Wednesday, December 2

The Good and The Bad

Can a good deed ever be bad? Or a bad deed good? I guess the first answer which comes to mind is "no", but after a few examples it becomes clear that the question is not so straightforward after all.

First up let's take the classic smoking hijabi. Judging by the passing comments of many, the hijab (which can otherwise normally be considered a good thing) somehow becomes a bad act if accompanied by certain other habits, like smoking or wearing relatively tight clothes. The implicit course of action advised (from a distance, naturally) is for her to remove the hijab since the person in question clearly isn't good enough to wear it; she or the world is worse off by her wearing it. Sometimes the advice given is for the person to stop smoking, but since this is just given to hijabis who smoke (as opposed to anyone), again it seems that the hijab is bad for somehow "amplifying" an already bad act.

Or how about stealing money to feed your (albeit secret) charity habit? This is a good one since we're now discussing whether it's a noble act in its own right or just something to justify ill gotten gains. So it depends on the intention and context.

So we've established that ambiguously good and bad deeds to exist; or at least are perceived to exist by us, even if it takes a bit of consideration to recognise them as such. But who cares? Does it matter as long as we're all trying our best? And if it is an issue, how should we address it? If indeed at all? Is Shak just going off on one again?

Well it's only important if you want to reduce any bad you might be doing, or to help others focus on theirs. Sometimes we don't even realise we're doing something bad (or indeed good), so it could be a form of discouragement or encouragement. But like we saw above determining whether or not it's good-bad or bad-good is quite tricky. In formal terms the main thing to determine is whether there's a causal relationship between various actions or if they're merely correlated or even related at all.

It's unlikely that the hijabi is smoking just because she covers her hair, so it's difficult to argue that it's caused by it. There may be a correlation though - perhaps some new bout of confidence or independence enabled her to both don the hijab and take up smoking. It's probably likely that they're not linked at all though, that she was smoking before or as an aside to her headdress, so in this case I don't really see an issue with her continuing to smoke while wearing a hijab (well not any more than I would with anyone else smoking - this is coming from someone who even hates sisha).

But let's not pick on the poor hijabi, not when the charity example is a better example of why context matters. Let's say that a guy already generously donates £500 a month, funded by his job. Now let's say that he loses his job, and turns to stealing in order to keep up his payments. This can be described as a causal relationship, and since the paying of charity is directly causing the theft, I'd say that it's now a bad act. The guy should stop paying the charity and so stop stealing.

But now let's say that a guy is already a thief and has been for a while. Putting aside the fact that he's a bad person already, what if he then decides to pay a bit of charity with these ill-gotten gains? Does that make his charity a bad act? I'd argue not; the money has already been stolen and charity seems a better use for it than blowing it all on booze and hookers. Of course the guy should stop stealing full stop, and the hijabi should stop smoking full stop, but we're more interested in the relationships between various acts here rather than what an ideal person would do.

We're probably not thieves so that example is probably a bit extreme. But this juxtapositioning of acts does happen a quite lot, especially now as Muslims become increasingly practising or worldly or both. In all our respective and wonderful multidimensionality there's plenty of more subtle and everyday examples of this tug of war between good and bad, many of which are generally accepted.

So to recap, I count four kinds of relationship between good and bad deeds:

  1. No dependency, where the bad would be done regardless of the good and the good regardless of the bad, and there's no impact on the quality of the good act. Smoking and wearing a hijab falls in this category.
  2. A correlation, like the above except that both the good and bad both came about at the same time via a single source (not necessarily good or bad). Since they're still independent there's still no impact on the quality of the good act, although there is a danger that addressing the bad act via that source could mean stopping the good one too.
  3. A good-bad relationship, where someone does a bad deed only to do a good one, like stealing only to pay it all to charity. I'd say that the quality of the good act has been diminished in this case and this person should stop both acts.
  4. A bad-good relationship, where someone uses a good act to justify a later bad one. Someone who becomes proud now that they pray five times a day could fall into this category. Although the quality of the good act does diminish, it should be simple (!) enough to stop doing the bad while keeping the good.
And this is why this analysis is important. A lot of the time we allow our bad habits to dictate our good ones, or allow our good acts to justify our bad ones. In other cases we refrain from doing good at all because of non-dependant bad actions, or remove the good because we incorrectly think that doing so will help us with the bad.

So the hijabi will remove her head-covering because she thinks as a smoker she'll be in a better position without it, or the thief will stop helping others (but carry on stealing anyway) because he's told his money is haraam, or the everyday Joe will not go on Hajj because he listens to too much music and isn't Islamic enough. Knowing the respective position of all your good and bad acts can help you figure out how to increase the former and decrease the latter in the most efficient and non-impactive way possible.

In closing I think what's important is to try and figure out why we do what we do, and what the downstream implications are. If a good action directly means you do a bad one, then I'd rethink your strategy of doing that good action. And if you're already doing something you consider bad then although you should make an effort to stop doing it, it shouldn't be an obstacle to doing other good things. If anything the good will influence you to stop doing the bad (provided there's no dependency between them).

