Muslim Men and an Islamic Identity

Head Coverings, Beards and Modesty in Islam

A woman's hijab or head covering is a very public expression of faith, and readily identifies a woman as being Muslim. Indeed, this is one of the purposes of Islamic dress for women.

In the Holy Qur'an, Allah (God) commands women to draw their outer garments around them because: "That is better that they will be recognized and not annoyed. And God is ever Forgiving, Gentle." (Surah al-Ahzab: 59)

Hijab and Modest Clothing for Men

The word hijab refers not only to a woman's headscarf, but to full modest Islamic dress. In this sense, men also observe hijab.

Islam establishes a minimum dress requirement that men must cover the area from their navel to their knees. In addition, men are forbidden from wearing gold jewelry, garments made of silk, and apparel which has been dyed red or yellow from saffron. Modest clothing should be neither tight enough to delineate their bodies, nor sheer enough to reveal what’s beneath. The garments themselves should be simply styled and free of ornate decoration, and pants and thobes should not hang past the ankles.

Muslim Identity in the West

Because modest clothing for men may be less apparent than it is for women, many Muslim men in the West aren't as easily identified as Muslim women. It's not unusual, for example, to see a woman in hijab walking side-by-side with a clean-shaven man in casual attire like a t-shirt, jeans or even shorts.

In a 2007 interview for Islamic Horizons magazine, Hanafee scholar Shaykh Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf notes that he has chanced upon such scenarios numerous times. He applauds the fact that such women are expressing their faith publicly, but notes a disappointing effort put forth by many Muslim brothers.

“Not enough men are making a similar sacrifice,” he says. “This is not so much passing judgment as making observation. In the so-called ‘cosmopolitan’ cities in America, there are freedoms. Why aren’t Muslims using freedom of expression for the sake of the deen (religion)?”

Traditional Islamic Attire and Head Coverings for Men

In some parts of the Muslim world, men do wear garments which are almost as modest as that of the women. Traditional modest Islamic attire for men includes long sleeve shirts, pants, thobes and head coverings such as turbans, taqiyahs or kufis. Because such garments help distinguish them as Muslims, some Muslim men in the West adopt these clothing traditions.

Shaykh Abdur Rahman advises brothers in America to look at what the righteous and pious men of their communities are wearing, and to consider how easy it is to achieve a strong Muslim identity by growing a beard or wearing a kufi.

Beards for Muslim Men

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) himself covered his hair with a turban, and instructed men to trim their mustaches but leave their beards. The majority of scholars conclude that the beard is required; some say that it’s strongly preferred. The Prophet knew that his nation would reach a time when adhering to Islam would be a struggle, but he promised a great reward. He said: “The keeper of my Sunnah (traditions) at the time my community has lapsed into corruption will receive the reward of a martyr." (Al-Mundhiri, al-Targhib 1:87; Al-Hakim)

Modest Behavior for Muslim Men

Wearing a beard or Islamic clothing is only part of a Muslim man's identity. He should also try to adopt the righteous, modest behavior that the Prophet exemplified. This includes lowering the gaze, avoiding flirtatious speech and conduct, and refraining from relationships with unrelated women. Muslims should also endeavor to be truthful, sincere, humble, patient, forgiving, charitable, moderate, kind, and considerate.

Allah promises that such effort will not be in vain. Paradise awaits Muslims who embody these qualities. “For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise - for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward.” (Quran 33:35)

Islam: The Next American Religion?

The U.S. began as a haven for Christian outcasts. But what religion fits our current zeitgeist? The answer may be Islam. By convert to Islam, Michael Wolfe. Reprinted from Beliefnet.com

Americans tend to think of their country as, at the very least, a nominally Christian nation. Didn't the Pilgrims come here for freedom to practice their Christian religion? Don't Christian values of righteousness under God, and freedom, reinforce America's democratic, capitalist ideals?

True enough. But there's a new religion on the block now, one that fits the current zeitgeist nicely. It's Islam.

