HOLDING THE WEST AS THE MORAL STANDARD

An ancient Mosque in Cordoba, Spain, a remnant of Muslims
before they were ethnically cleansed (80% of the population
then) from Spain by Elizabeth and Ferdinand.

Today, almost everywhere in the world, Islam is in constant need of defense and justification. Defense and justification against Western moral values. The Islamic political thinkers, the bloggers, the activists, all have to defend Islam against Western values. Often, many of us turn apologetic, trying to match up a particular Islamic moral with the counter or parallel Western moral. As if though, the Western moral system is the standard of morality for humanity, and for any ideology to have legitimacy, it must match up to this said moral system.

For example, one of the most controversial Islamic moral guideline is stoning of the adulterer. Many Muslims in their zeal to sound modern and make Islamic law valid and acceptable to Westerners, either water down this punishment, or say that there is a difference of opinion on the matter, and some will go as far as to deny the well accepted law, or call for a reinterpretation of the text (such as, the Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan, listed on Times' 100 most influential people), all in an effort to defend and justify Islam.

I'm sure we all do this with good intention. However, this method is ineffective. It turns into a vicious cycle of apologizing for Islam in an effort to gain approval of the Western audience. In return, the reaction of Westerners usually is, "eh, I guess Islam isn't as bad as CNN makes it out to be." So, they walk away, with no effect at all, while making ourselves sound inferior to their values.

We need to step back, go back to the drawing board, and ask some very fundamental questions: Why should we defend Islam? Why does Islam need to match up to Western values to gain validation? Who's to say that Western morals are the correct morals, and we need to match up to those morals? Who decides morality? The West? The governments? The will of the people? So if any ideology wants to gain validation it must match up to the people's expectation?

Where's the foundation for morality?

In Islam, the foundation for morality is God. We, as Muslims, believe Islam to the be the ultimate guide from God. It is perfect, without any flaws, whether our limited minds understand its wisdom or not. Thus, naturally, the Islamic moral guideline is superior to any other guideline in the world. Is a moral guideline set by the people superior or the one set by God?

Islam is the truth, so, obviously it's superior. Also, let's not forget, we, Muslims, believe in salvafic exclusivity. We're the ones with the truth, why should we have to defend, water down, or be apologetic about our religion? Why do we deny, shy away from, call to reinterpret fundamental parts of Islam just to match up to Western values? We, Muslims have to remember that the Qur'an and the Sunnah are the ultimate truth, where we derive our moral guidelines from. Whatever they say is the truth, and we follow that truth.

The reason, however, Muslims become so apologetic is because we suffer from this inferiority complex, where we subconsciously think that Westerners are someway, somehow, better than us. Maybe it's because Westerners are better educated, more advanced in science and technology, have stable governments, strong militaries and an abundance of wealth? Also, let's not forget that they physically colonized us for centuries and trained our ancestors to think inferiority (part of the reason our Muslim majority societies are so dysfunctional). Now, the West isn't colonizing us physically, however, they do have our minds colonized.

How do we break out of this cycle of the inferiority complex? Education. Muslims need to go back to the drawing board. Learn our history. Our rich and diverse 1400 year old history. Once we do that, we will realize that for 1300 years of that history, Muslims dominated the world. We were at the forefront of science and technology. We had the mightiest militaries and empires. We were the ones giving refuge to persecuted Europeans. And we were the ones that were a bunch of Arab desert dwellers who erased the corrupt Persian empire from the map, and brought the Roman empire to its knees. We are the Muslims, the ones with the truth.

[Disclaimer: I am not advocating for a West vs Muslim mindset. I am a Westerner myself by culture, but Muslim in religion, and this place is my home. What I am trying to provoke through this post is that we, Muslims, need to embrace our identity and heritage as Muslims, and stop acting so inferior by imitating things that Islam despises. The West is a pluralistic society. And Muslims are as much part of it is as are the Jews, Christians, and Atheists. And of course, we, Muslims, need to constantly give Dawah by explaining the virtues of our laws, not by denying or watering down our seemingly controversial values.]

ABDUR-RAHMAN IBN AWF- AN EXEMPLARY STARTUP ENTREPRENEUR FROM THE SAHABA

Recently I entered the world of entrepreneurship as the co-founder and CEO of NexHealth (nexhealthdoc.com). The world of entrepreneurship is harsh, an uncertain path with high ups and extreme lows. Having role models to follow helps.

The reason I'm writing about Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf (may Allah be pleased with him) is that his journey as a prominent businessman is similar to the journey of a startup founder. A startup is defined as a company that faces extreme uncertainty. And there is no one else in history I know of who faced bigger uncertainty with his business than Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf.

Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf immigrated to Madina with nothing, fleeing the persecution of his own people from Mecca. He gained the brotherhood of Sad ibn ar-Rabi'ah, who, upon seeing ibn Awf's condition, said, "My brother! Among the people of Madinah I have the most wealth. I have two orchards and I have two wives. See which of the two orchards you like and I shall vacate it for you and which of my two wives is pleasing to you and I will divorce her for you."

Ibn Awf, being the man that he was, in reply said, "May God bless you in your family and your wealth. But just show me where the market is." And upon this statement, he took some dried yogurt and butter, headed to the hostile Jewish marketplace. There, he was able to scale and grow his market (from some scrap yogurt and butter!). Just to provide some context: The Jews were wealthier than the Arabs at the time; they were the only ones who possessed a marketplace, and thus, they thought the Arabs to be inferior. So, it is even more astonishing that he was able to scale in a market like this.

From this yogurt and butter, he bought and sold, and his profits grew rapidly. After a few days he went to the Prophet (peace be upon him). Seeing Abdur-Rahman well dressed, the Prophet exclaimed "Mayharn [an expression in Arabic said out of a pleasant surprise], O Abdur-Rahman!" Then Abdur-Rahman explained that he got married. When asked about his gift to the bride, he said one date (the fruit) size in gold as mahar (dowry)! Obviously, he was a gifted entrepreneur.

From there on he became one of the richest Arabs of his time. And let's not forget his greatest virtue, generosity. His generosity is legendary amongst Muslims and Arabs. It is said that all of Madina would live on the money of Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf. For more on this virtue, check out this short video by Imam Omar Suleiman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRwKRqC_KU
 
To conclude, the main reason I am writing this post is not because of my entrepreneurship, it is to show how perfect this religion of Islam is. Everything one needs in life, is there. Muslims have examples of entrepreneurs! Now, of course, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was a merchant himself, but I thought it would be better to use a Sahaba (some context if you're not aware: It is part of Sunni Islamic theology to respect and follow all of the companions of Prophet Muhammad) whose full time job was entrepreneurship. I hope, from this brief example we can at least appreciate how encompassing this religion is.