Judgementalism vs. Making judgements in Islamic Sufism and Christianity

Given the clear importance of making judgements and discernment in Islam in general and Sufi Islam in particular, on the one hand, and the rise of moral relativism, the clash of global cultures, and the danger of violence aganst others, on the other hand, one often encounters the contemporary criticism that one should avoid passing judgement or being judgemental. This really needs to be thoroughly discussed. Sadly, right now, I will only touch on a few aspects of this important and controversial issue.

There are many things at stake here. On one end of the spectrum, judgementalism can easily leads to unjust acts of violence and oppression and stifling of creativity and individuality, and, when applied to oneself, it can lead to debilitating guilt and shame. On the other end of the spectrum, the avoidance of making judgements can lead to an inability to function wisely and optimally in one’s life (or even the inability to make rational decisions or function even marginally well in one’s relationships), the inability to take responsibility for and understand the consequences of one’s actions and words, and to magical thinking. Politically, it can lead to a collapse of democracy and ceding power to demagogues and sociopaths who are all too happy to make judgements and decisions for us, while spiritually it can lead to cultic spiritual abuse.

At the outset, however, three misconceptions need to be addressed:

First misconception: if one makes judgements of oneself or others, this means that one is necessarily being judgemental. In other words a criterion for being judgemental is simply making a judgement (or passing judgement on oneself or others). While some folks may indeed equate the two, in my thinking making a judgement does not necessarily mean that one is being judgemental. Rather, as I use the terms, “being judgemental” involves making judgements with egoism or a relatively high degree of ego involvement.. Hence, in principle, since one can make judgements with a relatively reduced involvement of one’s ego, one can make judgements without being judgemental.

Second misconception: being judgemental or making judgements is necessarily at odds with loving. While this deserves an extensive discussion, for now, all I will state is that, although it is not always easy to do, it is possible to love and make judgements at the same time. One example is today commony called “tough love” in parenting. This involves a parent setting boundaries and limits and even giving negative feedback, out of love, for the health and well-being of the child. Of course, while abuse can occur in the name of tough love, that does not negate the fact that one can love and at the same time set boundaries non-egoistically.

Third misconception: only God has the right to judge someone’s actions: if one judges anyone’s actions, one is “playing God.” While of course, this is true concerning one’s fate in the hereafter (although religious exclusivists persist in their judging people as worthy of damnation, as if they know that someone is deserving of the wrath of God in the hereafter), God’s judgement and our making judgements about ourselves and others in the this material world are completely different matters. In Islam, God’s judgement of a person, which is in reference to his/her fate in the hereafter, is indeed up to God alone, as the hadith I posted earlier this week about the sinnner and the devoted worshipper makes crystal clear. Nevertheless, in traditional Islamic Sufism, following the example of the Prophet and the Companions (sahaba), people must make assessments and judgements about themselves and others in their lives in the material world.

So I want to turn now to understanding the necessity of making judgements in one’s worldly life in both Islam and, to a lesser extent, in Christianity. Making judgements in our worldly lives is a central feature of Islam and traditional Sufism, especially in the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh). Rather than avoiding making judgements, the thrust of Islam and Sufism is how to decrease the likelihood that one’s judgements will be influenced and distorted by Shaytan and one’s egoism. In brief the method for doing this is to make one’s greater form of effort (greater jihad) striving to free oneself from egoism. The more successful one is at this, the less one’s judgements in the world (the lesser jihad) will be distorted by one’s egoism. In other words, the two jihads are complementary. Furthermore, the more effort one puts into the greater jihad, the more likely one’s lesser jihad judgements (concerning one’s life in the world) will be wiser, more compassionate, and less egoistic. A key word here, however, is “likelihood.” Hence, traditionally, one must always spike the drink of one’s judgements with a hefty dose of the humility inherent in “And Allah is most knowledgable” (wallahu a’lam).

In contrast to Muslims and Sufism, from a Christian perspective, it is commonly (though not necessarily) argued that, vis a vis the world, not only is there no necessity to make worldly judgements (or at least political judgements) but that one should avoid being judgemental and making such judgements. “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1 KJV). Together with this, in Christian discussions, we can find “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21); and “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Nevertheless an absolute avoidance of making judgements seems to be a kind of “new age” Christian viewpoint. For a contemporary Christian critique of non-judgementalism that argues for the necessity of making judgements, see  https://www.printandaudio.org.uk/…/judgements-and-judgement…

Ultimately, I would argue that it is possible for a Christian method of discernment and judgement in the world to converge (or at least approach) the Islamic Sufi understanding of worldly discernment and judgement, which understanding (as I have noted) is based on the complementarity of the greater and lesser jihads and which complementarity is based on the necessary priority of the greater jihad against one’s own egoism. Such a Christian method of discernment and judgement could be based not on the beginning of Matthew 7 but on the end of that section of Matthew 7, “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam [of wood] out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

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Please do assist me in refining my thinking on this topic, especially those of you who have thought more deeply about this issue in Christianity.