How do Muslims deviate from ‘the middle path’ prescribed in the Qur'an and Sunnah, which lead to extremism in religion?

It can be observed that people deviate from the middle path in two main ways. The first one is the area of belief. When they enter into extremism, they go beyond the beliefs set by Allah and His messenger (ﷺ) and are seen deviating and following extreme acts. These are two interrelated categories because acts are preceded by beliefs, aren’t they? The most dangerous form of extremism is obviously “extremism in beliefs”. It produces “sectarianism” where people split off and deviate, leaving Islam. So we must be aware of the danger of extremism in belief as well as extremism in acts.

If we look at extremism in acts we find a good example from the time of Prophet (ﷺ) which was narrated by Anas ibn-e-Malik, that three of the sahaba came to the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) inquiring the manner of his worship and after knowing how he used to worship they said, 'Masha ‘Allah, Allah has forgiven Prophet (ﷺ) sins of the past and the present. However, we don’t have that promise of Allah that our past and present sins are forgiven, we need to do more'. So one of them said that he would pray every night for the rest of his life. Another one said that he would fast without breaking it and the third one said that he wouldn’t marry and stay away from women altogether. When the Prophet (ﷺ) came back and was informed of the incident, He (ﷺ) called the people and said to them,

“By Allah, I fear Allah more than all of you and I’m more conscious of Him than any of you, yet I fast and I break it, I pray and I sleep and I marry women so whoever dislike my way, my Sunnah is among my followers.”[1]

For us to like any way other than that of the Prophet (ﷺ), it takes us out of the realm of his (ﷺ) true followers. There's another narration when among the companions, ibn-e-Abbas (رضى الله عنه) narrated,

During the time of Prophet (ﷺ), he (ﷺ) was giving a lecture and noticed that at the back of the gathering, one individual was standing and the rest were sitting. He was standing in the sun so the Prophet (ﷺ) asked the companions about him. They said that his name was Abu Israel and he vowed to Allah to be standing in the sun and fasting, neither sitting nor seeking any shade nor speaking. When the Prophet (ﷺ) heard that, he (ﷺ) instructed them to go and tell him to speak, shade himself, sit down but continue his fast.[2]

 So these acts were not specifically religious but caused self harm and the Prophet (ﷺ) thus labeled it as a form of extremism and prohibited it.

On another occasion he (ﷺ) was going for Hajj and saw a man being carried by his two sons walking for Hajj. When the Prophet (ﷺ) asked about it, it was told that he vowed to Allah to walk to Hajj during old age. Prophet (ﷺ) told him to break his vow and take a ride and make up for it.[3]

So it is displeasing to Allah for a person to torture himself physically, vowing for harmful and painful things. This is not from Islam but represents a form of extremism.

 In the case of extremism in belief we find an incident towards the end of the life of Prophet (ﷺ). After one of the last battles while distributing the spoils of war among the companions, one among them stood up and said,

“Be fair! Messenger Of Allah, be fair!” Prophet (ﷺ) became upset for if he (ﷺ) was not fair, then where existed the fairness? All what he (ﷺ) did was the command of Allah. So when the individual turned and left, one of the companions, Khalid bin Waleed actually asked, “should I go and kill him, messenger of Allah (ﷺ)?”. Prophet (ﷺ) said, “No, indeed there will be from his descendants those who will recite the Qur'an but it will not go beyond their throats and they will slaughter the Muslims while leaving the pagans.”[4]

