• Relations with former spouses
A woman is required to cover her body with the exception of her face and her palms in front of all men with the exception of her husband and close relative to whom she may not be married. She may appear in a more relaxed way in front of these relatives. Her former husband is just like any other man and since they have to discuss certain matters which relate to the upbringing of their children, they may meet in the presence of either the new husband of the woman or some of her immediate relatives. She can wear the same type of clothes she wears when she goes out. In other words, she need not cover her face and forearms.
• Religion: As a cause of conflict, war
A new thinking is gradually developing which suggests that hatred and fighting between different types of believers are due to religion and sects. Without religion, people will have less to fight for on religious grounds. It is suggested that if people throughout the world implement a system of education which is geared to strengthen the best human values, they will be in a better position to control all sorts of evil. Please comment.
This is not a new concept at all. People have advanced this idea time after time throughout history, but a careful study of human history and the causes of conflict between people, nations, races and religious groups is sufficient to reveal that human beings fight under any banner and for whatever cause, and in pursuit of self-centered goals. Such a study is bound to conclude that greed and selfishness, as well as laying one's hands on what belongs to others, are the main reasons for starting armed conflicts. Ideals and human values are always forgotten whenever it comes to the pursuit of personal and national interests.
Western civilization has tried hard to shed its Christian values and replace them with secular human values that give prominence to human brotherhood, freedom and equality. Ever since the French Revolution, these values have been paramount in European thinking, while religious values were gradually weakening. Has this helped Europe, or the West in general, to reduce the frequency of wars and armed conflicts? Whether we look at the relations between European states and nations or between Western nations and the rest of the world, the answer is unquestionably in the negative.
In the 19th century, Europe witnessed so many wars between European nations, despite the fact that all Europe is presumably Christian. Moreover, European nations went out to colonize vast areas throughout the world. When they did so, they only paid lip service to their Christian values and conveniently preferred to forget all about freedom, equality and fraternity. They were happy to treat the nations of those areas which they occupied as second class people, deprive them of the wealth of their land, keep them ignorant, uneducated. They also adopted a policy of "divide and rule" to create hatred and enmity between the people of those nations. In the 20th century Western nations pulled the world into two great wars in which religion had no role whatsoever. Moreover, the West helped create Israel on Palestinian land, totally ignoring the rights of the Palestinian people. What human values could stop future wars if human beings can easily develop a system that gives legitimacy to driving a whole population out of their rightful land to bring in their place another nation that has no claim to that land whatsoever apart from the fact that their ancestors lived there 2000 years ago? It is true that religion could be used as a justification for war. The Crusaders were a good example. But religion provides the best hope for humanity to avoid war. If people take their faith seriously and abide by its teachings, they are certainly less likely to fight than if they were driven only by selfishness, greed and a feeling that they have the power to impose their will on others. Religion implants in human beings the feeling that they are answerable for their actions, while human values, no matter how refined, will have man as the ultimate arbiter. We know that man is greedy by nature. Therefore, man cannot be trusted to implement justice when he feels that he will never have to account for his actions.
• Religion: Conflict and fanaticism
We see that all over the Islamic world two rival groups are always in conflict: One attracts highly educated people who believe in reason and logic, but care little for religion, while the other consists of largely uneducated people who hold fanatically to certain beliefs and try to impose them on others. How to remedy such a situation.
There are definitely two groups with widely different attitudes to religion. These have been there since the very early days of human existence. The noble prophets and those who have followed them on the same route try to bring the message of faith home to people, hoping that they will respond positively to the call to believe in the Oneness of Allah. On the other hand, they are opposed by people who prefer to follow what they feel to be their interest, paying no regard to the divine guidance and caring little for the teachings of prophets. This has always been the case, and it will continue to be so, until the end of human life.
I do not agree with you at all when you say that the camp opposed to faith attracts mostly the highly educated who rely on reason and logic. It is true that some of those highly educated may turn their back on religion, but that is only because they either prefer not to study religion with the sort of seriousness they attach to other matters; or because they prefer to satisfy immediate pleasures; or because they feel that their position will be threatened by religion. They simply do not respond to the challenge of the divine message to use their reason and logic in evaluating the truth advanced by the divine faith.
There was a time when a higher proportion of educated people seemed to move away from religion, but if you look at the historical circumstances that led to this situation, you are bound to conclude that this was the result of the alien system of education that was devised by the colonial authorities in most Muslim countries. As you are aware, the colonial powers were able to impose their will over most of the Muslim world, after a long period of decline throughout the Muslim areas. But when that phase was over, and education moved toward being universal, more and more educated people found no difficulty in making a happy match between education and religion.
Indeed, it is the divine faith that calls on people to use their reason and logic, because when they do that, they can easily recognize the truth of the Oneness of God and the validity of the divine message. In the history of Islam, there was no time when a conflict took place between enlightened education and scientific findings on the one hand, and Islam on the other. Indeed, the two stand always hand in hand.
It is true that there are people who claim to be religious and try to impose their ideas on others. Such people have not learned Islam well. They do much damage to the cause of Islam. They are rarely aware of its fundamental principle to respect individual freedom. Islam advocates that freedom of thought, belief and expression is a basic right of all human beings. Fanaticism is alien to Islam and it will always remain so.