Tag: Khalid Lathif

Transcript: Misconceptions of women’s rights under Islam

The following is a transcript of a talk by New York Police Department (NYPD) Chaplin Iman Khalid Lathif on women’s rights under Islam, aired on Television Maldives.

It is said that during the time of the Prophet (pbuh), a man by the name of Sayyid bin Zaid comes to the prophet (pbuh) asking about the status of his father. That this man Sayyid bin Zaid comes to prophet (pbuh) and he says “Ya rasoolullah, my father passed away before you started preaching your message, what will his situation be?”

A Nation Unto Himself

We have to understand this man Sayyid bin Zaid, is the son of a man by the name of Zaid bin Amr ibn Nufayl, a man who was known as being Hanif (believing in one god). A man who when he saw injustice being carried out in front of him, in that Meccan society, he would make it a point to stand up for those who were being oppressed.

That amongst the many things this man would do, it is said that it was commonplace at that time when a family would give birth to a daughter they would bury the girl alive because they wanted to have sons. That literally, they would take these women and they would put them into the ground because they did not want to have these women in their homes, rather they wanted to have young men who would extend their lineage.

So this man Zaid bin Amr ibn Nufayl, he would make a point to go into families where daughters were born into and he would say to those in that family “If you do not want them, give them to me, I will look after them.”

His son now Sayyid bin Zaid has come to the prophet (pbuh) and he says “Ya rasulullahi, what is the status of my father?”

The Prophet (pbuh), he says “on that Day of Judgment when each and every individual will be standing behind the person that they claim to be a follower of, when the nation of Moosa (pbuh) will be standing behind the prophet Moses. When Issa (pbuh) will be standing behind Prophet Jesus, when the nation of Mohamed (pbuh) will be standing behind our prophet (pbuh), your father will stand as a nation unto himself.”

That he will be given such a distinction, such an elevation, he will be given such recognition because of the things he stood for. He will be embodied as a nation unto himself, not standing behind anyone else, it will just be him all alone.

Rights of Women As Part of Our Tradition

What we understand from this is that most definitely there is a great reward in being somebody who will uphold the rights of women. As for our tradition, as for our paradigm, we understand that there are individuals who made it a point to go and stand up on behalf of those who were oppressed.

We also understand that at that time, there was a violation of women’s rights. But just as there was violation of women’s, rights there were men and women who sought to be those proponents of justice who would say “we will not stand and watch these women’s rights be violated! We will make it a point to ensure that they are given and restored everything that is owed to them.”

In a common place, in a common time, we find there has become a gross violation of the rights of women all over the world. Both in the Muslim community and outside of it, we see there is a mistreatment of women in a variety of societies and in a variety of communities, in a variety of cultures, most definitely there are women who are abused in all ways shapes and form.

Today’s Transition to Abuse

We want to understand why that is. How do we get to a point where a transition takes place? That our religion tells us, that we need to be upholding the rights that are given to any individual regardless of their socio-economic reality. But we see now specific with this topic of women and their rights, there are women who are being abused everywhere. Where does it come from? How does it transpire? What is it rooted in? Really how do we understand its existence?

I think the question that we pose; are there women’s rights in Islam?

It is something that yields an obvious answer. That if we are to say: is it problematic for a father to hit his daughter? Is it problematic for a husband to hit his wife? Is it problematic for anybody who has been endowed with a certain authority and a certain responsibility that comes with that authority to not uphold the responsibility that goes along with that authority?

But rather violate it and put the people who are in reliance upon them, put that principal of trust in a place where that trust is shattered; most assuredly you would say that this is something that is wrong. But how does it come to pass?

How is it that we make this transition? How is it that these things exist? We want to understand the conversation on a deeper level so that we can find its root and begin to take on solutions that make very viable and credible sense.

We have to understand that it is not right for women to be abused in Islam. It is not right for to abuse the rights of any human being regardless of their socio-economic background. It is not for us to put ourselves in a place where we can find and restrict people to such a way of life that we say that: we will cause you to be oppressed and we will let injustice run rampant because we are in a position of authority! We are of the elite and you have to succumb to the way that we think you should live!

And we see that this was something that was upheld during the time of the Prophet (pbuh) and throughout the history of Muslim community.

That in moments where women’s rights were being violated, a mobilisation took place on a individual level and a mass level to ensure that that woman’s rights were restored.

During the time of Meccan Arabia, slavery was something that was practiced. That it was something that was there, it was something we understand that existed, and Islam very interestingly approaches this issue as well and the processes by which He emancipates women from all over the world.

And so we have the situation in our tradition where there are two women. A woman by the name of Zunaira and a woman by the name of Lubaina. Zunaira is a woman who was the slave of a man by the name of Abu Jahul and it’s said that Abu Jahul used to beat her so hard that she actually lost her eyesight.

Lubaina was a woman who was a in servitude of Umar bin Al Khattaab before he becomes a Muslim and Umar used to beat this woman so often when he would stop he would say: “Don’t think I am having mercy upon you, I am just tired, when I get my strength back I’m gonna start it again.” And Abu Bakuru (ra) he makes it a point to purchase the freedom of these two women.

And when his father says to him “why are you doing this? Why don’t you spend this money on freeing some young men? Who after you free them, they will have your back, they will support you to do anything, and they will be able to offer something to you! What is the point of doing something for these ladies?”

Abu Bakuru (ra) he says that “this is not the intention I am doing this by. I don’t expect something in return. I don’t expect that I will get something out of this. The reason as to why I am freeing these women, it is not because I want something from it, but because I know this would be most pleasing to Allah (swt) that that motivation for me. That I can’t stand by and watch this kind of injustice take place in front of my eyes. If I have the means to help them, if I have the means to preserve them, why would I not do so?”

Then during the time of Caliph Musta’sim Billah, it is said that at the outskirts of a Muslim empire a Roman soldier violates a Muslim woman. And Musta’sim Billah, this woman’s cries go out to him as the Caliph, as the Ameer ul-Momineen (Caliph of Muslims). And she says “Ya Musta’sim, where are you? That you have been entrusted to protect my rights and my dignity where are you? And what are you doing?”

