religion – My Bit for Change

Worshiping Idols

While reciting Kalma-e-tayyaba, every Muslim knows that he is negating all idols and testifying that he will worship none other than Allah (SWT).

But do we negate all the idols in our life? Especially those hidden modern day idols which we worship knowingly or unknowingly. Love for anything blown out of proportion is start of idolism. At times we are not even aware of these invisible idols. Here are few of them.

Capitalism is the main idol we are worshiping. Our entire economy is revolving around and worshiping this idol. The fact is that the wealth itself is one of the blessings of God, the problem is with capitalistic mindset. One of the main concepts in capitalism is ‘self interest’ instead of mutual interest. Adam Smith, while giving this concept of self interest, argued that it will increase the efficiency and productivity; but actually it paved the way for cut-throat competition and criminal attitude towards humanity. Another concept of capitalistic economics is to manage the scarcity of resources to fulfill unlimited wants. Every Muslim believes that Allah has ensured his ‘rizq’, capitalism make him strive for capturing and accumulating the resources to have an absolute control over them. Capitalism has inculcated the phenomenon in the hearts and minds of the people that ‘money is power’, no matter how it is accumulated. The merit for honour, dignity and influence is the amount of capital one possess. And the aftermath of this capitalism is that UNDP reports that more than a quarter of the inhabitants of developing countries still have nothing to live on and 20% of the world population in industrialized countries account for 86% of the world consumption. The gap between haves and havenots is widening and Occupy Wall Street movement is one reaction to it.

The problem with the idol of Capitalism is that people are trying to ‘islamize’ this concept of sheer oppression and brutality. Capitalistic economy is snatching bread n butter from the poor while the rich elite is enjoying their lives to the fullest. Islam has clearly forbidden interest and usury, which is the basis of capitalistic economy. Islam discourages accumulation of wealth and usage of unfair means to earn money. Also, the system of Zakat is given in Islam to help the poor and take them out of their miseries. So the philosophy of Islamic economic system is entirely different from capitalism.

Careerism is another significant idol and focus of all of our efforts. Its related with capitalism, but more importantly, its related to our lust for money and worldly desires. Islam has given prime importance to the teaching that this life is temporary and a testing field for the permanent hereafter; yet all of our efforts are directed towards achieving a wonderful career with a bright future and healthy fortunes. The career we pursue pretty much decides what sort of a life we will lead and whom will we marry. Earning ‘rizq-e-halal’ through fair means is strongly appreciated in Islam; but running blindly after the worldly career is problematic. We tend to spend the best of our time in building a career and in the meanwhile we forget how to live a life. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are ideals for a vast majority and are actually idols being worshiped. The purpose of life for a Muslim is to please Allah almighty. If career becomes the purpose of life, it is surely turning into an idol.

Media has become an idol itself. Media portrays itself as a holy cow which is above all ethical and moral standards. It propagates whatever the corporate giants (capitalists) dictate and then people believe it as if it’s a word of God. It is the media which has objectifyed women as a sellable commodity and people have started believing in it. Labeling anyone as terrorist and sparing anyone else is their major contribution towards spreading hate and earning money. Electronic media in specific is a massive propaganda machine. It is badly affecting the lifestyles of the people. Advertisements worth billions of dollars only focus to tell people what do they need which infact they do not need.

Freedom is another one. Capitalistic economy and media has influenced us so much that we want to twist the religion as per our own desires. Unfortunately, a lot of muslims want to defy every order of Quran and Sunnah, and yet they want to be champion of faith. While its mentioned categorically in Quran that don’t cherry pick the issues and accept the religion in a holistic manner; yet people want to blindly follow their desires in the name of personal freedom. It must be clear that after reciting the Kalima, we have surrendered the freedom to Allah (SWT) and now every muslim has to live in the framework of Quran and Sunnah. Once a person exercises his freedom to choose Islam, then he must follow Islam in its true letter and spirit. Thus the liberty for every muslim is limited and not absolute, therefore, those who recite Kalima and choose to be Muslims, should follow Islam, instead of following their own desires and twisting the religion for their own wishes.

Last but not the least, our so called leaders are idols in most cases. The followers won’t listen even a single word against their leader no matter how corrupt or unethical he or she is. This is worst form of slavery we are facing in Pakistan. Be it any fake ‘pir/fakir’ or a party leader, almost everyone has his quota of blind followers. This creates a chaotic situation when people do not listen to any argument against their favourite personality. Specifically on social media, if you dare touch the holy cows, their followers will be at you, using all the abusive language they can. This is worst form of mental slavery and unfortunately, alot of our countrymen are slaves mentally.

Having testified Kalma, It’s a commitment that we will get rid of all these idols from our lives and only bow in front of Allah. They are present in our daily lives, invisible though and most often they are unknown. May Allah help us to get rid of these idols (ameen).

Are You as Pious as Me?

Have you seen those people who look very pious and virtuous, but at the same are very arrogant, violent and stubborn? They create repulsive vibes and people try to stay away from them. There must be some problem with those guys who practice and preach religion, but turn more people away then they attract towards religion.

