December 08, 2007
Pasha Hour International: Live from America!
Section: WRITINGS | 139 reads
IT WAS ISLAM THAT TOOK VIOLENCE OUT OF FAITH
We are on the side of anybody who was good then and is good now.
We wrote the bottom line on the question of violence and coercion and use of force in matters of belief and faith, not because we are that smart, but God himself put it in the Qur’an in his own words. And how simple and clear and definitive those words are: La ikraaha fiddeen.
No one dare introduce any violence in any matter that pertains to anyone’s belief or faith.
That means we can’t turn and twist the human mind one way or the other. All we can do is give human beings the information they need as truthfully and honestly as we can. That is all we can do.
That is called Haqq – full and clear truth; unvarnished truth; truth unmixed and untarnished with falsehood, spin and mendacity.
And then it is our job to allow human beings to make up their own mind. That is what Islam is. And that is what Islam came into this world to guarantee everyone.
If Muslims had known this, and if they had fully understood this, and if they had shared this with the rest of the world, what a beautiful world this would have been!
Wake up Muslims, start doing it at least now. It is never too late.
HAJJ – A SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY
Muslims don’t practice elections, and when they do, they act as Muslims. They act the way they know how and the way they are.
If I have time I will explain to you why Muslims do what they do – the good and the beautiful as well as the bad and the ugly.
Look at the way Muslims perform the Hajj. One of my fondest and greatest dreams has been to put Hajj on television. Not in bits and pieces and 5-second flashes but all of it. All the hour after hour after hour of Hajj as its marvels and miracles unfold in real time.
That is the show that should be run twenty-four hours a day for a few weeks without end.
Will it bring in the kind of money like the present favorite shows? Will it beat hot topics like teen pregnancy, wayward heiresses, adult sexual perverts preying on defenseless minors in ratings, I don’t know. But it certainly is worth a try.
WHERE ARE ALL THOSE BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF DOLLARS I AM TOLD MUSLIMS HAVE?
And where are all those billions upon billions of dollars – trillions of dollars – I am told Muslims have. Maybe some of that money could go into things like that.
Maybe Muslims can set up a permanent Hajj channel.
I am not trying to stop anybody from making an honest living. So, I am not trying to shut down any TV shows. All I am saying is this: Hajj should be seen by everyone around the world – in America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Western Hemisphere and everywhere else.
The industry owes it to the world. And maybe so do the Muslims.
The Hajj is the greatest show – the single greatest spectacle – on earth. We all owe it to every man, woman and child on earth – to show them the Hajj. For, there is nothing like Hajj in this world.
People from all over the world go into this most amazing and mind-blowing routine in Makkah. And all we get to see is tiny little bits of it on television? It doesn’t make sense.
It doesn’t make sense from a purely professional point of view. It doesn’t make sense from a business point of view.
HAJJ: A MIRACULOUS BLENDER OF HUMAN EQUALITY
Are there some bad people in this world who are going to be uncomfortable at the spectacle of Hajj and wonder what would happen if the world comes to understand all that beauty that Islam really is? How Islam is a most beautiful thing and how Muslims aren’t all that bad after all, though they are pretty messed up in so many ways.
Sure, there will be. That is the nature of things. But we cannot let those fringe elements and extremists stop the world. We can’t let them stop humanity from going forward.
So, next time you see those rare few seconds of Hajj on your TV screen, pay attention. See how humanity goes into a blender of equality and comes out looking one.
See how the richest and the poorest men, each man wrapped in two white cotton sheets, and all those women, wearing what they want, they all do the same thing. Isn’t this the ultimate in democracy and freedom – in equality and choice?
Some Muslims don’t practice elections because we are so messed up but we do have the wherewithal. We do have the foundations in place.
We got the foundation for human equality and freedom in Hajj, and in Salaat that people call prayer, and in so many other things that Muslims do.
Look at men going around the Kaabah in two white cotton sheets and doing so for the past 1400 years.
All I am saying is this: It is worth something for a country fellow like me; it is worth something for Muslims in general; and it is worth something for the whole world, Muslim or non-Muslim.
So then, until next Saturday 9:00 A.M. Trinidad time – 8:00 A.M. Eastern Time; 6:30 P.M. Delhi Time – which is the new permanent home for PASHA HOUR INTERNATIONAL: LIVE FROM AMERICA! in an impermanent, intransient world, God bless.
END
© 2007 Syed Husain Pasha
Dr. Pasha is an educator and scholar of exceptional
talent, training and experience. He can be reached at DrSyedPasha [at]
AOL [dot] com or www.IslamicSolutions.com.
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