Day 30: Responding the Qur'an Burning Threat

Article Summary:

This article considers the proposed Qur'an Burning Event by an American Christian Church and provides a Muslim's response. It further explores the various historical attempts by the Church and the Evangelical Missionaries to undermine Islam and the reactions of the Muslims. It finally addressed the Muslims on how to and how not to react to the current threat. This article is written purely from a Muslim's perspective.

The Qur'an Burning event by an Evangelical Church is definitely an emotional torture. Seeing what you love being trashed in such ghastly manner is very emotionally challenging. Hearts will be hurt, tears will be secretly shed. Try the following tips to enable a meaningful and civil response to the situation:

Tip #1 - Know their purpose and do not make them achieve their vain purpose:

The Event is intended to make Muslims angry and overreact, therefore do not be angry and just take this as a test of strength. Be strong in the face of torture!

Tip #2 - Understand that these people are ignorant and extremist in their thinking:

All extremists, be they Muslims, Christians, Zionists, Hindi etc are ignorant. Understand this, pity them and think of how to enlighten them with patience and intellect.

Tip #3 - Gauge Your Reaction:

Muslims are expected to live within standards moderated by the God's Words (as contained in the Qur'an) and the examples set by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) called the Sunnah. Think of how God encourages dialogue and with wisdom and beautiful oratory (Qur'an Chapter 16 verse 125).

Tip #4 - Employ Legal Tools and Follow Procedures:

All societies are structured to be able to promote harmony and protect its citizens. There are legal means of preventing such hateful incitements. Seek these and follow procedures and achieve your purpose in such a way that it will prevent any such events even in the future.

Tip #5 - Be Positive and Think Positive: Every bad situation will have its opportunity. See the brighter side of this publicity that the Qur'an will get, and espouse its lovely contents. Show what its says about things that are important to everyone.

Read the full article at: www.muslimmessage.blogspot.com 

Day 29: The Heart @ Peace

Fasting in Ramadan disciplines the body and the soul to acquire humane spirit of fellow feeling and a desire to attain a peace in the mind, peace in the community and peace in the world. Islam facilitates a peaceful status quo as a result of surrendering the hearts, souls and society to the obedience of God. The greeting of Islam is “peace be upon you” and the institutions within Islam strives to establishes global brotherhood of people of diverse races, language, culture and background. There are no artificial and material segregation, there is inter-marriage, because the more you interact, the more tolerant and at-home you are wherever you go.

The heart at peace is a heart that is not hateful, but humbled; not self-serving, but social solution driven. The heart which treats every God-created human being as people - not de-humanised objects. This precisely is the key to unlocking that heart at peace. Hence, the Qur'an provides guidance on human interaction to protect and every body, to show respect and have a feel for other people. God says: “O you who believe! Let not a folk deride a folk who may be better than they (are), nor let women (deride) women who may be better than they are; neither defame one another, nor insult one another by nicknames. Bad is the name of lewdness after (you have attained) faith. And whoso turns not in repentance, such are evil-doers. O you who believe! Shun much suspicion; for some suspicion is a crime. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the flesh of his dead brother? You abhor that (so abhor the other)! And keep your duty (to Allah). Lo! Allah is Relenting, Merciful. O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Verily, the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware.” (Qur'an 49 verses 11-13)

During conflicts, we are mandated to still see people as human deserving of respect and justice, we may hate their actions, but we can still deal with the action without dehumanising them or condemning their entirety. Remember, they may be your enemies today; they may turn out to be your friends tomorrow. Therefore, they may be holding different opinion or position from you, but they are still like you because they are driven by their experience, by their needs and aspirations. They have families and loved ones like you and just like you they may be a victim of their upbringing, their experience or their reality which they may not have any control over.

Avoid personalising the issues, particularly if the issues are nothing personal. Offences against God is not personal. God himself is aware of their misdeeds, but He let them be for a purpose. God states clearly, “… if any reject Faith let not his rejection grieve thee: to Us is their return and We shall tell them the truth of their deeds: for Allah knows well all that is in (men's) hearts.” (Qur'an 31 verse 23) Therefore, their misdeed cannot be an excuse for justifying your warring hearts including injustice to them. God says, “And let not your hatred of a folk …seduce you to transgress; but help ye one another unto righteousness and pious duty. Help not one another unto sin and transgression, but keep your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is severe in punishment.” (Qur'an 5 verse 2)

Hatred is not always only directed at people on the other side. Many of our hearts are weighed down because of relationship with people very close to us. While warring with close relatives, we are instructed to still protect them, do our duty as usual and always keep in mind they are human. God says in Qur'an 64 verse 14: “O you who believe! Truly among your wives and your children are (some that are) enemies to yourselves: so beware of them! But if you forgive and overlook and cover up (their faults) verily God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

The heart at peace cannot be reached without two key ingredients. First, anyone seeking a peaceful heart must see everyone as equals to himself or herself and also treat everyone the same way. Secondly, such a person must increase their stewardship towards all of God’s creation. When you heartily and sincerely serve people, you will feel them and see the humanity in them. 

