Things are generally considered tahir (ritually clean) by default if they don't fall into the list of najis (ritually unclean) things such as stool, urine, blood, semen, alcohol, pigs, dogs, polytheists, unritually slaughtered animals, corpses and a few other things.
Did you spot that? Yes, polytheists in the list of impure things! Literally, Muslims consider people who believe in multiple gods as ritually impure! This contradicts the common teaching (some) Muslim children are taught when they are young, that:
"People are of two types: A person is either your brother in Islam or your equal in creation" [Ali ibn Abu Talib, paraphrased quote]
This is actually paraphrased and the quote from the source is translated as such:
"Remember, Maalik, that amongst your subjects there are two kinds of people: those who have the same religion as you have; they are brothers to you, and those who have religions other than that of yours, they are human beings like you." [Ali ibnAbu Talib, The Peak of Eloquence (Nahjul Balaghah), Letter 53 (An order to Maalik Al-Ashtar)]
Basically, Ali ibn Abu Talib, the Khalif of the time, is advising one of his governors, Maalik, governor of Egypt, on how to treat his citizens and to be a fair and just leader to them. In it are many respectable principles about kindness, justice and fairness and it is actually a joy to read this letter so you might like to look it up1. I think that as a child I really liked to hear the paraphrased saying above and loved the humanity and peacefulness it espoused. But as an adult I can see it as something positive but it is taken out of context. It is advice for a leader on how to treat his Muslim and non-Muslim (Christian or Jewish) citizens and not all people (non-citizens) in general, and sadly it contradicts with the other teachings of Islam, especially with regards to polytheists.
Allah says in the Qur'an:
O you who believe! the [polytheists] are nothing but unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque after this year; and if you fear poverty then Allah will enrich you out of His grace if He please; surely Allah is Knowing Wise. [Qur'an 9:28]
Here, God specifically says polytheists, are ritually impure. This verse classifies a whole group of people, the majority of people on the planet at that time, and now - people who aren't Muslim, Jew or Christian, as being ritually impure! Some Muslims interpret this as 'spiritual' impurity and do not consider them to be physically impure but the true meaning of the verse, of the status of polytheists being physically impure, is clarified further through other verses from the Qur'an:
"This day (all) the good things are allowed to you; and the food of those who have been given the Book [Jews and Christians] is lawful for you and your food is lawful for them; and the chaste from among the believing women and the chaste from among those who have been given the Book before you (are lawful for you); when you have given them their dowries, taking (them) in marriage, not fornicating nor taking them for paramours in secret; and whoever denies faith, his work indeed is of no account, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers. [Qur'an 5:5]
This verse tells us that the food of non-Muslims was forbidden to Muslims but then later, it became OK for Muslims to eat food from Christians and Jews, but the restriction was not lifted from the polytheists because they are physically ritually impure and would make the food dirty and unsuitable for consumption by Muslims. In fact, many scholars then expand the term 'polytheist' from verse 9:28 to mean anyone who isn't Muslim, Christian or Jewish in general. Other verses that describe the infidels as unclean (najis) are 6:125, 9:95, 9:125 and 10:100. So Jains, Hindus, Animists, Spiritualists, People who don't follow a faith, Atheists, etc, are ritually impure too.
Islam teaches that impurity is transferable through transfer/displacement of an impure substance and through contact with moisture. An example of the first case is if a Muslim happened to get a paper cut and blood dropped onto their clothes or onto their hands, then they must stop the bleeding and wash any drops away with pure water, and remove the clothes and put them in the washer, before they can pray in them again or perform some other religious rituals. An example of the other way of transferring ritual impurity through moisture contact, is if the Muslim doesn't remove the blood drops properly and the blood becomes is dry/semi-dry (i.e. blood is still clearly there) and then with a wet hand touches the drop and then their jacket, now the jacket becomes impure because they have passed on the impure substance through contact. It works a bit like contamination. So, when Muslims consider non-Muslims impure and shake their sweaty hands, or the non-Muslim touches their clothes or handles their food or cooks for them, then they have been contaminated too!
Most Muslims are unaware of these rulings or choose to ignore them. Growing up as a young teenager, after reading the rulings of my scholar, I struggled with coming into contact with non-Muslims and would be repulsed if someone put forward their hand to shake mine. Here are some of the rulings of Ayatollah Ali Sistani:
107. An infidel i.e. a person who does not believe in Allah and His Oneness, is najis. Similarly, Ghulat who believe in any of the holy twelve Imams as God, or that they are incarnations of God, and Khawarij and Nawasib who express enmity towards the holy Imams, are also najis. And similar is the case of those who deny Prophethood, or any of the necessary laws of Islam, like, namaz and fasting, which are believed by the Muslims as a part of Islam, and which they also know as such. As regards the people of the Book (i.e. the Jews and the Christians) who do not accept the Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah (Peace be upon him and his progeny), they are commonly considered najis, but it is not improbable that they are Pak (pure). However, it is better to avoid them.
