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Uswa Hasana: Difference between revisions
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→The Implications of Uswa Hasana for Muslims in the Modern World
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Modern historians tend to approach the study of particular historical periods, governments and personages from a perspective of historical and cultural relativism. So when in the course of study it comes to light that for instance Julius Caesar sold the women and children of the Gaules he defeated into slavery and paraded his enemy Vercin Geterix like an animal through Rome before executing him (likely by strangulation), although not necessarily endorsing these actions historians will tend to offer context such as explaining that such actions were not at all unusual for other people at the time. On the other hand, when a leader such as Adolf Hitler ordered his soldiers entering the Soviet Union to specifically ignore international treaties on the treatment of prisoners of war in order to brutalize and murder as many "sub-humans" as possible or to set up industrial killing camps with the objective of physically annihilating entire ethnic groups, a idea new to the entire history of mankind, historians tend to pass judgement on these actions as being worse for breaking the contemporary norms of the times these leaders lived in, exceeding even their contemporaries' expectations of human cruelty and viciousness. | Modern historians tend to approach the study of particular historical periods, governments and personages from a perspective of historical and cultural relativism. So when in the course of study it comes to light that for instance Julius Caesar sold the women and children of the Gaules he defeated into slavery and paraded his enemy Vercin Geterix like an animal through Rome before executing him (likely by strangulation), although not necessarily endorsing these actions historians will tend to offer context such as explaining that such actions were not at all unusual for other people at the time. On the other hand, when a leader such as Adolf Hitler ordered his soldiers entering the Soviet Union to specifically ignore international treaties on the treatment of prisoners of war in order to brutalize and murder as many "sub-humans" as possible or to set up industrial killing camps with the objective of physically annihilating entire ethnic groups, a idea new to the entire history of mankind, historians tend to pass judgement on these actions as being worse for breaking the contemporary norms of the times these leaders lived in, exceeding even their contemporaries' expectations of human cruelty and viciousness. | ||
When historians turn to the historical narratives of Muhammad offered in the Sira, tafsir and hadith traditions, many actions such as Muhammad massacring and enslaving the [[Banu Qurayza]], taking [[Safia]] as a slave-wife after executing her husband, or ordering the execution of Meccan poets who had written verses against him once he conquered Mecca are contextualized by noting that these actions were in keeping with the mores and expectations of warfare and statecraft in the Late Antique/early medieval Middle East. This is more often than not perfectly true--contemporary Arabs potentates, the Romans in Byzantium and the Sassanid Persians had no concept of "human rights", "freedom of speech", or "freedom of religion" and routinely committed what would today be called crimes against humanity against minority religious groups such as the Manicheans, flaying the flesh from their bones and crucifying them, killing prisoners of war when ransom was not received, and both empires were heavily dependent on slave labor, including the practice of creating eunuchs through forced castration. | When historians turn to the historical narratives of Muhammad offered in the Sira, tafsir and hadith traditions, many actions such as Muhammad massacring and enslaving the [[Banu Qurayza]], taking [[Safia]] as a slave-wife after executing her husband, or ordering the execution of Meccan poets who had written verses against him once he conquered Mecca are contextualized by noting that these actions were in keeping with the mores and expectations of warfare and statecraft in the Late Antique/early medieval Middle East. This is more often than not perfectly true--contemporary Arabs potentates, the Romans in Byzantium and the Sassanid Persians had no concept of "human rights", "freedom of speech", or "freedom of religion" inter alia and routinely committed what would today be called crimes against humanity against minority religious groups such as the Manicheans, flaying the flesh from their bones and crucifying them, killing prisoners of war when ransom was not received, and both empires were heavily dependent on slave labor, including the practice of creating eunuchs through forced castration. | ||
