All opinions are that of the author and not necessarily those of the website that it is published under.
In the name of Allah
The news of the day that is depriving people from having peace of mind is about Muslims. The trouble maker who is creating mischief in the land is reported to be a Muslim.
Ironically, the same people who were supposed to be mercy to mankind and whose the name of their religion itself is derived from Salam meaning peace, have been turned into a menace to the world.
The image has deteriorated to the point that insulting, defaming and dehumanizing their faith has been incorporated into the package of freedom of expression.
When hate against a community gains such momentum, things turn ugly down the road.
Aside from blaming others, Muslims must do self-analysis and conduct self-assessment as to why the image of the beautiful deen has been made to look ugly and repulsive.
There are many ailments of the community as a whole which has contributed to the situation that we are in.
Muslims have abandoned the true teachings of Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him. They have only held tight to superficial aspects and have abandoned the rooh, the spirit of the deen.
We have become like a man who boast about his luxurious automobile. Everyone is amazed by its beauty but not realizing that while the vehicle looks fancy, it has no real value as the engine itself is missing.
The situation of Muslims of today has become pathetic. You will see them arguing about beard, quarrelling about Niqab, almost creating Third World War due to moon sighting disputes, nearly killing each other over the length of the trouser, and taking each other out of the fold of Islam for not seeing eye to an eye on trivial matters.
If you visit any mosque you will think that you are in a separate country in itself. You will never hear anything to do with other mosques even in the same neighborhood. You will get the impression that only this particular mosque is the guided one while every other institution is bound to hell.
To be saved you have to agree with my particular jamaat. To be more specific even the jamaat itself is deviated except three of its followers which include myself and the “Sheikh.”
And to be more precise and accurate, only me, myself and I have the ultimate guarantee of admission to Jannat while everyone else including the mullah himself are off the fold of salvation. The ailment of extremism we suffer goes further. I pride myself to have discovered the real Islam, all other Muslims of the past, present and the future have missed the boat altogether.
Our image would have been different if we were the manifestation of the teachings of our prophet, peace be upon him. When we upheld such principles we made a remarkable difference in the world. That is why the product we were selling, the true Islam, has attracted humanity in different parts of the world.
Islam spread to all the corners of the world not through the internet, YouTube videos, and tweeter but through the proper conducts of Muslims who behaved as real Muslims.
If Prophet Mohammed behaved like the Muslims of today, the religion would not have spread the way it did. It would have been confined in the Arabian peninsula and would have died down and ended up in history books. The light would have lost its power over time. People would have found it repulsive and repugnant, exactly as they see it today primarily due to our behaviour.
This is exactly what the Prophet was warned in the Quran in Chapter 3, verse 159. Had he been harsh and rude with his people, they would have scattered away from him, the way people have acted towards us today.
Due to our misbehaving, we have tarnished the image of the jewel, the deen. We have even ruined the image of our Prophet, peace be upon him. He has been reviled due to our attitude.
We have hidden treasure in our hands. Our deen is beautiful. It attracts humanity when it is presented in its pure format. That is why our forefathers could not resist it when they came in contact with early Muslims who visited us as merchants. We are indebted to these early generations of Muslims who upheld the religion’s inner beauty and presented the real gemstone to our forefathers without any dust on it.
We would not have been blessed today with the religion if the Muslims our forefathers had interacted with were like the believers of today.
Muslims have to do self-criticism, redirect their focus and return to the real teachings of the faith and avoid trivial issues which have made people scatter away from us.
All opinions are that of the author and not necessarily those of the website that it is published under.
AA
I agree that we are in dire need of self-assessment, self-criticism and self-evaluation.
Every one talks a good game about self assessment but no one is coming out with practical Steps. Mr Ramadan one of the few of course, but as he concedes who has the authority to direct change going forward, not same old hot air about going back to the original community for all the examples truly unrealistic. Earlier scholars like Al Ghazali while being giant reformers in their time I feel were wrong to close the so called gate of IJTIHAD ultimately the reason why Islam has become so narrow, ridged FIQH obsessed faith WHO will save us? our Individual Self? Collectively by perhaps the Mehdi or will we be replaced as an UMMAH by another UNLIKE ourselves, just as Nabi Isa A.S came to reform the Jews because they in the end just lost the over all picture. I wish I had answer in the end only Allah SWT knows what is to come.