108. The entire body of a Kafir, including his hair and nails, and all liquid substances of his body, are najis.
109. If the parents, paternal grandmother and paternal grandfather of a minor child are all kafir, that child is najis, except when he is intelligent enough, and professes Islam. When, even one person from his parents or grandparents is a Muslim, the child is Pak (The details will be explained in rule 217).
110. A person about whom it is not known whether he is a Muslim or not, and if no signs exist to establish him as a Muslim, he will be considered Pak. But he will not have the privileges of a Muslim, like, he cannot marry a Muslim woman, nor can he be buried in a Muslim cemetery.
111. Any person who abuses any of the twelve holy Imams on account of enmity, is najis.
[Islamic Laws, Volume 1, Ayatollah Ali Sistani 2]
And in one of the tafsir (commentary of the Qur'an) for verse 9:28, this is elaborated a little more:
"This clearly establishes the doctrine that the heathens are unclean people and thus water at their hands and food prepared by them is also unclean and should not be touched or consumed by Muslims. The commentators of Baidavi, Kashshaf and Tafsir-e-Kabir also agree to this.
When the idolators were stopped from even approaching the Holy Mosque in the Ka'ba, the Muslims got perturbed and said that if the infidels are forbidden from even approaching the Mosque, whom to get corn from, for it was mostly the idolatrous public that used to bring grains, etc. for sale at Mecca. It was then that this verse was revealed.
According to the correct interpretation of this verse and according to further explanation of it by the Holy Imams, anything wet, be that any article of food or drink or anything else touched by an idolator, should not be used by the Muslims without getting it cleaned and, otherwise, it should not be used at all." [Commentary for verse 9:28, The Holy Qur'an translation and commentary by Agha Pooya Yazdi and S.V. Mir Ahmed Ali]
But as an adult Muslim, I absolutely rejected the idea that a human being, someone of the same species, could be physically impure. People who argued with me on this made the claim that non-Muslims ate and drank impure things so these impurities would exit in their sweat and the moisture of their skin, so it was justified, but even if the non-Muslim washed their hands or was a non-alcohol drinker and vegetarian, they would still be considered impure, so their argument was invalid.
And by then I had realised how difficult and impractical it was to Muslims and how humiliating it was to non-Muslims. Imagine these scenarios about non-Muslims and najis things that Muslims come by in non-Muslim countries: Your Indian friend/colleague shakes your hand. They invite you for dinner. They give you are speaking to you and a bit of spit accidentally jumps onto your shirt. It is raining and your friend touches you or your clothes. Food in the shop/cafe is hand-made. You go to buy lunch and the person behind the counter is not Muslim. They use the same gloves/utensils to touch the food (think about Subways). They prepare all foods on the same surface. They don't use pure water to utensils or surface. You go to buy ice cream and one of the flavours contains alcohol and they either use the same scooper or wash the scooper in the same water between scoops. You buy shoes which have leather on them and it begins to rain and the water gets your feet wet or the tongue is leather and you have sweaty feet. Your car has leather seats. Your watch has a leather strap. Sweets contain gelatin or pork-related ingredients. There is alcohol in food or drink. etc. etc. etc. People cannot appreciate how difficult it is for Muslims to live by these rulings and how they pervade the life of a Muslim. You cannot imagine the amount of effort and time some Muslims go through (the ones that are aware/observant) in order to stay tahir and clean and not eat anything contaminated.
As I got older I just felt it wasn't right to believe non-Muslims as najis and it contradicted human decency and the spirit of the saying of Imam Ali mentioned above. I used to ask myself: what if non-Muslims knew what we believed about them and could they accept Islam knowing that? And what if they treated us likewise, would we not hate that? In the book Ghandi: Naked Ambition by Jad Adams, the author explains how Ghandi's mother, a Jain, considered Muslims to be physically ritually impure and she informs the young Ghandi to avoid Muslims and not touch them otherwise he must perform a full wash. I was disturbed by this when I read it. I can see clearly now that it is a harmful and humiliating belief to hold and that it's sole purpose is to differentiate and separate the Muslims from the other people. The laws of Islam, the teachings of how to treat and see others clearly discriminate against non-Muslims and the notion that all people are equal in the sight of god is negated by this doctrine. It is in plain contradiction with human dignity, the unity of peoples, and their fair treatment and dealing with people with decency, because Islam does not want unity with polytheists and instead wishes to discriminate against them, stop social and business dealings with them and exile them from the Muslim nations. I therefore reject such doctrines and reject teachings from a religion that tells me that others, human beings like me, are physically impure and should be avoided just because they believe differently.
References:
1 http://www.dawoodi-bohras.com/pdfs/Nahjul-Balagah-English.pdf
2 http://www.sistani.org/english/book/48/2132/
No comments:
Post a Comment