The Tyranny of Received Views and the Use of Reason

We often notice and comment upon the great variety of, and mixing of cultures in our community. At times we marvel at this microcosm of the Muslim ummah. All these colors! All these languages! How magnificent is Allah's creation! And yet, who can deny that, at the same time, it is this variety that causes so much tension, if not outright hatred in our community? Allah has issued us a great challenge and responsibility. If we do not learn how to understand and respond to this variety the ummah will always be stricken with strife from miscommunication, prejudice, confusion of Islam and culture, and old historical hurts. How often we are told to seek knowledge. How rarely we undertake this responsibility. When was the last time you ordered books from the Islamic Book Service, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or American Trust Publications? Are you even on their mailing lists? When was the last time your read a basic book on psychology, sociology, cultural or linguistic studies? (Are those with knowledge the same as those without?!?) How long has it been since you entered a library and wandered through the stacks and read a subject not related to your profession? How many of us even have a library card or know how to use the inter-library loan system? Hmmmm. I thought so.

Culture is an extremely powerful force that shapes our views of others, self and the world. It strongly effects our interpretation of Qur'an and Sunnah. We recieve our views and understanding of things through our culture. Allah challenges us to use our reason and intelligence to discover right and wrong, good and bad, such that we may encourage the former and prohibit the later. Unfortunately, for most of us our sense of good and bad is not based upon reason and intelligence, but upon the attitudes and pereceptions we have recieved from our cultures. These attitudes and perceptions can be so strong as to be classified as tyrannical. Hence, the title of this article.

Here is an easy to understand example of the "tyranny of recieved views" for you to contemplate. It has to do with food. Specifically, sheep's heads and ham sandwiches.

Please think about eating a sheep's head. For some of us we think "yum, yum, what a tasty treat". But others, thinking about this possiblity, are going to feel a bit sick to their stomachs! Americans do not eat sheep's head. Not only do we not eat them, the very thought of eating one, and certainly seeing one ready to eat is enough to elicit feelings of nausea and disgust. Does this mean that eating a sheep's head is wrong? No. It illustrates how strongly the recieved views of American culture concerning food can effect us. Now picture the American getting ready to sit down and eat a ham sandwich. Ham, of course, is pork. An American, raised on ham sandwiches, pork sausages and pork chops is going to think-- you got it-- "yum, yum, what a tasty treat". But for someone raised in a culture with a history of strong Muslim influence the very thought of eating pork will elicit feelings of nausea and disgust! These feelings have nothing to do with the pork in and of itself, but with the recieved cultural views that have shaped attitudes and perceptions. The Middle Easterner can not comprehend how the American could possibly feel sick at the thought of a tasty sheep's head. The American can not comprehend how the Middle Easterner could feel disgust at a tasty ham sandwich. Nothing to do with reason. Everything to do with the strength and power of culturally recieved views. These views are so strong they can literally make you sick when they are violated.

I was recently told a story of a Muslim residing in a South American country. He was in the habit of going to a cafeteria and eating a sandwich-- not knowing it was a ham sandwich!. One day another Muslim sat to lunch with him and asked "Why are you eating that?" The other responded with surprise and expressed how good this type of sandwich was. The visiting brother exclaimed "It's pork!". The brother reported that he immediately felt nausous and on the verge of vomiting. Note that this was after he had already been eating these sandwiches for some time. Once the perception of the sandwich was brought within his cultural frame of reference (by identifying it as pork) all his cultural perceptions and attitudes came flooding in. It was no longer a tasty sandwich, it was gross, disgusting, filthy pig.

Of course, as a Muslim, I no longer eat pork. This does not mean, however, I find the thought of it disgusting. I don't eat it simply because it is so clearly prohibited in the Qur'an. Sheep's head elicits feelings of disgust in me. Now, having a personality type called "novelty seeking" (i.e. liking new experiences) if offered a sheep's head I would most likely try to overcome these feelings and sample this Middle Eastern delicacy. But this is rare. Most Americans could not even entertain the thought of eating it. They are tyrannized by the views recieved from their culture!

It is my opinion that it is aboslutely contingent upon us, all of us, to learn to explore and distinguish between culture and Islam. Americans have a double responsability. We are not only a unified culture, but also made up of many sub-cultures. Sub-cultures can have the same strong effect on our perceptions and attitudes. NO ONE comes from a purely Islamic culture. And NO ONE can escape the effects of their culture. We have just seen how strongly things that are purely cultural can effect us-- our perceptions, attitudes and responses to various situations. If we can have such a strong response (not only emotional, but physical as well) to food, how much more so when Islam mixes with culturally recieved views?

What we can do is use our reason and intelligence to seek knowledge and thus learn about these issues so that we may minimize their negative influence and maximize their benefits. We do this by means of science. The first step, obviously, is to understand exactly what science can and cannot do. Most people suffer from scientific illiteracy. (I have read one of those popular Islamic booklets that showed a gross misunderstanding of science.) In some ways, science is nothing more than disciplined observation. In order to discipline our observations of self, others and world science has developed certain tools and methods. Now these may differ depending upon what it is we are observing. If we are trying to understand the non-human world, such as the interaction of certain chemicals, we will use different methods to discipline our observations than if we are attempting to scientifically observe something specifically human such as "love" or "justice".

An example of one of these rules of reason and logic that I have often seen violated in our community is the use of what is known as an ad hominum ("against the man") argument. Avoiding the use of this form of argumentation is one of the basic foundations of disciplined observation and the use of reason. An example of the ad hominum argument is evident in recent discussions of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It has come to light that Dr. King plagiarized and was an adulterer. Many white bigots argue that this means that Dr. King did no good whatsoever-- that it invalidates his good works and so we should not honor or admire his work and words as they pertained to civil rights and social justice. The false reasoning is that they do not argue about his words and actions pertaining to civil rights and social justice, they unveil his defects and sin and think this "argues" against those words and actions.

Recently I have been in discussions with brothers concerning music and non-Muslim thinkers. All they could do was produce ad hominum arguments. That is, they were unable to argue against music, but had to attack the composers of the music. That the composers' sin was somehow an argument against the music they produced. (Hint: to argue against music think about the role of entertainment in the life of a Muslim.). I frequently hear brothers express the same attitude towards the thought and ideas of non-Muslims. That is, because they are not Muslim nothing they say is of value to us. Sorry, there is simply no way around it-- such methods of understanding are in error. It is also very, very dangerous. Who, in all of human history is without sin or defect? No one! Not even Muhammad (PBUH).

Brothers and sisters, it is contingent upon us to learn about ourselves, others and the world. Let us begin by reflecting upon ourselves. Let us ask ourselves: where do my thoughts, feelings and opinions really come from? Upon what basis do I agree or disagree with something? Where does my understanding of Qur'an and Sunnah really come from? Have I thought, studied, reflected, discussed and then chosen my thought and opinions? Or have I merely recieved them, unreflectively, from my culture and upbringing?