Cultural Islam or Islamic Culture

Cultural Islam or Islamic Culture

Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening Greetings

(Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh)

(Alhamdu lillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulillah)

All praise is due to Allah. And may Allah's peace and blessings be on the last messenger of Allah.

Introduction: The Reality of Cultural Practices

I'd like to read for you a couple of news clippings. Some years back, a woman was burnt to death in Dhaka.

The news clippings said, a greedy husband burned to death his young wife at Sikpara following a feud over dowry. According to the police report, Zahir Mia poured kerosene over the body of his wife who was 20 years old, Shahnaz, and set her on fire on Sunday. She died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday.

In Pakistan, over 300 brides are burnt annually. Another clipping, son held for killing mother, Qina, Egypt. A 22-year-old son beheaded and dismembered his widowed mother when he found out that she had secretly remarried.

Breaking with tradition in Southern Egypt, police here said yesterday. Salah Ahmed Hassan, helped by one of his uncles, forced a pregnant Samria Salam, who was 35 years old, into the village cemetery in Naqada near Luxor where they strangled, beheaded, and dismembered the woman, the police said. Hassan and Samria's brother were detained for questioning and they admitted their crime.

These are Muslims. Muslims killing Muslims. Over what? Why were these brides burnt? Why was this woman killed? If we look into it, we'll see that it is a result of inherited pre-Islamic practices.

Or practices adopted from cultures which surrounded Muslim cultures. And I'm sure you've heard of other cases of honor killings, of female genital mutilation, and a variety of other practices which really in fact have nothing to do with Islam at all. It is Muslim culture in certain parts of the world.

But it's not Islamic culture, that's for sure.

Defining Culture

Culture is defined by anthropologists as the way of life of a specific group. That way of life may be in accordance with religious teachings, or it may be in accordance with inherited tradition, or it could be in accordance with new practices which people develop as a result of innovation in religion, or fanaticism about various practices or teachings.

We find in Muslim culture today, this challenge which faces the Muslim world as a whole. The confusion from this legacy of inherited practices leaves Islam hidden for many Muslims today. In fact, if you go to the website apostatesfromislam.com, you will find there people who were formerly Muslims, who are explaining why they left Islam.

Because Islam said this, the people in my city or town did that, my parents did this to me, my family did that to me, they forced me to do this or forced me to do that. And when you read all of these stories, what you read there is cultural practices which in fact have nothing to do with Islam at all. So we have a great challenge before us.

Because when we try to clarify this to people, people caught up in the culture of Muslim people, where it is clearly in conflict with the culture of Islam. And for us to understand what is the culture of Islam, obviously it is the culture which is produced by people who practice the Quran and the Sunnah, as it was understood by the first generations of Islam. This is Islamic culture.

Islamic Culture vs Cultural Practices

Essentially, there is some room for individual cultural group practices where they don't conflict with Islamic teachings. In terms of the colors people might want to dress, the foods they might want to eat, the way in which they build their houses, a variety of different elements which are called according to the sharia, or the custom of the people. That, there is no problem about.

The problem comes where these cultural practices now come into conflict with Islamic teachings. The various sources may be identified as four:

1. Pre-Islamic practices
2. Adopted practices by Muslim people
3. Religious innovation
4. Religious fanaticism

The Paganist Argument

The common thread which holds all these groups together is that whenever a person tries to explain to them, this is not from Islam. This is your cultural legacy, but it is not in accordance with Islamic teaching. It's not in accordance with the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Or the Qur'an and the Sunnah as it was understood in the time of the Sahaba. Their response is, what are you saying? You know better than our parents, our grandparents who have been doing this for generations and generations? You think you know Islam better than they do? What we found from them, what we learned from them is sufficient for us. This is Islam for us.

This is enough. Actually, this is a repeat of the statements made by the pagans in the time of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wasallam) which Allah enshrined in the Qur'an, in Surah Al-Ma'idah, verse 104. And it was repeated a number of times elsewhere in the Qur'an.

Different wording, but basically the same.

Quranic Verse

Allah says:

They reply, what we found our parents doing is sufficient for us. Even though their parents knew nothing, nor were they rightly guided.

Allah adds that, even though their parents knew nothing, nor were they rightly guided. So this response of, what we found our parents doing is sufficient for us, this was the response of paganism, when Islam came. It's not to say that Muslims today who are caught up in cultural Islam are pagans.