And Musta’sim Billah Ameer ul-Mohmineen (Caliph of Muslims), it is said he deploys 30,000 Muslim soldiers to defend the dignity of that one woman.

Culture Restricts Women, Not Islam

That’s where we used to be. And this is where we are today. Where we have stereotype upon stereotype and misconception upon misconception of how the world perceives Islam because we are in a state where we are oppressing our women.

Deprivation of education. Domestic violence and abuse. Female genital mutilation. Forced marriages. All kinds of things, run rampant in our communities and what are we doing about it?

So we have to try and understand how we can address it.

Primarily, you want to think about what the root is of this issue. We see there is much confusion on issues of gender within the Muslim discourse. Where we don’t really graduate beyond the conversation of what is the permissibility of the interaction between a man and a woman. And we don’t get into deeper conversations that we need to; in terms of responsibilities and duties that are aligned with this concept of gender.

We have to be comfortable with an understanding that many things that are socially constructed are reflective of what is normative within the culture (not necessarily within Islam), and that those things are actually being constructed. And we have to be able to very comfortably distinguish between what is culturally acceptable, what is socially acceptable, and what is religiously acceptable.

And if a culture puts itself in a place where it says it’s ok for us to oppress the rights of any other person, especially women for no other reason than the fact that they are born female, this is something that is very problematic from an Islamic standpoint.

Educate Our Men

Because Islam comes to liberate, it doesn’t come to restrict. Whether it’s a man or a woman who is the point of discussion. And one of the issues we have around this issue of gender is that we don’t really discuss it in modes that it need to be discussed. More often than not in our conversations about gender revolve around the responsibilities of women in Islam.

But how often do you go to a lecture that says to you: this is the responsibilities, this is the thing that you have to be as a young Muslim man? Who teaches our man how to be man? Who teaches them how to uphold the responsibilities endowed to a man for no other reason other than the fact that he is male?

In the United States we see common place in our conversations of gender is that you have a man telling woman how to be a Muslim woman. You don’t have Muslim woman who are sharing their experiences of what it’s actually like to be a woman and letting audiences and men here what in fact they go through in a daily basis.

More often than not to take on stereotypes, you see perhaps the panel of women that are empowered by their Islam discussing why they should be role models to other Muslim women, but you don’t have conversations of who needs to be a role model for a young Muslim man. And then you get confusion on responsibilities that pertain to gender.

Why is it fair for a mother to have to be a father because a father was never taught what kind of responsibilities he should be upholding because when he was younger nobody presented to him what were his responsibilities as a man.

And we see that throughout the hadith, throughout our tradition, that Prophet (pbuh) primarily is making Islam very tangible for all his community members – putting it in a place, where it takes direct consideration of their specific circumstances and within that he is showing young men how in fact to be men.

We don’t do this in our conversations on gender. Have you ever had a lecture here that talks about principals of “futuwwa?” Principals of chivalry that exists in Islam? Where the Prophet Ibrahim (pbuh) is described in the Quran as being futaah; described as being a young man who espouses such a nobility and from that word we derive the characteristic of futuwwa that we translate as nothing else other than chivalry, which puts you in a place where you are seeking to serve others and that is your primary mode of thought.

Not looking to bring them down, but putting yourself in a place where you seek to act justly with somebody else, without demanding justice for yourself. (But sometimes) it doesn’t happen. And when it doesn’t happen, you see the violations that take place.

It’s important for the stories to be heard, it’s important for the experiences to be heard, because the rights are there. It is written. It’s just not observed.

Starting the Conversation

And starting those conversations on gender, they become important. And then we have to begin to develop resources where we understand that although it is an unfortunate reality; it is a reality nonetheless that women are oppressed. And they have their rights abused all over the world, whether they are Muslim or not.

But one of the biggest issues they face is not only the fact that their rights are being abused, but after they’ve been abused they don’t know where to go. Where do they turn to? What are the viable organisations and institutions? What kinds of services are provided for them? Where can they let out everything that is taking place within them, because they have been mistreated in some way?

I was 19 years old the first time I met a young woman who had been beaten by her father. She came to see me and speak to me about what had taken place and she had bruises on her face, that she tried to cover up with some kind of makeup, but you could see that they were there.

When she came to speak to me about what she had gone through, I had no idea what to say to her. I didn’t know where to direct her, I didn’t know what to tell her to do, I didn’t know that you could go to speak to so and so and go to this place and they will help you out. I had no idea whatsoever.

We need to ask ourselves the same question. If somebody came to speak to you, to ask you for help if they found themselves in that situation, would you know what to do? Would you know where to direct them? Would you know where to send them? Would you know how to help them? That’s a big problem.

We don’t necessarily have access to leadership. We don’t have access to scholarship that sometimes understands these very real experiences.

[In the United States, we, as Muslims] have big trouble communicating our life experiences. It’s tough for us to be Muslims in situations that we are in because more often than not we see somebody sitting on the other side of the table who doesn’t really get what we are going through.

I am a young woman who finds myself beaten and abused at home. I run out in the middle of the night into the Masjid and I try to find somebody to tells me something that is empowering and uplifting. What kind of response will I get? “The women’s section is someplace else. Why is your head not covered?”

As opposed to how can I help you go through what you have gone through? This is a big problem!

I’ve gone to the hospital numerous times in the middle of the night to meet with young Muslim girls who have been raped by people. I’ve gone into counseling sessions, I’ve seen girl upon girl all over the world, literally every place that I’ve gone to speak to; including this country, this city.

There has not been a time where I’ve travelled to a lecture where at least one woman, if not many more, has come to me to say that she have a problem – that her rights have been violated.

Proactive Action

So what are we doing to fix this situation? If we are not the ones who is doing the violation, but we have the means to help them get back on their feet and we are not doing that, does that make us ok as well?

If you have a skill set, you have resources. You have a drive and compassion; start to change the circumstances and situation based off of what you can offer. Islam most assuredly gives the right to women and enables them and empowers them via their Islam and it’s something we have to begin to understand in the very specific context in which we are living here.

