Voices of Islam (132 page)

In our times, it is important to set aside the modern notion of the nuclear family and the related concept of wage labor in order to more broadly view men’s and women’s roles in supporting the family and participating in society outside of the home. The idea that a woman’s place is in a two-bedroom apartment or suburban detached single-family dwelling, without access to extended family, other adults, or educational opportunities for herself or her children, is not a normal situation in which to raise a family. Living in cities or as minorities in non-Muslim countries, Muslim families raising children by themselves need to create their own community structures and surrogate extended families. Women’s work is needed in these nascent communities to help build institutions, educate children and other family members, provide services and friendships for youth, and build other family support services. This work of institution building and defending the community against internal or external stresses is not the province of men only, but of both partners. Whether as volunteers or as paid workers, women’s participation in these community-building activities is a form of work outside the home, but it can also be viewed as a direct extension of child raising and household support. Unfortunately, uncritical views of the nuclear family as the norm in modern society have left women and children—and for that matter men as well—more isolated than a broader rethinking of the defi ns of family, work, home, and child rearing in an Islamic context might yield.

Public Life

Stepping outside the home, a Muslim enters into the realm of public life. Islam does not require or encourage seclusion but invites individuals to use their talents to seek the common good and social justice. This is a central idea of the term
jihad,
which does not necessarily have anything to do with

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warfare or violence, nor is it limited to the personal struggle to overcome temptation or sin.
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The idea behind jihad, which includes all types of struggle for justice, is expressed in the following verse of the Qur’an: ‘‘The believers, both men and women, are protectors one of another. They enjoin what is just and forbid what is evil. They observe regular prayers, practice regular charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger. On them will Allah pour His mercy, for Allah is Exalted in Power and Wise’’ (Qur’an 9:71).

Entering the public sphere is always a challenge, but it is a challenge that the Prophet Muhammad felt was preferable to monasticism or withdrawal, out of either an excess of bitterness or fear of corruption. When Muslims begin work or travel, they often make a brief supplication that acknowledges the role of the Creator in every action and seek God’s protection and guidance in whatever they do.
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A common supplication for leaving the house is pronounced silently or aloud: ‘‘In the name of Allah, I believe in Allah, I rely on Allah. That which Allah wills takes place. There is neither power nor strength but in Allah.’’
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The Public Responsibilities of a Muslim

The place of the individual in the matrix of self, family, and marriage is lived out within the larger framework of the community, which includes those persons with whom every individual comes into contact in the course of daily or periodic occupations. The principles that govern individual and collective responsibilities in these relationships comprise the standards of Islamic ethics. Living a moral life requires the individual to understand and prioritize the demands of any given situation to fi d the most satisfactory response, to enjoin what is good, and to avoid harm.

Guests deserve utmost generosity and are required to be gracious and unobtrusive in return. Neighbors are to be treated with kindness and respect, and the Muslim is required to foster friendly relations and care if one’s neighbors are in need. There is no room for thoughtlessness or the insistence that individual responsibilities end at the property line. Keeping the home and the streets clean of fi th is required of Muslims. Removing a dangerous object or obstacle from the road is considered an act of charity, as is a kind word or a smile. Common byways, resources such as air and water, and even visual space involve rights of the neighbor that should not be violated. The concept of the neighbor may be readily extended to any person with whom one comes into temporary proximity, such as on public transportation or in a queue, sharing workspace, or similar situations. Within such a concept, the idea of annoying a stranger or an acquaintance, much less of ignoring a person in an emergency or in obvious hardship, would be unethical in Islam.

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Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

Economic Relations

Economic relations with others, regardless of whether the others are seen or unseen, fall into the category of public behavior. Islamic teachings give scrupulous attention to fair and honest dealings concerning economic trans- actions. Islamic legal traditions elaborate detailed guidelines for buying and selling; for entering into, recording, and fulfilling contracts; and for relations between the employer and the employee. A common example of this concern is the tradition that a person who is hired to do work must be paid before his sweat has dried. In return for this consideration, labor and production are to be performed with integrity and excellence. Economic exploitation based on neglect, deception, or greater financial might is prohibited, including individual or institutional attempts to use financial strength to reduce people to indebtedness. Both debtors and lenders are warned against placing themselves or one another into disadvantageous and spiritually impoverish- ing relationships because of money.

The central concept of property in Islam is that everything is given to us by God as a provision for this life and that ultimately everything belongs to God. Private property must be honored, but people hold their wealth as a trust from the Creator. The desire for wealth, often associated with envy, greed, and avarice, can only be held in check by generosity.
Zakat,
the annual Alms Tax of Islam, amounts to annual obligatory giving, whereas
Sadaqa
is volun- tary charity that may be given at any time, and takes many different forms. Charity may involve money, services, in-kind goods, and even a simple act of kindness or aid. Charity is not the privilege of the wealthy alone but is a responsibility for everyone.

The term
Zakat
carries the meanings of ‘‘purifi and ‘‘growth,’’ implying that personal wealth is purifi by giving and that its growth is predicated upon sharing. All adults who are sane, free, and financially able have to give a small portion of their wealth each year. This money may be disbursed by individuals, or given to a common fund in the absence of a recognized authoritative body. These funds are to support specifi groups of people who are mentioned in the Qur’an: ‘‘Alms are only for the poor and the needy, those who collect [alms], those whose hearts are to be recon- ciled, to free captives and the debtors, for the cause of Allah, and (for) the wayfarers; this is a duty imposed by Allah. Allah is the Knower, the Wise’’ (Qur’an 9:60). The obligation to practice charity is firmly established in the Qur’an, the Sunna, and the consensus of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim scholars.

