in the making, a result caused by sheer neglect of the plight of millions of working class people whose middle class lives have been eroding, whose children are addicted to opioids and methamphetamines, whose daily dose of television is the most degraded entertainment imaginable, and whose schooling is some of the worst in the industrialized world.

And while our population is ill-informed, the majority are decent people who are fair when informed and generous when needs are presented to them. They are also working harder than any other people to overcome the historical wrongs of their nation’s history. Trump is not the biggest problem our nation faces; we need to begin with healing and with hope for the future.

To despair is self-indulgent. For the sake of all who have struggled before us, we must not now give in to despair, fear, or intimidation. Now is the time to realize that we have too much work to do, not protesting, not lighting fires, not saying, “Trump is not my president.” He is, and that is how our system works: by accepting the results and moving on. Now we have to work to make sure our educational, political, and scientific institutions, which are some of the finest in the world, are protected and perfected. We are the majority, not the haters.

Our faith teaches us to have a good opinion of people, and that should include those who voted for Trump. Our faith also teaches us to work together to address everyone’s needs. We cannot allow the paralysis of fear to overcome us. There are those in our country who will use race and class to divide us. Peoples of color must resist this “divide and conquer” strategy. Now that a majority of White people reject racism for the first time in its long and tragic history, we cannot allow the minority—ironically in this case the White racists—to stoke the embers of a dying flame of fanatical hatred of the other. We must maintain our faith in the future and fight the cynicism and despair that is gripping those who don’t remember history. Don’t be a pawn in their game. Reject the race-baiting, celebrate the progress, and work to bring people together under a banner of brotherhood and sisterhood, united in a struggle that goes on.

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On the Passing of My Mother, Elizabeth George Hanson

My mother, Elizabeth Anne George Hanson, died last night with her hand in mine, surrounded by her children. She was ninety-five years old; when she was born, there was an Ottoman Caliph ruling much of the Muslim world. She lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement, which she was actively involved in long before many others joined. My mother spent her life serving others. She never complained and was the most ethical person I have ever known. She hated bigotry, prejudice, and any form of discrimination. She spent her life fighting against injustice. Some of my earliest memories involve civil rights marches, on which she always brought along her children. She marched with Dr. King and Cesar Chavez, and even in her late eighties, she marched in San Francisco against the war in Iraq. All her life, she volunteered in various organizations and served for years on the Homeless Committee in Marin County. Even into her eighties, she volunteered teaching Mexican immigrants and farm workers how to speak, read, and write English, a language she loved and spoke beautifully.

My mother gave birth to seven children and raised them as a single working mother in the Sixties and Seventies. She lived in constant wonder and noticed everything from the flow of tree leaves in a breeze to the colors of a flower she happened to pass. She was slow and deliberate in everything she did and sometimes chided me for eating too fast. She smiled constantly and, despite the pain of a raging cancer in her final months, never complained. She never spoke ill of people and accepted people as they were without judgment. Right before she died, my older sister, Patricia, who is a voice coach and music teacher, spontaneously sang the Prayer of Peace by St. Francis beautifully, which my mother loved:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.

 

Upon my sister’s completion of the very last line of the prayer, “it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life,” my mother took her last breath. This was witnessed by the several people who were in the room at the time. I realized immediately that the poem summed up my mother’s life perfectly: she consoled, understood, loved, and gave like few others I have known. She did not boast about all she did; in fact, she never even spoke about her constant service to others: she just did it, and lived her truth.

My mother had extraordinary scruples and was never known to lie or disparage anyone. In our entire lives, I never remember my mother ever raising her voice to her children. She gave no cause to any of her children to ever be angry with her, even though the opposite, unfortunately, was not always true. She loved and respected all faiths and taught her children to do the same. While baptized a Greek Orthodox due to her father’s heritage, she was raised a devout Catholic. She had a long interest in Sufism and loved the poet Rumi long before he was popular in the West. She was a member of a Buddhist Songhai for much of her later years and practiced Tibetan Buddhism. In 2010, in Fez, Morocco, she took the Shahadah with Sidi Ismail Filali Baba. Yet many years ago, just after I had first embraced Islam, I was telling her about the faith when she said to me, “I knew the Prophet Muhammad was a prophet long before you were born, dear.” She had also taken me to a mosque when I was twelve to pray the Friday prayer in order to expose me to an important world religion. She lived in my home for the last two years of her life and always prayed with us, even going into prostration despite the difficulty. My wife, Liliana, took incredible care of her with utter selflessness, and said to me on more than one occasion, “I want to be like your mother when I grow up.” One story sums my mother up perfectly: Sharifa Uzma Husaini was with her in Fez, Morocco in the market. A shopkeeper they were buying something from in one of the souks in the Old Medina said to her, “You must hold your purse tight; we have a lot of thieves here.” To this, she replied, “I am a Sufi! If someone steals my purse, he must need it more than I do.” Those were not mere words to her but how she lived her life. Those who knew my mother will know I am not exaggerating. I hope to write a longer tribute to her amazing life and her many virtuous deeds, but for now, I request prayers for her soul.

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When Evil Fails and Goodness Prevails: Regarding the Recent Coup Attempt in Turkey

The world is, and has always been, a dystopia. There is no such thing as a perfect or flawless government, and any doctrine or ideology that entices people with the promise of a paradise on earth is flawed and demonic; the Devil tempted Adam with a “Dominion that would never end.” Democracies, liberal or otherwise, are profoundly imperfect systems. Monarchies are also flawed in many ways, but kings are far less susceptible to corruption, given their vast wealth, than elected leaders who often emerge from the petty bourgeois, with natural predilections to social status and ladder-climbing that invites corruption. Despite that, historically, many anti-monarchical movements were motivated by the decadence of monarchs out of touch with the people and ruling the moribund and collapsing empires of Europe and the East. Many of these rebels were well-intentioned people but became pawns in the hands of others with more nefarious schemes. The Ottomans were one of the great empires brought down by fifth columns from within that were often working in tandem with Western powers.