If you don’t have access to scholarships that understand you, the solution isn’t that we have to sit back and do nothing. But put yourself in a place where you go out and empower yourself with access to knowledge. And you begin to develop an Islam that makes sense, given your experiences.

What is keeping you from dedicating your life to spending some years to a course of study that you can then bring back here and begin to say that this is the kind of Islam that we understand to make sense? One that honors and upholds the rights of our women.

One that says to me that I can be who I am and I can be comfortable in navigating through my own process of development, without having to be restricted by somebody else’s understanding of the way that I should be living my life.

If you don’t enable yourself to do that, you are gonna get stuck.

Restrictions on Women

Our religion, it does have guidelines on gender. It has guidelines on understanding gender to a certain extent.

Are women allowed to be leaders in Islam? Yes they are.

Can women govern their financial affairs? Are they allowed to work in Islam? Yes they can.

There’s numerous examples, there numerous evidences for this. We see it throughout our tradition. Are women allowed to be scholars in Islam? Of course they can and they definitely have to be.

Aisha (ra) she was a woman who thought both men and women. There’s a sheikh by the name of Mohammad Akram Nadwi who lives right now, he is still alive. He has recently written a book that is called Al-Muhaddithat. It is a compendium of female hadith scholars. Just women who worked within that science.

And the muqaddimah (introduction) of this text is available in English. And with this compendium, he highlights the narratives and the biographies of 40,000 women who are female hadith scholars. And he stops at 40,000 not because he ran out of women to write about, but he was scared that if it was to get any longer, people just wouldn’t read it.

But we have it in our tradition. It’s there. We see it. It’s there. But we are not necessarily doing the things that our text tell us to do. We are governing our actions via a cultural imperative that does not necessarily find synergies with what our religion says to be imperative.

And this is something that was mentioned before, that we can’t equate our subjective understandings of morality and ethics to every single circumstance to make a determination as to whether something is appropriate or not. Because from culture to culture you will see that different people have different ways of doing things and we from the outside might not agree with the way somebody does something on the inside but then there are things that are most definitely obvious that we can say are outside of the fold of Islam.

Focusing On a Different Narrative

Where in the hadith do we find Prophet (pbuh) violating the rights of any women? Where do we see him mistreating and abusing his daughter? Where do we see him having any kind of domestic issues with his wife?

Our teachers, they say if physical abuse starts coming into a marriage, that’s the first sign that you need to start thinking about whether you should be married at all. Not forcing somebody to stick with it, not saying that: “no this is something that you can just get through” but really understanding, does it make sense for those people to be together? That their understanding of the rights they have over one another has gotten to such a level, that they don’t know how to deal with each other. And the last resort that they have, is they are raising their hands to another! It’s crazy, but we see it everywhere.

And we have to start offering a different narrative. We have to start offering an alternate reading that pretty much is the mainstream perspective. Prophet (pbuh), he has a daughter by the name of Fathima (ra).

Fathima has such a unique relationship with her father, to the extent that people would call her Umm Abiha (the mother of her father) that they said she resembled the prophet (pbuh) more so than anybody, else in terms of the mimicking of the actions, the way that he walked, the way that he talked, just his very carrying of himself, she had a unique relationship with him.

The prophet (pbuh) demonstrates over and over and over that he loves his daughter Fathima. He doesn’t mistreat her, he doesn’t abuse her, but he seeks to uphold the rights that she has over him, as being his daughter, whenever he gets the chance.

When the Prophet is leaving from the world, he whispers something in to Fathima’s ears. And Aisha (ra) she sees it and she later asks Fathima: “what is it that he said to you?” And Fathima (ra) she says that “the Prophet, my father said something to me that made me cry, and he said something to me that made me laugh.”

She says that “what he said to me that made me cry was that he was soon leaving from this world; his days in this world were limited. But what he said to me that made me smile was that I would be amongst the first who would be re-united with him again.”

To the extent that when Fathima knows she is passing away, that she is about to pass away, our tradition tells us that she takes her bed out into her courtyard. She lies on the ground with a smile on her face, facing the heavens, because she’s gonna be with her father again. How many daughters do we know that has this relationship with their fathers? And why is it that they don’t?

There were men who made mistakes and did things that were wrong during that time. Umar (ra) he knows and he understood the mistakes that he made. We made mention of what he did to this woman Lubaina. Umar has a hadith where he narrates his own account; he says that “there is an instance that I remember from the days that I was not a Muslim that makes me laugh and an instance that makes me cry.”

And he says that “the instance that made me laugh was that I was on a journey and one occasion and I had forgotten my travel idol at home, so I fashioned one out of the dates that I was carrying with myself, and then I got hungry so I began to eat the idol that I had made. When I think about this it makes me laugh.” And he says that “I remember also an instance that brings tears to my eyes. That I had a daughter that was born into my family and I buried her in the ground, and I can remember her hand going limp in my hand. And when I think about it – it brings tears to my face.”

But Umar wasn’t the kind of person that didn’t learn from the things that he had done wrong. During his Caliphate, the situation comes about that the people of Egypt, who were now part of the Muslim empire.

[They] had a custom that they would sacrifice a young woman into the rivers of the Nile because they believed that in doing that, it would cause the water to raise and will help them in their harvest.

Umar, he has a companion of the Prophet (pbuh,) who was there as the governor and this man is telling his people to not do this. That it’s something that is unIslamic – you shouldn’t do it, that it’s a violation of female rights amongst other things. And Umar (ra), he himself, says as well to “don’t let the people do this anymore.”

In that year when he tells them to stop, the waters of the river they don’t raise.

And now the governor the mayor of the city, he has to deal with the population that is saying “you told us not to sacrifice this woman and the waters, they have not risen.”

And so he writes to Umar (ra) who is there in Medina where the Caliphate is based and he says to him “what am I supposed to do? These people, they are going to kill a girl, if we don’t come up with something.”

