Muslims who live in Britain are often asked about their own identity, whether they feel British, whether they owe any allegiance to this country and also whether they need to adopt values which are promoted in this country. It is in intended in this short article to answer this question.
Islam is not like any other religion or belief, in that it is a complete way of life. This is called “Deen” by Allah in the Qur’an. The companions of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to comment that there was no matter however small or large that Islam had not addressed. Abu Dhar Al-Ghifari (ra) for example said that there was no bird which flew in the sky about which the Messenger Muhammad (saw) did not tell us something. Salman Al-Farisi (ra) said that the Prophet even informed us about the detailed rules on how to purify ourselves after urinating and defecating. The Qur’an and the Messenger Muhammad (saw) himself informed us that there are to be no more Prophets sent to mankind and that in fact the Deen of Islam is the final message from Allah to mankind completing his favour and dealing with every matter that could arise until the day of judgement.
When one looks at the rulings contained in the divine revelation of the Qur’an and the Prophets example (Sunnah) we find that everything from ruling to the economy, from inheritance to how to bring up our children has been addressed. Muslims have been given a complete way of life through Islam without the need to adopt any other ideas, culture or values. Hence in Islam calling for or fighting for nationalism (‘Assabiyyah) has been outlawed, ruling by other than what Allah has revealed has been called an act of disbelief and controlling the tongue has been made paramount to the extent that the Prophet said that most of the people are in the hellfire because of what they said and not what they did. This is clearly in stark contrast to promoting or fighting for patriotic or tribal causes, accepting anyone to make laws up according to their own whims (as under democracy) or the freedom to say whatever you wish, including to insult the honour of the Prophets!
In fact when one looks at the life of the Messenger Muhammad (saw), we see that just as we live among the non-Muslims in Britain, he lived among the non-Muslims of the Quraish in Mecca. Far from adopting their own way of life or culture, which at that time included burying their daughters alive, cheating in the markets and oppressing people through their unjust system, the Prophet and his companions (the Sahabah) interacted with the society to invite them to a better way of life i.e. Islam and he enjoined good and forbade evil openly and publicly creating awareness and public opinion in favour of Islam.
There are in the world today in fact two competing camps, those who believe sovereignty and supremacy belongs to Allah and those who believe that these belong to man. The conflict is such that the regimes which adopt ideas alien to Islam are keen for them either to give up their Islamic beliefs and to adopt their own culture and way of life or to get Muslims to reinterpret Islam so that it agrees with their ideas. Hence the British Regime have introduced many initiatives targeting the Muslim community over the last few years. These have included citizenship classes at schools, the 'prevent' strategy and also defining as extreme those who call for Shari’ah, who believe in the concept of Jihad or the Khilafah or who expose the British foreign policy in places such as Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan. Terms such as Islamist, radical, fundamentalist etc are often used to smear the image of these Muslims.
Far from giving up our own Deen and adopting someone else’s interpretation of “Islam” which suits their own policies, Muslims must go back to the Islamic standard which is the Qur’an and Sunnah, according to the understanding of the Sahabah. This is the only Deen acceptable to Allah and does not include the false ideas of man to be legislator (democracy) or for people to say and do as they wish (freedom) or to relegate Allah only to the Mosque (secularism).
Like the Messenger Muhammad (saw) in Mecca, Muslims in Britain must engage with the masses to invite them to embrace the beauty and justice of Islam rather than to give up our Deen and begin to embrace ideas, culture, values and concepts which contradict the Shari’ah (divine law). In answer to the question therefore, we are Muslims wherever we are in the world, first and last, not British, French, Pakistani or Bangali Muslims. These titles can in fact be no more than a means of description or identity, not a basis or criteria for our own behaviour!
It is a sin to integrate into a culture of alcohol, pornography, gambling, usury, promiscuity etc... and an act of apostasy to join the British police, army or government. It should therefore come as no surprise that Muslims want to either change the society in which they live to one where the divine law of Shari'ah is implemented or to emigrate to a place which already has it!
[By respected Ustadh Abu Waleed (hafidhUllah)]
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