The thing is, what is a materialist argument? Is saying the basic Islamic belief that a man should be able to provide materialistic? Are we dumbing ourselves down? How is a man meant to fulfil the Quranic duty of provision if he has nothing and we as a society skirt around this issue and label it as โmaterialisticโ.
Walaal, in principle, let us agree on the following:
a) Promote good men with 'akhlaq, thiqah, anshax, dhamir' etc, which Eedo Muna advocates for,
b) As the head of household, a man must be able to, and provide for his family,
c) Weed out 'vile' men.
On the materialism argument, the quandary is attaching to, or even associating a greater value with the riches (materialism) over other core values: akhlaq, thiqah, anshax, dhamir etc, a phenomenon more prevalent in S E Asia. Within that orbit, let us take your definition of 'faqir' (
one who could not even offer mere morsel). Suppose he, who is 'faqir' is the consummate gentleman of the highest standing possessing said attributes, let us call him Mohamed. Then, there is Ali, a contemporary of his, who is well-off, but lacks all manners of what constitutes being a gentleman void of 'alakhlaq al daruriya (requisite moral code)'; if we were to go by Eedo Muna's thesis, Ali would be, is [the] ultimate man whereas Mohamed is undesirable, for here Ali's equity by virtue of his riches incl. a decent set of wheels, designer clothes, pedicured, manicured visage, toes and tail etc. grants him keys to the Kerberos ahead of poor Mohamed, whose second-hand shoes had been stolen at his local charity shop whilst feeding the homeless.
Again, Eedo Muna is right in rallying against vile men, but her message is being corrupted by her ill-advised injection of '
riches' into the conversation where unsuspecting, mostly young ladies, as in the 2nd clip, are enthralled in awe and adulation, as if she were the Masiah on the rise.
My dear brother, I truly believe there is a huge element of misogyny that was unleashed upon Muna because I truly believe that if it was a male scholar/Sheikh saying it, there would hardly be any backlash or even talks of materialism.
That is rather unfortunate. I am afraid I am unfamiliar with Somali social media, and their uproars, needless to say, it would not surprise me.
Note, Look at Sh.Assim Al Hakeem here who tackles the issue;
He says a man that canโt provide the basics should wait until he marries and believes that the generic advise that is thrown at men that they should marry whilst having nothing is unwise. Itโs one thing if itโs a man that is low income but can provide an apartment, food and medicine.
Please have a watch and actually come to back to me with regards to this topic:
As for Mr Assim (1st time I am seeing him), his reflections are rational, sound, and in line with Islam.
Somalis wouldnโt dare to form a backlash against a Somali or Arab male scholar but itโs easy to target a woman who says what you donโt like when youโre from a culture that devalues womenโs views.
This is a fallacy, walaal. A flawed messenger is just that irrespective of h(er)is creed.
Somali society isnโt egalitarian and has never been such. Confusing menโs neglectfulness as egalitarian benevolence is to be expected because a society in which a man can up and leave and leave a woman and her child without giving a penny is a society that is forced to foster female independence if not women and offspring will literally die. This isnโt coming from a place of โwomen empowermentโ. Look at big companies in Somalia, look at parliament, those with the money and power are still mostly men and even back home the idea of women occupying those positions are still not taken well but if a woman is toiling in a low paying field people are okay with it as they would argue this is something she has to do since sheโs โpoorโ. This is why Somali women are given a level of independence as husbands cannot be trusted to be reliable but even then itโs a cap and women having higher positions are frowned upon back home.
Egalitarianism, as a political theory, builds upon the principle of social equity, the perfect depiction of nomadic life, where there is no definitive class, prescribed hierarchy, or defined hereditary social structure borne out of nobility, land ownership, wealth etc. Every nomad has his, lives his life as he desires, and answers to no one, unlike European, and Asian societies, which are class-orientated, highly structured, and where the nobles and elites preside over the working classes to this date with the wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families, check UK, India, China to name a few. That hardly applies in nomadic societies.
I shall pause there lest accused of pontificating.