Islam is the third-largest and fastest growing religious community in the United States. This is not just because of immigration. More than 50% of America's six million Muslims were born here. Statistics like these imply some basic agreement between core American values and the beliefs that Muslims hold. Americans who make the effort to look beyond popular stereotypes to learn the truth of Islam are surprised to find themselves on familiar ground.

Is America a Muslim nation? Here are seven reasons the answer may be yes.

Islam is monotheistic. Muslims worship the same God as Jews and Christians. They also revere the same prophets as Judaism and Christianity, from Abraham, the first monotheist, to Moses, the law giver and messenger of God, to Jesus--not leaving out Noah, Job, or Isaiah along the way. The concept of a Judeo-Christian tradition only came to the fore in the 1940s in America. Now, as a nation, we may be transcending it, turning to a more inclusive "Abrahamic" view.

In January, President Bush grouped mosques with churches and synagogues in his inaugural address. A few days later, when he posed for photographers at a meeting of several dozen religious figures, the Shi'ite imam Muhammad Qazwini, of Orange County, Calif., stood directly behind Bush's chair like a presiding angel, dressed in the robes and turban of his south Iraqi youth.

Islam is democratic in spirit. Islam advocates the right to vote and educate yourself and pursue a profession. The Qur'an, on which Islamic law is based, enjoins Muslims to govern themselves by discussion and consensus. In mosques, there is no particular priestly hierarchy. With Islam, each individual is responsible for the condition of her or his own soul. Everyone stands equal before God.

Americans, who mostly associate Islamic government with a handful of tyrants, may find this independent spirit surprising, supposing that Muslims are somehow predisposed to passive submission. Nothing could be further from the truth. The dictators reigning today in the Middle East are not the result of Islamic principles. They are more a result of global economics and the aftermath of European colonialism. Meanwhile, like everyone else, average Muslims the world over want a larger say in what goes on in the countries where they live. Those in America may actually succeed in it. In this way, America is closer in spirit to Islam than many Arab countries.

Islam contains an attractive mystical tradition. Mysticism is grounded in the individual search for God. Where better to do that than in America, land of individualists and spiritual seekers? And who might better benefit than Americans from the centuries-long tradition of teachers and students that characterize Islam. Surprising as it may seem, America's best-selling poet du jour is a Muslim mystic named Rumi, the 800-year-old Persian bard and founder of the Mevlevi Path, known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes. Even book packagers are now rushing him into print to meet and profit from mainstream demand for this visionary. Translators as various as Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, and Kabir and Camille Helminski have produced dozens of books of Rumi's verse and have only begun to bring his enormous output before the English-speaking world. This is a concrete poetry of ecstasy, where physical reality and the longing for God are joined by flashes of metaphor and insight that continue to speak across the centuries.

Islam is egalitarian. From New York to California, the only houses of worship that are routinely integrated today are the approximately 4,000 Muslim mosques. That is because Islam is predicated on a level playing field, especially when it comes to standing before God. The Pledge of Allegiance (one nation, "under God") and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (all people are "created equal") express themes that are also basic to Islam.

Islam is often viewed as an aggressive faith because of the concept of jihad, but this is actually a misunderstood term. Because Muslims believe that God wants a just world, they tend to be activists, and they emphasize that people are equal before God. These are two reasons why African Americans have been drawn in such large numbers to Islam. They now comprise about one-third of all Muslims in America.

Meanwhile, this egalitarian streak also plays itself out in relations between the sexes. Muhammad, Islam's prophet, actually was a reformer in his day. Following the Qur'an, he limited the number of wives a man could have and strongly recommended against polygamy. The Qur'an laid out a set of marriage laws that guarantees married women their family names, their own possessions and capital, the right to agree upon whom they will marry, and the right to initiate divorce. In Islam's early period, women were professionals and property owners, as increasingly they are today. None of this may seem obvious to most Americans because of cultural overlays that at times make Islam appear to be a repressive faith toward women--but if you look more closely, you can see the egalitarian streak preserved in the Qur'an finding expression in contemporary terms. In today's Iran, for example, more women than men attend university, and in recent local elections there, 5,000 women ran for public office.

