Khattab Sermon on Shirk

Sermon Of
Imam A. M. Khattab
Jan.11, 1932---Sept.15, 2001
Imam and Director
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Ohio
1982-1998

Shirk and Explanation of Related Terms

There are some topics which sometimes perplex us Muslims. This is the month of the birthday of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and we should know the message with which he came.

He came with rules. Prayer, fasting, zakat, and pilgrimage, as we know and as we teach our children do not constitute those rules; this is not Islam. These are means towards Islam. Islam is dealing, Islam is relationships: How you behave towards your brother, how you behave towards your father, how you behave towards your son, how to behave towards your wife, how to behave towards your neighbor, how to act in your daily dealings as a professional or as a businessman. That is Islam. The benefit of the prayer and fasting and all these pillars is to link you with God so you remember His rules and remember God and remember that there is a power above you.

Sometimes we pronounce words and we don't know what they mean. Someone may say to another “unta mulhid”, someone says to another you are mushrik, a third will declare someone to be a kafir, while a fourth will pronounce someone as a fasiq. What do these terms mean? We hear them often but we don't know exactly what they mean and, depending upon the context, they have several shades of meaning. Let me just read for you some of the terms which we will be dealing with in the coming weeks: kafir, mushrik, fasiq, mulhid. Some terms which are connected with the rules which the Prophet came with include Fard, Wajib, Sunnah Muakkada, Sunnah Ghar-muakkada, Nafl, Fard Kifaya, Sunnah Kifaya, Harām, Makrūh Tahreeman, Makrūh Tanzeehan, Ja’iz, and Mubah. What do these terms mean in the Islamic sense? At least we should know how to distinguish between one and the other. Then, we aught to know where the mercy of God stands in regard to all these things. You hear sometimes people quoting this “hadith” : ‘On the Day of Judgment there will be people in Hell, especially women, hanging by their hair, and when they ask why, they will be told: those are the women who were doing this, this, and this.’ But you never find anyone quoting any “hadith” saying that in Hell there will be men hanging by their ears! You don't hear this! So what is the origin of such “hadith” and from where are we learning this? What is the authenticity of our books? We have thousands of junk books written by Muslims. And how…how are we to derive our pure Islam free of any junk?

Mulhid is one who does not believe in God at all; he doesn't believe in any thing. He is the guy who says: It is this life, we were born, we live our term, we die, there is no resurrection, there is no hell, there is no paradise, I don't believe in any God; there is no such word. That's what is called mulhid or atheist. The term al-had means atheism. So, according to such a one, we are here on this earth like any insect or animal.

Mushrik is taken from the verb “ashraka” and from this word you have many modifications: sharika, ishraak, shareek, and everyone has a meaning. So when I say: “‘indi shirka” it means “I have a shirka”. Shirka means partnership. So it means I have someone who is my partner in a certain business. If we go into the business law we could say: I have “sharika musahima” (public partnership). It means I have a business which is a sort of partnership made up of different people, where everyone has a share or stock. That is what we call sharika musahima. “Ashraka ma‘ahu gharohu fil amal” means “he has that person to be his partner in that work”. So all of these words are derived from the word shirka or shareek or ashraka.

To relate the word ishraak to God, we say “ja‘ala lil-Lahi shareeka or ashraka ma‘a-Allah ghaira” which means: He made a partnership or a partner to God in His ownership.

What is the ownership of God? The Qur’an states innumerable times: ‘To God belongs all that is in the sky and all that is in the earth and all that is between them’; so all the universe is the ownership of God. Therefore, when we have someone who says this is shareek (partner) for God then it means that he owns with Him the universe. The Qur'an refutes such a possibility when it says: “If there was another god in addition to God this universe will be ruined.” In other words when there is a ship with two captains it will sink. So a mushrik is one who makes that shareek with God.

But there is something we have to know. “Actions are to be judged by intentions” this is what the Prophet said. So we have to look into the intention of the person who is, in our view, making shareek with God. When you go to Saudi Arabia these days for Hajj or Umrah and you visit the grave of the Prophet and you touch the bronze fence around the grave of the Prophet, a guard with a stick will come by and hit you on your hand and declare you to be a mushrik. Why? Because, according to him, you are trying to make Muhammad a partner to God by touching that fence. If someone with that kind of mentality [as the guard’s] should visit Ajmeer Sharif (the shrine of Mohiyuddin Chisti) in India and see how the people put nathr for Mohiyuddin Chisti (the head of the Chisti Tareeqa) he will say: ‘All those people are mushrik because they are making Mohiyuddin Chisti a partner to God’. [Nathr means putting money or food or candles etc. on the grave of a “saint” in the expectation that the saint will intercede with God on his/her behalf so their prayers will be answered].

