by Zaheer Jan
"(O' Muslims) Ye are the best of people evolved for mankind, enjoining what
is right, forbidding what is wrong, (and because ye are just with all
irrespective of their faith, nationality, skin color or sex) and you believe
in Allah . . ."(3:110)1.
Where have the Muslims gone? Scattered to the four winds they have
forgotten their glorious history. And, because they have forgotten their
glorious history they do not take pride in being Muslims in the modern
times. If only they knew. Scattered to the four winds they have lost all
that was noble in Islam. All that is left now are people who pride
themselves variously as followers of either Wahab or Maudoodi or Imam Ali or
Ahmed or the Agha Khan, etc., etc. Then there are those who call themselves
Bhoras and others Khojas or Memons or Deobundis. Then again there are
followers of Mullah Masood or Usama Bin Laden. Why is it that no one just
says: "We are Muslims, we follow what is revealed in the Quran and the acts
of Mohammed (pboh)", the messenger and prophet.
Each sect vies for being called the only true Muslim. Little heed do they
pay to the dictums of the Quran: "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"
(6:159)1. "And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood.
And I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me and no other" (23:52)1.
"But people have cut off their affair (of unity) among them, into sects;
each party rejoices in that which is with itself" (23:53)1. "But leave them
in their confused ignorance, for a time" (23:54)1. Do they think that
because we have granted them abundance of wealth and sons" (23:55)1. "We
would hasten them in every good? Nay they do not understand" (23:56)1.
Muslims were not and are not allowed to look down on the followers of other
religions. They were not and are not allowed to call themselves a 'Master
Race', as some nations have done through the annals of history. God did not
make them a chosen people either. Nor did He permit them to have a caste
system or a class system. No person shall be higher than another just
because of the accident of birth; no high priests, kings, queens, nor
princesses, was the law given to the Muslims. Only equality, freedom and
justice for all, irrespective of who you were. A simple enough caveat. The
Muslims of old embraced it without any reservation or equivocation and in a
short span of just eighty years, after the passing away of prophet Mohammed
(pboh) in 632, they had spread across most of the known world. It was the
power of their ideals that gave them this phenomenal success, not the power
of their arms. All humanity, from the inception of time itself, had been
hankering for justice and equality and these Muslims supplied it.
"Islam's great Caliph Omar Ibn Al Khatab gave Islam's teachings a practical
shape by showing justice and manifesting respect for other faiths. When
Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem from Christian Byzantines in 638, he
insisted that the three faiths of Abraham coexist. He refused to pray in
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher when he was escorted around the city by the
Greek Orthodox Patriarch. Had he done so, he explained, the Muslims would
have wanted to build a mosque there to commemorate the first Islamic prayer
in Jerusalem. The Jews found their new Muslim rulers far more congenial
than the Byzantines. The Christians had never allowed the Jews to reside
permanently in the city, whereas Omar invited 70 Jewish families back. The
Byzantines had left the Temple Mount in ruins and had even begun to use the
Temple Mount as a garbage dump. Omar, according to a variety of accounts,
was horrified to see this desecration. He helped clear it with his own
hands, reconstructed the platform and built a simple wooden mosque on the
Southern end, site of the al-Aqsa Mosque today"2.
Search the history of mankind, from its beginning till today, one will not
find a single example of the kind of justice and magnanimity of spirit that
was shown by Caliph Omar. Where have the Muslims gone?
"It was the Christian Europe of those times that felt threatened by the
civilizing spirit of Islam. Crusades were launched by Christian zealot
priests, jealous of the loss of their influence against the tide of Islamic
thought and progress. Although the crusades failed in their intended
purpose of liberating the Holy Land from the "infidels" (as the Christians
called the Muslims of that time) some good came of them. Contact with the
highly advanced civilizations of the Muslims stimulated the Europeans and
helped bring them out of their stagnation for the first time since the
ancient Roman Empire. When King Richard the Lion Heart of England was ill,
(in Jerusalem, 1193) the Muslim's Leader Saladin sent him fruit and snow
from the mountains and his personal physician..."3. King Richard, it is
chronicled, returned to England a chastened man. He said of Saladin, "You
cannot fight such a chivalrous and magnanimous foe"! This is the same king
at whose coronation in 1189 all Jews were massacred 4. Richard's sister
stayed behind and married Saladin's brother. Search the history of mankind
and you won't find another Saladin! Where have the Muslims gone?