Islam shares America's new interest in food purity and diet. Muslims conduct a monthlong fast during the holy month of Ramadan, a practice that many Americans admire and even seek to emulate. I happened to spend quite a bit of time with a non-Muslim friend during Ramadan this year. After a month of being exposed to a practice that brings some annual control to human consumption, my friend let me know, in January, that he was "doing a little Ramadan" of his own. I asked what he meant. "Well, I'm not drinking anything or smoking anything for at least a month, and I'm going off coffee." Given this friend's normal intake of coffee, I could not believe my ears.

Muslims also observe dietary laws that restrict the kind of meat they can eat. These laws require that the permitted, or halal, meat is prepared in a manner that emphasizes cleanliness and a humane treatment of animals. These laws ride on the same trends that have made organic foods so popular.

Islam is tolerant of other faiths. Like America, Islam has a history of respecting other religions. In Muhammad's day, Christians, Sabeans, and Jews in Muslim lands retained their own courts and enjoyed considerable autonomy. As Islam spread east toward India and China, it came to view Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and Buddhism as valid paths to salvation. As Islam spread north and west, Judaism especially benefited. The return of the Jews to Jerusalem, after centuries as outcasts, only came about after Muslims took the city in 638. The first thing the Muslims did there was to rescue the Temple Mount, which by then had been turned into a garbage heap.

Today, of course, the long discord between Israel and Palestine has acquired harsh religious overtones. Yet the fact remains that this is a battle for real estate, not a war between two faiths. Islam and Judaism revere the same prophetic lineage, back to Abraham, and no amount of bullets or barbed wire can change that. As The New York Times recently reported, while Muslim/Jewish tensions sometimes flare on university campuses, lately these same students have found ways to forge common links. For one thing, the two religions share similar dietary laws, including ritual slaughter and a prohibition on pork. Joining forces at Dartmouth this fall, the first kosher/halal dining hall is scheduled to open its doors this autumn. That isn't all: They're already planning a joint Thanksgiving dinner, with birds dressed at a nearby farm by a rabbi and an imam. If the American Pilgrims were watching now, they'd be rubbing their eyes with amazement. And, because they came here fleeing religious persecution, they might also understand.

Islam encourages the pursuit of religious freedom. The Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock is not the world's first story of religious emigration. Muhammad and his little band of 100 followers fled religious persecution, too, from Mecca in the year 622. They only survived by going to Madinah, an oasis a few hundred miles north, where they established a new community based on a religion they could only practice secretly back home. No wonder then that, in our own day, many Muslims have come here as pilgrims from oppression, leaving places like Kashmir, Bosnia, and Kosovo, where being a Muslim may radically shorten your life span. When the 20th century's list of emigrant exiles is added up, it will prove to be heavy with Muslims, that's for sure.

All in all, there seems to be a deep resonance between Islam and the United States. Although one is a world religion and the other is a sovereign nation, both are traditionally very strong on individual responsibility. Like New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die," America is wedded to individual liberty and an ethic based on right action. For a Muslim, spiritual salvation depends on these. This is best expressed in a popular saying: Even when you think God isn't watching you, act as if he is.

Who knows? Perhaps it won't be long now before words like salat (Muslim prayer) and Ramadan join karma and Nirvana in Webster's Dictionary, and Muslims take their place in America's mainstream.

Michael Wolfe is the author of books of poetry, fiction, travel, and history. His most recent works are a pair of books from Grove Press on the pilgrimage to Mecca: "The Hajj" (1993), a first-person travel account, and "One Thousand Roads to Mecca" (1997), an anthology of 10 centuries of travelers writing about the Muslim pilgrimage. In April 1997, he hosted a televised account of the Hajj from Mecca for Ted Koppel's "Nightline" on ABC. He is currently at work on a four-hour television documentary on the life and times of the Prophet Muhammad.

