Editorial
There are many people in our community who are deeply conscious of many social problems: the racism, poverty, environment, women being abused by their husbands, the sexual abuse of children and the silence around it, the on-going marginalization of women in our society etc. These are real problems. While you can live with the pain in the stomach for a while, many people are dying because of these other problems.
In trying to deal with these problems, people look for answers and the answers that they come up with, while taking the Qur’an and their relationship with Allah seriously, are not the usual answers - those usual answers arising from the religious training that you receive in the Indo-Pak institutions. Many Ulema and Moulnas, when we see those answers being implemented, are a bit embarrassed. This causes a conflict between our commitment to Islam and our theological heritage and the implementation of those “usual” answers. If we take our Islam seriously then we must think through the issues to resolve this dichotomy. You cannot live along-side both, you must bridge the gap.
The critical voices are maligned because we are afraid. Our maligning of those people and our attitude towards critical thinking is far more a reflection on our own weakness of faith and our insecurity.
Often when men panic about women and women’s rights, it is a reflection of our own insecurity with our own masculinity, and our own false belief that our security can only be bought on the insecurity of others. Why is it that we feel that this Deen is so vulnerable to critical thinking, that it may crumble when critical questions are raised? This is the Deen that Allah has established and has been established from the time of Adam (AS). Why do we feel it cannot accommodate thinking? This is the Deen that emanates from a Rabb that speaks about: “for a people who think, in order that you may remember, in order that you may understand”. We respond to challenging ideas by getting fatwas against people and sometimes they must die for their ideas.
When we try to read the Qur’an and try to understand what is it that Allah wants from us, be it specifically located within the project to create a safe world, wherein there is no hunger and wherein this entity Bani Adam (AS) is sacred. Allah says “I have elevated and distinguished Bani Adam (AS)”. Allah (SWT) blew of his own spirit into humankind and so each and everyone of us is a sacred human being in the eyes of Allah (SWT). When trying to find answers from the Qur’an these answers must uphold the sacredness of all human beings and work against whatever goes against the sanctity of the human being.
We must think and argue to fulfill the wish of Allah - “this is the promise of Allah, to establish those who have been maligned on the earth and to make them the leaders and to make them the inheritors”. But the establishment of the marginalized is accompanied by another promise “and to actualize, to make real the fears of the Firaun and Herman”. The New South Africa has not dawned, we only have the freedom to fight for a truly new South Africa. Poverty remains a reality in our country. Many women are still imprisoned in their kitchens. Many, many women still face glass ceilings (sometimes quite literally so, as in this mosque) in their places of work where they can be promoted up to a certain level, but not beyond that. Many, many children are quietly suffering sexual abuse in their homes, by ordinary respectable people. Many, many of us squander thousand of rupees in casinos.
We need to appreciate thinking and appreciate those in our own ranks who are critical and who question. We need not be afraid of questions. When we see ourselves panicking at question, at new ideas, stop and ask yourselves: “What does my reaction say about me?” How do we deepen our own level of faith for a process of critical thinking?” But at the same time to bear in mind that the critical thinking just for the sake of critical thinking leads to nowhere. We ought to be committed to the creation of a world wherein all human beings, irrespective of their beliefs, gender, sexuality, race, are respected for what they really are. In that kind of world, will we find the ex-pression of the spirit of Allah. When this state does not exist, it because we, who are meant to be the carriers of the “mercy unto mankind” have not fulfilled our responsibility.
And so when we rise, when we speak of defence, when we argue it is not for our privileged position of seeing the speaker, it is not to protect our property, our wealth, our class or cultures. We rise only for our Creator
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