The ‘conceit of piety’ may sound odd; but it happens. It’s a disease actually, better known as ‘kibr’ ‘ghuroor’. Satan (Iblees) was the first one who conceited, thought he is the better one. So, indeed all Muslims should try to refrain from conceit and repent whenever such thoughts come into their mind.

The strange thing is the link of piety with conceit. Those who are pious are never supposed to be arrogant; those who are arrogant can never be pious. So from where comes the amalgamation? That is something to ponder upon.

When a person follows the ‘rituals’ religiously, he develops a feeling that he is better than others; certainly better from those who are not performing religious obligations. This develops a sort of superiority complex, in which a person feels himself superior to others. Such a person becomes big-headed and looks down upon others. It naturally takes away humility and the person becomes more arrogant. In his beliefs he is preaching religion, but actually he is repelling people away.

This conceit is a result of our ‘competitive’ mind-set. We tend to compete and quantify everything in monetary terms. While Allah Almighty has encouraged the sense of competition for paradise, the ‘real value’ of each virtue will be decided by Almighty Himself. It does not matter whether a person has given away a million in charity or a penny, what’s really important is his intention. It’s not like scoring grades in college, where A grader can mock the B grader. Grades would be decided on the Day of Judgment by the Almighty Himself; and till then it’s not disclosed that who will enter Heaven or Hell. Every virtue should take us closer to God doesn’t mean that it is guaranteed that we are closer to God. A famous quote of Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA) in which he said that

‘If on Day of Judgement Allah announces that only one person will enter paradise, from the blessings of Almighty I expect that I will be that one. But if Allah announces that only one person will enter the hellfire, I fear that I will be that one.’

The concept of ‘holier than thou’ repels people from religion. The notion that ‘I have achieved a religious status’ and now I am ‘closer to God than you’ is a problem in itself. When we tag others as lesser than us in terms of piety, it surely serves a detrimental purpose. For the opponents of faith, it serves double purpose. First, it turns people away from the faith. Second, it gives the opponents a chance to mock the religion and those who stand for religion.

When we preach religion and perform the role of Dawah, again it is very important that we have humility and lovely attitude. There can be no example betther than the Prophet (SAW) himself. Prophet of peace (SAWW) shown the most humility in his actions.
Quran says

“And who is better in speech than him who prayeth unto his Lord and doeth right, and saith: Lo! I am of those who surrender (unto Him). The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend.” (ch-41: v 33-34)

Our actions should speak louder than our words. Our words will be effective only when our actions follow them. Those who have the conceit of piety, usually have multiple standards; different for themselves and others. It has more of social aspects. When such a person is in command of the situation, who thinks that others are not equal to him in piety, he actually makes life miserable for others. And what is the end result, people are repelled from God and His word, just because of that particular person and his pharaoh like attitude.

All of us should safeguard our virtues from conceit. Whether small or big, whatever our contribution is, it should make us more humble and more God-fearing.

Prophet (SAWW) gave same message in a hadith narrated hazrat Haritha bin Wahb Al-Khuzai:

“May I tell you of the people of paradise? Every weak and poor obscure person whom the people look down upon but his oath is fulfilled by Allah when he takes an oath to do something. And may I inform you of the people of the Hell-Fire? They are all those violent, arrogant and stubborn people.”

The Moral Demise

Daughter killed her father …..

Shocked when I heard the news that a teenage girl killed her father; reason, he was stopping her from having an illegitimate affair. It was a breaking news on electronic media and reported widely, shocking for the entire country that how she confessed her crime and was actually not feeling any guilt about it.

One thought that continuously struck my mind was what made a daughter so angry that she went to the extent of shooting her father. What was the real cause? Was her ‘teenage love’ for a boy so strong that she didn’t care about her blood relations? Perhaps she was thinking that something magical would happen as often witnessed in famous Indian movies and she would succeed in getting rid of all obstacles that hindered her path & she & her lover would live happily ever after.

Similarly, a shocking news came about an elite school managing a debate on gay rights in Islamabad and I was thinking that where are we heading towards? Do these elite schools give a damn about religious and ethical values or they just believe in blindly following the ultra-liberal ideologies. They are having fun with fundamental religious and ethical values while we are sitting as mere spectators.

Few years ago, during my college days, once a friend was sitting on the stairs, deep in thought. I asked what happened and he said, ‘ Looking at the current trends, I am thinking that If after 20 years my daughter is having an affair, how will I stop her’. It sent shockwaves down my spine at that time, but now we are seeing things actually we never thought about. Lifestyle has entirely changed in our country in past ten years. Just look at the language of our kids these days and it will shock you.

Lets play the blame game. Lets blame media for polluting the mind of the girl who killed her father. Lets blame our educational system for these shallow moral values. Lets blame parents for not teaching the kids properly. Lets blame society for promoting unethical values. Lets blame the government … Lets simply blame!!

