Page 177 - Seekers Guide Book

The Seeker’s Guide

109 Can we interpret Islam in any
way we prefer? How open

to interpretation is Islam?

ne is to change the accepted norm of religion which
Ohave been established by the Quran and the Hadith.
For example, if Islam is a monotheistic religion and if
someone claims that godhead can by multiple, it is not
acceptable. In other words, change of interpretation is
not accepted in the matter of the fundamental principles
of Islam. For instance, there are five pillars of Islam:
namaz (prayer), sawm (fasting), Hajj (annual pilgrimage),
zakat (obligatory almsgiving) and shahada (belief in the
Islamic creed that there is one God and that Muhammad,
pbuh, is the messenger of God). There cannot be any
changes in these basic principles.

The other aspect of Islam is where there is possibility of
interpretation, for example, the Quran says about those
who come to perform the pilgrimage in Makkah:
Call mankind to the Pilgrimage. They will
come to you, on foot, and on every kind of
lean camel, by every distant track. (Quran
22:27)

In earlier days, people used to tread on camels but after the
development of aviation, people started using aeroplanes.
This is a reinterpretation of the above Quranic verse,
which is allowed.

However, no one gets the permission to interpret
arbitrarily – this will have to be preceded by deep study

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