From the dialogue above, it shows that Jehangir has his own religious interpretation as being Muslim. He doesnt believe in hell. He just believe in Allah, because based on his
interpretation about la ilaha illa Allah. But, in the true islamic teaching, based on Al-Quran Al-Baqarah: 39 had mentioned about hell.
“And those who disbelieve and deny Our signs - those will be companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally.”
Al-Baqarah: 39
He said that fiqh Islamic Jurisprudence is worthless. It proves that he ignored the true Islamic teaching. And adhere the faith based on his own religious interpretation.
4.1.2. Believing in the freedom to practice religious beliefs.
The explanation from part two which Islamic Liberalism deals with believing in the freedom to practice religious beliefs is concerned that there should not be any persecution
against whomsoever based on his or her opinions or religions. Belief in God which is personal nature cannot be forced because it is a choice that develops based on truth received by someone.
At this play, for the first time Yusef wanted to make a Fajr prayer in his new messy house, Yusef were surprised by the place he would pray.
...I went back down the hall and into the living room. Noted the pizza box that had been a prayer rug, the praying kid was gone and the sky outside
those windows was just light enough for me to see fully all the filth and ruin the room, including the living ruin on the couches. The scene was
enclosed in walls covered with punk posters, 8 12 x 11 flyers for local shows, stains, scuffs and around the smashed-in mihrab, various plaques
and posters of Arabic caligraphy: Quranic ayats, 99 Name of Allah, a green Saudi flag wearing anarchy symbol in black spray paint and so
on... p: 9
In this situation, Yusef just keeps his prayer. Because, theres no place is cleaner than their living room to get prays in the house. The condition of filthy house illustrates how
carelessly they are. Came back in the afternoon and collapsed in a smelly beat-up recliner on the front porch.
Yusef meets Umar. Yusef frozen in the recliner as Umar walked up the steps. Then they both startled by a shrill whine whose source was unknowable because its sudden volume consumed
the whole world. ...sounding like some outer-space animal as the pitch climbed until our
ears hurt and kept going, kept going, reaching higher still until finally descending in a familiar melody.
It was an electric-guitar adhan. With the second Allahu Akbar, I realized it came from the roof... p: 12
Yusef went inside and upstairs on a mission. Yusef climbed out the window onto the roof where Jehangir stood with guitar hanging off and Fasiq who sat close to the roofs edge with a
ganja in hand and the Quran in his lap. Umar stood leaning on the bathroom windowsill and said that what Jehanagir did is bidah. And Jehangir replied.
“Okay, so its bidah.” “You know, its only Muslims who use term innovation to mean something
bad” p: 14
It shows how Jehangir starts to do his own religious exploration in Islam. Jehangir improves adhan with the electric guitar. Jehangir thought its an innovation. It is a lack of
Islamic morality of a person who use the term innovation to changes the true Islamic teaching. On the friday, Yusef shocked by the house is also a place of Jumma friday prayer.
They are holding jumaa in the living room. And they also had girls who didnt cover their hair as mumins the believers.
“On the friday the living room doubled as a masjid, mostly for kids from the campus who couldnt identify with MSA. They were nowhere near being
ersatz mumins of Fasiqs level, but you still had girls who didnt cover their hair, guys who went to clubs down on Chippewa and so forth...” p: 18-19
It’s ironic for men and women Muslims together pray ‘Jumma’ in living room without seeing the rules to held the ‘Jumma’. Friday prayer is compulsory for all except a few. A very
clear hadith on this matter was given. It was reported from Tariq bin Shihab from the Rasulullah SAW, that He said:
“The Friday prayer in congregation is an obligation on every single Muslim, except for four: an owned slave, a woman, a child and a sick person.” Hadith
No. 1067, Book of Salat, Sunan Abu Dawud, Vol. 1
It took awhile for Yusef to really adjust to that atmosphere in the house. At the beginning, Yusef is interested with a khutbah which given by Rabeya, the girl who lead the
jumma. “Rabeyas khutbahs, though lacking the gleaming punk melodrama
promise of Jehangirs, hit me with the feeling that we had done a great deal for Islam just by sitting there to hear her.” p: 19
“But I felt like there was nowhere else in the world that she could give a khutbah to men, and for that maybe we would be the vanguard of
something new.” p: 19
From the quotation above, it indicates their freedom to practice their religious belief. Yusef began to be affected by the lifestyle of the house. Yusef knows there are something
differences between the Islamic teaching in the house and the true Islamic teaching which he know. But he indicates it was something new.
The following week, the Jumma was held again in living room with Fasiq as Khateeb the deliver of khutbah. Fasiq stood by the hole in the wall in which the direction of kiblah in
the house. His khutbah, only a few minutes long, revolved around ayats 19 and 20 from Suratul- Hijr.
Allah sent suitable things to grow on the earth and with Him were treasures of everything in the world and He only sent them down in a
known measure. p: 37
To Fasiq this meant that all things from nature were a blessing from Allah and He only gave us what we could handle. Though Fasiqs talk gave no specific mention of marijuana. It
proves that Fasiq has his own interpretation about Marijuana based on ayats 19-20 Suratul-Hijr. Indirectly, Fasiq said that Marijuana is not one of khamr.
As usual, strangeness Khateeb is not much different with his jamaat. The jamaat was full of Liberal Muslims.
