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May God
empower your thinking with peace;
This column is in response to correspondence
about Muslims judging other Muslims about their faith, and yet
invoking the same Islam.
The
word Kaffir simply means someone who hides or denies the truth.
However, the usage of the word has been derogatory. It’s like
the “N” word. You have your preference and mine is not to use
the word at all in general conversation without this
understanding. The Prophet did not use it as a derogatory word,
but simply meant that those people who did not agree with his
version of the truth as an identifier. (Refer to Sura
Kafirun -
Prophet’s language should be taught as course in civil dialogue)
The
Ahmadiyya are Muslims, as they believe in the God, like every
other Muslim believes; furthermore, their pledge of allegiance,
the Shahadah is same as all other Muslims - La Ilaha Illal Lahu,
Muhammadar Rasool Allah. We should be minding our own business
rather than worrying about others.
No one
is responsible for others burden, you stand alone on the day of
accountability of your actions. No one will be there for you;
you have to take the responsibility for your actions. Let each
one of our tribes, and other faiths from the family of faiths do
their best. The best ones among all of us would be the ones who
care for neighbors, and respect God’s creation and those who
work towards restoring harmony, just as God had created the
world to be.
Division is natural among all people, there is a magical number
beyond which all groups split, and Islam is no different. First
it was Shia and Sunni, then among Shia there are many, and Sunni
also got split into numerous groups beyond our imagination. Then
Ahmadiyya has three or four divisions and as we grow in size,
each one of our groups will further split… now we have
progressive Muslim group in the last few years, there will be
more.
Prophet
Muhammad prophesized about the division, it is a natural
phenomenon (fitra) and he used the number 72/73 tribe, this
number is not a real number, and it’s a number to mean
multiplicity. Imagine the class room where the teacher urges
every on to be the best, and there will be only one first rank
and most others pass in varying degrees and one or two may fail.
A few Ulema have interpreted this to mean only one tribe will go
to Jannah and others to hell and shamefully this has been
perpetuated without questioning it. How wrong can we be? We have
to learn to respect the otherness of other without having to
agree.
Let
Sunnis, Shias, Ahmadi and their branches all practice Islam as
they are taught, let’s not become God and judge others, instead
we need to judge ourselves and be the best human we can. But
for God’s sake let’s not call each other with disrespect, would
that be a Muslim thing to do?
What
can we judge? We can judge the acts that affect our social life
- like lying, stealing, robbing, hurting family members or
breaking the contracts and messing with social cohesiveness (a
dynamic value).
What
can we not Judge? One’s faith, period! It is between God and the
individual. Only God will judge how much of a Muslim you were in
your heart. When God says he is closer to than our jugular vein,
it means he knows everything we do, think and discard. No one
bears others burden, Islam is about individual responsibility
and free will. There is no compulsion in matters of faith.
The
first word Prophet Muhammad received was Iqra, the broader
meaning of which is read to understand, understand to think and
think to create a better world for you and for others around
you.
If you
would like me to speak about the Prophet and his role in
creating a better world, I will be happy to do that. It is
nothing new; it is from the existing 15 stories that we talk
about in every Mosque and probably every Muslim will tell those
little and big stories. What we need to do is Iqra it, think about
his examples from a
pluralistic perspective. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and every
prophet were committed to create cohesive societies where people
got along with each other and lived without the apprehension or
fear of the other.
What is
our role in the world? Isn’t it to mitigate conflicts and
nurture goodwill and give back to God, what he created; a
perfect world in harmony? Isn’t that what serving God means?
Remember the first model of the prophet? He was called Amin, the
trustworthy, the truth seeker and the honest. Guess who honored
him that title? It was not Muslims. It’s a model for us to
follow. Let you and I become like him, earn the respect of every
human on the earth, with malice towards none, and with love for
all of God’s creation.
Would
you want to be the Amin? To be Amin, we have to use the civil
language and earn the trust of all Muslims, and all other people
on the earth. When people see a Muslim, their first response
ought to be - here comes a Muslim, I can trust this man or
woman, he/she will tell the truth, is trust worth and everything
he or she will do is for every one’s good.
Isn’t
that the best Sunnah to follow?
Jazak
Allah Khair
Mike
Ghouse
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