In that hadith, scholars deduced two characteristics of extremism in belief: the misinterpretation of Qur'an and the declaration of Muslims as disbelievers. These characteristics are manifested from the first of the sect that broke away from the mainstream Islam, the Khawarij. We may find this in Shias and all the subsequent groups even today, same characteristics where verses of the Qur'an are misinterpreted and they end up declaring the main body of Muslims as disbelievers. The biggest sect broken away from Islam are the Shias. In the past it was the Khawarij but they are not around today except in Oman. The governing and ruling community of Oman are from the Khawarij, and they represent a moderate and liberal wing of Khawarij. So they don’t hold some of the extreme beliefs of earlier body that broke off and slaughtered Muslims and the sahabas and claimed to uphold the Qur'an. In the case of Shia this is one major group and its sister group the Sufiyas Tassawuf and Shias are the two sides of the same coin. They share the same beliefs. Though it comes in a different package but while looking at its essence and ignoring the external differences one may find the internal similitude. Even the Shia are claimed to be the inventors of Sufism. But the majority of ummah involved in Sufism reject that claim. If we look at the extremity of Shia in terms of belief, their main focus was on the 12 imams and they perceive them as having the major attributes of Allah. They believe that the imam, first and foremost were infallible from the time they were born to the time they died. Meanwhile, the Catholics believe that when the Pope is invested in the office he becomes infallible. They also believe that he is the spokesman of God on Earth. For Shia, the Imams are infallible from birth till death and are incapable of making mistakes or errors. But these attributes are for Allah alone. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "All Adam's sons make mistakes”.  So none can claim to be infallible. Furthermore the Shia believe that the Imams are omniscient, having knowledge of all things and knowing what's in Lawh-e-Mahfooz, i.e., absolute knowledge which belongs only to Allah. They also believe that the imams are omnipotent, having power over the atoms of the universe. They quote the case of Ali ibne-Talib who was once involved in some battle that was prolonged and as the time for Asr came and the sun set while they missed their prayers, Ali ibne-Talib commanded the sun to rise again so he could offer his Asr prayer and then allowed it to set. This is among their beliefs. Imam Khomeini clearly says in his book, “Hukoom-ul-Islamiya”, the Islamic state government that the imams have special station above that of the prophets with a ‘creational caliphate’, akl khilafa takwiniya, which means that they control the atom of the universe. So if we go into Sufism we find infallibility in another version when one becomes the mureed (follower) of the shaykh he is supposed to believe in him absolutely that he can do no wrong and he will be told that if you see him drinking a bottle of alcohol know that it may appear that way to you but that’s not what it really is, you see him committing adultery but the hidden truth may be something else like Khidr and Moosa's (عليهم السلام) story for the shaykh can do no wrong, has become one with Allah; he is in fact considered Allah on Earth. They don’t see it that way but called him musool and use  the terminology which indicates that he becomes one with Allah so at that state he sees what Allah sees, i.e. he knows the past, present and future, and he hears what Allah hears. Of course there is a hadith where Prophet (ﷺ) said,

“The slave doesn’t come close to Allah except by doing what is compulsory for him or her and if they continue to worship Allah, voluntary worship, they become closer and closer to Allah until their sight becomes the sight of Allah, Allah becomes their sight, that’s what mentioned in hadith but they see like Allah sees and their hearing, touching, walking is related back to Allah”.[5]

But the scholars of mainstream Islam always understand that it meant that they would only see what was pleasing to Allah and avoid looking at what displeased Him, not that Allah literally becomes their sight that they can see what He sees.  No, that's impossible. We are human beings with finite perceptions and can't go beyond. They give their imam these attributes of Allah in terms of knowledge and power and believe that whenever Allah sends down His blessings, it comes to the leading Sufi saint (the Qutub or the pole) and then he distributes it over the earth to their people. So he has control over Allah’s blessings to give to whoever he chooses. So we see in the end that the consequence of their faith is that they believe in imams who are infallible, know everything, capable to do anything, capable to pray for them, so the imam becomes intermediary between themselves and Allah. They pray to the imams. They have special prayer books, in which they call on Hassan, Hussein, Ali, various imams etc. Even Fatima is included and esteemed. They talk about 14 infallible, 12 are major and the extra two are Fatima and Mohammad (ﷺ). They call on them in prayer. Similarly when you look at Sufiyas they call on their saints, people who have elevated to the status in connection with Allah, they call on them in prayer. When trials befall on them they call on the people like Abdul Qadir is the most popular saint to call on in trial times. ‘Oh Abdul Qadir, save me.” They would say that openly. They will go to tombs, make tawaf around the tombs, prostrate at it.  They also go to the Mashhad’s, make tawaf, prostrate, everything especially Karbala where Hussein was killed and they believe that since his blood touched the earth of Karbala, it becomes the most holy place on earth, holier than Makkah. So much so that they make clay tablets out of the earth from Karbala called Turbat and they carry it with them. When they have to prostrate, they put it down and prostrate on it. Passing on their mosques one can see little stone tablets on their prayer mats. The intermediacy that's found in Shia is also observed in Sufiya. Hence it's their shared extreme belief. This is what Prophet (ﷺ) stressed,

