In yesterday's jummah khutbah, the imam was enouraging moderation in all things... including laughter. He was saying that too much laughter can have a bad effect on the heart. On one level, I agree that in principle a certain kind of flippant and heedless attitude is a bad thing, but out of all the various challenges and ailments facing the ummah in the here and now, I'm asking myself how high does laughter rank? Thoughts?
9 comments:
In several ahadith, Muhammad (saws) is said to have laughed so merrily that his molars were visible. If you know when it's good to share a laugh and when to be serious, I can't see where any problem lies. Some people make a joke out of everything, true; but really, a lot of the humorless relentlessly grim Muslims I've met are an opposite extreme that's just as bad or perhaps even worse.
Here's one I heard the other day! A Pakistani Shia meets a Hindu. The Hindu says "Wanna come worship a cow with me?". The Shia says "Astaghfirullah, I only worship horses!".
Well, I Liked it.
huh?
(i'm pakistani shia, and my deen doesn't particularly have anything to do with ...horses...?!)
It's referring to the sect that kisses horses on Ashura.
That's a strange comment about horses and shias considering i'm a shia and don't kiss horses on ashura. Strange.
Anyway, about your post...i totally agree. The best mosque experience i've ever had is when i was with a group of women who laughed...not outrageous attention getting laughter but laughter. I miss that kind of joy in the mosque.
Do you not know what "sect" means?
Salaam 'Alaikum
DA, that's a good example, but my teachers have specified that this was the Prophet's smile, aleyhi salatu wa salaam, not laughter. But there are also ahadith from the Messenger of Allah, sallalahu aleyhi wa salaam, about too much laughter killing the heart. I think I can see that, if I look at contemporary comedy. But I agree with you about the humorless Muslim who bursts out with "Astaghfirullah!" as soon as anyone dares laugh.
As for the horse thing, I did read a book about Shi'a women in Pakistan (in a poor area of Lahore), and it mentioned the horse thing: people kissing it, wiping the sweat off of it and putting it on themselves, and so forth. I don't know what kind of Shi'a they were, I presumed they were Ithna Asheri?? But I have to say, that the women in the book showed themselves to be ignorant in many ways (such as rampant, open drug abuse, and so forth), so I didn't take it as an example of "what Shi'a do."
that's odd.. i'd never heard of that horse thing before. but i think we should be careful about some of these sectarian issues and try not to be unnecessarily divisive...
Is this for real?
This is what is SO WRONG W/MUSLIMS TODAY!. I have to give a lecture on Islam tonight at a private Catholic college and I will have to address the absurdities such as, "How much can we laugh, boss? Can we only smile 'til our teeth show or can my belly shake a little as well?" Un-f#$%^ing believeable...
I actually know some Muslims who believe you should laugh very little based on the Hadith that says something to the affect of, "if you knew what I knew you would laugh less and weep more". The funny thing is, they don't weep more...
Post a Comment