If you say I swear by the grave of my father that I didn't do such-and-such thing and a certain kind of individual hears that, he will pronounce you a mushrik because you are swearing by the grave of your father and, since swearing is supposed to be by God only, so, therefore, you are mushrik. And if we follow that line of thinking there will be no believers on earth! Everyone is mushrik! And that is where intention is supposed to interfere. What's the intention? Some people say or do such things out of ignorance. They don't really know. Some uneducated people believe that visiting the grave of a saint or a sheikh will bestow some sort of baraka (blessing) on them; their thinking is that he is a righteous man and maybe he will pray for me and his prayer will be accepted. They don't think of it as shirka or making partnership to God as we think it is. Even the Arabs… you know the Arabs used to worship idols and the Qur’an talks about them and said: “If you ask them who created the sky and earth and who harnessed the moon and the sun they will say ‘Allah’ ” not Hubal, or Allaat, or Al'uzza or any of those other idols. And when you ask them why they are elevating these idols to the level of sacredness they will say: ‘We are just worshipping them to be intercessors between us and God’. So, in the final analysis, those people were not making these idols a partner to God. When they used to write their letters at the time of the Prophet they started the letter by “bismik allāhumma” [in your name O God]. So the topic of mushrik is a very touchy one.

Today, it is very easy to say you are mushrik, you are kafir, you are....Though, when you analyze these concepts, they have different connotations and mainly it depends upon what is in your heart. Even the Christians and the Jews of nowadays are several denominations. There is a group of Jews who don't believe in the Day of Judgment. They say to you Heaven and Hell are on this earth. If you have a very nice home, a very long car, a very beautiful wife you are in heaven! If you cannot afford to buy even hamburger you are in hell. That's how a group of the Jews believe nowadays.

Among the Christians there are some who even believe Jesus was a Prophet – a Messenger – of God. I have entered several churches in South Korea where you won’t find any paintings, symbols or icons on the walls. Such things are prohibited. You imagine as if you are in a mosque. Christians like that exist. There is another denomination of Christians who say Jesus is the son of God. And when you sit with them and discuss that matter and ask them what they mean by “son”? God married Mary? And Jesus came as the descendant? They say no. We don't mean it that way. We mean by ‘son of God’ that he is lovable to God as one loves his son. So that is another concept and perspective. There is another kind of Christian who says God came to earth in the form of a human being who is Jesus. So the idea of “Jesus Son of God” has a variety of connotations. You cannot generalize but you have to take every case on its merits and study it as a unique case by itself.

How do we, human beings, take other human beings as gods? It is happening nowadays. If you go to the palace of the king in one of our Muslim countries you will find the entourage bowing whenever the king is coming out and bowing whenever the king is going in. That's worshipping. Look at the president in our countries: What ever the presidents say is considered a “revelation” from God and the radio and television will “reveal” it all day. All day repeating “The president said…” “His Excellency said…” That's worshipping. That is what is meant by (Imam quotes 3:64): Say: ‘O followers of earlier revelation! Come unto that tenet which we and you hold in common: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall not ascribe divinity to aught beside Him, and that we shall not take human beings for our lords beside God [Asad].’ Then another verse says: Imam quotes 12:40: ‘… judgment, ruling is for God. He ordered not to worship anyone but Him. That is the straight religion. But many people do not know’.

The Qur'an informs us that many people were guilty of the sin of taking other human beings as gods in addition to God. Fir'awn (Pharaoh) – my grandfather in Egypt – used to say to his people: “O people, I know of no god other than me. I am your highest god”. About the people of ‘Ad the Qur’an states: “The people of ‘Ad were trespassing their limits and saying that there is no power on earth more than them. They forgot that God has more power than them”. And the Qur'an says in another verse: “Verily, whenever kings enter a country they will corrupt it, and turn the noblest of its people to the most abject”. So sometimes when he is healthy and wealthy the human being thinks that there is no one better than him or more powerful than him. These are the examples of gods on earth mentioned in the Qur’an and they are the modern day kings and presidents.

So, Islam came as, what we call thawratun inqilābiyyah – a revolution – to change that situation and to establish worship to be only for God. It does not matter if you are Christian or Jew – worship God your own way, you are free. But we have a kind of Muslim nowadays who says: “Tell the non-Muslims to say La ilaha illa-Allah, Muhammad ar-rasoolulallah (There is no god but God and Muhammad is His prophet) and if he will not say this chop his head off”. And they claim that this is Islam. Of course this guy is giving a stick to his enemy to beat him with. The Qur'an says in a number of verses: “Let the people of the Bible judge according to the word of God in the Bible. O Muhammad, you judge among the people according to the revelation which was revealed to you”.

Islam is very simple: Imam quotes 18:29: “Muhammad, say the truth from your God. Who ever wants to believe let him believe, who ever wants to reject let him reject”. That is what the Qur’an says. Could there be anything simpler than this? If you reject God He does not want you. If you thank Him he will reward you for that. Simplicity! We complicate religion.

Kufr (denial). We have to analyze this term kufr to see what is the opinion of the Muslim scholars so at least we know where we stand. It's very difficult for people to believe this, but, if you would like to know the exact meaning of kufr look up the Arabic dictionary Lisan ul Arab wherein there are four pages about the meaning of the word kafir.

Linguistically speaking the term kafir means innocent. The Qur’an, in a certain verse, describes a scene where the devil or Ash-Shaitān is talking on the Day of Judgment and saying: “I am innocent (kafir) of what you made me a partner in before” [14:22]. So the word kafir – as in this verse – can mean “innocent” linguistically speaking.

Another meaning for the word kafir is “to cover up”. The kafir is called kafir because the kufr covers his heart [2:7, and 45:23].

