News & Comment
Getting Rid of this Defeated Mind-Set

News

BERLIN — Inside the red-brick building that now houses the German capital’s newest and perhaps most unusual mosque, Seyran Ates is staging a feminist revolution of the Muslim faith.

“Allahu akbar,” chanted a female voice, uttering the Arabic expression “God is great,” as a woman with two-toned hair issued the Muslim call to prayer. In another major break with tradition, men and women — typically segregated during worship — heeded the call by sitting side by side on the carpeted floor.

Ates, a self-proclaimed Muslim feminist and founder of the new mosque, then stepped onto the cream-colored carpet and delivered a stirring sermon. Two imams — a woman and a man — later took turns leading the Friday prayers in Arabic. (Source: washingtonpost)

Comment

Even though terms such as “progressive”, “Feminist” and “Revolution” have been used to describe the above developments in this “unusual mosque”, this type of attempts to make changes to Islam aren’t anything new or revolutionary and are actually part of a long history of attempts to change Islam.

What we are actually witnessing in this Mosque in Berlin are corrupted people who try to mislead Muslims by making changes to important Islamic concepts all under the name of reformation. They mislead Muslim by using the term “Reformation” in the same manner as the term “Ijtihad.”

Ijtihad is the Islamic term used to describe the process of doing one’s utmost efforts to extract the Hukm of Allah from the sources of Shariah on a subject where there is a room for difference of opinion. “Reformation”, on the other hand, means to actually change core Islamic principles by making changes to Islamic concepts where a difference of opinion is not allowed.

Bringing this important subject back to the above article, we see that “reformation” in this case is to actually suite the whims of each individual; in this case the whims of Seyran Ates, “who felt discriminated in regular mosques because she had to pray in ugly back rooms”. So, instead of trying to make changes to the women’s prayer area, she decided to make changes to the Islamic ruling.

“Reformists” attempt to change or “reform” Islam to fit Islam into their own reality. A reality which has often been influenced by the idea that it is man who should have a role in matters of legislation. We see this in the above article when Ates says: “The intention is to give liberal Islam a sacred space.” This idea of a liberal Islam is absolutely contrary to the Islamic concept that Allah is the sole legislator. It is also contrary to the idea that Islam and the Islamic Sharia are applicable for all times and places and are able to provide detailed answers to all matters.

So, Muslims shouldn’t look for answers to the problems they are confronted with from sources outside of Islam. We as Muslims should do our utmost best in reminding our fellow Muslims that Islam is a comprehensive Deen which is able to provide answers to all areas of life. We should get rid of this defeated mind-set which has infected some within our Ummah. And we should remind them of what Allah tells us when He said the following:

(مَّا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِن شَيْءٍ)

“We have not neglected in the Register a thing.”

We should encourage all Muslims to study Islam in the correct manner. A manner which is based upon research, profound thinking and analysis as Allah (swt) ordered, then it will produce effective results. And only then will Muslims turn into ideological people who will be able to think in a distinct manner. And only then will we get rid of this defeated mind-set Mrs Ates and her followers seem to be suffering from.

(إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآَيَاتٍ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ)

“Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding.” [TMQ 3:190]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Yasmin Malik
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir