NINE Islam a message of justice, excellence and compassion has been forgotten by many Muslims! “BEHOLD, God enjoins justice, and the doing of good, and generosity towards [ones] fellow humans; and He forbids all that is shameful and all that runs counter to reason, as well as; [and] He exhorts you [repeatedly] so that you might bear [all this] in mind.” (16:90) A man came to the Prophet and asked him the following two questions: 1. Tell me more about you - who are you? 2. Tell me more about your religion – what is Islam? The blessed prophet gave him the following answers. He said, “I am the son of Abdullah and the Prophet of God”. The Prophet never overplayed his personal importance and never inflated his introduction. He was not a person of pomposity, self-aggrandizement or conceit. He always preferred to remain ordinary and never hesitated in mingling with everybody and even the crass and unsophisticated Bedouins from his society. He treated all people as special and invited them to Islam through his personality, benevolence and magnanimous character. His message was always simple, to the point and understandable by the most ordinary people. His response was always confined to the wisdom that he had received from the Divine revelation. He responded to the second question by reading the following verse of the Quran: “BEHOLD, God enjoins justice, and the doing of good, and generosity towards [ones] fellow humans; and He forbids all that is shameful and all that runs counter to reason, as well as; [and] He exhorts you [repeatedly] so that you might bear [all this] in mind.” (16:90) In this one verse the entire Islamic paradigm is presented for all people of all time and all places. Islam is summed up in three universal values that every adherent must embrace and convert them into daily habits as well as three universal immoralities that they must actively reject. It was the most contemporaneous description of a set of values that would become the universal hallmark of Islam. No matter what culture or region of the world you come from, no matter which religious philosophy or personality you follow when you hear these values you cannot do anything but embrace them as they are undeniably universal. The prohibitions are equally emphatic and must be eliminated from the personality traits of the believers. For good and evil cannot reside in the same space at the same time. The real jihad (struggle) is to eliminate evil from the character of the believers and replace it with the beauty and brilliance of moral and ethical Islamic lifestyle. The verse of the Quran the blessed Prophet read contains following 3 good habits that must be embraced to be true believers: 1. Justice and fair play: The essence of Gods path is justice at all levels and at all cost. Never should personal interest, hatred of others or subjective worldview detract or deter a true believer from being just and fair. Ultimately justice is Godliness and God is found wherever there is justice. This universal value is what Islam unequivocally promotes and requires every believer to subscribe to it. 2. Pursuit of Excellence: The believers must pursue a life of excellence both internally and externally. In other words he or she is expected to deliver everything at the highest standard as well as help others to achieve excellence in their work. The goal is to develop ethical framework at home and work, at social and leisure space as well as private and public spheres so that people can interact freely and maximize benefit for all. Every Muslim is expected to lead a dynamic life that is free from clutter, cobwebs and dispirited existence. In short, you must be excellent and assist others to be excellent. 3. Generosity: Attending to the needs of the poor members of ones family is the literal meaning of this verse. But limiting generosity only to them is against the spirit of the Divine instruction. It is the essential feature of this religion that every Muslim must share their kindness and compassion in words, gestures, services and wealth with the less fortunate in the society. Attaining true piety is not possible without serving fellow human beings and without the willingness to sacrificing those material possessions that we love most. God’s generosity has no bounds and our generosity should never be restricted to people we know or people of our faith, culture or ethnicity. Our benevolence will be the proof of our true faith. The blessed Prophet continued reading the above stated verse, which also contained 3 bad habits that must be rejected at all cost: 1. Shamelessness (Fahsah): Understanding the Arabic word used in this verse is very important to understanding what God is truly prohibiting. For anyone to be a true Muslim they must signup to these standards. The Arabs must have understood the meaning of this word and its implications in their lives, and embraced these moral parameters consciously. It was not a small matter for the free spirited and untamable Bedouin Arabs to submit to a new set of morals and give up their hedonistic lifestyle. It was a monumental shift in mindset and character. The meaning of this Arabic word contains a number of detestable traits such as obscenity, vulgarity, indecency, lewdness, shamelessness and something that is dirty, filthy and foul. A Muslim is required to reject such terrible traits. Hearing or speaking vulgarity, actively or passively taking part in lewdness and simply condoning by remaining silent are all part and parcel of the axis of evil traits that God requires a true believer to shun. The blessed Prophet was introducing Islam to ordinary people using the above words and they accepted it. They gave up on shameful activities wholeheartedly, instead of twisting and turning the definition of what is shameful and what is not to justify their ill-gotten ways. 2. Evil (munkar): God requires people to give up evil. Anything that is wrong and universally accepted as wrong is known as “munkar” or evil according to Islam. The opposite of evil is good and in Arabic the term is “ma’roof” which means that which is universally known and accepted as good. The process of deciphering between right and wrong sits at the heart of human intellect. Anything that is rejected, disowned and declared as untrue would fall in this category. It is important to note that all things that run counter to reason and good sense are evil. For this there must also be a refined conscience that can distinguish between good and evil without falling prey of delusion and confusion. Islam requires every person to know the limits and where evil ends and good starts. It requires the Muslims to detest evil with their heart and stand against it through their actions. While evil exists believers are expected to change it, speak up against it and abhor it and it is through the rejection of evil do we firm our resolve for good. 3. Oppression and wickedness (Baghy): This is wrong, injustice, outrage, transgression and rebellion all fused into one terrible character trait, which must be removed. There are people in society who find pleasure in causing all of these troubles - they cause havoc and claim to be the promoters of peace, they cause mayhem and claim to be doing it in the name of God, they create terror and claim to be stabilizing the world and they spread mischief and claim they are the rightful protectors of the world. In fact they are nothing but wicked and oppressive people. They may include individuals, groups of people and even governments. When “baghy” becomes widespread the reigns of dictators and despots become normal and manifesting through tyranny and oppression. They actively seek to alter the perceptions of people by promoting bad as good and good as bad. They live through the prisms of selfishness, greed and materialism. They reject spirituality and promote egotism. A true Muslim must reject such character traits. Islam is all about creating a balance, harmonious and equitable society. The entire life of the blessed Prophet was spent in pursuit of creating such a society. He successfully left a prototype for the rest of the world to follow and his companions found great pride and pleasure in living Islam. The people around the Prophet gave up their shameful traits instead of seeking to twist and turn the Quranic paradigm of what is shameful and what is not or invent excuses to sustain their wicked ways. They did not defend their bad habits they simply changed them. The same is expected of those who claim to be Muslims. The message of Islam is simple. Anyone who is willing to embrace those moral and ethical principles and shun the terrible traits is a true Muslim. I believe most people of the world by nature are Muslims they just haven’t realized it and declared it. I am inviting you, my Muslim and non-Muslims friends to consider truly embracing Islam - the world would be a better place.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 23:26:10 +0000
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