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CONCEPT OF REFORM AND THE MUSLIM WORLD

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The last 200 years have witnessed turmoil in the Islamic

world. First there was colonization that exposed the
Muslims to the world outside with its glamor,
technological advances, scientific approach and liberality
of ideas. Then came the nationalistic movements resulting
in several Muslim states becoming independent from
Algeria, to Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and others.
This import of ideas from the non-Islamic world, and
Western education, along with an appraisal of how and
why the Muslim world lost its power and domination, and
how it can gain it back, led to a rethinking on the part of
the Muslim intellectuals.
Two concepts emerged, the one of revival and the other of
reform in the Islamic world. The proponents of both
movements were and are sincere Muslims who want to go
back to our heritage to enquire what is real Islam and how
can a Muslim state be a modern and progressive while
maintaining its Islamic identity. Both groups refer to the
Quran and the Sunnah and yet both claim exclusive right
to their interpretation.
The revivalists want the Muslim Ummah to travel in a time
machine and live like people lived 1400 years ago. The
reformists want to adopt the Quran and Sunnah and
somehow bring their teachings in conformity with the

Western ideas of individual rights, empowerment of

women, democracy, abolition of slavery, equality, freedom
of speech, etc.
We will look at the concept of reform and revival in the
context of the Arabic word Islah because this is what Islam
did in the 7th century Arabia. The teachings of Islam
brought about an intellectual and social reform.
WHAT DOES ISLAH MEAN?
1. To improve something
2. To make something better
3. To make something functional
4. To fix something that is not working well
In other words you try to fix something that is not broken.

WHO DOES THE ISLAH?
It requires a qualified person to fix something and make it
functional again after it had stopped working or not
working properly. If your bathroom is clogged you do not
call a doctor to come and fix it. And if you did it, it may
lead to the flooding of your entire house. On the other

hand, if a patient is not able to relieve himself, calling a

plumber is not an answer. He needs to go to the hospital
and have a catheter put it.
WHAT IS THE AGENDA FOR REFORM?
While every scholar, every religious political party and
every leader claims to reform their society and country,
few have a clear cut agenda or manifesto for reform. Every
scholar or religious leader thinks that his understanding of
the Quran and Sunnah is the right understanding and if
people listened to him and followed him, the entire
Muslim world will be reformed.

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Now lets go back to the Aya that we started with.

There are people who claim to be reformers. The aya tells
them that they do not have any idea of what reform is,
that they are not qualified to do it and that they do not
have any ideology and methodology to implement it.
And yet people do not learn lesson. An imam moves into a
new community and thinks that everything is wrong and
he must fix the problem. He has not allowed himself to
settle down, get to know his new community, understand
its unique dynamics and understand its problems, and yet
he wants to reform it. The result cannot be anything but
disaster.
Now lets see how Allah SWT prepared our holy Prophet
Mohammad SAW to bring out reform in Mecca.

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My interpretation of these aya is that Allah SWT gave his

Prophet SAW the right ideology and the right strategy to
reform his society.
There were so many things in that society that needed to
be fixed but we will look at two and see how Allah SWT
prepared the holy Prophet SAW to deal with these issues.
These are the issues of Slaves, Women and Orphans.
There are ahadith about this although weak.

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Lets look at the Holy Propjet SAWs qualifications to deal
with these issues.

1. He was an orphan himself and had first hand

experience of what the orphans went through.

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2. He was not a slave nor was he a slave master. Khadija
RA gave him a slave but he adopted him as his son,
Zaid ibn Harith RA. However, the company of Zaid
gave him an insight into the mind of a slave.

3. His sons died while young but he had 4 daughters so

he could understand their psyche, their problems,
their desires and how to handle them.
So what reforms did Islam bring about to solve the
problems of slavery, treatment of orphans and womens
rights?

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There are many aya in the holy Quran that encourage
freeing of slaves and make it a way of compensation of
certain sins.
A STORY FROM SEERA: THE INCIDENT OF BANU MUSTALIQ
THE HOLY PROPHET SAW MARRIED JAWIARA RA


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ABOUT ORPHANS:

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Womens rights:
1. No female child should be buried alive.
2. Women have the right to inheritance.
3. A woman cannot be given in marriage without her
permission.
4. Women have the right to education.
5. Women can participate in war.
6. Women should not be prevented from going to the
mosque.
7. Appointment of a teacher exclusively for women
8. Limiting the number of women that a man can marry
at one time.
9. Disallowing inheritance of women by the sons of their
husbands.

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The summary of this sermon is that there is a lot of talk

and discussion about revival and reform in the Islamic
world. The main players in this game are the scholars, the
religious actors and politicians; each has his own agenda
and concept of revival and reform. We the people are
often the silent spectators. For a real change to occur
there is a need to define what we mean by these terms,
what are we trying to reform, are our scholars and political
leaders qualified to do this and how should this be done.
The religious scholars need to learn what they consider to
be secular sciences, while the political leaders need to
study the religion deeply and seriously. This is an idealistic
talk but each one of us is obligated to do some thinking
and study since we are all individually accountable.