Linguistically the word kafir also means “a farmer”. Why is the farmer called kafir? Because kufr means ‘to cover up’ and the farmer covers the seeds with the soil so this is why he is called a kafir. And Al-Qur’an Al-Karim says in this respect: Imam quotes 48:29: “…Their similitude in the Gospel is: they are like a seed that brings forth its shoot, and then He strengthens it, so that it grows stout, and in the end stands firm upon its stem, filling the sowers with wonder and delight…”

In the Qur'an there are three successive verses stating:

They who do not judge according to what God has revealed are kafir [5:44].

… And those who do not judge in accordance with what God has revealed are “dhālim” (dhalim means a tyrant against himself or aggressing on yourself) [5:45].

…For they who do not judge in the light of what God has revealed are fasiq [5:47].

So, based on these three verses, there are some people nowadays who declare all our Muslim governments as kuffar. Why? Because they don't rule by the Qur'an. So they consider the first verse and they ignore the second and ignore the third.

Even those governments which claim that they rule by the Qur'an, don't, in fact, rule by the Qur'an because the government of Islam is not a government of rulers but an Islamic Government is a government of Laws. For example, if the Qur'an were the Constitution of the United States then you could call this country a Muslim country. Why? Because there is a system here. One president will go and another will come to abide by the law. The law is the law; under such circumstances, then, the system will be working and will be maintained. But in our Muslim countries it is the individual rather than the law: if a ruler is assassinated or thrown out in a revolution the next ruler will behead all those who supported the one before so as to finalize his system completely. This is not Islam.

Now let us consider some examples of hadith. “I have seen most of the people of hell are women because they are kuffar.” What is the meaning of ‘kuffar’ in this hadith? It means “They deny the good of their husbands to them”. So what about those men who abuse their women, what about the man who breaks her ribs and sends her to the hospital? What about the men who deny the good of their wives to them? Conversely, nowadays, you will find a type of woman who abuses her husband. Go to the emergency room in some hospitals and you will find a man stabbed by his wife with a knife.

“If a man sleeps with his wife while she is in her monthly period he is kafir”. That is a hadith. Another hadith says: “if you insult a Muslim you are kafir, and if you fight him you are kafir.” Then it means that Iraq and Iran, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and Egypt and all those people who were fighting each other and fighting along with the allies are kuffar. Take it… take it that way if you agree with that hadith! Another hadith says: “anyone who will not satisfy his father is a kafir”. I think [Imam laughs] this will put us all in trouble [lots of laughter from the audience] everyone including me [more loud laughter] we are in trouble. “Anyone who will not satisfy his father is a kafir”. Count with me all similar things and put them in the context of kufr and you will not find any one Muslim at this time! So don’t take things on their face value.

The word kaffāra is taken from kufr also and the word kaffara means ‘a sort of penalty’. It is called kaffara because it abolishes a certain type of sin such as the sin of making a false oath or killing some one by mistake. In the case of a false oath the person has to fast three days or feed ten poor people. That is what is called kaffara. And it is called kaffara because it abolishes the sin which he committed.

There are four types of kufr as some Muslim scholars have said. Kufr Inkār and Kufr al-Juhūd both of which come under the category of the kufr of denial, Kufr Mo’ānada which is the kufr of stubbornness, and Kufr Nifāq which is kufr of hypocrisy. What is the difference between these four?

Kufr Inkār is what is known as the kufr of denial and it means that a person does not pronounce by tongue nor does he believe in his heart. He says to you there is no God; that is his open declaration. And inside his heart he doesn’t believe that there is a God. This is the highest type of kufr and is exactly opposite of Imān (belief).

On the other hand the Quran talks about another category of people as follows: ‘When they are asked who created the sky and the earth and harnessed the sun and the moon they will say “Allah”.’ The Quran refers to these people as kuffar also but this is not the highest type of kufr because they pronounce by their tongue that God is the Creator, and this is a manifestation of what is in their heart. So you cannot put this kind of people on an equal footing with that other type who deny the existence of God by their tongue as well as in their hearts.

Kufr al-Juhūd. This is a type of denial also. This type of kufr is a rejection or denial of the bounties of God and this is very normal. A lot of us do this. It is happening everywhere. If you have the bounty of sight you have to be thankful for it, the bounty of hearing… and you don’t know the value of these things until you lose them. The opposite of this kind of kufr is showing gratitude and thanking God for His bounties which He has bestowed upon you. And the difference between this type and the type before is that the person admits in his heart that God granted him all these bounties but he doesn’t say it by his tongue. Instead, when he has achieved or accomplished something he says: ‘I did this myself, no one else has a role in it, I worked very hard and, therefore, I made it’. Imagine if such a man was blind or deaf or crippled and cannot walk how could he achieve anything? So these are the bounties of God and it is hardly ever that a person truly recognizes the bounties of God which have been given to him.

Kufr Mo’ānada or the kufr of stubbornness. Someone admits and says, “Yes, I know that you are right, I’m sure you are right, but I’ll not abide by what you say”. Abu Jahl knew inside his heart that Muhammad was a truthful man but he said he would not believe him. But inside his heart he believed. So that is what is called Kufr Mo’ānada. Abu Talib, the Prophet’s uncle, believed in Mohammad and protected him but, at least, as far as what is known to us through history, he did not declare or pronounce this at any time. But deep within himself he believed in Muhammad otherwise why would he protect him? Why would he stand up for him against the kuffar or the Qureshites? The reason is only because of stubbornness. And the Quran states: “They know him [Muhammad] as they know their own children but some of them deny the fact although they know that it is a fact.” This is Kufr Mo’ānada.