But they're repeating the same paganist argument. An argument of ignorance, which Allah cursed in the Quran, when He put it in this context.

Examples of Pre-Islamic Practices

The Dowry System

So, when we go back, and we look at the case of the woman who was burnt to death. 300 burnt to death every year in Pakistan. Bride burning, it's called. Over dowry.

How over dowry? Maybe here in Malaysia, it's not an issue. But there in the subcontinent, in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, people follow the Hindu custom of giving dowry to the husbands, to the husband-to-be, the groom. Islam, it is the husband, the groom, who gives the dowry to the bride.

Dowry symbolic of his preparedness to look after her. That is the Islamic way, that is Islamic culture. However, in Hindu tradition, and in old Christian tradition, it was the practice that the family would give dowry to the groom.

Because the woman in these cultures were worthless. In Europe, in the dark ages, Christian scholars debated whether women had souls or not. In India, they practiced, Hindus practiced the custom called Sati.

If a woman's husband dies, and they burnt his body, because that's what they did, that's how they got rid of the dead, they burnt the bodies. She was supposed to climb on top of the funeral pyre and be burnt up along with him. Because once her husband died, she had no value.

She was nothing. So in that culture, when a man marries a woman, he is taking a burden off the family. So they pay that groom to take the bride.

So, what happens inevitably is that payments oftentimes are a result of promises. The parents of the bride promise the groom, we will get you a Mercedes, we'll get you a big house, we'll get you, you know, 50 inch television, you know, they promise everything. And the groom takes the bride.

Then after they get, they're married, they're living, some of the things that are promised are not fulfilled. The groom is getting upset, where is the stuff your parents promised? She says, I don't know, you know, my dad said, ask him. So, you know, he's upset, why not? His contact, the dad says, well, you know, I had this problem, this, I wasn't able to make the payments and that, I can't get it now, maybe later.

So, the groom is upset. And in so many cases, he and his mother-in-law, his mother, he and his mother, will catch that girl in the kitchen, this is the common methodology, and pour kerosene over her, and then set her on fire. It's called bride burning.

Evil, evil. Amongst the Hindus it's thousands, but amongst the Muslims it may be less, but still, 300 women in Pakistan every year, I don't know how many in India and how many in Bangladesh and the other countries. I found an article which said 300 in Pakistan.

Still, that is horrendous. The idea that 300 women would be killed in this way, as a result of cultural Islam.

Honor Killings in Egypt

In the case of Egypt, where that son dismembered his mother after strangling her along with her brother helped him, the mother's brother helped him, she was only 35 years old.

Tradition in southern Egypt is that, if a woman is widowed, her husband dies, she does not remarry, period. That's their culture. Culture inherited from the pharaonic times.

In the pharaonic times they had a myth, about a goddess by the name of Isis, whose brother wanted her in marriage. She refused. So what did he do? He killed her husband, her husband's name was Osiris.

He killed him. But she still refused and she hid her son Horus until he grew up to be a man. And he then revenged his father's death by killing Seth.

But the fact that the mother, Isis, did not remarry, that remained like a symbol. And the worship of Isis in Egypt began as a cult from southern Egypt, then spread over the rest of Egypt. So those people from southern Egypt who accepted Islam, most of them carried this tradition with them, widows don't remarry.

So when this young woman, 35 years old, remarried, she got pregnant, so her son found out. He and the woman's brother killed her, strangled her to death in the cemetery, cut off her head and chopped up her body.

This is cultural Islam at its worst, at its worst, its most evil.

Local Cultural Practices

Tahlil

Now, locally, cultural Islam might not be or might not seem as dangerous. Instead, we have here, for example, the practice called Tahlil, where three nights after somebody dies, Yaseen is read, seven nights. If you're from royalty, it's a month.

Of course, it's based on unauthentic hadith. Hadith are not as authentic. All the hadith about Surah Yaseen are false.

There's no authentic hadith about Surah Yaseen. Being the heart of the Qur'an, it is well-known, fabricated, inauthentic hadith, everything has a heart, and the heart of the Qur'an is Yaseen. Nonsense.

