Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, in the hadith narrated by Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (ra): “You will certainly follow the ways of those who came before you, span by span, cubit by cubit, until even if they were to enter a lizard’s hole, you would follow them.” We said, “O Messenger of Allah, (do you mean) the Jews and Christians?” He said, “ Who else?!”
In 2002, the Catholic Church witnessed one of the worse sex scandals seen in decades, when high-ranking members of the Church, including one of the Cardinals appointed by the Pope, were found to be guilty of covering up for religious leaders accused of sexual abuse. Cardinal Bernard Law, along with other bishops of the Boston Archdiocese, allegedly reassigned priests known to have committed sexual abuse from parish to parish for years, secretly conjuring settlements and paying off victims for their silence. Discovery of decade-old records revealing unanswered complaints and allegations of sexual abuse by Church officials, led to the deposition of several bishops and the resignation of Cardinal Law.
In the West, the average Muslim lives Islam without any of the hierarchy and governing bodies present in the Catholic Church. Our religious leaders or imams are generally religious scholars “hired” by a Board of Directors or the mosque’s owner, to teach, lead the prayer, and keep the community involved, and united, through regular classes and family potlucks. When strong allegations of sexual abuse are raised against a Muslim religious scholar (and are kept outside the legal system), he is often asked to resign as a means to kill the “fitna”, and made to leave the community hush-hush. Unfortunately, his resignation warranties only one thing: a new imam’s position elsewhere. This is because religious leaders nowadays are “on-demand”; just look through any of the major Islamic publications in the US and see for yourself.
Due to the condemnation faced by community members when they resort to the “kuffar” system to prosecute sexual predators who happen to be Muslim scholars and “the face of the community”, many Muslims do not speak up, let alone press charges, against these men. Shamefully, our communities encourage the same secrecy and deception that kept priests going from parish to parish committing abominable acts, which results in corrupt scholars having the freedom to move about “unnoticed” from state to state, mosque to mosque, perpetuating their deviant behaviors and leaving a trail of abused sisters, or worse yet -children, in their wake.
A few years ago, a religious scholar teaching at an Islamic school sexually molested a student. The family did not press charges to protect the privacy of the child and his chances of being married upon reaching adulthood. The school’s board asked the scholar to resign. Given his highly sought-out credentials (hafiz of Qur’an, Ph.D. in Islamic Studies, command of the English language, etc), he was soon offered a position at another Islamic school in a different state. Sadly, when the latter school contacted the former to ask for a reference, the administrative staff felt it was their duty to protect the scholar’s honor by covering his faults. They simply commented on his teaching skills and ability to engage students in class. The brother got the position, and a year later, was charged for sexually molesting another child at the new school.
Unfortunately, the reverence that some Muslims feel towards the scholars of the ummah can be a strong deterrent in fulfilling our obligation to forbid evil. Anas ibn Malik (ra) narrated that the Prophet (saw) was asked: “‘O Messenger of Allah, (what will happen) when we stop enjoining good and forbidding evil?’ He said: ‘When what happened to the Israelites happens among you: when fornication becomes widespread among your leaders, knowledge is in the hands of the lowest of you, and power passes into the hands of the least of you.’”
Muslims must recognize that although religious scholars are to be honored and respected for the knowledge they have been entrusted with, they are not infallible nor above the law. It is not enough for scholars to learn and teach Qur’an: they must live by it, for actions speak louder than words. Our communities need to hold their religious scholars accountable for their transgressions, instead of indifferently turning a blind eye and deaf ear to grave allegations against such scholars, for fear of temporarily leaving the mosque without leadership or religious guidance.
The Prophet (saw) said: “The night I was carried to heaven, I passed by several people whose lips were being cut off with scissors of fire. On asking them who they were, they replied: ‘We were learned men who were wont to enjoin good but do it not, and forbid evil but commit it ourselves.’”
