We are Muslims -- and This Is Our Jihad!
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?)
We are Muslims!
And we are the Commandment Keepers!
You will find us slaving away on these e-mails, which we write day and night.
Raising questions and doubts.
Clarifying issues and explaining points.
And checking and correcting facts.
Doing our desperate best to make Pasha Hour International-Live From America! happen -- and make it happen right -- week after week, month after month, year after year.
Even when those with illusions of power -- such as certain deluded governments in some parts of the world -- arbitrarily take away our time slots on our customary days, the time slots we bought and paid for a year in advance, and for which all parties signed on the dotted line, including those who stole our usual time slots in such a whimsical and dictatorial manner, signed and sealed in contracts that are sacred and legally binding, and that are enforceable by law, before God and Man as they say.
But who is to challenge or fight those drunk with delusions of power?
Those who so easily seem to forget what God Almighty did to the Pharaoh in times gone by.
And to the other more recent tyrants and dictators such as our own President Nixon, who was trapped with his fingers in the Cookie Jar of lies.
Or that Master Puppet of Ours in Iran who used to call himself the King of Kings -- Shahinshah -- and who so shamelessly, and for so long, tortured and sold his own people, and plundered and squandered their national treasures, at the behest and direction of his masters, minders and handlers.
Or slaving away, as so many of us do, days, weeks and months, one after the other, over our publications and books, checking spelling, looking for errors, getting the title pages right, making sure our work meets the best and highest standards of professional excellence, keenly aware that what does not measure up to the highest standards of human excellence may not meet with divine approval.
Or sitting, all alone, in dark and dimly lit rooms, in distant parts of God's earth, countless hours, week after week, year after year, forever and ever, trying to clean up the substandard and quality-compromised tapes of Pasha Hour International broadcasts, catching and cleaning up the glitches, making them at least bearable and listenable, if not actually enjoyable and fun -- and posting them on www.IslamicSolutions.Com, so the world will have access to them, when and as it pleases.
And doing all this patiently, painstakingly, with all kinds of disappointments and heartbreaks along the way.
This is our Jihad!
You hear, this is our Jihad?
That is part of our indefatigable and all-out struggle to make this world a better place for every Jew, Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Atheist and all.
That is who we are: Muslims.
Simple, basic, no-frill, the least and most ordinary of all Muslims, with no claims or pretensions to any higher degree or standard of anything either in our belief or behavior.
Just infinitely and eternally grateful for the fact, may God Almighty make it so, that God showed us a few things in life about his Deen (what people call "Religion") and about his Dunya (his World), for, Deen always works in Dunya, and those who do not understand the Dunya cannot hope to understand the Deen, and gave us the ability and guidance, and showed us the direction and the path (Tawufeeq) to act on them.
There is nothing in our hearts, and there is not a thing on our minds or agendas, other than infinite gratitude and humility over what God Almighty gave us, and a tearful plea that he will never, ever, take it away from us and he will never, ever, abandon us or leave us to our own devices.
Rabbanaa Laa Tuzigh Quloobanaa Ba'ada Idh Hadayitanaa!
And that is how we fulfill the Commandment of the Qur'an to do Amr Bil Ma'roof and Nahy 'Anil Munkar -- in the times we are and in the places we are, and such as we are: infinitely flawed and fallible and bumbling and tentative and groping so often in the dark.
For, nonetheless, we are the Commandment Keepers!
Even as Muslims as a whole, the entire community of Muslims, the Ummat of Islam, are the Keepers of the Commandments of God -- in the Bible and in other Divine Texts -- even as the rest of the world has turned its back on those Divine Commandments, and abandoned and walked away from many of them, using one pretext or another, including many of those who claim to be the official heirs, custodians and followers of these Commandments -- in the Bible and other Divine Texts.
Will someone please tell the Grandmother Sellers this? These habitual Breakers of the Divine Commandments -- in the Bible and other Divine Texts?
All those dime-a-dozen mercenaries, the shameless hacks, the fraudulent flacks, the politicians and other functionaries of dubious credentials and damaged moral fiber (I do not use words like wh----, you know) who malign and bad-mouth every sacred and time-honored tenet of Islam such as Jihad, and so many others?
And do all this for a buck as they say, or for a job, or in the service of some kind of false religious affiliation or pseudo political purpose?
Please do tell them this.
And tell them this is who we are: Muslims. And this is what we do.
We keep the Commandments -- in the Bible and other Divine Texts.
And this is our Jihad: Jihad Fi Sabeelillah -- fighting to the finish in the noble and glorious path of Allah (God Almighty)!
And tell them there is still time for them to join us and to lock hands with us in the pursuit of Truth and Justice -- FOR ALL.
For, an uncompromising commitment to Truth and Justice is the secret to true Patriotism, real Divinity and Religion, and to a truly Civilized and Honorable Way of Life on Earth.
Just as the Qur'an says:
"Be Champions of Justice and Truth and Spokespeople for God -- God's Clarion Voice on God's Earth!"
Koonoo Qawwaameena Bil Qisti, Shuhadaa-a Lillah!
Tell them we are Muslims and this is our Jihad.
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