June 28, 2009
Whither Indian Muslims – Third and Last Part
Section: WRITINGS | 144 reads
Character Building for Indian Muslims
Pas chay baayad kard aiy aqwaam-e-Sharq?
What should the Indian Muslims do, then, on the character front? How should Indian Muslims – and others – go about changing their character in ways that will help to turn their life around?
And in doing so, how can they build a better and brighter future for themselves – and for the entire world?
Indian Muslims have to start putting together immediate, complete and comprehensive plans and programs for character building. And they must do so using every means, method and resource available to them.
And where means, methods and resources are in short supply, they must improvise. They need to be creative and invent their own solutions.
They must change their age-old attitude of being Lakeer kay Faqeer and be flexible, inventive, innovative and bold.
The only condition or caveat I would place on this is that every means and method they use be strictly Halal, peaceful and, as much as possible, legal in the societies in which they live.
I say “as much as possible” because sometimes some laws in some places may be, they just may be, so morally wrong and so patently unfair and unjust, and so against all canons of human decency and accepted norms and modes of civilized conduct, that Muslims need to work to have those laws repealed and changed.
If necessary those laws must be resisted by all civilized and decent human beings everywhere regardless of race or religion.
One example is the Identity Card laws that the British Colonizers imposed on their colony in South Africa. Gandhi started his Civil Disobedience movement by resisting those barbaric laws. What a man Gandhi! What a vision, what courage and what confidence that man had to take on the entire British Empire, almost all alone, on a day when the sun of that empire never set!
Another example is the segregation Black Codes in America that used the legal framework and the judicial system to perpetrate the worst kinds of unspeakable atrocities on American Blacks.
So, keeping these limitations in mind, Muslim efforts for change, in India and in every other part of the world, must not only be Halal and peaceful, they must also be within the bounds of the law, both internationally and in their own societies.
And they must be open and aboveboard.
Success in Both Worlds
Muslim change programs, therefore, must include the building and strengthening of all those qualities and skills that are required for success in this world as well as for success in the next world. And in most instances, they are both the same: Success in both worlds. That is the nature of Islamic laws and teachings.
What Indian Muslims – and Muslims around the world – need to understand is that what leads to real and true success in this world also sets you up for success in the next world. That is the amazing gift of Islam to humanity. Work for legitimate and true success in this world, with an open mind about Allah and his Rasul, Sallalahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and it will set you up nicely on the path to success in the next world.
Thus Wudu, five times a day, or as many times as you need it, gives you all kinds of cleanliness and hygiene in this world and also at the same time takes you to Jannat in the next world, provided you believe in God and his Prophet, Sallalahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
Five times congregational Namaz-e-Jama’at in a community mosque is packed with all kinds of personal and social benefits for you and your community in this world and it also puts you on track to Jannat in the next world.
So is also the case with Siyaam and Zakat and Hajj. And with Tilaawat or reading and recitation of the Qur’an. In all these cases, what you do for success in this world will also prepare you for success in the next world, if your heart and mind are filled with belief in God and the Day of Judgment.
What Muslims need to understand, and what the rest of the world needs to understand, is that they are all good for Deen as well as for Dunya. They are good for your body as well as for your mind; just as they are good for your soul as well as for your society. And they are all pathways chalked out by Allah that take you directly to Jannah based on the grace, love and mercy of Almighty Allah.
And based on the gift of faith and belief that he may have already bestowed upon you.
What Muslims of India have done, just like Muslims in many other places, and just like many Christians and others all over the world, is to separate the Deen from the Dunya. This separation is most artificial and unfounded. It is unfounded in science or common sense and it has no basis in the so-called religion itself. It is most irrational and unscientific. It is also a most disastrous, unreal and dysfunctional separation.
For, in the human person, the body, the mind and the soul are all seamlessly fused together. You cannot help one of them in the right and proper way without helping the other two. Nor can you do things to hurt one of them without hurting the other two.
Let the Divine Nur Light up Your Face
Eat Halal, Tayyib food – food that is pure and clean and lawful – in the right quantities, which means not too much and not too little, your body will flourish. It will do all kinds of wonderful chores and functions for you that you never thought possible.
What is more, you will see the glow of natural health and beauty on your face. And that glow will not be merely the glow of your corporal body; it will also be, at the same time, the radiance of your mind and your soul.
With a body carefully crafted with healthy, Halal, life-giving, truly Islamic food – if you want to call it that – you will save tons of cash in Botox shots and plastic surgery. And your mental health and spiritual wellbeing would never have been stronger or more salubrious.
You can even call that glow a Nur: divine light of Allah shining on and through your face. No vitamins and no plastic surgery can rival that.
Train yourself to tell the truth. Think nice, positive and good thoughts. Be kind and generous and helpful to people. Avoid jealousy; put away hate; control anger and malice. Avoid laughing too much or too little. Smile often and wholeheartedly. Stay away from senseless gossip and backbiting.
And see what these things do to the look on your face.
I know what I am talking about. I have seen those faces. You could almost light up a room with them. And so have you – you have seen those divinely lighted faces too. I am sure you have come in contact with some individuals of that kind in your own life. They are individuals whose faces radiated a glow that was clear for all to see. And, I am sure, you found yourself wondering about that.
