Overcoming the Challenges of Extremism

Overcoming the Challenges of Extremism

Introduction and Opening Remarks

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions. Peace and blessings be upon you.

There is no power or strength except with Allah, the Most High, the Most Great. Ramadan Mubarak to all of you and to all Muslims. Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

I want to thank the Sheikh Salama Foundation for this opportunity and Sheikh Maryam and all of the people working here. Time is very limited. I'm not used to speaking without a podium. I feel naked, but this is the TED approach to things.

Understanding Extremism as an Illness

So, what I wanted to talk about, the idea of extremism, looking at it as an illness, and what is the illness, what's the ideology of the illness, and then how is that illness treated. If you look at just living in the world, all of us will get sick. Societies get sick. People get sick.

And our Prophet ﷺ said,

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"Verily God has not sent down any disease except that He sent down with it a cure, a healing. He knows it, who knows it, and is ignorant of it, who's ignorant of it."

The thing about this hadith, which is very interesting, is that the Quran talks in terms of diseases and cures as opposed to problems and solutions. And part of the reason for that is problems and solutions, which is an engineering language, the idea that you can suddenly just, once you get the solution, you implement the solution, the problem goes away.

When you look at disease and illness, diseases take time to come about because health is the natural condition, but over time, through bad eating, if you have a disease which is an ideological disease, over time, through indoctrination, the mind gets sick. And so looking at it in terms of disease and healing is a better way because you understand that the problem that you're looking at, this diseased condition, is not something that you can simply solve overnight. It will take time because it took time to come about.

And very often, Kierkegaard, the great Danish philosopher, talks about creeping villainy, that most people don't see villainy when it first emerges. It takes time before they recognize it, once it's become palpable.

The Five Major Defects in Extremist Understanding

So I want to look at some of these, really, in Arabic (حَلَال - halal), which can mean (فَسَاد - fasad) like corruption. In this case, it's a gaping defect, the gaping defects in the understanding of people that are now what

we call extremists the (مُتَطَرِّفُونَ - mutatarrifoon). Unfortunately, some call them (أُصُولِيُّونَ - usooliyoon) fundamentalists, which is a problem because (أُصُولِيّ - usooli) is a very high term in the Arabic tradition.

First Defect: Segmentation and Decontextualization (مَنْهَجُ الِاجْتِزَاء)

But the first major defect is what would be termed, and this is from the great scholar Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, these five (أَخْلَال - akhlaal) or these five defects in extremist understanding. But the first one is the (مِنْهَاجُ الْإِجْتِزَاء - minhaajal ijtizaa), which is a type of segmentation, it's a decontextualization of a tradition which is quite vast, and holistic by its very nature.

There's a famous story about the blind men that look at the elephant, and one of them is feeling the trunk and describing the elephant as being like a pillar, another feeling the nose, another feeling the tail. If you have a segmented view of something, and not a holistic view, then you will always have a problem because you'll never be able to see the thing for what it is, you will only see a part of what it is.

So, the first major problem that you have is engaging the revelation, because we have the (نُصُوص - nusoos) is the Quran and the hadith first and foremost. It's engaging the revelation without understanding the holistic nature of it, because the Quran, although it came down piecemeal, is a holistic tradition.

Abu Ali al-Farisi, the great Persian grammarian, Ibn Hisham mentions in al-Mughni, that Abu Ali al-Farisi said, "All of the Quran is like one chapter." In other words, you cannot take one part of the Quran, in fact the Quran says, "Do you believe in part of the book, and then you don't believe in other parts of the book?" The Quran is a holistic tradition that takes many many years to master.

So, for instance, in Surat al-Hijr, the Prophet is described as being mad by his detractors. The answer or the response to that doesn't come until much later in Surat al-Qalam. It didn't come immediately after that, the response came much later, because this is the way that the Quran works. It's not a linear book. It's a very deep book, in fact the deep structure of the Quran, which has been studied for centuries by scholars, and Al-Biqa'i is probably one of the greatest commentators on the deep structure of the Quran, is actually very profound. Over time, people who have studied the Quran for many many years, begin to see these connections.

The Example of "Fighting People" Hadith

So when you look at this, for instance, there is a Hadith, and it's in the Arba'een al-Nawawiya, which is one of the most famous collections of Hadith, that many many Muslims around the world have memorized, and it's taught in many schools. There is a Hadith in that collection, which is a Sahih Hadith, a sound Hadith from the Prophet ﷺ.