Recently a coup was attempted in Turkey that immediately provided fodder for conspiracy theories, even among people who usually are not prone to such theories. One such theory making the rounds postulates that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan planned the attempted coup himself in order to solidify power, an absurd assertion even in light of what we already know. As “evidence” of this assertion, it was immediately claimed the attempt was half-baked and inconsequential. Does this really make sense given that F16s were mobilized from NATO bases, major television stations were taken over, bridges were secured, and both Ankara and Istanbul had curfews imposed? Even major Western news magazines such as Time and Newsweek acknowledged that the coup was extremely well-planned and almost succeeded. Claims that Erdoğan’s party, the AKP, is using it to consolidate power and remove all opposition from the army, the judicial branch, and the education system, is to speak hastily without the facts at hand; more pertinently, it ignores entirely the reality facing those in power who may still be threatened by subversives yet to be identified. It is far too early for all the facts to emerge. The country is still in shock, and the leaders of the democratic government, with the proven support of most of its people, are trying to restore order and ensure that the democratic system of Turkey is not compromised again.

What is tragic is that except for a handful of countries, including Sudan, Qatar, and Morocco, the democracies around the world did not show immediate support for Turkey’s democratically elected government. The American administration clearly was waiting to see what would happen; whether it had prior knowledge of the coup attempt or not is fodder for conspiracies. Given our history of involvement in coups and coup attempts, including in Iran, Argentina, and Cuba, such a theory may not seem preposterous, but without solid evidence, we should refrain from such theories that threaten longstanding alliances of friendship and cooperation. At least President Obama came out in strong support of Turkey’s government once it was clear the coup had failed—late, but a good sign, nonetheless.

Again, as democracies go, Turkey has been less flawed than most others in the past decade, with an economic record that is the envy of most of the world’s nations. In my many visits here, I have always found it to be a clean, beautiful, prosperous, and safe country. One only had to hear, in the midst of the coup attempt with all its uncertainty, the response of a BBC correspondent who was asked by his colleague in London whether he was scared; he replied that he felt safer in Turkey, even amidst the chaos of the coup, than he did in London, and mentioned the warmth of the Turkish people. This put the lie to the historical “cruel Turk” trope, a long-standing and vicious Western stereotype. One only need read the 18th century reflections of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the English Ambassador to Turkey, to see how extraordinary even late Ottoman culture was. She learned from the Turks about smallpox inoculation and took the procedure back to England, where Edward Jenner is still credited as being the pioneer of the vaccination. Moreover, anyone who has experienced Turkish hospitality and warmth knows that those bigoted beliefs about the Turks are apocryphal.

In my own assessment of Western reporting on the recent coup attempt, I consider it flawed and misleading. Asked to speak to a crowd in Konya the night after the coup occurred, I told several thousand Turks who had assembled in support of their country’s democracy, “Civil society is a precious gift and one that must be protected. Turkey has one of the most civil societies I have ever lived in.” In my estimation, only Japan and Oman rival it. I went on to explain that democracy is susceptible to the tyranny of the majority, as there will always be people who did not support or vote for the elected leaders. “The way for those who are not happy with the current a government,” I said, “is to work to oust them when the next election cycle comes around again. That is how democracy works, like it or not.”

The overthrow of a government the majority of people support, even a government that some may think is bending the law or dismissing dissent (something many in America believe happens too often there), is recklessly callous, criminal, and treasonous. Hence, the perpetrators of any coup attempt must be brought to justice as a deterrent for anyone contemplating treasonous actions. I don’t have the information the Turkish intelligence has, nor do the American media. Nevertheless, the vilification and even demonization of President Erdoğan, despite his immense popular support at home, that has been relentless for sometime in our Western press is thoughtless and biased, and reinforces the view that it is motivated by an antipathy toward Islam.

The irony is that President Erdoğan is not the Islamist that Western media have portrayed him to be. He is the secular head of a nation that asserts the rights of all Turks irrespective of their creed, race, or even sexual orientation. President Erdoğan, by all measures, is a devout Muslim attempting to navigate modernity and live his faith in the context of secularity. His party has helped Turkey move away from French laicism toward a more American model of secularism that allows for public display of religion and guarantees the right of a politician to say that, indeed, faith does inform his decisions. Nonetheless, he is not calling for Shariah law, he is not seeking a one-party system, and he is certainly not a dictator by even the loosest definition of that term. Even his desire to increase the executive powers of the president’s office is simply to move toward an American model as opposed to the current European one. He has undeniably opened up Turkish society in ways unthinkable only ten years ago. Most people, especially the previously persecuted devout Muslims, feel freer now in Turkey than they did under the laicism of previous governments when even wearing a headscarf was banned.

As far as I’m concerned, President Erdoğan showed immense valor in the face of great danger, risking his personal safety for the safety of his country’s institutions. He could have easily fled to a safe haven, but, instead, he chose to put his own life on the line by taking to the streets and setting the very example of what he was asking of his people. His popular support is palpable, and, despite the snide and cynical barbs of Western journalists about his “Ottoman-like” pomp, I can attest personally to his genuine and natural humility. At this stage, in light of the extenuating circumstances, he deserves to be given the benefit of our doubt. Our own Western culture and civilization owe a great deal to the Ottoman Empire, and while the Ottomans are gone, their great people, the Turks, are alive and well, and thriving in a democratic country of great industry and diversity. They deserve our best wishes and our support for their recently threatened democracy. Much disinformation and misinformation is being spread about Turkey and its leaders, but from the ground it looks cool, calm, and corrected.