Kufr Nifāq is the kufr of hypocrisy: One does not believe in his heart what he says with his tongue. It is stated in the Qur’an very simply and clearly. The hypocrites, in their hearts, did not believe but they pronounced by their tongues that they were believers when they were in the company of the believers. But when they were in the company of the disbelievers they would deny the faith and assure them that they were with them and that they were just laughing at the believers [5:41]. This is called kufr also.

These are the four types of kufr as the ulama have classified it and this classification is reasonable and my reason accepts it. So, as soon as you hear the word kufr, don’t automatically construe it to mean as some one who does not believe in God at all. It could mean that or it could mean something else. This is the beauty of the Arabic language; it is like clay, you can shape it. There is no single word which has only one meaning. Some times one word has several meanings and every meaning in a certain context will be completely different.

The term which I would like to discuss today is al-fisq (verbal noun). The substance of that term is fa-sa-qa (past tense); yafsuqu is the present tense. Fasiq is the present participle. Fosook is also a verbal noun from the same root. The general meaning is disobedience. So fosook means disobedience and normally when it is related to God – a disobedience to God – then they call that person fasiq.

Again we come to those three Qur’anic verses I mentioned before:

… They who do not judge according to what God has revealed are kafir [5:44].

… And those who do not judge in accordance with what God has revealed are “dhālim” [5:45].

…For they who do not judge in the light of what God has revealed are fasiq [5:47].

These are three successive verses saying you are kafir, you are fasiq, you are dhalim so what means what? And how can a person be all three at once? It will show you how the terminology in the Arabic language is intermingling with each other. Fosook means that the person is disobedient; he does not obey the rules of God. When he exhibits disobedience to the rules of God in front of other people – since they don’t know what is in his heart and because no one knows what is in the heart except God – the people judge him by appearance, so they may judge him as kafir. He is fasiq and kafir. He is also dhalim because he is a tyrant against himself and aggressing on himself by doing that act of disobedience. The three concepts are intermingling with each other. Some ulama of Arabic language are of the opinion that al-fosook means, in its generality, to abandon the Law of God or to deviate from the Truth.

Fosook could mean shirk billah (making partner with God) also. If you slaughter a cow and instead of saying Bismillā-hir Rahmān-ir Rahīm on it you say ‘in the name of so-and-so king’ or something similar then that is the meaning of “aw fisqan ohilla li-ghairi Allah...” Imam quotes 6:145. So if you do not mention the name of God but the name of something other than God on a slaughtered animal then it is harām and because the Qur’an states in this verse that by so doing you are making a partner to God, so, therefore, the word “fisq” here carries the meaning of shirk.

In the Quran sometimes we think there are some perplexing verses. Who is Iblees, the one who refused to obey God? And what is Ash-Shaitān? And what is their role? We normally talk about Iblees as if he is a special, separate identity. Was Iblees an angel or not?

One Qur’anic verse states: ‘We ordered the angels to prostrate before Adam. All of them prostrated except Iblees’. This Qur’anic statement from the point of view of Arabic language is al musthna juz’ min almusthnamin. Al musthna means “the excepted” and in this case refers to Iblees. Juz’ min almusthnamin means “the other group or the larger group from which the exception is made” and in this case refers to the angels. It means that the excepted one is supposed to be a part of the whole of which the exception is taken. That would mean that one of the angels disobeyed God and became fasiq. But the angels are described elsewhere in the Qur’an as: “they will never disobey God, whatever order is given to them they will carry it out”. Therefore, it is impossible that Iblees is one of the angels. The following part of this same Qur’anic verse clearly states that Iblees was not one of the angels: “Kāna min-al-Jinn” (he was one of the Jinn). The jinn are a different kind of creation from the angels.

Among the jinn there are believers and there are disbelievers. So they are exactly like human beings in this respect. And the Prophet, peace be upon him, was sent not only to the human beings but to the jinn also. Imam quotes 72:1: “Say: It has been revealed to me that some of the jinn gave ear to this Qur’an and thereupon said to their fellow-beings: ‘Verily, we have heard a wonderful Qur’an, guiding towards a consciousness of what is right; and so we have come to believe in it. And we shall never ascribe divinity to anyone beside our Sustainer… [Asad]” This shows that the message of Muhammad is not limited to the human kind but includes the jinn kind also.

The jinn are a kind of beings of which we don’t know too much except what we read in the Qur’an. In the Quran there is a whole chapter called Sura Al-Jinn and in that chapter there is a verse, which says: “Yet it is true that among us are such as have surrendered themselves to God – just as there are among us such as have abandoned themselves to wrongdoing…” So there are believers and non-believers among the jinn.

Nowadays, especially in our villages, they “use the jinn” – or at least they talk about that – they claim that they use the jinn. These things, in fact, are more psychological. There is no man who has power over the jinn. And I’ll tell you, forget about the religion, forget about the Qur’an, forget about the hadith, and let us talk logic. If man could utilize the jinn to get information, then George Bush [the 41st president] will be the first one to disband the CIA and utilize one of the jinns. He can just get two three people of those who know how to utilize the jinn and say ‘you jinn go to Saddam Hussain and get us the scud missiles from there’. And the jinn have that ability because Syyedna Sulaiman said to his soldiers: ‘Who among you can bring me the throne of the Queen of Sheba before she comes as a Muslim before me?’ One of the jinn responded: ‘I am capable of bringing it ere you sit and stand up’. The idea is that if any man can utilize the jinn now, as some claim, then we need not spend all these billions on spy planes and spy satellites and all that business. We can get two, three of those people who can utilize the jinn to get us whatever we want. Logically speaking! And by doing that there will be no deficit in the budget of the United States. But that idea of the ability to harness the power of the jinns is prevalent among the ignorant people who believe such things to be true.