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So this Hadith says: (عَصَمُوا مِنِّي دِمَاءَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ إِلَّا بِحَقِّ الْإِسْلَامِ وَحِسَابُهُمْ عَلَى اللَّهِ - Bukhari 25, Muslim 22) - "I was commanded to fight people until they say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا الله and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, and they establish prayer, and they give Zakat, and once they do that, then their blood and their wealth are protected from me, except by the

right of Islam. Their blood and wealth are protected, except by the right of Islam, meaning if they kill somebody, or something, or steal. And their reckoning is with God." It's not for me to judge them as Muslims. Their reckoning is with God.

Now this Hadith is a deeply problematic Hadith, because many of the extremists take this Hadith, and say, here's permission to actually fight other people that disagree with us. If you don't say لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا الله the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to fight you, until you say it.

Well, part of the problem with that understanding, is that if you look at the word (نَاس - naas), which means people, I was commanded to fight people (أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أُقَاتِلَ النَّاسَ). So (اس - is) is the word that's used. (مَنْ هُمْ النَّاسُ؟ - Man hum al-naas?) - That's the question, who are (النَّاسُ)?

There was one man, Nu'aym bin Mas'ud al-Ashja'i, there was a delegation from Abd al-Qays, and they met Abu Sufyan, and then they went, and this man said to the Sahaba, to the companions, "Oh, Abu Sufyan and his group have gathered, and they're going to come back, and fight you after Uhud." So this was one person, and yet the Quran says (النَّاسُ - al-naas) because (مِنْ أَسَالِيبِ الْعَرَبِ الْعَامُ وَأُرِيدَ بِهِ الْخَاصُّ) - you use a general term, but you mean something very specific by it, and this is something that you learn when you study (بَلَاغَة - Balagha) and (أُصُولُ الْفِقْهِ - Usul al-Fiqh).

So another meaning of people in the Quran (أَمْ يَحْسُدُونَ النَّاسَ عَلَى مَا آتَاهُمُ اللهُ - Quran 4:54) - Do they envy people?

Now people here meant one group of people. In this verse it doesn't mean all people, it just means one group, even though the Alif-Lam is used.

Another example,(قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ النَّاسِ مَلِكِ النَّاسِ - Quran 14:1-2) So here you have the same word in the Quran used for three different meanings, as an individual, a small group, and all of humanity. And this is part of the difficulty of understanding our tradition, but also why the Muslims traditionally, the scholars demanded that you studied Arabic for years before you were allowed to interpret or speak about the Quran or the Hadith.

You had to study Arabic until you mastered (نَحْو - nahw) (صَرْف - sarf) (مَنْطِق - mantiq) (بَلَاغَة - balagha). Once you learned these tools of learning, rhetoric, which is an extensive study in the Arabic tradition, then you were capable of interpreting the Quran. But even then you had to learn, according to Ibn Juzayy Al-Kalbi, he gives 12 sciences necessary before anybody can comment on the Quran. And that's why the Quran, if these sciences aren't learned, becomes a dangerous book.

So, (مَنِ الْمَأْمُورُ بِقِتَالِ النَّاسِ؟ - Man al-mamoor bi-qitaal al-naas?) - When the Prophet says (أُمِرْتُ - uirtu) this could be something specific to him. That once they begin to oppose him on the Arabian Peninsula, he was given permission. (أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا - Quran 22:39) - Permission was granted for those who were being fought to fight back. And so this was given, the permission was given to the Prophet to do this.

And so Imam Al-Juwayni, one of the great Usuli scholars said (وَأَمْرُ الْجِهَادِ مَوْكُولٌ إِلَى الْإِمَامِ) - The jihad itself is something specific to the leader of the Muslims. And this would be traditionally the khalifa, but today this is

Scholars never implemented that because there's a hadith in Al-Bukhari that says,

(Bukhari 3017)

- Nobody should kill with fire except the Lord of Fire. So nobody should punish another person with fire except the Lord of Fire. So the ulema didn't implement this even though it's mentioned in the books. So ignorant people come and they see this in the books and they say, "Oh well, this is how sharia should be implemented." So just a few examples.

The Example of Jizya and Multiple Forms of Governance

Sayyidina Umar, the Quran says

- That they should pay jizya from their own hand in a humbled state. So jizya was part of the Islamic sharia. So minority communities paid this thing called jizya which is a tax. It's a protective tax. You enter into a status of called dhimmatud. The dhimmiyun. Dhimma means protected. (فِي ذِمَّة - The Arabs still say this. هُوَ فِي ذِمَّتِي - It's I'm responsible for him. So this was an idea.

Now Umar accepted sadaqa instead of jizya from the Arab Christians and from the Jews of Himyar. Why? Because they didn't want to pay jizya. And Umar was fine because it was their thaqafah. It was their culture that they felt that it was undignified for them as Arab Christians or as Jews from the Yemeni tribes to pay jizya. And so he took from them sadaqa. Even though the نَصّ (nass) of the Quran is this. Because Umar understood that there was greater benefit in that.

