Reasons why misunderstandings have occurred about Islam
 

Reasons why misunderstandings have occurred about Islam

QUESTION: You have mentioned that some people have misunderstandings and
misconceptions in their beliefs. How might these have crept into people’s beliefs?


ANSWER: misunderstandings and misconceptions can creep in for many different
reasons.
We will take a bit of time over the next few postings to discuss some of these
reasons. 1

1) LACK OF KNOWLEDGE:
Islam teaches that many people simply do not know about what Islamic beliefs are.
This might be because their parents did not tell them – and this is sadly the case
with many Muslims and non Muslims around the world today – or it may be because
people actually choose not to look into Islam and find out what it teaches and
encourages.
It is certainly true that many people wander through life with their own set of ideas
about what life is all about, without ever stopping to think ‘Is this right? Does it
make any sense at all? Should I look into what other people think in case they have
something better than me?’
Yet Islam teaches that people must think about all the things they see and hear
around them. Many verses in the Quran praise ‘the people who reflect and think’.
2) STICKING TO WHAT THE PARENTS OR FOREFATHERS WERE UPON.

In Arabic, this is called ‘ta’assub’.
You will find people who will not let go of what their parents followed, despite their
brain and their hearts telling them that it is incorrect. ‘My family do it this way, so I
will do it the same way.’
This kind of thinking is criticised severely in the Quran. Allah says:
When it is said to them "Follow what Allah has sent down!" - then they
reply
"No! We will follow what we found our fathers following."
(Would they do that) even though their fathers did not understand
anything, nor

were they rightly guided?
Surah Al Baqarah (2) ayah 170
Ta’assub is seen amongst the Muslims as well as the non Muslims.
Allah mentions in this ayah that ta’assub cannot be used as an excuse for turning
away from something true in favour of something false, simply because a person’s
ancestors used to do things a certain way.
NEXT TIME:
We will mention the concepts of
1) taqleed (which means blind following of people) and
2) ghuloo (which refers to exaggerating the status of people until they are taken as
gods in and of themselves

We were discussing the reasons why Muslims have differed, fought each other and
gone away from the path of Islam that Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught his
Companions.
We mentioned last time the ideas of ta’assub (sticking rigidly to a particular idea or
way of thinking) as well as not having knowledge.
Today we will mention two more ideas: taqleed and ghuloo. 1
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Taqleed literally means following someone or something unquestioningly.
In general, Islam does not favour this type of approach to religious matters.
Taqleed has been the cause of many problems throughout the history of Islam –
people follow religious or political leaders without ever checking whether the leader’s
statements are correct or incorrect, ie in accordance with what Muhammad (peace
be upon him) taught.
So if the leader has gone down the wrong path, then all of the people who make
taqleed of him will also go down the same path.
As with ta’assub, taqleed is found amongst non Muslims as well as the Muslims.
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Ghuloo means taking something to excess.
In this context, it refers to the excessive praise that certain Muslims direct towards
religious leaders - until they actually start directing worship (eg prayer, sacrifice,
etc) towards that person rather than to Allah.
Islam forbids this completely, and orders all Muslims to direct every aspect of
worship to Allah.
We have come across this concept before – it is called tawheed in Arabic, and refers
to singling Allah out for all worship. Tawheed is the single most important idea in the
whole of Islam.
Sadly this ghuloo of ‘religious people’ is seen in many Muslim countries nowadays
When Noah (peace be upon him) called his people away from
worshipping the pious people, they replied:
'You shall not leave your gods, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor Suwa', nor
Yaghooth, nor Ya'ooq nor Nasr."
Surah Nuh (the 71st surah) ayah 23
And these were the names of pious people who had died and whom the people had
taken as the names of idols.
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NEXT TIME:
We will discuss two further causes of people making mistakes in their belief:
Lack of reflection on the universe that we see all around us.
Lack of importance given to learning

Last time we mentioned two concepts as to why people make mistakes in their belief:
ghuloo - which means taking something to excess - and taqleed – which means following
someone or something unquestioningly.
In this email, we will mention two more concepts.
The first is lack of reflection and pondering over the universe around us.
This is an argument that is used repeatedly in the Quran.
The beauty of the universe, both on a large scale (the planets, the stars, the size of the
galaxies, the setting of the sun, the mountains, etc) and on a minute scale (the structure of
atoms and cells, the functioning of the cells in the brain) etc – Muslims believe that all of
these things are evidences that Someone has created them.
The Quran mentions:
Indeed in the creation of the heavens and the earth,
and in the alternation of night and day,
and the ships which sail through the sea with that which is of benefit to mankind,
and the water which Allah sends down from the sky and makes the earth alive
after its death,
and the living creatures of all kinds that He has scattered therein,
and in the veering of winds and clouds which are held between the sky and the
earth
(there) are indeed signs for people of understanding.
Surah Baqarah (the second surah) ayah 164
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The second idea is lack of importance given to learning.
Sadly in many parts of the Muslim world very little attention is paid to teaching people about
the fundamental aspects of Islam. So generations of children grow up without having much
understanding of Islam, not knowing the basics – so how can a house be firm and strong
when its foundations are weak or non-existent?
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