That afternoon, at Friday prayers, Sameer sat quietly on the floor taking deep breaths. My words fly up my thoughts stay here below kind of moment.
The Imam, Mike, spoke after a moment of letting the silence descend upon the room like a blanket of peace:
The law is founded on the words of the holy prophet, Allah Bless him, in Surat al- Baqara 2:29, that says “He has created everything on this earth for you.” In other words, everything is permitted unless it is specifically forbidden. We are allowed to change, In fact we are encouraged and sometimes required to change--to honor our values, our principles, and the merciful dictates of this Noble Book. And there is much Sunna to show that we can change without insulting our traditions, even the changes we have made in the arrangement of prayers are often new, not announced in the Noble Book and not mentioned in the Sunna or in the Hadith of ancient times. Certainly we have made even more drastic changes. Some of you have felt we have made mistakes, with our modifications of dress codes, with our removal of the wall, dividing women from men. In the US two-thirds of mosques have no required separation of men and women some have no partition at all. Women are most often permitted to choose whether or not to be behind the screen; they are not simply ordered to do so. So we have many challenges and much controversy. It divides our faith. We see it today in Syria, in Egypt, in Turkey, in Iran and in every Islamic nation. The force of this or that sect or point of view are saying that they are the true believers and the keepers of the faith. I am sure that we will maintain the true path, but it has to be said that this violent controversy, and arrogant self-aggrandizing of your personal view about the nature or the rules of Islam and its role in everyday life, in politics, are risky when you consider the ineradicable truth in the words of the Noble Book itself, its fundamental assertions that only God can be the authority on these matters; no human instrument can be sovereign in this, neither the secularizers nor the armies of so-called political Islam, neither the Brotherhood nor the Turkish or Egyptian liberal intellectuals. Neither can say this is what god wants, not without trepidation.
It is not surprising that we dispute even our very central core beliefs; this faith is anything but frozen in cement. Have you noticed? We never tire of protesting or asserting our opinions or disagreements, This is why the faith moved so dynamically over a thousand years ago, so dramatically across the planet, toppling oppressive regimes and giving voice to the ordinary person--women and men!--the downtrodden people for the first time in human history. It moved with its incipient democratic impulse over a thousand years ago, through the world from Spain to Indonesia. It freed people from slavery to the worldly rulers. Incidentally, Islam does not need to be lectured by democracies that are newbies. We have been struggling with what makes a respectful and harmonious state for five times longer than the lifespan of this great nation. Islam has been struggling to find the way to stitch a unified nation out of different tribes, sects, and ideas about equality and holiness long before the red, white, and blue were sewn together. And neither of the US nor the diverse Islamic countries has cracked the code or completely solved the riddle of liberty and security.
The Surah says He has created everything on earth for you. Therefore, unless it is specifically denounced, it is not forbidden. In other words everything should be weighed on its own merits and its adherence to the deeper ethics and values expressed in the Noble Book. But some legal scholars of the Shari’a see it differently. They say that the Hadith says that Prophet himself says “The worst things are what’s new: every innovation is error.” But how can this be and does the book say this?
It is not true that every innovation is forbidden. For some even this homily transgresses. For some dancing is against the law, for some poetry is forbidden. One writer says dancing is okay but not languorous dancing or effeminate dancing or poetry. I am not sue what unmanly poetry is and I am not sure why women cannot be effeminate. In San Francisco even these rather traditional stereotypes and commonplace prejudices and injunctions have to be carefully considered. Our primary duty is always to justice, to equality and to the authority of god in all things; we are not the judge but only god. This thinking against any new thing and this warning against what is considered languid grows from at best an excess of caution and at worst fear of anything novel, any modern invention. Any new-fangled or even different thing which might bring along with it the possibility of apostasy or immorality. Well, surprise, surprise everything has its abuses and its excesses. If it has not been condemned by the prophet blessed be he, or by the Sunna, or by the hadith or by the consensus of the believers, the ijma of common people as well as the ijma of legal scholars, then we must be willing to be responsible decision makers and to see what has value what has dangers and what should be condemned at any cost. It is up to us. To be vigilant but not to assume the role of Allah.