Bernard Lewis, a prolific writer about Islamic History says, "Islam is one
of the World's greatest religion. Let me be explicit about what I, as a
historian of Islam who is not a Muslim, mean by that. Islam has brought
comfort and peace of mind to countless millions of men and women. It has
given dignity and meaning to drab and impoverished lives. It has taught
people of different races to live in brotherhood and people of different
creeds to live side by side in tolerance. It inspired a great civilization
in which others besides Muslims lived creative and useful lives and which,
by its achievements, enriched the whole world"5.
King Simeon of Bulgaria has reiterated similar sentiments in slightly
different terms, "Having lived in a Muslim country in my youth, I have
particularly deep attachment to the world of Islam and hence am doubly
pleased when this faith, so close to Judaism and Christianity, is shown in
its rightful light. Much nonsense has been spread in the past, and more so
lately, about Islam supposedly being a conquering religion, a warring
one. . .Those who know understand that Islam means prostration, a surrender to
God's will and hence peace and serenity. . ."6. How sad for us today that
people calling themselves Muslims kill innocent and unarmed men, women and
children in the name of Islam.
"The love of books is one of the most characteristic traits of Islamic
Culture. Manuscripts were written in large numbers (during the heyday of
the Islamic Civilization). . . In the 12th century, the largest libraries in
monasteries and towns of Western Europe held anything from several dozen to
one hundred and fifty volumes. Only wealthy libraries like Durham had more
than five hundred".
"Whereas in Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Cordoba, Shiraz, Bukhara and other
cities of the Islamic world there were a series of libraries and private
collections of 10,000 volumes or more in the 10th and 11th centuries" 6.
Such was the influence of Islamic culture that the great German philosopher,
scientist and writer Johann Wolfgang Goethe tried out Persian attitudes and
forms in his poetry, as is manifest in his West-oestlicher Divan" 7.
Right from the beginning, the role of knowledge was emphasized as one of the
conditions of faith in Islamic teachings. During 'Abbasid Dynasty' (750 -
1258) in Baghdad works of Aristotle, Euclid, Galen, Hippocrates,
Dioscorides, Ptolemy, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, etc., were translated.
Copies of these translated works were disseminated throughout the Islamic
domains from where they made their way into Europe by the way of Spain and
Sicily. The European Renaissance would have been inconceivable had this
plethora of Hellenistic, Persian, Indian, Chinese and other culture's
knowledge not made its way into Europe.
"Listen to the accomplishment of the Muslims starting as far back as 1400
years ago: In 650 Caliph Omar introduced the first organized news service.
In 711 Jews were given permission by the Muslim rulers of Spain to practice
their cultural development, an activity that had been denied them before the
Muslims arrived. In 720 Abu Musa Dshagger is reputed to have invented
Sulphuric Acid, Nitric Acid, Aqua Regia and Nitrates of Silver. In 750
separate faculties for astronomy, mathematics, optics and chemistry were set
up and Pharmacology and Medicine were established as two distinct sciences.
In 774 Euclid's "Elements" were translated from Greek to Arabic. In 782
Jabir began his chemical studies, as distinct from alchemy. In 810 Mohammed
Ibn Musa al Chwarazmi wrote a book on equations and coined the term
'Algebra'; the concept of 'zero' was introduced and all populations in the
Muslim domains started counting in multiples of ten" 3.
The center of Islamic learning was Baghdad. Here great translation projects
took place, converting the works of different cultures into Arabic. One of
these great projects was started by Caliph al-Mamun in 813 AD. He employed
people of all races and religions to help translate books from around the
world. He also paid each translator the weight of their books in gold. Great
libraries and schools thrived on the works that the translators contributed"
6,7.
