Esack - On Being a Muslim

ON BEING
A MUSLIM

O THER BOOKS ON I SLAMIC S TUDIES PUBLISHED BY O NEWORLD

The Quran: A Beginners Guide, Farid Esack, ISBN 9781851686247

Quran, Liberation and Pluralism, Farid Esack, ISBN 9781851681211

Speaking in Gods Name, Khaled Abou El Fadl, ISBN 9781851682621

Sexual Ethics and Islam, Kecia Ali, ISBN 9781851684564

Progressive Muslims, Omid Safi, ISBN 9781851683161

Shariah Law, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, ISBN 9781851685653

Hadith, Jonathan A.C. Brown, ISBN 9781851686636

Inside the Gender Jihad, Amina Wadud, ISBN 9781851684632

finding a religious path in the world today

FARID ESACK

ON BEING A MUSLIM

First published by Oneworld Publications, 1999

Reprinted 2002, 2005

First published in trade paperback, 2009

Reprinted 2010

This ebook edition published in 2013

Copyright Farid Esack 1999

All rights reserved

Copyright under Berne Convention

A CIP record for this title is available

from the British Library

ISBN 9781851686919

eISBN 9781780744575

Cover design by James Nunn

Oneworld Publications

10 Bloomsbury Road

London WC1B 3SR

England

www.oneworld-publications.com

Stay up to date with the latest books,
special offers, and exclusive content from
Oneworld with our monthly newsletter

Sign up on our website

www.oneworld-publications.com

For Tasmia and Moosa,
Muhammed, Tahirah
and Ayesha

On Being a Muslim has a long history and numerous people have had a hand in it. I offer my sincere gratitude to the following:

To Brother Norman Wray who gave me the support to dig up stories from early Islam and to make them come alive for the kids at St Patrick's Technical High School in Karachi.

To Yusuf Patel who first encouraged the idea of putting all my Al Qalam columns together.

To Rabiah Terri Harris and Sohail Nakhooda who, in their work to have many of these essays published in As-Salamu Alaikum (New York) and Islamica (London), first led me to believe that someone outside South Africa may want to read what I have to say.

To Tahir Sitoto, Wiedaad Dollie, Nasiema Cassiem, Faizel Ismail, Kim Eliot, Nader Hashemi and Firdawsa Wahi for their useful and critical comments on the manuscript. While copies of manuscripts which they returned to me with their scribblings eventually ended up in the bin, I did consider their comments carefully and believe that it has substantially improved the quality of this work.

To my dear friend Ruwayda Hendrickse, who was initially going to be the only reader of the manuscript. Her raw honesty (Farid, this is not a book that I want to see your name on; its so bad, I dont know where to begin making suggestions for improvements) compelled me to send the manuscript off to all these other folk. (Ruwayda, blame it on all of the folks above, if you still think so after reading through it.)

To Juliet Mabey and Helen Coward of Oneworld Publications, for their editorial comments and for the gracious way they put up with my interminable delays.

To Sisa Maboza, my wonderful research assistant, for invaluable back-up in just about everything and for feeding my fish.

To the Mail & Guardian, Cape Times and Sunday Independent (South Africa) for permission to use previously published articles.

To all the people who have walked into and occasionally over my life and whose stories I tell in this book. (And I'm praying that my royalties will cover the defamation suits.)

And finally, to Allah, also for always being there (with always meaning always, without it always feeling like that).

If the last hour strikes
and finds you carrying a sapling
to the grove for planting,
go ahead and plant it.

Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)

A rabbi disappears from his synagogue for a few hours every Day of Atonement. One of his followers suspects that he is secretly meeting the Almighty, and follows him. He watches as the rabbi puts on coarse peasant clothes and cares for an invalid woman in a cottage, cleaning her room and preparing food for her. The follower goes back to the synagogue. When he is asked, Did the rabbi ascend to heaven? he replies, If not higher.

Isaac Loeb Peretz, If Not Higher

There is an exciting and challenging wind of relevance blowing through the world of Islam. Numerous Muslims, especially among the young, are keen to know how Islam relates to our here and now. Many responses have been forthcoming as a part of this wind of relevance: these are often vague, repetitive, superficial and, at times, even alarming. Some of these responses are alarming not only to those who desire to be unfettered in their march to entrench their control over the global economy but also to many Muslims who value social justice and personal freedom. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah), of the latter breed there is a growing band.

The more strident, angry and fanaticalourselves to be swamped by the noise of religious obscurantism and the equally destructive caricaturing in some sections of the media of the whole of Islam as a threat to civilized values.

Much of the emphasis in contemporary works on Islam by committed Muslims has hitherto been on the more obviously ideological aspects of Islam. These works usually cater for those who simply see Islam as an alternative to the universal colonization of consciousness through a process of relentless McDonaldization, the accompanying destruction of local cultures and economic exploitation. Two other factors have contributed to the sharp, rather angry and often dehumanizing image of Islam. These are the suffering endured by Muslims in several parts of the world such as in Palestine, Chechnya, the Balkans and Kashmir, and a simplistic recourse to our religious heritage as both our safe haven and the mother of all weapons.

I believe that there is a path between dehumanizing fundamentalism and fossilized traditionalism. This is a path of a radical Islam committed to social justice, to individual liberty and the quest for the Transcendent who is beyond all institutional religious and dogmatic constructions; an Islam that challenges us to examine our faith in personally and socially relevant terms. This Islam, I believe, provides a set of personal responses in an increasingly materialistic society where most people are living, and very many dying, lives of quiet desperation with a frightening sense of alienation from themselves, others and Allah. Muslims can make an effective contribution alongside those of other religious convictions to the creation of a world wherein it is safe to be human.

One of the things that often distinguishes religious groups from other ideological groups is our commitment to personal introspection. We struggle not only to examine the socio-economic structures that create and entrench oppression but also to examine our personal roles in, as well as reactions to, them. We ask questions such as How do we relate to our faith in concrete terms?, How do we become witness bearers for Allah in an unjust society?, How do we strengthen ourselves in a common commitment to establish a just order on earth? and How do we commit ourselves to others in an atmosphere of honesty and acceptance? Our personal responses to these questions are, in the final analysis, the only barometer of our commitment to a holistic Islam.