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The Plague Within

The Plague Within

July 5, 2016

 

According to a good hadith related by Ahmad and al-Tabarani, the Messenger of God, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said, “You will never believe until you show mercy to one another.”

“All of us are merciful, O Messenger of God!” his companions responded.

The Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, explained, “I’m not talking about one of you showing mercy to his friend; I’m talking about universal mercy—mercy towards everyone.”

For those Muslims and people of other faiths who lost loved ones in the recent tragedies in Baghdad two days ago, in Bangladesh last Friday, in Istanbul the day before that, in Lebanon earlier last week, and in Yemen and Orlando last month, I am deeply saddened and can only offer my prayers, even as I am painfully aware of my state of utter helplessness at what has befallen our global community. As I write this, I learned about yet another bombing outside our beloved Prophet’s mosque in Medina, as believers were about to break their fast yesterday, unjustly killing four innocent security guards. Fortunately, due to the blessings of the place, the sound of the explosion was thought to be the boom of the cannon used to announce the time has come to break the fast, so the people in the mosque were not frightened nor panicked. The Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, said, “Whoever frightens the people of Medina has the damnation of God, the angels, and all of humanity.” Needless to say, the horror of these atrocities is compounded because they are being carried out—intentionally—in the blessed month of Ramadan.

A plague is upon us, and it has its vectors. Like the brain-eating amoebas that have struck the warm waters of the Southern states in America, a faith-eating plague has been spreading across the global Muslim community. This insidious disease has a source, and that source must be identified, so we can begin to inoculate our communities against it.

New versions of our ancient faith have sprung up and have infected the hearts and minds of countless young people across the globe. Imam Adel Al-Kalbani, who led prayers in the Haram of Mecca for several years, has publicly stated that these youth are the bitter harvest of teachings that have emanated from pulpits throughout the Arabian Peninsula, teachings that have permeated all corners of the world, teachings that focus on hatred, exclusivity, provincialism, and xenophobia. These teachings anathematize any Muslim who does not share their simple-minded, literalist, anti-metaphysical, primitive, and impoverished form of Islam, and they reject the immense body of Islamic scholarship from the luminaries of our tradition.

Due to a sophisticated network of funding, these teachings have flooded bookstores throughout the Muslim world and even in America, Europe, and Australia. For a case study of what they have spawned, we might look to Kosovo. Our “Islamic” schools are now filled with books published by this sect that lure the impressionable minds of our youth at an age when they are most susceptible to indoctrination. This sect of Islam, however, is not the sole source of our current crisis, and it would be wrong to place all blame on it alone; many of its adherents are peace-loving quietists, who want only to be left alone to practice their faith as they see fit. Their exclusivism is a necessary but not sufficient cause for the xenophobic hatred that leads to such violence. The terroristic Islamists are a hybrid of an exclusivist takfiri version of the above and the political Islamist ideology that has permeated much of the Arab and South Asian world for the last several decades. It is this marriage made in hell that must be understood in order to fully grasp the calamitous situation we find our community in. While the role that Western interventions and misadventures in the region have played in creating this quagmire should not be set aside, diminished, or denied, we should, however, keep in mind that Muslims have been invaded many times in the past yet never reacted like these fanatics. Historically, belligerent enemies often admired the nobility Muslims displayed in their strict adherence to history’s first humane rules of engagement that were laid down by the Prophet himself to insure that mercy was never completely divorced from the callousness of conflict.

We need to clearly see the pernicious and pervasive nature of this ideological plague and how it is responsible for the chaos and terror spreading even to the city of our Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, in all its inviolability. Its most vulnerable victims are our disaffected youth who often live in desolate circumstances with little hope for their futures. Promises of paradise and easy-out strategies from the weariness of this world have enticed these suicidal youth to express their pathologies in the demonically deceptive causes of “Islamic” radicalism. The pictures they leave behind—showing the supercilious smiles on their faces, even as they hold in their hapless hands their Western-made assault rifles—are testament to the effective brainwashing taking place.

The damage being wrought is not only within Islam but also to Islam’s good name in the eyes of the world. These now daily occurrences of destructive, hate-filled violence are beginning to drown out the voices of normative Islam, thereby cultivating a real hatred in the hearts of those outside our communities. In the minds of many around the world, Islam, once considered a great world religion, is being reduced to an odious political ideology that threatens global security; that, in turn, is proving disastrous for minority Muslim communities, who now abide in increasingly hostile environments in secular societies.

What we need to counter this plague are the voices of scholars, as well as grassroots activists, who can begin to identify the real culprits behind this fanatical ideology. What we do not need are more voices that veil the problem with empty, hollow, and vacuous arguments that this militancy has little to do with religion; it has everything to do with religion: misguided, fanatical, ideological, and politicized religion. It is the religion of resentment, envy, powerlessness, and nihilism. It does, however, have nothing to do with the merciful teachings of our Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him. Unchecked, we will see this plague foment more such violence, until one day, God forbid, these hateful and vile adherents obtain a nuclear device, the use of which has already been sanctioned by their “scholars,” including one currently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. If such a scenario unfolds, it is highly probable that the full wrath of Western powers will be unleashed upon a helpless Muslim world that would make even the horrendous Mongol invasions of the 13th century look like a stroll in the park.

Invariably, some will remark that a fear of Western retaliation is a sign of cowardice. For those zealots, I would recommend turning back to the Qur’an, specifically to reflect on the undeniably brave Messenger Moses, peace be upon him, who unintentionally killed an Egyptian after striking him with his powerful blow, only because he was considered an enemy, and then asked God’s forgiveness and “fled vigilantly out of fear” (28:21). This is a cautionary tale, and it behooves all of us to reflect upon it as a lesson of what not to do when oppressed, especially when we are without political authority or the means to redress our grievances. Imam al-Sahrwardi stated, “To flee from calamities is the Sunnah of Prophets.” It is best not to let our baser self, our lust for revenge, get the better of us.

