Yarmouk University,
Irbid, Jordan.
Adab is an Arabic term meaning custom; it denotes a habit, an etiquette, a manner of conduct derived from people considered as models.1
During the first two centuries following the emergence of Islam, the term ‘ādāb’ carried ethical and social implications. , The root db means marvellous thing, or preparation, feast. ‘Ādāb in this sense was the equivalent of the Latin urbanitas, civility, courtesy, refinement of the cities in contrast to bedouin uncouthness.’2 So ādāb of something means good manner of that thing. The plural is ādāb. Ādāb al-Islām, therefore, means the good manners adopted by Islam, derived from its teachings and instructions. It is in this sense that it will be used in this book.
Manners in many cultures other than the Islamic are determined by local conditions and are therefore subject to changes in those conditions. According to W. G. Sumner, ‘From recurrent needs arise habits for the individual and customs for the group, but these results are consequences which were never conscious, and never foreseen or intended.’3
Islamic manners and customs are not in this sense ‘unconscious’. They are derived from the two main sources of Islam, namely the Qur’ān and the Sunnah, the Prophet’s deeds, words and indirect commandments, and are therefore, in the strictest sense, divinely inspired.
The Qur’ān and the Sunnah contain the broad principles needed to negotiate the problems that arise in human societies in different ages. As a complete way of life, Islam orders economic, political and devotional activity as well as manners relating to everyday human exchanges and routines. Islam is not confined merely to devotional and legal manners; it embraces criteria and values, attitudes, customs and manners in all reaches of human concern and relationship. As a portion of this whole, Islamic manners are derived from the broad objectives of Islam and reflect its broad ideas and values.
Ādāb al-Islām should neither be conceived nor practised in isolation from the whole. Rather, their interrelation with other elements of Islam should always be kept in mind. Nor, likewise, should the different elements within ādāb al-Islām be treated as isolatable, for these too are closely interrelated. To give a single, conspicuous example: a Muslim is required to sleep early so that he may rise early for the Fajr (dawn) Prayer.
The divine inspiration of manners in Islam confers on them a religious character which motivates proper adherence. It does not follow from their religious character that every detail of these manners is obligatory. The prescribed manners of Islam vary, in fact, from the ‘forbidden’ to the ‘recommended’ – as we shall see in the principal rules of Islamic manners. The former are upheld and enforced by law, the latter do not expose offenders to any formal trial or punishment except in the disapproval of other members of the Muslim community. A third group of manners are those which do not even lead to disapproval if one violates them.
Nor does it follow from the divine origin of Islamic manners that the system should be rigid and inflexible. Islam is not the sort of ideal that is impenetrable to human experience or inapplicable to existing world conditions. Rather, the nature of the system is such that it is flexible in many respects while stable in others, the element of flexibility being grounded in human reasoning to which Islam appeals and which may even be reckoned among its general sources.
The two basic sources of Islam, the Qur’ān and the Sunnah, include, besides many detailed rules, general principles which ultimately govern all matters related to the various aspects of life, religious, social, economic, political, etc. None of these general principles are subject to historical change. But conditions do change. The means for deriving rules for new problems in new situations are provided for within Islam in ijtihād. Ijtihād is the disciplined use of independent individual reasoning to draw the necessary conclusions in accordance with the essence and spirit of Islam and in adherence to its immutable general principles. Thus, through the faith and diligence of qualified scholars, the detail of Islamic teachings can respond effectively to the problem of historical change. The teachings of Islam are, in fact, fully cognizant of human nature and human needs. Islam acknowledges the realities of life and deals with them in the most practical way. There is then no impulse to abrogate or adjust the general principles of the faith in order to adapt them to particular conditions. The realism and practicability of Islamic manners is easily illustrated. For example, fasting the full lunar month of Ramaḍān is a primary obligation upon all Muslims, yet Islam (understanding the vicissitudes of travelling) exempts the traveller from fasting, requiring that he make up lost days when the hardship is over. Likewise, women who have recently given birth, or are in the monthly cycle, and those seriously ill, are similarly exempted. The five daily prayers are, again, a primary obligation, yet the traveller is permitted, according to some aḥādīth, to combine certain of the five occasions of ṣalāt and perform them together, also to shorten the four - rak’ah prayers to two-rak’ah prayers, known as qaṣr. Islam allows that the precise, final detail of the application of manners may differ, according to the fashions and circumstances of local groups, provided, of course, that the main principles of dress, of dietary laws, etc. are adhered to. Islamic manners are meant to order daily life, to give it rhythm, dignity and serenity; they are not a set of snobbish or legalistic rituals to complicate daily life.
Characteristics: Comprehensiveness and Morality
Islam determines every aspect of the life of a Muslim. This essential fact is very difficult for non-Muslims to grasp. For the believer, Islam gives the criteria for judging all of his behaviour and conduct; it determines his relationship with other individuals, with society as a whole, with the physical world, and it determines also his relationship to his own self. Many examples can be given of what in secular communities is the preserve of arbitrary individual will or the equally arbitrary demands of the social milieu. Food, for example, may be prepared only from what is allowed by Islam; a Muslim can make no use of, for example, pork. A Muslim woman may not uncover her feet in public because in Islam it is not permitted. Goods forbidden to a Muslim, such as wine, may not be exchanged as gifts. If a Muslim is invited to a wedding feast, he should (if physically possible) accept the invitation because it is obligatory to do so. Death-bed wishes may not be fulfilled if they contradict the teachings of Islam, such as a request to allocate an extra share of inheritance to one of the dead person’s heirs, or to have his body cremated.
Ādāb al-Islām are a comprehensive code covering almost every aspect of social behaviour, a part of the complete way of life which is Islam. As the different parts of Islam make up an integral unity, the application of ādāb al-Islām in detachment from the rest will not bring about total realization of Islam, indeed it may, in certain respects, become meaningless. The customs and manners discussed in this book are considered suitable for Muslims: those who have a proper religious attitude will instinctively seek to observe the good manners commended or required by Islam.
The various aspects of Islam, ideological, spiritual, legal, social, economic, political, etc., are mutually consistent and supplement each other. For example, faith is essential as it instils in Muslims the spirit of observing the ethical, moral, legal and other prescriptions without external compulsion, Equally, voluntary observance of those prescriptions supports and enhances faith, opening up the path from devotion to social action, linking the two in a strong, stable bond. More specifically the unitary strength of Islam may be seen in, for instance, the manners concerning women, which follow from and sustain the Islamic concept of Muslim womanhood in an Islamic community.
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