Why Are Muslims Leaving Islam

Why Are Muslims Leaving Islam?

Dr. Yasir Qadhi - MSA National

Introduction

I wanted to give a relatively brief talk because I really want to save some time for Q&A. The topic is very near and dear to all of us sitting in this room, that's why we're here. I think every one of us knows someone who's gone through a crisis of faith, perhaps even someone who's no longer a Muslim.

I think all of us have had that painful realization one day, "Oh my God, so and so, did he actually do that or say that? Did he actually renounce or what not?" And subhanAllah, we are seeing more and more people question and doubt their iman and become either agnostic or atheist or what not. And the fact of the matter is that very few of us are really qualified to deal with this phenomenon. When you go and study Islam or when you this is not you're not trained to deal with the types of problems that our youth come up to me and other scholars with.

A Real Case Study

And I want to just give some broad outlines. SubhanAllah, just recently I was discussing with somebody who openly became murtad, but he was a very, very active person in his community. He was a youth counselor. He was a regular at the masjid. And then all of a sudden he just dropped out for a year and then he announced that he's no longer a Muslim. Somebody connected me with his brother.

We had a very long back and forth and it was the standard questions. Why does Islam allow this? How could the Quran say this? Why did the Prophet do that? All of these questions about issues that he is finding ethically problematic about the Quran, about the sunnah, about the seerah.

Understanding Human Nature: Three Primary Needs

Today, I'm going to just very briefly touch about how do we understand this phenomenon. Realize, my dear brothers and sisters, that Allah created us with three primary needs or faculties, if you like:

1. Physical Needs

We have physical needs. We need to eat. We need to drink. We need air. If we don't have these things, we're going to die.

2. Spiritual Needs

Number two, we also have spiritual needs. And these spiritual needs must also be fulfilled. If they are not fulfilled, then what happens? Many things. First and foremost, depression. Secondly, meaninglessness.

Just living your life carpe diem for the moment. You just feel empty. You don't have a higher goal in life. Right. And therefore, if you don't have a higher goal, you create a goal and you make it the highest goal. And that is why in our times, there are so many causes that people are so passionate about.

Things that were not that important a hundred, five hundred, a thousand years ago, whether it's ethical issues, environmental issues, animal issues. But people need a higher goal for which they want to dedicate their life to. It's in fact ingrained in us to do so. And Islam, of course, answers to that situation, the spiritual need.

3. Intellectual Needs

And then there's an intellectual need as well, that your intellect needs to be satisfied. Your curiosity needs to be met.

The Problem: Making Intellect Supreme

So you have the physical, the spiritual and the intellectual. And Islam comes with enough for all three of these things, that it tells you how to live your life physically. It tells you how to live your life spiritually and it gives you the answers for the meaningful questions.

Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? Why did Allah create me? Now, the problem comes, the problem comes when we take one of these three functions and use them to trump the others, make it the end all and be all. And in particular, in our times, it's the issue of rationality. It's the issue of using our intellects or our brain to try to understand even the minutiae of Islam.

And if we don't understand it, well, then we end up rejecting the entire religion of Islam.

Suprarational vs. Irrational

Now, am I saying that there are certain things in Islam that are irrational? No, I'm not saying this. Islam does not come with anything that is irrational, but it does come with things that are suprarational, i.e. rationality does not and cannot have a role to judge whether it's valid or not.

It's beyond the scope of the intellect. Islam does not come with anything that contradicts the intellect, but it comes with things that the intellect might not necessarily understand, even if it does not find illogical. Is that clear? There are things beyond the scope of realm of reason, of intellect, of aql, we call it in Arabic.

And Islam will tell you these things. And it is possible your mind will not fully comprehend. But Islam will never tell you something that goes against, that contradicts the mind that Allah has blessed you with.

The Pattern of Modern Doubts

And when you look at the questions that these young men and women and they're almost always young men and women, you know, 17, 18, 19, 20, when they're going through this crisis of faith up to the early 20s, when you look at the questions that these young men and women ask, they inevitably center around a core group of issues, all of which are modern, all of which are emanating from within a particular cultural paradigm.

In other words, the questions that people of our generation are asking never even occurred to the last generation or the generation before them or the generation before them, all the way back to the Prophet before. These are questions that modern society is positing, questions about the existence of God, sexuality and orientation, gender roles.

The Historical Context of Questions

These things did not exist. Society, by and large, accepted these things as truths. And a hundred years from now, the questions that then those generations of Muslims will be asking will be completely unknown of, unthought of by the generations of our times.

So instead of being so quick to question Islam, take a step back and be just as questioning of your own questions and where they're emanating from. Instead of just jumping at the Quran and saying, why does the Quran say this? Take a step back before you get there and ask yourself, why am I asking this particular question and not another one that perhaps five hundred or a thousand years ago was at the forefront of people's minds?

And when you start contextualizing yourself, look, you and I, both of us, we are products of a particular civilization, of a particular code of conduct, ethics, morality, of a particular paradigm. We are living and born and raised in a particular context.

