Islam for Muslims
- THE FAITH OF MUSLIMS
- GOOD DEEDS IN PERSONAL LIFE
- GOOD DEEDS IN SOCIAL LIFE
Observing Islam in a Non-Muslim Environment
44: OBSERVING ISLAM IN NON-ISLAMIC ENVIRONMENT
Introduction: The Muslims happen to be the minority in a non-Muslim society either by chance of birth or through emigration often from less affluent societies. In the case of Muslim emigration to the non-Muslim world, better education and higher income are often the pull factors. They are, however, not prohibited from such emigration as God said, “When the prayer is finished, you may disperse through the land in quest of God’s bounty. My earth is spacious, so you serve me (wherever you are)” (62:10; 29:56). Particularly, such voluntary migration may not be a bad idea if you are confident that your faith is strong enough to withstand the gusty winds of un-Islamic cultures in your new place and instead you can have positive impacts on your non-Muslim neighborhood by your strong Islamic faith. This is one of the reasons cited in the Quran as “going abroad in the cause of God” (4:94).
However, belonging in a non-Muslim society (either by birth or migration) may expose you to different kind of experiences. Examples include problems from shortage of mosques, halal food etc. and challenges like unfavorable public opinion, hostile laws of the land etc. You can however beat these odds through suitable combinations of virtues like piety, patience, dedication, perseverance, unity, wisdom, tactics, moderation, peacefulness and benign adaptation etc. Now follow some details.
(1) Prayer: Congregational prayer may be difficult, if not impossible, due to relative shortage of mosques within easy reach. You therefore may have to pray more often at home on your own. Yet better you should try whenever possible to organize and lead your home- based prayer congregation comprising of your family members.
On Job Site: While on your job, you may politely ask your any non-Muslim boss to allow you several minutes of time just for performing essential prayers, preferably at a quiet corner. Chances are pretty good that your request will be honored because the religion is often respected by many and very few may choose to spark controversy by refusing it. In order to improve this chance, it would be more than justified to maintain good relations with your boss and supervisors and if necessary, you should be ready to make up the work lost to your employer due to your prayer. If, otherwise, you fail to obtain cooperation needed for your prayer and this problem promises no solution in sight, then you should look for another job with better prospect for your prayer opportunities.
On Trip: During your outdoor trip, you should carry a waterproof prayer mat, a compass for ascertaining prayer direction and a chalk to perform ‘tayammum’ should there be no water for ablution. In case high rise water basin becomes a problem for watering your feet as one of the four requirements for ablution, you may wear preferably leather or thick socks for wiping over with wet palm as an alternative practice. If you are out from home for days, you should know the rules of shortened (qasr) prayers and combined prayers. You can also gain awareness of local prayer time by watching location of the sun or consulting local people or checking weather news etc. If you feel shy to pray under public eyes, you could pray privately on any dry place (even if not cleaned) by spreading a mat (or newspaper) over or you may be joined by others to pray publicly as well.
(2) Fasting: Fasting during Ramadan may face challenges from unfriendly work schedule allowing no time for comfortable eating at both ends of fasting. This may require you to eat much earlier than pre-dawn or much later than sunset or you may have to eat fast food while working. Nevertheless, you will often see no shortage of quality food sold by numerous stores and you only need to pick the halal ones.
Another possible problem may be the fasting during the very long summer days (about 14 hours) in many parts of the West. Combined with a tiring work load, that may pose a test of your patience. Your patience from God, however, may not be in short supply particularly if you think less of hardships and more of reward for patience. Moreover, as one piece of good news, the cold or temperate climate typical of these areas (most of Europe and North America) for most part of the year helps easier passage of the longer day.
Ramadan will come to a happy end through celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr. In observance of this, you will be dressed in nice clothes, attend a morning prayer at a mosque (in case of far-lying mosque, team riding is a solution). Then rest of the day will be spent amidst pleasures of visiting and greeting friends and relatives, sharing rich food with them, attending outdoor fun cultures and so on. These social gatherings are expected to reduce much of your homesickness for being away from home.
(3) Pilgrimage (Hajj): Higher possible income level in rich foreign lands is likely to make you more eligible for hajj. Your deep involvement in money making race, however, may make you less than willing to sacrifice time and money necessary for attending ‘hajj’ at Mecca. You should therefore take an early opportunity to go there before your love for money becomes too intense and prohibitive. Performing ‘hajj’ as the only once- in- lifetime obligation may be more of mental and spiritual pleasure than pains from monetary and physical sacrifice.