Muslim traders traveled as far west as Ireland and as far east as China or
even possibly Japan. From these great traveling merchants came a need for
maps and details about cities. Many of these traveling merchants kept
detailed records of their journeys, sharing their experiences with other
merchants or caravans, and sometimes even selling their information. Of all
the contributions made to the field of geography by the Muslims during the
period between 800 and 1400 AD, perhaps the three most influential Muslim
geographers were ibn-Batuta (1304-1368), ibn-Khaldun (1332-1406), and
al-Idrisi (1100-1166) 8. Ibn Fadlan an Arab chronicler of 921 was sent by
the Caliph of Baghdad, Al Muktadir, with an embassy to the King of the
Bulgars of the Middle Volga. During the course of his journey, Ibn Fadlan
met a people whom the Muslims called al Rus (the Vikings), a group of
Swedish origin, who were visiting the Bulgar capital as traders. Ibn Fadlan
traveled to modern day Sweden and Norway. He has written a fascinating
account of these people describing them as very filthy, savage-like and
sexually promiscuous. His account of the Vikings has been used to great
advantage by Michael Crichton in the novel, "Eaters of the Dead" 9, 10.
A school of Astronomy was established in Baghdad in 813. The astronomical
system of Ptolemy was translated into Arabic as "Almagest" in 828. By 850
the 'Astrolabe' had been perfected allowing navigation on the high seas.
The same year Coffee was discovered by Kaldi, a Muslim sheepherder. Paper
manufacturing started in Cairo in 900, and in 950 the first university in
the world, Al-Azhar was founded there too. In 1150 paper manufacturing
commenced in Spain. The use of alcohol for medical purposes was started in
1200. In 1450 Mocha in southwestern Arabia became the main port for coffee
export3. One could go on and on talking about the contribution of the
Muslims to the world civilization.
The history of Islam is replete with names as grand or grander than the
scientist, philosophers, or discoverers of modern times: ibn-Khordadbeh,
820-912, Wrote a guide to regions and cities and prepared a 'Book of the
Roads and Countries"; Ibn Koteiba, scholar and historian 828; Jahiz, the
great scholar, died 869; Al-Farabi, philosopher 870-950; Al-Kindi,
philosopher and Mathematician, 813-870; the great physician Hosnain ibn
Iszhak, died 873. The famous astronomer al Battani, commenced his
observations in 873, died in 929; Rhases, a great physician, defined and
described infectious diseases like plague, consumption, small pox, rabies,
died 923. Ibn Doreid 837-933 who prepared the "Manual of Genealogy and
Etymology". Firdausi, the great Persian poet 939-1020. Abu'l Wefa,
mathematician and astronomer 940-998. Ibn-Haukal (ibn-Hauqal, Mohammed Abul
Kassem) geographer, 943-969 AD. Al Sufi, who mentioned the nebula and
wrote the "The Book of the Fixed Stars" in 963. Alhazen, the physicist
965-1038, who did pioneering work in optics. Ibn Junis author of the
"Hakimite Tables" 950-1009. Al-Biruni (Abu Rayhan Mohammed ibn Ahmad),
973-1050 AD, geomorphologist and historian. Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the
physician and philosopher 980-1037. Omar Khayyam, the poet and scientist,
1027-1123. Ibn-Idrisi (Abu Abdallah Mohammed Edrisi) 1100-1166, Geographer
whose work, "Geography" was published in Palermo 1154. Al Ghazali,
theologian 1059 -1111. Averroes, scholar and philosopher 1126. Nisami, the
poet 1141-1202. Abdallah ur-Rumi 1179-1229, who prepared "Mu'jam ul-Buldan"
a geographical encyclopedia. Saadi, Persian poet 1184-1283. Ibn al-Baitar,
scientist and pharmacologist, wrote a monograph on Arab pharmacology
1200-1248. Amir Khusro, Indian poet, musician, inventor of the 'tabla',
sitar and originator of several 'ragas', 1253-1354 . Djelaleddin Rumi,
Persian poet, died 1273. Nasir ed-Din, scholar and scientist 1201-1274.
Bar-Hebraus, Syrian lexicographer, 1226-1286. Hafiz, Persian poet,
1320-1389. Ibn-Khaldun, 1332-1406. Jami, 1414-92, Great Persian poet, born
in Jam, near Heart. Al-Masudi, 895-957 AD, Climatologist.11,12,13,14,15,18 .
How sad that in the world of today roles have been reversed. The civilizers
of the world have become the uncivilized. The Muslims today, don't even
bother to understand and follow the Quran, the revealed word of God. They
prefer somebody else, a priest to chant and interpret it for them. Rather
than being leaders they prefer to be led although the Quran challenges again
and again, "Don't you even think"? This glorious book revealed more than
1400 years ago narrates theories that are being propounded by scientist,
astronomers and physicists of today: "Do not the unbelievers see that the
heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), that
all universe was a cloud until it congealed, before We clove it asunder?