In the case of Sayyidina Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, it was physically true. In the case of the glorious followers and devotees of his in his as well as in our own time and age, it is more than a metaphor. It is surreal as they say.
What the good Muslims have done all too often – the kind of Muslims who believe and behave in an Islamic way – is to content themselves with what they think is Deen and relegated to a secondary place what they think is Dunya.
That is classic pre-Islamic thinking: to think that Deen and Dunya are two separate and disjointed things. One has nothing to do with the other. Call it Jahili thought if you will. Call it the thought of disjuncture and discontinuity. It was not a culture of connectivity, continuity and communion.
That is where the world was during pre-Islamic times. During the Jaahili times.
The general ignorance, the general lack of education and enlightenment, and the layers upon layers of darkness that prevailed in those times on every front were so opaque, so appalling and so palpable that the Qur’an calls that period of human history “The Earlier Times of Jahiliyyah.”
Al-Jaahiliyyatil oolaa: meaning the era of Pre-Islamic Jahiliyyah.
Islam came to put an end to this time of pre-Islamic darkness. Islam came to bring knowledge and enlightenment to the world. It came to remove the darkness that had laid hold of human life on earth.
It is this all-round enlightenment that the Qur’an calls “Guidance.” It stands for the most complete, valid and enlightened answer to every question you may ever have. About this world or about the next world.
Thus, Islam came to educate the people.
It came to give them the most complete and comprehensive education possible on every conceivable subject. Part of that education was to tell the people that Deen is Dunya and Dunya is Deen. And never shall the twain part till the Dunya (this world) is ended and the Aakhirah (next world) is the only reality left.
That means you can’t build one by destroying or neglecting the other. They are both two sides of the same coin. You separate the two, and the coin of human life on earth vanishes without a trace and leaves human life – both aspects of it, the so-called “secular” as well as the so-called “sacred” – knocking about in darkness without identity, without destination and without hope.
A Model Community of Newly Minted Muslims – Cast in the Old Mold
So, you want to change the condition of Muslims in India and elsewhere, let us get on with the task of character building. Let us start now and let us not stop or look back till we have accomplished that goal. Till we have filled God’s earth with generations of Muslims like Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them all!
These will be people who say what they mean and mean what they say. They will be people whom both their foes and friends can trust – in good times as well as in bad.
These will be generations of people who will toil mightily during the day to build a better world, not only for themselves, but for all of humanity. And who will toil even more mightily during the night building their own and everyone else’s soul by crying before God as if their hearts will shatter in their bosoms.
These Muslims with the truly Islamic character will be the greatest scientists when they turn to science, as they will do most regularly and most instinctively. And they will be the most masterful and creative artisans and craftsmen when they turned their attention to those fields of human enterprise, as they will do at every opportunity the get.
Education will be their handmaiden and entrepreneurship their national character.
For an oppressed and benighted world, these new kind of Muslims, who will be molded and patterned after the old kind of Muslims of the Prophet’s (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) days, will be an embodiment of love, liberty and compassion. But in the face of tyranny, cruelty, injustice, greed, exploitation and domination of man by man, they will stand imperturbable like the Himalayas (I took that from Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru). And they will roar fearlessly like the lions of Serengeti (and that came directly from television).
Muslims fired up with the right kind of Islamic character will be the greatest workers and managers as well as farmers, factory hands and landowners. They will be the most visionary and at the same time the most practical economic planners and institution builders.
And they will be legendary leaders in the world of finance. At the same time, they will also be unrivaled designers and practitioners of social support networks for all. You can see that I am deliberately staying away from using dubious expressions such as “Social Engineers.”
These Muslims will be great soldiers, strategists and commanders, even as they work diligently and tirelessly to better and improve the neighborhoods and communities in which they live. They will be the best judges and policemen and the finest civil servants and tradesmen.
They will be the best husbands and wives; parents and offspring; neighbors and friends; colleagues and fellow-workers’ as well as supervisors and subordinates.
They will not pass by objects and events in this world as mere spectators or disinterested tourists. Instead, they will carry the burden of everyone and everything in this world on their shoulders.
And they will feel everyone’s pain and go to everyone’s rescue.
In a word, these newly minted Muslims, cast in the old mold of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and his noble Companions, will be people whom the earth in turn will carry on her shoulders with great pride and joy. The birds in the skies and the fish in the oceans will bless them everyday and sing their praise and the glory of their lives and deeds to Allah, their creator.
They will not destroy the earth and its environment, no matter how great the temptation. Nor will they plunder or waste its resources, no matter how strong their desire to do so. They will not be makers of mischief or corruption on earth. Instead, they will fill the world with the divine message of hope and love that proclaims, a la Qur’an, to all those who can hear: “Sinners of the world! Despair not. For, God Almighty stands ready to forgive everything.”
What a people these new kind of Muslims will be! As individuals, groups, organizations, nations and societies! And what a wonderful world they will build – not just for themselves but for everyone everywhere.
In a word, they will be Muslims. Pure and simple. And they will be Mu’mins. Meaning: They will be those who submit to God in every way. And they will be those who believe in God in every way.
Next Article: Amazing People of an Amazing Land
Previous Article: Whither Indian Muslims – Part Two
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