Islam Ke Thekedaar
An old man with an orange beard,mustache completely shaved off, wearing a white turban, frothing at mouth calling everything Haram and everyone a Kaafir or a Faasiq.
A social media account with a Chinar leaf or a slogan like “I protest” in display picture reminding people about the wrath of Allah under a post— about a girl topping the board results, a girl or a boy expressing their love for each other or for a movie or song ,— with most vile and abusive language that one may ask does Allah allow use of such a language.
A person usually a male posting Islamic reminders warning about the sins, lewdness, usury, polytheism etc that have befallen us.
Some men getting into DMs of women and asking for their phone numbers to w̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶F̶a̶j̶r̶ talk to them till Fajr.
Islam ke Thekedar (IKT)? All of them, right?
Let us understand the word Thekedaar in a general context. What is a Thekedaar? A contractor. Someone we hire to do the work we lack the expertise,time or resources for.
So, Thekedaari is good. Why portray it as something negative. The profession itself is like any other one. If you’ve to be a contactor or for that matter anything you gotta be an ethical one. But let us know more about contractors.
Contractors have different classifications based on their field of expertise, the financial capacity to execute the work, experience, the type of service they can provide. For example railway contractors, mechanical contractors, civil contractors, super class , special class ,A class and B class contractors, labour contractor, material supplier, transport contractors etc.
But the category under discussion right now are Islamic Contractors. Therefore, we have some IKTs who only talk about waywardness in the society, some only about women’s issues, some only about Jihad, some call every other practice an innovation,some talk about usury, some about family problems and some blame everything on Yahoodi Saazish or girls wearing jeans.
Also, some preach in the public transport, some on TIK TOK, some charge for sermons, some spend money to travel to a place where a gathering like cricket or football world cup is happening to spread word of Allah.
Going back to contractors what kind of contractor will you hire if you have to get some work done but are yourself unable to do for several reasons? Most certainly, you will choose someone who is good at what he does. We are talking about a bare minimum requirement for someone to do the job. So, let us do some technical bidding. If you’ve to get your house painted will you give this contract to an electrical contractor? Also you don’t want a rookie to ruin your walls , you would rather have someone experienced do it.
Jokes apart, we don’t blindly trust people with our projects.
We make an effort to enquire about their reputation.
We look for the work completion certificates and appraisals if it is a major contract.
We check whether they are registered ,certified and licensed.
Experience is important and we also want to know for how long they have been in the relevant field.
The reasons we go through all this is because we ourselves are incapable of something and we want someone good at it to do that for us. The shortcomings lie within us and that is why we have to rely on contractors. All that we can do is that we choose a good contractor because when it is a matter of interest anyone can come up to get the contract claiming to be the expert.
It is like asking someone to shut up just because you don’t like what they say despite it being the truth. That a fact should not be uttered because it hurts you.
There are things that are forbidden like smoking, drinking, stealing, gambling etc for which we won’t seek explanations proving they’re bad for us.
A social media account with a Chinar leaf or a slogan like “I protest” in display picture reminding people about the wrath of Allah under a post— about a girl topping the board results, a girl or a boy expressing their love for each other or for a movie or song ,— with most vile and abusive language that one may ask does Allah allow use of such a language.
A person usually a male posting Islamic reminders warning about the sins, lewdness, usury, polytheism etc that have befallen us.
Some men getting into DMs of women and asking for their phone numbers to w̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶F̶a̶j̶r̶ talk to them till Fajr.
Islam ke Thekedar (IKT)? All of them, right?
Let us understand the word Thekedaar in a general context. What is a Thekedaar? A contractor. Someone we hire to do the work we lack the expertise,time or resources for.
So, Thekedaari is good. Why portray it as something negative. The profession itself is like any other one. If you’ve to be a contactor or for that matter anything you gotta be an ethical one. But let us know more about contractors.
