Mercy of Diversity

The Mercy of Diversity

Khutbah by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

Opening

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessings be upon you all.

The Historical Reality of Islam in Britain

One of the most powerful arguments that's used against us by the BNP, the English Defence League and other bogus defenders of true Britishness is that somehow we fell off a banana boat just a few years ago. That we've only been here for a generation or two and that we could quite easily be put back on that boat and sent off sailing away into the sunset. Our roots are elsewhere. We're foreign. We don't really belong.

But we know, of course, if we study the history of Islam in Britain, that that's dead wrong. We go back hundreds of years to the time of the first British Muslim martyrs in the 17th century, impaled at the stake for witnessing to the one true God in a less tolerant, less multicultural age, to the great conversions of the 19th century, Sheikh Abdullah Quilliam and his community, the work in the temperance halls of Liverpool and of Woking and of London.

To see their literature, to see Muslim newspapers that were published, say in the late Victorian period in this country, is to remind us that all of this current talk about indigenising Islam and British Muslim identity is nothing new. We've done it before. It's been here continuously for generations and generations. The thing can be done and it has been done.

Islam's Celebration of Diversity

Islam is very much in favour of diversity. And one of the questions that we have to ask, there are powers that be at the moment who have decided that multiculturalism is a bad thing, is what then do you do with a minority that thinks that it's a good thing? That's one of the paradoxes of our situation.

But before we get too angry, I think we need to remember that, after all, when the Prime Minister says he doesn't want multiculturalism, he doesn't really mean what many of us think he means. He's not against difference. He's not really against diversity, but only against certain kinds of difference and diversity.

Britain is full of regional differences and he's not against the Welsh having their own culture, or the Cornish reviving their own language, or the Scots having their own deep-fried Mars bars. He's not against that. Similarly, sexual diversity, sexual orientations, increasingly part of Britain given the way that we are now. He's not against lesbian and gay and transgendered people having their own subcultures and their own difference.

So he and the society at large are not against difference, not against there being little modules in society that wish to be distinct, but as soon as the identity is defined in terms of what you believe in, that is when it seems the powers that be become anxious and think that perhaps a monoculture rather than something multicultural would be better for our national cohesion.

Historical Context of Religious Tolerance

If you were to walk down the street of any medieval Muslim city, you wouldn't just have seen Muslims. You would have seen Jews. You would have seen Christians of very many kinds. You would have seen other communities that sustainably existed in those societies and cultures for centuries.

It wouldn't have been the case in Luton or Cambridge 500 years ago. If you weren't the right kind of Christian, you were likely to be hung, drawn, and quartered. But in medieval Islamic cities, and I think in medieval Chinese cities, medieval Indian cities, in most of the pre-modern world, not in Europe, but in most of the pre-modern world, multiculturalism was kind of assumed. They didn't need a word for it. They didn't need a debate about it because they'd always been used to having neighbors who worshipped gods different from their own.

Quranic Principle of Diversity

For us in the Qur'an, we find this as a sign:

"And among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and colors. In these are signs for those who know." [Quran 30:22]

These signs is that your languages and your colors are different. We celebrate this difference. Why? Because through our diversity, the oneness of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) is affirmed through his creative power.

We don't have the legend of the Tower of Babel. Different languages are not some kind of punishment or curse for human disobedience to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى). It's presented as a blessing. So we have always had this. This is part and parcel of how Muslims are. We like diversity. We like difference.

We like communities to have sustainable futures. We like people to feel that their grandchildren and their great-great-great-grandchildren will be in some sense in continuity with their particular way of being human. Something that the modern world generally doesn't find it very easy to guarantee us.

Contemporary Challenges

But when confronted by these darkening horizons, a Europe that allows regional diversity and sexual diversity but finds Muslim difference problematic, we have to think about what our ethical response should be. I just got back from Norway. The most popular party in the Norwegian polls at the moment is the Freedom Party of Siv Jensen, which is their equivalent of the BNP.

In Germany recently, 80% of Germans' polls said they wanted a minaret ban in Germany. In Switzerland, they already have it. And when that ban came in, I sent a series of slightly cheeky emails to the Swiss Ministry of Justice just to see what on earth they had in mind.

