2015 10 16 Imam Nadeem Bashir

The Value and Superiority of Islamic Shariah

We live in a time when Islam is constantly under attack. People are respected, people look for recognition, people look for attention by demeaning Islam, by saying offensive remarks regarding Islam. There are people like Ben Carson, that no one knew who Ben Carson was until he made derogatory statements about Islam — and then, in our Muslim community, everyone knows who Ben Carson is.

So while Islam is constantly under attack, there is one thing that I really want to elaborate upon — something that really needs attention, something that we really need to remind ourselves: what does Allah say in the Quran, and what does the Prophet say in the hadith?

Two Things We Must Hold On To

We have to understand that the way of life that has been given to us — it is the perfect way of life. The Prophet makes it very clear in a hadith. He says:

(Muwatta Imam Malik, Book 46, Hadith 3)

"I leave behind you two matters. That if you hold on to these two matters, you will never be misguided. You will always remain as a strong entity, you will always remain as a strong ummah." And what are those two things? The book of Allah and the Sunnah — the life of Muhammad.

And Allah promises us that whoever follows Allah, who obeys Allah and follows Muhammad, Allah does not only say that he will succeed — Allah says a great success this person will experience.

Islam: A Transformation of People

The question is: when we live in a time when this deen, this shariah, is under so much attack — we living in this society, hearing people talking about shariah law and saying offensive things about it — what does our deen say about this shariah? How much am I supposed to follow this shariah? And what value should be in my heart for my own deen?

First of all, let's take a step back and look at Islam. It was a time in history — a time when you concentrate solely on the history of the Arabs, the people living in Mecca and Medina. These were people who had no identity. These were people who were hungry of each other's blood. They were people that if you study Surah An-Nisa, it really opens up your mind and tells you what the practices were at that time. Orphans were being mistreated, wealth was being mistreated, women were being mistreated. People had no value. There was no concept of humanization, no concept of respecting another person because he is a human being, because she is a human being, because this orphan is a human being.

But then, in the midst of all this chaos, in the midst of all these times of jahiliyya, Allah had mercy upon these people — because of the du'a of Ibrahim — and Allah sent within them Muhammad. Allah gave them the Quran. And this transformed these people. These two things — the book of Allah and the life of Muhammad — changed these same people. At one time, there was no king who wanted to rule over that land because of their barbaric nature. Today, these are the same people who are inspiring not only themselves and their next generations, but being an inspiration for others and other countries. This is what Islam does. This is how Islam changes people. This is how Islam brings a transformation.

Shariah: A Mercy for All of Mankind

What we need — and what people need to realize, what we as Muslims first need to realize — is that this Quran and Sunnah is our shariah. And shariah came from Allah. It is a legislation that came from Allah. It is a mercy for mankind. It is a mercy for mankind. So even if a non-Muslim follows the shariah of Muhammad — yes, the only thing he's not doing is his aqeedah is not in the right place — but everything else, if he does it, insha'Allah this will first lead him to Islam, and nonetheless this will be a mercy in his life.

Shariah came down not only for us. It came down as a mercy for every person to come to the Day of Judgment. This is what shariah actually is. And we need to realize, first of all as Muslims, that this deen is a mercy for me. I can either follow it, or I can abandon it. If I follow it, there is benefit in it for me. If I abandon it, there is harm in it for me. But there is nothing that Allah gains from that.

That is why in the Hadith Qudsi, Allah says:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 45, Hadith 2577)

Allah says: if the first of you and the last of you — all the humans and all the jinn that came throughout the history of mankind — if they were to be the most righteous of people and worship Allah, this will not increase in the majesty, in the grandeur of Allah. And on the flip side, if the first of you and the last of you became people who were wicked, people causing fitna and fasad, causing corruption on earth — even if we became like that and turned our backs to Allah — Allah says: "This will not decrease in my majesty. Because of your disobedience, I will not decrease in my majesty. I will not decrease in my treasures. I am Allah."

So Allah is telling us: if you follow this deen, there is benefit in it for you. You may not see it right now. You may think that this is too strict, that "I live in America, this doesn't fit my lifestyle." But Allah is telling us — there is goodness in it.

Quranic Proof: Islam is the Only Accepted Path

In the Quran, Allah says in Surah Ali-Imran:

This is the golden line. This is where the line is. Allah says that if you try to search any other path besides the path of Islam, فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ — it will not be accepted.