The condition for paying
Zakat
is the accumulation of a certain amount of money beyond basic needs. In Arabic, this condition is called
nisab.
If one does not reach the required level of wealth within a year, no
Zakat
is due. The amount of the
nisab
varies for currency, precious metals, or other forms of wealth such as natural resources, land, or livestock. The wealth must

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have been held in the owner’s control for a full lunar year, after which

2.5 percent of the accrued wealth is owed as
Zakat.
Any outstanding debts are deducted from the
nisab,
and any additional earnings or losses are figured as well. Each Muslim is responsible for calculating the amount of
Zakat
that she owes.

The Local Community and the Global Umma

The mosque (
masjid
) is at the center of Muslim community life. It is also a platform for Muslims’ interaction with other communities and a place of spiritual renewal, learning, mutual support, and collective organization and decision making. Performing the prayer in the company of others is preferred over praying alone. Muslim men are encouraged to perform their prayers at the mosque and are obliged to attend the Friday communal prayer (
al-Salat al-Jumu‘a
). Women are permitted to pray at the mosque and attend Friday prayers but are not obliged to do so. In some Muslim countries, custom discourages or excludes females from entering the mosque, but there is no clear basis for this practice in Islamic law.

The minimum requirement for a place of prayer is a clean spot on the earth or a piece of fabric sufficient for a single person to carry out the prayer move- ments. This is the origin of the prayer rug, which has no further sacred significance in Islam, although such rugs are an important facet of Muslim textile arts. A place of prayer may be a room oriented toward the Ka‘ba in Mecca, a borrowed room in a public building, a converted building, or a large and elaborately decorated purpose-built structure. Mosques can be found in a marvelous array of architectural forms and decorations, including recent examples that combine modern and traditional features.

Men’s and women’s spaces for prayer are sometimes separated by physical barriers such as walls, curtains, low partitions, or special sections such as a balcony. The construction of adequate spaces for women in new mosques, especially in the West, is a contested aspect of building design. Women’s spaces are often too small, too isolated to hear or participate effectively, and lacking in suffi ient space for children, who most often pray alongside the women. The fact that mosque construction has not kept pace with Muslim population growth in many Western countries compounds this problem. Today, such factors often conspire to make attending the mosque for prayers an uncomfortable and sometimes spiritually unfulfi ing experience for women. However, Muslim women have begun to speak out about such problems, and the planning bodies of local Muslim communities are now beginning to address issues of unequal access. Some women have stopped coming to the mosque entirely, while others work hard to improve accom- modations in existing spaces and future construction, and to argue for the positions they favor concerning use of these spaces by both genders.

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Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

As a center of religious and cultural life, the mosque or local Islamic center takes on many functions. Traditionally, the mosque served as a school, as a place where the homeless or a traveler could sleep and receive charity, and as a sanctuary. In minority Muslim communities today, the mosque may include spaces where lessons in the Qur’an and other types of education are given to adults and children. Such education may include courses on the basic duties of a Muslim, Arabic language, or other topics. Lectures and even social and medical services are often provided in Islamic centers, and business affairs as well as community outreach services are conducted within its precincts. Funerals, marriages, and other contractual arrangements, as well as arbitration and counseling, might take place within a mosque or Islamic center.

Cultural, Temporal, and Generational Challenges

The Muslim community is among the most culturally, ethnically, and geographically diverse religious communities in the world. Today, Muslims live in nearly every country in the world. Thirty-six countries have a Muslim population greater than 66 percent, while an additional 10 countries have between 36 and 65 percent. Islam is increasingly a South Asian and Southeast Asian phenomenon, with half of all Muslims living east of Lahore, Pakistan. Over one-third of Muslims are minorities in non-Muslim countries, and the Muslim minority of India is the largest Muslim population in the world— roughly the same size as the largest Muslim nation of Indonesia. Several European countries now have signifi ant Muslim populations, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, mainly because of postcolonial immigration and labor shortages in Europe.
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As Islam spread into Asia, Africa, and Europe, Muslims came to represent a dazzling array of cultures that nonetheless retained uniform doctrines and practices, which were embodied in the Five Pillars of Islam. A process of doctrinal winnowing took place, as knowledgeable converts became aware that customs contradicting Islamic law—such as infanticide, bride price, and alcohol-related rituals—were unacceptable to Muslims, although pre- Islamic customs have persisted to some extent. Beyond such prohibitions, however, cultural variations in Islamic practice were tolerated, and cultural forms such as food customs, dress, sports, artistic expressions, architecture, and commercial practices continued to shape people’s lives. The spread of Islam was not a melting pot or even a mosaic, but rather, to use the metaphor of the American Muslim scholar Umar Faruq Abdullah, ‘‘a clear river flowing over a varied cultural bedrock.’’
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Historically, many cultural practices entered Muslim daily life and radiated out from the bearers of Islam to new regions. This phenomenon may be explained by the gradual spread of Islam among local populations, even in

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regions that came under Muslim rule in the sixth and seventh centuries
CE
. Despite the stereotypical view of conversion to Islam by force, there were in general no sudden mass conversions to Islam, and many regions experienced centuries of exposure to Muslim culture before a majority of their popula- tions accepted Islam. A second explanation for the variety of Muslim cultures relates to the tolerant attitude toward other religions and toward culture in general that is enshrined in Islamic law. ‘‘People of the Book,’’ who were mostly Jews and Christians, were accorded freedom of worship and even the right to live under their own religious laws. In practice, this condition often extended to other groups as well, although individual rulers carried out contrary and even brutal policies at times. Unlike the form of tolerance that depends upon the whim of individual rulers, the Qur’anic mandate ‘‘Let there be no compulsion in religion’’ (Qur’an 2:256) enshrined the principle of religious tolerance in Islamic law. This principle was further reinforced by the practices of the Prophet Muhammad during his lifetime.