So Umar (ra), a man who remembers what he has done and the tears comes to his eyes. He does not say that “this is what you should do,” but he makes it a point on his own to go from his place in Medina all the way to the land of Egypt and to engage that community and to engage that population with an air of faith he addresses the creation of Allah (swt), and he says speaking to the river, that if in fact you are from the creation of Allah than let yourself raise because in doing so you’ll be protecting the dignity of this woman.

This dua’ (prayer) is answered. But it requires a certain effort and a certain acknowledgment on his part. He doesn’t just sit back and say “I am gonna do what I need to do from here,” and [instead] goes to whatever extent possible to ensure he will not fall into a mistake that he had fallen into many years before.

Importance of Counseling

Other things that we want to understand is the importance we had alluded to before, of just being that person that can speak to somebody. But more importantly listen to them, when they have gone through this kind of test. I see people all the time who have kept within them horrendous stories of atrocities that they have experienced and they don’t have anyone to speak to.

The Prophet (pbuh) is such a unique individual that his companions were able to come and speak to him about things that they did, that were blatantly unIslamic and they knew he would help them become better by it. They didn’t have a worry that he would be judgmental. They didn’t have a worry that he would be condescending, but they felt comfortable in seeking this advice and counsel and reaching out to him with the issues that they have.

A man comes to the prophet and says “Ya rasoolullah, I have committed zinna! Help me.”

Can you imagine today a person coming to another Muslim and saying that I committed adultery last night? How they would be understood in the community?

But the Prophet, he has this relationship and the stigmas that surround counseling in a lot of our communities – we have to start overcoming them. Because our young women they are looking for somebody to speak to. And they keep it within them for years and years and as they keep them within them for years they begin to assume all kinds of things because the questions that they want to ask, are only being asked internally.

And as the doubts start to mix in, they take on a lot of blame for themselves.

Maybe my husband was right in hitting me. Maybe my father, he was justified in mistreating me. Maybe it was ok for them to abuse me the way they had done. Maybe I deserved it. Maybe I did something wrong. They didn’t do anything wrong. For the most part these women find themselves in situations where they are being held down.

But when they don’t have anybody to ask or speak about it, it just builds up inside and it starts to hurt. It starts to hurt so much, that they unleash it when the first opportunity comes and if they are not met with a good response, they might not talk to anybody about it ever again. I’ve seen so many young women who have been sexually abused as they were children. Molested by people who they thought they could trust.

I’ve seen young women and young men who have been beaten, who had been abused in a variety of ways. They carry it with them, but they want to be able to voice that pain and that hurt and they don’t have the outlets to do so.

You Can Help Society Too

So we also have to get to a place where we go and begin to take on these issues in a more systematic way. If you are a good listener, than let yourself go into the field of being a counselor. Try to understand mental health. Try to understand the issues that revolve around it, and let yourself develop things that are very viable for these people to deal with some of the things they have inside of them.

You don’t have to be the most learned, most religious person, to bring benefit to a society. That if you have a certain skill, if you are endowed with certain ability – let that be your access point into helping people who are around you!

We have a lot of stigmas, where I come from, for somebody to go and speak about things that they have experienced. Issues of honor come about.

“Don’t let people know what has happened to you they will say, they will think poorly of you.”

All kinds of and the person has to just keep it inside. This isn’t very healthy. Because if you set down with someone with [these] experiences and they’ve kept it within them, just for decades – and you see them unleash it, you can’t even begin to describe what that moment is like. And then the question that they want an answer to, that we don’t very readily have an answer to: is why did it actually happen?

Why was it something that happened to me? Why was it something that was allowed? Why was it something that was permitted? And more often than not the response you get is very mechanical, it’s very regurgitated: “Allah is just testing you. Put your trust in Allah, put your faith in Allah, and you will be better by it.”

Look for Real Answers

You gonna tell a girl who is 20 years of age that when she was five years old, her teacher molested her because its God who is testing her? What sense does that make? Where is the indication that you have any connection to what a human experience is like and [how] our people will grow and develop.

So that can’t be the only option. That can’t be the only alternative, because people begin to equate that experience with Islam, they become very disenchanted with the religion. Because they don’t see it as something that is empowering, but something that is holding them down.

So if you are good at it and you know how to listen, put yourself in a place where you offer that to people who are around you. And if you know somebody whose rights are being violated and they don’t have the ability to speak up for themselves, be mindful of it. And think with an air of foresight as to what would the ramifications be, but if they can’t speak for themselves – help them to speak!

Don’t let them have to go through it, don’t let them have to experience it but be somebody who helps them to be better by it. I don’t know how to answer the question of “why?” I haven’t been able to give an answer to anybody who has asked me. And I think that within our theology there are some things that we just have to say, “I don’t know! I don’t know why this happened to you. I don’t know why this was allowed to happen to you, but despite the fact that it happened to you I will enable you and help you get through it; and overcome it, and develop a sense of self-esteem and self-confidence so that you can get back to living a normal life, just as anybody else.” And any of us can do that; any of us can be those individuals.

Find and Focus on the Good

The Prophet (pbuh), he was a man who sought to find what was inherently good in that person and empower them based off that goodness. He wasn’t telling them that “this is what you do that is wrong, this is what you do that is wrong, this is haraam, that is haraam, you are going to hell.”

This is not the way the Prophet spoke to his companions. But he sought to find what was good about them and he sought to make them better by it.

We have to begin to start doing the same thing. If we don’t like the way people treat us, then let us not be the people who treat others in the same way. If we know what it feels like feel alone and to feel misunderstood, let us not let anyone else feels as if they were all alone and no one in the world understands them. If you can offer yourself to somebody in a way that brings them benefit, don’t let those opportunities pass you by.

Because Allah, (swt) he looks for moments to be forgiving. And your attainment of that mercy is conditionalized upon being merciful to those who are around you. Because if one day you are going to ask Allah (swt) to allow you to have entrance into His paradise by His mercy, but you yourself have not extended mercy upon the people who are around you, how will you be able to do so?

We have to think about these things while we have the time.

