Islam and Liberalism

We need to remind ourselves and each other that we are the slaves of Allah. Allah is our Creator and we are His slaves. Allah created you, me, our parents, and we all know that one day we will return to Allah. As slaves of Allah we submit our lives to His Will, and we live the way He wants us to live. 

Allah says in the Qur’an,
 إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللَّـهِ الْإِسْلَامُ 
 “Indeed the only religion or way of life accepted by Allah is Islam.” (3:19)  

In this verse Allah is clearly stating that we should live our lives according to Al-Islam, the religion which came from Allah, taught and practiced by the one who was undoubtedly the best of all creation, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. If we decide to follow the path of another religion or way of life, it will not be accepted by Allah.  

Throughout history, we can see that people have promoted different ways of living, different ideologies and different ‘isms’ of life; there’s socialism, atheism, Marxism, secularism, communism and capitalism. We should study these modes of life in order to save ourselves from them. There is one ‘ism’ that is affecting millions of people today and that is liberalism. So, what is liberalism? Liberalism states that one has the right to do anything as long as it does not harm others. Therefore, you can practice anything as long as you are not having a negative impact on others. On face value it seems like this ideology is good. But when put into practice, you will see the flaws. For example, part of the definition of liberalism is that you do not harm others. Who defines what is harmful or not? The word ‘harm’ differs from person to person and country to country. According to liberalism, it is okay for a man to drink, smoke, have illicit sexual relationships and make money at the expense of poor people. For liberals, drinking alcohol is not bad. Smoking, even though it damages a person’s internal systems, is not bad. If someone sleeps with another person’s husband or wife, according to liberalism, if both have given consent, then it is not a bad thing. Does this really sound like a good way to live life? Does liberalism sound like a good system for one to live their life by? Does liberalism sound like it is a good system for a whole community and country to live by?  

If one asks, does Islam promote liberalism? Does Islam allow people to do whatever they want, if supposedly no one is harmed? The reply given is that Allah told us how to live our lives and that is Islam. As we said before, Allah says in the Qur’an,
إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللَّـهِ الْإِسْلَامُ 
 “Indeed the only religion or way of life accepted by Allah is Islam.” (3:19) 

Islam has rules and regulations. So, when it comes to prayer, we are commanded to pray five times a day. Now if one misses prayer out of laziness or some other reason, then we hope he overcomes his laziness and starts praying five times a day. However, if one starts to apply a liberal mindset and tries to change Islam by saying you don’t have to pray five times a day, just one is enough, we tell this person that this is not acceptable to Allah and we Muslims will not accept it as well. This is not part of Islam. You are not allowed to change five daily prayers to one prayer. You do not have the right to change the religion; the religion belongs to Allah. Similarly, if someone says, ‘Alcohol is allowed in Islam, you are not harming anyone by having it’, then we tell this person that he has got it wrong and that alcohol is forbidden in Islam. Allah says,
 يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ ۖ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا ۗ  
“They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them is great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is greater than their benefit.’" (2:219) 

One cannot have a liberal attitude and start changing the religion. As we said at the beginning, we are all slaves of Allah and we submit to His will and follow the religion which He sent down. We say it every day in our prayer, 
“إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِين” 
 “We worship You alone and we ask You for help.”  

So, let us carry on worshiping Allah the way He wants us to. If Allah tells us to do something, we obey Him. If Allah tells us to stay away from something, we also obey Him and stay away.  

Allah has revealed everything we need to know. He says,
 مَّا فَرَّطْنَا فِي الْكِتَابِ مِن شَيْءٍ 
“We have neglected nothing in the Book.” (6:38) 

Everything we need to know we can find it in the Qur’an and in the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. If you study our religion, then you will know that our religion is perfect and that it has been made easy for us. We don’t need a liberal approach and change Islam. When it comes to food, everything is halal apart from a few things such as alcohol, dead meat and pig. When it comes to transactions, everything is allowed apart from a few things such as transactions that involve interest, cheating, lying and deceit. So really the religion has been made very easy for us.  

As we said at the beginning of the Khutbah, Allah is our Creator. The Creator knows better about His creation than the creation itself. So, for example, maybe you do, or you don’t, know the harm of drinking alcohol. But Allah knows that it is overall very harmful and therefore He has made it haram. Similarly, maybe you know, or you don’t know of the benefits of fasting. But Allah knows and therefore he made it a must for us to fast in the month of Ramadan. Allah made certain things haram because it is truly bad for us and he made certain things Halal because it is certainly good for us. So, we do not need to have a liberal mindset and change the religion of Allah and do whatever we feel like.  

Moving forward, what shall we do? We should study our religion. Learn, recite and memorise the Qur’an. Learn and study the life of the Prophet ﷺ. As you grow up you can attend other structured courses and learn more about the beauty of your religion. With the knowledge you can tackle all these “isms” and different modes of life. 

May Allah give us the tawfeeq and ability to live and abide by His religion and not get distracted by all the ‘isms’. May Allah protect our youth from confusion. Ameen.