Let Us Preserve Our World
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
The biggest threat to our world might be environmental for the liberal, and greed for the religious amongst us. Recent events related to the anti-Islam movie and the reaction in the Muslim world indicates that the obvious and immediate threat to our world today is from extremists of all hues. Bigots on either side seem to be in a tango to advance the agenda of their benefactors at the cost of world peace. Religious extremism emanates not from practice of true religion but from bigotry in its name due to incomplete knowledge of it.
Abdullah Bin Mubarak RA was a Sufi Saint of 8 th century. Ali Hajveri RA in his book Kashaf Ul Mahjoob has written an anecdote about him. When people asked Abdullah bin Mubarak RA about a memorable experience of his life, he told of his encounter with a monk who through his excessive worship and meditation had become weak and fragile and his back was bent like an arch. Abdullah bin Mubarak RA asked him: Kaifath Thareequ IlaAllah, How is the path towards God? The monk replied: Lau Araftha-Allaha LaAraftha Thareeqa Ilaihi, If you know God you will also know the way to Him. He further said: A’abudu Man La A’arifahu Wa Tha’si Man Tha’Arifahu. I am worshiping the One whom I don’t know and you are disobeying the One whom you recognize and have faith in. Abdullah bin Mubarak RA said, “Ever since this encounter with this monk I am trying to rectify my mistakes as much as possible.”
This experience of Abdullah bin Mubarak RA with the monk is relevant for us today. Some of us who claim to know God are putting e entire mankind into the position of that monk (who is getting exhausted in his attempt to know God and tread the path towards Him) by ignoring the clear path shown to us by Allah swt through Qur’an, and through the best example of Prophet Muhammad SA, and by following our own skewed understanding of it.
Qur’an unequivocally commands the believers: Do not deride those whom people worship besides Allah for the people may deride Allah in ignorance. We have beautified the actions of every people for them to follow and the reality of their actions will be shown to them when they return to Us (Ch6 V 108).
Muslims don’t scoff at others’ gods; in fact they respect the prophets of all religions. Not being fully aware of the responsibility and limitation of the command of Amar bil Ma’aruf and Nahi Anil Munkar (promoting good and forbidding evil), some Muslims are sometime guilty of deriding the customs and practices of others which is more to them than God. It is this attitude of some ignorant Muslims who are more vocal than others which is used as an excuse by the misguided people of other faiths to criticize the teachings of the Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad SA whom Muslims love more than anything else, even though they may fall short in its practice as the monk pointed out to Abdullah bin Mubarak RA.
Maulana Muhammad Mian RA, a close companion of Shaikh ul Hind Mahmood Ul Hasan, in his memoir of Shaikh ul Hind “Aseeran e Malta” has written: Shaikh ul Hind sent Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi RA to Russia to meet Stalin and present to him the model of Islam to be implemented in Russia which was looking for an alternative system after dethroning the Czar. After listening to Maulana Sindhi Stalin is reported to have asked him: Which of the Muslim country is this system in practice so that he could see how it is functioning. Maulana replied that none of the Muslim countries has this system in total practice for him to see its real effect on society. At this Stalin is reported to have told Maulana Sindhi RA: Gentleman how can you expect a non-Muslim country to implement Islam when Muslims themselves are shying away from it?
From the time of Abdullah bin Mubarak to this day, Muslims have the same problem which the monk had alluded to. “We know God but ignore Him”. Abdullah bin Mubarak was wise. He took this advice seriously and became a better person and is remembered even to this day. We who ignore the observation of the monk are out in the streets on every provocation blaming others for our own shortcoming of not being able to represent the true image of mercy and peace which Islam stands for through our collective lives.
The clear instruction from the Qur’an while we face provocation is: Surely the people of the book and those who attribute partners to God will tell you a lot of hurtful things. By remaining patient and conscious of Allah (in responding to it) you succeed in the test of fortitude (Ch 3 V 186). We are also advised by Qur’an: Argue with people of book in a nice way and end your argument with those who are unreasonable amongst them by saying: we as Muslims believe in what was revealed to our prophets and also to that which was revealed to yours and that we submit to the One and the Only God whom you and us worship (Ch 29 V 46). Qur’an further says: Evil and good are not equal so respond to evil with good in order to make your worse enemies your best friends (Ch 41 V 34). Alas we ignore these edicts of the Qur’an to which we swear our allegiance as the final book of eternal guidance for entire mankind and behave in an irrational and erratic way under various pretexts.
Muslims who have clear guidance from Allah swt in form of Qur’an have a greater responsibility to ensure that they don’t give an opportunity to the bad elements to provoke them into a reaction that is not consistent with teachings of Islam.
We can preserve this world for a long time to come if each community accepts its shortcomings and corrects them rather than blame them on others to justify their brutality towards others. Let no community promote or provoke the bad elements of other communities to create a situation to its advantage. If we are not able to show magnanimity towards others we should be at least just towards others if we want mankind to emerge out of the problems it is facing today. That is why Qur’an advises Muslims: O you, who believe be witness for justice for the sake of Allah. Let not the enmity of a people incite you to be unjust towards them (Ch 4 V 135).
Freedom is surely a gift endowed upon mankind by its Creator, but this freedom was given to us with a caveat: Do not go near that tree. We ignored that caveat at the suggestion of the serpent of our desire to suffer the hardship of life on this earth. Our indulgence of the past several millennia in exercising our freedoms without responsibility seem to be on the verge of exploding and we seem to care less about it, unmindful of the fact that this earth is the only planet for all of us to live and we are all duty-bound to preserve it through restraint. Mars is far away and Moon has little moisture to sustain life on it.
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