Iman Khalid Latif is the Executive Director and Chaplain for the Islamic Center at NYU. At the age of 24, his dedication to working across the boundaries of faith and culture lead to his appointment as the youngest chaplain in the history of the New York City Police department. In 2009 Imam Latif was named one of the 500 most influential Muslim in the world by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talaal Centre and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.

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Transcript: Human rights under Islam

Transcript of a talk by Iman Khalid Lathif on human rights under Islam, given in the American Corner of National Library on 3rd August 2010. The event was organised by Maldivian Network on Violence Against Women.

It is said that towards the end of his life, Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) found himself in a situation where he was speaking to his companions. It was the day of Arafa and month of Zul hijja, and the companions of the beloved of Allah were standing on the plane of Arafa and he needed to speak now to over 120 thousand of the men and women who were his companions. So he needed to speak in a way he could uniquely say something that would resonate within each and every one of them individually, but also speak knowing that his words would last beyond that immediate gathering and that those people would take what he said to every person that they spoke to.

And so the Prophet (pbuh), sitting there with these men and women beginning to speak to them, knowing also that his days in this world were limited, and He points into the direction of the city of Mecca, from there to the plain of Arafath, and he ask the question of his companions, “what city is this?”

And the companions know that it’s the city of Mecca, they know that it’s the city that they are very familiar and close to, but they don’t say anything out of deference to the prophet (Pbuh). And he says “ is this not the city of Mecca?”

And then he poses the second question to them, “that what month is this?” And they know they are in the month of Zul hijjaa they know they are in the most sacred and auspicious month but again they don’t respond. And the Prophet (pbuh) says “is this not the month of Zul hijja?” And then he poses a final question , “what day is this?”

And they are there on the 9th of Zul hijja, they are there on a day that is known as the day of Arafa. A day that is truly most sacred on the Muslim calendar that in another hadeeth the Prophet (pbuh) says, that “the entire hajj is Arafa.” It is the most important and sanctified day. When he asks them again they say nothing and he says “is this not the day of Arafa?”

And then once he has told them and he has reiterated for them the importance of the day of the month and the place that they are, he says to them “that know this, the rights that you have over one another, the bonds that you have amongst yourself as brothers and sisters, the way that you treat one another these are more sacred than this day, and this month and this place.”

And it becomes an underlying element for us to understand the Islamic paradigm and its view on human rights. This idea that humanity is so elevated is what we share amongst ourselves, not the differences in terms of our ideologies, theologies and our creeds and cultures.

Islam and human rights

Saying that, we share a commonality in our humanness that transcends any of these socially constructed differences that we most definitely need to distinguish, we need to dignify and we need to respect.

But more often than not, we see a gross violation of human rights. We see that in the Muslim world, all over the world, there are people who don’t know how to honor the rights of individuals.

They don’t honour the rights of those in their most immediate proximity, as well as the ones they have been entrusted to serve.

And this is a sharp contrast between what we are taught through our tradition and what we are taught through our law, and what we actually see taking place. If we look into our paradigm, and if we look into what our traditions tells us, our sharia tells us to even honor the rights of animals.

Treatment of animals

We see that there is so much that is written. The Prophet (pbuh), he gives us insight into the manner in which we are supposed to care, and treat those animals that we are going to slaughter for the purpose of eating, and how they have a rights over us as well.

That on one occasion the beloved of Allah allihi salaam, he sees a man who was about to slaughter an animal for the purpose of eating it. And this man he is sharpening the blade by which he will take this animals life right in front of the animal. And the prophet (pbuh) he reprimands the man and he says “why are you torturing the beast?”

On another occasion Umar bin Khattab (ra) who is of the Asharamul Bashara, he is somebody who is of the Khalifa Rashidhun (Rightly guided Caliph) he sees a man who is about to slaughter an animal and this man has his foot on the face of the animal. And Umar comes and starts beating this man, and he says “why do you not give this animal its right?”

That is the right that animals have in our law, those that we are going to slaughter for the purpose of consuming. And if we can take that even as a starting point for us to understand how we are meant to treat one another as human beings, do we think we honor?

And there are many things we can look into for insight as to what Islam says about this idea of human rights.

Pursuit of justice

We have to understand that the pursuit of justice is something that is most important in our tradition. That is something that comes to us with a divine imperative that we find in the Quran. And for anyone who has gone to the Friday prayer service, the Juma prayer service, this verse is recited all over the world on that day.

Abdullah ibn Masud (ra), he says that “this is the most comprehensive verse in the Quran.” And its translation is that ‘Allah’s angel he commands, he enjoins to the calling of justice to the doing of good and the preservation of ties between your kith and your kin, and he forbids that which is wicked, that which is trangressive and that which is not in a place which you are treating things in the way in which they are meant to be treated, and he says that he admonishes you, so that perhaps you might reflect.’

But the whole verse is talking about a code of morality, it’s talking about an understanding of ethics, rooted in an understanding of the individuals where we merely don’t tolerate the differences that exist amongst us, but we really understand that definition of tolerance to a point that we move it to a celebration of the diversity that exists among us as human beings. And it doesn’t happen all the while.

In the instance where Prophet (pbuh) is speaking to his companions, that we alluded to in the beginning of the conversation, he goes on to impart advices now to them, that he feels are the most important.

He gives them an insight to certain things, and he knows he only has a certain amount of days left with these people. Think about what kind of attachment he must have to them. That for some of them, he has spent 23 years of his life with them. And he has dedicated his life to this, and now he has moments, and he wants to leave them with something that is important.

Just like any of you might find in a situation where either you are leaving from a place or you know someone who is leaving. You want to give them some words of advice, before they leave from you and you might not see them for a long time.

So the Prophet (pbuh) gives them different advice in this conversation and each and every one of them has to deal with honoring the rights that people have over you.

Understanding the importance of maintaining the social equity, understanding the importance of taking on social injustice and not letting anything that is oppressive take place in front of your eyes, without dealing with it in a systematic and well thought out manner.

Finance and usury

The first thing he says to them, while they are standing there is that, ”for those of you who have debt, because of interest owed to my uncle Abbas (ra) the brother of my father, know that no one has to owe him anything anymore.”

