Microsoft Word is114-Halal-Haram
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173 Anyone who studies the Qur‘ân and the Sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) knows that soundness of heart and integrity of soul are considered as the basis of success, both for the individual and for the society, in this world and in the Hereafter: Indeed, Allâh does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves....(13:11) The Day on which (neither) wealth nor sons will be of no avail except to the one who brings to Allâh a sound heart. (26:88-89) Hence, the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) has said, The halal is clear and the haram is clear. Between the two there are doubtful matters concerning which people do not know whether they are halal or haram. One who avoids them in order to safeguard his religion and honor is safe, while if someone engages in a part of them he may be doing something haram, like one who grazes his animals near the hima (the grounds reserved for animals belonging to the king which are out of bounds for others‘ animals); it is thus quite likely that some of his animals will stray into it. Truly, every king has a hima, and the hima of Allâh is what He has prohibited. (Compiled by al-Bukhâri, Muslim, and others; the narration is taken from al-Tirmidhî) He then explained the value of the heart, the source of the emotions, inclinations, and intentions which are the basis of all human behavior, saying, In the body there is a piece of flesh such that if it is good the whole body is good, while if it is corrupted the whole body is corrupted, and that is the heart. For the heart is the chief organ of the body and rules it. If the ruler is good, the subjects are good, but if the ruler becomes corrupt, the subjects become corrupt. In the scale of Allâh it is the heart and the intentions which have weight, not the face and the tongue: Allâh does not look at your physical features, but He looks at your hearts. Deeds are judged by their intentions, and everyone will be judged according to what he intended. Such is the place of the actions of the heart and the affairs of the soul in Islâm. However, because they relate to the character of the individual rather than to what is lawful and what is prohibited, we have not dealt with them in this volume. These inner aspects of Islâm have been discussed by other scholars and by Muslim Sufis in great depth and detail. They have referred to the moral and spiritual sins as “diseases of the heart,” have diagnosed their causes, and have prescribed remedies for them in the light of the Book of Allâh and the noble Sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.w.s.). Imam al-Ghazzali has devoted one-fourth of his encyclopedic work about Islâm, Ihya ‘ulum al-deen, to this topic, terming them “fatal diseases,” since they lead a person to degradation in this world and to the Fire in the Hereafter. Another point to be noted is that we have dealt here only with sins of “commission” and not those of “omission,” although sins are of two kinds: doing something which is forbidden and not doing something which is obligatory. The second type of sin was not the subject matter of this book, although we have touched upon it here and there in the course of discussion. Had we aimed at describing the sins of omission, we would have been discussing an entirely different subject; we would then have been describing all the obligations which Allâh has laid upon the Muslim, for unquestionably not doing them or neglecting them is haram. For example, seeking knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim man and woman. If the Muslim keeps himself in the darkness of ignorance, he will commit sins through lack of knowledge and consequently will not carry out his religious obligations such as salat, zakat, fasting, and hajj, which are pillars of Islâm. It is not permissible for the Muslim to abandon them without a legitimate excuse since not to carry them out is a major sin, while to downgrade their value and ignore them is to abandon Islâm. To give another example, it is an obligation on the Muslim ummah to muster military power to the utmost extent of its capacity in order to defend itself and to keep the enemy of Allâh and of Islâm at bay. This is a general obligation on the entire community of Islâm and, in particular, on those who are at the helm of affairs accordingly, the neglect of such an important obligation is a major sin and a great shame. We could go on multiplying examples, since the case of all the other obligations, whether individual or collective, is similar. 