Read Yaseen for your dead, nonsense, not authentic. So, it is a false practice, though there are weak or fabricated hadith behind it. Maybe not as dangerous as what happens in bride burning there in Bangladesh or Pakistan.

Bersanding

But we do have other practices which have some elements of harm in them, spiritual harm, when people practice what is called Bersanding, or Bersandung, is it Ding or Dung? I'm not sure. Ding? Okay. And this Adat Berenjis, Berenjis? This thing of getting married and spraying rose water and sprinkling flowers and pandan leaves, you know, this doing, this practice here for Baraka, for one, it's from Hindu tradition.

It's Hindu. It's not from Islam at all. That's bad enough.

But the concept that it is for Baraka

But the concept that it is for Baraka, that you get Baraka from it, now we enter into a realm which is much more dangerous. Because this is shirk or borderline shirk, depending on how serious people are about this Baraka.

Because to believe that to do this practice is going to bring good, remember these are physical things.

Omar ibn al-Khattab when making Tawaf, and he stopped in the midst of the Tawaf, and pointed to the black stone and said, I know you can neither bring any good for me nor harm me. The only reason why I kiss you is because the messenger of Allah kissed you (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

He is affirming, no Baraka. There's no Baraka in kissing the black stone.

I know people spend all kinds of efforts to get to that black stone. They will mow people down. They will get in there and they want to rub everything on it. Right? They have kids, they'll rub the kid inside of the black stone even. Feeling you do that, you've got Baraka. Baraka is coming off.

It's gonna, you know, do something for you. This is shirk. It's only a stone.

Similarly, this rose water, the flower petals and leaves, this is only created things. There's no Baraka in it. And we should give up this practice because it is not an Islamic practice.

This is from Hindu tradition.

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Circumcision Practices

We also have another practice called Burhatan or Sunnat. There's some other names for it, right? Where circumcision is done for boys reaching the age of puberty, 11 and 12 year old.

This is torture. This is torture. The sunnah is to do it on the seventh day.

That is the sunnah of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). That's what he taught. On the seventh day. A baby who is born on the seventh day, you clip off that bit of skin, it's a minor situation.

For a boy who has reached 11 and 12, this is now something serious. You're harming people. So it's not sunnat at all.

It is harm. So really we need to deal with such practices. There's harm coming from it now.

Harm we have talked about spiritually in the Bursanding. And now harm in the Burhatan which is physical harm. So the potential is there.

We have to re-look at Islamic culture here and categorize it.

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Religious Innovation: The Mawlid

We also have among the adopted practices, the mawlid. Very popular.

People spend a lot of time preparing for it, conducting it, etc. But we have to understand fundamentally that the mawlid is not from Islamic culture. It has become the culture of Muslim people in many places.

National holidays in many Muslim countries. However, did Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) celebrate his birthday? No. Did his sahaba celebrate his birthday? No.

Did the tabi'un, those who came after the sahaba, did they celebrate his birthday? No. Did the tabi'in? No. 400 years after the death of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)this practice began in Shiite Egypt.

The Fatimids, they began it. And it spread. But it is not from the sunnah of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم). Actually the date of birth of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is unknown.

Yes, there is a common day everybody fixes in the calendars. But really when you get back to it, you research it, you find out, that date has no authentic evidence to establish it. As Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus Christ, tomorrow, 25th of December.

The date of the mawlid, the 12th of Rabi'ul Awal, is not the date of established birth of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

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Mysticism and Sufism

We also have another source of cultural Islam. And this is based on religious innovation. Innovation which introduced into Islamic teachings, concepts which were in fact foreign to Islam.

This general body of teachings may be called in English mysticism. And in Muslim culture it is referred to as Sufism. Now some of what is called Sufism, may be from Islam.

Extra prayers, avoiding too much of attachment to this world, living a simple life, remembering Allah often. These are all part of Islam. But where one has this belief, that it is possible for the human being to become one with God, known as ittihad, or hulool, or fanaa fil laa, a variety of names given to it.

We now have a dangerous concept. A concept which leads now to heresy. Where we had individual standing up and saying, I am Allah.

There is nothing inside of my garment except Allah. Famous statement of Al-Hallaj. People claiming special status, because they are higher up on the spiritual ladder.

Special intercessors, called autad, qutub, and a variety of other names. People who are supposed to be closer to Allah, who can take our prayers to Allah for us. People who are given the ability to distribute Allah's barakah in

the world.

