The 21st Century Mufti: On Shi'a and Sunna debate

Originally posted on dandalin-siyasa@yahoogroups.com

By MUHAMMAD KABIR YUSUF HAMDANI

 

I have been a member of this group for a number of months now. But I have been a passive member. For all along, I have been observing what is going on in here without daring to contribute. The recently heated Shi'a-Sunna debate has honestly kept me interested. Even if not for the concept discussed, but at least, for the mere fact that an intellectual exercise is going on here. As this exercise is going on, other members of the group further intellectualized the discourse by questioning the moral credibility of the debate. Whether it is proper to discuss religion in a politically inclined group is the furtherance of the already existing intellectual activity. While all these are going on, I still decided to maintain my silence, even though, it is tempting to say something even when one doesn’t have a meaningful contribution to make.

When a member made a posting on Fatwa, in the Arabic language, I know that the group is in the evolutionary process; something we can call ‘Darwinism at work’. Let me (recklessly) predict that in the next few days, a paradigm shift will take place; the languages used as the media of posting will change. The next language to be introduced, I guess, will be Persian. Don’t bother your self that the two languages are not listed in the approved languages of communication in the group. When an evolution is taking place, the end product is unpredictable. All we were told by Charles Darwin is that the fittest is the one to survive.

Casting one’s gaze through the haze and smoky future of the group, one can’t see but the unclear image of the would-be 21st-century muftis practising their venom on the decent audience of Dandalin siyasa. Before any attempts to explain what I mean by this, let me recollect a historical fiction I came across some time ago. It is about the Mufti of Khorasan. The story reads as follows: A strange twist of destiny threw Taneem Afandy to Khorasan, a historical city known for its commercial importance in the East. Afandy was on his way to India to flee the poverty of the middle ages in his hometown Mousel. Being a stranger without enough resources, Afandy decided that the only one that knows me in this town is Allah. So, let me go to His house, and I am sure He will host me. Reaching the empty mosque, Afandy sat in anticipation of the charity from the people praying in the mosque. It was about the time of Zuhr, but the mosque was still empty. To Afandy’s dismay, the only person who entered the mosque after him was the Muezzin. “Maybe he would extend a hand of help” Afandy thought to himself. After the Muezzin had finished the azaan, Afandy could not talk to him about the confusion he encountered during the azaan. Instead of “ash hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah” he heard the muezzin saying “ash hadu anna ahla hazal baladi yash haduuna anna Muhammadan Rasulullah” meaning “I bear witness that the people of this town bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” What of you, Afandy thought to himself without being able to talk to him, not knowing that the worst was awaiting him. Without a word, the muezzin walked out of the mosque leaving Afandy alone in the big and wonderfully decorated mosque. Running out of hope of seeing anyone, Afandy stood up, prayed Zuhr alone and waited for Asr to see the same enigma.

Afandy walked out of the mosque and asked to be directed to the house of the chief Imam of the town. Upon arrival, Afandy’s salaam was answered and he was permitted in. Seconds after his entrance, Afandy came out chanting: SubhanAllah, for the horrible scene he saw in; a young and good-looking man, seemingly, in his early twenties standing naked in front of the chief Imam while the chief Imam was looking critically at the different parts of his body including the private. “For sure I have a story to tell when I get to India ” Afandy soliloquized. “But I will be patient enough to wait and ask questions, if for nothing, at least to give this people fair hearing”. The chief Imam appeared suddenly, interrupting Afandy’s soliloquy. You are welcome to Khorasan Mr. Man, you seem to be a stranger, why are you here? The Imam inquired. “Actually” Afandy started “I am a stranger” but he quickly got scared if the imam offers to host him, then he continued, but I am already hosted by Allah, “Beautiful” the Imam answered and continued “then why are you in my house, why not go back to His house, the mosque” “I am coming from there, but I have encountered some confusing experience”, Afandy said “I am here for clarification to be precise. “Go ahead” the Imam demanded, full of confidence. “But before then, Oh Imam, I need clarification about the boy I have just seen with you. “Oh! That boy? What is confusing about him?” Imam continued “the boy was an orphan and had his inherited wealth with me. Following the Quranic instruction “Make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; if then ye find sound judgment in them, release their property to them” Q4:6, I was trying him to find out if he reached the age of marriage so that I can release his property to him”. Afandy breathed a deep sight that he couldn’t tell whether it was that of relief or further confusion.

Afandy was by now contemplating whether to ask the second question or not. But for the sake of the intended fair hearing, he poised for the second question “Oh Imam, tell me about “ashhadu anna ahla hazal baladi yashhaduuna anna Muhammadan Rasulullah””. “There is nothing confusing about that” the Imam began “that muezzin is one of the employees of the mosque calling prayers on salary payable on monthly basis. For the simple fact that there is no available Muslim to take the job, for all the Muslims are extremely busy with their commerce, we had to employ a Christian. Even though he doesn’t believe in the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), he bears witness that we do. The same is the reason why you didn’t see us in the mosque. And we perfectly followed the Quranic instruction by doing so. Allah says: “He (Allah) has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion” Q22:78. The Imam concluded. Having heard this, Afandy bid a farewell to the chief Imam of Khorasan and left without daring to spend a night in the town.

