November 04, 2006
The Pope and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam!
Section: WRITINGS | 387 reads
November 04, 2006
Section: WRITINGS | 387 reads
An apology is a function of the heart and the mind and not just of the mouth or the pen.
Let me spell out some details of an apology a bit more clearly – so maybe Muslims can use it as a guide to deal with those who may attack or insult them in future. Because nowadays there is a great deal of talk about apologies, and somehow the Muslims seem to be associated with these situations in one way or another.
But at the same time, sadly, poor Muslims are not always the best represented when it comes to pleading their case before the court of world opinion or negotiating a deal with those supposed to be their adversaries or competitors.
While the other side usually has some of the best brains and talents and some of the most articulate voices working for it, Muslims often end up with an amalgam of leaders, spokespeople and representatives of a somewhat interesting and less competitive sort.
As for thinkers, many Muslims simply don’t believe in thinking as a virtue. And to some of them it may even be antithetical to what they consider to be Islam.
So, with friends like that who would want enemies?
I have wondered about this phenomenon for decades – and made some noises whenever I could. But Muslims generally demand what they call “practical” solutions to problems they often have no idea what they really are.
Islam is not about thinking, they will tell you, Islam is about “doing” things.
Poor, poor Muslims! Allah will not leave them forever in this pathetic state of helplessness. But if they chose to impose a state of ignorance on themselves, who can they blame for their problems but themselves.
In any case, for an apology to be considered a proper apology, it must contain a number of important elements, or it is not an apology at all. Here are some of them:
This is what a genuine apology must look like. Or else it is an apology for an apology and not a real apology at all.
Poor Muslims! I wish someone will educate them in some of these issues.
Nations, societies and communities have enemies. And Muslims are no exception. And some of those enemies are external, while some others are internal.
Poor, poor Muslims! May Allah save them from their External Enemies – of whom usually there are quite a few at any given time and place.
And may Allah also save them from their Internal Enemies – those who would like to use, exploit and ride them to their own personal advantage, name, fame, gain, glory, wealth, power and success.
The Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, warned his Ummat about both of them. In fact, he received a guarantee from Allah that his Ummat will not be destroyed from outside. But Allah did not grant his Ummah similar immunity against internal enemies.
I used to wonder about it for the longest time. But then Allah opened my heart to see part of the wisdom – and Allah’s Rahmah – that this equation seems to carry in its fold. And it is quite simple.
Allah is everybody is God. And his Rahmat – his love and mercy that is – belongs to everyone and everything, as he says in the Qur’an: Rahmatee wasi’at kulla shaiy’.
So, while Allah is willing and able to protect Muslims against threats from outside, the Muslims have the responsibility to clean their own house from inside.
That means they must get their Iman and belief right. They must get their Ilm, knowledge and education right. They must get their ‘Amal, behavior, conduct, skills, character and personal qualities right.
So, whoever comes out better and stronger in all these areas and characteristics of human excellence will emerge as the winner in the ongoing contest among peoples, nations and societies.
That is Allah’s way or law – Sunnatullah – in this world. And according to that law or decree, whoever plays better, wins the game. The better man wins, as it were.
Allah is not going to stack up the odds in favor of the Muslims just because they call themselves Muslims. So long as they are in this world, Muslims will have to play by Allah’s rules in his world and win fair and square or lose the game to those who play better.
It is as simple as that.
While Allah alone knows the state of anyone’s Iman or belief, the whole world knows what the state of Muslim education is.
In general, the state of Muslim education around the world is seriously inadequate and flawed – both in quantity and in quality. I would go a step further and call it abysmal and shameful.
It is a disgrace to the name of Islam, which came to set the whole world free using the tool of education. Isn’t there a Hadith which says: Talabul ilmi fareedah? Paraphrase: Everyone has a duty to get educated.
It is a disgrace to the name of the Qur’an, which itself means Reading or Something To Read. A book the very first of whose revelation was Iqra’ or Read.
And it is a disgrace to the name of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, who called himself a teacher and an educator. As a Hadith says: Innamaa bu’ith-tu mu’alliman. Paraphrase: I am only a teacher.
A prophet whom his ancestors Abraham and Ishmael, Allah bless them both, characterized as an education-prophet: Yu’allimuhum.
A prophet whom Allah himself called an education-prophet: Yu’allimuhum.
Paraphrase of Yu’allimuhum? He teaches them. He educates them. He is their teacher and educator.
So, what is the use of having any or all of these things if Muslims, as a whole, as an Ummat, end up, after 1400 years, among the least educated of the world’s people? And that dismal and sad fact seems to bother no one?
The world knows this fact about Muslims: that they are at the bottom of the education barrel. It is only the Muslims who have their heads buried in the sand and it is they who seek refuge in all kinds of excuses from this grim and stark reality.
But Allah’s decree is clear that it is this reality – education – that will decide the fate of nations in this world, including the Muslim nation.
The world also can see the kind of human material that most Muslims have turned out to be – in terms of sheer human excellence and quality – beyond Namaaz and Rozah, beyond Hajj and beyond Zakat, which most Muslims don’t pay anyway.
Annasu kal ma’adin, said the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, Khairukum fil jaahiliyyah, khairukum fil Islam. Paraphrase: People are like metals. Gold is gold, whether it is before Islam or after Islam.
Sadly, there isn’t a great deal of gold in Muslim human quality and character and skill and knowledge levels these days, is there?
And what is more heartbreaking is that no one cares, and it is not even a priority item on most people’s long list of Muslim agendas.
I am not saying demanding an apology will not have a deterrent effect for the future. But to pressure someone into making an apology is almost like compelling them to accept your faith or “religion” by force.
And in all these matters, the Qur’an’s position is quite clear: “Absolutely no compulsion in matters of Deen.”
What may be quite appropriate, however, is to take this opportunity to address the substantive issues raised by the Emperor and then echoed by the Pope at a time when Muslims all over the world are living under great pressure, anguish and stress, both physical and mental, caused by events unleashed, for the large part, by Christians – followers of the Pope’s religion directly, as in the case of Catholics, or indirectly, as in the case of Protestants.
And let us do that now.
There are three issues in the Pope’s echoing of the Emperor’s views on Islam, Muslims and the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
On merit, all these claims are wrong and false. Whether or not they are malicious, it is up to everyone to make up their own mind.
Now let us take each one of these three issues individually and examine them carefully. First, let us look at theory as it pertains to each one of these three issues. Then, let us look at practice with regard to each one of them.
By theory I mean words, statements and professions and by practice I mean actual actions.
But before we do that, let us refresh our memories about some of the most basic and elementary information that we all should have known about the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, to begin with.
The world does not know this fact about the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, but it should have known it. The world does not know that he is the only man in human history that either preached or practiced a perfect system.
If you want, you can call it a complete, comprehensive and self-sustaining “religious,” socio-political and economic system.
He not only preached it, he also practiced it – every bit of it.
No other human being came anywhere close to doing it, or even attempting anything like it, in the entire history of humanity on this earth. This is a historic fact – and not a matter of “faith” or conjecture – which anyone can verify.
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