Will they not believe"? (the Big Bang theory). "We made from water every
living thing". (21:30 and 40:11)1. (the theory of Evolution). The Quran
revealed about the orbiting planets and stars, "It is He who created the
night and the day, and the Sun and the Moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim
along, each in its rounded course". (21:33)1. This happened more than 800
years before Copernicus, (1473-1543) and 900 hundred years before Galileo,
(1564-1642) dared to mention the fact. And, when they did, each in his time
was threatened with excommunication from the Church for uttering such
heresy.
The Quran dictated that: "There shall be no compulsion in religion: Truth
stands out clear from error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah
hath grasped the most trustworthy Handhold, that never breaks. And Allah
heareth and knoweth all things" (2:256)1 . The Muslims arrived in Spain in
711 C.E. and were driven out in 1492 by Isabella and Ferdinand, with the
fall of Granada. They had ruled Spain for 781 years. It is a long time.
They had practiced what the Quran dictated. Had the Muslims wanted they
could have forced everyone's conversion to Islam in their realm. But their
religion forbade such an action. Christians, Jews, non-believers all
flourished, ushering in the age of renaissance in Europe. "The friendship
of Islam provided Jews with a great route for world trade. From Baghdad to
Arabia, to the Red Sea, via Suez, via the ports of Egypt, Byzantium, Italy
and Spain, as far as the Frankish Empire and further to Eastern Europe and
Slavonic countries, the Jews had centers of influence and colonies"16. Free
universities flourished with books available for anyone seeking knowledge.
The free library of Cordova, in the reign of Caliph Hakam II, alone had
400,000 volumes.
The light of enlightenment brought into Spain by the Muslims and which had
shone for more than seven centuries, was extinguished within a short span of
fifty years after Ferdinand and Isabella took over the reigns of government.
The new rulers ushered in one of the most ignominious period, of
Christianity's history starting in 1481, the infamous inquisition. A curse
that soon engulfed the rest of Europe. Every Muslim, Jew and Marrano (Jew
who had converted to Christianity) was hunted down and given four choices:
confess, convert, leave or be massacred. Spain was plunged back into the
dark ages. At the urging of Spain's Grand Inquisitor Torquemada, on March
1492 Queen Isabella (of Spain) signed an edict that read: "We have resolved
to banish all Jews and Marranos of both sexes beyond the borders of our
realm forever. . . We therefore decree herewith that all Jews and Marranos
dwelling within the confines of Our dominion - without distinction of sex or
age - must leave Our royal possessions and seigniories. . .no later than the end
of July of the present year and that they shall not venture to enter them
again under any pretext whatsoever.."16. About four hundred thousand Jews
and Marranos lost their all. Every country on the European continent shut
its doors to them. Only a small number were allowed to enter Holland and
Italy. It was the Muslim Sultan of Turkey who sent in his Armada to
evacuate the hapless citizenry. "It was a great movement from West to East,
whence the Jews had come centuries before"16. The Jewish population of
Turkey to this day is considered the oldest continuously surviving Jewish
community in the world and one which has never ever been the subject of
persecution.
Muslims arrived in India in 712 and were displaced from sovereignty by the
British in 1858 with the banishment to Rangoon, in Burma, of the last Mughal
Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. One thousand, one hundred and forty five years
is a long time of rule. Had the Muslims wanted they could have forced
everyone's conversion to Islam, in this long period of time. But their
religion forbade such an action. Hindus, Buddhist, Jains, Christians, Jews,
non-believers all flourished. The Muslims mingled, they mixed, they even
inter-married. One thing that they never did however was to carry out
pogroms against other religious groups. The Muslims even to this day are a
minority in India.
Scan the entire history of the Muslims anywhere in the world and one will
not find a single instance of pogroms like the ones that have been visited
upon various religious or ethnic groups in Europe throughout its history,
until as recently as the late 1990's.