We would do well to acknowledge that much of what is happening in the Muslim world and to Muslim communities in the West is from what our own hands have wrought. Muslims have been in the West for a long time and have done little to educate people here about our faith; too many of us have been occupied in our wordly affairs, while some of our mosques and schools have been breeding grounds for an ideological Islamism rather than Islam. The Qur’an clearly instructs us that when faced with calamities, we ought to look first at what we may have done to bring them upon us. Introspection is a Qur’anic injunction. Until we come to terms with this Qur’anic truth, we will remain mired in the mirage of denial, always pointing fingers in every direction but at ourselves. “Verily, God does not change the conditions of a people until they change themselves” (Qur’an, 13:11).

As Ramadan comes to a close, let us pray for the oppressed and the guidance of the oppressors, for those who have been killed, and for those who lost their loved ones, and most of all, let us heed our Prophet’s call and want mercy for everyone.

 

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Muhammad Ali and Prophetic Character

One of the great honors of my life was to be a pallbearer for the great Muslim humanitarian Muhammad Ali. I owe that honor to the Ali family and their spiritual advisor, my dear brother, Imam Zaid Shakir, who led the funeral prayer, and later acted as the emcee for the memorial. We all saw clear signs of the wilayah of Muhammad Ali throughout the time we were in Louisville (though we don’t presume God’s knowledge–la nuzakki ‘ala Allah ahadan). He was a beautiful soul, and we heard so many amazing stories from the countless people he touched throughout his extraordinary life. For me, the most striking presentation was the Native American one: among their points was that Muhammad Ali had marched with them when a resolution in congress was threatening their existing treaties with the American Government. Muhammad Ali is a proof that if one adheres to his principles, no matter how unpopular at the time, and follows the prophetic methodology, they will realize the truth of these Quranic verses:

“Truly those who say, ‘Our Lord is God’ and are upright, the Angels will descend upon them saying, ‘Have neither fear nor sadness, but rather rejoice in this Paradise that you had been promised. We are your allies in this lower life and in the Hereafter, where you will have your hearts’ desire, and you will have all you request, hospitably from One, Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.’ Who is more beautiful in speech than the one who invites to God and does righteous works, saying, ‘Truly I am a Muslim, submitted to God’? For good and evil are not equal: repel ugliness with what is more beautiful, and behold, the one between you and whom there was enmity is suddenly transformed into a warm friend. But no one arrives at this station except those of patience, and no one achieves it without great luck” (41: 30-35).

These verses were recited at his funeral and again at the memorial. Let us all pray for his soul, and for his wonderful family. A special thanks from all of us should go to President Erdoğan, who was the only Muslim head of state that attended the event.

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The Orlando Statement

A JOINT MUSLIM STATEMENT

ON THE CARNAGE IN ORLANDO
June 13, 2016

On behalf of the American Muslim community, we, the undersigned, want to extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the barbaric assault that occurred early yesterday morning at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We unequivocally say that such an act of hate-fueled violence has no place in any faith, including Islam. As people of faith, we believe that all human beings have the right to safety and security and that each and every human life is inviolable.

We know that, given the tenor of the times, some will associate this tragedy with the religion of the perpetrator. While we may never learn conclusively what motivated this misguided individual, many news sources claim that he was motivated by his faith, which would be a reprehensible distortion of Islam adding the religion to the long list of innocent victims in this callous crime. Any such acts of violence violate every one of our Prophet’s teachings. For Muslims, that this carnage occurred in the blessed month of Ramadan—a month of charity, introspection, and self-purification—only adds to the foulness of this enormity.

Since September 11, 2001, many Muslims have been victims of collective guilt; yet, numerous Americans of good conscience have stood by their fellow citizens, despite differences in faith or lifestyle, including many members of the targeted community. Difference is no justification for violence. While most American Muslims adhere to a strict Abrahamic morality, the Quran is clear that its injunctions apply only to Muslims who choose to follow them: “There is absolutely no compulsion in religion.” In America, individuals are at liberty to pursue happiness as each sees fit; it is our cherished political right. Those of us who live in this country, irrespective of our beliefs, must respect the equality of all Americans under the laws of the land.

We feel compelled to state that it is an egregious offense against the culture and laws of America—as well as Islam’s—to place collective guilt on an entire community for the sins of individuals. “No soul bears the sins of another,” says the Quran.

Three days ago, Americans honored the memory of one of the greatest and most beloved men in American history: Muhammad Ali, who was a devout Muslim. The Islam Muhammad Ali followed is one of love, tolerance, and respect for all. American Muslims everywhere felt that he ended, once and for all, the vacuous claim that one cannot be both Muslim and American.

We, as American Muslims, follow the openhearted and inclusive Islam of Muhammad Ali and completely reject the hatred, provincialism, and intolerance of those who trample upon the rights of others, besmirching and defiling the name of Islam. The criminal who took the lives of dozens of patrons of the Orlando nightclub and injured many others was an aggressor, plain and simple. The Quran says, “Do not be brutal or commit aggression, for surely God does not love brutal aggressors.”

There are extremists in America and abroad who view the world through a Manichean lens: American Manicheans want Americans to see themselves as entirely “good” and all Muslims as entirely “evil.” Muslim Manicheans want Muslims to see themselves as entirely “good” and all Americans as entirely “evil.” This is a catastrophic recipe for unrelenting violence, and it must be rejected: We will not allow the extremists to define us, mold us in their benighted image, or sow the seeds of discord among us. We are one people, so let us all in good conscience and human solidarity reject this extremist narrative and assert our shared humanity and mutual respect for the sanctity of all human life.

