Islam as a Religion of Ease: Rashid Rida’s Reading of Qur’an 5:101

In 1928, Rashid Rida published The Ease of Islam: A Commentary on God’s Statement, “Do not ask about things which, if made known to you, might make things difficult for you” (Qur’an 5:101). Rida had long critiqued his peers for blindly deferring to tradition or blindly imitating non-Muslims. Here, he applies that to the law, his thesis hinging on Qur’an 5:101. He finds that the “things” God refers to concern ritual and doctrine. Here, asking unnecessary questions can lead to avoidable burdens, constricting and distorting an easy religion. But when it comes to human interactions with other humans, he finds, God grants Muslims “the widest scope,” sanctioning ijtihad in the interests of securing public welfare. This paper addresses the implications: does Rida’s thesis point to an effective partitioning of religious and secular? Or does such a reading imply a more clear-cut division of religion and non-religion that his discourse allows.