Reprinted from Beliefnet.com

Jihad with Sword

One of the reasons for which Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Founder of the Ahmadiyya Sect in Islam has been branded as Kafir is that he has denounced Jihad. We give below an excerpt from his writings in which he has given an exposition of the kind of Jihad which he has forbidden. It is easy to see from it that the Jihad which he has denounced consists in propagating Islam at the point of sword. Such a Jihad has no authority in the Holy Quran or the Traditions of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The Holy Quran rejects it by pronouncing there should be no compulsion in religion (2:257). The Promised Messiah explains in this article that early wars of Islam were fought in self defence only and that Islam strongly condemns those ignorant Muslims who seek to become Ghazis by killing innocent non-Muslims.

In fact this view of Jihad presents Islam in the most detestable form and by generating enmity and hatred amongst non-Muslims alienates them from it irrevocably. Everyone would tremble in the company of such a bigoted Muslim, for at any moment he might choose to be Ghazi and make a short work of him. This would, indeed defeat the very object of Islam, which is to win over the whole mankind by preaching its message of love and amity.

Anybody who reads the following article can judge for himself whether by denouncing such a bloody interpretation of Jihad, the Promised Messiah deserves to be branded as a Kafir or to be hailed as a Champion of Islam. (Ed.)

There is not the least truth in the assertion that it is time for resorting to the sword and gun for spreading the true religion and righteousness. The sword, far from revealing the beauties and excellence of truth, makes them dubious and throws them into background. Those who hold such views are not the friends of Islam but its deadly foes. They have low motives, mean natures, poor spirits, narrow minds, dull brains and short sight. It is they who open the way to an objection against Islam, the validity of which cannot questioned. They hold that Islam needs the sword for their advancement, thus brand its purity and cast a slur upon its holy name. The religion that can easily establish its truth and superiority by sound intellectual arguments, heavenly signs or other reliable testimony, does not need the sword to threaten men and force a confession of its truth from them. Religion is worth the name only so long as it is in consonance with reason. If it fails to satisfy that requisite, if it has to make up for its discomfiture in argument by handling the sword, it needs no other argument for its falsification. The sword it wields cuts its own throat before reaching others.

If it be objected that sword was resorted to by early Islam and hence the legality of Jihad, we say the objection is based upon ignorance of early Islamic circumstances. Islam never allowed the use of the sword for spreading the faith. On the other hand, it strictly prohibits compulsion in matters of faith. It has the plain injunction "There should be no compulsion in religion." Why was the sword taken in hand then? The circumstances under which this measure had been resorted to have nothing to do with the spread of religion; they are connected with the preservation of life. Briefly, they are as follows:

The savage inhabitants of the deserts of Arabia, who could hardly distinguish right from wrong, conceived a hatred towards Islam in its early days and became its bitterest enemies. The reason of this hatred may be easily conceived. When the unity of God and the Islamic truths were preached openly to idolatrous Arabs and convincing arguments against idol worship were impressed upon their minds and they were told how degrading it was for the noblest of God's creatures to bow submission to stones, they found themselves unable to meet the adherents of the new faith upon argumentative ground. This exposure led to a motion in favour of Islam among the more reasonable of them. The ties of relationship were cut asunder, the son parted from his parents and brother from his brother. This exasperated them the more and they saw plainly that if their fathers' false religion was to be saved, excessive measures must be taken to stop the ingress into the new religion. The new converts to Islam were therefore violently persecuted and no efforts were spared to block the way to the new faith. Those acquainted with early Muslim history know full well what barbarous and cruel treatment was meted out to the early converts, and how many were murdered in cold blood. But those harsh measures did not prevent people from the acceptance of truth, for even a superficial glance is enough to convince a man of the reasonableness and purity of Islam as against idolatry. At length when the implacable foes of Islam saw that severe persecution availed but little and that their ancient religion was threatened to be swept away in the current of Muslim reason, they planned the death of the Prophet himself. But their designs were frustrated. Almighty God saved His messenger and took him to Medina. The unbelievers, however, could not rest in their homes so long as they heard that the religion they had persecuted was gaining ground in another place. They pursued the Muslims to their new abode, and nothing but their extirpation could satisfy them. What could Islam do under the circumstances but defend itself? For what fault were Muslims to be mercilessly butchered and not allowed to protect their lives? Why should not the inveterate persecutors have been brought to retribution and just punishment? The Muslim battles were therefore not undertaken for gaining converts but to protect innocent Muslims lives. Can an unbiased judgement accept the conclusion that Islam was unable to prove its reasonableness as against savage Arabs? Can an unprejudiced mind believe that men who had sunk down so low as to worship images and lifeless things and who indulged in every manner of vice, could yet vanquish the noble religion of Islam on intellectual grounds, and that failure in proof led it to resort to the sword for increasing the number of its followers? Those who have advanced such objections against Islam have been guilty of grave injustice, inasmuch as they have concealed the true state of facts.