Now if you look jizya according to Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah is only one of the possibilities in the sharia. He identifies four in the history of Islam. The first is أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أُقَاتِلَ النَّاسَ - This came for the mushrikeen of the Arabs that were fighting to eliminate the Muslims.

- This came for the Byzantine and Persian empires.

is a general principle that's never been abrogated. If people inclined towards peace you can enter into a peace like today we have international treaties between people.

And the fourth one which he considers the most appropriate for the current environment is the صَحِيفَةُ الْمَدِينَةِ (sahifat al-Madinah) which is where the Prophet ﷺ gave full enfranchisement to the minority communities of Medina. And Imam al-Shafi'i says لَمْ أَعْلَمْ خَارِفًا مِنْ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ بِالسَّيَرِ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ لَمَّا نَزَلَ بِالْمَدِينَةِ وَاضَعَ الْيَهُودَ كَافَّةً عَلَى غَيْرِ جِزْيَةٍ - I know of no one that differs that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he settled in Medina, he made a treaty with them.

Now there will be some who say well that was abrogated by the verses in Tawbah. But these aren't abrogated. So this has been a neglected aspect of our tradition. وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُؤَكِّدُ وَحْدَةَ الْأُمَّةِ فِي نِطَاقَةٍ تَعَدُّدِيَّةٍ دِينِيَّةٍ وَحُرِّيَّةِ التَّدَيَّنِ لَمْ يُحْظَى بِبَحْثِ كَثِيرٍ - So this aspect has unfortunately not been studied as it should be appropriately studied. It's interesting that Dr. Ali Gomaa has written a book recently on this subject.

The Prophet ﷺ لَمْ يَهْدِمْ دَارًا لِعِبَادَةِ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ وَخُلَفَاؤُهُ - No building of worship was destroyed. And the Prophet actually prohibited to destroy buildings in war. It's one of the prohibitions in war.

Fourth Defect: Ignoring the Context of Jihad

The fourth problem here is إِغْفَارُ السِّيَاقِ وَأَثَرِهِ عَلَى مَفْهُومِ الْجِهَادِ (ighfaar al-siyaaq wa atharihi 'ala mafhoom al-jihaad( - the decontextualization of jihad.

So if you look for instance in the earlier period the concept of jihad it arose in a situation where there were no treaties. The Arabs used to say إِذَا لَا تَغْزُو الرُّومَ تَغْزُوكَ - If you don't fight Rome, Rome will fight you. This was the environment of the pre-modern world. If you look at the pre-modern all of the pre-modern borders you will see that they're borders that were fought for. People fought. And so the Byzantines were attacking the Muslims. The Muslims were attacking the Byzantines. This was the world.

Even at the early period the Arabs were a group of tribes. Many of these tribes lived off attacking other tribes. And they actually had conditions in which they fought. And for instance they wouldn't take the harim generally, the women because it would cause a whole cycle of violence. But they could steal goats and then they would steal their goats or camels. And then the other tribe when they got their opportunity they would go steal their goats and camels. This was the environment that the Arabian Peninsula Arabs were living in. There was a lot of starvation and other problems. This has to be understood when you read the verses of jihad.

Shaykh Abdullah ibn Bayyah said that in the early period of Islam there was a خِلَاف (khilaaf) about جِهَادُ الطَّلَب (jihaad al-talab) and جِهَادُ الدّفاع (jihaad al-difa') about whether there was pre-emptive jihad or only defensive jihad. Ibn Taymiyyah was of the opinion that jihad was only defensive. And he argued that anybody that studies the seerah deeply will see that the Prophet ﷺ only fought defensively.

Now what's interesting about this he says today this debate should be over. That jihad should be understood to be the right which the United Nations gives every nation to defend themselves against an invading or occupying force. And the idea of going out in an age of nuclear weapons in an age of aerial bombardment and attacking other people is insanity. وَنَحْكُمُ عَلَيْهِ بِالْجُنُونِ - These people literally should be declared insane because they're bringing so much harm on people by doing this.

So the other is... So if you look كُلٌّ مِنْهَا يَرْتَبِطُ بِسِيَاقٍ خَاصٍ جِدًّا آيَةُ الْجِهَادِ وَأَحَادِيثُهُ آيَةُ السَّيْفِ - Each one... Now Imam Zarkashi one of the great Usuli scholars said يَجِبُ امْتِثَالُهُ فِي وَقْتِ مَا وَرَدَ - It must be applied at the appropriate time and place. لِعِلَّةٍ تُوجِبُ ذَلِكَ الْحُكْمَ - Because of some legal rationale for the ruling or the category. ثُمَّ يَنْتَقِلُ بِانْتِقَالِ تِلْكَ الْعِلَّةِ إِلَى حُكْمِ آخَرَ - And then when the rationale changes, the ruling will change.