Signed,

SHAYKH ABDALLAH BIN BAYYAH – President, Forum for Promoting Peace

HAMZA YUSUF – President, Zaytuna College

SHERMAN A. JACKSON – King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture, USC

For a full list of signatories, visit www.orlandostatement.com

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A Good Father

My father, David Hanson, passed away at 8:00 p.m. on the 16th of April, 2016 at the age of 89. He left the world in a good state. He was born into great wealth and advantage, and was afforded an excellent education. At the age of 17, he volunteered to join the Air Force at the height of World War II and served for four years.

He was a good father, and the single most well-read person in the Western canon I have ever met. The Huntington Library gave him a small cubicle, where he carried on his work on Elizabethan manuscripts. My last conversations with him were about the Liberal Arts, of which he was a life-long student. He lived with me on and off for the last few years and remained independent until the last few weeks of his life. 

During his stay with us, he always joined in prayer with my family. A few weeks ago, he said the shahadah with his physician, Dr. Asad Tarsin, and requested that he be buried as a Muslim. I washed his body with my son and two close friends yesterday. We will bury him this morning. I want to thank everyone who has extended condolences to me and my family. I would ask simply for a prayer for his salvation.

Thank you.

Hamza Yusuf Hanson

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Response to Wheaton’s Decision to Fire Dr. Larycia Hawkins for Saying Muslims and Christians Worship the Same God.

January 10, 2016

I want to thank Dr. Larycia Hawkins for her courageous stance in solidarity with those she described as her “Muslims sisters.” It is sad that Wheaton College took the actions that it did against her beautiful act of support and solace. But, it is not burning her at the stake as a witch. So we are making progress. I do feel, however, as president of a religious liberal arts college similar to Wheaton, but devoted to Islam instead of Christianity, that it is important that we not demonize the college either. Religious colleges are under threat in the United States due to a very dangerous type of conformity called “political correctness.” While bigotry, when clearly bigotry, should always be attacked and identified as ignorance or worse stupidity, we live in a country founded on two of the most important freedoms we have: speech and religion. And sometimes, one person’s bigotry is another person’s religious devotion. People must feel free to worship and teach their faith as they see fit, and our colleges should be protected in their approaches to doing so. Wheaton College is an important institution, and this is an unfortunate blemish on its record given its inquisitorial feel, but it is a learning process they are going through navigating new waters, and we should pray for them to do the right thing. Jews and Muslims worship the same God, and thus if the God of the Jewish man, Jesus, who quotes the Old Testament many times, is not the God of Wheaton, then indeed, we have different gods. But, if the God of Abraham that spoke to Moses is the God of Wheaton, then despite their displeasure, we do have the same God. Indeed, while we have different understandings, we are all talking about the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus (as a created man, given the Baptist belief of his dual nature since they are not Monophysites), and finally, Muhammad, peace be upon all of them.

In the chapter entitled “Christianity and Mohammedanism, the Daughter-Religions of Judaism” in his book Jewish Theology, Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, who was president of Hebrew Union College, wrote the following:

“It shall come to pass on that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea…. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall the Lord be One, and His name one.”[1] These prophetic words of Zechariah may be applied to the two great world-religions which emanated from Judaism and won fully half of the human race, as it exists at present, for the God of Abraham. Though they have incorporated many non-Jewish elements in their systems, they have spread the fundamental truths of the Jewish faith and Jewish ethics to every part of the earth. Christianity in the West and Islam in the East have aided in leading mankind ever nearer to the pure monotheistic truth. Consciously or unconsciously, both found their guiding motive in the Messianic hope of the prophets of Israel and based their moral systems on the ethics of the Hebrew Scriptures. The leading spirits of Judaism recognized this, declaring both the Christian and Mohammedan religions to be agencies of Divine Providence, intrusted with the historical mission of coöperating in the building up of the Messianic Kingdom, thus preparing for the ultimate triumph of pure monotheism in the hearts and lives of all men and nations of the world. These views, voiced by Jehuda ha Levi, Maimonides, and Nahmanides,[2] were reiterated by many enlightened rabbis of later times. These point out that both the Christian and Mohammedan nations believe in the same God and His revelation to man, in the unity of the human race, and in the future life; that they have spread the knowledge of God by a sacred literature based upon our Scripture; that they have retained the divine commandments essentially as they are phrased in our Decalogue; and have practically taught men to fulfill the Noahitic laws of humanity.[3] On account of the last fact the medieval Jewish authorities considered Christians to be half-proselytes,[4] while the Mohammedans, being pure monotheists, were always still closer to Judaism. (Kaufmann Kohler, Jewish Theology: Systematically and Historically Considered, New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918, 426–427.)

[1] Zech. XIV, 8–9.

[2] Cuzari, IV, 23; Maim.: H. Melakim XI, 41; Responsa, 58; Nahmanides: Derashah, ed. Jellinek, 5; see Rashi and Tosafot to Ab. Z. 2a, 57b; Sanh. 63b.

[3] Solomon ben Adret: Responsa, 302; Yore Deah CXLVIII, 12; Jacob Emden, Comm. to Abot. V, 17; comp. Chwolson: D. Blutanklage, 64–79.

[4] Isaac ben Sheshet’s Responsa, 119.

Image Source: http://drlaryciahawkins.org

The Purpose of Life in an Hour and a Half

 

Given the choice, I would rather read a book than listen to a lecture. Books are wonderful companions: they offer their opinions, and if you disagree, they don’t seem to mind. I can reread when I find difficulty with what is written, and the book doesn’t think I’m stupid or get annoyed that I’m asking it to repeat itself, sometimes again and again. From a great author, I can acquire in a few hours what took him or her a lifetime of reflection and insight to realize. Despite that, on occasion, I have heard lectures that have moved me deeply. Recently, someone sent me a lecture insisting that I watch it. It was by an American convert to Islam (I don’t like the word “revert,” as we don’t revert to Islam; we convert – unless one was a Muslim, left it, and then returned), Dr. Jeffrey Lang, about the purpose of life. I found this lecture to be the most powerful I have ever heard from an American Muslim.