That he wipes out these debts that are based off these principal usury primarily because the understanding of interest in our dheen is that it is something that is haram. But what he is saying even more, twofold is important for us to reflect upon.

He is saying that we will dismantle this principal that causes a social inequity here in our community because its utilisation leads to a financial inequity amongst the different classes that has different socio economic realities where we are.

Because divulging the principal of interest will allow those who are of the elite to get a little bit more into their pockets at the cost of those who are from the lower classes, to have to give of the little that they have in the first place. And when he says this he doesn’t say that any of you all who have this owed to you don’t take it anymore, but he says my family, whatever you owe to them forget about it. He is not saying that you go and do this. But he says whatever you owe to us, you don’t owe it anymore.

And that’s a sign of true leadership. He’s not expecting somebody to do something that he won’t do for himself. And this is a question that is posed to us in the Quran as well, ‘That why do you say that which you do not do.’ But he is showing to the people that this is how important it is and I am going to take it on my family, before I expect any of you to do it.

And so the first principal is one of financial rights. Ensuring that we might not be able to ever have everybody at a level playing field, and this is not what the purpose of Islam is. There are those who are wealthy and Allah has blessed them with their wealth, and they are fully free to enjoy their wealth. And we see that their provisions and principals are well for us to maintain a social equity.

Of the few obligations that we have, one is the giving of a certain percentage of your wealth at the end of the year to certain categories of people who are poor and destitute to ensure that they are able to enjoy certain things, just as you would be able to enjoy them. The giving of Zakat is mandatory upon anyone who has a certain threshold of wealth and this is one of the reasons for it. Maintenance of financial equity becomes important.

Tribal retribution and retaliation

As he goes on, he says that any kind of retribution, any kind of practice that involves one clan or one family seeking some kind of vengeance for a murder or death that had taken place, this is something that you will not be able to do any longer as you were able to do in the days of ignorance.

That the way Meccan society was built – it was built through a principle that was called Assabiah. A tribalism, a certain kind of clanism, where if you came and did something to my family regardless of whether I like the person or not, just because they were part of my family, I would come and make sure something happened to your family.

Because you have no right to come and do something to my family, I am going to make sure I get what is owed to us. Even in those instances if my family member was in the wrong, there was nothing that would make a difference. I would still stand up for them, because we are of the same clan. This was the way they protected one another, this is the way that they maintain their ties and it had its advantages, and it had its disadvantages.

Because your lineage dictated your protection in the community, and if you were somebody who did not have that kind of noble lineage, you were somebody whose rights were violated all the time.

Bilaal bin Rabah (ra), who some of us might know. He was the first muezzin in Islam. He was somebody who was a black slave in Meccan society. The people were able to beat Bilaal and abuse him, because he had no ties to any clan that was there. No one could stand up for him; no one would protect him because Assabiah put him outside the fold of any of that protection.

So we have instances where Bilaal is tied up and dragged through the streets to be made an example of, that this is what would happen if you became a Muslim. They would take boulders and put it on Bilaal’s chest, telling him to recant his understanding of Islam and no one would be able to stand up for him until Abu Bakur purchased his freedom. But he doesn’t have a father or a mother in Meccan society. He doesn’t have a grandfather, he doesn’t have a great grandfather. And that principle of Assabiah, it had that flaw.

And so hear the Prophet (pbuh), he is saying that for those of you who have this issue because someone has unjustly murdered, someone had committed some kind of homicide, we will now take that into a different realm.

It’s not that you as the common person will go out and carry out of your own justice but you will ensure that there is some kind of civility, some kind of due process, some kind of understanding, that goes through a court system by which we will begin to enact a more just and civil way of living. And again he starts with his own family. Again he starts with one of his relatives. Again he makes mention of something that is owed to his people, to his clan. And he says “that is forgiven, don’t worry about it.”

Interpretation for self-interest

He then goes on to make mention of the Islamic calendar which was observed by the Meccans and he specifically cites a practice that Meccans would undertake to avoid doing things that they prohibited to do in four specific months.

That there were four months that were considered sacred on their calendar and within those months you weren’t allowed to do certain things. And the utmost of those were the undertaking of battles and war.

And so what was habitual among the leaders of the Meccans that they would just move those months around in the calendar so that they could do what they wanted to do and not have their affairs disrupted by the prohibitions that were put upon them if those months were actually observed.

And we see that there is a problem with this religiously. That we can’t decide when we want to do something and when we don’t want to do something, if we are told we have to do something at a certain time then we have got to do it.

But more importantly we see the problem in this issue, is that those who are in the socially elite, those who are commandeering a certain authority and power, with their whims they were deciding how the society would run. It wasn’t the common man, it wasn’t the slave, it wasn’t the servant, it wasn’t the person who was working in the market for 10, 12 hours a day who was making the decision, that now we will not have the month of Rajab, when we would usually have because it would cause undue hardship on my affairs.

But it was the small group of people who ran the society that were saying was going to change the month around, so that we can still do what we want to do. And there is an injustice in this.

Power and authority comes with a great responsibility. And you can’t play around with the way the society functions, just so you can get out of it, what you want to get out of it. Despite what it will do to the people who are there. And so the Prophet (pbuh) he is telling these men, he is telling these women, “be mindful of the authority that has been given to you. This responsibility that you are endowed with, and don’t utilize it to your own advantage. To your own self interest. But put yourself in a place where you understand your accountability to the people that you serve.”

Women’s rights

And then he continues on and he says that “you must honor the rights of your women.”

Very specifically, very explicitly he makes mention of treating women with the respect that they deserve. And we see that this becomes a huge issue within the Muslim community. That you want to understand and reflect upon why we do what we do, and how come it wasn’t done when we were being told not to do it.

We have instances all over the world where Muslims and the Muslim community are mistreating their women.

And it becomes very confusing for a global society, whether they are Muslim or not, to understand where Islam starts and where culture stops. A lot of cultural practices become confused with Islamic practices because it’s Muslims that are carrying them out.

We see a deprivation of educational rights, we see a gross amount of domestic violence, we see issues with honour killings, we see forced marriages in abundance, we see female genital mutilation. There are all kinds of things that happen that are gross violations of women’s rights.