It is, however, true that the Muslim Maulvis and the Christian missionaries are equally to blame for this unjust charge against Islam. The ignorant Maulvis while pretending to support Islam have by their repeated inculcation, ingrafted the false doctrine of Jihad upon the minds of the unenlightened public who were misled by the fatwas of the Maulvis on the one side and the objections of the Christian Missionaries, whom they took for learned men, on the other. The doctrine of Jihad being thus supported by the evidence of two opposing witnesses, its validity could not be questioned by the masses. Had the Missionaries taken a different course and with true honesty declared that the fatwas of the Maulvis were based on ignorance of the early Islamic history, and that the circumstances which then rendered an appeal to arms necessary for Muslims, did not exist any more, the idea of Jihad would long have been eradicated from the face of the earth. But they never looked to the consequences and a misdirected zeal for their own religion cast a veil over their judgements in grasping the truth.

It must also be stated here that permission for self-defence and murdering the enemies of Islam was not given to the Muslims until the Arabs had, on account of their excessive oppressions and outrages and innocent bloodshed, rendered themselves culpable and liable to be punished with death. But a clemency was even then shown to such of them as embraced Islam. The unity of religion established a relation of brotherhood and all past wrongs were forgotten. It is here that some opponents of Islam have stumbled and from this they draw the conclusion that the new religion was forced upon the unbelievers. In fact, the case is just the reverse of what the objectors have thought. There is no compulsion here; it was a favour to those who had rendered themselves liable to death. It is apparently absurd to take this conditional mitigation of just punishment for compulsion. They deserved to be murdered, not because they did not believe in the mission of the Prophet, but because they had murdered many an innocent soul. The extreme penalty of the law was upon them, mercy of the Gracious God gave them another chance of averting this merited capital punishment. He knew that during the long years of opposition the Islamic truths had been brought home to them and they well understood the futility of idol-worship, therefore His mercy offered them an opportunity even after the sentence was justly pronounced against them, for imploring His pardon and the forgiveness of their sins. This clearly shows that it was not the object of Islam to put any unbeliever merely as such to death, but that it was willing to forgive even when the criminal was found deserving of death.

Islam had to grapple with other difficulties. Religious prejudice was so strong at the time that if a member of any tribe adopted the faith of Islam, he was either put to death or threatened with it, and persecution was so severe that life seemed a burden to him. Islam had therefore to face the difficulty of establishing freedom of religious exercise and for this noble object it had to undertake wars.

The early wars of Islam fall under either of the above headings and it never took the sword for its own propagation or for any other purpose. Attempts were made to blot out its very existence and therefore its life. It did not take up arms of its own accord but was compelled to do so. It had to defend itself and repel the dangerous foe. Later on, when its true principle were forgotten, the doctrine was read in a different light and ignorance looked with pride upon a hateful course of life. But the fault can in no way be attributed to Islam. The source from which it flows is pure and undefiled. That this doctrine has been identified with Islamic teachings by shallow-brained zealots who do not care for the life of man even so much as man should care for the life of a sparrow, cannot be questioned. But the innocent blood that has been split in the past does not satisfy them. They have yet a bloody Mahdi in store for the world and would like to exhibit the ugliest picture of Islam before all nations, that all people may know that Islam has always had to resort for its propagation to compulsion and the sword, and that it has not particle of truth in it to gain its conquest over hearts. It seems as if the holders of these views are not satisfied with the humiliation and decadence with Islam has already suffered, but must bring it still lower and subject it to yet more disgrace. These men are a reproach to Islam. But God now wills that Islam should not be branded with reproaches and remain under a cloud any more. It is already so distressing to find that its opponents who have not taken the trouble to investigate matters for themselves, have it impressed upon their minds that Islam has from its very beginning been employing the sword to add to its numbers.

