La Ta’hzan : Do Not Grieve!
By Mohajer Ansari
Pasadena, CA
Insults have been hurled at Rasulullah (saw) - the most exemplary man who ever walked on the face of this earth - during his lifetime and even after his death. His truthfulness, trustworthiness and nobility were thrown out of the window from the moment he declared the Oneness of Allah to the pagans of Makkah and invited them to join him in this declaration.
It wasn’t him; it was his message that the Mushrikeen of Makkah were utterly averse to. That was true then and it is true to this day, as the retaliation towards the Muslims in India, Rohingya in Myanmar, and Uighurs in China is ever on the rise. This is the very nature and power of the message of Islam. The innate hatred towards Islam is not confined to a particular time or location. 1400+ years ago its epicenter was Makkah; today the battlefield is every state, every city, and every village of India!
So, when the news of the insults hurled towards Rasulullah (saw) by Unpur (e) Sharma, an illiterate Indian woman belonging to the right wing political party headed by an equally illiterate zealot with fake college degrees, spread on the internet, I was filled with many emotions. But anger was not one of those, nor was the grief.
Instead, one phrase oft-repeated in several variations in Qur’an by Allah, consoling at times His beloved Prophet directly, and his Companions at other occasions, leapt to my mind. And merely by remembering that phrase and recalling the mitigating circumstances under which it was revealed to him, my heart was free of anger or rancor towards the person who had uttered those insults.
Why? Because if by just listening to that very phrase, Rasulullah (saw) could gain tranquility and display utmost perseverance, shouldn’t I too?
The phrase that fortified and consoled Rasulullah (saw) then, is La Ta’hzan ( لا تحزن ): Do not grieve!
The root word is حُزن (grief, sorrow, despair, etc.). For example, the 10th year of his prophethood in Makkah is known as عام الحزن (year of grief). That was the year when two very personal and most severe tragedies of his life occurred. Prophet’s dearest uncle Abu Talib, an ardent supporter of his mission, died. Though he never embraced Islam, but because of his social and political clout in Makkah and surrounding regions, he was able to act as a formidable shield and deterrent against the onslaught of the leaders of Quraish toward his nephew.
Soon his wife Khadijah (RAA), the love of his life and an untiring moral companion in his work, also passed away. As a human being, his heart was broken. Yet, as a messenger, his perseverance to carry on with the assigned mission, could not be weakened.
When Rasulullah (saw) and his confidant Abu Bakr (RAA) took refuge in an abandoned cave en route to Madinah, AbuBakr was worried sick about the bounty hunters finding them and handing over to the leaders of Quraish for a handsome reward. When he expressed this fear to Rasulullah (saw), Allah (swt) inspired His messenger to console his most trustworthy companion through this revelation in Surah Al-anfal (9:40): Do not grieve; indeed, Allah is with us.
That was more than fourteen centuries ago. Islam, as we know today, not only survived, it flourished and dominated the history and geography of the globe for majority of that time span, much to the utter envy and frustration of its enemies.
Of course, the radical Hindus would not like to listen to the message and teachings of the messenger of Islam (saw). And that is perfectly fine. Islam doesn’t believe in coercion, because it is a God-chosen message with an element of free will embedded in it.
More than 4,000 years ago, the father of Islam, Abraham (pbuh) recognized the truth of Oneness of God by questioning it and by examining the celestial bodies above and the Nature around him. Ironically, he was born in the household of an idol-making and idol-worshipping head priest - a Hindu of his time. Nevertheless, it did not prevent Abraham from pursuing, recognizing, and accepting the truth! His firm faith in One god, helped him thwart the assault of not only his father but also the zealots who were loyal to those lifeless muddy creations of their own hands! They were devoid of hearing, speaking, moving, or responding to anyone or anything then, they are incapable today.
Now, the nearly 1.2 billion idol worshipping Indians might not like to follow the analogy of Abraham, but perhaps they would like to ponder on this statement of the reverend-turned-president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide: Do not attempt to suppress, choke or throttle truth and freedom by intimidation and violence. It is like water, and you know the nature of water; if you try to bury it at one place, it comes out at another place with ease!
That’s precisely the nature of Islam.
On the other hand, unlike Islam, Hinduism is a myth, very much akin to the Greek. According to the British-Indian writer Rana Dasgupta, mythology is more useful as a political tool than rationality. This is precisely what is going on in India. The saffron-clad zealotry of the right wing politics is showing and using the irrationality of a myth to fuel nationalism. The outcome is a cloned mishmash of neo-Nazism, Proud Boys and QAnon - albeit of a dark brown complexion. The manifesto is the same: eliminate those who don’t look like us, don’t think like us or live like us.
Fourteen hundred plus years later, the phrase La Ta’hzan can still empower and fortify the Muslims not only today, but every day until the Day of Judgment, if they truly and sincerely believe in its power!