Sameer waited for the Imam after the service He was a moment inmeditation after the service but then walked out of the masjid into the parking lot alone, not besieged by any body woth questions or comments. Of course the eservice wa sparsely attended that afternoon. He walked up to him and said. I have a question sir. The Imam smiled at him. Call me Mike.
He was not old but twice Sameer’s age. He had been hoping to speak with Sameer for some time. He felt that he was troubled. But he wanted to be approached. It was a complex situation being a leader of prayer these days in the Islamic community.
Sameer spoke without any formalities or buffering pleasantries. The Imam wanted to be casual to be approachable, to be called Mike. Mike was short for Muhammad. Sameer did not call him Mike.
Imam, Sameer said, Didn’t the prophet, Praised Be He, say in the Hadith of al-Bukhari:
Some of my people will think that dancing is lawful, a mountain will cover them and they will be transformed into swine and apes? Sameer had been formulating this question for a week.
Imam smiled knowingly and said Yes, in part. Then he raised his finger to punctuate the heavens. However, you left out the other things in this famously challenging Hadith. Other human passions are condemned as well, including musical instruments, wine of course, even silk. According to the Hadith, if read naively, all of these things can bring you to perdition.
In the progress toward genuine devotion when we are young and like you full of enthusiasm for the faith, a new enthusiasm I might add, it is true, if I am not mistaken, that you have only come to devotion in the last few years really. I would love to hear more about why you acquird this new zealotry. But nevertheless, when you begin the journey to piety, you can be overwhelmed by glut of unmediated sayings, raw data, and laws and texts and even my advice. The world’s first trap is noise, the superabundance of unfiltered thought and words, especially when you first arrive at the foot of the mountain. Of course you think you know everything. At least you must think you know enough or you would not have the temerity, the lack of imagination that it takes to be courageous, unaware of the true magnitude of the risks. You can be stunned when you begin to genuinely wrestle with contradictions. As a result, you will see a silly choice, the dangers include both giving it all up and throwing it all away and becoming once again agnostic or you can think that you might be able to simplify it and to make some kind of final statement about the truth. That is a worse danger than laziness. Even Allah has some forbearance of the person who is simply perplexed or lazy. But he is clear about his punishment for arrogance, for thinking you know it all. Do you recall the story of the bad angel who refused to bow to Adam when God told him to do so. To show a human being deference. Have you ever thought, Sameer, Was Iblis incorrect? Do frail and persistently disobedient humans deserve to be held in awe by the glorious angels? Maybe the devil was right. But no. The words of God make the matter unquestionable. It is worth meditating on the arrogance of thinking, like Iblis, that you are equal to the comprehension of god and perhaps even a little surpassing, that you know better, that you know what God has evidently forgotten to mention or failed to make clear.
What is the punishment for putting yourself on a equal footing with god? In the most contrary and I must say common all-to-human moments of lack of clarity, confusion really, you must say Well only god knows! To step back from the abyss of arrogating to your self those powers that belong only to god. The Imam seemed to have come to the end of his riff, but then threw in a final warning: I might add that anyone in their right mind would have to be pretty delusional, to be stunningly blinded by arrogance to say that they understand a hadith that was composed a thousand years ago in a distant land, in a language, as far as I know, you do not read particularly well and to think you have complete understanding of it. This same Hadith that has been a constant point of vehement discussion among Tafsir scholars for a millennium. It has led to schisms, to arguments and to accusations.
Sameer did not protest or even give a look of disagreement, no argument, the Imam spoke with authority and often in words that Sameer did not really comprehend. His comment came as a monster wave of information; he could only ride for a moment before he fell off. It was almost more of a feeling than a thought. But Sameer said to himslef. It misses the point. We do not have the luxury of indecision because we couch it in caution. We have to act on our principles, yes with great care but without reluctance or fear.
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