“Do not be excessive in your praise of me as people before were excessive in praise of Isa and Maryam, I’m only a slave of Allah and his messenger”[6],

stressing the point 'don’t be excessive'. Because Christians in their excessive praise of Isa elevated him to the Son of God and as a god they worshipped him. So this is the same thing that happens with the other groups who followed the extremism of the Christians. So these are the main areas that we see in terms of extremism in belief. We may observe the groups not going to extremes in how they hold their leaders who have gone to extremes and how they judge the followers under the banner, “Haakimiya, tawheed al hakiymya” as a valid principle in Islam. It means that the ruling government should be in accordance with the rule of Allah. It is an extension of “Tawheed al Uloohiya” or unity of worship that part of worshipping of Allah is applied not in our personal spheres but in societies and people who have gone to extreme in our times have taken this aspect and focused on the rule of Allah which now overrides everything. Thus they concluded that if you don’t act according to the rule of Allah, you are a disbeliever. Now there are verses in the Qur'an, which say that, “Whoever doesn’t judge by what Allah has revealed is a disbeliever.” But its also there that Allah describes them as Fasiqoon as Zalimoon as being oppressive and being corrupt so we don’t have just one ruling that everybody who doesn’t rule by the rule of Allah is automatically a Disbeliever, for we have shades of grades and it's not just black and white but these people have taken it in a black and white approach. If you don’t rule by Allah’s law then you are a disbeliever and whoever works for you is also a disbeliever, whoever is paid by you is a disbeliever so now being a disbeliever your blood now becomes halaal and they incite violence against the Muslim population. These groups which popped up in Egypt and elsewhere have promoted and propagated that approach so their extremism is expressed in how they judge Muslims. It is an extension from first individual whom Prophet (saw) spoke about, “his descendants will slaughter Muslims while letting aside disbelievers”. He will not focus on disbelievers he will focus on believers killing Muslims, declaring them to be non-Muslims and this was the al Khawarij. So we have people in current time who promote that methodology which represents an element of extremism in belief.

In terms of extremism in practice and act there are various customs and traditions found in different parts of the Muslim world which are in fact the religious innovations. For example, forced marriage is another form of extremism. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, that the daughter should have a choice. One can suggest, or encourage but choice should be hers. The practices like female genital manipulation is an area where Muslims are attacked but this is not in accordance with the teachings of Islam but a form of extremism. In various areas females are not allowed to go to the masjid. For instance in Malaysia, Jumuah is not attended by women and they are discouraged to go to masjid. In India they don’t even have a space for women in masjid. This is extremism in practice based on ignorance and coming out of it. But we have to struggle against these practices as well as the other acts which hold us back, for example the calling on jinns which is another form of extremism. The Prophet (ﷺ) didn’t do that ever. Even the Sahaba didn’t call on jinn, nor did they have jinn working for them. People say 'oh he’s got a good jinn working for him', which is a complete nonsense, not at all from the way of Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions but has become widespread making the people highly superstitious. Whenever anything happens, the thought strikes ”its magic on us”. It’s widespread. People abuse it, taking money from people, claiming to cure this one or that one. May be the issue is psychological; it isn't Jinn at all. So we see it coming from all directions in our societies. We could even see the way in which Islam is taught today where its deeper understanding may be missing. People are just told to do what we do. Because you are a Muslim you pray five times a day, or keep fasts. So people grow up under the pressure of society but they really don’t know the importance of the practices. When the opportunities arrive they travel overseas, and go to universities. While all their classmates are non-Muslims, the questions asked are “Why do you do this? Why do you do that?” and the feeble replies like “I’m not really sure” raise more questions and doubts as to 'why am I doing it? It's just making life more difficult for me'. And the next thing is that they leave their faith. Finally someone's daughter or son calls and confesses that “I don’t believe in Islam any more.” WHY? Because they didn’t understood it in the first place. If they ask a question, you say, “SShhh Shaytan, don’t ask that question.” WHY? Because you don’t have an answer. You never asked questions because you were afraid of you parents. But this is not the way. Allah gave us intelligence and reason to understand. Of course that reason does have its limits but we should seek knowledge and enrich our understanding. Because if we understand why are we doing it, it gives us motivation to want to do more. When we don’t understand the significance attached, it becomes a burden that we have to bear. Thus many of the internal problems faced by Muslims today are a result of extremist acts. We call it, “Bidah” in terms of practice that holds the ummah back. The real problem behind it is ignorance, not knowing a religion and not understanding the teachings to enable us to find that “Siraat-ul-Mustaqeem”, the middle path.

Reference:

[1] [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

[2] [Al-Bukhari: Arabic/English reference: Book 1, Hadith 152]

[3] [Al-Bukhari: Volume 3, Book 29, Number 88]

[4] [Al-Bukhaari (3610) and Muslim (1064)]

[5] [Al-Bukhari: Hadith 6502]

[6] [Al-Bukhari: Hadith 3445]