THIS IS NOT ISLAM

During one Ramadan, a riot broke out in a place. On December 25, 1987, I met a man from that area and asked him about the incident. He told me it happened at night. Muslims were praying Tarawih in the mosque when they suddenly heard noise from the street. A wedding procession from another community was passing by, stopping in places to sing and play music. Some Muslims came out of the mosque and told them, “Please don’t make noise here, we are offering prayers inside.” But they refused to listen. An argument followed, and eventually it turned into a riot.

I said to him, “This is how you responded. Now let me tell you how the Prophet of Islam dealt with such situations.” I explained, “You know that in the early days, Makkah and the Kaaba were under the control of non-Muslims of Quraysh. They used to trouble the Prophet and his companions in many ways. One example was this: whenever the Prophet and his companions went to the Kaaba, the polytheists would make noise. They would whistle and clap, saying, ‘This is our way of worship.’ The Quran says: “Their prayers at the Sacred House are nothing but whistling and clapping of hands. ‘So taste the punishment because of your denial.’” (8:35)

Commentaries on this verse explain it as follows:

Ibn Umar, a Companion of the Prophet, said that the non-believers of Makkah would put their cheeks on the ground, clap, and whistle. Mujahid said they did this to disrupt the Prophet’s prayer, while Al-Zuhri said they did it to mock the believers. (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 4, p. 52)

Tafsir al-Nasafi says they would circumambulate the Kaaba naked, interlock their fingers, whistle, and clap. They especially did this when the Prophet recited the Quran in prayer, trying to confuse him. (Vol. 1, p. 644)

Safwat al-Tafasir states that the non-believers’ worship at the Sacred House consisted of nothing but whistling and clapping. They did this whenever Muslims prayed, in order to disturb them. (Vol. 1, p. 467)

Tafsir al-Mazhari says Sa‘id reported that the Quraysh opposed the Prophet during circumambulation. They mocked him, whistled, and clapped. Muqatil said that when the Prophet prayed in the Sacred Mosque, two men would stand on his right and whistle, while two men stood on his left and clapped, all to disrupt his prayer. (Vol. 4, p. 63)

The Prophet lived in Makkah for 13 years, and throughout that time he faced this kind of behaviour. Yet not once did he protest or retaliate. He endured it all patiently. A group of devoted and courageous believers had already gathered around him, but never did the Prophet lead them in any attack on the idolaters, nor did he instruct them to stop the noise through confrontation.

The Prophet’s silence was not out of fear but out of purpose. The law of life is that to achieve one goal, you must give up another. The Prophet’s mission was to deliver God’s message, and so he avoided disputes and clashes. He chose to ignore all these disturbances and focused entirely on spreading the message of Islam. Eventually, God changed the circumstances. The noise of the opponents came to an end themselves.

In the Prophet’s time, noise was created inside the mosque itself, yet neither he nor his companions ever retaliated. Today, however, if a noisy procession passes by a mosque on the street, Muslims are quick to come out and fight. If Islam is what the Prophet practised, then what Muslims are doing today is not Islam. And if Islam is what Muslims are doing today, then what the Prophet practiced was not Islam. Muslims must now decide which of the two they wish to follow.