Zawaya

Fatwas of Istehlal: An Islam Against Islam

By: Iqbal Al Gharbi

The Quran stipulates explicitly the unity of the human soul and stresses the human ties that take priority over all ethnic, religious, and cultural adherences. Allah Almighty says: “O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person, and from him He created his wife, and from them both He created many men and women” [Al-Nisa’: 1]. In this verse, and others, the emphasis is put on the fact that the origin of humankind is the same.

Interestingly, the values of Islam and its sublime teachings shed light on honoring humans, the equality of all human beings, and the principle of self-responsibility, since no one is punishable for the sins of others from his/her tribe or ethnicity, “No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another”.

We might not be wrong here when we find a convergence between the provisions of the Quran and what’s advocated by the philosophy of the Lights. Kant, for example, the lights philosopher par excellence, recognizes that human dignity as a universal value is inherent in all mankind. We must therefore treat the other as an end in itself and not as a means, which is contrary to the doctrine of “Al Wala’ Wal Bara’”, which considers permissible the sale of drugs, for example, to non-Muslims, since the latter are considered as a mere means for profit regardless of the impact this has in terms of devastation, tragedy and destruction of the bodies of consumers.

In addition to the difference between this doctrine and the spirit of the philosophy of the Lights, it also conflicts with the spirit of Islam. Doesn’t Islam consider the killer of an innocent soul, a murderer of all mankind!

And here, Islam and its spiritual principles that came to supplement the interests of people and promote honorable morals, show as a bridge of communication and convergence, and open a new era of cooperation among people, “and (We) made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other”.

However, the Fatwas of istehlal are based on a main demerit that conflicts substantially with the spirit of Islam and its noble global values, because they divide the human race and set a differentiation of values based on religion, permitting Muslims what they prohibit non-Muslims.

These hateful Fatwas are considered an application of the doctrine of “Al Wala’ Wal Bara’” which enshrines racism and hatred between people and calls for harboring hostility towards non-Muslims and not showing compassion or sympathy to them in their misfortunes, not for what they do but for the fact that they are not Muslims.

“Al Wala’ Wal Bara’” divides humankind into “believers” and “infidels” separated by a Chinese wall; the only relationship between the two is hatred and Jihad, i.e. the war until the end of times; and the world becomes divided into the “house of Islam” and the “house of war”.

What we need today is to warn young people, in the Arab and Islamic worlds, about the threat of the introvert and enclosed doctrine of “Al Wala’ Wal Bara’”. There needs to be a break in Muslim awareness from the culture of hatred and racial hostility towards the other who is different, so that we can rehabilitate the awareness of the emerging generation with a jurisprudence of dialogue, brotherhood and co-existence.

Without these noble universal values, humanity will fall into the normal state; a state of war of all against all, as Hobbes imagined it.