Another ayah — this happened on the day of Arafah. Allah says to the Prophet:

"Today I have completed My ni'ma upon you." People say shariah is a burden. If you think shariah is a burden — Allah calls it a ni'ma. He says: "I have completed my blessing upon you." Think about this. Allah is referring to deen, to Islam and shariah, as a blessing for you. Because without this you will not have an identity. Without this you don't know where to go in life. Without this deen you don't know how to conduct yourself — whether it's in your family, whether it's at your work. How do you treat your employees? You learn that from the deen. How do you treat people in your homes? You learn that from the deen. And so Allah says: "Today We have completed this ni'ma upon you, and We have chosen Islam for you — this is the best way of life."

Do Not Question Allah's Commands

Allah tells us: whatever I have given you, there is benefit in it. Just believe it. Now let me make that clear when I say "don't ask questions" — I am not preventing any of you from asking questions. But I want to clarify this.

Allah in the Quran in Surah Al-Baqarah is talking about Bani Israel and addressing the sahaba. He is saying: do you wish or do you intend to question your messenger the way the people of Bani Israel questioned their messenger? Don't do that.

In order for you to understand this ayah — when Musa comes to the sea, before him is the sea, behind him is Fir'aun and his army. He knows that Allah will make a way. But what did the people of Bani Israel say? "Musa, we are caught. We have nowhere to go. We put our trust in you, and this is what you lead us to? In front of us is the sea, behind us is Fir'aun — Fir'aun is going to kill us."

And that is when Allah instructed Musa — take your staff and strike it on the sea. Now, imagine if I were to just hit a stick on the water, would it have any effect? Absolutely not. But Musa was not thinking twice. He said: "Allah said it, there has to be something in it for me, whether I understand or not." He took out his staff, he struck it on the water — as soon as he struck the water, the water parts. Musa and his people cross. Fir'aun and his army are destroyed, drowned in the sea.

Now, after that — imagine if any person saw what they saw on that day: the sea parting, the sea coming together, destroying the enemy, and they being saved. Would anyone have any doubt in Musa after that? Absolutely not. But here is what happens. Someone in the community comes to Musa and says: "Someone has been killed in our community. What do we do?" Allah puts in Musa's heart — tell these people that they should slaughter a cow, take the shin bone of that cow, strike it on the dead person, and he will reveal the name. When Musa comes to his people with this instruction, what do they say? "Musa, is this a joke to you?"

Can you imagine their level of arrogance? The way they are questioning Musa — they are not asking, they are objecting. Allah tells us in the Quran in one place:

Allah says: if I were to tell you to do something which is absolutely unethical — something that I would never tell you to do — but if I instructed you, if I ordered you to do something absolutely inhumane and unethical, but if you were to do it because it has come from Me, Allah is telling us: even if it seems unethical, if it is coming from Allah, there will be good in it for you. Allah is telling us that whatever has come from Allah, you need to learn to accept it. We need to learn not to question it.

One is to ask a question — but one is questioning. Allah does not want us to come and question our deen. Allah does not want us to come and say, "Why do I have to make wudu? Why do I have to pray five times a day?" Allah says: don't do that. Whatever I have given you, there is khayr in it. Stick with it and you will see the benefits — if not now, you will see it some other day.

The Superiority of the Shariah of Muhammad

Respected brothers and sisters, this deen that has been given to us by Muhammad, this shariah that has been given to us by Allah — it is such a way of life that if you compare it to all the shariahs, all the ways of life, all the constitutions that came prior to the coming of Muhammad, the deen of Muhammad is the best compared to all the deens — whether it was given to Ibrahim, Musa, Isa. No matter what deen it was, no matter what legislation it was, the deen of Muhammad is far superior than all the other deens.

The reason I say this is because there is an ayah in the Quran in Surah Ash-Shura. First of all, what does shariah actually mean? Shariah means a path — a path that one takes, a path that people in the past have taken also and they have succeeded. That is what shariah means.

Now, Allah in Surah Ash-Shura talks about the shariah of Muhammad and also mentions that He gave a path — a way of life — to people like Nuh, Ibrahim, Isa, and Musa. But there is a slight difference in all this. I want you to pay attention.

There are two words mentioned in this ayah: one is the word مَا and one is the word الَّذِي. Now, the word الَّذِي is more efficient and more complete compared to the word مَا. For example, in Arabic: عَرَفْتُ مَا قُلْتَ — "I know what you said," where مَا means "what." But I could also say: عَرَفْتُ الَّذِي قُلْتَ — also translated as "I know what you said." But there is a difference. عَرَفْتُ مَا قُلْتَ means I know you said something, but I am not very sure about what exactly you said. But عَرَفْتُ الَّذِي قُلْتَ means I know what you said, I remember it clearly, it is very clear in my mind.

