1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page i ON BEING A MUSLIM 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page ii RELATED TITLES PUBLISHED BY ONEWORLD Approaches to Islam in Religious Studies, Richard C. Martin, ISBN 1–85168–268–6 The Call of the Minaret, Kenneth Cragg, ISBN 1–85168–210–4 A Concise Encyclopedia of Islam, Gordon D. Newby, ISBN 1–85168–295–3 Defenders of Reason in Islam, Richard C. Martin and Mark R. 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Courtesy of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP. © Wolfgang Hoyt/ESTO Typeset by Transet Printed in India by Thomson Press Ltd. NL08 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page v For Tasmia and Moosa, Muhammed, Tahirah and Ayesha 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page vi 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page vii CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix INTRODUCTION 1 1. ON BEING WITH ALLAH 9 Can Allah be Supremely Indifferent? 11 Between Allah and a Neurotic Self 17 Allah: More than an Ideological Appendage 20 Words and Works for a Window 23 More to the Rituals than Motions? 27 Don’t Forget to Marinate the Meat! 30 Ramadan: When Boats are Safe in the Harbour 33 2. ON BEING WITH MYSELF 38 Freedom Isn’t Free 40 Dying by the Inches 45 And the Truth Shall Set You Free 51 Who Says I’m not Important? 54 Life! Life! (Or is it ‘Wife! Wife!’?) 58 3. ON BEING WITH YOU 63 Beyond the Masks 64 Why Two Ears and One Mouth? 67 Why Does He Take so Long with the Meat? 72 To Dump or Not to Dump? 75 Though Poverty Became their Lot 78 My Brother’s Flesh on the Menu? 82 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page viii viii on being a muslim 4. ON BEING A SOCIAL BEING 87 Revelation or Revolution? 89 The Reader’s Digest Islam 93 Who’s in Charge Around Here? 98 On Building Burdens 102 Wanna Have Some Power? 106 5. ON BEING WITH THE GENDERED OTHER 111 On Mandela and Women 113 The Gender Jihad 118 It’s Just a Dark Blob Out There 122 The Fall of Man 126 Calling all Married Couples! 130 The Courage to be Mad 133 6. ON THE SELF IN A WORLD OF OTHERNESS 137 Knock, Knock – It’s the Malboet (and He’s Knocking for Me!) 139 Go Slowly With the Mud! 142 On Ants and Elephants 147 Long Live Mrs Batista! 149 Access to our Waterholes? 152 The Jews! Watch Out For the Jews! 156 7. ON BEING A NEW SOUTH AFRICAN MUSLIM 162 On the Brink of Freedom? 164 Tell Us About Your Glasses 168 Switch Off If You Get Turned on! 172 Crime Out There? Or in Here? 176 On Murdering Murderers 181 Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers? 184 CONCLUSION 189 Notes 198 Select Bibliography 203 Index 205 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On Being a Muslim has a long history and numerous people have had a hand in it. I offer my sincere gratitude to the following: To Brother Norman Wray who gave me the support to dig up stories from early Islam and to make them come alive for the kids at St Patrick's Technical High School in Karachi. To Yusuf Patel who first encouraged the idea of putting all my Al Qalam columns together. To Rabi‘ah Terri Harris and Sohail Nakhooda who, in their work to have many of these essays published in As-Salamu Alaikum (New York) and Islamica (London), first led me to believe that someone outside South Africa may want to read what I have to say. To Tahir Sitoto, Wiedaad Dollie, Nasiema Cassiem, Faizel Ismail, Kim Eliot, Nader Hashemi and Firdawsa Wahi for their useful and critical comments on the manuscript. While copies of manuscripts which they returned to me with their scribblings eventually ended up in the bin, I did consider their comments carefully and believe that it has substantially improved the quality of this work. To my dear friend Ruwayda Hendrickse, who was initially going to be the only reader of the manuscript. Her raw honesty (‘Farid, this is not a book that I want to see your name on; it’s so bad, I don’t know where to begin making suggestions for improvements’) compelled me to send the manuscript off to all these other folk. (Ruwayda, blame it on all of the folks above, if you still think so after reading through it.) To Juliet Mabey and Helen Coward of Oneworld Publications, for their editorial comments and for the gracious way they put up with my interminable delays. To Sisa Maboza, my wonderful research assistant, for invaluable back-up in just about everything and for feeding my fish. To the Mail & Guardian, Cape Times and Sunday Independent (South Africa) for permission to use previously published articles. 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page x x on being a muslim To all the people who have walked into – and occasionally over – my life and whose stories I tell in this book. (And I'm praying that my roy- alties will cover the defamation suits.) And finally, to Allah, also for always being there (with ‘always’ meaning ‘always’, without it always feeling like that). 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page xi If the last hour strikes and finds you carrying a sapling to the grove for planting, go ahead and plant it. Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) 1 Prelims ver.3 22/3/04 8:56 am Page xii 2OBAM - Introduction 22/3/04 8:58 am Page 1 INTRODUCTION why were you not Zusya? A rabbi disappears from his synagogue for a few hours every Day of Atonement. One of his followers suspects that he is secretly meet- ing the Almighty, and follows him. He watches as the rabbi puts on coarse peasant clothes and cares for an invalid woman in a cot- tage, cleaning her room and preparing food for her. The follower goes back to the synagogue. When he is asked, ‘Did the rabbi ascend to heaven?’ he replies, ‘If not higher.’ Isaac Loeb Peretz, If Not Higher WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE IN THIS BOOK? There is an exciting and challenging wind of relevance blowing through the world of Islam. Numerous Muslims, especially among the young, are keen to know how Islam relates to our here and now. Many responses have been forthcoming as a part of this wind of relevance: these are often vague, repetitive, superficial and, at times, even alarming. Some of these responses are alarming not only to those who desire to be unfettered in their march to entrench their control over the global economy but also to many Muslims who value social justice and personal freedom. Alhamdulillah (Praise be to Allah), of the latter breed there is a growing band. The more strident, angry and fanatical1 displays of this revival receive a great deal of attention. This should not, however, detract from the genuineness of the ‘new Muslim’. This Muslim is new in the sense that she is adamant that a stagnant and fossilized Islam confined to a set of rituals that are mere motions must make way for a personally mean- ingful and socially relevant Islam. Those of us who are deeply committed to a human and compassionate expression of our faith cannot allow 2OBAM - Introduction 22/3/04 8:58 am Page 2 2 on being a muslim ourselves to be swamped by the noise of religious obscurantism and the equally destructive caricaturing in some sections of the media of the whole of Islam as a threat to civilized values.