It must, however, be noted that the the Islamic concept of "Uswa Hasana" stands in direct contradiction to this modern historical methodology. When Muhammad married Aisha at 6 and consumated the marriage when she was 9, this was not simply the action of a man living in a pre-modern culture where woman married and bore children very young to assist in their survival, this was the perfect conduct of the perfect man which is an example for all men of all time to follow. When Muhammad ordered the ancient pagan statues of Mecca smashed and all pagans across the Arabian peninsula given the choice of Islam or the sword, this was the proper and right conduct to be followed by all Muslims and their governments in regard to pagan "mushrikuun" of all times and all of their idols, including the ancient Buddha statues of Afghanistan which were dynamited by the Taliban, and as certain Salafi groups in Egypt argue today even including the ultra-ancient pyramids and temples of the ancient Egyptian pagans. | It must, however, be noted that the the Islamic concept of "Uswa Hasana" stands in direct contradiction to this modern historical methodology. When Muhammad married Aisha at 6 and consumated the marriage when she was 9, this was not simply the action of a man living in a pre-modern culture where woman married and bore children very young to assist in their survival, this was the perfect conduct of the perfect man which is an example for all men of all time to follow. When Muhammad ordered the ancient pagan statues of Mecca smashed and all pagans across the Arabian peninsula given the choice of Islam or the sword, this was the proper and right conduct to be followed by all Muslims and their governments in regard to pagan "mushrikuun" of all times and all of their idols, including the ancient Buddha statues of Afghanistan which were dynamited by the Taliban, and as certain Salafi groups in Egypt argue today even including the ultra-ancient pyramids and temples of the ancient Egyptian pagans. | ||
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{{Quote||Muhammed's Maid Slaves "are Salma Um Rafi', Maymuna daughter of Abu Asib, Maymuna daughter of Sa'd, Khadra, Radwa, Razina, Um Damira, Rayhana, Mary the Coptic, in addition to two other maid-slaves, one of them given to him as a present by his cousin, Zaynab, and the other one captured in a war.<ref name="Zad al-Ma'ad"></ref>}} | {{Quote||Muhammed's Maid Slaves "are Salma Um Rafi', Maymuna daughter of Abu Asib, Maymuna daughter of Sa'd, Khadra, Radwa, Razina, Um Damira, Rayhana, Mary the Coptic, in addition to two other maid-slaves, one of them given to him as a present by his cousin, Zaynab, and the other one captured in a war.<ref name="Zad al-Ma'ad"></ref>}} | ||
When ISIS captured the "pagan" Yazidis of Sinjar, this conduct was used as a pretext for taking young male Yazidis and females as slaves, including sex slaves. | When ISIS captured the "pagan" Yazidis of Sinjar, this conduct was used as a pretext for taking young male Yazidis and females Yazidis as slaves, including sex slaves. | ||
Muhammad and homosexuality: | Muhammad and homosexuality: | ||
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{{Quote|{{Muslim|4|2127}}| Aisha: I said, Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain.}} | {{Quote|{{Muslim|4|2127}}| Aisha: I said, Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story). He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me? I said: Yes. He struck me on the chest which caused me pain.}} | ||
To this day, Islamic religious scholars by and large continue to endorse the beating of | To this day, Islamic religious scholars by and large continue to endorse the beating of disobedient wives by their husbands, and this is not seen as a crime in the laws of most Muslim countries. | ||
In contemporary discourse modern Muslims who wish to live and practice their faith in accordance with modern norms of behaviour often condemn such actions as barbaric, and often seek to invoke Muhammad's culture context to explain them. The doctrine of Uswa Hasana, howver, makes this argument exceedingly difficult, especially when the argument is between Muslims who wish to follow modern mores and traditionalist Muslims who wish to hew to the traditional understanding of the tradition. To take one example, Muhammad himself is claimed to have said: “A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife.”<ref>Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab - {{Abu Dawud|11|2142}}</ref> | In contemporary discourse modern Muslims who wish to live and practice their faith in accordance with modern norms of behaviour often condemn such actions as barbaric, and often seek to invoke Muhammad's culture context to explain them. The doctrine of Uswa Hasana, howver, makes this argument exceedingly difficult, especially when the argument is between Muslims who wish to follow modern mores and traditionalist Muslims who wish to hew to the traditional understanding of the tradition. To take one example, Muhammad himself is claimed to have said: “A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife.”<ref>Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab - {{Abu Dawud|11|2142}}</ref> | ||
==Challenges to Uswa Hasana from Within the Islamic Tradition== | ==Challenges to Uswa Hasana from Within the Islamic Tradition== | ||