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Shaykh Nazim's Claims

We have clear statements of Shaykh Nazim Al-Qibrusi, famous for following here. Some of the datus are among his followers. The ruler of Brunei is also a follower of his.

He claims, his followers believe, that a true follower of his, when the time for death comes, the angel of death does not take his soul. Shaykh Nazim will be there to take his soul and hand it over to the angels of the next world. Not only that, but when Munkar and Nakir come, sit you up in the grave, in the state of the grave, we're sat up, and we're asked three questions.

مَنْ رَبُّكَ وَمَا دِينُكَ وَمَنْ نَبِيُّكَ

Who was your Lord? What was your religion? And who was the Prophet sent to you?

Shaykh Nazim will be there to whisper in your ear, Allah, Islam, Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

What is this? This is like the Christian corruption known as papal indulgences back in the Middle Ages, in order to enhance the financial status of the Catholic Church, the Pope used to issue certificates with his seal signature on it, which said, the bearer of this certificate has a place in paradise. They sold it, people bought it. Papal indulgences.

Guaranteed seats in paradise. So we have today, Shaykh Nazim and his group claiming the same thing. Because if he's given you the answers that are being asked in the grave, then what else is there? You're guaranteed paradise.

That is serious. The people who believe this are in serious trouble spiritually. People who believe that they are intercessors we can pray to besides Allah. Between us and Allah are in serious trouble.

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Religious Fanaticism: The Madhhabs

The last major group which produce what we could call again, cultural Islam distortion, is the religious fanatical groups. The most popular ones or most well-known ones of the past were the Madhhabs.

The Madhhabs. I know here in Malaysia, everybody is Shafi'i. Generally.

I know when I went for Hajj and there were some people from South India. South India are Shafi'is also. And I saw this brother we're making wudu, we're in the same area.

And when the time came for him to wipe his head, he moved his cap back slightly and he took water and just patted it on his head three times. I said to him, Brother, that's not Masah. You know, Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله

عليه وسلم when he did Masah, he took his hands, this is recorded authentic Hadith, and he wiped from the front to the back, back to the front.

This is complete head. This is Masah. He said, I'm Shafi'i.

I said, no problem. You're Shafi'i. But this is not how it is done.

Imam Shafi'i didn't even do this. He said, you're Wahabi, I know. I heard about you guys.

What to do? This is a problem. This is a problem. I mean, he has no idea where this idea of patting hairs on the front of his head comes from.

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The Scholastic Debate on Masah

That it was from a scholastic linguistic argument where some Shafi'i scholars were debating about what constitutes the minimum of Masah. This is just a scholastic argument. What is the minimum which would constitute Masah? They said, okay, Masah means wiping your hair.

The word for hair is Sha'ar. So, if you wipe one hair, one hair is called Sha'ra. If you wipe two hairs, it's called Sha'ratan.

If you wipe three hairs, it's called Sha'ar. So they said, okay. So the minimum required for Masah that would make Masah acceptable is to wipe at least three hairs.

Okay, alright. That's a wonderful debate and discussion and scholastic argument. But that's not what Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) did.

He didn't do that. So, who are we supposed to be following?

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The True Madhhab

Reality is that Imam Shafi'i wasn't a Shafi'. Yeah, his name was Shafi'.

But he didn't follow the Shafi'i Madhhab that we know today. That Shafi'i Madhhab came about after his time. Abu Hanifa wasn't a Hanafi'.

That's reality. All of the Imams were not followers of the Madhhabs which are attributed to them. So what is it they were following? They were following the Madhhab of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

That's why both Imam Shafi'i and Imam Abu Hanifa said:

إِذَا صَحَ الْحَدِيثُ فَهُوَ مَذْهَبِي

If the Hadith is authentic, then that is my true Madhhab.

That's the principle. So where we get into fanaticism about Madhhab. And remember, this fanaticism, after the 13th century, reached the point where it was ruled in the Hanafi Madhhab that it is not permissible for a Hanafi to marry a Shafi'.

Not permissible. Over another scholastic argument. Whether it was acceptable to say, if somebody asked you, are you a Muslim?

هَلْ أَنتَ مُسْلِمٌ؟

For you to answer, أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ

Hanafi said, that means you're not a Muslim. You're supposed to say نَعَمْ، أَنَا مُسْلِمٌ. No إِنْ شَاءَ اللهُ here.