This is the depth of our tradition and this is why Islamic law is much closer to constitutional law than it is to statute law. And unfortunately many Muslims see it as statute laws. They don't understand that these laws have أَسْبَابٍ شُرُوطُ مَوَانِعِ (asbaab shurooT mawani') - That every ruling in Islam has reasons, it has conditions, and it has prohibitions or preventatives when it's not used.

Fifth Defect: Superficial Understanding of History

And finally, and my time is out so I'll finish this. الْخَلَلُ الْخَامِسُ التَّصَوُّرُ التَّارِيخِيُّ السَّطْحِيُّ (al-khalal al-khaamis al-

tasawwur al-taareekhi al-saThi) - This superficial understanding of history which so many of the Muslims romanticize history. One of the interesting things about the Muslim world is you have no... No Muslims will watch Star Trek. It's... You cannot get this kind of science fiction because Muslims, they're not interested in the future. We have a romanticized view of the past. We want to return to the past.

There's this nostalgia about the past and yet very often it is completely fantastic. It's an emotional view of the past that never existed in reality. The idea that somebody like Salahuddin Al-Ayubi will just emerge and come as a savior and remove all the hardships and tribulations from the Muslims. If you study the life of Salahuddin Al-Ayubi, he was involved in a very complex situation. And so this is one of the major problems that we have in the Muslims do not recognize that Muslim civilization, like the human life, also has seasons. It has growth, it has strength, and then it has decay, decrepitude, and it dies. And this is simply a fact. And you cannot restore what is dead. And again, this is a major problem.

Historical Examples of Pragmatism in Islamic Leadership

So, if you look at Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, he actually paid the Romans at the height of Muslim civilization, he paid the Romans to guard the borders. So he was paying money to the Romans. Salahuddin Al-Ayubi fought with Christians against Muslims. Amir Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi, the great Algerian Mujahid, at times allied with the Christians against Muslims. Because these people were pragmatists and they understood that life is compromised. The Prophet ﷺ never compromised his principles, but he did compromise. And Hudaybiyyah is one of the great examples of that.

The Legitimacy of the Nation State

So, another thing is that a lot of these Muslim extremists don't understand that the nation state is an acceptable form of governance. The fact that we now exist in nation states, because to remove these nation states would create more mafsada min maslaha. You would actually create more terror, more harm than benefit. And so this is part, they still are thinking in terms of empires of the past.

The Cure: Upright Scholarship and Refutation of Distortions

And finally, in conclusion, our Prophet said يَحْمِلُ هَذَا الْعِلْمَ مِنْ كُلِّ خَلَفٍ عُدُولُهُ يَنْقُونَ عَنْهُ تَحْرِيفَ الْغَالِينَ وَانْتِحَالَ الْمُبْطِلِينَ وَتَأْوِيلَ الْجَاهِلِينَ (Ahmad, authenticated by Al-Albani) - "That this knowledge will be carried in every generation by upright people, who will remove from it the distortions of extremists (تَحْرِيفَ الْغَالِينَ (the decontextualizations of nullifiers (انْتِحَالَ الْمُبْطِلِينَ and the misinterpretations of the ignorant (تَأْوِيلَ الْجَاهِلِينَ ."

If we take these three, we have to address rectifying this segmented understanding of Islam. We also have to refute those people that attempt to nullify the beauty and the mercy of Islam by only pointing out certain decontextualized verses, and not pointing out others. And then, elevating the general culture and understanding of our Muslim community which has fallen on hard times. We have a lot of illiteracy. We have poor education. And these things have to be addressed. And finally, a lot of this can be done.

The Need to Criminalize Takfir (Excommunication)

I'm out of time, so I'll leave it for the thing. But one of the things that, and I hope the Emirates thinks about this, is that the criminalization of anathematization, of declaring other people disbelievers, or outside of Islam. The Prophet said that to call a Muslim a kafir is like killing him. Because there are people that will actually take it as a permissibility to kill them. And as somebody who was declared a murtad, and asked for their blood to be shed, I can honestly say I understand the wisdom behind this.

So it's something that we as Muslims need to think deeply about. About this ideology of takfir, of accusing other people of being outside of Islam, and not being part of this ummah. Because this group, unfortunately, these extremists, they view themselves as representing the ummah, and only them. And everybody else is astray.

Conclusion

The Quran says,

- Don't say to anybody that gives you peace, you're not a believer.

I say this and I seek Allah's forgiveness. Thank you and peace be upon you.