This self assessment might be hard at first but I figure it's important and will become easier over time both as we accept that we're just human and then learn to be honest with ourselves. Once we get the ball rolling I reckon the balance will swing towards the good all by itself anyway.

IANAS.

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous22:49

    good article but i think its rather black and white. It all depends on the context id say. Theres some situations where if your a baddie and your doing good it is ok and even admirable; lets say your not exactly a character to raive about but then its great that he intends and goes to perform haj, as more good could come from that for him. But with regards to a questionable character donning a hijab; theres a big question mark as it can give off mixed signals/confusion to our young and up and coming muslim generation; lets say a young impressionable 16yr old sees a hijabi smoking; she will understandably think its ok as shes seen other hijabis doing it, or exposing herslef but she also wears a head scarf; or even worse, being intimate with the opposite sex. So in this context i think its not so clear cut and we have to think of the consequences of our actions.
    ps
    i skimmed the article and just read the pointers at the end so hoping i caught your drift in the article..

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  2. I am not a scholar. In other words none of this is backed up by any credible source and is just my opinion. No warranty etc.

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  3. Anonymous22:51

    i dont think anyone is implying that you are a scholar shak

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  4. Anon,

    You're right. The hijabi should be a better role model and I didn't mean to suggest that she shouldn't quit smoking.

    However are you actually suggesting that this youth would be better off if she took off the hijab but carried on smoking? If so, perhaps we shouldn't allow any women to wear the hijab just in case they send the wrong message when they inevitably do some human wrong.

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  5. Anonymous23:15

    i think its a dangerous slope to go down; but saying that we are already going down it.

    with regards to your question it all depends on why she wants to cover and what the hijaab means to her.

    The hijaab is a very individual and personal matter to everyone who wears it and each individual has their own reasoning and intention of why they cover. For me it was about hiding my beauty/modesty and to have preserved as much of me (which wasnt just the beauty but my character and everything about me) as possible for my husband and my husband only, but i soon realised it isnt practicle and nor feasable; now my attitude to the hijaab is "every little bit helps" id rather wear the hijaab and preserve what i can rather than not at all because theres no such thing as being able to preserve and hide yourself in a western society if you want to function within it in all its context.

    its a difficult question to answer; not sure i have the answer; is it really feasable to expect no one to don the hijab until theyre morally right?? i dont know.. but i think theres a fine line and it has to be drawn somewhere as i dread to see the state of affairs 5-10 years from now where we wouldnt see the difference in a muslim character and a non muslim when we have two distinct examples of a a hijabi and a non hijabi.
    all i can say is i dread bringing my future (ia) daughters into the society wehave today; its going to extremly tough for them as individuals finding themselves and me as a future mother..

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  6. I think your daughter should be taught not to smoke at all, regardless of whether or not she dons the hijab. She should also be taught that hijabis aren't flawless, and that they'll be things they do which shouldn't be imitated.

    The real question is why your daughter would choose hijabis as role models over anyone else in the first place. She should be able to recognise a good person regardless of their head-covering, or even religion. A good upbringing would ensure this.

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  7. Anonymous23:38

    id hope that would be the case, regardless. a hijab as oposed to a hijabi would be chosen as a role model as its a sunnah and because of what a hijaab stands for as opossed to a hijabi; as like you point out thers good bad characters with both hijabis and non hijabis

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  8. Anonymous23:57

    pointer: hijab is i think universally seen as aymbol of muslim women which makes it equally imprtant to respect it and to question what you do/say whilst wearing it, as it speaks volumes.
    It would be better and easier if this wasnt the case, but unfortuantley it is.

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  9. Another example is when people think its fine to leave your money in a bank that deals with interest, because they intend on giving away the interest they earn on it to charity.

    I didnt think the smoking hijabi example was v relevant. Donning the hijab isnt a good deed is it?

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  10. >Another example is when people think its fine to leave your money in a bank that deals with interest, because they intend on giving away the interest they earn on it to charity.

    It depends on the context. I put my money in a bank because it provides (or at least provided) security (for any dependants, say) and convenience. It's why I'll use a credit card too. The fact that I deal with interest in a specific way is me trying to deal with a bad and (with respect to the context) inevitable by-product.

    If you have other options, but pick banking specifically for the interest and give half away to feel good in keeping the other half, then I'd say there's a problem with keeping your money there in the first place.

    >I didnt think the smoking hijabi example was v relevant. Donning the hijab isnt a good deed is it?

    For the purposes of this post I'm assuming that freely wearing the hijab is a good deed. The point we're discussing here is whether it's only good in specific contexts and bad in others.

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  11. >I put my money in a bank because it provides (or at least provided) security (for any dependants, say) and convenience. It's why I'll use a credit card too.