The Prophet (pbuh), he repeatedly tells these people “you have to honor the rights of your women.”

Because they are coming out of a society which itself didn’t honor the rights of the women. Female infanticide was practiced in abundance. Men wanted to have sons; they didn’t want to have daughters. They would bury them alive when they were given the blessing of a young woman in their household, they would just put them into the ground.

You had so many things that were happening that were problematic, but Islam comes to rectify that situation.

And we see as it expands that it becomes a gross misunderstanding of how to treat women. And our conversations on gender have to expand to a place where we begin to really understand what gender means in our religion and how it can infuse itself what is deemed to be culturally normative within a specific context.

So in the United States, we understand gender a little bit differently, than they do in Pakistan. And it’s now for us to make a determination that one mode of understanding is correct or incorrect, because Islam fully allows us to cater to our own cultural identity. And it gives an air of permissibility to allow for diverse cultures to still be who they are, but that permissibility doesn’t necessarily get to the status of being a normative practice.

So just because its allowed doesn’t mean it’s the norm. And this is a point we have to understand cause a lot of our stereotypes of those who act in a certain way it becomes because we are looking from the point of outside in.

And we think somebody is mistreating in ways they are not mistreating and our focus then doesn’t get to the places that we need it to be. Domestic violence is haram. You can’t beat and abuse your wife. Female genital mutilation is haram. Islam guarantees a certain level of education for every single person whether they are male or female.

There are certain things we have to start looking at much deeper and our conversations have to reflect that. And one of the things we need to do is that have the conversations not about what it means to be a woman in Islam but we need to start conversations on what it means to be a man in Islam.

Because there are not a lot of conversations that speak about positive masculinity and we lack role models and figures for our young men, who can teach them how to actually be men the way Islam teaches you how to be a man. It’s an important point for us to reflect on.

The Prophet (pbuh) when he is a child, he is not raised by a father figure. His process of socialisation during a very important part of his development as a young boy comes with the absence of a father.

His father Abdullah dies before the Prophet is born into the world. And so he is raised not by a man, but he is raised by four women.

There is a woman by the name of Aimina, who is the mother of the Prophet (pbuh), there is a woman by the name of Thoiba who is the emancipated slave woman of the prophet’s uncle, who was so ecstatic at the news of his nephew’s birth, that he frees this woman and says go and nurse my nephew.

Thirdly there is a woman by the name of Haleema Saudia. Iit was a custom at that time when a child was born that the Meccans they would send the child to live with the Bedouin tribes because it would toughen them up, and it would immune them to certain diseases.

It was their custom, so when the Prophet (pbuh) was born, he is sent to live with this women Haleema Saudia.

And then fourthly there is a woman by the name of Umn Ayman Baraka who when she is 16 years of age, she is taken as a servant in the household of Abdullah, who is the father of the Prophet. She is an Abasynian woman, she is a black woman and she is arguably the only companion of the Prophet who is with him from the day that he is born until the day that he dies.

And she is so unique, towards the end of the conversation we will bring her up again. But we want to understand that the Prophet (pbuh), who we believe is being divinely guided and prepared for the latter part of his life.

When he is learning about trust, and when he is learning about love, and he is learning about very very important emotions that children learn when they are younger, every time he turns to someone to understand and deepen those values, there is one of four women who are meeting his needs.

How, when he is going to be older, will he be able to violate the rights of any females, when these women play such a central role in his upbringing? And that is the starting point for us to understand the way women’s rights are understood. What is the role of the mother, of the daughter, of the sister in your household?

Your children when they understand the way women should be treated, how they are seeing women treated all around them? What example are you instilling within them so that they can understand what it means to respect a woman regardless of whether she is Muslim or not?

And here the Prophet is saying treat your women with respect and be mindful of them.

Against racism

And then he continues on and he says, “understand that all of you are the children of Adam.” And he says a hadeedh that is very often quoted. He says that “know that not any of you, that no Arab among you has superiority over a non-Arab, know no non-Arab has superiority over an Arab, know no black has superiority over a white, know no white has superiority over a black, except by the performance of good deeds, and what we would define as the consciousness of the divine in our lives, this thing of thaqwa.”

He is saying that it’s not about what country your are from, what your skin colour is, what your ethnicity is, what your nationality is, but what he is saying is that it’s a little bit deeper than that.

That your understanding and your testification of la ilaha illa allah puts you in a place where you seek to transcend the socially constructed differences and you look at the values that connect you, based off this principal that you are just men and women.

And if you look for a reason to find differences amongst yourself and then you define relationships based off those differences, and those definements puts you in a place where you elevate yourself by denigrating somebody else, because of where they come from in this world. Then you are doing something that is in violation of Islam’s understanding of human rights.

That you are giving as to being in a way without condition or qualification and you just provide support to whoever is in need of it.

The companions of the Prophet (pbuh) were not all Arab, they were not all from Quraish. Bilaal bin Raba is a black man. Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, he is a slave. Suhayb ar Rumi, he is said to have blonde hair and blue eyes. Salman al-Farsi, he is Salman the Persian. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, he is a man who comes from the tribe of Al Gaffar. He is of a tribe that is known as being hostile tribe of criminals and looters, that when he comes into the city to find the Prophet, and the people hear where he is from they don’t want to speak to him at all.

But when the prophet sees him coming over the horizon he says, that let it be Abu Dharr. Because it’s not about where you come from, it’s about how do we get you to the place that we want you to be at. And if we are going to keep you away or exercise an air of exclusivity based off of the land you come from, this is problematic.

The paradigm that is Islamic in nature revolves around a paradigm that is divine in terms of gatherings. And if we contrast gatherings that are divine in nature to gatherings that are human in nature, we see that the stark difference is one of exclusion.

For example I work at NY University in the United States. I used to work at Princeton University which in our country is a very very prestigious university. The way Princeton gets its reputation, the way it gets its prestige, is not necessarily about who it lets in, but more importantly who it keeps out.

