It’s my body, and I can do what I like!
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
يرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُبَيِّنَ لَكُمْ وَيَهْدِيَكُمْ سُنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ وَيَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
وَاللَّهُ يُرِيدُ أَن يَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَيُرِيدُ الَّذِينَ يَتَّبِعُونَ الشَّهَوَاتِ أَن تَمِيلُوا مَيْلًا عَظِيمًا
يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ أَن يُخَفِّفَ عَنكُمْ ۚ وَخُلِقَ الْإِنسَانُ ضَعِيفًا
Allah wants to make things clear for you and to guide you to the ways (sunnan) of those before you and to turn towards you. And Allah is All-Wise, All-Knowing. And Allah wants to turn towards you, and those who follow their desires want you to make a huge shift (in direction). Allah wants to lighten (your burdens) for you, and the human being was created weak. (Surah 4:26-28)
In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful. All thanks and praise is due to him who created us and then did not leave us in confusion, but sent down revelation to guide us, and peace and blessings upon Muhammad, the final messenger, and upon his family and companions, and upon those who follow their ways until the Day of Judgement.
The demand for human rights has grown in our times so that individuals everywhere are applying the language of rights to every aspect of our lives. As the slogan of feminism in the 1970s put it, now “the personal is political.” We are becoming habituated and even coached into viewing ourselves as people with self-autonomy, who should be able to do exactly what we want, and if we are denied that, then we feel oppressed. At the same time, our society has become more diverse and more individualistic, and more willing to question the conventions of society with the decline in belief in religion, so new desires have emerged, along with new demands for rights.
For Muslims, it can seem at times that we are time travellers from another age, with our time-honoured customs (sunnat – plural is sunnan) and laws, habits and ways of dress; at others we are demanding our rights along with everybody else, as Muslims and as members of the diverse special interest groups that we also belong to. Have we not got many grievances? Are we not oppressed, slighted, disrespected and insulted – and is not Islam in favour always of fairness and upholding the rights of the oppressed? We need to remember that our prophet warned us against upholding every one of our rights. He said that sometimes one might take one’s right, but that in doing so, one could also be taking a piece of hellfire.
Non-Muslims even seek to encourage us further by influencing Muslim societies according to make the same huge shifts in attitudes they have, seeking to liberate us from the shackles of our inherited religious tradition, as they believe they have been liberated from the shackles of their own, but replacing it with their own way of life, which demands a massive shift in thinking and behaviour. This can feel like a continuation of the missionary activities of 19th century colonialism, in 21st century guise.
However, freedom is not alien to Islam. We can do as we like, in fact. Allah gives us complete freedom of choice, telling us that there is no compulsion in matters of religion:
ا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ الرُّشْدُ مِنَ الْغَيِّ ۚ
There is no compulsion in religion; guidance has been distinguished from error. (2:256)
قُلْ آمِنُوا بِهِ أَوْ لَا تُؤْمِنُوا ۚ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ مِن قَبْلِهِ إِذَا يُتْلَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ يَخِرُّونَ لِلْأَذْقَانِ سُجَّدًا
Say: Believe, or don’t believe: Indeed those who were given knowledge previously when (verses) are recited to them fall down in prostration (17:107)
However, as believers, we must understand that we will then be judged on our choices. He tells us also in surah al Mulk that he created life and death in order to see which of us have the best deeds. Everything we do is being recorded and observed.
اعْمَلُوا فَسَيَرَى اللَّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ ۖ وَسَتُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
Act, for Allah will see your actions, and his messenger and the believers, and you will be returned to the Knower of the unknown and the known and He will inform you about what you were doing. (9:105)
For this reason, that our prophet tells us that one of the sayings which has come down to us from earlier prophets is
إِنَّ مِمَّا أَدْرَكَ النَّاسُ مِنْ كَلاَمِ النُّبُوَّةِ الأُولَى إِذَا لَمْ تَسْتَحِي فَاصْنَعْ مَا شِئْتَ
If you have no shame, then do what you like.
In fact, the core of Islam is the awareness that we must surrender to the will of Allah. Islam means surrender – whole-hearted, willing, contented surrender in complete peace, to Allah. We are Allah’s slaves. Since when do slaves use the language of demanding rights before their master, except as rebels? Fortunately for us, Allah is merciful to his slaves, and commands us to ask him for things, telling his that he responds to our prayers. However, asking is not the same thing as demanding. The early Muslims would prefer to complain to Allah, and not to complain to anyone else, because they saw complaining to others as complaining about the decree of their Lord to one who was powerless to help them. How different are our attitudes nowadays!
As for the idea of being entitled to do what one wants, it is not a Muslim idea. Allah asks in the Qur’an, (the context is the worship of local Meccan idols):
إن يَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَمَا تَهْوَى الْأَنفُسُ ۖ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَهُم مِّن رَّبِّهِمُ الْهُدَىٰ
أَمْ لِلْإِنسَانِ مَا تَمَنَّىٰ
… they are just following speculation or their own desires. And the guidance has already come to them from their lord. Or does the human get what he wishes for? (53:24)
In the same way, we do not have absolute rights over our body to do what we like, because Allah tells us in the Qur’an that we belong to Him. It is a right of His that we respect what belongs to Him – and that means everything we “own”/use in this life, and those around him, and ourselves. We can see from the sunan of our prophet, that he had tremendous respect for everything. He would pick up bread that had been dropped, wipe it, kiss it, and honour it, because it was a blessing from Allah. He would go bareheaded in the rain, because it had recently come from his Lord. The traditional ways of earlier Muslims were ways of respect, honour and love, not of discontentment and complaint. And Allah wishes to make things easy for us. If he gives us advice, should we ignore it, to our own detriment, in the name of freedom?
Finally, we must not forget that the Muslim world has always reminded us that what looks like freedom can actually be slavery in disguise. Are not demands to do what we want a symptom of enslavement to desires? Desires which have overpowered even our wish to please our lord? True freedom comes from the ability to say no to ourselves.
If we are Muslim, then we are surrendered to Allah, and recognise his lordship over us, that means that we should be seeking to follow his commands, and his guidance, and the example of his prophet and companions – the ways (sunan and shariah) of those before us, even if they are against our own desires, and of “those who follow their own desires.” Now the sunan and the shariah can take new forms in new societies, but there cannot be a huge shift away from the past as “those who follow their own desires” (having rejected submission to revealed religion) wish for.
When I became a Muslim, I did not understand the point of the sunnah for many years. I really did not understand it. This was natural, coming from a Christian background, because although Christians love Jesus, peace be upon him, they do not seek to act and live the way he did. I used to think to myself that just because our prophet, peace be upon him, ate with his right hand, why did that mean that we should do the same? Surely that was a matter of personal preference, and haven’t times changed?
It was not until one day, I was invited to visit a church, that the realisation hit me: I asked myself whether, if Jesus, peace be upon him, were to return to earth today, would he even recognise the form of the church service, its pews, the costumes of his followers and their manner of worship as relating to him? It was then that I saw a huge big blessing of the sunnah – the way of the prophet. Because it is by following the ways of one’s prophet that most enables us to be recognised by him even through millennia of changes. And this is at least one huge reason why Muslims should love and stick with the beauty of the sunnan of the prophets, even when people cannot understand us, or are telling us that they are outdated and unnecessary, and even if we appear strangers from another world.
The prophet told us, peace be upon him,
بدأ الإسلام غريباً وسيعود غريباً كما بدأ فطوبى للغرباء
Islam began as a stranger, and return as a stranger, so blessings be with the strangers.
It’s my body and I can do what I want!