174 We do not claim to have covered the whole range of what is halal and what is haram. In these pages we have only highlighted the most important matters which are permissible or prohibited in the personal, family, and social life of the Muslim, especially those matters which people neglect or consider insignificant due to their ignorance of the reasons behind a prohibition or permission. We have attempted to show the deep wisdom of the Islâmic Shari‘ah in its legislations concerning the halal and haram, so that anyone who possesses two eyes can observe that Allâh Ta‘ala is not arbitrary in His commandments, neither permitting things in order to be indulgent to people nor prohibiting them in order to make their lives miserable. Rather, He has legislated for them what is in their own best interest, safeguarding their lives, intellect, property, morals and honor, and guiding them toward success in this world and in the Hereafter. All man-made laws are inherently defective and incomplete, since the law-makers, whether they be individuals, governments, or legislatures, 1imit themselves to dealing with material considerations, neglecting the demands of religion and morality. They are forever confined within the narrow bounds of nationalism and the interests of a sector of mankind, paying little attention to the world at large and to the wider concerns of humanity; they legislate for the present, not knowing what lies in their future, nor what the effects of their laws will be. Over and above all this, legislators are human beings subject to their own weaknesses, desires, and prejudices (“Indeed, he (man) is unjust, ignorant.”) (33:72) It is therefore not strange that man-made laws are shortsighted, shallow, biased toward the material interests of the society, and that they provide only temporary remedies. It should not be surprising if human legislation concerning what is legal or illegal is to a great extent influenced by public opinion, by lobbyists, and by what is popular or unpopular; accordingly, things are often made legal even if it is known that they are extremely dangerous and evil in their consequences. One example of this may be sufficient. The government of the United States legalized drinking, repealing the earlier legislation which had banned it. The repeal of prohibition was enacted despite full knowledge of the evil and harm which the consumption of alcohol causes to individuals, families, and society. In contrast to this, the Shari‘ah of Islâm is free of all such defects. How can it be otherwise when it was legislated by the All-Knowing Creator Who is aware of His creation, what is suitable for it, and of what it is capable?...Allâh knows the one who makes corruption from him who sets things right....(2:220) Should He not know Who created (all things)? And He is the Subtle, the Aware. (67:14) This is the legislation of the All-Wise God. He did not prohibit anything unnecessarily nor permit anything randomly. His creation is mand His laws are harmonious. It is the legislation of the All-Merciful Lord. He desires ease for human beings and does not desire hardship for them. How can it be otherwise, when He is more compassionate to His servants than the mothers who bore them? It is the legislation of the All-Powerful King. He is independent of His servants and is not partial to one race or one generation, permitting to some what He prohibits to others. How could this be, when He is the Rabb of all being? This is what the Muslim believes concerning what Allâh has made halal or haram and what He has legislated in relation to other aspects. He therefore accepts it with a convinced mind, a contented heart, and with a strong determination to implement it. Indeed, he believes that his happiness in this world and his success in the Hereafter depend entirely upon his observing the limits set by Allâh following His injunctions, and observing His prohibitions. In order to secure his happiness and success in both worlds, therefore, he must restrain himself from transgressing these limits. In order to illustrate how observant the first generation of Muslims was with regard to the limits set by Allâh and how hard they strove to implement His commands, we cite two examples from their lives. 175 The First Example In our discussion concerning the prohibition of alcohol, we mentioned how deeply the Arabs loved drinking wine and how greatly they enjoyed drinking parties. Then Allâh Ta‘ala gradually turned them away from drinking until He revealed the decisive verse prohibiting it totally and forever, calling it “an abomination of Satan’s doing.” (5:93 (90)) Thereupon the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) forbade Muslims to drink alcohol, to sell it, or to give it as a gift to non-Muslims. When the Muslims heard about the prohibition of khamr, they at once brought out their stocks of wine and poured them into the streets of Madinah as a declaration that they had abandoned drinking. Even more remarkable in expressing their total submission to what Allâh had legislated was the action of those who were engaged in drinking wine when the verse, “Will you not then desist?” (5:94 (91)) reached them. Without hesitating for a moment they threw whatever drinks were left in their glasses