Halal (حلا) and Haram (حرم)

So, I was listening to a interview on Fresh Air of Muzammil Siddiqi, the leader of the group which recently issued a فتوى (fatwa) against terrorism. When Terry Gross asked him what kind of "teeth" his fatwa would have, Siddiqi suggested that he has no power to enforce any fatwa, but can merely comment on what is حلا (halal) or حرم (haram) ("lawful" and "unlawful").

(By the by, check out this cool website about Islam.)

The dichotomy between the two has been readily apparent to me as I prepare the classroom. Of course, teachers are supposed to focus on what is halal and minor on the haram. Therefore, a good classroom rule is, "Be respectful," as opposed to, "Don't be rude." However, it is sometimes easier to think about those things which we absolutely find unacceptable due to the almost infinite diversity of behaviors and possibilities.

In fact, I find it interesting that although the Prophet forbade the consumption of alcohol, various drugs, such as the Scrabble® favorite qat, hashish, and tobacco—via the hookah—are halal among Muslims. Yet, if Muhammed were alive today, he probably would have declared them haram too for the same reasons he outlawed booze.

I guess that is why general principles, such as "Be respectful," are more useful as guidelines to behavior. However, although thinking in terms of these principles is useful, it is very important to understand that all morality is relative.

Now, before you accuse me of being a namby-pamby liberal, think about this for a second. Let's play a little game, name a universal moral principle which must always be upheld no matter what, whenever, wherever, and by whomever. I decided to play this game with myself, and the first thing I came up with as an answer that someone might profer is...

Don't have sex until you are married.

Now, at first I thought—although not that every culture in the world adheres to this rule—that it might be a good idea. This is pure spitballing, but I read in Guns, Germs, and Steel that it is possible that one of the reasons for the swift population decline in the Roman Empire in the 3rd Century A.D. was the introduction of some pretty nasty STDs into a world which had experienced tremendous sexual freedom. This may partially account for the swift rise of Christians, whose behaviors would allow them to avoid these diseases, and whose apparent inaffliction may have made them appear more greatly blessed by their divinity than the general populace. Of course, this principle seemed to me a worthy, reasonable, and wholly advisable one in our world afflicted by AIDS.

However, upon further reflection, I realized the inherent contradiction of this "absolute" moral principle. By it's own construction, it, in itself is relative. The principle does not say, "Don't have sex," but rather, "In condition A, be sexually abstemious, and in condition B, back it up, strap it on, and reverse it." This kind of relativity inherent in an "absolute" moral principle made me think of the principle in which conservatives love to color with shades of gray.

This is the principle, "Thou shalt NOT murder." Of course, as Pat Robertson might tell us, the crucial word for conservatives is "murder," which they define as a "non-white or socially disadvantaged person ending the life of another." Of course, for these folks, what is not murder is killing, which is what God, of course calls us to do, especially with left-leaning oil-rich dictators and the civilians of their society.

Of course, for conservatives the only time (here another relative condition) it is absolutely always wrong to kill a human life is when that life has not yet come out of the womb, or hasn't even entered a uterus.

Now, whether you agree or disagree with any of these moral "principles" laid forth above, my point is that they are all "relative" principles. None of these so-called "moral absolutes" is absolute in any degree. For instance, in our universe, you cannot go faster than 299,792,458 m/s no matter how badly you want to. That is an absolute. Also, a hydrogen atom will always have one proton or it ceases to be hydrogen. Once again, this is an absolute.

However, these principles can be "absolutes" because they exist in the world of physics and mathematics, which are based on the irreducible axioms and theorems of the universe. However, human beings are not purely mathematical or, perhaps, even physical beings. Therefore, "relative" morality is the ecosphere in which we live, breathe, defecate, and have our being.