Public Shame Law and Islam

• Recently there was a law that was going through the Washington State Legislature on shaming citizens who violate the certain laws; for example, currently in Ohio, they have a law that if you are caught driving drunk, you are mandated to have a bright yellow license plate as a form of public shame; WA was about to do something similar

• This brings up an issue that I would like to discuss in this khutba today; the role of shame as a deterrent in our lives; as we know from the Qur’an, there are three stages of the soul, and not necessarily are they one after another: nafs al amaara: desiring soul; nafsil lowwaama: the self reproaching soul, and nafssil mutu ma’inna: sould at peace/rest

• And it is the nafsil lowwaama that gives us, as humans, the aspect of shame; and we know it exists because Allah swears by it in the Qur’an:

“laa uqsimu bi yowmil qiyaama; wa laa uqsimu binnafsil lowwaama”
I swear by the Day of Resurrection; and I swear by the self reproaching soul

• It is the soul that is in between desire and peace; and Allah has put it there as a check for us; it is the one that feels guilty, embarrassed, shame; all things that will move us away from becoming animals; however if we keep ignoring this soul, then it becomes weaker and weaker; and if we listen to it, it becomes stronger and stronger until it transforms into the soul at rest; if you commit a sin for the first time, you feel really bad; bad enough to stop doing it; but if you continue, then each subsequent time, the feeling gets easier, until no remorse exist; and the opposite is true as well

• So this self reproaching soul is there because Allah knows we will make mistakes; this is in our nature as Allah created us:

“khuliqal insana dha’eefa” created mankind weak

• So we cannot all be good all the time, and this is not what Allah wants; what Allah is looking for from us is what we do after we make mistakes; do we remain arrogant and refuse to accept it, or do we seek forgiveness from Allah; and remember that it is a balance that is struck; if we were all, as humans, making mistakes and never asking for forgiveness, then we have many examples in the Qur’an of all can destroy us; and if we are never sinning and are perfect, then Allah will still destroy us and create a being that will make mistakes, and seek forgiveness

• But this idea of shame, in Islam, is something that is inward, not to be shown in public; that when someone commits a sin, (s)he should try to hide it and not make a public display of it; that is why a person who, say, drinks alcohol in the confines of his house (hides it) is still better than a person who does it publicly; similarly, if another person sees someone committing a sin, (s)he should try to hide it and not expose it; as in the hadith we find that if a believer conceals a sin of another in this life, then Allah will conceal his sins on the Day of Judgment; so this idea of public shame and humiliation is not in Islam and could have the opposite effect of making people worse;

• So in the example of the drunk driver who has a yellow license plate, although it might start of as a plate of shame, it might end up as a license to commit more acts; like a badge of honor;

• I ask Allah to keep our reproaching soul strong so that on the Day of Judgment, it is a soul at rest;


• So as I mentioned earlier, in my opinion, Islam does not want us to publicly humiliate people for their wrong actions, and on the contrary, there are benefits to hiding one’s sins and having others hide them for you as well

• So obviously, the question that comes to mind if I say that Islam is against this and it is not what Allah wants, is what about some public acts that are seen as humiliation in Islam; i.e. cutting of the hands, stoning to death, etc.

• The one thing to keep in mind is that in the current laws that are proposed or enacted, they are a form of humiliation and shame to make the person not do it again; if you don’t want them to do it, don’t give them a yellow license plate, take away their license

• Also, the public displays that happen in Islamic law are an evidence not of committing an act, but rather of having been forgiven by Allah; so the idea of the hands being cut is not so that everyone in public knows you stole something, that will happen anyway, but rather that by your hands being cut off, you have been saved from something worse in the hereafter;

• Furthermore, public shame usually implies that you are or have something less than normal; and thus the humiliation; again in Islam it is not that way; consider the story of the woman who committed adultery; she came to Prophet and he turned the other way, she came again, and he said you are carrying a child; after 9 months, she came again, and he said you have to wean the child; she came after 2 yrs and finally the Prophets gave her the punishment; and will it was being carried out publicly, again it was to show redemption of this woman and not to shame her; how do we know this? Cause as the companions were stoning her, some blood fell on one of them and he went aback in disgust; the Prophet noticed this and said publicly, that this woman had more faith than all present here combined, so don’t look down upon her; that she has been forgiven by Allah;