upon the ground, exclaiming, “O Lord, we have desisted!” When we compare this manifest success in combating and eradicating alcohol from the Islâmic society with the disastrous failure of the government of the United States (A more detailed discussion of this comparison is given in our book, Al-‘aqidah dururat li al-hayat (The Role of Belief in Life), under the heading of “Belief and), which decided one day to combat this evil by means of laws and force, we cannot escape the obvious conclusion that human beings do not reform themselves except by means of the Shari‘ah of Allâh, which relies on the faith and the consciences of the people before endeavoring to apply authority and force. The Second Example This concerns the response of the first generation of Muslim women to Allâh’s prohibiting women the display of their adornment and enjoining modesty and the covering of their ‘awrah. During the period of jahiliyyah women used to go about with their hair, neck and breasts uncovered, displaying the ornaments they wore such as earrings and necklaces. Allâh Ta‘ala then prohibited Muslim women this wanton display of the period of Ignorance, commanding them to be different and distinguishable from the women of jahiliyyah by observing modesty and by drawing their head-coverings over their hair, neck and bosoms in order to conceal them. The following are narrations from the Mother of the Believers, ‘Aishah (may Allâh be pleased with her), concerning the manner in which the Muhajir and Ansar women received the divine injunction which required a major change in their life-styles, affecting their appearance, dress, and ornamentation. She said, “May Allâh shower His mercy on the early Muhajir women. When the verse, ‘That they should draw their head- coverings over their bosoms‘ (24:31) was revealed, they tore up their garments to cover themselves.” (Compiled by al-Bukhâri.) Once when some women were in the company of ‘Aishah, they mentioned the women of the Quraish and their merits. ‘Aishah remarked, The Quraish women were indeed good, but, by Allâh, I have seen no one better than the women of the Ansar in applying the Book of Allâh and believing in the revelation. When the ayah of Surah al-Noor, ‘That they should draw their head-coverings over their bosoms,‘ was revealed, their men returned to their homes and recited it to their women. No sooner did the man recite it to his wife, his daughter, his sister, or any other female relative, then she tied any piece of cloth available to her, perhaps from a curtain having pictures on it (on her head), so that when they came to pray behind the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), it looked as if crows were sitting on their heads. (Ibn Kathir mentions this in his discussion of this ayah, on the authority of Ibn Abi Hatim.) 176 This was the response of the believing women to what Allâh had legislated for them. They hastened to implement what He had commanded and to abandon what He had prohibited without hesitating, stopping to think about it, or waiting. They did not even delay a day or two so that they could get a suitable, soft piece of cloth and sew it to fit their heads and cover their bosoms, rather, any cloth which was available, whether rough, brightly-colored, or having pictures on it, was sufficiently soft and befitting. If no other cloth was found, they simply tore up the garments they were wearing and tied the strips to their heads, not caring about their appearance, which, as the Mother of the believers has described it, resembled that of crows sitting on their heads. The point we wish to stress here is that mere academic knowledge of the halal and haram, and of the limits of these is not sufficient. Although the major sins and principal obligations are known to every Muslim, nonetheless we find a great many of them indulging in these sins and neglecting those obligations, and rushing toward the Fire with their eyes wide open. If the Muslim is well-versed in the knowledge of his religion and its Shari‘ah, and at the same time possesses a fully alert conscience which safeguards the limits so that they cannot be overstepped, he is indeed rich in all goodness. The Prophet (s.a.w.s.) spoke the truth when he said, “When Allâh intends good for a person, He makes his own soul a watcher over him.” (AI-Iraqi said, “Al-Dailami reported it in Musnad al-firdaus on good authority.”) We end our book with the following supplication which has come to us from the early Muslims: O Allâh, make us independent of Thy haram with Thy halal, of disobedience to Thee with obedience to Thee, and of any other than Thee with Thy bounty. All praise is for Allâh Subhanahu wa Ta‘ala, Who guided us to this; had He not given us guidance, we would not have been guided. www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/Q_LP Yüklə 1,89 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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