Because إِنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ indicates doubt. And whoever is in doubt in their Iman, has no Iman. So therefore, not allowed for Hanafis to marry Shafi'.

This is where Muslims reached. Later on, couple of hundred years later, 300 years later or 400 years later, one of the Hanafi scholars said, okay, we will treat Shafi'is like Ahlul Kitab. We can marry them.

Problem.

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The Division at the Kaaba

And you all know, that they stopped praying behind each other. So that up until 1925, there were four Salahs going on around the Kaaba.

When the time for Salah came, like Maghrib came here now. The Adhan for Maghrib was given. Then, Iqama would be given under Maqam Ashafi'.

So, all the people who were making Tawaf for Shafi'is, they would come and line up behind Shafi'i Imam, make Maghrib. When it's finished, then the Hanafi Imam would get up, they make Iqama, all Hanafis would pray. Then Maliki, then Hanbali.

Four Salahs going on around the Kaaba, until 1925. And this was one of the great evils, according to people, cultural Muslims, that the Wahhabis did. They came into Mecca, and they broke down these structures, the Maqamat.

And they said only one Imam. Alhamdulillah, that's a good thing. But in the eyes of those who saw only cultural Islam, then they saw these structures which were built.

You see all the old pictures, they have them listed. Maqam Shafi', Maqam Hanafi', Maqam... As you have Maqam Ibrahim, we know that one's real. But these other ones, Maqam Shafi', Maqam Hanbali', these were things people built, when they split up, and were no longer praying behind each other.

So are they Islamic relics? I mean, of course, to go break down Maqam Ibrahim, this is haram. But to break down Maqam Shafi', this is wajib. Not just halal, but wajib.

Because it doesn't belong there. It represents the splitting up of the ummah.

Following the Madhhab Correctly

So I'm not calling to rejection of madhhabs, in the sense that we should never follow a madhhab, or don't follow a madhhab.

No, it's okay to follow madhhab. Follow the scholars. Whoever you follow, is gonna be following some madhhab, or scholar.

You don't have the knowledge to go to the sources of Islam, you have to follow somebody's knowledge. No harm to follow somebody's Shafi', or Hanafi', or whatever. But to the degree that it is possible for you to know what is the correct rulings, then you should try to find out.

If you can't, then you follow the scholar. And it's pleasing to Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, inshallah. Because the scholar is part of a tradition trying to follow the madhhab of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Conclusion: The Path Forward

So, Islamic culture is the culture produced by following the Islamic teachings, as understood in the first generations. That culture is the culture that we can come together on. With the differences that we may have within ourselves, different opinions, different views, etc.

That is the basis for the unity of the ummah. True Islam. As for the cultural practices, we have to weed them out.

Systematically. If we don't tackle them in this generation, they will come back to us in the next. So we have to oppose these.

It's just not enough to say, okay, I know this is wrong, but everybody is doing it. No, that's not enough. You will be asked about the knowledge that you were given on the Day of Judgment.

If you know what is right, you know what is wrong, then it's our duty to stand up for it.

Quranic Command

We were the best of nations. Why? Because we command good and forbid the evil.

As Muslims, we have to stand forth for what is correct, what is true. And what is true is Islamic culture.

Final Message: Islam Cannot Be Inherited

We have to bring that back to life again. And we should walk away this evening knowing one last fact. That last fact is that Islamic culture, Islam cannot be inherited.

Cultural Islam can be. We can inherit names from our parents. We have last names.

We can inherit nationalities. We can inherit cultural traditions. But Islam cannot be inherited.

Because Islam means submission to the will of Allah. Submission of the heart, of the soul to the will of Allah. And you cannot inherit submission.

So each and every one of us has to leave here tonight deciding to submit if they haven't done so before.

Spiritually deciding to submit themselves to Allah and to practicing Islam as it was revealed and taught by Rasulullah. Revealed by Allah and taught by Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم

And I close asking Allah to accept our gathering here as one in which we have sought to remember him, to remember the message which he conveyed through his Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم

And I ask Allah to forgive our ignorance in our cultural practices of the past.

And that he give us the courage to adopt Islamic culture in our lives and to teach that culture to those who we are responsible for.

Closing