Contractors have different classifications based on their field of expertise, the financial capacity to execute the work, experience, the type of service they can provide. For example railway contractors, mechanical contractors, civil contractors, super class , special class ,A class and B class contractors, labour contractor, material supplier, transport contractors etc.
But the category under discussion right now are Islamic Contractors. Therefore, we have some IKTs who only talk about waywardness in the society, some only about women’s issues, some only about Jihad, some call every other practice an innovation,some talk about usury, some about family problems and some blame everything on Yahoodi Saazish or girls wearing jeans.
Also, some preach in the public transport, some on TIK TOK, some charge for sermons, some spend money to travel to a place where a gathering like cricket or football world cup is happening to spread word of Allah.
Going back to contractors what kind of contractor will you hire if you have to get some work done but are yourself unable to do for several reasons? Most certainly, you will choose someone who is good at what he does. We are talking about a bare minimum requirement for someone to do the job. So, let us do some technical bidding. If you’ve to get your house painted will you give this contract to an electrical contractor? Also you don’t want a rookie to ruin your walls , you would rather have someone experienced do it.
Jokes apart, we don’t blindly trust people with our projects.
We make an effort to enquire about their reputation.
We look for the work completion certificates and appraisals if it is a major contract.
We check whether they are registered ,certified and licensed.
Experience is important and we also want to know for how long they have been in the relevant field.
The reasons we go through all this is because we ourselves are incapable of something and we want someone good at it to do that for us. The shortcomings lie within us and that is why we have to rely on contractors. All that we can do is that we choose a good contractor because when it is a matter of interest anyone can come up to get the contract claiming to be the expert.
More so in the matters of Deen almost everyone gives their opinion thus we need to have a certain basic requirement that makes one a genuine Islam ka Thekedaar.
For one to be considered a scholar of Islam they should have following level of knowledge in various fields according to Imam Sajzi RA.
Quran: They should know about different recitations, abrogated verses, decisive from allegorical verses, reasons for revelation of different verses and chapters.
Hadith: About the Ahaadīth a scholar should know which are the authentic and weak narrations, the abrogated and the other grading of narrations like Popular, Rare, Successive etc
Jurisprudence: One should be well versed in commandments on which the regulation of rulings on issues is dependent.
Language: Since the Quran and Hadith are in Arabic it is incumbent upon someone who wants to be a scholar to learn it.
Syntax/Grammar: A scholar should be able to distinguish the correct syntax from wrong one in Arabic.
It is also commendable if an Islamic speaker knows about the Biography of Prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, nations gone by, history etc.
What could be a valid reason for someone to reject the opinion of an Islam ka Thekedaar with such strong foundation in Islamic Sciences? There are some notions which can be realised when you see people speaking as if scholars make up things just like that to declare something Haram. But there is no reason for them to do that, for what they declare prohibited for us is by default prohibited for them as well. Won’t they like to smoke a joint while listening to soft music, get down on one knee and propose marriage to their beloved while the university students watch, dance amidst disco lights in a club or restrict Ramadhan for twenty nine days only and instead of changing it every year permanently give it the January slot? They can increase the number of wives, decrease the number of prayers or simply create a Moulvi Tax? However, it seems like these Thekedaars have taken a vow to make everything that is enjoyable Haram,eh?
The truth is one can’t declare something Halal or Haram based on their whims, desires or feelings rather they have to have an evidence from The Revelation to back their positions.
However, just because they possess knowledge and credentials doesn’t mean they are infallible or necessarily ethical. And that is true for all kinds of contractors.
We should understand that despite having all these characteristics that is required for one to be a scholar doesn’t necessarily mean that individual will have same level of fear of Allah ,piety and righteousness. Moreover, Shayatan is always active and can trap anyone. Ofcourse some of IKTs , usually the self styled ones, will give Fatwas in lieu of money or due to personal interests/benefits/duress and that is what makes continuous striving for knowledge extremely important for us the common Muslims. So,that we could ask them questions not fall for their jargon and it will also make it easy for them to explain their positions i.e how they arrived at a conclusion or ruling if the audience is knowledgeable.