The first Muslims were advised by the Prophet (pboh) to migrate to the
Christian kingdom of Abyssinia, (the modern day Ethiopia) to escape
persecution by the Qureshi tribes of Arabia. They did not compromise their
faith, when they arrived in the host country. They were reverent and
respectful to the beliefs of their hosts. As the Quran says: "Those who
believe (in the Quran), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the
Sabians, Christians, Magians and Polytheists - Allah will judge between them
on the Day of judgment: for Allah is witness to all things (22:17)1. So the
Muslims are not to judge others for their faith. Upon arrival in Abyssinia
the Muslims attended on the king and followed the country's customs with
respect. How different it is today that of the hundreds of Muslim
immigrants, entering host countries like the U.S., the U.K., France,
Germany, Spain or Pakistan, some work hard to establish themselves, while
some arrive with motives of not becoming a part of or of improving the
mosaic of their respective country but rather that of changing its ethos.
And, this minority group does so in secret, in total defiance of the
injunctions of the Quran, "O ye who believe! When you hold secret counsel,
do it NOT for iniquity and hostility and disobedience to the Messenger; but
do it for righteousness and self restraint; and fear Allah, to whom ye shall
be brought back" (58:9)1. What a stark contrast it is to the behavior of
the Muslims who sought refuge in Abyssinia back in the time of the prophet.
The religious organizations of Christianity and Judaism of old had insisted
that just by reading the Bible, in Hebrew or Latin, even if you didn't
understand a word of it, you would become near to God. Ordinary people did
not know, indeed were not even offered the opportunity to learn the language
of the holy book. It was to be the provenance of the priests only. Too,
the holy books of the Hindus had to be read in Sanskrit, which only the
Brahmin priests could read and understand. Not so with Islam: the Quran was
revealed in Arabic, a language everybody knew and understood at that time,
"Verily this is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds" (26:192)1, "In the
perspicuous Arabic tongue" (26:195)1, "Had We revealed it to non-Arabs, and
had they recited it, to them it would have been unintelligible"
(26:198,199)1 . There was a purpose to the revelation occurring in a
language intelligible and understandable to the common men and women. It
was: "to get rid of priests and their stranglehold over the minds and the
materials of ordinary human beings".
The Muslims of today totally ignore the fact that the Quran is a book of
law, a book of science, a book of guidance; that it is not meant to be
learnt by rote for chanting at weddings, festivals and events. Instead of
reveling in the greatness of the revelation they have embraced the formula
practiced by the other religions. Today the majority of the Muslims
verbalize the Quran without comprehending a word of it; be they villagers or
sophisticated dons from the most famous of universities. Most can chant its
glorious words in the loveliest of melodies without comprehending, even for
a moment, as to what they are saying. All insist that there is benefit to
be derived in the hereafter just by chanting the Arabic. No talk whatsoever
of the following admonitions from the Quran: "This is the Book; in it is
guidance sure, without doubt to those who fear Allah" (2:2)1. "This is a
Book, with verses basic or fundamental, of established meaning - further
explained in detail, from One Who is Wise and well acquainted with all
things" (11:1)1. They hang copies of the Quran from their necks, for good
luck. They adorn the rooms of their homes with framed Surahs of the Quran,
believing that benefits are to be derived by such actions.
Muslims have relegated all work of communicating the Quran's glorious
injunctions to the mullahs, on whose words they hang and on whose commands
they perpetrate the most ignoble actions, all in the name of the most noble
of religions. How sad that in the world of today the civilizers of the
world have become the uncivilized. Fundamentalist Muslims envy the progress
made by others; they don't encourage their followers to emulate it; they
don't want to better it; they only encourage their respective followers to
destroy it.
The Quran gave dignity to women as no other religion had ever done before.
The early Muslims followed its teachings and brought women out of darkness;
gave them an identity; gave them rights to inheritance, divorce, alimony and
child support. Khadija (pboh) the beloved wife of our Prophet (pboh) would
not recognize the Mecca of today. Not so much because of its changed look
but because she will be shocked not to see any women around and about in her
beloved city. The city where she was a renowned business woman. A city
where she gave employment to a young man, the most honest, whom the Qureish
called 'Al Amin'. And, to whom, it was she who proposed marriage. Whom she
believed when he came to her and talked to her about God's revelations to
him. Khadija (pboh) would be horrified to find that the Muslim women of
today are not allowed by their men, to participate in commerce or any other
industry. Fundamentalist Muslims of today want to drive women back to the
times and to the treatment that used to be meted them before the time of the
prophet (pboh). The Fundamentalists consider women their property not their
equal, despite the Quran's injunction that women shall be answerable for
their own deeds and actions inasmuch as men. It is because the
fundamentalist consider women their property that they discourage women from
going outside of their homes or to interact with men other than their own
near relatives, let alone allowing them to initiate a proposal of marriage.