It is high time that all these base charges should be cleared from the face of Islam. If the Maulvis unite to root out the evil from the midst of the Muhammadans, they shall have done a lasting good to, and conferred a blessing upon their co-religionists. Such an exposition of the doctrines of Islam will further reveal the excellence and beauties of that religion to the general public, and the aversion which its opponents have conceived on account of misconception shall be turned into admiration. The clouds of dust being cleared, they shall then be able to get their light from that source of light. It is evident that no one can approach a bloody murderer. Every one fears him, women and children tremble at his sight, and he looks like a mad man. An opponent of an alien religion cannot even pass a night with him let he should choose to be a Ghazi at the cost of his life. Such events daily occur among the ignorant frontier people, and a single bloody deed is deemed sufficient to entitle the murderer to paradise and its manifold blessings. It is shame for Muhammadans that alien races cannot safely live as their neighbours. They cannot trust them for a single moment and hardly expect any good in times of need. They do not deem themselves save among them and shrink at the hidden belief of Ghazism.

An instance of this occurred lately here in Qadian. On the 20th of November last a European came here. Just at that time a number of my followers has assembled together and the conversation was upon a religious subject. The traveller stood apart from the assembly and was addressed in polite words. It appeared that he was apprehensive. He stated that he had seen many Muhammadans who had committed atrocious deeds of murder against Christians. He mentioned several specific instance in which such cruelty had been shown. It was then explained to him that this, the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, abhorred such doctrines and hated their adherents such doctrines and hated their adherents. It had set before itself the noble object of uprooting this evil. Upon this he felt satisfied and stayed here for one night.

There is a lesson in this story for the pro-Jihad Maulvis. The growth of such horrible doctrines among the Muslims, has done lasting injury to the cause of Islam and created an abhorrence for it in the hearts of other nations. They have no confidence in their sympathy so long as the dangerous doctrine os Jihad finds favour with them. They cannot form a favourable opinion except of such of them as do not lead strictly religious lives and are not very scrupulous about their religious beliefs. For all these misunderstanding none but the Muslims themselves are responsible. The blame of depriving a whole world of the recognition of Islamic truths lie at the door of the Maulvis who taught doctrine repulsive to the nature of man. How could the religion be from God, whose teachings needed the flash of the sword to get an entrance into the human heart? Such considerations were enough to keep back people from the acceptance of truth. The true religion is that which on account of its inherent property and power and its convincing arguments is more powerful than the keenest sword, not that which depends upon steel for its existence.

(Courtesy, Review of Religions, 1902)

Islamic Mortgage

Many Muslims, especially those living in non-Muslim countries, give up on the idea of ever owning their own home. Many families choose to rent for the long-term rather than participate in a bank loan which involves the taking or paying of interest. In recent years, however, the market has opened up to mortgage offerings which are compliant with Islamic law.

What Does Islamic Law Say?
The Qur'an is very clear about the prohibition against usury-based business transactions (riba'):

"Those who devour usury cannot stand.... That is because they say, trade is only like usury; yet Allah has allowed trade and forbidden usury.... Allah does not bless usury, and He causes charitable deeds to prosper, and Allah does not love any ungrateful sinner. Oh you who believe! Be careful of your duty to Allah and relinquish what remains due from usury, if you are believers. If the debtor is in difficulty, grant him time until it is easy for him to repay. But if you remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if you only knew." Qur'an 2:275-280

"O you who believe! Do not devour usury, making it double and redouble, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, that you may be successful." Qur'an 3:130

In addition, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have cursed the consumer of interest, the one who pays it to others, the witnesses to such a contract, and the one who records it in writing.