After listening to his lecture, I have to conclude that Dr. Lang is bold, honest, a truly brilliant and original thinker, and, in reality, a proof of the Qur’an. Let me explain this last statement: while on the one hand, the Qur’an needs no proof, on the other, one of its greatest proofs is that if you do what the Qur’an challenges you to do – to reflect on it deeply – you will arrive at the conclusion that it could not be from other than God. Moreover, if you act upon that realization, you will get its results, first in this world but foremost in the next. Dr. Lang did exactly what the Qur’an asks of us: he reflected upon its meaning deeply, and he came to the conclusions that the Qur’an tells us we should reach if we ponder deeply its message. In that way, he is a proof of the Qur’an.

The Qur’an is not an easy book, especially for Western readers, many of whom complain that they can’t understand why it isn’t like the Bible in its linearity, one of the main reasons being that the Qur’an uses a rhetorical device not found in Western tradition known as iltifat – shifts in perspective – which can be very disorienting for the Western reader. (This phenomenon occurs less so for educated Asiatics more familiar with supra-rational modes of thought.) Rooted in the message of the Qur’an is the momentousness of life. Life is serious business – not a play or a pastime. Hence, thinking about the purpose of life is something everyone should do, and those of us committed to a religious belief should have a good understanding of why we hold that belief and what the ultimate purpose is of that belief. If Christians who have been to catechism were asked what is the purpose of life, most would respond, “to know, love, and serve God.” This response resonates well with Muslims given the verse, “I have created spirit-kind and humankind only to worship Me” (Qur’an, 51:56). However, while an accurate answer, it leaves a question unanswered: why humans, with all of their foibles and follies, let alone their sometimes heinous failures? Why would God, who needs nothing, create us to worship God, especially given that God has angels to do so and do so flawlessly?

Dr. Lang has done a truly extraordinary service in explicating, in easily understandable terms, the very question of why God created human beings. This topic is pure metaphysics at a layman’s level. In the Christian tradition, one of the deadly sins (“deadly” or “mortal” here means those sins that place the soul into a state of perdition) is the sin of acedia, sometimes referred to as sloth as well. Sloth here, however, is not the sloth of laziness but rather the spiritual inertia that prevents people from actively seeking to understand why they are here. Early Christianity’s pre-Islamic Desert Fathers called it the Noonday Devil. They enumerated certain “daughters” of this sin, i.e. its effects: blindness of mind, distraction, inconstancy, rashness, narcissism, hatred of the Divine, love of the world, and abhorrence of the future realm – all qualities clearly seen in this modern age. If people ignore God or those things related to the sacred, they are guilty of the sin of sloth, and the result is a spiritual blindness that prevents them from seeing the truth; this is coupled with a constant search for distractions. These distractions, whether films, music, sports, or any other type of entertainment – which is defined as “the mild occupation of the mind” – are pursued constantly to keep us preoccupied from more important matters.

The rulers of this world have always known how easily distracted the masses are and hence have used bread and circuses to occupy their minds so that they didn’t reflect on the complete number being played upon them. The fundamental difference between the past rulers – for instance, the Romans with their bread and coliseums – and our rulers today is the sheer vastness of the entertainment apparatus at their disposal whereby the bread of old has become fast-food outlets at every corner not to mention junk food snack machines enabling constant bovine grazing for the herd, while the circus has morphed into handheld devices allowing an obsessive state of distractedness at all times that ensures no thought impinges on the dazed diurnal states of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad people we now see everywhere lost in inner space in what can only be deemed an autistic state of utter human alienation coupled with complete and utter spiritual degradation. Interestingly enough, the original billboards and advertisements for the iPod showed shadow people, in other words, insubstantial vacuous people, holding their hand-held devices while dancing with their earplugs prominently displayed. Hulu has a frighteningly accurate set of commercials making fun of our new reality – “Hulu, an evil plot to take over the world,” as they put it. These distractions, which result from the sin of acedia, however, like every film, every song, and every sports game, must inevitably come to an end when our earthly lives do: and then the accounting begins!

Those who use life as an opportunity to search for the truth are those not guilty of acedia. Furthermore, the Qur’an promises that those who search sincerely will find what they are looking for – the Truth. Dr. Lang, a real seeker of the truth, in this lecture, tells of his journey from atheism to belief and specifically belief in the revelation of the Qur’an. As a professor of mathematics, he has the logic of his trade. His story is honest, at times painful, profound, and one of the most gratifying explanations of why we are here that I have ever heard. While I am sure Dr. Lang was unaware of it, his conclusions have a startling resemblance to the interpretation of the verses of khilafah that Imam Sam’ani wrote centuries ago giving credence to the phrase, “Great minds think alike.” Most commentators of the Qur’an were influenced by the Jewish and Christian versions of the narration, which considered the expulsion from the Garden a punishment meted out to Adam and Eve for the sin of eating from the Forbidden Fruit. However, Imam Sam’ani arrived at a very similar conclusion long before that of Dr. Lang’s presented in this lecture. I really believe there are some original insights here worth considering, especially for those struggling with their faith or lack thereof. I hope you will give it a listen. If you do and are tempted to turn it off after a few minutes, you might consider asking yourself how is it that we can so easily get lost in a two-hour film that demands nothing of our intellects and not listen to a former Christian-turned-atheist Ph.D. in mathematics explain how the Qur’an convinced him it was revealed by his Creator. Perhaps the answer is acedia or its daughter, distractedness.