The jamaat was an almost silly mish-mash of people: Rude dawuds pork- pie hat poking up here, a jalab-and-turban type there, Jehangirs big
mohawk rising from a sea of kufis, Amazing Ayyub still with no shirt, girls scatterd throughout-some in hejab, some not and Rabeya in punk-patched
burqa doing her thing. But in its randomness it was gorgeous... p: 37
It shows how they practice their religion freely. Allowing women with hejab and no hejab and Amazing Ayyub was shirtless join to pray Jummaa is something wrong in true Islamic
teaching. It looks like they don’t have the rules for doing the pray or they think is not a problem to pray like that. They are just praying like what they want to pray
In another day, Yusef saw Fasiq sitting on the roof and Quran in his hand. Then Umars adhan filled the house. They lined up in front of the hole in the wall, Saudis spray-painted flag
and Imam Rabeya. Umar gave iqamah. With a look down at his feet, Yusef wondered why in all his sholat he would pray behind a woman. Jehangir stood on Yusefs left. On Umars right stood
Amazing Ayyub. On Jehangirs left was Fasiq Abasa. On Ayyubs right stood Rude Dawud. “Allahu Akbar” said Rabeya, hands to covered ears. Then came a brief
silence, followed by Fatiha and al-Kauthar, shortest sura in the whole Quran. p: 67
It looks like the men dont know about the rules in Islam that prohibiting woman as Imam. According to Al-Quran An-Nisa: 34 explains that the leader must the man.
“Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous
women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husbands] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance -
[first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them.
Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand.” An-Nisa: 34
But based on their religious, ethnic, and culture backgrounds they live it is impossible not to know about it. They just let freedom for anyone who is able to become Imam without seeing the
basic rules of Islamic teaching. In addition to being a place to live, a place of prayer, and a party at night, Jehangir wants
to hold a Muslim punk show in the house. Jehangir invites all Muslim punk bands in the whole America to appear on his event. The event is “The Taqwacores”. All the bands that will perform
stayed and lived together in the house. And made sholat together. Someday they want to make a sholat together, they made wudhu in the kitchen sink and
then moved the table to pray right there because it was the only part of the house with any space left on the floor. There were only nine or ten of them to the jamaat. Jehangir was there, and Dee
Dee Ali, and the others from various bands. Jehangir and Dee Dee Ali politely bickered, each tried to get the other to lead before Jehangir finally announced a brilliant solution.
How bout we both lead ? How the fuck would we do that ? asked Dee Dee Ali
We both stand up in front, and we both do all the Allahu Akbars p: 225
Dee Dee Ali shook his head, put his arm around Jehangir and together they walked to where the imam would stand. The two imams looked at each other unsure and gave a roughly
synchronized Allahu Akbar. It was a clumsy prayer: Jehangir and Dee Dee Ali stood feet-to-feet, the rest of us feet-to-feet behind them as they darted looks at each other to stay together.
For the friendship it might looks good. But, in true Islamic teaching its looks like a clumsy thing to lead prayers with two imams. However, prayers only to be led by one person. It
shows the freedom of their practice religion clearly. When they get in Asr time, they also made Asr prayer with another imam. The imam is a
riot girl had a tattoo of angel wings on her shoulder blades in a little top with her black bra straps showed.. Yusef joined into Asr prayer as makmum congregation. But, Yusef prayed in a state
of impurity from his earlier ejaculation. “One of the taqwacore riot girls had a tattoo of angel wings on her
shoulder blades. I noticed them when she led our Asr in a little top with her black bra straps showing. During the prayer I noted that we hadnt made
Zuhr. I also realized that I prayed in a state of ritual impurity from my earlier ejaculation.”
p: 231 Another woman becomes a Imam for their prayers again. This woman looks different
from the previous women priests. She led the Asr prayer with her little top that showed her black bra straps and a tattoo of angel wings on her shoulder. She was being a priest for men by
showing her private parts. And Yusef as one of guys who became a makmum that prayed in a state of impurity. It looks like legitimate for them to made such Asr prayer.
Finally, the event Muslim punk show titled “The Taqwacores” is occurred. And Jehangirs dream came true. A line of Muslims and punks started at the door and wrapped around
the block. The bands were all backstage, including Bilals Boulder, the ultra-fundamentalist muslims. The Muslims and punks paid their four dollars, poured in, circulated, socialized,
ordered drinks and took their places. Then, Bilals Boulder came out. All the bands pretty much
got same reaction when they first appeared on stage. The Bilals Boulder guys looked scary. Their jalabs and turbans were gone. Their heads were shaved. They went shirtless, their arms
covered in tattooed Quranic ayats. They wore green suspenders and combat boots. They stated that it has entered Isha prayer time. Then, their drummer went up to microphone and made
adhan. And they were all praying. “This is the proper qiblah, inshaAllah, he said, walking to the far wall.
Everyone stood behind him. Make your lines straight. I dont think he knew how many kafrs were standing behind him, but they all joined the
salaat like theyd been doing it for years. Half the Muslims were drunk anyway. But when he said Allahu Akbar each and every last soul in the
room put his or her hands to their ears. We hadnt put any rugs down. The floor was cold and grimy and wet from snow melting off our feet. The
stages lights switched up. Red, blue, yellow, green. When we sat up from our first sujdah I noticed Umar a couple of rows ahead. I was sure he
loved these guys.” p: 238
The Bilals Boulder, ultra-fundamentalist Muslims became imam to lead the prayers. Another muslims, including women and kafrs stood on the same line behind him. They all made
sholat on the cold and grimy floor without any rugs, while the stage lights switched up red, blue, yellow, and green. It illustrates how theyre just thinking about doing prayers without seeing the
rules to do so.
4.2. How the life of the community with the ideology in The Taqwacores
