Groupings

You know,

when young muslims in Scotland

start to follow their own individual interests,

their personal tastes and inclinations,

they inevitably eventually encounter others who happen to be interested in the same things as they are.

But those interests they share do not necessarily require

a shared interest in,

let alone commitment to

Islam.

They spring from something more primal than Fiqh,

a deeper Islam

that is our understanding

of “me” and “other than me”,

the personal and the social.

Through shared interests humans can find ways

to share their life experience,

their shared humanity,

doing things together.

Islam may make an individual muslim life experience

more relevant and meaningful,

but the language they might use to describe their understanding of that life

is unlikely to be restricted to specifically muslim terminology

picked up along the way.

Their life experience began before they even acquired language.

A muslim life experience begins with their humanity.

The Deen is a human way of life,

and can be recognised without language.

Non-muslims can recognise honesty,

commitment, trustworthyness, selflessness, empathy,

bravery, generosity, self sacrifice, mercy,

and the embodiment of all the virtues that are recognised in human society.

Working together is possible

even when there are wide disparities of opinion between those taking part.

Practical requirements don't need philosophical agreement.

A starving person doesn't care about the religion of the one who gives them food,

though they may well look upon it with greater favour after that.

Humans learn how to negotiate relationships with other people

before they have speech,

baby to baby,

a skill that takes on more complexity and subtlety

as more age and experience leads to greater understanding of different views,

different needs and preferences.

And that skill, from its roots in one-to-one negotiation and cooperation,

when practised by larger groups can be seen as politics,

group allocation of power and resources,

control of direction, and permitted choice.

Of course, the term politics can be applied to the personal politics of family life,

as well as to the wider local and tribal elements

that are part of national and global politics.

From top to bottom it harks back to that unspoken recognition of shared humanity,

as with the touch of a handshake

exhibiting the result of long verbal negotiation.

But physical, non-verbal communication between humans is so deeply embedded

that it is almost entirely unconscious.

The back and forth of body language takes place

through all the socialising of human interaction.

From childhood play, to more adult distractions,

from simple shared meals with family and friends,

to the group chants and actions of fans in sports stadia,

humans cannot avoid the unconscious dance of body language.

Admittedly these dance moves are somewhat shaped by their cultural context,

but the expressions of virtue tend to be widely recognisable, human to human,

muslim to human.

It is said that the Messenger said that a child is born muslim,

and then its parents shape its religion.

An infant is born surrendered.

It is taught what it becomes.

It is taught by its parents and the society around it,

but that initial surrender to all that was around it,

apparently separate from it,

was the start of its journey into the unknown.

All the creation is there for us

to explore and learn from,

whatever takes our interest we can follow.

Everything can be studied in the search for understanding,

through the physical, emotional,

intellectual, spiritual and moral aspects of human life.

The muslim contribution to the global discussion of the moral aspects of human relations

is usually considered as being defined by Shari'a,

the laws extrapolated from the Qur'an,

and the communal memory of the Messenger's daily life.

But the Messenger's time

was the Messenger's time,

with its own geographical place

and historical social context,

and the Message was expressed in a way

that could be understood and accepted by those who heard it.

So laws and punishments were set in that existing society,

a lifestyle almost unimaginable to the muslims who swirl around modern cities today,

still trying to follow laws defined during very different social contexts.

As muslims nowadays relate to

the greater non-muslim community,

the moral laws we share need to be negotiated.

An understanding of morality that is at the heart of our humanity can be agreed,

and in the face of something so deeply rooted

it has to be asked whether behaviour generally accepted as preferable by humanity as a whole,

could in fact be better reflective of the deen

than the lifestyle of those muslims who despite rigorous imposition of Fiqh,

seem to have little concern for love and mercy,

or compassion for their fellow humans.

Certainly, when it comes to a model for human relations

that needs no legal definition,

God tells us that the Messenger was only sent

to be a mercy to all beings.

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