You have to have a certain grade, you have to have a certain credential, you have to have certain extracurricular activities, so that the name of Princeton can remain what the name of Princeton means when people hear it.

And our gatherings are like this as well. That we define who we are, based on the company that we keep. And so if we let in people the society says we shouldn’t interact with, then they are going to have an understanding based off our social circles. But when we look at the gatherings that are divine in nature and we contrast them to our gatherings, we see that the best of the people are allowed entrance into those gatherings.

But not only are the best of people allowed into those gatherings, the most wretched of people are allowed into those gatherings. And it takes nothing away from the majesty of the divine. Nobody goes into a mosque and says how is it that this person from the street is allowed entrance into this place. No one says why God let that man from that country into Mecca to pray here at the Kaaba. But anybody is allowed in, because it’s not about keeping people out, it’s about figuring out ways to let them be where you are.

That woman Umm Ayman Baraka (ra), she is a black woman. When the Prophet is a child and he is crying and he is in need, his eyes open and he sees this woman whose skin color is different from his own, and he lets this be something that carries him forth throughout his time in this world. He lives in Mecca, he is born in Mecca, he goes to the place of Banousab outside of Mecca when he is about five years of age, and he goes to Medina which is a very long journey at that time.

And the city of Medina is substantially different from the city of Mecca in terms of its cultural practices. That the Prophet’s father is buried in Medina, so when he is a child he asks his mother quite often, ‘where is my father?’

Because he is still a child the way that any child is a child. And so she takes him to this place to see his grave, but he is not situated in any one place. He is being taken from people to people and place to place as a young person, and this is having an effect on how he is going to be able to engage diverse audiences.

And so this woman Umm Ayman Baraka, he doesn’t make a point to chastise her because of her skin color. But he appreciates diverse people and he interacts with her in a way that he demonstrates this. A most important example with her in how he seeks to honor her rights and not distinguish her based off her skin color comes when his own close companion Zayd ibn Harithah needs to be married.

Zayd used to have such a close relationship with Prophet (pbuh) that at one point he was considered to be adopted by Mohamed. So much so that he was called Zayd ibn Mohamed. And then revelation comes down that says in your adoption process, can’t assume the natal identity of any individual. That a person is always going to be the son of their father and their mother. It doesn’t say that we can’t adopt people, but it says that we can’t assume their natal identity.

And so when the revelation comes, Zaid bin Mohamed is Zayd ibn Harithah. But he is still close to the Prophet.

And when Zayd’s time comes to be wed, the Prophet (pbuh) weds him to this woman Umm Ayman Baraka, who’s black. They have a son by the name of Osama bin Zayd who the Prophet (pbuh) loves very much. That he would take his own grandson Hassan bin Ali and take this young boy Osama bin Zayd and put them both on his knees and he would pray Ya Allah be merciful to them as I am merciful to them.

There is no doubt that he loves Osama. Osama is half black and half Arab. He is the product of a multicultural household. The Prophet is not advocating for a separation of cultures, but he is looking to bring people together. And this is something we want to think about. Osama is also not mistreated by society because he is different in his background. At the year of 18th he is appointed to be the General of the Army and given a most important position and a most important responsibility. And so he is saying honor the rights you have amongst each other as people, don’t be prejudiced, don’t be racist.

Don’t put yourself in a place where you think you are superior to someone just because of the country you come from.

And these are some of the principles that we understand within our tradition and human rights in Islam. And there are lots of other things that are more nuanced and more specific but because of time we can’t go into.

Really what it comes down to – and it might sound very elementary and it might sound very simplistic – you just have to treat people nicely. You have to understand that everybody has a right over you, and everybody has a right to live according to their natural course of living, and we seek to confine and restrict and force people to be something that they are not, this is what is problematic.

Not everyone will fit into our archetype or our stereotype of what we believe is proper. And we have to let people go through certain realms, where we can still be a source of support for them, despite the fact that they might be a little bit different from we are.

I pray that Allah ta’ala Allah’s angle grants you success in all of your endeavors and he grants you to continue to do the strength to do all of the work that you are doing. But you have to keep reminding yourself why you do what you do.

You have to let that be the motivation that you go out there and you understand that you can in fact make a difference in the society, because even if you can change the situation for one then you have made a very very drastic difference that can lay down the foundation that can bring down the change for many.

And so Insha Allah continue to do the work that you do and allow for yourself to grow and develop as people who are in position of authority so that your own personal development will benefit not only but will benefit the people that you will serve.

We have a story that I shared last night with a group of students at the faculty of education about a man who is a known author, and this man he seeks to get his inspiration for his work by going out into the world and looking at nature taking his inspiration from there.

And so this man goes to a shoreline to get some inspiration for his current project and as he is walking down the beach he sees a figure in the distance that looks like its doing some kind of dance. And so he becomes a little bit intrigued and he goes to see what this figure was doing. And as he gets closer he sees that its not doing any kind of dance but is picking something up off of the ground and throwing it into the sea.

And when he gets even closer he sees that the shoreline has been covered with thousands and thousands of starfish. And that there is a young boy who is picking up the fish and throwing them back into the water, so when he gets close to the boy he asks him, what are you doing? And the young boy he says I am throwing the fish into the water. And he says why are you doing this? And he says they have washed up onto the shore with the tide and if I don’t do so, they will become dehydrated and they will surely die.

And the man says to the boy after he looks up and down the shoreline and sees thousand and thousands of these fish that there is no way that you will be able to get all of them back into the water, what is the point of what you are doing? What difference will it really make? And the young boy looks at the man, he looks back down at the ground he picks up one of the fish, throws it into the sea and says ‘it made a difference to that one.’

So if you can make a difference even for one then try to make a difference even for one. Insha Allah that one will find himself or herself in a place where they can impact and affect many.

Iman Khalid Latif is the Executive Director and Chaplain for the Islamic Center at NYU. At the age of 24, his dedication to working across the boundaries of faith and culture lead to his appointment as the youngest chaplain in the history of the New York City Police department. In 2009 Imam Latif was named one of the 500 most influential Muslim in the world by Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talaal Centre and the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Center.

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