An example of a heart at peace is the heart of Saladin Al-Ayubi. There was an interesting discussion on his gallantry and humane-ness from the chapter titled Peace in Wartime in the book, The Anatomy of Peace: How to Resolve the Heart of Conflict by the Arbinger Institute (pages 20 to 28). It made an interesting read and further beautiful exploitation of the theme “The Heart @ Peace.”

- Contributed by Shamsideen AbuSuad, UK.

Day 27: Is Islam Practicable Today?

I shall now touch upon …whether Islam can achieve supremacy in the modern world, whether the other communities of mankind can be expected to embrace Islam, and how, and whether, Islam is a practicable creed in the present age?

We should be clear that we cannot expect the rest of mankind to offer to embrace Islam without any effort on our part. Indeed, no community ever made any such offer during any period of the history of Islam. Even the Prophet of Islam did not receive any spontaneous response when he first called mankind to the path of Islam. Great movements that seek to revolutionize human society and the ways of men can succeed only if they have behind them a powerful personality who is determined to break the resistance of fossilized tradition and to change the shape of things and the course of the events. Take Communism, for instance. It sought to bring about radical changes to make a clean sweep of private property and bring all wealth under state control. And yet, when some powerful persons set themselves to the task and resolved to achieve the end at all cost, they succeeded. There is therefore no reason why an Islamic revolution should not be successful in the present age.

Similarly, the question whether Islam is a practicable creed in the present-day world is clearly absurd. Islam has always been a practicable religion and will remain practicable for all times to come. The point is whether there is any nation in the world today that is prepared to adopt the Islamic way of life totally and without any reservations. As I observed earlier, the starting point of the history of Islam as a world force was the acceptance by the whole Arab nation of the social, economic, political and cultural system of Islam and its willingness to mould individual character and communal life in harmony with the principles of the new Faith. That nation not only rallied round the banner of Islam but also resolved to carry that banner into the outside world, to dedicate itself to the cause of Islam and to die for it if necessary.

Similarly, if any community of men today adopts Islam in its entirety, organizes its life and conduct fully in accordance with Islamic principles, and dedicates itself totally to the cause, there is no reason why the rest of mankind should not be persuaded to embrace and adopt Islam today. It is, of course, impossible to achieve anything merely though discourses and discussion and pugilistic writings, indeed, even to convince others that Islam is still practicable. But if we can establish in time and space a system of life truly embodying the ideals, principles and doctrines of Islam, all right-minded people are bound to be attracted by it and, in course of time, to accept it.

Since, by God's will, I was born in this particular nation and belong to it, it is but natural for me to wish and pray that my nation should have the proud privilege of leading an Islamic revolution in the present age, of being the first of the present day nations to adopt Islam in its totality, and to set up a model Islamic society which should serve as an example and a beacon for the rest of mankind.

(Extract from Islam Today by Abul A'la Maududi, an analysis of the past, present and future of Islam in a lecture delivered in Karachi on December 10, 1963)

Day 24: The World @ War

“…there is no blame on them if they arrange an amicable settlement between themselves; and such settlement is best; even though men's souls are swayed by greed.  But if ye do good and practice self-restraint Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” (Qur'an 4 verse 128)

We are in a warring world, where anger is more likely than favour, where war equipments are more than food-farming equipment and where in almost all countries, the defence budget is higher than the health budget and research into destructive weapons has far more funding than research into weapons of enlightenment & progressive skills of reading, writing and access to education. However, since we went unashamedly into war with our own blood and neighbours, ethnic, race and citizenry and even fellow-adherents, nature has since joined in the destruction. The massive catastrophes are all unfolding all at once from the Pakistani flood, China’s landslides, Russia’s heat wave cum wildfires etc.

Rarely do you find peaceful hearts in today’s world: a heart without anger, hatred or malice of anyone or anything. Rarely! Hardly!! Start with yourself, is your heart completely free of antagonism towards anyone or anything?

Yet, a pure and peaceful is the guaranteed way of a glimpse of hope that you may be headed towards Paradise. The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) was sitting with a group of the companions and he said "A man will now enter who is from the people of Paradise." Just then a companion walked in. This happened again the next day. Another companion named 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'Aas wanted to find out what was so special about this man. So he asked the man if he can stay over his house for 3 days making up some excuses. The man allowed him to stay. 'Abdullah noticed that the man didn't do anything out of the ordinary: He didn't fast all the time, he didn’t pray all night, etc. So after the third day, 'Abdullah told him what the Prophet (peace be upon him) said about him and his desire to find out why he has been described as from the People of Paradise. The man couldn't think of anything, but after a while he said perhaps it may be because he does not go to sleep with any ill-feelings towards anyone from his heart and his willingness to forgive anyone who has done anything wrong towards him. This is a Man with a Heart at Peace, this is a Man from the People of Paradise.

To have a world free of war, communities must be populated by hearts at peace. This cannot and will never happen by accident, but must be a deliberate and calculated effort. Ramadan is a tool for achieving such sublime, selfless and peaceful hearts. We Muslims have the mandate to lead this change as part of our destined purpose as God’s vicegerent or stewards on God’s earth. My intention is to encourage hate-free hearts this Ramadan, hope you will try to join me in this effort.

“And the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility and when the ignorant address them they say "Peace!"” (Qur'an 25 verse 63)

Contributed by Shamsideen AbuSuad, UK.