December 16, 2010
I Too Have A Dream!
Section: WRITINGS | 243 reads
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A Larger Focus
For most of us, however, most of our dreams are about ourselves and about those we have a reason to love, such as family and friends – often a fairly small circle.
And those dreams are generally for a better day and a better life. They are generally for more of the good things of life – for worldly goods and benefits and privileges – for ourselves and for that small circle we call our loved ones.
Dr. King’s dream, however, was different. It was larger and more inclusive.
It was mostly about others, even though he said it was about his three little children.
Dr. King’s dream was for the long-suffering black people of America, whose forefathers had been brought into America from Africa in chains as slaves – many of them Muslims.
But in a larger sense, it was for all of America – black and white. It was a daring vision for a new America – free from racial prejudice, hate and oppression.
People with limited vision often cannot see beyond themselves and beyond the narrow circles of their own families and friends.
Nor can they see beyond their own narrow self-interests.
People with broader vision see the larger picture. They have a larger focus. They see beyond their own narrow circles of family, friends and interests.
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The Islamic Focus
Islam gives human beings the largest focus they can have. It teaches them to look beyond this life and beyond the concerns of this world.
It teaches them to dream about your next life – the life after death.
The eternal life.
Life after which there is no death.
The Qur’an teaches us to ask Allah the following Du’a, which I paraphrase from the Qur’an:
“Our maker, lord and master! Give us the best of this world and the best of the next world – and protect us from the fire of Hell!”
What a comprehensive and what a beautiful supplication – Du’a – this is!
That is what makes people different: the focus they have.
How broad or narrow is the range of their focus and the field of their concerns.
That is also what makes some people special. Dr. King was such a special man.
So is Nelson Mandela, the former South African president – a special man, though a non-Muslim.
Dr. King was one of those people whom God had blessed with a larger, more inclusive perspective.
In this sense, and to that extent, his was a Muslim vision.
His was an Islamic perspective.
For Islam is inclusive of all people. It is inclusive of all the creation of Allah – beyond the narrow confines and boundaries of race and region.
As a result, a Muslim covers in his or her scope the entire human race – black as well as white as well as all the other colors, Muslim as well as non-Muslim, living as well as the nonliving.
Thus, Islam provides the farthest reaches of the path of inclusion on which Dr. King so boldly set out. It provides the broadest scope and content for the dream he dreamed.
Most humans, however, have a small heart to go along with a narrow vision.
All too often they cannot see themselves sharing the bounties of life beyond their own narrow circles of kinship and friendship.
And, often, even some of the most broadminded among them are limited by the boundaries of race, religion or nationality.
In this respect, Dr. King was blessed by God with a heart that ached for others. Dr. King wanted to share the good life of equality and opportunity with others – blacks as well as white.
To that extent, and in that sense, his was a Muslim heart.
It was part of the common heritage of humanity from their God.
For, a Muslim heart is one that not only fears Allah, but also aches for others.
Says a poet:
Khanjar chaley kisi pey, tadaptey hain ham Amir,
Sare jahan ka dard hamarey jigar mey hai.
Paraphrase:
“Someone somewhere plunges a dagger into someone, and we are the ones that writhe in pain;
For, our heart is home to the pain of the entire world.”
That means for a Muslim the circle of sharing is without bounds or stops. No one is ever excluded – not even the enemy.
It encompasses the entire creation of Allah on earth – human as well as non-human.
Equally, for a Muslim, life never ends, not even at death.
As a result, a Muslim’s concerns extend beyond this life to encompass the other life.
As a matter of fact, a Muslims uses this life, on this beautiful plantation of Allah called earth, to prepare for his next life – life after death.
And there is something else, as important as anything we have talked about thus far.
Islam not only teaches us to hope and to dream, it does so not only with regard to this world as well as the next, it also teaches us to get up and do something about it.
For Islam is as much about moving, doing and acting as it is about hoping, dreaming and praying.
In this sense, Allah places the key to human destiny in human beings’ own hands, even though he is the one who owns and controls and decides everything and makes everything happen.
If fact, Allah says in the Qur’an that the human condition does not change unless the people themselves work to bring about the changes they want.
And then, and then only, does Allah facilitate for them the changes they desire and strive for – should that be in his own infinite wisdom, justice and compassion, his will and his pleasure to do so.
Thus it is part of Muslims’ culture, faith, traditions, training and Deen to believe in, hope for, dream about and work toward the creation of a world that is free from prejudice, hate, oppression and injustice – for all of Allah’s creation.
It goes without saying that such a world would also be one that is free from ignorance and poverty and disease on the one hand and from waste and exploitation and undue ostentation on the other hand.
It would be a world in which people – all people – are assured their basic rights, needs and dignities regardless of color or creed, race or gender.
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