One year ago: Jalaibi

I’m usually pretty good at standing up for myself with respect to making my personal religious boundaries known to those around me. It’s a deliberate action I think every Muslim in a majority non-Muslim society has to decide to do (or not, I guess, if that’s how you feel). Non-Mahram contact issues are especially predominant: Do I shake hands with someone of the opposite gender? Do I accept hugs from someone of the opposite gender (and how do I escape surprise hugs?) Then there’s the wudu and prayer time issues (getting caught with your foot in the sink).

Lawyers like to network. Networking means contacts, and contacts means jobs and referrals. But in the legal career, networking happens in places that I’m not to happy to be.

The newest thing I’m facing in law school is debating whether or not to attend social or professional events that significantly involve drinking. In college, I’d avoid having to make this choice by not involving myself with social groups that drank. Lawyers “network” by going to bars, cocktail parties, or hanging around the cash bar that inevitably operates at every legal event. Case in point: UNC Law School organizations have “Bar Review” every Thursday night. Ten points for guessing what that means. Clue: it’s not a study party.

Needless to say, the legal profession has a disproportionately high level of alcoholism.

They ask you (O Muhammad SAW) concerning alcoholic drink and gambling. Say: “In them is a great sin, and (some) benefit for men, but the sin of them is greater than their benefit.” And they ask you what they ought to spend [in charity]. Say: “That which is beyond your needs.” Thus Allâh makes clear to you His Laws in order that you may give thought.” Surat Al-Baqarah, v. 219

A recent decision I had to make was when the legal journal I work for, the North Carolina Journal for International Law and Commercial Regulation was planning an alcoholic social event after the first day of orientation. The plan was that the staff would interact off-campus to build collegiality before all the work started.

Naturally, I was uncomfortable with this. For me, it doesn’t cut it to just hang around the bar and not drink, to go just for the socialization. That’s not okay. I emailed the managing editor with my concern, telling her that I wouldn’t be attending this event because of my religious beliefs. (I wanted them to know that the reason I wasn’t attending was because of my faith, not because I’m antisocial).

I was surprised, quite surprised, when she and the staff responded by completely changing the location to a popsicle shop. I told them that they didn’t have to change the location just for my sake, on such short notice, but they assured me that it was fine. I was impressed.

I know that I’ll have to face this choice more often than I’d like. I don’t know what kind of effect it will have on my “legal network.” Part of me thinks that I wouldn’t want to be working with lawyers who spend so much time around alcohol anyway, and that most of this is “big firm” life, which I am not particularly interested in. Another part tells me that I should not judge people’s alcohol consumption (and their corresponding legal skills) by my own Muslim standards.

O you who believe! Intoxicants (all kinds of alcoholic drinks), gambling, Al-Ansab, and Al-Azlam (arrows for seeking luck or decision) are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. So avoid (strictly all) that (abomination) in order that you may be successful. Satan wants only to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So, will you not then abstain? Surat al-Maidah, v. 90-91

But the loudest voice in my head is telling me that even though I will not always be able to avoid these situations, I’d rather carve out a kind of personal life and legal career for myself that does not depend on success at a cash bar networking event. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth compromising my faith or personal convictions. I want to have the kind of personal control over my career where I can make people remember me not by how we socialized at a cash bar but the kind of work I do. It may be against the grain, but hey, that’s what law is about - fighting for and enforcing your legitimate point of view for a good reason.

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.

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