Now I want you to pay attention to the ayah:

Look closely: when Allah is talking about the shariah of Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa, He does not use the word الَّذِي — He uses the word مَا. But when Allah is talking about the shariah of Muhammad — what will be revealed to you, O Muhammad — He does not use the word مَا, He uses the word الَّذِي. In this very subtle way, Allah is telling us that of all the deens that came, of all the shariahs that came, the shariah of Muhammad is the superior one.

And we as Muslims — we should be fortunate. We should be thanking Allah that Allah could have created us in the ummah of Ibrahim. He could have created us in the ummah of Musa or Isa. But we are truly indeed lucky that Allah has created us in the ummah of none other than Muhammad. And we may not see the benefits and the virtues of that today, but we will truly see the benefits and the virtues of being part of this special ummah on the Day of Judgment.

So I hope that we begin to understand that whatever Allah has given us in the Quran and the Sunnah, it is for our benefit. If I do it, I will benefit. If I don't do it, I will be the one who is harmed, I will be the one who suffers. And while we keep this in mind, always remember that this deen is the best deen. Allah has truly blessed us. Let's keep that in mind.

Whenever I go home, whenever I am in a situation — at work or anywhere else — where I can either follow my deen or not: if I follow my deen, Allah will give me izzah. Allah will give me honor. Allah will give me dignity. If I don't follow my deen, I may be temporarily happy, but in the long run I will not be happy.

The Wisdom of Shariah: The Example of Interaction Between Genders

This is where we come in. This is where we need to step in. We need to explain these things to our children. We need to explain to them why Allah has put this into place — why Allah has made all the rules in our deen. It is for our benefit. When it comes to the maqasid al-shariah — the objectives of shariah — of course we don't have time to go through all of them right now, but I just want to give you one example just to help us understand.

Without a doubt, if you analyze all the religions, the religion that is probably the strictest — that has the most important rules and is very strict — when it comes to interacting with the opposite gender, Islam is probably the strictest. And we as a community, time after time we have to interact with people of the opposite gender. Allah shares with us the story of Musa when he went to Madyan, and how he treated those two women. Allah teaches us that even when you have to interact with the opposite gender, you do it with the utmost level of haya' and modesty. The Quran teaches us that, and the Prophet teaches us that too — because there were times when he was approached by women, and we see how he dealt with those situations.

But I want you all to think about this. We live in a society where zina is rampant. Everywhere you go — so many high schools, middle schools — they are dealing with this problem. So many girls becoming pregnant, so much zina is taking place. And we live in this kind of society where even our Muslim kids go to these schools and they are somewhat affected by that. Now there are some kids who graduate, finish university, earn their degree, and they have kept their iman intact — even though it may have been a challenging journey, they kept their iman intact. And then there are some Muslim kids who become victims of the tricks of Shaytan, and they may do something which is haram. They may make tawbah, they may not.

That is why personally I always say that I have so much respect for a youngster who goes to a public school, who lives in this society, who goes to college and university, graduates, and his iman is intact. I have so much respect for that kind of person.

Now think about this — that is the society outside. When it comes to interaction between the opposite genders, there are no rules, there are no boundaries. Now, does that mean that there is nothing taking place within our own community? No. There is some zina going on in our own community too. But can you imagine — this is after Allah has set the boundaries. When Allah has set the boundaries, we understand the rules, and yet there is still some zina taking place within our Muslim communities. Can you simply imagine that if there were no boundaries — then zina would be everywhere within our own Muslim community. Zina would be everywhere, and haram would be everywhere.

So despite the fact that Allah has set a boundary and yet we have crossed that boundary — no doubt — but not to the level where we see the other people in our society. So when we look at our deen today, even though yes, we may have crossed the limits, but because of those boundaries set by Allah, still most of us, we are right there. And this is what is keeping our iman, this is what is holding our iman, this is what is preserving our iman.

So during these times of challenges, each person — remember — each person is going to be tested in their own way. Allah makes it very clear that our job is to always keep in mind that these are the rules set by Allah, and there is khayr in it for us. Whether we understand it or not — from ibadat, to mu'amalat, to mu'ashara, to our family life, to our business life, to our work life — there are instructions in place.

Closing Du'a

I pray to Allah that He gives the ability to follow the life that has been set by Allah, the way it was practically demonstrated by Rasulullah. I pray to Allah that He puts within our heart the love of the shariah of Muhammad. May Allah put the love of the Quran and the Sunnah in our hearts. May Allah keep us united as a Muslim ummah, the way it was united during the time of Rasulullah.