Challenge Your Questions

And the questions that are being spoon fed to us by the context that we live in, we also should be brave enough to challenge those questions. Why are we not brave enough to challenge those questions, even as we're brave enough to challenge the Quran? Those questions will change. The Quran will remain, as we know, unchanged.

The Role of Reason in Islamic Thought

And the topic of intellect, the topic of the role of reason is a very detailed topic. And I mean, just FYI, my PhD dissertation from Yale was about the role of reason and intellect in Islam. That was the whole dissertation was about how to reconcile or in particular how Ibn Taymiyyah reconciled reason and revelation in Islam.

Ibn Taymiyyah's Insights

And it's a very fascinating topic because in that work, this great theologian Ibn Taymiyyah, he actually critiques this notion that reason alone will always arrive at the truth. And he brings forth such beautiful examples. First and foremost, the impossibility of even defining what is reason, what is rational, what is intellectual, what might be intellectual for us was not intellectual a generation ago.

What might be rational for us was not rational a hundred years ago. Rationality itself changes from society to time to place. And there is nothing that we can judge rationality by in and of itself.

Personal Experience of Flawed Reasoning

In fact, in our own lives, how many times have we undertaken a course of action thinking this is so logical, this is so reasonable, this is so the correct decision. And the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year, we look back and we say, what a dumb decision I made. How could I have been thinking that?

Isn't it we ourselves experience this? So how then can we take quote unquote reason to be something above and beyond anything, always deriving ultimate truths from that?

The Quranic Commands to Think

Now, does this mean, as I said, that Islam has nothing to do with reason? No, not at all. Allah tells us to think, to ponder. Allah tells us in the Quran to make tafakkur, tadabbur, tadhakkur of his signs. But if you look at the Quranic commands to think and reflect, the Quran never challenges Allah's revelation.

The Quran never tells you challenge Allah's revelation. Rather, the Quran addresses non-Muslims and says, think, is Islam true or not? Think, is the Prophet true or not? Think, if this is this book, the Quran from Allah or not? Once you come to the conclusion that the Quran is the book from Allah, that the Prophet Muhammad is a true prophet, that's where you use your mind.

Accepting the Package Deal

Once you admit and submit that the Quran is the book from Allah, then you are not supposed to question each and every minutiae and law and wisdom.

We will never understand why we pray five times a day and not four or six times. There is no clear-cut answer we can give. We will never understand why we perform wudu in a certain manner, why we have to do one ruku and two sajdahs in every rak'ah.

It might not be something that is fully understood rationally, but neither is it irrational. It's not against reason, it's there, you just submit. Now, if somebody were to say, I don't understand the wisdom in five. Well, tough luck. You've accepted the Quran, we're assuming you have accepted the Quran. You've accepted the Quran, you must accept it as a package deal.

The Proper Role of Reason

So, reason has a role and a place. And what is the role and place of reason? To guide you to the fact that the Prophet Muhammad is a prophet. And the Quran is the book from Allah.

Once you submit to that, then you accept the package deal. And if you look at the questions that these young men and women ask, they're always about fiqh issues of a relatively minor nature. Why does Islam allow this? Why does the Quran say that? And they're all things to do of a legal nature.

They're not to do with the basics or the essence of theology. And we do not judge the validity of a religion based upon the minutiae laws. We don't judge a religion, how can Islam be true when we have to pray five times a day? That's not how we judge Islam.

How We Judge Islam

We judge Islam based on what? On theology, on purpose of life, on the fact that the Quran is a book from Allah. The miracle of the Quran, which is a separate topic. Once we've established that these things are true, we then accept the message as it is.

We don't have the luxury of tinkering with the message itself. And therefore, if we rely too much on these questions and think that our mind itself will be able to answer it, then we are doomed to fail. Because I will never be able to explain to you every single detail of Islam.

And we have to realize that we should think about the questions themselves and where they're emanating from, and perhaps the questions themselves are flawed.

A Case Study: The Age of Aisha

And I want to give you just one simple example that the right always use it, Islamophobes always use. And they make a very big deal of it. And that is they say, for example, oh, your prophet Astaghfirullah was, and they use a very vulgar word, interested in young people. And I don't want to use the word out of respect for the Prophet, because the age of Aisha was a young age. It was nine years old in the Sahih Bukhari Hadith. (Bukhari 5134)

Okay, she was nine years old according to Hadith Bukhari. And so they use a very vulgar word. And I've had young men and women come to me, Muslims, and they say, how can we accept this? This is something that is vulgar, it's unethical. I can't believe that a prophet would do this.

Understanding Cultural Context

Now, this person, and this is a classic example, this question is emanating from a particular mind, coming from a particular culture, of a particular generation, and a particular time, and a particular place. The worst enemies of the Prophet, who smeared him with everything imaginable. They couldn't even think of this as a flaw. Why? Because cultures vary, practices vary. And it's not just Islamic or Arab culture.