Please watch: The Purpose of Life by Dr. Jeffrey Lang

The Lunacy of Lunar Sightings

The following piece is an important article written by Dr. Youssef Ismail, who is one of the few people I really trust on the issue of determining lunar dates in order to know when the Hajj and Ramadan have begun, when it’s Eid, etc. I trust him for two reasons: firstly, he has been traditionally trained in Maliki fiqh and granted an ijazah to teach it and therefore understands the fiqh issues involved; secondly, and perhaps in this case more importantly, he is a scientist with a doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, which is one of the most prestigious institutes of science in the West. Dr. Youssef Ismail is a first rate intellect who has been diligently moon sighting for over twenty years and has taught astronomy at all levels. He is currently Professor of Astronomy and Science at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California.

The debate over moon sighting is an ongoing and tragic one for Muslims, especially for those in the West. It has been divisive and even split families and communities. The juristic principle, “The government removes disagreement” has worked well in the Muslim world although at a cost. The scientifically impossible and hence clearly unverified reports of sightings in places like the Arabian Peninsula are a travesty to modern science not to mention classical jurisprudence, which acknowledged the role of science in negating moon sightings. Our classical scholars were, almost without exception, well versed in the cutting edge sciences of their age. And while astronomy has developed greatly since the advent of the telescope and calculus, its ability to predict eclipses or new moons has not advanced in any significant way. This aspect of astronomy was surprisingly developed even in the Babylonian period. Granted our precision, which now is down to minutes, seconds, and even nanoseconds, has evolved significantly, but the prediction of the actual events within hours has been known for centuries.

Muslims were capable of calculating the moon’s birth centuries ago to a highly accurate degree. They used sophisticated charts to determine when and where the moon could be sighted. I personally know the timekeeper of Fes, Morocco who took me up in the minaret of the Masjid al-Andalus and showed me the twelve holes used by the muezzin to sight the moon based upon where it would appear given the time of year. The astronomer, mathematician, engineer, and Egypt’s peerless jurist, Imam al-Qarafi, stated that while science negates moon sightings, it does not assert them. In other words, if natural science tells us it is impossible to see the moon, the reports of sightings are therefore dismissed as the result of other phenomena or possibly the dodgy character of the claimant. However, if science tells us that the moon can be sighted, it is accepted only when naked eye sightings have confirmed it. There really is no debate for those who take the time to study this issue deeply. However, unfortunately, people neither trained in fiqh nor in astronomy or those trained in one without the other are the ones who are making most of the arguments. Yet the only ones who can arrive at an educated ruling about this are those who are properly trained in fiqh and its usul, along with a sound knowledge of astronomy, especially observational astronomy, which is studied less today and is quite distinct from theoretical modern astronomy.

What is important to note about this dilemma is that the issue highlights a central crisis of our Ummah today: we are split into two broad-based camps – the modernists and the traditionalists. The modernists claim to be rational in their approach and prefer to rely on science while too often ignoring the vast intellectual tradition of our great scholars. Hence, many in the U.S. and Canada face north in a “great circle route” for qiblah because it is scientific despite centuries of Muslim practice – including American Muslim practice until the late 1970s – using the loxodromic route, and many also fast according to calculation, despite centuries of Muslim practice using naked eye sightings. What is intriguing is that in both situations Muslims of the past were quite capable of calculating the great circle route but found it too cumbersome and anti-fitrah as is clear from their writings in‘Ilm al-Hai’ah, a compilation of sciences that involves astronomy, navigation, cartography, and surveying, which was used in determining the qiblah. Muslims of the past were also capable of calculating the birth of new moons and even knew when they could be seen by the naked eye based on the conditions but despite that chose to follow naked eye sightings given the hadith’s clear injunction to do so. Sadly, we are now caught between an ossified tradition that ignores science and modernists who ignore the classical tradition. Hence, on the one hand, we have traditional scholars following claims of naked eye sightings despite established modern science that enables those working with its tools clearly and decisively to declare its impossibility and despite our classical scholars, who were profoundly well-versed in science, especially geography and astronomy, declaring the necessity of scientific negation of impossible sightings given their absolute reliability and decisive (qat’i) nature; on the other hand, we have modernists who completely ignore the classical tradition of the jurists who, with their knowledge of astronomy, were capable of making calculations of moon sightings but did not do so, as they considered it an abandonment of prophetic practice. Almost all of the articles and books that I have read on the subject unfortunately follow only one or the other methodology. One of the rare exceptions to this is the work of Dr. Mokhtar Maghraoui, who is trained in both modern and classical sciences at the doctoral level. Hence, he is able to draw from both modern science and the traditional fiqh positions. I challenge anyone to read carefully Dr. Maghroui’s “An Islamic Legal Analysis of the Astronomical Determination of the Beginning of Ramadan” or a book that I wrote on this subject, Caesarean Moon Births with a disinterested approach and not be convinced. Unfortunately, most people’s minds are already set, and they read to refute rather than enlighten themselves. I personally would love to be convinced of the other position, as my goal is unity and not simply to be among those who differ (and are practicing, as the Arabs say, khaalif tu’raf ), but I sincerely believe that the opposing argument is unconvincing.

The central issue is simply this: the liberal arts, which were the basis of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim education, were never only the language arts known in the West as the trivium and in the Muslim world as al-sinaa’t al-thalath but always included the quadrivium. The great jurist, theologian, and scientist, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, in his Akhlaqi Tusi, writes, “The foundational arts of science are four: arithmetic, geometry, harmonics, and astronomy.” Classical scholars were skilled in all of them. Today, few seminary students of Islam go beyond studying basic calculations used in inheritance laws and zakat determination and no longer study chronometry (tawqit) or astronomy, geography, and navigation (‘ilm al-hai’ah), all of which were considered necessary knowledge for scholars of the past. The problem of moon sighting will not go away until we resolve the central crisis it involves, as it gets to the heart of what is wrong with modern Muslims: our inability to harmonize tradition with modernity.

