Islam is a religion surrounded by many rumors, legends, and misconceptions. Especially common are erroneous opinions about what is forbidden in the Muslim community. Often people are convinced that everything is prohibited under the ban - from loud music to using the Internet, although this is not true.
Knowing what prohibitions actually exist in Islam is necessary not only for those who are interested in this ancient religion, or those who are going on vacation to a Muslim country. Our state is multinational and is characterized by the presence of different religious denominations. Muslims in Russia are no less than Orthodox. Therefore, it can be argued that Islam is an integral part of Russian culture. Accordingly, it is necessary to have an idea of the nuances of Islam.
What kind of religion is this?
Before figuring out what prohibitions exist in Islam, you need to imagine what kind of religion it is. This religion is one of the Abrahamic. That is, it is one of the three “religions of Abraham,” the youngest of them.
The number of Muslims is very large. By the number of adherents, this religion is second only to Christianity. The founder of Muslim dogmas is considered to be a prophet, politician and merchant, preacher and teacher, who lived in 571-632 and is known to the whole world under the name of Muhammad. Often this person is called Magomed.
What is the basis of this religion?
Not only bans in Islam exist, but also a kind of duty. These are the pillars of faith, its essence, its foundation. These include:
- direct confession of faith;
- prayer
- fasting;
- giving alms;
- pilgrimage to the shrines.
The pilgrimage to the shrines is a trip to Mecca, the “Hajj”. Distribution of alms is a donation for good purposes of at least 2.5% of personal income. Alms need to be understood not only as an actual monetary aid to the poor, who are standing on the street. This is a donation to charity in the broad sense of the word. For example, if a Muslim supports an art gallery or sponsors a sporting event, then this is also alms.
What are the bans called?
Everything that is forbidden to Muslims is included in one big concept called haram. According to ancient legends, haram was created by Allah himself with the goal of testing believers. At the same time, according to the interpretation of the sacred texts, the avoidance of what is included in the haram brings immediate, tangible benefits to people. That is, haram is not an analogue of the Christian schema or vow, this concept has a completely different meaning and other goals.
Not every prohibition in Islam is called haram. In addition to the list of what Allah himself forbade for believers, there are other restrictions. Their execution is to some extent a voluntary matter. As a rule, these restrictions are associated with a certain spiritual state. For example, what is called the term "jihad" is just such a state.
What is the purpose of prohibitions in this religion?
All prohibitions in Islam are aimed at the benefit of man, both in the literal and figurative sense. For example, every person far from the Muslim religion knows that the faithful do not eat pork. If you do not go into the philosophical and spiritual justifications of this prohibition, then its simple, worldly benefit becomes apparent. It is quite difficult to raise pigs and even more so digest dishes from their meat, living in the climatic conditions of the Middle East.
In other words, each of the points of haram has not only a spiritual justification, but also a simple, quite materialistic one. Observing the prohibitions adopted in Islam, a person benefits not only his soul, but also his body.
What can be bans?
Muslim bans can be permanent or temporary. Of course, everything that is included in the concept of “haram” refers to constant restrictions.
Under the time constraints are primarily understood prohibitions in force during the post. In addition to them, temporary bans include voluntary or forced restrictions on something. For example, if a person makes a vow to Allah that he will not enter into intimacy with his wife until he worships the shrines in Mecca, then this is a voluntary restriction. An example of a forced restriction is a person’s refusal to do anything in connection with circumstances and health conditions.
About bans in the month of fasting
Fasting is observed on a special month called ramadan. The pronunciation may differ, as is the case with the name of the prophet Muhammad. Often this holy month is called ramadan. While it lasts, special prohibitions apply. Religions Islam is characterized by a complete immersion of believers in what Allah requires of them. This is most noticeable in the post.
Under the complete ban:
- intimate relationships;
- eating and drinking throughout the day.
Of course, you can’t smoke, drink alcohol, be rude or avoid prayer. They eat during fasting only at night, drink too.
About Permanent Bans
The well-known notorious ban on pork in Islam is far from the only one. The main prohibited actions are as follows:
- resist the elders and parents, dare to disobey them, not fulfill the will;
- to deprive a person of life for no reason;
- encroach on someone else’s property or cause him any harm;
- lend money at interest, that is, to engage in usury;
- indulge in gambling, use stupefying or intoxicating substances and drinks;
- enter into intimate relationships with a representative of his gender;
- commit adultery;
- steal, weigh, measure, calculate or commit other fraudulent frauds in trading;
- lie;
- to appropriate other people's property or the right to something, to spend not their own funds, but especially orphans;
- perform magical rites, conjure, divine;
- use official position; bribery and bribery are prohibited;
- fall into anger, become hardened, indulge in rage;
- show negligence in business;
- ban on images;
- break these promises;
- eat carrion, carrion, meat of "unclean" animals;
- to be in the company of an outside woman without men from her family or other people;
- independently interpret religious texts, explain their meaning to others without the proper education and spiritual status;
- become like those who do not adhere to Islam;
- to insult other faithful.
Of course, these are far from all prohibitions in Islam. The list of haram is very large, but much of it is somewhat outdated, for example, the ban on eating carrion. A lot needs clarification, not only for those interested, but also for the Muslims themselves.
Should non-Muslim bans be respected?
Knowing what obligations and prohibitions Islam has placed on believers, most residents of central Russia, those who have found the years of the collapse of the USSR and the era of perestroika, will surely ask this question.
In every major city in those years, a large number of visitors appeared who professed this religion. People fled from Karabakh, came to trade and earn money from Azerbaijan, sought a better life and were born in other places, for example, in Chechnya. Many will remember how scared it was for young girls to walk past the markets, next to which men would surely be squatting in circles or standing. Each passing showered with a flurry of comments that are difficult to take for compliments, grabbed by the hands, tried to stop. Yes, and television criminal broadcasts were full of stories about the actions of migrants, absolutely not corresponding to the content of the haram.
