Islam is Islam

Islam is Islam and there is nothing like moderate Islam, enlightened Islam, true Islam or real Islam. These terms appear to have been coined by people to justify their point of view which, generally, is not within the fold of Islam.

A common practice of the so-called developed people (Europe & America) is to dub practices of general people as Islam and then malign it. Unfortunately Muslims, who look towards the Western people for everything, fall prey to this propaganda. There is nothing more misleading than judging Islam from culture or traditions in a Muslim country or from general practices of people who are known as Muslim.

Culture is not permanent or durable. It keeps on changing with time. During my life time, cultures of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi have changed to a great extent. The culture of Duesseldorf (Germay) that I witnessed during 1966-67 was not there when I visited during 1978. Similarly, I found considerable difference in culture in Britain in 1978 than what I had witnessed when I had visited during 1967. By now it may have further changed.

Then there are traditions, some good and some bad. It is another thing that those following such traditions do bring up Islam, in addition to culture, to justify their actions. Karo Kari, Maani, Wunni, Swara, so-called honour-killing and the like are dictatorial tribal traditions and have nothing to do with Islam, rather, such practices are unequivocally abhorred in Islam.

Our people have started behaving like a pendulum. They go either to one extreme or the other while Qur’aan teaches us “Siratul Woosta” (median way). No where in Islamic Shria, culture has been dubbed as bad, only bad things are bad.

To summarise:

Law, of a country, is what the competent authority of that country promulgates, and it is, also, written in the law books that ignorance of law is no excuse. Thus, law is not what people practice.

There is no justification of treating Islam in a different way while Islam is also a law promulgated by the Creator of Universe. Thus, Islam is what Qur’aan says and Hadith explains and not what people practice.

May allah guide us to the right path. Aameen.