Thoughts
of an Ordinary Muslim in Ramadan
Who were we? Where are we? Where
are we headed?
By
Anwaar Hussain
THE
MONTH of Ramadan is here again. We Muslims have once again launched
ourselves headlong into starving ourselves every day from dawn
to dusk. In all our prayers we have become so ritualistic that
the substance is almost forgotten and the form has been kindled
into worship itself. We have become past masters at missing the
woods for the trees.
Every
Ramadan, the prices of daily commodities sky-rocket. One is led
to believe as if on a cue the fields have started to yield less,
the cows to hide their milk and the hens to lay fewer eggs. The
common man is left with just enough skin by the traders to re-grow
for the next Ramadan.
Yet
the same traders go back to their Iftaars and prayers with a solemnity
the like of which is not seen the year round. After each prayer
they implore Allah for forgiveness for self and prosperity for
themselves and the Umma. Refreshed from heavy Iftaars, they get
on with renewed vigor to add tap water to milk, used engine oil
to edible oil and ground bricks to spices. Thereafter, they hoard
what they can to exact a telling price from their brethren in
need. That leaves them with just enough time to be present for
Taraweeh and once again beseech Allah for mercy. To be fair, though,
the traders are not alone in this.
The
rest of us are not much different the year round and in the month
of Ramadan? No amount of prayers has been able to instill discipline,
harmony, genuine piety and a quest for knowledge in us. We continue
to inconvenience others by miss-parking our cars, throwing refuse
out in the streets, honking horns at each other, jumping red lights
at the traffic signals, slamming doors in peoples faces, telling
blatant lies for petty profits, disrobing women by unashamed ogling,
spitting huge globs of saliva in a to-whom-it-may-concern fashion,
never turning up on time for appointments and keeping taped sermons
on the whole night blaring at full strength from Mosques’
minarets long after the Maulanas have gone into a deep snooze.
One
rarely sees any one imploring others to stand in line, run to
give a helping hand to a disabled, get up to vacate a seat for
ladies or the elderly, take care of personal hygiene, or keep
his immediate surroundings clean and pollution free. We are busy
instead in quibbling over the length of facial hair, where to
tie our shalwars for offering prayers, and our hands while in
prayers, the number of Rakaats in certain prayers, how to dig
up relevant Ahadeeth to further strangulate the hapless women,
issuing Fatwas on non-issues, pronouncing others as wajeb-ul-qatal
(liable to be slain), finding short-cuts to heavens, declaring
jihad on every thing but on purification of self, illiteracy,
poverty, backwardness and hunger. We are busy blaming the West
for all our ills and finding a Jew at the root of all our miseries.
What hypocrisy---self included.
If
cleanliness is half the faith then the West of today, the Viking
brutes of yester-years, have beaten us to the claim hands down.
If the other half is the rights of others on us then again we
need to turn our heads westward to behold the sight.
The
Holy Koran is not just about prayers and worship. A significant
number of Ayahs deals with human relations and knowledge of the
universe and what is contained therein. The West is busy conquering
the same universe, solving its riddles and harnessing the nature
for the benefit of mankind. From medicines to cure our diseases,
to the cars we drive and the airplanes we fly in to visit our
holy places, we are dependent for all our systems on the same
West. What happened to us along the way? What do we think the
great Allama Iqbal had in mind when he said:
Lay
gaey taslees kay farzand meeras-e-Khalil,
Khisht-e-bunyad-e-kaleesa bun gayee khak-e-Hijaaz
The
once glorious madarasah was supposed to be a prestigious seat
of learning. They were bastions of knowledge and beacon of light
to the world. When Islam was at its pinnacle, every order of learning
from mathematics to science, from medicine to astronomy, from
philosophy to jurisprudence were taught at these institutions.
Great Muslim luminaries such as Al-Beruni, Ibn-e-Sina and Ibn
Khuldoon were the products of these same madaris. Sects and different
schools of thought in Islam have existed side by side since long.
There was nothing wrong with intellectual differences flowing
from freedom of thought as long as such differences remained confined
to academic debates. The walls of these madaris are witness to
the echoes of great scholarly dialogue between various heavy weights
of the time.
Islam
teaches us to seek knowledge, even if it involved travel to China.
Quite obviously the Prophet (PBUH) was actually referring to worldly
education, and not religious, as the Chinese were always non-Muslims.
While from the 7th to 15th century AD, transfer of technology
took place from the Muslims to the rest of the world, we have
been in a non-stop slide ever since. From the podium and the pulpit,
we are now told to keep hugging past splendors to our chest and
remain prostate in prayers waiting for a Salahuddin Ayubi to appear
and restore us to our rightful destiny. Look at our condition
today. At the time when the US invaded Afghanistan, there was
only one factory in Kabul manufacturing earthen crockery. No wonder
then that Robert Fisk called the US invasion of Afghanistan as
“Technology Vs God”.
Now
the same madaris are being used to mislead the Umma by promoting
negative thinking, hatred and violence. Modernistic thought is
termed blasphemous. The syllabus has been honed to instill sectarian
loathing resulting naturally in fratricidal killings. The subject
of “Haqooqul Ibad" (obligations towards fellow human
beings) has been confined to scriptures and an occasional lip
service.
From
rostrums and pulpits, the so called Ulema have declared more Muslims
as Kafirs (infidels) than motivating the so called Kafirs to embrace
Islam. Adherents are being incited to kill innocent people in
mosques and their places of worship, while audaciously claiming
Islam as a Deen or a complete way of life.
Is
this the way of life that Islam teaches us? That we fight amongst
ourselves and others and take innocent lives in their places of
Worship? And all in the name of Allah? True Islam is nothing but
lenience, forgiveness, kindness, justice, fair play, goodwill
and harmony. There is no place for extremism, militancy, violence,
fundamentalism, hatred and anger. Mosques, Mandirs, Synagogues,
Churches and Temples are supposed to be sacred places of worship
where we seek the blessings of God Almighty and allow others to
seek the same from whatever entity they call God.
There
is a race for progress among all nations. The world is busy in
development of human resource, mental enlightenment, strong moral
fiber and sound technological growth. We have to wake up from
our self-imposed slumber and join the race. The alternate will
for sure condemn us to crawl on all fours eating the dust of the
beaten path trailing leaders who are even now well past the horizons.
Let
us pause this Ramadan and ask ourselves a few questions. Who were
we? Where are we? Where are we headed?
