Our Self-Appointed Mission:
Explaining Islam to the World!

 

Our Self-Appointed Mission:
Explaining Islam to the World!

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?)

Whatever I say, and whatever I write, I have, for several years now, imposed upon myself the Mission of Explaining Islam to the World: One Concept, One Idea, One Simple Thought and Notion at a Time.

In general, to stay away from practices -- Islamic Practices -- is a decision I made after some careful thought. 

But let me make this clear: 

For Muslims, English-Speaking Muslims that is, to refer to Salaah or Namaz, or perhaps even Siyaam and Hajj and Zakat, as "Rituals" is a horrendous enough crime whose enormity may make the entire universe go into a convulsion.

If Non-Muslims in the West use that expression, that is their business. Maybe they don't know better. And that is the best word they can come up with.

Or maybe they do know better, but use the word Ritual anyway to denigrate and discredit the great, unmatched and inimitable Islamic Fundamentals as part of their centuries-old anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agenda and psychological warfare against Islam and Muslims.

Furthermore, poor people, Non-Muslims of the West, all they have are a handful of "Rituals" of all kinds, most of them empty and meaningless, and almost all of them man-made.

But Islamic Practices such as Salaah and Siyaam are made in Heaven, by Almighty God himself. Their concept is divine; their plan, structure and format are divine; their content is divine; and the nomenclature is divine.

And they are all part of God Almighty's immortal book: The Qur'an. 

I consider them all part of the broad expression in the Qur'an: 

Huwa Sammaakumul Muslimeen.

Meaning, not only the content but also the very names and titles of Islamic practices, came directly from Almighty Allah.

For example:

Kutiba Alaikumus Siyaam is Qur'an.

Aqeemus Salaah is Qur'an.

Aatuz-Zakaah is Qur'an.

Wa Lillahi Alan-Naasi Hijjul Baiti is Qur'an.

And these are the things Muslims, following their Non-Muslim Mentors in the West, glibly, blindly and foolishly refer to as "Rituals"? Muslims should be quaking in their boots every time they utter such abominations.

So, for Muslims to repeat this folly of "Rituals" in relation to some of the most fundamental and mandatory Ibaadaat -- or Worship Modes for lack of a better expression -- specified in the Qur'an is a crime for which Muslims will have to turn to Allah in deep repentance: Taubah!

So, I have taken it upon myself to try and explain some of the most basic and fundamental notions of Islam to both Muslims and non-Muslims of the world.

And do so as simply, as directly and as clearly as I can.

And do so, as far as possible, using nothing but the Aayats of the Qur'an.

I bring in the Hadith, in some cases, as needed, to provide additional emphasis, clarification, detail or explanation. Otherwise, the Qur'an, I find over and over again, is self-sufficient, all by itself.

As for other sources, such as the views and opinions of this or that scholar of the West or the East, I simply see no need for them. I don't even see how they can enhance or add to what Allah and his Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, have said.

And no one is more acutely or painfully aware of my own personal, moral, spiritual and intellectual limitations in this regard than myself. I know and understand full well how limited I am, and how flawed I am, in every sphere of thought and action, speech and behavior, Ilm and Amal, intellect and skill.

And yet I have to do what I have to do, and what I am able to do, dealing as best as I can with my own personal inadequacies and deficiencies, to make some basic Islamic concepts clear to the world.

It is all part of, no matter how infinitesimally small a part, of making Allah's Deen come alive to the world -- in each age and era and in every nook and cranny of the world.

Imam Ghazzali, Rahmatullahi Alaihi, did monumental work in this field. As did so many others. 

Imam Ghazzali's encyclopedic compilation, Ihyaa Uloomid-Deen, remains a major Islamic intellectual, cultural and spiritual landmark, and a perennial source of Barakat and blessings to both the Muslims and non-Muslims of this world.

It is clear that none of us is a Ghazzali or a Shah Waliullah Dehlawi. But we all need to pitch in whatever we can within the range and scope of our own abilities, skills, resources and Tawufeeq.

Amazing how a Hadith Sharif makes this concept crystal clear to the whole world. This concept of shared responsibility for reform and change on the part of everyone everywhere.

Kullukum Raa-in. 
Wa Kullukum Mas-oolun An Ra-iyyatihi.

Paraphrase:

Everyone of you is a shepherd.
And everyone of you will be held accountable for your own flock.

Meaning, Wallahu A'lam, for your own neck of the woods. For your own little patch of the grass, as it were. For your own slice of the world over which you may have a measure of control or jurisdiction.

So, the basic idea is this: 

Do what you can;
However you can;
Wherever you can;
Using whatever tools and techniques you can,
So long as they are legal, moral and, in a word, Islamic.

So, it is in that spirit that I have imposed upon myself this Mission of Explaining Islam to the World. This Self-Appointed Mission.

And what do I expect in return? Not a thing!

If Allah accepts my work, and blesses it with his Barakat, Alhamdulillah. If, on the other hand, he finds it wanting and deficient, as every human effort is bound to be, and decides to dispose of it differently, again my approach is: Alhamdulillah.

I have nothing to say, and I hope and pray this will forever be the case, but:

Fa-Lillahil Hamdul Rabbis Samaawaati
Wa Rabbil Ardi
Rabbil Aalameen.

So, Allah has made Qur'an my refuge, and my Safe House. And I couldn't be happier. And more satisfied and contented with the outcome.

I went through decades and decades of pain and suffering, and frustration and disappointment, and wandering in the wilderness of spiritual and intellectual solitude, loneliness and aridity, before Almighty Allah brought me to this point. 

I can understand it if others do not get what I am saying here. 

But I consider it Allah's greatest blessing on me that I am finally, and I hope and pray it is irrevocable, and it is my final abode, under the all-compassing shade of the Qur'an.

It is not a cop out, as some may use that expression, to hide behind the Qur'an. 

That I am using the Qur'an to avoid the hard work of having to make use of the great intellectual Heritage of Humanity, both from the East as well as from the West.

Far from that.

Don't forget I found the Qur'an, or rather the Qur'an took me in, after I had exhausted, more or less that is, the explanations and solutions the great Intellectual, Philosophical and Scientific Traditions of the world had to offer.

When they all came up short, that is when the Qur'an came to my rescue. And that too not without a most excruciating, painful and prolonged struggle extending over decades.

It is then that it became clear to me that much of the world was a prisoner of ignorance. And it was still toiling under its burden of research and proof, clarity and explanation.

And it was also then that I decided to make the Qur'an my beginning and my end. In this, I follow the Aayat Karimah: 

Huwal Awwalu wal Aakhiru.

And also to make the Qur'an the basis of my agenda, both in relation to what is open and meets the eye as well as what is hidden and does not meet the eye. And in this, I follow the other part of that same Aayat Karimah:

Waz-Zaahirul wal Baatinu.

So, Alhamdulillah for the Qur'an. 

And Alhamdulillah for the Hadith. 

And Alhamdulillah for all the most amazing exposure I was given to all the great literary and intellectual storehouses and traditions of both the East and the West in several languages.

But Ilm is an ocean without a coast or a shore or a land in sight. How far one is able to swim in that ocean is, like everything else, decided by Allah. The nature of this ocean is that the farther you go, the farther you want to go.

And the farther you need to go.

How beautifully the Qur'an frames this notion, Subhaana Rabbis Samaawaati Wal-Ardi Rabbil Arshi Ammaa Yasifoon, when it says:

Wa Qur-Rabbi Zidnee Ilmaa!

And when it says:

Wa Fawuqa Kulli Dhee Ilmin Aleem.

END