Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The desire to be A-religious

I came across a blog, 'Maverick's Domain', with a particular post on the 'need' to be 'a-religious'. There was a sense of disillusionment that I found hard to miss. When Karl Marx said that religion was the opium of the masses, I am sure he was voicing similar sentiments. I, however, would like to respectfully disagree.
We humans are an exigent race. When religion seems imposing, it becomes cumbersome. But when need arises, we all turn to God in despair. We all do. And unfortunately we cannot have religion custom made to our individual needs and situations. We may damn religion for whatever it stands for. But when our car dangles precariously over a cliff after an accident, we pray fervently for a safe return. Oh well. Man has always been a confused species.
The problem perhaps then, is not with religion per se but with our interpretation of religion. Maverick talks disdainfully of the unfortunate Graham Stein's murder, the Gujarat riots , the divide-and-rule policy of the Imperialists and the terror wreaking Arabs. I totally agree with her here. (I assume it's a 'she', there was no profile info to check with!)
But what makes us think that these tragic events happened BECAUSE of religion alone and what guarantee that they would NOT have occurred had there been no religion at all?
Yes, religious texts do teach us the cliched concepts like tolerance and benevolence, etc., etc. But cliched as they are, they are also sorely lacking in us. But for these texts, we would probably not even know that these are concepts worth valuing, the uncouth race that we are.
If there had not been any standards set in the first place, we would have cared little for any deviations.
Why blame religion when it is the misguided practitioners who cause all the mischief? And who can tell, they would have thirsted for blood even if they were atheists. Maverick exhorts us to 'shed the pretense' of religion as it leads to no growth whatsoever. Now 'growth' can be a very tricky term. And sometimes it comes in very inconspicuous packages as well.
A brilliant young boy I know was told that cheating in exams was deplorable as it was theft and that God hated thieves. It was this belief that kept him going. He was assigned an exam center for HSC where cheating was rampant. He was even offered a few answer books. He refused, despite the temptation. For him topping this exam was of utmost importance, but he resisted. Why? Because his religion taught him to. Everyday he would come back; sad, disheartened and frustrated. He knew his friends were gaining an edge over him. But he trudged on. When the results were to be out, he didn't even bother to dress up for the occassion. It was only when the college sent the professors and peons to fetch him did he realize that he had topped the entire division (and the state in one of the subjects) that year. He was an overnight celebrity.
Even if he hadn't it would not have been such a bad thing. Because now when he is employed in a reputed MNC, his employers know that they have an honest, God-fearing employee. He is worth a lot of trust, a trust on which they base the 'growth' of their company.
A little learning, they say, is a dangerous thing. The fault usually does not lie in religion but on how we take religion. It is the half baked ideas about God that lead to all grief. As for the 'murderous Islamic countries' that Maverick talks about, I have always maintained that if Muslims only read the Quran with understanding (and followed it), there would be little to complain against them; it's so simple. Alas, we have made the simple things complicated with our own additions.

Monday, January 29, 2007

Divided we stand, United we fall...


I am not much of a politics person but I just happened to come across a recent article by Thomas Friedman. I usually avoid reading him-for several reasons. I find him blatantly biased against the Islamic world and well, he has a certain talent with the written word that makes even his ludicrous neo-imperialist ideology seem fair seeming to a naive outsider. But there's something that we might learn from him. When he laughs at the growing divide amongst Muslims themselves, it's time to sit up and take notice. Not because he's saying so. But because our Prophet (PBUH) never meant us to be like this. We have Hadeeth quoting Muhammed (PBUH) that the whole Ummat should be like one single body-so that even if a finger is in pain, the whole of the body should agonize over it. It makes sense even if you are not much a believer of the Hadeeth tradition, doesn't it?
Why are we are silent over the rising sectarian violence that's raging in Iraq then? The problem is that we have divided ourselves-we have forgotten the Book and grabbed false messiahs for our salvation. Why the Sunni-Muslim divide in the first place? Both the sects believe in Muhammed (PBUH) and his Prophethood, but both fail to realize that he neither went by the name of either 'Shia' or 'Sunni'. These are inventions of generations that came much later.
Why must we fall on innovative interpretations of Islam when it's all so clear in the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet?
The question is: why are we searching for alternate identities when all they are serving is growing sectarianism? Is it serving any purpose? Why are we so skeptical about just following the Quran and the Prophet? Why do we need the 'add-ons' so much when Allah Himself proclaims in the Quran: "This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed MY favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as religion." (5:4) Why the thirst for 'improvisations' in the divine message, when they can only imperfect at their best, because they are so human?
It's sad how we divide ourselves over something as small as who was the Prophet's successor AFTER his death-a time when Islam was already a complete entity, as we see from the verse from the Quran. While that may be a serious issue indeed, is it serious enough to demand a re-interpretation of our entire religion? Is it serious enough for us to be divided like this for centuries on end? Is it serious enough to give us the right to kill our own brethren? How can we allow the killing of either sect by members of another when Allah condemns the unjust killing of any life:
" For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind."
(5:32)
and elsewhere:
"...And that ye slay not the life which Allah hath made sacred, save in the course of justice. This He hath command you, in order that ye may discern." (6:151)
and yet again:
"And slay not the life which Allah hath forbidden save with right. Whoso is slain wrongfully, We have given power unto his heir, but let him not commit excess in slaying. Lo! he will be helped." (17:33)
We say we kill in the name of Islam when Islam requires us to have a VERY just cause to kill; we say we take the Quran to be the word of Allah and yet we flout it in the name of religiosity.
I admit these are tough times, but that shouldn't be reason enough to forget the divine word, no? In fact this is just the time to bond even more firmly, to Allah and to all our brothers in faith. If Islam means 'peace' let us not violate it, except for a cause justified by Allah-for instance when one has to punished for murder or other such sin-and killing another because you don't like him or his leader cannot in any way be defined as justice.
And may better sense prevail. And may Allah unify this broken Ummat again towards Him. Ameen.

Monday, January 08, 2007

The distance between us and Allah...

"The distance between us and Allah is the length of our desires; the shorter this length, the closer we are to Allah"

I quote my cousin here. Sometimes youngsters can amaze you with the wisdom they exhibit. My young cousin deeply impressed me with his ideas when we interacted last week. He told me to read some Quran-said that we soon realize then that if we have our Eeman with us, it is not the end of the world yet.
"Maybe some good will come of this." That was the refrain in the story he narrated to me. An old farmer keeps telling that to himself every morning as his only sheep, only goat and only dog are devoured by a hungry wolf in three consecutive nights. The fourth night the entire village is raided by dacoits who rob all the villagers of all their possessions but spare the old farmer's house thinking that since he had no live stock, he would be too poor to have anything worth robbing. There was some good in an apparent evil. But it requires immense amount of faith to believe in that till the good actually begins to show. Sub-hanallah. May Allah always give us enough patience to believe in His wisdom and power till the difficult times tide over. Ameen

Monday, January 01, 2007

Eid Mubarak folks!

Phew. Anothe Eid gone by. My cellphone hass't stopped beeping ever since I woke up this morning. Eid and New Year coincide and the greetings have just been pouring in by the hordes! Nice time to reconnect. The visits to old friends and relatives whom we hardly seem have time to catch up with the rest of the year-it's all kinda nice :)
I never got that Biryani done but there were other yummy goodies to make up for it. Don't know where the day went-just whizzed by. Good thing. Was invited to a large luncheon get-together with cousins and aunts and uncles all over the place! LOL.
Well, hope everyone had a smashing Eid-ul-Zuha and here's wishing all the folks who are through with their Hajj, a very Mubarak Hajj :) Cheers!