Indeed, Muslim scholars must bear the responsibility of the knowledge they possess and impart. No doubt, our scholars are human beings with imperfections who are bound to sin. Yet Allah (swt) has made it clear in the Qur’an that not equal are the ones that know and the ones that do not know. To sin in ignorance is one thing, but to abuse scholarship and authority to intentionally transgress Allah’s bounds, harming others in the process, is a totally different one. Muslims must not hesitate to apply the full extent of the law on corrupt scholars known for their excesses, be it shari’ah or secular. Silence should not be an option.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Corrupt Scholars - Part 1: Entitled to Diplomatic Impunity?
Muslims throughout the world are fierce in their love and respect of Muslim religious scholars, whom Allah (swt) and His beloved prophet Muhammad (saw) have so strongly praised in the Qur’an and ahadith. Endless are the narrations on the excellence of those who seek knowledge and teach it, those who memorize and recite our sacred scripture, and those who sacrifice their lives in the pursuit of knowledge.
In the hadith reported by Abu Darda (as), the prophet (saw) said:
"He who follows a path in quest of knowledge, Allah will make the path of Jannah easy to him. The angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge, being pleased with what he does. The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and even the fish in the depth of the oceans seek forgiveness for him. The superiority of the learned man over the devout worshipper is like that of the full moon to the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets who bequeath neither dinar nor dirham but only that of knowledge; and he who acquires it, has in fact acquired an abundant portion.''
As inheritors of the prophets, Muslim religious scholars form the backbone of our Ummah, and are indispensable for its existence. Yet Allah (swt) and His messenger (saw) have also warned us from those scholars who do not honor their knowledge through their actions, and are heedless of the responsibility that comes with acquiring it.
In the hadith narrated on the authority of Sulaiman b. Yasar, the prophet (saw) said of the first men whose case will be decided on the Day of Judgment:
“…Then will be brought forward a man who acquired knowledge and imparted it (to others) and recited the Qur’an. He will be brought and Allah will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them (and admit having enjoyed them in his lifetime). Then will Allah ask: What did you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I acquired knowledge and disseminated it and recited the Qur’an seeking Thy pleasure. Allah will say: You have told a lie. You acquired knowledge so that you might be called “a scholar,” and you recited the Qur’an so that it might be said: “He is a Qari” and such has been said. Then orders will be passed against him and he shall be dragged with his face downward and cast into the Fire.”
Although Muslims have been forewarned about such evil scholars who do not “walk the talk”, there is a strong culture of secrecy in our communities, where scholars are granted “diplomatic immunity” and seem to be above the law. In the West, our mosques’ grounds are like embassies, where scholars are allowed to abuse their scholarship and cross the line from piety into wrongdoing without accountability.
Let us take the example of sister Rayan. As a young sister in deen, she sought guidance and knowledge from the “sheikh” in her local mosque, after moving to Montana from Texas. Upholding impeccable Islamic manners, he assisted the sister in getting settled in the community, and offered to teach her to read Qur’an. As a charity and sacrifice “fi sabilillah” (for the sake of Allah), he eventually asked for her hand in marriage, as he saw in her great talents and potential which would benefit Islam. Using her literary skills, he promised she would assist him in compiling his academic works for dawah purposes, and even translate them to her native language. Thus, based on shady interpretations and weak narrations, he performed his own marriage ceremony to sister Rayan, with a close friend present as a witness. A week after the marriage was consummated sister Rayan found herself sexually abused and divorced. Two years later, sister Rayan met sister Umm Hatim, another divorcee of the “sheikh”.
When the sisters voiced the atrocities they experienced, and exposed the sheikh’s misbehavior to the community, they were immediately faced with strong opposition by his followers, who expressed anger at the outrageous accusations and sisters’ impudence.
“How dare you speak evil about the scholars of our Ummah?”
“You sisters are worse than the hypocrites who slandered our beloved prophet (saw)!”
“For your slander, you should receive 80 lashes!”
“Al hasan Bin Ali (ra) had married 83 women in a period of 25 years! To marry and divorce is not a sin.”
And so on.
