Let’s get started:
I spent my
formative years listening to Jumuah khutbahs in Mosques every Friday and listening
to the latest comedic experiments at Cool Runnings on Sundays. This was my
routine for a good number of years. This, some academic endeavours, the
occasional book, formed my ideas about the world around me.
I’ve been doing
comedy things for 3 years now but I’m still getting used to the “comedian”
label. In that time I’ve spent much less time in comedic spaces than academic
(more recently corporate) ones and this has successfully created some serious
seriousness within me. I’ve also spent a significant amount of time in
religious spaces – mosques, lectures, discussions, organisations – all with
Islam as the focus. I’m currently trying to reconcile these currents into
thoughts around what it means to be a Muslim comedian.
The serious stuff:
I begin, like a
well-trained philosopher, with questions.
Why do comedy? Can
comedy be for the pleasure of God? What purpose does it serve? Why do Muslim
comedians come under criticism from their communities? Is there a way to
position yourself to appease society, conscious and God Almighty? What are the
concerns of non-Muslim comedians, the moral atheists, agnostics, Christians,
Jews…?
I’ve been collecting
the ideas necessary to provide answers to some of these over a few years and I
hope that I can articulate them with some coherence. Some of the ideas
fascinated me, some were dumb but on the whole I was left feeling more secure
knowing that what I was about to do was worth doing - in case anyone asked,
including myself.
(...and obviously
more questions were encountered along the way...and that's when I knew the
philosophy was working)
Comedy as art:
Comedy is a platform
to tell stories. Stand-up comedy is now professionalised and commoditized (like
everything in a well-functioning capitalist system) so that people who are good
at it can make a living from it. It’s a competitive art of self-expression with
instantaneous feedback from the crowd.
I refer to comedy
as story-telling because a large component of it is self-expression. Through
the comedy of someone like Chris Rock I have greater understanding of what it
is to be an African American, an American, a man, a rich man, a minority, a husband, a father, a voter and
whatever other parts of his identity he wishes to express on stage. Riaad Moosa
gives audiences insight into what it is like to be a doctor, a Muslim, an Indian,
a South African. And the lists go on.
This is not just
therapeutic for the one doing the expression but serves as social glue for
people to be able to relate to one another. Strangers can use insights gained
through comedy to have a snapshots into the lives of people they might
encounter everyday but never get to know if they weren’t exposed to this “type”
of person before, through comedy. In a culturally diverse, pluralistic society
where we all just want to get along, comedy is one of the things making this a
daily reality.
The Department of
Community Development should be sponsoring the next comedy tour as part of its
mandate to create social cohesion.
The responsibility
of a comic:
I believe that
comedy also has an instructive ability. By virtue of being a voice expressed in
public and this is probably where I differ from some other comedians in my
thinking. Think about voices in society by taking, for example, the racial lie
– that a person is superior to another based on the pigment of his/her skin.
Over years, on different platforms this lie was told over and over again.
Initially some would have questioned it but those voices were drowned out and
eventually the majority of people accepted it. There was then a
counter-movement that slowly gained ground by people speaking against this idea
until we reached the point that we’re at now where a majority of people
recognise that race does not contain any superiority. This change in public
opinion did not happen overnight and it was not caused by a single person –
rather, it was the result of every voice that spoke on this issue to have a
stance and the number of voices speaking against it to become dominant.
I think it’s easy
enough to be a mirror for society and get some laughs out of that. But my true
respect and admiration is reserved for those that are discerning in what they
reflect. A comedian’s voice can reinforce a stereotype, it can make certain
behaviours acceptable, it can be a voice for social change. This does not
happen immediately but if a message is repeated often enough people begin to
accept it as true. If one wants to change the mind-set of a people it then
takes many voices and the public ones count the most.
There will always
be negotiation in terms of how best to use this voice, whether it is necessary
to win the audience over before offering something they may be uncomfortable
with or whether this interpretation gives too much agency to the public
platform and those are debates I will gladly engage in but perhaps in another
post.
The Muslim side of
things:
Islam is by no
means a single concept in the minds of all people. There are differing
understanding and interpretations. There are different experiences of it shaped
by different contexts. On the whole I find most Muslims agree that there is
only one God. Muhammed (peace be upon him) was a man that was sent revelation
from God, following others who were sent the same. The instructions were sent
to guide people towards living righteous lives, promoting justice and
remembering that they are all accountable to God after death.
If someone claims
the above to be true I will accept them as a Muslim.
Some Muslims, due
to various historical events and ideologies and interpretations of Islam become
very focused on what is permissible within Islam. There is also contention on
who is permitted to declare something permissible. I think that much of this
debate is counter-productive and would prefer to present my own experiences to
allow people to decide things for themselves.
What was written
above about comedy being a form of self-expression and instructive voice
encourages me to perform comedy and do so for the pleasure of my Creator. The
revelation also places other conditions on the type of comedy that I will do.
The following
guidance was written by Ahmad El-Shaf’ei who studied
Islamic Studies in English at Al-Azhar University on the topic of A Sense of Humour in Islam.
1) Don’t insult anyone by your jokes.
Allah
(Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala) says what means: “O you who have believed, let
not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them;
nor let women ridicule [other] women; perhaps they may be better than them. And
do not insult one another and do not call each other by [offensive] nicknames.