The Islamic judicial system is committed to fairness and equity among all parties. The fundamental belief is that interest-based transactions are inherently unfair, giving a guaranteed return to the lender without any guarantees for the borrower. The basic principle of Islamic banking is the sharing of risk, with shared responsibility for profit and loss.

What Are the Islamic Alternatives?

Modern banks usually offer Islamic financing of two main types: murabahah (cost plus) or ijarah (leasing).

Murabahah: In this type of transaction, the bank purchases the property and then re-sells it to the buyer at a fixed profit. The property is registered in the buyer's name from the beginning, and the buyer makes installment payments to the bank. All costs are fixed at the time of the contract, with the agreement of both parties, so no late payment penalties are permitted. Banks usually ask for strict collateral or a high down payment in order to protect against default.

Ijarah: This type of transaction is similar to real estate leasing or rent-to-own contracts. The bank purchases the property and retains ownership, while the buyer makes installment payments. When payments are complete, the buyer gains 100% ownership of the property.

Death to Mickey

In 2007 Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV got rid of Farfour, a man-sized mouse with a squeaky voice who preached violent resistance against Israel on a weekly children's show. Station officials said they needed to make room for other programs. But a recent anti-rodent tirade by Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, a Sunni cleric and former Saudi diplomat, suggests a religious rationale for knocking off Farfour, who in the final episode of his show was beaten to death by an Israeli official who wanted his land.

Appearing on Al-Majd TV in August, Munajid deplored the influence of cartoon mice such as Mickey and Jerry, who encourage children to believe the filthy vermin are benign and lovable. “According to Islamic law,” he said, “the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature. How do you think children view mice today—after Tom and Jerry? Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.” Don’t even get him started on Porky Pig.

Shortly after Munajid issued his fatwa against cartoon rodents, another Saudi cleric, Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan, was taking questions about Islamic law on a state-run radio station when a listener asked about owners of satellite TV channels that show “bad programs” such as Sex and the City and risqué music videos during Ramadan. “I want to advise the owners of these channels, who broadcast calls for such indecency and impudence…and I warn them of the consequences,” Al-Lihedan replied. “Those calling for corrupt beliefs, certainly it’s permissible to kill them.” He later clarified that they, unlike Mickey and Jerry, should get a trial first.

What is Purdah?

The term purdah, meaning “curtain,” is used to describe the traditional seclusion of women in the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia. It is particularly linked with Muslim and Hindu society, although in areas where these religions are a heavy influence, sex segregation is observed by people of all creeds. Purdah has been the subject of fascination and debate for centuries, with some people supporting the concept, while others are rigorously opposed to it, arguing that purdah is used as a tool for the suppression of women.

As a general rule, purdah is a cultural rather than a religious tradition. In other words, although purdah is associated specifically with some religions, this association is not really accurate. While purdah stems from religious values about modesty and proper comportment, it does not in fact have a grounding in religious teaching. In fact, some religious authorities are opposed to purdah for this very reason.

At its most simple, purdah simply involves the isolation of the sexes. Men and women are traditionally separated by a screen for prayer, for example, and they may be discouraged from associating in public. In the home, women often have a private area such as a zenana, or harem, where men are not allowed, and men and women are never left alone together, unless they are married. In some cases, purdah is enforced with the use of veils and other garments which are designed to isolate women. A harem, incidentally, is simply an area of the house where men cannot go, rather than a collection of odalisques, contrary to popular opinion.

There are a number of reasons why purdah may have become so common in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Although it is linked with the spread of Islam, historical evidence suggests that the sexes were separated long before the period of Muslim conquest in the region, and similar traditions of isolation around the world make it impossible for Islam alone to be responsible for purdah. Purdah rules may stem from a desire to control and protect women, and from traditions where men and women have very distinct and separate roles. Purdah is also about the manipulation and show of power to some extent, as only wealthy people can afford to have separate women's quarters, for example, or to isolate their women so that they do not have to come into contact with society.

