Remember Romeo and Juliet? In the famous balcony scene, Romeo swears his love by the moon and Juliet replies, “O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circle orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”
I reckon many Muslims shared Juliet’s sentiments last week. The end of the fasting month is, of course, determined by the moon, and it’s been playing hard to get lately, creating global confusion about the date of Idul Fitri, Islam’s most important annual celebration. Although the big day was originally set for Aug. 30, at the last minute it was changed to Aug. 31.
Sure, it was inconvenient, but that’s nothing new. Every year, we have to put up with differences of opinion about hilal (the sighting of the new moon) — particularly between Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhamadiyah, our leading Muslim organizations. This year was particularly chaotic, however.
My driver’s take on the issue? “It’s the arrogance of the government, Bu, not sensitive enough to the people. Don’t they realize that the women have already cooked everything?” His solution was very practical though: celebrate on Aug. 31, but stop fasting on the 30. How whacky is that?
Of course, I went to pay my respects to my mom on the day of Idul Fitri (I won’t tell you which one!). When I got home, there was a film on TV about the Islamic holy book (Decoding the Past — Secrets of the Koran). I decided to hide from the chaos of the Eid celebrations outside and absorb myself in it.
It turned out to be wonderful, an exploration of the origins of the Koran and its revealing to Muhammad. It covered historical context, similarities to the Jewish and Christian revelations, the Golden Age of Islam and the importance of ilm (knowledge) in Islamic traditions.
It also dealt with the meaning of jihad and its modern usage, and how the Koran has been interpreted to support two opposing worldviews: one of peace, the other of violence.
Ah, interpretation! For some people, the Koran is an elastic document — as with so many other religious texts, they cherry-pick to justify whatever they want. They see what they want to see, just like the hilal!
And that leads to distortion. Osama bin Laden for example, used the Koran selectively, making it more militaristic than it really is. He stopped at the part that says when the enemy ceases to be a threat, you must remember that God is merciful and warfare should be a final option. Convenient, huh? Sadly, this piecemeal method of interpretation is typical of many extremists who ignore the messages of peace, love and compassion that are the true guiding principles of the Koran.
Most extremists believe there was once a time when all Muslims followed and shared a single interpretation of the Koran — which just happens to be the one they espouse! They see a supposed “fracturing” of this consensus as a chief source of problems within Islam today.
But according to Reza Aslan, acclaimed scholar and author of There is No God but God, differences in understanding began from the moment the Koran was revealed. “Its very first words were absorbed and understood and interpreted in wildly different ways by a whole host of different people within the community.”
It was exciting to me to be reminded of the emphasis in Islam on ilm or knowledge, According to Akbar Ahmed, another prominent Islamic scholar, this word is used more often in the Koran than any other, except “God”. “God emphasizes knowledge because it is knowledge that makes us human.” Why, the first revelation that Muhammad heard was “Recite!”
Seeing knowledge and learning as divinely given was one of the things that made the Koran the engine that drove a phenomenal unleashing of intellectual and religious energies in the Middle East. It led to the rapid development of rich and diverse Islamic cultures.
Of course, what I’m saying is common knowledge for students of Islam, but it’s surprising how many Muslims are ignorant of their own religion and have thus been easy prey for extremists. This is starting to change, Aslan says, because of widespread literacy: “Many Muslim individuals and especially women are going to the Koran by themselves, for themselves, many for the first time.” The result is the opposite of what extremists want, but it is not “fracturing” — it is diversity, for centuries one of the strengths of Islam. As one hadith puts it, “Disagreement among my people is a sign of the bounty of God”.
If this is true, then surely all the confusion about Eid just parallels the openness and complexity of Islam as a religion. I had to break the news to my driver: This is not really a case of government arrogance. For once, they were doing the right thing. In fact, the last thing we want is the government stepping in on religious issues and deciding what is permitted and what is not — dangerous, because it would likely play into the hands of the conservatives.
As for Juliet, she may have urged Romeo not to swear by the moon because of its changeability, but God has given Muslims the freedom to choose, like democracy, which may sometimes feel chaotic and unpredictable, but let’s celebrate it!
And what’s wrong with two days of feasting anyway?
The writer (www.juliasuryakusuma.com) is the author of Jihad Julia.
