Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Islam on Chairs

It was sadly brought to my attention via an unfortunate blackberry message that chairs are haram. I will try very hard to describe what went through my head while reading it - because too many thoughts and emotions were created up there. Here is a summary - and yes, it is in neuro-chronological order:

Interesting - That we are expanding our religious lens to encompass all aspects of life is intriguing. We should start thinking outside the box, and assess all habits of our daily life and see how and where they fall within our Islamic framework. It is very abstract and meta - to have a religious opinion on something as trivial as sitting on a chair!

Lost - You are saying that we are not to use chairs because it is in a way imitating the 'West'? I thought this argument is too old to use - and too ironic since you're spreading your word on the internet...

Oh no you didn't.. - ..bring female sexuality into your arguments. I thought women's legs were even further apart when you sit on the floor - comfortably - at least for me?

Ridiculous - What?! Did you just sit around and think of the most useful thing in the household, and ponder on its religious legitimacy? That indeed takes a lot of creativity.

What would the Prophet say - He would probably be sad that we are wasting some serious time and effort on details. DETAILS.

Sad - Which is what I felt towards the end of the 'fatwa'. I was sad people read this. I was sad to think that some people might be affected by it. I was sorry for the person who thought about it - because if chairs are haram, God knows what in their lives is even remotely halal? I was sad because I could not at all relate to the fatwa, or even think of justifications as to why it could be true - which made me think of my own religiousness and whether it was affected by all the chairs I sat on.

Bad - I felt bad because I couldn't take this seriously, or think about it without making-fun.

..but seriously. Such 'religious verdicts' only exist because there is a demand for them. We should take responsibility for what we do - and whether it is 'Islamic' or not. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. If we had been mistaken about our use of chairs all this time, think about ALL the other things we do EVERYday that could be WRONG!

Angry - There are other pressing issues at hand. Like using tables - because really, they are the reason we had chairs in the first place!

Ugh.
Bedouinette