And they said a minaret is any tower for a religious purpose built by Muslims. So a Christian can have four minarets copied from the Blue Mosque in Istanbul in his back garden and that's just fine. That's an acceptable cultural difference. But the moment he becomes Muslim, he has to take them down or go to jail.

So I sent another email and said, what if a group of Muslims buy a redundant church? Is the steeple considered to be a minaret? And I had to think a little bit about this. And then the man from Zurich got back to me and said, yes, the steeple becomes a minaret and the community has to take the steeple down.

The Niqab ban in France, arguments over Niqab elsewhere in Europe. Our British Muslim students from Cambridge who wear Niqab, may Allah bless them, and accept their effort, can't go to Rome for a meeting that we had with the Pope because in Italy, if you wear the Niqab, you can get stopped by the police and arrested.

This is happening and we're not quite sure how far it will go. But the instincts that are bubbling beneath the surface of these still minor legal adjustments are unpleasant.

The Islamic Response

What should our response be? The response of some young, untrained souls is to jump up and down and start cursing and to start mouthing nonsense about Islam in danger. Islam is God's final religion. It's not in danger. He's not going to let it go down the tubes. It's been persecuted far more seriously than this in the past and it always prevails.

We shouldn't be afraid:

"They don't fear, for the sake of Allah, anybody's blame"

Whether it comes from Nick Griffin or whoever. We're not afraid. We're not worried by those people.

So how should our response be? If it's not to be yelling in the streets, how should it be? It should be following the Qur'anic principle of:

"Good and evil are not equal. Repel (evil) with what is better, then the one between whom and you there was enmity shall become as though he were a close friend." [Quran 41:34]

"And none are granted it except those who are patient, and none are granted it except the owner of great fortune." [Quran 41:35]

When I stepped out of the church and into the mosque, this was one of the most beautiful things that I found. That there is the practice of, as the Qur'an says literally, it means push with something better.

And then the one between you and him there was enmity shall become like the closest friend. Only people with real sabr are given this and only people with real good fortune are given this. In other words, you have to have Allah's tawfiq, the help from Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى)sabr as well.

The Prophetic Example

And the Holy Prophet says: (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ)

"Be joined to him who would boycott you and give to him who withholds from you and forgive the one who has wronged you."

This is the message of the Fath of Makkah. He was not in a position of powerlessness when he went into the city of Makkah (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). He could have wiped them out. But instead:

"Go for you are free."

Extraordinary moment of freedom and of liberation and of forgiveness. This is what we call:

"Forgiving even when in a position to punish."

And this is from his (شَمَائِل) and his (أَخْلَاقِ)، (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). That is what we are called to be.

Maintaining Perspective

People who are wronged and tortured and insulted. And let's face it, it's not really that bad here in Britain. You don't need a minaret. There's (اختلاف) (difference of opinion). It's not like the Spanish Inquisition. Let's not hyperventilate here.

And there are so many people, Christians, others in these societies who are just as appalled by these changes as we are. It's not that bad. But the response has to be: Push with something better. Be better than them.

Don't turn into the kind of gargoyle-like screaming stereotype of the dumb, over-emotional Muslim which is what those people want you to be. Don't be a tool in their hands. Don't be a weapon used to beat the Muslims by the media. Because that will bring upon you the anger of heaven.

Instead, be somebody who has this sabr, which was the quality of the Sahaba under the persecution in Makkah. And ask for Allah's tawfiq because without that, no community has any future.

Conclusion and Purpose

So we ask Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) to allow us to continue to be witnesses to diversity and to be fully in partnership - respectful partnership, equal partnership - with people in other communities that also love the fact that society is diverse and that the world continues to be diverse.

But at the same time, not to do so through some empty social science slogan but for Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) so that our difference witnesses to Him. So that we are reminders of the principle from which we came and to which we will return.

Diversity on its own is just diversity. But the diversity of different faces - beautiful faces, people differently illuminated by the light of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) pointing back to Him, reminders of Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) - that is diversity existing for the purpose for which it was created, which is to increase the number of signs in Allah's creation which is already, mashallah, packed full of more signs than anybody could possibly need.

Closing

And Allah knows best. May Allah send blessings upon our master Muhammad, his family and companions, and grant them peace. And all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.