Some one from the audience says “What about Sulaiman?”

Imam resumes: Sulaiman – this is a unique case because he was a prophet and the fact that he had power over the jinns is one of his miracles. You cannot compare normal people to prophets. Sulaiman used the jinn because this was “taskheer” [to make subservient]. Imam quotes 34:12:

“And unto Solomon [We made subservient] the wind: its morning course [covered the distance of] a month’s journey, and its evening course, a month’s journey. And we caused a fountain of molten copper to flow at his behest; and [even] among the jinn there were some that had [been constrained] to labor for him by his Sustainer’s leave…” and so on; this is a special case because Sulaiman was a prophet but not any normal person can say he can utilize the jinn.

What is Shaitān or Iblees who refused to obey God? Although we talk about Iblees as if he is a special entity but Iblees or Shaitan is a description – a symbol for evil. But see how we, the Muslims, think nowadays and, sometimes, you hear such things from the highest religious authorities; what happens is when you see some people standing up in prayer in a row they say your foot should touch the foot of the one praying next to you. If you pull your foot away, he will spread his feet further apart or he will pull your leg back again. When you ask him why he does this, he replies ‘we don't like the devil to stand up between us in that space’. Logically speaking, I should encourage that! If the devil is going to pray that's a fantastic thing [prolonged laughter from the audience]. We should allow the guy to pray! But this will show you how the Muslims are thinking: that the devil would occupy that space and to deny him that space is the reason why we should stand in prayers with toe touching toe. Okay. But he can stand up on our foot! [More laughter]. I am giving that example to tell you that there are a lot of books about Islam in which you will find something like that. I have heard a highly authoritative sheikh explaining Sura Al-Jinn and on coming to the verse number 8 which says: “And so it happened that we [the jinn/Shaitān] reached out towards heaven…” When he was asked how the Shaitan will go up to such a high place he said: ‘One shaitan stands up on the shoulders of another shaitan upon the shoulders of another shaitan until he reaches up there’ [boisterous laughter in the audience]. That was his explanation! I have that tape – it is on a tape! But it shows you that not every word on a tape, not every word uttered by a sheikh, and not every book that you read should be taken as Islam. Ar-Rasool, ‘alayhi-s-salātu wa-s-salām, put it very clearly: “Islam is what is acceptable to your heart and manifested in your action.” That is Islam. So, when it comes to Islam use your brain. See if it is logical or not, see if it is acceptable or not.

A lot of people have come to me and said: ‘Oh, when I read hadith and even… suppose that hadith does not make logical sense but it can…still it could be right and… it could be having some other interpretation…’ I say to him yes, the least you should do when you come across a hadith that does not sound sensible or logical is not to support it nor deny it. Stand up in the middle – just stand up in the middle don’t support, don’t reject. But there are plenty of false hadith in our books also. And believe me, the only thing preserving Islam is the Qur’an. There are no two Muslims who will differ with each other about the Qur’an and that is what has preserved Islam and kept it in tact. Otherwise what is happening in Christianity and Judaism will happen to us also. We have 256 churches nowadays. Everyone says I am saved and the rest are going to hell. And you know, I had a group here last night from Ada, Ohio, and it happened by chance that there were some Muslims students among them in that group and that question was raised up. The Muslim students asked: Is it the same we have in Islam that the Prophet said: “The Jews split into seventy-one sects (firqa); the Christians split into seventy-two. My community will split into seventy-three, and all but one will go to hell”. [The “two-and-seventy or three-and-seventy creeds” is used as a metaphor for all heterodox and heretical sects]. This hadith…let me assume the Prophet said it, but, every hadith was said in a certain context which is not necessarily applicable in all times. Which is that firqa (sect) that is supposed to be saved among the 73? Of course everyone will claim his group; everyone claims that he is right and the rest are not. And that is why we have to be tactful when it comes to such things because it results in one sect condemning another, and a third condemning the fourth and that is what I call disorganization.

Religion is a relationship between man and God. You worship God the way you see fit; I’ll never interfere with you. My role here is to say what I know and what I am saying now could be right and could be wrong also. I could be influenced by a wrong book and I leave it for you to weigh it by your logic to see what I am saying is acceptable or not. And mainly “Actions are to be judged by your intentions”.

Fard, Sunnah, Wājib, Halāl, Harām And Related Terminologies

Terms which are connected with the rules which the Prophet came with, that govern our lives as Muslims, include Fard, Wajib, Sunnah and Nafl. Fard Kifāya and Sunnah Kifāya. Harām and Halāl. Makrūh Tahrēman and Makrūh Tanzēhan. Mustahab. Ja’iz. Mubah. All these are terminologies used in Islamic Fiqh.

