Let me start by explaining what I mean by the title. What do I mean by Islam being ‘corrective’?
The answer is something about which no two Muslims will disagree. Islam being a corrective religion simply means that an essential aspect of Islam as din, or way of life, is that it was sent by Allah to differentiate, to set apart, truth from falsehood, guidance from misguidance, and right from wrong. That is what is meant by Islam being ‘corrective’. It corrects false notions, half-truths and misunderstandings.
Such correctives are offered to non-Muslims in terms of clarifying Allah’s right over His creation: that He be acknowledged as sole Lord, Creator and Nurturer, and that He alone be worshipped in loving surrender.
It is offered to fellow Muslims too, when they stray, stumble or drift out of clear sync with right guidance. The Qur’an describes the intra-Muslim relationship of mutually righting wrongs in these intimate terms: The believers, men and women, are allies to each other, they enjoin the good and forbid the evil. [Q.9:71] So we sincerely advise one another, and gently correct one another, out of concern for each other and out of love of seeing our fellow believer grow in godliness.
But – and this is probably the bigger point of writing this short piece – correctives should not be an expression of the ego. Nor should they be used to mock, insult or debase those who have erred. For as has been astutely said: ‘Others are our fellow travellers, even if they have lost the road.’ Instead, let correctives be done in the same spirit as Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned, when he offered this insight into his own commitment to honouring brotherhood:
‘The first of what I shall begin with from this principle is what relates to me. So you all know, may Allah be pleased with you all, that I wish no harm at all, neither inward nor outward, to anyone from the general public, let alone my colleagues. I do not harbour ill-will against anyone, and nor do I blame anyone in the slightest. Rather, in my estimation, they are deserving of honour, esteem, love and respect: over and over; each according to what they deserve.
‘And a person is either: someone who sincerely strives their best to reach the truth, and is correct; or [sincerely strives but] errs; or is sinful. So the first is rewarded and thanked. While the second is rewarded for his striving to know the truth, and is excused and forgiven his error. As to the third, then may Allah forgive us, and him, and all the believers.’1
One last point: Correctives should never take us away from our greater focus, which is to evolve a long term strategy for how best to engage this bizarre new world in which there is a constructed absence of teleology, metaphysics and meaning, and an existential despair and loneliness which accompanies this void.
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1. Majmu‘ Fatawa (Riyadh: Dar ‘Alam al-Kutub, 1991), 28:52-53.