Fans of the isolation of the sexes suggest that purdah fosters respect and love for women, sometimes suggesting that the comparatively lower rates of reported sex crimes in regions of the world which practice purdah are due to the isolation of women. Sadly, these seemingly lower rates are probably related to cultural values which lead women to refrain from reporting such crimes, out of fear of recrimination or mockery. Purdah also tends to keep women in a subservient position, as they cannot interact with men on equal footing, or society at large in very conservative regions.

The Evil Isn't Islam

by Daniel Pipes

"ISLAM IS EVIL." That's the message a U.S. Secret Service agent illicitly left on an Islamic prayer calendar on July 18 as he was raiding a suspected al Qaeda operative in Dearborn, Mich.

His crude graffito sums up a point of view increasingly heard since 9/11 in the United States. It's also one that is troubling and wrong.

Here is the rub: It is a mistake to blame Islam (a religion 14 centuries old) for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam (a totalitarian ideology less than a century old). The terrorism of al Qaeda, Hamas, the Iranian government and other Islamists results from the ideas of such contemporary radicals as Osama bin Laden and Ayatollah Khomeini, not from the Koran.

To which you might respond: But bin Laden and Khomeini get their ideas from the Koran. And they are only continuing a pattern of Muslim aggression that is centuries old.

Not exactly. Let's look closer at both points:

• Aggressive Islam: The Koran and other authoritative Islamic scriptures do contain incitements against non-Muslims. The eminent historian Paul Johnson, for example, cites two Koranic verses: "Strongest among men in enmity to the Believers will you find the Jews and Pagans" (Sura 5, verse 85) and "Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them. And seize them, beleaguer them and lie in wait for them." (9:5).
• Aggressive Muslims: Fourteen centuries of Islam have witnessed a long history of Muslims engaged in jihad (holy war) to expand the area under Islamic rule, from the early conquests of the caliphs to what Samuel Huntington terms Islam's "bloody borders" today.

Yes, these points are accurate. But they are one side of the story.

• Mild Islam: Like other sacred writings, the Koran can be mined for quotes to support opposing arguments. In this case, Karen Armstrong, a bestselling apologist for Islam, quotes two gentler passages from the Koran: "There must be no coercion in matters of faith!" (2:256) and "O people! We have formed you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." (49:13).
• Mild Muslims: There have been occasions of Muslim moderation and tolerance, such as those in long-ago Sicily and Spain. And in one telling example, Mark R. Cohen notes that "The Jews of Islam, especially during the formative and classical centuries (up to the 13th century), experienced much less persecution than did the Jews of Christendom."

In other words, Islam's scriptures and history show variation.

At present, admittedly, it is hard to recall the positive side, at a moment when backwardness, resentment, extremism and violence prevail in so much of the Muslim world. But the present is not typical of Islam's long history; indeed, it may be the worst era in that entire history.

Things can get better. But it will not be easy. That requires that Muslims tackle the huge challenge of adapting their faith to the realities of modern life.

What does that mean in practical terms? Here are some examples:

Five hundred years ago, Jews, Christians and Muslims agreed that owning slaves was acceptable but paying interest on money was not. After bitter, protracted debates, Jews and Christians changed their minds. Today, no Jewish or Christian body endorses slavery or has religious qualms about paying reasonable interest.

Muslims, in contrast, still think the old way. Slavery still exists in a host of majority-Muslim countries (especially Sudan and Mauritania, also Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) and it is a taboo subject. To enable pious Muslims to avoid interest, an Islamic financial industry worth an estimated $150 billion has developed.

The challenge ahead is clear: Muslims must emulate their fellow monotheists by modernizing their religion with regard to slavery, interest and much else. No more fighting jihad to impose Muslim rule. No more endorsement of suicide terrorism. No more second-class citizenship for non-Muslims. No more death penalty for adultery or "honor" killings of women. No more death sentences for blasphemy or apostasy.

Rather than rail on about Islam's alleged "evil," it behooves everyone - Muslim and non-Muslim alike - to help modernize this civilization. That is the ultimate message of 9/11. It is much deeper and more ambitious than Western governments presently seem to realize.