Not once were the scholar’s actions questioned: only the sisters’ accusations were rebutted, their reputations ruined, and their accounts considered inadmissible without four witnesses based on shari’ah. What started off as “diplomatic immunity” turned to impunity, when his followers began a campaign to lobby for the sheikh’s righteousness. Despite the verse of the chapter entitled “The Women” that reads: “Allah does not like that evil be publicized except if one is wronged", sisters were coerced into silence through threats and intimidation.
Yet even in such unfathomable ordeals, there are important lessons to be learned.
In the hadith reported by Abu Darda (as), the prophet (saw) said:
"He who follows a path in quest of knowledge, Allah will make the path of Jannah easy to him. The angels lower their wings over the seeker of knowledge, being pleased with what he does. The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth and even the fish in the depth of the oceans seek forgiveness for him. The superiority of the learned man over the devout worshipper is like that of the full moon to the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets who bequeath neither dinar nor dirham but only that of knowledge; and he who acquires it, has in fact acquired an abundant portion.''
As inheritors of the prophets, Muslim religious scholars form the backbone of our Ummah, and are indispensable for its existence. Yet Allah (swt) and His messenger (saw) have also warned us from those scholars who do not honor their knowledge through their actions, and are heedless of the responsibility that comes with acquiring it.
In the hadith narrated on the authority of Sulaiman b. Yasar, the prophet (saw) said of the first men whose case will be decided on the Day of Judgment:
“…Then will be brought forward a man who acquired knowledge and imparted it (to others) and recited the Qur’an. He will be brought and Allah will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them (and admit having enjoyed them in his lifetime). Then will Allah ask: What did you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I acquired knowledge and disseminated it and recited the Qur’an seeking Thy pleasure. Allah will say: You have told a lie. You acquired knowledge so that you might be called “a scholar,” and you recited the Qur’an so that it might be said: “He is a Qari” and such has been said. Then orders will be passed against him and he shall be dragged with his face downward and cast into the Fire.”
Although Muslims have been forewarned about such evil scholars who do not “walk the talk”, there is a strong culture of secrecy in our communities, where scholars are granted “diplomatic immunity” and seem to be above the law. In the West, our mosques’ grounds are like embassies, where scholars are allowed to abuse their scholarship and cross the line from piety into wrongdoing without accountability.
Let us take the example of sister Rayan. As a young sister in deen, she sought guidance and knowledge from the “sheikh” in her local mosque, after moving to Montana from Texas. Upholding impeccable Islamic manners, he assisted the sister in getting settled in the community, and offered to teach her to read Qur’an. As a charity and sacrifice “fi sabilillah” (for the sake of Allah), he eventually asked for her hand in marriage, as he saw in her great talents and potential which would benefit Islam. Using her literary skills, he promised she would assist him in compiling his academic works for dawah purposes, and even translate them to her native language. Thus, based on shady interpretations and weak narrations, he performed his own marriage ceremony to sister Rayan, with a close friend present as a witness. A week after the marriage was consummated sister Rayan found herself sexually abused and divorced. Two years later, sister Rayan met sister Umm Hatim, another divorcee of the “sheikh”.
When the sisters voiced the atrocities they experienced, and exposed the sheikh’s misbehavior to the community, they were immediately faced with strong opposition by his followers, who expressed anger at the outrageous accusations and sisters’ impudence.
“How dare you speak evil about the scholars of our Ummah?”
“You sisters are worse than the hypocrites who slandered our beloved prophet (saw)!”
“For your slander, you should receive 80 lashes!”
“Al hasan Bin Ali (ra) had married 83 women in a period of 25 years! To marry and divorce is not a sin.”
And so on.
Not once were the scholar’s actions questioned: only the sisters’ accusations were rebutted, their reputations ruined, and their accounts considered inadmissible without four witnesses based on shari’ah. What started off as “diplomatic immunity” turned to impunity, when his followers began a campaign to lobby for the sheikh’s righteousness. Despite the verse of the chapter entitled “The Women” that reads: “Allah does not like that evil be publicized except if one is wronged", sisters were coerced into silence through threats and intimidation.
Yet even in such unfathomable ordeals, there are important lessons to be learned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