Drunkenness, smoking, debauchery, deceit, violence - all this is forbidden by Allah. However, this could be seen everywhere. This behavior in many ways formed a biased and negative attitude towards Islam as a whole.
Many people are convinced that all prohibitions apply only to Muslims themselves. Acts committed against Gentiles are not a sin, a violation of haram. However, it is not. Haram must be observed by every Muslim, in other words, the ban applies to the believer himself. It is forbidden to perform a specific action in any circumstances. For example, the opinion that it is impossible to commit adultery with a Muslim, but with a Christian can, or to deceive an infidel is not a sin, is a mistake.
That is, haram does not select an object of action. Allah forbids the action itself, regardless of who it is applied to.
Features of dogma in understanding the essence of some prohibitions
The ban on music in Islam is one of the most controversial and complex topics that clergy, philosophers, orientalists, and other scholars have argued for centuries. Are music and dancing really banned? How then to be with the world famous belly dance? Why is the listening of music written in many works of the collection One Thousand and One Nights?
Unambiguously answer the question of how to understand the prohibition of music in Islam, only an imam can believe a believer. But in this case, too, what a cleric will say will be only one of the possible interpretations of the essence of this prohibition. In the Sunnah and the Qur'an, a ban on attention to “effeminate men” playing musical instruments has been unequivocally and directly declared. The debate about the ban on music lasts more than one or two centuries, it began, according to legend, after the change of the first three generations of Muslims.
Very unclear is the ban on the image. Islam seems to interpret this ban without distinction, in contrast to the restriction on music. According to the sacred texts, you cannot draw, depict, but, for example, you can lay out a mosaic. But in the modern world there are such things as video cameras, cameras. Should family photography be considered sin? Why were portraits of Saddam Hussein hung in every institution, because he was not only a dictator, but also a Muslim? What about television? Does the screen image break haraam?
Haram limits the art that claims to be a creation, and its author - to the role of creator. If a person does not believe that at the moment when he paints a picture or takes a photograph, he creates his Universe, as the Creator of this world, then there is no sin.
What is unacceptable for a woman?
The prohibitions in Islam for women are not so cruel and meaningless, as many representatives of the weaker sex who grew up in the West believe.
For a Muslim woman it is unacceptable:
- flaunt yourself
- drink alcohol;
- to smoke;
- to be untidy or untidy;
- to be bold, to be not quite modest;
- show disrespect, disobedience towards her husband or elders;
- to be in the company of unaccompanied outsiders;
- enter into an intimate relationship before marriage;
- listen to speech filled with vulgarity, or indulge in abuse.
As for clothes, it is forbidden to flaunt the legs, arms, shoulders, neckline. Of course, there are stricter rules, but they are not widespread everywhere. For example, covering your face is required far from everywhere and not always.
Many people are interested in whether an Islamic woman can work, study, use cosmetics, perfumes? It is widely believed that all of the above and much more are not available to Muslims. This is not at all true. The severity of prohibitions in different schools of Islam, of course, is not the same. However, the most radical branches of Islam do not prohibit getting an education, working and using cosmetics or perfumes. The only question is how exactly a woman will do something or use.
For example, not all Muslim women can work where men work or some contact with them is implied. For example, a woman practicing Islam will not work under any circumstances, but a gynecologist or pediatrician will do it.
As for perfumes and cosmetics, makeup should not be tasteless, vulgar or flaunted. In other words, a Muslim woman will not paint her lips in a bright red color, going to go to the store. But the way she uses makeup in the walls of the house depends only on herself and her husband. The same requirements apply to perfumes - the smell should not be harsh, attracting attention, heavy.
As for education, Islamic women are not at all deprived of such a right. Moreover, many of them have a choice - getting home, female education or training in the establishment of a profession, specialty. Women born and raised in Western civilization have no such opportunity.
The bans in Islam for women, like everyone else, pursue one main goal - the offering of benefits. Compliance with the requirements for clothing, behavior does not so much restrict women, but protects them. It is difficult to imagine a situation in which something bad can happen to a modestly dressed girl who is not behaving defiantly and is in the company of relatives. Or with several women avoiding the places where men gather for rest and not drinking alcohol in the cafe.
About restrictions on food and alcohol
The ban on alcohol in Islam applies to the use of all drinks, stupefying the mind and changing human behavior, affecting his actions and words. There are no ambiguities or ambiguities in this paragraph of the haram. The ban on alcohol in Islam is complete and absolute; it is not a reason for discussion. However, it is forbidden not only alcohol, but also all other substances stupefying the mind.
Islamic food bans apply to these foods:
- blood;
- carrion;
- meat of dead animals and unclean ones.
Unclean animals are primarily omnivores, such as pigs. They also include predators, scavengers. You can’t eat meat of animals that are not slaughtered by Muslims.
The carrion, mentioned in the haram, is not only carrion. Meat of animals who died on their own in a pen or in a stable is also prohibited for cooking and eating. Animals that died as a result of:
- flooding;
- drought
- fires;
- floods;
- earthquakes;
- injuries
- old age;
- exposure to lightning.
Nowadays, cattle slaughtered by electricity have added to this list. As for the question of how the ban is interpreted, the listing of specific types of foods that can not be eaten will be excellent in different Muslim theological schools. In exactly the same way, the list of what is unacceptable for women is different, that is, girls are allowed a little more in one version of the teaching than in another.
For example, a product such as hedgehog meat, the Malikite madhhab allows you to cook and eat. Of course, if the carcass of a hedgehog was hunted and named Allah, and was not found after the fire. But other schools of Islam forbid eating dishes made from hedgehogs, regardless of how they got this meat.