If a woman showed the courage to take such a step, fundamentalist Muslims of
today would kill her for doing so because to them an independent women is a
dishonor to the family. This perverted sense of honor, to the
fundamentalist Muslims, is more important than all the injunctions of the
Quran.
We say our Salaat, we fast as required, we perform many an Hajj, all rituals
of the religion but when it comes to following the example of Mohammed
(pboh) in leading a simple and austere life, a life of honesty, a life of
kindness, a life of forgiveness, a life of giving and sharing our blessings,
of honoring and respecting women, we do very little of that. We pray to God
but we do not trust Him although He says, "It was We Who created man, and We
know what dark suggestions his souls makes for him: for We are nearer to him
than his jugular vein" (50:16)1. Instead of emulating the Muslims who
brought civilization to the world and lifted it out of darkness, showed it
examples of mercy and justice and chivalry and equality, fundamentalist
Muslims of today are actively trying to plunge the world back into darkness.
Instead of trying to excel in the sciences, the arts and humanities as
happened in the times of yore, the fundamentalist Muslims of today wish to
destroy the sciences, arts and humanities of America, Europe, Russia and the
rest of the world. The most valuable lesson the Western nations had learnt,
during the heyday of Muslim civilization, and which helped them come out of
their stagnation in the dark ages, was that practice of religion was not
central to the Muslims in achieving of progress in this world. Rather, the
Westerners noted, it was the Muslim's thirst for knowledge and their spirit
of enquiry about the world and natures secrets, that had put them ahead of
everyone else. Muslims gave up their thirst for knowledge and spirit of
enquiry, settled on ritualizing their religion and became retrograde.
Westerners on the other hand made religion non central to public life,
picked up the Muslims' thirst for knowledge and spirit of enquiry and became
masters of the world.
Fundamentalist Muslim leaders of today are exhorting Muslims to acts much
like the barbaric Mongols or the Assassins who tried to destroy the great
Islamic Civilization, but failed. Barbarity never works. It failed the
Mongols, it failed the Nazis, it failed the Communists, it failed the Serbs.
The Muslims, of all the people in the world, should know it more than
anyone else because it was not that long ago that they defeated the
barbarity of Soviet Union and exterminated and eradicated it out of
Afghanistan.
So where have the Muslims gone? Nowhere! We are right here very much a
part of the globe and now more than a billion in numbers. We should take
heart that our best days are yet to come. To get there however, we should
stop battering the West, instead we should be trying to better it in every
aspect of life: in games, in art, in science, in medicine, in technology,
in architecture. When was the last time that a Muslim invented a cure for a
human illness? When was the last time that a Muslim made a discovery to
benefit mankind? With all the trillion of petro-dollars flowing into the
hands of the Muslims across the globe what do they have to show for it?
Religious schools that produce ignoramus men and create hatred for people
who are not Muslims or spend their efforts at obtaining technologies with
which to destroy the world? Is that the end all? Is that what Islam
teaches? Too, the Muslims have forgotten the most important lesson of
Islam: that of sharing their blessings with those less blessed. Little
wonder that we are lost! The answer does not lie in hoarding the phenomenal
wealth God has bestowed on us, a practice totally proscribed by the Quran,
but in spending it in the way of God; in relieving the suffering of the poor
and the less fortunate of the world. If we are to survive our answer lies
in education, in embracing knowledge; in embracing justice; in embracing
equality for all; in embracing tolerance for every man, women and child, no
matter what their beliefs. We should be emulating the progressive and
enlightened practices of the Muslims of old and eschewing the horrible
practices being purveyed by the fundamentalists of today. The power of
truth, justice and enlightenment needs to be unleashed again in the Muslim
lands, as it was unleashed 1400 hundred years ago, by Prophet Muhammad
(pboh) in Arabia, which propelled Muslims to heights of greatness unknown in
human history. America's founding fathers, a little over 200 years ago,
unleashed a similar power through "Their Declaration of Independence". And
which, in this short span of time, has made America the most powerful and
rich nation on earth; has enabled it to put a man on the moon and bring him
back to safety and which is now propelling it to reach planets far and
further beyond.
