Abd Hamid Mohd Nor

  FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Does Islam allow debate on controversial issues?  

There are many challenges and uncertainties facing the Muslim community in these very trying times. But regretfully, if past records are anything to go by any call to hold a discourse for positive... and constructive action is not likely to find a ready response among the imams in particular or the people in general.

There is an unfortunate tendency among the Muslim community -promoted to a large extent by the ulama (Muslim scholars) - to regard every issue affecting the community as already dealt with by past scholars and all a Muslim needs to do to tackle any problem which arises today is to refer to what has been written and decided, for the solution.

There is, therefore, much resistance to any attempt to even update and replace what are obviously outmoded ideas whose time has passed.
In time, the opinions of scholars and jurists have unfortunately been mistakenly elevated to the status of universal truths on par with the holy book, the Quran, and woe betide whoever dares to utter even a tiny voice of dissent from the accepted views.

The lamentable result had been the apparent ossification, and in some cases even the backward reversal, of the Muslim community. For instance, Islam is supposed to be a liberating force but the way it is interpreted looks as if it is, instead, a stultifying and intolerant religion. The Prophet Muhammad stopped the then prevalent practice of burying alive baby girls and elevated the status of women to equal that of men but today unhappily women in
some Muslim countries are subjected to some of the most unfair treatments one can ever imagine.

The ulama must be prepared to resolve current issues through constructive discussions and dialogues rather than the easy, unthinking but... clearly dishonorable way out by branding those who disagree with them infidels or unbelievers who need to be rehabilitated to conform to what is right as they perceive it.

Perhaps the current controversy with the so-called anti-hadith group is instructive.
I have been raised in the conservative tradition and have no particular sympathy towards the group but! Still would very much like to hear the ulama debate the issue with the persons concerned in the great intellectual tradition the religion is supposed to encourage and promote.

I find it especially objectionable the oft-repeated argument that such a debate will confuse the Muslim community. How can the ulama and scholars be presumptuous and assume that our faith is so superficial that it can be easily eroded just by a discussion or dialogue of this nature.

Incidentally, as a disinterested bystander, I feel that the "anti-hadith" brand given the group is an injustice to them.

After all, from what I can gather, they have not called for a total rejection of the hadith, only a revaluation.

Will not the continuation of such labeling be against the spirit of the great religion and a form of fitnah, a major sin much frowned upon in Islam? ...