Erroneous Approaches to Inviting People to Islam and Calling A Spade A Shovel

 

Islam can be established in a society when most of the people are motivated in favour of Islamic lifestyle. To spread Islam to the corners of each household, the Muslim scholars have a great role to play. First, the idea of Islam as just a religion should be reversed. Islam is not just a list of rituals and festivities to be observed in ceremonious manners. Islam involves all matters of a person’s household chores, business, economic and social aspects. Respecting parents, keeping friendly relations with neighbours, avoiding wrong measurements in sales, upbringing of children, banking, fair distribution of wealth, marital issues and all other things of our lives are addressed by Islam through the verses of Holy Quran and clarifications in Hadith by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). That’s why Islam is called a complete code of life, an accomplished living methodology. The Holy Quran is the only divine text on earth that has clearly laid sanctions on toxic things like alcohol, bribery, falsehood, promiscuity etcetera. People who are too vociferous about feminism should note that the Holy Quran has made it mandatory for all men to pay a definite amount of marriage contractual money to their wives even if they break off with their spouse. Moreover, Islam even bans taking dowry from women. A thorough perusal of Sura Nisa (Chapter 4) in the Holy Quran clearly states the value Islam has bestowed upon women in terms of honour and wealth. Still beating up women for dowry is a widespread crime in some countries which happens due to lack of proper Islamic learning and due to the absence of Islamic laws. When some people with superficial or no Islamic knowledge blame Islam for supporting violence against women, it’s just an example of their utter ignorance.

Islam has made it essential for all women to put on hijab (veil) to safeguard them against rude looks from men. Most instances of violence against women occur for two major reasons: a) Indifference to veil among women b) Failure by the state to administer exemplary penalties to criminals charged with sex crimes. In this context it’s necessary to state that most women don’t follow the Islamic rules of hijab just because of misinterpretation of hijab by a clan of so-called progressive think-tank and a faction of our mawlanas. I would like to refer to the paradoxical status of the intellectuals, writers, human rights activists and reporters that speak low of the Islamic norms of veil without carefully reading the verses of Holy Quran. Simultaneously, perhaps they are unaware of the high rate of westerners every year converting themselves into Muslims. According to a CNN report, since 9/11 over 3 million Americans have embraced Islam. This data delivers a blatant answer to those who claim Muslims to be forcing nonbelievers to accept Islam at the point of swords.

The conventional penal procedure of some countries often fail to prevent people from committing sex crimes because of the lengthy trial process and corrupt legal systems with countless loopholes. With the increasing rate of sex crimes in some Muslim countries like ours, now it’s high time to implement the Islamic way of prosecuting the offenders once their crime is proven beyond doubts. Islam dictates judges and courts to carry out death penalties for criminals like rapists by stoning them to death in presence of general people. This kind of execution definitely sparks off a severe sense of veneration among the people towards the law. This is how a society can keep its people away from sex crimes. Nevertheless, stoning sex culprits to death would sound impertinent to legal experts and jurists in the year 2025 or beyond. In that case the judicial system needs to be protected from political intervention to ensure rapid and exemplary implementation of law on criminals who molest women.

Ironically, some third world intellectuals refer to the white-dominated west as the best abode for women rights. Probably they don’t know that just in America every year over 4 (four) million women call up the National Domestic Violence Hotline to complain about physical assaults by their male partners. Not just that, a rape case is filed in America every six minutes. So, free mixing has not been able to keep down the rate of sex crimes in America. However, when invited or hired delegates from that country are found advising us on women emancipation, isn’t it funny?