So why are Muslims on the lowest rung of the technical and moral ladder of
the world? In my opinion, it is because our religion has been hijacked. We
have relegated our spiritual direction to the vagaries of priests and our
temporal direction to the whims of dictators, kings, queens and princesses.
This subservient psychology has permeated every aspect of our life. We do
not get outraged at even the most un-Islamic of acts perpetrated by our
fellow Muslims. No collective voices of outrage are raised against such
barbarity as when the throats of innocent and indefensible are slit. How
are these Muslims different than the barbaric Serbs? Or how are the Muslims
different from the tyrants of old if they acquiesce to the Saudis having a
Royal Enclosure in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, the third most holy site
of Islam?
It is time that the Muslims of the world wrested control of their religion
from the self appointed guardians of the Umma, started understanding it and
practicing it without direction from others. If we refuse to seize the
moment and refuse to fall in step with the civilizing and progressive
aspects of the rest of humanity, the world will not wait. We will find
ourselves relegated to the dustbin of history, only to nurse our
fundamentalist notions, much like many other nations that refused to change
with time. All that will be left for us will be just a long sigh moaning
about the great and glorious days of the Islamic civilization gone by. For
God is not ours only, as somebody who is not a Muslim has echoed the words
of the Quran in a different way:
"God is one, but His names are many
Reality is one, but its ways are many
Spirituality is one, but religions are many
Humanity is one, but human beings are many
There cannot be one religion for the whole world
Religions are like flowers of a beautiful garden
Every flower has got its own individual beauty
Adding to the total beauty of the garden!
Enjoy the beauty of the flower of your choice!
While enjoying the beauty of the garden!
Let not your choice be thrust on others
Nor be it a cause for coercion and conflict!" 17
We must never forget to remind ourselves that as Muslims we are admonished to always practice and enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong and that we must seek and practice justice for all, irrespective of their sex, religion, nationality, or skin color. Also, we must never forget that on the day of judgment, we shall all be individually answerable to God, irrespective of our sex, religion, nationality, or skin color.
[Zaheer Jan of New Jersey ran as a Democrat for the city council of
Bedminister on November 2, 2004 and lost by 14 votes - in a city that is
overwhelmingly Republican. He retired recently from a long career in the
natural gas pipeline industry.]
Sources Used:
1. Al Quran
2. Islam, A Short History by Karen Armstrong and Time Magazine, April 16, 2001
3. Atlas of World History, National Geographic society
4. Kulturfahrplan by Werner Stein, translated by Bernard Grun, Published by Simon and Schuster
5. Lost in Translation, Two minds of Bernard Lewis, New Yorker Magazine, June 14 & 21, 2004
6. H.R.H King Simeon of Bulgaria in Pages of Perfection, An ARCH Foundation publication
7. Heaven on Earth, Art from the Islamic Lands, Courtland Institute of Art, Munich, Berlin, London and New York
8. Ibn-Batuta and Muslim Geography, Andrew J. Mogensen, Valparaiso University
9. Eaters of the Dead, A Novel by Michael Crichton published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York
10. Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan, published by the Academy of St. Petersburg, Russia and Oslo University, Norway
11. James, Preston Everett. All Possible Worlds: A History of Geography. New York: Wiley, 1981
12. Kish, George. A Source Book in Geography. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978
13. Parry, J.H. The Age of Reconnaissance. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1981
14. Wright, John Kirtland. Geographical Lore of the Time of the Crusades, American Geographical Society Research Series No. 15. New York: Rumford Press, 1925
15. Faruqi, Ismail. The Cultural Atlas of Islam. New York: Macmillan Press, 1986
16. Die vertreibung De Juden aus Spanien, translated by Moray Firth
17. Dr. Shivamurthy Swamiji
18. Amir Khusro by Abdul Hamid Khan. Ferozesons Press, 1973, Lahore, Pakistan
M. Shahid Alam, "Bernard Lewis and the
New Orientalism," The Wisdom Fund, June 29, 2003
[We may deplore the relative absence of liberal reformist thinkers in Islam,
but that is also a problem with global Protestantism.--Olivier Roy, "Globalised Islam," The Guardian, November 13,
2004]
Ralph Peters, "Nothing Islamic about human sacrifice," The Wisdom Fund,
November 16, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Zaheer Jan