Wednesday 19 September 2012

The monster is inside us !



It’s amazing how easy it is for the world to make the Muslim ummah prance around at its command. They make a movie on our beloved Prophet, insult him, and hurt the sentiments of the Muslim Ummah and voila, the city is ablaze. Riots, violence, deaths erupt all over the city in protest against the movie, calling for the removal of the movie clips from the internet. I guess this is jihad, right? (as the protestors claim it to be) We take innocent lives just to prove our love for our religion and Prophet pbuh? I haven’t seen the movie clips and I don’t want to. Knowing that it insults our Prophet pbuh should be enough of a reason for any Muslim to not want to watch those videos so why then are we watching and sharing those videos and helping our enemies in their cause? Sometimes ignorance indeed is a bliss !
 I have been asking myself a question for quite some time now that why is it that the western world leaves no opportunity to ridicule our religion? And I come up with the same answer everytime. They ridicule our deen because we do the same. Harsh isn’t it? Well it’s the reality. We call ourselves Muslims yet we don’t even know the meaning of the word ISLAM and if we do, we fail to act according to its meaning.  We claim to be Muslims and the Ummah of the last Prophet pbuh yet are we really following the religion of the man we claim to be an ummah of? Today the mosques are vacant because we are out on the streets killing each other in the name of jihad and protests. Our so called peaceful demonstrations turn ugly within minutes. We believe that forwarding messages, joining facebook causes, signing petitions online make us good Muslims? Is that really what Islam is all about? For the past whole week I have been receiving crazy messages about how we can defeat the western world in their mission to defame Islam by boycotting youtube and google. Really? Is it that simple? A few million users not using Youtube for a few days is not going to make the enemies of Islam respect our religion and is not going to teach them any lesson. At most what it may do is a reduction in their profits and an understanding that Muslims are hurt and angry. And yes it may make them take down those offensive movie clips as well. But that does not serve the purpose entirely does it? They made an offensive movie about our religion and Prophet pbuh; why don’t we make a counter movie showing the beauty of our religion with the intent of spreading the message far and wide, way beyond the reach of the movie they made. Publicize that video through the same mediums and channels that they are using to defame our religion. This, I believe is how we defeat our enemies.
Defeating the west in the real sense means to make them understand what Islam is all about; make them see what Muslims are really made up of, make them acknowledge the fact that Islam indeed is a beautiful religion and our Prophet pbuh is no doubt the best role model. We really want to defeat the west? Defeat them through our morals, our ethics, our character and our slogan of peace.  The chaos created in the Muslim ummah today is what the west sees as entertainment; this is what they wanted and bravo to us for fulfilling this desire of theirs.  If we really want to promote our religion then why not start practicing it? Are we really the Ummah the Prophet wanted us to be? Why are the mosques vacant today? Why are the women unveiled and exposed? Why do the men have no sense of modesty? Why are Muslims killing their own brothers? Why are we adopting the pagan beliefs and western culture and traditions in our lives? Why has the Quran reached the topmost shelf in our homes? Where is the legacy of the Prophet pbuh?  There are so many questions we need to ask ourselves.
During the times of the Prophet pbuh he was called a magician, mad and many other obscene insults were hurled at him.  But did he or the Companions ever turn back at them and go out on protests and demonstrations? Did they call for public strikes? Did they engage in plans to boycott or take revenge from the disbelievers? NO!  They opted to ignore and with time their patience and sincerity towards the religion and Prophet pbuh earned them the respect of even the disbelievers. Can we claim to love the Prophet pbuh more than his Companions? If not then how can we do something they did not under the same circumstances? Nowhere in the Quran does it justify the kind of anger we are seeing on the streets today. Can we claim to have a stronger faith than the companions? Of course NOT! Our level of faith is nowhere even near the faith of the Companions. Then why are we reacting in a way that completely opposes their reaction in a similar situation?  What are we trying to prove? That we love our religion and our messengers so much that we are willing to take a few innocent lives? Set ablaze a few shops of the innocents? Call for strikes in the city and make each and every citizen crippled, by forcing them to not be able to to go out and earn a livelihood to feed their family? Think about the person who works on wages. He lost an entire day’s earning just because the ‘Muslims’ of the city decided to call for a strike to fight for the protection of the Prophet’s pbuh honour. Maybe it’s time we stop looking for monsters in our closets; they are inside us.
As Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan said: The film is offensive because it misrepresents Islam. Senseless violence and murder is offensive for the same reason.
 Unfortunately my anger is not at the idiot who made that movie. Rather he has my sympathies since he probably messed up all chances of having a blissful eternal life. But at the same time I feel sad and scared to see the condition we are in today. Aren’t we messing up our eternal lives as well by misrepresenting our religion by our actions and rage? If we love the Prophet pbuh then let’s vow to spread the message of peace, love and harmony. Let’s tell the world what our beautiful religion is all about. Let’s earn the respect of the entire non- Muslim world through our actions. Each one of us can do his part by spreading the beauty of the Seerah of our Prophet pbuh through words, actions, articles, messages, facebook statuses. So rather than sending messages about jihad and signing online petitions and joining causes let’s be productive. Let’s not encourage the enemies of Islam by viewing the movie clips. Let’s beat them at their own game. Let’s set an example for the entire world to see. I quote the status of a friend at facebook :  

“the disbelievers of Quraish, wrote poems vilifying Prophet Mohammed (Sallah Allah Alaihi Wa Sallam) and his companions (Radi Allahu Anhum), but those  poems did not reach us today because the Muslims then did not transmit them at that time and nor did they pay any attention. Consequently all such poems and words disappeared. We must deal with this offensive movie in the same way and not give it importance in order to avoid it from spreading further.”

there are many Muslims working out there spreading the message of Islam, of Allah and of His beloved Messenger pbuh. Let's join hands with them and help them in their cause with the hope of uplifitng the status of the downtrodden Muslims of today. I speak first and foremost for my own self when I say that may Allah make us capable of being practicing Muslims, may He guide us to the right path and may He protect the honour of His religion and Messengers. Ameen.