What would Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) do?
02 March, 2006
By Ahmer Muzammil
Would he (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) burn the buildings down? Would he(may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) kill his fellow Muslims out of rage? Would he(may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) ruin and destroy the infrastructure out of frustration? A logical answer to all these questions could be that "we don`t know what he(may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) would have done, since Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) is not present amongst us right now, so lets play it by the ear and innovate as we move forward". Really?Are we that gullible and naïve? We don`t have any history of his(may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) life with us to guide us through? Have we misplaced Quran somewhere, so we can`t seek guidance even from that source?
If the answer is "NO" and it is, then why do we insist on stupidity rather than following the example of our exalted prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him). Do we not know how he dealt with his fierce enemies? Have we forgotten the incident in which an old jewish woman would throw trash on the prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) every day. One day when she didn`t, he went to her house to inquire about her health, needless to say that she was awe-struck and converted to Islam. We read in the seerah books (books on the life of the prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him)) that the mobs in Taif(city near madina) stoned him (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him), dragged him in the streets, his shoes were filled with his own blood, in that moment the angel Gabriel appears and asks his permission to crush these people between mountains, what was the response of my beloved prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him)? He said "I forgive them for the sake of Allah, for they are naïve and they know not and I pray that if not them maybe their future generations will come within the folds of Islam". Ladies and gentleman this was a man who was the epitome of forgiveness and we defend his honor by burning and looting and clashing with policemen that are probably just as offended and distraught by the cartoons as the protestors themselves. Its however not as crazy as it sounds though, my feeling is that the violence in these processions had more to do with people not being happy with their governments for one reason or another rather than these cartoons, these cartoons probably were the last straw that broke the camel`s back. If the 67 Muslim governments would have protested forcefully on diplomatic level by kicking the Danish ambassador out of their respective countries, the processions would have been much more peaceful. However it was very distasteful and immensely disrespectful at the least to use this platform for an ulterior purpose.
Having said that let me also claim that by and large the protests all over the world against the caricatures have been peaceful. This shouldn`t come as a surprise to anyone that Muslims have taken this so seriously. If some of you are baffled, let me resolve this for you once and for all. The prestige of our prophet is something that we take very seriously. You can steal our oil & gas, kill our brethren, divide & rule us, enforce rulers on us that only serve themselves or their western masters, we will whine and moan but mostly we`ll play along. But if you even hint to disrespect our beloved prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him), we will stand united to defend his honor. This is off limits, we don`t take this lightly, whether I am a practicing Muslim or not, this is one issue where practicing and non-practicing Muslims both speak with one voice, so much is the love and respect for the prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him). But you really can`t blame these Danes too much either. I mean for the cartoonist who drew these cartoons or the newspaper who published it, for them their own prophet is fair game when it comes to making fun. I was amazed to find out that about a decade ago a movie came out, the title was "the last temptation of the Christ". In this movie Jesus(may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) was shown making love to a woman. Mind you that this movie was not made by Abdur Rehman, or Abdallah or Mohammad, it was probably made by a jeff, jack, john or Rubenstein. Nevertheless we as Muslims would be disgusted and I am surprised that we as Muslim community didn`t protest (maybe we did, I don`t remember however) because for us whether its Jesus (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him) , Moses (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him), Adam (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him), or Noah (may peace and blessings of Allah swt be on him), they are all equally respectable to us as messengers of God and therefore should be respected as such. As far as freedom of expression is concerned, a wise man once said that your freedom of expression stops where my nose starts. But my point is that we are talking about low-life`s who probably wouldn`t even hesitate drawing a cartoon of their own mother, provided that the money was right. Forget about freedom of s peech and artistic expression, its all about the mighty dollar, they knew this will sell, it will provoke, so why not? Morals, decency, sensitivity, principles, these are all just empty words for these Neanderthals. As long as it sells, they don`t care if it`s their off-springs. Famous poet Mustafa Zaidi said:
Tum na ram kay monis na hanoman kay dost,
Tum na kufr kay hami na ilhad kay dost
Tum na kafir kay sana khawnn na musalman kay dost,
Tumto sikoon ki lapakti hoi awazoon mein,
Apni maoon koo utha latayy ho bazaroon mein..
(very very rough translation below)
(you are no friend of ram(hindu God) nor hanooman
you are not a supporter of Kufr(polytheism) nor of Ilhad
you are not happy with Kafir(Polytheist) nor with Musalman (Believers)
for as long as the sweet sound of silver coins keeps on ringing your ears, you would keep selling your mothers in the marketplace)
This is not the first time, nor will this be the last. As long as we the Muslims are not united, don`t expect EU to respect Islam like they respect Holocaust. Actually instead of respect let`s use the word scared because that really captures the true reality on ground. We are 1.5 billion in numbers, compared to us, Jews are pocket change, but the fact is that they are a real force in the world and we are a mere laughing-stock for the most part. Reason is plain and simple ladies and gentleman they are playing the game smarter and efficiently, we on the other hand are fighting amongst ourselves about who is "MORE" Muslim, the one who shakes his finger after at-tahyaat or the one who keeps it still. But we should be optimistic for 2 reasons. One, it`s an obligation on us; it`s a sin to be pessimistic. Two, things can only go up for us from here on out.
End.
|