    It still doesnt justify taking or paying interest, does it?

    >'inevitable' by-product

    Not necessarily. There's always a choice.

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  12. >It still doesnt justify taking or paying interest, does it?

    Depends on what you mean by "justify". Does it make it a good thing? No. But does taking interest in this specific case corrupt the good that comes out of it (for example being able to take care of a family, giving them shelter etc)? What do you reckon?

    >Not necessarily. There's always a choice.

    Well I had put inevitable in quotes to avoid anyone taking it in the literal sense... It's more about the order in which actions occur (and not necessarily order in a "time" sense).

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  13. I think it does corrupt the good. There's always a way if you really have it in your heart to help. Why not use your own money? If you're putting it in a bank you obviously dont need it anytime soon (and I'm not implying giving away all your savings, but if you have to, why not?), and if you're saving it for something specific (your kids' college, for example), I'm sure the good deed will pay off in due course. Isn't this liek the bad-good relationship you mentioned, where someone uses a (later) good deed to justify a bad one? You answered your own question there when you said 'Although the quality of the good act does diminish, it should be simple (!) enough to stop doing the bad while keeping the good.'

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  14. >I'm sure the good deed will pay off in due course.

    I don't think hoping for good karma is the most pragmatic way of living life :)

    >You answered your own question there when you said 'Although the quality of the good act does diminish, it should be simple (!) enough to stop doing the bad while keeping the good.'

    I think the availability of other options is aside to this discussion. Of course we can all do better - the smoking hijabi could stop smoking etc. Just because she can, doesn't mean her use of the hijab is affected (imo).

    Sticking to banking let's take two guys, each with 100k put aside for his son's education:

    1) Gives all his interest away to charity.

    2) Gives half his interest to charity, puts the rest into his son's college fund.

    They're no different in that they're both involved in usury etc, and both could have put the money under their mattresses instead, but we're assuming that, as a prerequisite, that they've decided to use banking instead.

    The question we need to ask is whether or not the good deed of paying for his son's college is affected in the latter case. I'm saying that it is.

    IOW, I'm not saying that the sin becomes less in the former case, but more that that good deed does in the latter. The reason why this distinction is important is that it's the 2) that requires more criticism ("stop keeping the interest"), but for some reason we tend to focus on 1) instead ("stop using banks").

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  15. I agree with what you're saying, but we dont always have limited options in the real world , do we? Why not just put your money in a current account? I remember a person who had his money in an interest-paying bank, and he refused to accept the interest - he'd just not withdraw the interest. This doesnt change the fact that his (hopefully, halal) money is being used by the bank to earn interest.

    I'm guessing you dont believe in Islamic banking?

    >I don't think hoping for good karma is the most pragmatic way of living life :)

    Works for me :)

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  16. >Why not just put your money in a current account?

    When I talk about banking (now and in general) I'm actually talking about using a current account (which generally generate interest and whose funds are used for bad things too). Perhaps we're actually talking at cross purposes - I agree that there's no reason to use an specific interest account other than to generate the interest and cannot be justifiable in typical cases (although I can think of a few where it would be better to use one than a current).

    >I'm guessing you dont believe in Islamic banking?

    I don't think there's much of a difference between the current implementations of Islamic and non-Islamic accounting, no. Or rather, I think someone who uses a non-Islamic bank can just be as Islamic as someone who does.

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  17. We probably have different kinds of accounts, but the kind of account I'm referring to does not generate interest.

    >I think someone who uses a non-Islamic bank can just be as Islamic as someone who does.

    True, but again, why not do your best right?

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  18. >We probably have different kinds of accounts, but the kind of account I'm referring to does not generate interest.

    In that case we're probably talking about geographical particulars. I'm not aware of any account available here in the UK that doesn't generate interest. Of course a bank will gladly not credit you with it, but it's definitely being generated.

    >True, but again, why not do your best right?

    I can think of a few examples. Since we're probably boring the rest of the comment subscribers, I'm happy to describe them in detail off-thread.

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  19. Anonymous11:06

    possible thread: how islamic are islamic mortagages?

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  20. >I don't think there's much of a difference between the current implementations of Islamic and non-Islamic accounting, no. Or rather, I think someone who uses a non-Islamic bank can just be as Islamic as someone who does.

    And quite coincidently, I've just read something which kind of explains what I meant by that:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8388644.stm

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  21. Anonymous15:29

    an interesting read, which reinforces what a lot of people who have taken out islamic mortages are feeling; they are in fact paying more in their mortgage repayments every month than they would have if they'd gone to a non islamic bank.
    The word "rent" has been substituted for the word "intrest".
    Common sense shows that there's no difference between them as individuals are worse off as the idea of avoiding interest is so that it doesnt bring the misery that it does to society, but its leading to the same or an even worse end result that the non islamic banks bring.
    The islamic banking institutions are like the rest of them making money out of money and individuals at the bottom end of it being vicitms of them.

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