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Re: Handshake And Religion

By Editor
05 September 2015   |   11:09 pm
SIR: In The Guardian of Sunday, August 2, 2015, some Clerics (Christians and Muslims) were interviewed as to what their respective religions say about "handshake." While Christian clerics did not make any categorical statement about the issue, their Muslim counterparts were emphatic about what was written about the Holy Prophet (SAW) by writers of Hadith.…

wpid-PRESIDENT-JONATHAN-IN-A-HANDSHAKE-WITH-EMEKA-ANYAKU-480x394SIR: In The Guardian of Sunday, August 2, 2015, some Clerics (Christians and Muslims) were interviewed as to what their respective religions say about “handshake.” While Christian clerics did not make any categorical statement about the issue, their Muslim counterparts were emphatic about what was written about the Holy Prophet (SAW) by writers of Hadith. They could not point out a relevant passage from the Holy Qur’an, which is the only authority on the practice of Islam.

One of the Muslim clerics sounded very amusing in proffering reasons why Islam does not approve of the act. He said: “People have different degree of resistance and Satan has its own ways of using such contacts to arouse a man’s sexual pleasure.” It has to be made clear that it does not need a handshake with a woman before arousal takes place — this is a common experience with any man without defects in his manhood as highlighted in Matthew 19:12.

Women are endowed by nature with many alluring features which could easily provoke a man’s thought thus resulting in lust, which Jesus alluded to in Matthew 5:28. ” However, there two instances depicting not shaking of hand with women as a Taboo.
(1) The Guardian of Sunday, November 16, 2008, carried a frontpage picture in which Saudi Arabian King, Abdullah was shaking hands with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
(2) On the home front, the incumbent President of Nigeria, Muhammadu

Buhari is a non-believer in the taboo. He has no inhibition whatsoever and he cannot be written off as not being vast in the knowledge of the Qur’an or, on the other hand, the practice of Islam. He is not only a religious leader, he is a cleric in his own right.

The long and short of the whole issue is that a good number of clerics mislead their followers due to their own deficiency in what the Holy Qur’an stipulated about the practice of Islam. They also seem not to be aware of what the Book says about spreading Islam by using God’s name in a false manner. This aversion by Him necessitated a stern warning to be inserted as contained in Chapter 16:116. The passage ended with an immutable curse for those who would violate His command.

• Kolawole Akinwande,

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