RATIONALIZING 'HARAAM'

Rationalizing ‘Haraam’:

Don’t Legitimize The Illegitimate!

‘Enter into Islam completely’: al-Quran

(M. Javed Naseem)

يٰأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ ٱدْخُلُواْ فِى ٱلسِّلْمِ كَآفَّةً

وَلاَ تَتَّبِعُواْ خُطُوَاتِ ٱلشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ

“O you who believe! Enter Islam completely,

and do not follow the footsteps of Satan!

Surely, he is an open enemy for you.”

(al-Quran 2:208)

There is a limit to everything and there’s wisdom in it! If something has no limits, no discipline, it’s chaotic.

There’s ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ for everything, for every system. The sense of justice (right or wrong) normally springs from the base of ethics, morals and values. The Supreme Creator (Allah), Who created us humans, also gave us a code of conduct or ethics telling us what is right and what is wrong. He drew the line and set the limits for us. Those limits are called the ‘Hudood’ in the Quranic language.

تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ فَلاَ تَعْتَدُوهَا وَمَن يَتَعَدَّ

حُدُودَ ٱللَّهِ فَأُوْلَـٰئِكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّالِمُونَ

“These are the limits set by Allah. Therefore, do

not exceed them. Whosoever exceeds the limits

set by Allah, then, those are the transgressors.”

(al-Quran 2:229)

Man is generally a transgressor, a violator of the rules who crosses the limits all the time. He always tries to justify or rationalize that transgression or the breach of limits. But there are still people out there who love discipline/order and respect the limits because there is peace and prosperity in it. It all depends on how strong your Faith is, how deeply you believe in moral values, and what place you give Allah in your life.

Don’t try to free yourself from all limits,

rules and disciplines! That’s not freedom!

Try to free yourself from desires that

keep you tied to the ground!

That’s real freedom!

Islam is a package – a complete package of life. You take it as a whole or you leave it. You cannot choose some parts you like and leave those you don’t like. You have to take it as a completed package and abide by it.

وَمَن يَعْصِ ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَتَعَدَّ حُدُودَهُ

يُدْخِلْهُ نَاراً خَالِداً فِيهَا وَلَهُ عَذَابٌ مُّهِينٌ

“Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger

and transgresses the limits set by Him, He shall

admit him to the Fire, where he will remain forever.

For him there is a humiliating punishment.”

(al-Quran 4:14)

If you feel embarrassed by ‘Hudood-Allah’ – the limits set by Allah between Halal and Haraam – then you are in the wrong place. You should leave Islam and join those liberals who put no limits to freedom.

Even freedom and liberty have limits. It means that your freedom or liberty ends where my freedom or liberty starts.

In the country of the free – America – somebody was dancing in the street screaming ‘viva la liberte’ (long live liberty!), ‘I love freedom’. People gathered around him joining the fun. The dancing man punched somebody on the face and his nose started bleeding. The injured man screamed back:

Listen you moron! Your freedom ends where my nose starts!

So, everything has its limits and that’s why we have laws, rules & regulations to maintain certain discipline, justice and order.

The Story of

Grapes And Wine

In his book about ‘People of Sham’ – Syria & Lebanon – Prof. Adil Abu Shanab tells the story of an Arab sheikh who got into a discussion with one of the French occupation officers during the French occupation of Syria/Lebanon. The French officer had invited some Syrian dignitaries to a dinner. One of the invitees was an old sheikh with his white beard. When the French officer saw the old sheikh eating with his fingers, he asked him:
‘Why are you not eating like us?’
The sheikh replied: ‘Do you see me eating with my nose?’
The French officer sheepishly answered: ‘I mean, why don’t you use fork and knife?’
The sheikh replied: ‘I am sure of the cleanliness of my hand, but are you sure of the cleanliness of your fork and knife?’
This shut the French officer up, but he made up his mind to get vengeance on the old sheikh. At the feast, the wife of the French officer was sitting to his right and the daughter to his left. The French officer, to spite the man of God, asked for wine
to be brought. Then he proceeded to pour the wine for himself, his wife and his
daughter. He started to drink in a way to annoy the sheikh. When that didn’t work,
he asked him:

‘Listen O sheikh! You like grapes and eat them, don’t you?’
The sheikh replied in the affirmative.
The French officer continued talking, pointing towards the grapes, hoping to beat the old sheikh: ‘This drink is from these grapes, so why do you eat the grapes, but stay away from the wine?’
All the guests looked at the old sheikh, feeling that he would have no answer to that.
The sheikh calmly replied: ‘This is your wife, and this, your daughter, is from her, right? So how is it that your wife is legitimate for you and your daughter is not?’
It is said that the French officer, after this humiliation, immediately ordered the wine to be removed from the table.

The moral of this true story is: Obey the rules and respect the limits. There’s wisdom in it that we may not understand sometimes.

But if you want to go beyond all limits – into the vastness – then sacrifice your desires and get free! Try to get closer to your Creator! He has no bounds.

Ramadan is the best occasion to practice this sacrifice!

Ramadan is the best time to break that shell and get free!

RUMI

Think that you are gliding out
from the face of a cliff like an eagle!

Think you’re walking,
like a tiger walks by himself in the forest!
You’re most handsome when you’re after food.

Spend less time with nightingales and peacocks!
One is just a voice, the other just a color.

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