When The Learned Are Not : The Latest In Religious Discourse

By Syed Akbar Ali

Looks like some of you have seen a sneak preview of this post when I 'tertekan butang' accidentally yesterday. I was just drafting it and it was incomplete. The title in the draft version was also different "Fatwa Crazy & Crazy Fatwas". Here is the complete version.

A few days ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wrote in his Blog about 'Sunat dan Wajib'. You can read it in full here. I have extracted some relevant parts. Here they are :

5. Islam tidak membebankan penganutnya. Oleh itu banyaklah amalan yang sunat, yang jika dilakukan mendapat pahala tetapi tidak berdosa jika tidak dilakukan.

6. Ramai orang Islam yang tidak puas hati dengan kelonggaran-kelonggaran yang diberi oleh Allah Subhanahuwata'ala Mereka lebih suka jika yang wajib ditambah dan yang sunat diwajibkan.

7. Ada yang sampai memaksa yang sunat dilakukan dan jika tidak, tidak Islam atau kurang Islam. Tidak ada kelonggaran yang dibenarkan.

For those who are not familiar, the scholars have divided things into obligatory (wajib) and optional (sunat) actions. Wajib or obligatory are those things which they say are ordained by God which you must do. Optional or sunat are those things which they say are attributed to the Prophet, which is not obligatory but optional.

This is what they say ok. I did not say this.

Dr Mahathir has pointed out in his Blog that people often make the optional become obligatory. And as for the obligatory, they add to it. In this way they make their own lives even more difficult.

This is also where the problems also start. If the scholars start making their own lists of what is obligatory or what is optional they actually start playing God. Especially in the long lists of optional things that they have created. It is argued, even among themselves, if indeed what they say is true or not.

Often times they say things that are quite ridiculous. They may make strange or illogical rules which cause them to trip up and fall down. They shackle themselves up.

Then to free themselvs of their own shackles they make even more strange pronouncements and rules. Here are some quite recent examples from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. I have written about Izzat Attiya before. His crazy fatwa was made in 2007. Then most recently this year some fellows in Saudi Arabia have started up on this issue again. This issue is therefore quite current among them.

Saudi Clerics Advocate Adult Breast-Feeding

(June 5) -- Women in Saudi Arabia should give their breast milk to male colleagues and acquaintances in order to avoid breaking strict Islamic law forbidding mixing between the sexes, two powerful Saudi clerics have said.

Al Obeikan, who made the statement after being asked on TV about a 2007 fatwa issued by an Egyptian scholar about adult breast-feeding, said that the breast milk ought to be pumped out and given to men in a glass. But his remarks were followed by an announcement by another high-profile sheik, Abi Ishaq Al Huwaini, who said that men should suckle the breast milk directly from a woman's breast.

You can read the full story here. First here is a picture. The guy wearing the table cloth on his head is the Sheikh Al Obeikan. He advocates using the pump. The picture below him is that of Abi Ishak Al Huweny who advocates 'straight from the tap'.

What handsome hairy chumps they are.

In the 21st century, this issue about adult suckling first came to the fore in 2007. (I had raised it a few times even before that.) At that time another cleric in Egypt by the name of Izzat Attiya, a Professor of Hadith at the infamous Al Azhar University had made the same pronouncement. Attiya was promptly fired from Al Azhar. Now according to this news, he has been reinstated in his job.

"The case of the male breastfeeding fatwa, or religious ruling, just took another strange turn as the scholar who issued the controversial opinion was rehired after being fired by Egypt’s al-Azhar University.

The Cairo Administrative Court overturned the decision by al-Azhar's disciplinary committee to expel Ezzat Attiya, the president of the hadith department, for issuing a fatwa condoning the symbolic breastfeeding of grown men in 2007.

The court annulled the university’s decision to expel Attiya after he issued a fatwa permitting symbolic breastfeeding of men as a way to loosen the customs of segregation between the sexes in Egypt."

Here is a picture of Izzat Attiya. He is much less hairy than the other two.

Now here are two You Tube Videos. The first one discusses the 'breastfeeding' fatwas. You can see that the West is of course equally shocked by these things. What makes me flinch is that they blame Islam. Do listen to them because this material is all over the world, available at light speed through the Internet. I shuddered when one of these guys spoke of a '.. a deeper problem with Islam..'.

Ultimately it is always Islam and the Quran which get the blame for all these brain dead fatwas that are put out by these so called scholars. And I can assure you there will be that group of people, even in our country, who will speak up in defense of these religious guys.