It is laughable that when we don’t comprehend a ruling or dislike it so much that we are afraid at the mere mention of it , all we have to say is “Why have you become Thekedaar of Islam” to the one revealing this ruling instead coming up with compelling reasons to change their opinion.
Just some time ago a non muslim celebrity died and some Muslims on K Twitter went with the RIP hashtag for that celebrity while a few others tweeted that we don’t pray for Non Muslims after their death and some of the former group wanted the people from the latter one to shut up.
What does happen when someone tweets(not in reply to anyone) that as Muslims we are forbidden to make Dua for a Non Muslim that has passed away? Does it cause the phone to drop from our hand, snap our internet, lock our keypads or make the smartphone we’re holding to give us electric shocks? We can still tweet RIP(Insert celebrity name) and also educate the “errant” group about how it is allowed and how it is a matter of immense reward in this life and hereafter to pray for the peace in afterlife of a disbeliever. But simply calling them IKTs reduces us to ignorant people whose only comeback is name calling.
Alright, giving justifications and answers based on evidence from Quran and Sunnah would mean becoming a Thekedaar yourself which is something we don’t want, right? So, we just have to give in to the IKTs because as we already understand that they have the skill, time , resources to do what needs to be done. So, what do we do to counter this “menace” if it is really problematic enough for us as a community or an individual.
For the starters we can choose our contractors. But how?
Now, there are people who are trained to chose the right contractors, communicate with them and supervise their works known as engineers. Engineers know what conditions to set so that only genuine contractors get hired. Most importantly engineers and contractors have a common language and more often it is the lack of communication that causes controversies and misunderstandings. You must have read or heard about two deaf men.
First one asks, “Are you going to the market”
The second one replies “No, I am going to the market”
The first one again says, “Okay , I thought you’re going to the market”
Sometimes, we are all saying the same thing but due to lack of understanding we end up in disagreements. So, we can atleast become engineers to hire the contractors that suit our purpose, effectively communicate with them and supervise their work. I mean this is the least we can do to keep IKTs in check or we can just let them spread the “wrong information”. Some effort has to be made on our part. Even AICTE has declared that Physics and Mathematics are not compulsory to get into an engineering college. By this it is to get across that these days we don’t have to travel to learn from scholars, learn Arabic to get a knowhow of Deen. Everything we need is at our fingertips.
If we can’t be an engineer we can be a draughtsman, work supervisor anything but we certainly can’t afford to be ignorant.
If we can do nothing we can atleast watch two IKTs argue where they point out each others’ deficiencies and mistakes so that we can atleast get to know how to defend the position of the IKT who is closest to the opinion we like. But during this time we should have the purity of intention to stick to the truth once we have found it.
We cannot, everytime “misinformation” is spread in form of a strict ruling, shout an angry “Islam is not that much strict these Thekedaars of Islam have made it difficult” and feel our duty is done without doing proper research and shutting them up with truth.
Let us keep all these analogies of contracting ,engineering etc and my lame attempts at humor aside and focus on this verse from Quran
“…perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah knows, while you know not”
Now, there is music, pre-marital intimacy or ways leading to it, unislamic dressing, going to fortune tellers which as such don’t seem a reason for harm to ourselves or anyone else but Allah knows while we know not. Thus, while being ignorant about rulings of Allah when a “IKT” speaks the truth about such things we lose our cool. It is still fine but for once despite being mad at what the IKT said we should try to find out whether what the IKT said is true. You know like an engineer will do the required inspection and testing and only then accept the claims of the contractor. To outrightly reject the contractor will be an injustice as well.
So, let us pledge this Ramadhan try to learn Islam from the basics starting from Oneness of Allah, the Divine Unity or Tawheed so that we will have the knowledge and confidence to counter the IKTs if that is only thing we want, because there are ofcourse other reasons as well to seek Knowledge.