Let us start with Fard. What is fard? Sometimes Al-Wasāya al-‘Ashr – the Ten Commandments – are called fard but this is for the Christians and the Jews. In fact we, the Muslims don't have Ten Commandments – we have tens of commandments! But all the commandments in Islam are not in the same category of power. For example, in the hierarchy of power, the command of fard is more powerful than the command of wajib. Translated into English, the term fard means “obligation”. Wajib, in a literal translation, would be “duty” or a “must”. But the meaning of these terms and what they indicate in Islam is different. These same terms when applied to the prayer (salah), for example, indicate specific things. There is a fard prayer, a wajib prayer, a sunnah muakkada prayer, a sunnah ghar-muakkada prayer, a nafl prayer, and then there is haraam prayer or makrūh tahrēman prayer.

Always we find in the Qur'an: “aqeemus salah.” Aqeemu is an order – a command – referred to in grammatical terms as an imperative. So when the Qur'an says “aqeemus salah” it means that it is referring to an obligatory prayer.

What are the obligatory prayers? We normally speak of the five daily prayers. But the Qur'an did not tell us that. There is no single verse in the Qur'an which says the prayers are five in number. The closest we can get to infer the number of prayers is from a verse in Sura Al Baqarah, which says: “Guard your prayers, especially the middle one”. It means, first of all, that the number of prayers is an odd number otherwise there would be no ‘middle one’. It is not four, it is not six, it is not eight; it must be either three, seven, or nine, or 11 – any odd number – so we have a prayer in the middle. And what is the meaning of “Guard your prayers especially the middle one”? Here it shows you the beauty of the Qur'an and how wide it is.

“Especially the middle one” made the ulama think. Some ulama said the prayer in the middle that the Qur'an specifically recommends is the Maghrib. Why? Because it is in the middle between the day and the night. Some said no, it is the ‘Isha because ‘Isha is located between the day and the night since the day does not end until the twilight disappears from the horizon. Others said no, it is Al- Fajr because it is in the middle between the night and the day. Some others said no, it is the Zuhr because it is located in the middle of the day when the sun in the middle of the sky. Still others said no, it is 'Asr because Fajr and Zuhr are on one side, while Maghrib and Isha are on the other side and the ‘Asr is in the middle. Who is right? And who is wrong? Only God knows! This shows that there is no clear-cut explanation for it, but the Qur'anic verse came in a form that can be interpreted; it can puzzle the brain and it came originally to challenge the mind of human beings. So, in other words if we want to talk about “the prayer in the middle” it includes all the prayers!

The command itself is “aqeemus salah” and the number of prayers is an odd number according to that verse. How did we come to make the prayers five in number? Here the sunnah plays its role because the Prophet said: “Pray as you have seen me pray”.

The prayers consist of a number of units called rakats. With regard to the Fard prayers, the Fajr is two rakats, the Zuhr is four rakats, the ‘Asr is four rakats, the Maghrib is three rakats, and ‘Isha is four rakats. How did we get to know the number of rakats of these prayers? From observing the Prophet praying that way and his advice: “Pray as you have seen me pray”. This is in the area of Al- Sunnah Al- Fi‘liyya – the sunnah which is based upon the actions of the Prophet.

Normally the fard or obligations come in the form of orders – imperatives – such as “aqeemus salah” (establish prayer) “ātuz zakah” (pay the poor due), but, at other times the Qur’an uses different language for obligations or fard. The Qur’an did not say “hijju” (perform Hajj) as an imperative command, but it uses another form of language. The obligation of Hajj in the Qur’an is stated as: “a debt around the neck of people to go and perform pilgrimage for God” [3:97]. Sometimes, the order for performing an obligation or fard – like fasting – comes in a form of a “prescription” (kutibah). The Qur'an did not say to us “fast” as an order in the imperative form, but it said “it is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you”. That is how the obligation of fasting came.

Sometimes, there is an obligation that God did not impose upon us but we imposed it upon ourselves. This is what we call nathr. For example, if someone has a sick child and he says: ‘If God cures my son I am going to pay that amount of money to the poor in the cause of God. Or if my son is cured I am going to fast one week’. This is not an obligation from God but the person made it obligatory upon himself.

The nathr is very famous in our countries. In Lebanon somewhere there is the grave of a man known as Ash-Sheikh Musafir at whose shrine people give nathr and light candles and all that. In Ajmeer Shareef in India they have the shrine of Mohiyuddin Chisti and his birth date is celebrated in the first three days of the month of Rajab and millions of people pledge money as nathr in that shrine because they vowed it – they made nathr for that. I remember in 1960 the box for the nathr – like our donation box here – gathered about 3 million Indian rupees in those three days of Rajab. We have lots of similar sheiks in Egypt: Imam Shafi'i, Imam Hussain, Sheikh al-Arba‘een, Sheikh al Arba‘een, Sheikh al-Arba‘een, where ever you go you find a Sheikh al-Arba‘een. I don’t know how Sheikh al-Arba‘een exists in so many different places. I used to say to my mother when she made nathr that she should give me the money because, I, as a student at that time learning and acquiring knowledge deserved the money more than Syyedna Hussain and Syyed Badawi and all those other saints. I used to not only tell my mother this but also proclaimed it as a “fatwa” when I was in the first year in Al Azhar! Imagine! How much of an ‘alim could I have been at that time?