That was the Mufti of Khorasan. Having seen the Mufti of those days, let us now see the 21^st century Mufti. Not necessarily aware that he is one; the present day Mufti is somebody sitting in front of computer screen at the comfort of his office. Most at times, he is a working class of average intelligence. Do you care to know what his hobby is? His hobby is surfing the net. So, he is conversant with a good number of Islamic sites. In fact, that was how he consolidated the idea of the Islamic sect to which he belongs. Les I forget, let me tell you that he has received his Islamic training in his childhood at the neighboring evening Islamiyya of the quarters in which he grew up. Never think that I am oversimplifying the stature of the 21^st century Mufti. Remember, the idea behind modern technology is to make life easier. The mufti himself, sometimes, doubts his credibility. But it is one of those things that comes and goes. But once a new Islamic issue is brought to limelight (actually not a new issue, the topic might have been over discussed and documented in volumes of books by the classical Islamic scholars, but he is hearing it for the first time), he remembers that he has a task to issue a Fatwa about it. If not to all and sundry, at least to his yahoo group disciples. After all, issuing the Fatwa doesn’t cost him much. All he has to do is to Google-search the keywords and Wikipedia are readily available for him to provide him with the answer.

21^st century Mufti is not too ambitious. The first answer he gets, often time is sufficient to form his opinion on the subject matter. When sometimes the original text of Qur’an and Hadith used in the explanation are not translated, the Mufti becomes uncomfortable. But that doesn’t constitute a serious problem. There are always translation soft wares available to translate for Mufti. I don’t know whether it is developed yet, but even if not, very soon, I guess mufti-software or alternatively fatwa-software would be developed; the one to take care of the rigors of researching, digesting, understanding the needed facts and establishing the Fatwa. By then, all the Mufti would have to do is to copy and paste, then endorse with his name.

By all these, I am not sure I will be courageous enough to request the continuance or otherwise of the Sunna-Shi’a debate. That would be too big a demand. But I simply want to ask the champions of the debate what they mean by these too-abstract-to-understand terms; Sunna and Shi’a. In the 21^st century when every individual is becoming a religious authority in his own right, the terms are becoming tantalizingly more slippery than ever that one wouldn’t find a place to hold on to.

Casting our gaze through history, there was no any consolidated Islamic sect known as Sunna until the early second century after Hijra. That was when Ilmul kalaam was invented, through which al-Ash'ariyya and al-Maturidiyya, the two Sunni creed schools of thought came to being. Notwithstanding, the appearance of the word Sunna in Some prophetic traditions and utterances of Sahaba. From that time to date, many things happened with the name of Sunnah including Sufism, Wahabism, Salafiyya and Izala. A few years back, a group of people, who called themselves Jamaat Takfeer Wal Hijra, killed worshippers in the mosque, in both Sudan and Egypt also with the name of Sunna. With the creation of Saudi as a nation in 1904, following the movement of Muhammad Ibn Sa’ud in partnership with the movement of Muhammad Ibn Abdelwahab, the sect Sunna broke away from its old history. Even though the name Sunna was maintained, the content was practically different. So, when we say Sunna, therefore, what are we talking about? Today, for example, Sufis and Wahabis are practically different in their beliefs and practices, but theoretically, they both belong to Sunna. So, which Sunna are we talking about?

Going back to Shi’a on the other extreme (is it extreme?) end of the continuum, what answers the name Shi’a today is very different from what answered the name when Ali bin Abi Talib was alive, around whom Shi’a revolves. Shi’at-Ali which is the earliest name of the sect started as a pure political struggle to install Ali Bn Talib as the first caliph of the Prophet (SAW). The subsequent political events up to the end of Umayyad dynasty in 213 Hijra gave shape to the present day Shi’a; both the chain of beliefs and practices. Turbah, for example, was popularized after the event of Karbala, even though it owes its origin to some prophetic traditions. Many ugly chains of beliefs associated with the Shi’a sect known as Gullat, would be denied by the present day Shi’a. Whether or not valid today, al-Hulul (Allah dissolves in the person of Ali) had once formed part of the beliefs of what answered the name Shi’a. Though the Twelvers (forming 85% of present-day Shi’a), Zaidiyya and Isma’iliyya are, presumably, the only surviving from among more than 25 branches of Shi’a, it is still difficult to understand, with precision, what one is talking about when one utters the term Shi’a.

After 1979 Iranian Revolution, the term Shi’a has drastically changed in content. The term became flexible enough to accommodate some complex political ideologies formulated by the leaders of the revolution. For universal acceptance in the Muslim World, some things had to be downplayed. Such as: the incompleteness of the Holy Qur’an in the hand of Muslims all over the world. Following all these, what are we, precisely talking about when we say Shi’a?

It may sound funny, but I begin to think that Shi’a-Sunna debate is more of Saudi-Iran supporters than a genuine Islamic debate (At least, in dan-dalin siyasa context). It looks very much like Arsenal-Chelsea supporters’ argument. The only difference is that the former is a very dangerous game and has very bad consequence (Imagine playing with fire with bare palm).

A statement made by Umar Ibn Abdelaziz remains to me, a source of admiration. When he was asked to talk about the conflict and bloodshed among Sahaba, he replied: “Allah Has cleansed our hand from their blood, why should we dirty our tongue with it?”

“I only desire (your) betterment, to the best of my power. And my success (in my task) can only come from Allah”.Q11:88

Muhammad Kabir Yusuf HAMDANI

Literary Desk,

LEADERSHIP Newspaper,

08034636329

mkyhamdani@yahoo.com