(4) Charity & Sacrifice: Your migration to the advanced West may usually mean your higher spending power for annual giving named zakat. Since it is a compulsion, you should not risk severe consequences by failing it. You should make an estimate of annual due zakat done right on time by consulting books or learned ones, if necessary. Then you could spend the sum locally for the poor if there are any or you could send money home or wherever more of needy people are available. Similarly, during the festival of Eid-ul-Adha, you can sacrifice animals for feeding the “distressed ones in need” if locally available (22:28). Alternatively, you could send money to your pious relative(s) in home country for proper distribution of meat particularly the one-third allocated for the poor.
(5) Legal Income & Food: The economic life in the West offers both positive and negative prospects for honest income. On the positive side, the mechanized nature of business (use of time card, sale register machine etc.) makes harder to cheat on the job and you will be forced on the path of halal income, willing or unwilling. Negatively, a large part of economy is based on what Islam brands as illegal involving business of alcohol, gambling, usury, prostitution and pork among others. You therefore need to make unfailing efforts to seek jobs outside these businesses.
Food Screening: When you go for buying food from grocery stores, you need to exercise extra caution in your search for halal food. While shopping, you have to check the ingredients printed on the label of food packet and screen out food with haram ingredients like animal shortening, lard, pork, alcohol etc. If you have to dine outdoors (at a restaurant, party etc.), you need to check with food preparers to ensure that you are not eating any unlawful food in any form like pork stick, fish fried with lard or wine, improperly slaughtered animals without “pronouncing God’s name” (6:121) and so on. Similarly, if you send your children to public schools with entitlement for free lunch, make sure they do not eat any illegal food like pork sandwich etc. This task is often challenging but very rewarding as well.
Halal Food: In the non-Muslim world, access to properly slaughtered halal meat is often far from easy. Municipal laws often prohibit in-house slaughtering of livestock and poultry on health grounds. This situation led to the growth of halal meat stores in many Muslim neighborhoods. In this regard, both the Muslim sellers and buyers have some responsibilities.
(i) The sellers should be honest enough to sell only properly slaughtered ‘halal’ meat. Plus, they should not charge abnormally higher than the ruling price of similar meat sold elsewhere, since pronouncing the name of God for halal slaughtering barely add anything to the cost. (ii) The buyers should also put trust in what the sellers label as ‘halal’ meat and buy that meat in preference to clearly ‘haram’ meat sold in non-Muslim stores.
(6) Sexual Purity: Though usually sexual obscenity has wider presence in the non-Muslim world, the Muslims can make an exception to that by maintaining the Islamic standard of sexual purity. One guiding force behind this may be your fear of God and the other may be the threat of sexually transmitted diseases (STD). As a Muslim you are expected to “lower (your) gaze” (24:30/31) from all inviting sights at the opposite sex in addition to practicing “modesty” in clothing (24:30/31). You should never think of wearing shorts (above knee) as a smart way of spending your summer.
Family Life: You should miss no chance of living there with your wife. If you live as a family, never sublease your apartment to any unmarried bachelor, even if you are under pressure from high rental cost. If you do that, he may act like a ‘mosquito inside the net’, freely trying to develop an affair with your wife while you are out for work. This situation often claims a share in relatively high divorce rate among the Muslim couples living in the non-Muslim world. Encourage your wife to be properly dressed when she needs to go outdoors. If she has to work, she should choose right kind of jobs like elementary teaching etc. and avoid working on night shift or in others’ private houses where her security is not much in her hands.
(7) Communal Living: You need to live in close association with other Muslims of your area and “shun those who turn away from” God (53:29). This is overly important in warming up your faith and advancing your good deeds. For example, a pious companion on your trip can ease up your prayer in jamat. It should therefore be your primary goal to cultivate local cooperation for founding a mosque where you can often gather for mass prayers specifically at both ends of the day. The same facility can be used as a center for Islamic education and cultures for those who need to know particularly the Muslim converts and your young children who otherwise could slip away from Islam. Another vital area of cooperation is the provision of funeral services by building a permanent graveyard for the Muslims. Presently, the makeshift arrangement for Muslim burials if available in non-Muslim neighborhoods is often not only expensive but may also fail in Islamic standard. Last but not the least, Islamic banking should be operational to cater to the needs of the Muslim minorities particularly in interest free home financing.
Conclusion: The above simply gives a brief account of how you should deal with the reality of living as a Muslim in a non-Muslim society. If you ever find yourself in a situation different from above, then you should address that by your judgment basing on your faith, knowledge and consultation.