Here there is an important point to be noted – something most of us make a mistake with it. We have to know with regard to nathr that if you vowed to make nathr for the sake of anything or anyone other than God then it does not become an obligation for you to fulfill that promise. So making nathr for this sheikh or that sheikh is not nathr; it is not an obligation on you. The nathr should be for God. If you impose it upon yourself in the name of God then you are obligated to fulfill it. If you make the nathr for other than God then just forget about it as if you didn’t say it or do it. Some of our people “make nathr” to recite mawlood sharif. There is no such thing. That is a sort of a farce which we make obligatory on ourselves, because first of all it is not in the name of God and secondly, you have a feast for the participants after the mawlood recitation, not for the poor people, but for people who can afford to eat in their own homes.

Fard Kifaya: an example is the janaza prayer. Fard Kifaya means that if a Muslim dies in a city like Toledo and no one prays the funeral prayer, then all the Muslims in Toledo will be sinners. But if two or three people perform the janaza prayer on behalf of that person then the obligation of janaza prayer has been met on behalf of all the Muslims of Toledo and they will not be regarded as sinners.

It is said that Taraweeh Prayer is Sunnah Kifaya or Wajib Kifaya which will be very close to Fard and the meaning is that if some people in a certain locality pray the Taraweeh during the month of Ramadan, then those Muslims in that area who did not participate in the Taraweeh prayers will not be sinners, but if nobody performed the Taraweeh in that locality then all the Muslims in that locality are sinners.

What is Wajib? Al -wajib is an act that falls between the fard and the sunnah. It is not as powerful as the fard and it is not as weak as the sunnah. An example of this in the prayer (salah) is the three rakats of Al-Witr which we pray after ‘Isha. It is not mandatory to make up these three rakats; so, for example, if you slept and you did not pray ‘Isha and in the morning you make up for the four rakats of ‘Isha, then, there are Muslim scholars who say that you are not obligated for the three rakats of witr.

Al- Sunnah. It is of three types: 1) the actions of the Prophet (Sunnah Al Fi‘liyya), 2) the sayings of the Prophet (Sunnah Qawlia), and 3) Sunnah Taqrīriyyah, practices prevailing at the time of the Prophet, which he did not oppose or prohibit. The most dangerous of these three types is the Sunnah Qawlia or hadith. When you look at a book of hadith you find that there are a series of names before a hadith: ‘Abu Hurayrah narrated that he heard from so and so that he heard from Omar bin Khattab who said that I heard the Prophet saying this, this, this ’. This sequence of narrators is what makes the science of hadith a very difficult science and if someone quotes hadith, he has to be well-versed in that field. Very few people are. In the history of Islam it is known that many Jews converted to Islam, not in their heart, but they converted to corrupt Islam, e.g. Abdullah Ibn Ubai Ibn Saloul who converted to Islam and distorted many hadith. The same thing happened with Christianity. You know the disciple Paul is considered by some Christians to have been a Jew who converted to Christianity to distort Christianity, while, on the other hand some other Christians highly respect him. So when it comes to the hadith we have to be very careful.

In the science of hadith there are different names for the hadith: there is Hadith Mutawatir, Hadith Hasan, Hadith Daeef, and Hadith Madsoos. Each of these categories indicates a certain level of authenticity [in descending order]. There is a whole science taught in the graduate college of Al Azhar known as the Al- Israeliyāt [hadith inserted into Islam by the Jews to distort Islam]. Even today, most of our old tafseer books contain a lot of these Israeli hadith. As a result, I say, when you come to uncertain hadith, the safest thing is to be neutral – don’t falsify and don’t confirm.

Nowadays there are a lot of people, who, if you talk to them one word, will right away reply with a hadith and they don’t know what they are talking about. You note that I don’t quote hadith here and some people interpret this as my non-belief in the sayings of the Prophet, but that is not so. It is that I am scared; I am not that good a scholar in hadith to dare to talk about it. That is why I am reticent sometimes. I don’t quote any hadith except in two situations: if I am sure of its authenticity or the hadith, even if it is a weak hadith it will not touch upon your religion, that is to say, it will correct your behavior in some way but does not connote halal or haram, then I will quote it.

Sunnah Al Fi‘liyya (the actions of the Prophet). We have two types: Sunnah Mu’akkadah and Sunnah Ghar- mu’akkadah both of which refer only to the ritual prayers. Sunnah Mu’akkadah when translated means confirmed sunnah meaning that the Prophet performed certain prayers most of the time during his life but not always. Why did he not do it few times? Because if he had done it always people would have interpreted it as fard. He prayed it most of the time and ignored it sometimes to show the people that it is not fard. The examples of these are the two rakats of sunnah prayer in the Fajr and Maghrib. Some ulama give it another interpretation: they say that sunnah Mu’akkadah is the action for which the Muslims will be rewarded for doing it, and they could be “blamed” for not doing it but not punished.

Sunnah Ghar- mu’akkadah when translated means unconfirmed sunnah. This is the opposite: it is the prayer which the Prophet performed sometimes and did not do it most of the time, for example the four rakats of sunnah before ‘Asr. Some ulama define Sunnah Ghar- mu’akkadah as the sunnah for which a Muslim would be rewarded if he did it, but will not be punished for ignoring it.