Wretched is the name of disobedience after [one’s] faith. And whoever does not
repent – then it is those who are the wrongdoers.” (Al-Hujurat 49, Verse 11) This verse reflects
the importance of being mindful of what you say even whilst you have a banter
and joke with others.
2) Don’t frighten anyone as a joke.
We’ve
all played a trick on a friend or two at one point perhaps creeping up on them
in the dark, however we should refrain from casting fear into peoples’ hearts.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “It is not lawful to any
Muslim to frighten another Muslim.” (Ibn Hajar)
3) Don’t lie to make people laugh
Sometimes,
in our attempts to humour others one can fall into the trap of shaytan by
exaggerating or telling false tales however we should remember it is forbidden
to lie in Islam. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) instructed us to
be truthful in making people laugh.
4) Don’t joke or laugh excessively
Unfortunately
we are often culprit to this type of behaviour in a world which teaches us to
‘live in the moment’ however we can be so excessive in our laughter or joking
that we lose sight of reality. I am not suggesting one should not have a laugh,
but to avoid losing focus of the fact that this life is temporal and ultimate
joy is in the Hereafter. Excessive laughter also hardens the heart and whilst
it’s not forbidden to be happy, cheerful, or joyous and have a good time –
remember your elation should be in moderation.
5) The best laugh is a big smile
Is a
principle that can be derived from the Prophetic seerah. And as we have been
taught in many ahadith that we should: ”Never disdain a good act even
a small one, even if meeting a friend of yours with a smiling face” (Muslim) So next time your caught with a frowning
face, embrace the sunnah and smile!
This piece was written for a general audience and while I
agree with most of what was written there are some ideas that I find
problematic and would like to give an opinion on. My critique is that the
things said by the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) have to be understood in the time
and context they were said and those same principles must be applied in today’s
context. Very often a single Hadith is taken to justify something and I then
come across a Hadith that implies something different leaving me critical of Islam
when it is really the scholar’s scholarship that needed further scrutiny.
Take the following
2 Hadith that contradict what was said above:
“Once,
an old woman came up to him and asked for paradise. He said, “Old women do not
enter the paradise.” The woman started crying. As she started leaving the room,
the Prophet, showing his subtle sense of humor, stopped her and said, “Old
women will become young before entering the heaven.” (Tirmadhi)
It’s
quite clear that being reduced to tears, the woman was offended by what the
Prophet (pbuh) said. The lesson I take from this is that firstly the Prophet
(pbuh) had a sense of humour and secondly that sometimes the line may be
crossed but clarify the joke as soon as possible.
“One
of his companions was Zahir, who used to trade in metal objects. Once the
Prophet was passing by the bazaar, he saw Zahir and playfully grabbed him from
behind and said, “Will anyone buy this slave?” Zahir laughed and said, “O
Messenger of Allah, whoever buys this slave will be in loss.” The Prophet
smiled and said, “In Allah’s eyes, your value is high.”
It is clear that the Prophet (pbuh) lied in this case. Zahir
was not a slave for sale but this is what the Prophet (pbuh) said he was. From
this I think it’s clear that when the established social context is jovial and
the people around you are aware of the joke being a joke then the lie creates
no deceit and is then acceptable and while this might not be the case always it
is defeinitely the case in most instances of stand-up comedy. The audience is
party to an unwritten agreement in which they accept that certain things may be
exaggerated, hypothetical or untrue but their acceptance of this means they’re
not being deceived.
My understanding is intended as further guidance for myself
in the comedy that I do, or would aim to do.
Current context:
The
work done in South Africa by Muslim comedians is incredible. The older comedians
like Joey Rasdien and Riaad Moosa have been successful in producing films, TV
series, sketch shows, one man shows, international tours and more. They have
dealt with criticism successfully enough for younger Muslim comics to not have
to defend their choice to perform. I’m grateful for this and it also leaves me
with a sense of responsibility to do this comedy thing properly. The stories of
Muslims not told by us will certainly be told for us and that’s not something
we can argue if we do not rise to the challenge.
In
writing this I came across stories about Muslim comedians internationally. A
comedian named Shazia Mirza was attacked while she was on stage for being a
female Muslim comedian. I was shocked that this could ever happen. The fact
that I’m a South African Muslim comedian means that I wouldn’t ever have to
worry about something like that. Comedians performing in some of the Gulf States
could easily be arrested for speaking against their political leaders, another
thing I don’t have to worry about. However, with these freedoms and the work
done by those before us comes the responsibility to take comedy to the next
level, to be critical about the things we say and how we say them and to master
the art of getting the laugh but not forgetting the message.
My conclusion:
1. Comedy is
useful for society.
2. It is useful
for Muslims to be involved in comedy.
3. The type of
comedy done by Muslims has certain limits and restrictions.
This view finds
common ground with Sufyan
ibn `Uyaynah's position. Sufyan was an eighth-century Islamic religious scholar from Mecca. He was from the third generation of Islam
referred to as the Tābi`u al-Tābiʻīn, "the followers of the followers" – those
that met those, who met those, who met the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him).
A man said to Sufyaan ibn
‘Uyaynah, “Joking is not right, it is to be denounced.”
He replied, “Rather it is
Sunnah, but only for those who know how to do it and do it at the appropriate
time.”
[Sunnah: something done by the
Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) or something he was in favour of]
Further reading -
Azhar Osman wrote
a piece on Islamic Comedy in a publication called humor(ph) (I haven’t been
able to get hold of it)
