By: Saffiya Ismail
2015-01-19 11:34
Leaders in Muslim countries, in their quest for power have become
greedy. They feed their pockets whilst safely tucked away in their
golden empires.
The clerics dish out fatwas like its naan bread.
We get ridiculed for fatwas passed. They cause more confusion than
anything else.
If you question their stances on issues – when
they condone certain actions, yet condemn others - you get labelled as a
sell-out.
Many of us may take it as an insult to be labelled but
the reality is that it is how we are labelled by others – "how they see
us, is how they perceive us to be".
The labels Sunni, Shia,
Wahhabi, Sufi, etc. etc. etc. divide us and that is what causes
non-Muslims to criticise us, ostracise us and paint us all with the same
brush.
Then you get the liberals, the moderates, the radicals, the fundamentalist, those who behave like barbarians.
Who is right?
Contrary
to the happenings to date, the teachings of Islam has clearly laid down
the foundation to unite humanity in one social fabric irrespective of
race, national or tribal origin and colour.
Unfortunately, the situation today is that the Muslim Ummah is at odds with itself at all levels.
We
see the disdain shown about the shootings in Paris, again I reiterate, a
dead innocent is a dead innocent, and no matter how bitter a pill this
is to swallow for some.
From Saudi Arabia, to Qatar, UAE, Egypt, Turkey and list continues, there was a collective voice on how wrong this act was.
However
we are mum about Boko Haram massacres, ethnic cleansing in CAR, which
happened in the same week. Where their lives less important?
Islam
is not about extremism, fundamentalism, and the other –ism’s people
create. It’s about being on the "straight path" as defined by Quran and
the Prophet, when we try to carve out different paths we stray away from
the "oneness".
Instead of showing unity … we are allowing a
percentage of those "who proclaim" to be the custodians of our religion;
to butcher its doctrines; in the name of "Allah".
The rest of
us are still fixated on whether he or she is a hardliner, liberal,
Sunni, Shia, Hijabi, Tablighi, or Sufi. A large chasm separates all
these groups.
When will the Muslims stand together united, cut
the divides, put our differences aside and fight those who claim to be
Muslims yet are doing everything contrary to what our Quran states.
Right
now I am stepping on a minefield. I will have non-Muslims taking every
opportunity to criticise, defame, ridicule, and ostracise everything I
believe in and what I stand for, and I will have my fellow Muslims,
saying "how dare she?". Bottom line is that I am a Muslim, my philosophy
is "love all and hate none".
Our aim should be to tear down
the walls of separation, to be on a journey of self-discovery, to unveil
the hidden treasures which lie within us in order to fuse a union with
our Creator. Instead we fight each other.
To listen to the plight
of the oppressed, to help the needy, and to fill the stomachs of the
hungry. The man who does these three things may consider himself a
friend of Allah.
First he should have generosity like a river;
secondly, kindness like the sun and, thirdly, humility like the earth.
The man who is blessed is the man who is generous. - Moinuddin Christi
We engage in endless and senseless debates of trying to make haram as halal and halal as haram.
We
are pulled in discussions, because of all that’s happening around us in
the name of our faith, in our heads we know the answers, but we still
refuse to say it out loud. We feed the islamophobics.
Our priorities obviously have become lopsided.
We
are allowing this to happen. We are allowing people to take Quranic
verses out of context, we allow radicals to deny women the right to
education they need.
We are allowing the kidnapping and rape of young girls in Nigeria. We are allowing the massacre of Rohingya Muslims.
We are allowing the butchering of Muslims in CAR, We are allowing a leader to get away with slaughtering innocents in Syria.
The
fact that Guantanamo Bay is still in existence, says a lot about us
all. Crooked cultural norms have been made people overvalue the worldly
rewards, with the thrill for more power and money.
The biggest
failure of our time will be that we fail to understand each other. We
are entrusting our lives, our children and grandchildren lives to a
percentage who claim to have a better understanding of our religion.
We are entrusting radical, fundamentalists, terrorists, backward thinking people with our lives.
Why?
Just
as we wouldn’t trust our health with doctors who possess little
knowledge, or a pilot who has 100 flying hours with a limited knowledge
of flying and leave him to interpret the "dummies guide to flying".
How are we then entrusting everything we are and we believe to those who twist verses to suit themselves.
The Glorious Qur’an says:
"And hold fast, all together, by the rope
Which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves;"
[Al-Qur'an 3:103]
The Glorious Qur’an says:
"As
for those who divide their religion and break up into sects, thou hast
no part in them in the least: Their affair is with Allah: He will in the
end tell them the truth of all that they did."
[Al-Qur'an 6:159]
It
is a fact that Muslims today, are divided amongst themselves. The
tragedy is that such divisions only fuels those who can use it against
us.
When will we realise that enough is enough hold them
responsible and pull together to help cultivate an environment full of
unity.
We live in a world peopled by 'man' – a world full of
chaos, destruction, war, ethnic passions and naked greed. But, in the
midst of all this, a powerful force beckons each of us to become more
than man. ~ Dr Ali Ansari.