We hear a lot of talk about sunnah. Someone, for example, will say ‘it is sunnah that a man marry four wives because the Prophet married four wives’. Can we take it that way? I don't take it that way because there are Qur'anic verses which contradict that. The Qur'anic verse which allowed marriage with more than one wife is conditional. That Qur’anic verse starts by a condition: “in khiftum” (if you fear) that you cannot establish justice among the orphans then marry two, three or four.....” So there is a condition. We cannot come blindly and say that the Prophet married four wives or nine wives so we have the same right. Moreover the Prophet married for certain reasons. This sunnah is something which is subject to analysis.

An- Nafl. This is prayer which you do out of your own sweet will. You come to the mosque and would like to pray 100 rakats, go ahead, help yourself. It is not obligatory, it is not sunnah, it is not fard, its not wajib, it is your own wish. That is an-nafl. If you would like to spend all your time in praying nafl then help yourself.

Nowadays, there are Muslims who emphasize things which we can do without, such as staying overnight in the mosque and praying (i’tikaf). Many such persons not only don’t earn their living but are living on public assistance. I am reminded of October 1973 when Egypt had a war with Israel and for the first time in our life Jews in this country and in Canada were quitting their work and going to Israel to fight. Compare this with the Muslims of nowadays: Muslims now are being beaten everywhere and the most we do is to condemn it orally rather than supporting our brothers physically and financially. We don’t have actions. And some people are contributing to the poor plight of the Muslims by engaging in i’tikaf – praying all night and then sleeping all day long. They can afford to do that because they are collecting welfare. That is part of Islam in their view. If you don’t believe me go to the welfare office here in Toledo and Detroit and see how many Muslims are on welfare. And when you talk to these same Muslims they don’t talk the normal talk which we are talking, but they rather reply by quoting Qur’anic verses and hadith. And do you want to know one more secret about the Muslims of nowadays? Some Muslims are divorcing their wives on paper and renting a room in her house and both are collecting welfare. And he is living there in the house, renting a room, signed a lease, paying $200 per month for room and board, and these are the very Muslims who talk by the Qur’an and the hadith. And they display their holiness and righteousness and say they are Muslims. Scandalous! What I am coming at is that Islam is something other than what we are saying and acting. We come to the very small and trifling things and argue about them e.g. how long is so and so’s beard and how high are so and so’s heels while we are not thinking of those Muslims who are dying in Bosnia every day. [The Bosnians were fighting the Serbs and the Croats, for Bosnia-Herzegovina – their homeland – between March 1992 and October 1995 when a settlement, known as the Dayton Accords was imposed on them by the United States].

If you look up the dictionary for the word religion it defines it as “a way of life”. Those people who visit Muslim countries come back fed up and they say Islam is practiced more in America. You see how much corruption we have here in this country? We have a lot. But still we have more Islam here than in our Muslim countries.

Harām. This is a word that we hear all too frequently. It means prohibited. But our understanding of haram is a very narrow one. For example, there are some people who sit all night and talk about the honor of men and the honor of women; this man is going with this woman and that man is going with that woman. And it never occurs to them that all their talk is haram. You know what the Qur’anic verse says in this regard? Sura An-Noor, Verse 4: “Those who are talking about women and they don’t have four witnesses to prove what they are saying then lash them 80 times in an open square and never accept their testimony before a court.” See what the punishment is for someone casually tarnishing the reputation of a woman. Have you ever heard anybody talk about this type of haram – that it is haram to talk about other people behind their backs? No. Instead they talk about the high heels are haram; the woman is short and with the high heels she appears taller and this amounts to deceiving her husband and so this is haram. They argue about whether the nail polish is halal or haram. But the Prophet did not have nail polish in his time. How could he talk about nail polish and high heels? Where are we getting such hadith from, where is the Qur’an, where is the reasoning behind all this talk?

Islam says that a woman can display even her bracelets as this is her ornament (zeenah). But nowadays we find just the opposite: the men nowadays have bracelets and necklaces and they open their shirts to show their necklaces and hairy chests. And you find men with five or six chains around their necks not one. You see men with golden lockets with Ayat ul Kursi written on it and we don’t say to them this is haram, but, rather, we say to the woman who is wearing and showing her bracelets that she is doing haram. Islam requires from a man to display his manhood in a modest and respectable way, and from a woman to display her womanhood in a modest and respectable way. And Islam requires from the two to fight the devil not to escape from the devil. By this I mean that when you take your 18-year-old daughter and put her in a room and lock it, then you are teaching her how to escape from the devil, but, put her with the devils and teach her what is right and what is wrong and let her resist, that’s what is required. Because she could open the window and get a man in through the window even while you are in the house. And don’t forget, maybe the ladies will be angry with me this time for quoting this, but when the Qur’an talks about the “plan of the devil” it says it is a “weak plan” but when it talks about the “plan of the women” it says it is a “grand plan”. Therefore, what we should do is to teach our children how to resist temptation, to know our limits within the framework of Islam and be good Muslims.

Halāl is the opposite of haram and it means legitimate. Makrūh Tahrēman is that which is not as severe as the haram but it is very close to being haram and Makrūh Tanzēhan is that which is not halal but it is very close to being halal. Mustahab means recommended. Ja’iz means permissible.

Mubah. The word mubah means equal to do it or not to do it; it is your prerogative to do it or not to do it. How do we know what is Mubah? If there is no mention about something to do or not do it, then it is mubah. Means it is your prerogative whether you do it or not.

posted 11/22/2004