The great tragedy of this is that those who rely on calculations to determine lunar dates have removed a day that our Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, established, which is known as the “day of doubt” (yawm al-shakk): it is the first twenty-four hours after the moon has separated from the sun. NASA, the most prestigious and advanced scientific body of astronomy and space science, has stated that the naked eye sighting cannot be predicted in the first twenty-four hours after the “birth” of a new moon due to many variables but especially atmospheric conditions. Surprisingly, Ibn Taymiyyah beat them to the same conclusion centuries ago in hisRefutation of the Logicians. Yet some modern Muslims have declared that this day can be known with certainty despite the Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, declaring it a day of doubt. Furthermore, his assertion – while it needs no verification – has been confirmed, according to NASA, by modern science.

This Ramadan, I started fasting in California and found myself in a Muslim country on the 29th night. This particular country uses calculations to start and end their Ramadan. Normally, I follow the Eid of whatever the country I’m in declares it to be. But given what I know about the anarchy involving the issue, I do that as long as there are verified multiple sightings somewhere in the world. Alas, nowhere in the world could the moon have been seen on Thursday night, except one place, South America, yet no one there claimed to have seen it without a visual aid. Sadly, while it was scientifically impossible to see it in California, some sincere people thought they saw it in San Diego, and those who most likely don’t understand the science

behind the impossibility of naked eye sightings, given the moon’s relative position, or the traditional view of science’s validity in negating impossible sightings believed them. This is due to their adherence to classical fiqh books without understanding the science involved in those positions. In a village or a remote place, this would be the way moon sighting would be practiced, as advanced science is not necessary to the practice of Shariah, but where those sciences are available, they are used, as in advanced cultures or in times such as ours, when millions of people have access to mass communication. Hence, I chose to pray Eid with the community but maintained my fast, as I knew, as far as I was concerned, that it was still Ramadan.

The rule we have is simple: “Leave what gives you doubt for what gives you certainty.” Calculations do not provide certainty that the first day, i.e. the day of doubt, can be determined by calculation. We can know only that the astronomical new moon has been born but not the calendrical new moon. The proof of the inaccuracy of that method is that the Saudis, who commendably are the only people in the world that use the lunar Hijrah calendar in their administrative affairs, due to their unscientific acceptance of sightings deemed impossible by lunar positions, have had to repeat dates (such as the 1st of Muharram two days in a row) over the years because the calculations eventually cause a month to have 31 days, and that inevitably disrupts the lunar calendar. (See “Hilal Sighting in Saudi Arabia: A First Hand Report” by Salman Zafar Shaikh. Most people are oblivious to this fact, but even if they are aware of it simply assume it is not a problem. But imagine the Western world having to have two days that are January 1st because someone miscalculated the calendar!

During a lecture on the problem of calendars, one of my college math professors told our class that the only truly scientific and natural calendar was the Muslim lunar calendar. The Muslim lunar month is a self-correcting system. If people follow it in its natural form, they will never find themselves with two consecutive days being the 1st of Muharram. However, just as people want fast-food, many Muslims want fast-Islam: they want an Islam that fits into their schedules as opposed to a schedule that fits into their Islam. It is also a sign of the sin ofgula so prevalent in our age that people are desirous to end Ramadan as quickly as possible. An Indo-Pakistani I know told me that her grandmother said that people used to cry when Ramadan was ending out of sadness that such a blessed month was coming to a close.

My advice to those who recognize the importance of certainty is that we adhere to naked eye sightings. The sightings could be local, national, or global but must be based upon a multitude of sightings and also must be in accordance with sound science. People’s fast should not be determined by a small number of individuals in one city, especially when science tells us that it was impossible to sight the moon in that place even with the aid of a high-powered telescope, given that it was not visible below the Danjon limit. For those still convinced by calculations, my advice is to read Caesarean Moon Births well or to read Dr. Maghraoui’s paper.

For the average Muslims who are not scholars or students of knowledge, I believe their fasting, based upon the guidance of their leaders, is valid. However, my recommendation for those who went with the sighting reports of Thursday evening and did not fast on Friday is to make up a day. I think the intentions of those who “sighted” the crescent were sincere in their attempt to implement the Sunnah of the Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him. Unfortunately, they failed to consider the decisive scientific evidence to the contrary, which according to the masters of our tradition, such as Imam al-Qarafi, nullifies unscientific sightings. In using these modern tools, such as visibility charts, we can eliminate these controversies in the future. Concerning calculations without naked eye sightings, my main concern is with the leadership whom I believe, despite good intentions, have abandoned the Sunnah of the Prophet, God’s peace and blessings on him, on this particular issue, all the while doing so claiming it is based upon modern science. However, modern science itself does not concur! The real issue, I believe, is that people want the convenience of scheduled holidays to facilitate their hectic work schedules. While easing the troubles of Muslims is an important aspect of the Shariah, and the modern world is often highly antagonistic to the practices of Muslims, I think, on this issue, it is a misguided approach.

Those who know me well know that I loathe fitnah and divisiveness, and I detest sectarianism; hence I am appealing to the sincerity of all parties to respect the others despite the positions they may have taken. Muslims are brothers and sisters, and, if we disagree, the Qur’an tells us to revert back to Allah and His Messenger, God’s peace and blessings upon him. Each must do so according to his or her own conscience, but it should be based upon sound knowledge or the following of sound scholarship and a circumspect view of the whole issue, not a piecemeal approach that does not take into consideration the nuances and real problems inherent in this perennial crisis. I sincerely recognize I could be wrong on this issue, but I don’t think I am, and God knows best. I recommend you read well this article written by Youssef Ismail, a thoughtful moon sighting expert of over twenty years, who does not go out merely in Sha’ban but has diligently watched the birth of new moons every month for several years. I pray that Allah raises him among those of whom our Prophet, God’s peace and blessings upon him, said, “The best of God’s servants are those who watch vigilantly for the new moons and observe diligently the shadows [for prayer times] as a way of remembering God.”