December 16, 2010
I Too Have A Dream!
Section: WRITINGS | 244 reads
(5)
Slaves on a Plantation
The earth is Allah’s plantation
And what a beautiful, amazing and bountiful plantation it is!
And people are the slaves that Allah made and owns.
Allah put people on his plantation so they would cultivate and manage the plantation.
And do so – as they should – according to his will, pleasure, laws and commands.
After all, that is the job of slaves – to seek to please their master in everything they do.
And to try to do everything the way the master wants it done.
This earthly plantation, therefore, is the place where Allah put all of us – you and me and everyone else – as his slaves.
The Qur’an, which is Allah’s word, calls every one of us Allah’s slave.
The Arabic expression the Qur’an uses is ‘Abd, which means slave – fully and completely owned and solely and entirely dependent on the owner and the master.
The plural for ‘Abd is sometimes ‘Ibad, and sometimes it is ‘Abeed.
Both expressions mean the same thing: slaves – plural for ‘Abd.
Not servants, but slaves.
Some people sometimes hedge on this issue. They do not want to use the word “slave,” especially in the Western Hemisphere that has had such a sad and dark and long history of one of the most brutal and heartless forms of human slavery known to humans.
But that does not change the fact that ‘Abd is what the Qur’an calls us. Nor does it change the fact that “slave” is what the Arabic expression ‘Abd means.
The Qur’an is the word of Allah. It does not change to suit changing human desires and tastes in particular times or places.
Instead, it wants to change human tastes, norms, mores, practices and likes and dislikes to fit the expectations that God Almighty has of human beings.
That is why Allah sent the Qur’an – to guide and help people to change their beliefs and behaviors to fit the divine requirement.
Therefore, the concept of human beings – and the entire creation – being slaves of Allah is one of those things that does not change with changing times and tastes.
And the logic is quite simple and straightforward.
We are slaves because Allah owns us. He owns us because he made us.
He also is the maker and master of the earth, the plantation on which he placed us.
He also made and owns and runs the entire universe, of which planet earth – plantation earth – is an infinitesimally minute fragment.
Human beings are Allah’s slaves because Allah made their bodies as well as their minds.
He designed them out of dust and turned them into who they are.
He is the one who made every cell and every organ they possess – all of which make them the kind of human beings they are.
Allah also made the earth on which human beings walk and live.
He made the air that carries the oxygen they breathe, and which they so absolutely and desperately need in order to sustain every single moment of their life.
He made the water humans – and animals – need to drink and sustain life and raise the crops and produce the food they eat.
He made the food they eat.
As a result, it is he who is the owner and the maker and humans – the weak and the strong, the rich and the poor – are all his slaves.
They are all fully and entirely dependent on him, while he is totally and completely independent of them.
So he entirely and exclusively owns us as his slaves, and owns the plantation on which he placed us, and owns and operates the world – and all the countless worlds of which the earth is but one tiny part.
As for sensitivity of some people on the question of the use of the word “slave” given our history and experience, the lesson to be learned is quite the opposite.
The world offers us two models of slavery – two different plantation stories.
One plantation – with all the slaves on that plantation – owned by God Almighty, the most merciful and compassionate.
The other owned and operated by selfish, greedy, bigoted, cruel and heartless humans – like the sugar and cotton plantations whose painful history we in this part of the world know only too well.
One is a story of mercy, grace, generosity, respect and forgiveness while the other is a tale of greed, cruelty, vengeance and abuse.
So, the question is not whether or not people are slaves. For, that they are without the shred of a doubt.
The real, and the only, question is whose slaves they are.
The other question, one that springs out of that original question is, to the extent humans own and control their own decision- making, whose slaves they choose to be.
Being slave to Allah is all peace, joy, hope, personal exaltation, gain and goodness, while being a slave of all others is a pathway to frustration, pain, exploitation, domination, abuse, humiliation – and disappointment.
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