Everything is Haram!!

One key characteristic that is quite apparent in some Hadith-centric theology is that it is trigger happy with the injunction – Haram. A few specific examples would be the prohibition of music, wearing of gold and silk by men, garment stretching below the ankle, plucking of the eye brows, tattooing, hair extension, dietary prohibitions such as clam, shrimp, crab, and mussel, picture, sculptor and video making of animate objects, chess and other board games etc; and of-course this is the beginning of an endless list!

The outcome being a very authoritarian and an impossible system that leaves its subjects frustrated, fatigued, feeling guilty, hypocritical, and for the few outspoken practitioners there is some element of suffering from superiority complex. It’s no wonder, the vast majority of Muslims don’t practice this type of ‘Islam’! No matter how much of this impracticality is preached, it will remain unheeded by the majority in terms of practical implementation.

When it comes to prohibitions and specific religious edicts, the Qur’an is largely generic than individual and rigid, trusting with the specifics and leaving it to the decisions of the practitioner, as only they will be fully acquainted with their own circumstances. Hence, apart from a very few, there is no fixed long list of Halal or Haram as many Muslims have been led to accept.
Consequently, everything is Halal unless God specifically and categorically outlines it as Haram, or when an act is normally Halal, but a specific circumstance leads an individual towards the five forbidden categories that the Qur’an has outlined, upon which the act will be forbidden for that person during that specific moment. The five forbidden categories are as follows;

“God forbids the following; (1) public and private indecency, (2) criminality, (3) sedition without any justification, (4) considering something equal to God, as this has never had any heavenly legitimacy, and (5) to certify anything in God’s name without sure knowledge.” (7:33)

The only acceptable role for the clerics if any according to the Qur’an, in this respect, is to elaborate examples to educate how a normal act can fall under the forbidden categories. To make direct halal and haram injunctions is for God only. Nevertheless, the Qur’an cautions and points to the fact that priesthood usually embodies the nature of playing God by way of codifying specific injunctions.

The many direct and specific extra-injunctions found in hadith literatures are perhaps what was deduced for the early Muslim community for themselves based on their circumstances, either individually or collectively. Henceforth, these injunctions cannot be followed as fixed ordinances for all people and moments.