Reflection 62 – On The Nature Of Prohibitions

Many people ask why did God prohibit this or that?
This is a very valid question and we SHOULD NOT shun people away for asking. Yes, I do agree that our obedience to God should not be conditional whether we understand the purpose behind each prohibition or not. Still as Muslims, and human beings in general, we should strive to understand and make sense of what is around us. Otherwise, people end up doing all crazy stuff because in many times they were discouraged from asking or given simple and naive answers that didn’t satisfy their curiosity! So, let’s try to dig deeper into that question. But before doing that, I would like to make clear that I don’t claim to have the RIGHT answer. The main argument presented here is something I heard from Nouman Ali Khan and then I tried to work up my mind a bit more. So, here we go!
Before trying to answer this difficult question, we need to understand a very important premise. And this goes as follows. Probably the CORE concept being delivered throughout the Quran is that we as human beings are slaves and God is our Lord. As a slave you don’t get to question your Lord nor show discontent to what he has ordered you. Of course, this is easier said than done! Abiding by all the right and wrong throughout our lives is NO easy task. And life is full of temptations that can easily steer us away from the straight path. Now, let’s put this premise aside and try to think together about the nature of prohibitions. So, let‘s take an example ; alcohol. Probably we have all heard before that it’s forbidden because it shuts down the mind and make you act irresponsibly. But someone would come and say I will drink at home very small quantities and therefore I won‘t harm myself nor others. Now, let‘s take smoking. The typical answer why it’s prohibited is that it harms your body and those around you. But once again someone might come and say that newer e-cigarettes are less harmful and I will smoke only in designated smoking areas. And all these counterarguments could apply to adultery, pornography, drugs, gambling, etc. So how can we explain all of this? Now comes the juicy part .
It seems that ALL these temptations have a common element, which is the reason behind their prohibition (and Allah knows best!): they are all ADDICTIVE! Yup! That‘s the main issue. Have you ever seen how difficult it is for a smoker to QUIT!?! Or how alcoholics have to go into rehabs several times to become sober?! And probably you can apply this to every and each other prohibition. So to reconcile this with my first premise, the argument would go as follows. Once you become enslaved (addicted) to whatever temptation, it would automatically impact your relationship with God. You will be faced with situations where your love to God will be in opposite direction with your love for a certain temptation. Being addicted (enslaved) to certain desires implies that your will or decision will be dictated based on that desire! And, therefore, you no more will be enslaved to God negating the core premise we began with. Yes, just ONE temptation can steer you away from the path of Allah. Haven’t you seen how hard-core addicts are ready to do whatever it takes (hitting, stealing, and maybe even killing!) to satisfy their desires.
So, let this idea sink in and try to think what other (addictive) temptation could be holding you back away from Allah ?!