Not to be left out here is another You Tube Video about another fatwa, this time coming out of Iran. A Shiah cleric in Iran has made the pronouncement that earthquakes are caused by women's "improper" dress. In Iran "improper" means showing more than two strands of hair through your tudung. Do watch the video.

Again the Internet and You Tube helps to show their stupidity at light speed around the world.

Where do these folks get these ideas? In the case of the adult suckling story, they get it from a book called the Al Muwatta allegedly written by a fellow by the name of Imam Malik. This book is often referred to as the "First Formulation of Islamic Law" (Nauzubillah - may Allah protect us).

I have already written before that there is no evidence that the Al Muwatta that we have today is actually written by the hands of Imam Malik. There are many versions of this book, from 12 to 27 different versions. The religious scholars themselves dont know if Imam Malik is the real author of which particular version.

If you are interested you can see the reference here. For those who have the tenacity here is this story from the Al Muwatta:

Section: Suckling of Older People

Book 30, Number 30.2.12:

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that he was asked about the suckling of an older person. He said, ''Urwa ibn az-Zubayr informed me that Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba ibn Rabia, one of the companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who was present at Badr, adopted Salim (who is called Salim, the mawla of Abu Hudhayfa) as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, adopted Zayd ibn Haritha. He thought of him as his son, and Abu Hudhayfa married him to his brother's sister, Fatima bint al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Rabia, who was at that time among the first emigrants. She was one of the best unmarried women of the Quraysh. When Allah the Exalted sent down in His Book what He sent down about Zayd ibn Haritha, 'Call them after their true fathers. That is more equitable in the sight of Allah. If you do not know who their fathers were then they are your brothers in the deen and your mawali,' (Sura 33 ayat 5) people in this position were traced back to their fathers. When the father was not known, they were traced to their mawla.

"Sahla bint Suhayl who was the wife of Abu Hudhayfa, and one of the tribe of Amr ibn Luayy, came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, 'Messenger of Allah! We think of Salim as a son and he comes in to see me while I am uncovered. We only have one room, so what do you think about the situation?' The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'Give him five drinks of your milk and he will be mahram by it.' She then saw him as a foster son. A'isha umm al-muminin took that as a precedent for whatever men she wanted to be able to come to see her. She ordered her sister, Umm Kulthum bint Abi Bakr as-Siddiq and the daughters of her brother to give milk to whichever men she wanted to be able to come in to see her. The rest of the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, refused to let anyone come in to them by such nursing. They said, 'No! By Allah! We think that what the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered Sahla bint Suhayl to do was only an indulgence concerning the nursing of Salim alone. No! By Allah! No one will come in upon us by such nursing!'

"This is what the wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thought about the suckling of an older person."

I just want to say that none of this is in the Quran. The Quran is not a book of crazy, wild horse stories. I find the Quran a no nonsense, completely logical and scientifically consistent book. And here is something interesting too. The Quran does not claim to be original. Whatever is in the Quran has been revealed before (Please refer Surah 87:18-19 and others). It definitely has a collection of wisdom that has held through the ages. This is very logical. Since there is only one Creator, then the message has to be the same. Takkan the same Creator would reveal different messages through time.

Throughout history and until now, people have resorted to making a career out of religion as a last resort. You will rarely find a student who scores 9As in the SPM saying 'I want to go and study religion'. The smart kids all want to do better like becoming a doctor, an engineer or something like that. Most unfortunately for the human race, usually only the left overs end up studyng religion. It is a last choice option.

At the Government universities in Malaysia, usually those who dont make the cut for the other faculties get admitted into the 'religious faculties'. It is well known that in University Malaya (at least for a long time, I dont know the latest position) those students who cannot get into the more preferred faculties get into the 'Malay studies faculty' or the 'religious studies faculty'. I think both Slumberjack and the Brader were Malay studies faculty. In India it is well known that young men from the villages who drop out of even village school may get sent off to join the madrassahs, where they ultimately graduate and become the imams at the mosques. That is why they are doomed too.

The same applies here. The imams and the guys who run the mosques are not exactly the cleverest people who qualified for medical school or engineering school. And these are the type of people you listen to when you sit in the mosques. Think about that for a minute.

Even the cleverest among them end up writing books like the Al Muwatta or they may end up making fatwas in Al Azhar or in Saudi Arabia.

While the rest of the world is moving ahead at light speed with new Apps for the Apple I-Fone or the next generation I-Pad which will be out soon, this is the latest religious discourse in the world infamous Al Azhar University and Saudi Arabia, home of I dont know what.

Conclusion : Table cloths are best spread on the table.