Muslims of India,
Why Will You Not Help Your Brother?

Muslims of India,
Why Will You Not Help Your Brother?

Dr. Pasha

(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)

Helping a Brother in Trouble

Muslims of India, why will you not help your “brother” in trouble?

It seems to me, reading the newspapers, that there are any number of your “brothers” in India who appear to be in deep, deep trouble.

I am referring to all those young men with Muslim names who are cited in newspapers as being accused of rape and gang-rape in India by the police.

Muslims of India, why are you not helping these troubled, misguided young men sharing your names and ostensibly your “religion,” and perpetrating these evil, abominable acts on their own fellow-Indian mothers, sisters and daughters?

Why are the Muslims of India silent on this issue?

Hadith:
“Help Your 'Brother’ Regardless of Whether He Is Right Or Wrong!”

Muslims of India, don’t you know what the Hadith says? It says, in the clearest terms:

“Help your 'brother’ regardless of whether he is right or wrong! Regardless of whether he is Zaalim or Mazloom!”

And you don’t seem to be doing that.

You are not helping your young Muslim “brothers” who are accused of committing these most heinous of crimes – the crime of rape and gang-rape.

Understanding the Meaning of the Hadith

The point I am making is this: Young Muslim men are in trouble. They are doing things they should not be doing. They are clearly doing Zulm and doing wrong things.

The Question everyone should be asking is this:

“In such a situation, what should Muslims of India – “brothers” of these misguided young men – do?”

And the loud and clear answer that comes to us from the Hadith is this:

“They should help their misguided – Zaalim – Muslim brothers.”

But then how do you help a Zaalim? How do you help someone who is clearly doing something wrong?

That was precisely the question the Companions asked the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.

The Companions said:

“Ya, Rasulallah!

We understand we must help our Mazloom brothers, but how do we help our Zaalim brothers?

How do we help our brothers when they are doing a Zulm, when they are committing a patently wrong and egregious act?”

To which the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, replied readily:

“Grab the hand of your Zaalim brother and stop him from doing Zulm.

Stop him from doing the wrong things he is doing!”

Question to Muslims of India

So, the question I am asking the Muslims of India is this:

Muslims of India!

How are you grabbing the hand of your Zaalim brothers and preventing them from committing acts of rape and gang-rape – if any of the newspaper reports are true?

What social, psychological and “religious” programs do you have in place to help your young brothers to see the folly of their errant ways and to reform and change them into better human beings and better Muslims?

Role of Muslim Political Parties and Leaders in India’s Rape Crisis

India clearly is in the grip of a Rape Crisis.

While every Indian, male and female, and every civilized human being everywhere, has a role to play in ending this spate of violence against Indian women by Indian men, Muslims of India have a particularly urgent duty to perform.

Muslims of India are part of the Khair Ummah, the Best People, that God created for Other People: to make life better for all people on earth in every possible way.

That is the very purpose of their existence on earth.

And this issue does not concern Muslims of India alone, but all Muslims in all places on earth.

And if Muslims of India, and all other Muslims everywhere else, fail to do their duty in this regard, history will judge them harshly.

And Allah’s punishment on them will be swift and severe.

Questions for India’s Muslims

 I have more questions that I ask the Muslims of India. Among them are the following:

What are the Muslim social, secular and political leaders and parties such as the Muslim League of Kerala and Muttahida Muslim Mahaaz of Hyderabad and others doing about addressing the issue of Muslim-sounding names in rape and gang-rape activities?

And about training and reeducating and reforming Muslim young men?

What are Muslim religious leaders and organizations such as the Jama’at Islami and Tableeghi Jama’at and others doing to help?

What are some of the programs they all have instituted for this purpose and what is the nature, content and focus of these programs?

Are the programs they have in place, if they do have them, really useful and effective?

For how long have they had them and just how do they go about evaluating them?

Muslims of India Must Reform Themselves

There is not a doubt how grievously Muslims of India have suffered over the last half century or more.

No one with any sense of justice in their blood or with an iota of patriotism and national love and pride in their heart can deny or belittle the pain and injustices suffered by Indian Muslims over the years.

But at the same time, no one with any sense of right and wrong, and certainly no one with any understanding of the divine teachings of Islam can doubt or deny that, all their suffering notwithstanding, Indian Muslims must urgently and fairly comprehensively reform themselves.

They must take immediate and effective steps to change the way so many of their young men seem to be behaving.

And these efforts at reforming Muslim youth need to take place in every Indian village and town and city.

Where Are the Muslim Voices?

And how come I am not hearing a crescendo of Muslim voices being raised against this outrage? The association of Muslim-sounding names in connection with the sickness of rape and gang-rape activities in India?

Is the Jama’at Islami raising its prestigious and powerful voice against this phenomenon?

Is the Tableegh?

Is the Muslim League?

Is the Muslim Mttahida Mahaaz?

Are all the Muslim Madrasahs sensitizing their students and the Muslim communities around them on this issue?

Are all the Mowlanas and Imams raising this issue in their Khutbahs from the Mimbar?

And where are all the Muslim leaders from UP and Bihar and Tamil Nadu and Kerala and all the other parts of India?

Muslims! Now is the time to speak up and to speak out.

Let History Hear and Record Your Outrage

Let history hear and record your voice of anger and outrage against the scourge of rape and gang-rape in India in general.

And against the association of Muslim-sounding names with that scourge in particular.

Speak up now, Muslims, when your voice is needed, and when it can, and will, be heard.

Or history will silence you forever!

Hear the stark warning of the Qur’an:

Nastabdil Qawuman Ghairakum,

Thumma Laa Yakoonoo Amthaalakum!

Paraphrase:

“God will replace you with others, and, then, those other people will not be like you.”

END