Islam has placed both men and women under obligations to put on hijab. The idea that only women are dictated by the Holy Quran to put on veils is wrong. A couple of relevant verses from the Holy Quran are cited below:

“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw part of their cloaks (veils) over their bodies. That would be better as it will make them identifiable (as respectable women) and they will not be teased. And Allah is ever-forgiving, most merciful.” (Sura Al Ahzab: Verse 59)

“Tell the believing men to keep their gaze down (to avoid looking at prohibited things) and safeguard their private organs (from committing adultery). This is holier for them. Certainly Allah is well aware of what they do. And tell the believing women also to keep their gaze down and protect their private parts (from committing illicit acts) and not to display their beauty except the one that appears by itself and tell them to draw veils over their bosoms.” (Sura Noor: Verses 30-31)

The unbarred exposure of feminine prettiness is always an invocation to evil minds—that’s what the above verses assert. When women keep their attractive features covered up, it by far reduces the chances of getting teased or pestered by stalkers. Let me quote a dialogue presented by William Shakespeare in one of his plays--“Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold”. The unanimously famed English playwright had this dialogue spoken out by one of his characters in his drama “As You Like It”. Thus William Shakespeare also admitted the importance of concealing feminine beauty for the sake of women remaining safe from assaults by miscreants. In other words, actually William Shakespeare willy-nilly echoed the Quranic instructions on hijab.

So, now what would be the answer from our so-called intellect traders who denigrate Islam? William Shakespeare is someone they worship, someone they uphold as the greatest ever dramatist of all times. So, was Shakespeare also a fundamentalist?

Speaking at seminars on probable ways to save girls from hoodlums and bringing out rallies haven’t been helpful. Painful incidents related to eve-teasing don’t seem to stop hitting news headlines everyday. Only looking at the bottom of the issue can serve effective outcomes. When boys make rude gestures and comments to girls it’s an offense beyond questions but what to say about girls who invoke evil sensations among boys by wearing low-cut dresses or showing off their slender, youthful, curvy bodies? Corrections are required on part of both.  

In case readers find this article orthodox because of quoting Quranic verses, better they think over my reference to William Shakespeare. After all Shakespeare was not a religious bigot, or was he?

Now I would like to shift my spotlight on the Islamic scholars in our country. I could not convince myself with any explanation from some noted Islamic theologians around us about the point that why do they all the time scare women with the portrayal of hellfire? Why are women without hijab subjected to offensive comments yelled out in Islamic rallies or in sermons? A few months ago two girls smoking cigarettes in Dhaka city were attacked both verbally and physically by some mawlanas and a mayhem broke out over the issue as it took no time to go viral on social media like Facebook and YouTube. Does the Holy Quran or Hadith authorize mawlanas to swoop on girls over allegations of not putting on veil in public places? Public smoking is banned for both male and female citizens across Bangladesh. Why don’t we see the same mawlanas confronting boys or policemen when they smoke in broad daylight? This sort of ignorant and third-grade activities by mawlanas will drive girls further away from Islam. Girls who are not wearing hijab today might become loyal to Islamic code in days to come. Who can deny this likelihood? Pope Francis (1936 to 2025) once predicted during a Papal Conference in the Vatican a few years ago that France and Russia are most likely to become Islamic republics by next fifty years because of soaring numbers of white Russian and French girls embracing Islam in recent times. Is anyone beating up Russian or French girls to become Muslims? No. Never. So, our mawlanas’ approach to dictating girls to put on hijab by abusing them with antagonistic words is going to prove futile without doubts.

While inviting boys and girls to Islam, Muslim preachers should keep their hearts open so that youngsters from all walks of life, wearing any kind of dresses attend Islamic discussion programs. Rebuking girls for wearing western attires can be done by parents at home but theologians have no right to undermine or offend girls in unpalatable terms in public speeches. We can’t show Islam in an inclusive light to the masses by intimidating them with hard and fast terms and conditions at the very initial level. Sermons in mosques across villages and small townships lay a lot of emphasis on the Judgement Day, Apocalypse (Qyamat), delightful interludes with Hoors (girls with celestial beauty in heaven) and so on but why don’t Imams talk about the harmful effects of bribery, telling lies at home or at offices, cheating on common citizens with false assurances during electoral publicities?

Now is the right time to take stock of the above issues and to jump into action because we know too well what happens when our so-called elected governments come to power to call a spade a shovel.

 
Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury is a
contributor to different English
newspapers and magazines.