This blame game won’t result in anything positive. We certainly need to identify the ‘root-cause’ of the problem and take corrective measures. In my opinion, the root cause is that we have not defined our own role models. We need to define the real role models. And for that purpose, we need to put a lot of question marks on our real ideology. Who are our heroes? Who are we aspiring to become?

Kids idealize the heroes, and whoever heroes they think, they would try to follow them. We need our own real life heroes. Or should I say, we need to project our own real life heroes, because we already have them, but our kids don’t know as many of us have also forgotten. Is our hero Hazrat Khalid Bin Walid, Hazrat Mus’ab Bin Umair or any Bollywood/Hollywood hero. Everyone in Pakistan would certainly respond that Companions of Prophet (SAWW) are our heroes. But then how much we and our kids know about them. How much do we talk about them. How much do we try to follow them?

Our problem is much deeper. We live in a hypocritical society. We have double or triple standards in everything. We have different standards for ourselves and our future generation. We have confused concepts of right and wrong. We want our kids to be modest, polite, religious, and yet they should be westernized, liberal, and exclusively English-speaking. We are exactly as Ghalib said

رند کے رند رھے ، ھاتھ سے جنت نہ گئ

To sum it up in a sentence, we are confused on our ideology of ‘successes’. We need to define what does success means for us. Is having a successful love affair a success? In movies it might be true, but in real life what is the end result. A girl killed her father to succeed in her love affair. Did she get what she wanted? Can she be called successful?

Let’s turn to Quran to get the meaning of success and Quran says

And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. (Ch 2 :v 185)

Unless we redefine the success in our minds and reteach our kids the problems will only increase. Bollywood style affairs would be more important in the lives of our teenagers and issues like LGBT will be talk of the town in ultramodern Pakistan with no values to uphold and be proud of.

Defending Vulgarity

‘Branding’ as modern and targeting a niche which tags itself with ‘ultra-liberalism’ is certainly a matter of bread and butter for a section of media which is trying to bash every moral value. The target market of some newspapers might be the ultra liberal, highly sophisticated and modern society; where ‘everything’ is allowed as long as its not religious. It’s a source of earning for them to target that niche. But there must be some standard moral values for everyone to follow.

When society raises its voice against immorality, a section of press and media retaliates by raising hue and cry over it. Raising voices against vulgarity is immediately tagged with honour killings, acid attacks and terrorism support. These people simply fail to realize that if someone is against obscenity, it doesn’t mean that he is in favour of acid attacks (its not an with/against situation). It simply means that people are against a set of crimes which are committed in the name of liberating women. Treating woman as an object is the worst form of slavery, because the victims (women) usually don’t even know about it and they don’t realize the repercussions they have to face afterwards. Women objectified as a commodity in the commercial world often lead to their worst slavery. Indeed vulgarity is a great marketing tool for attractiveness. It has its own charm, but its killing the basic moral values of a society. With the current pace, its leading us to collective suicide.

The greater evil is actually defending the evil. Why do certain people think that they look cool when they play devils advocate? As described by Peter Robbins, everyone wants to get attention but some want it by hook or by crook. Even if it means becoming a terrorist or taking your clothes off, both have the same purpose of seeking attention. A lot of poor girls are promised of a bright future and high levels of fortune in the fashion world by encouraging them to loose their moral and ethical values.

Those who defend vulgarity, also use the argument that it’s a non-issue and we are facing issues like poverty and lack of education. Indeed poverty is a greater cause to be addressed but moral values are also equally important. With no morality, we can not call ourselves human. Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) said that ‘Haya (modesty) is an ingredient of faith’ (Sahi Muslim). Alot of ahadith (sayings) of Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) indicate the importance of modesty. All religions give value to modesty, as its the one of the main things which mainly differentiates the humans and animals.

The problem with the liberal fascists is their confused ideology. They are westernized products in desi packaging. They can’t get rid of their packaging and that’s their dilemma throughout their life. They even go to the extent of ridiculing Islamic values, just to ‘qualify’ being a liberal. They try to promote things which are forbidden in Islam (and other religions) just to look modern. Under the label of ‘personal choice’ they want to legalize homosexuality, yet they claim to be praying five times a day. Deep inside their hearts, somewhere they know that they are going against the human nature (Islam), but still they continue on the path of glitters, leaving gold aside.

Islam categorically is against promotion of vulgarity in masses. Even the purpose of offering daily prayers is defined in ch 29, v 45 as

‘ Verily, As-Salât (the prayer) prevents from Al-Fahshâ’ (shameful, vulgar deeds) and Al-Munkar (i.e. disbelief, every kind of evil wicked deed)’;

which simply means that if you are offering daily prayers, it should result in modesty. If its not, then there is some shortcoming somewhere. Quran has given very strict remarks about those who propagate nudity and vulgarity in the society, in Ch 24 v 19 it says:

‘Surely, those who like that lewdness spreads among the believers, for them there is painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter’.

But here comes again the same problem. Pseudo liberals always ridicule the solution of ’repentance’ and returning to Almighty. For them creating a bond with the Creator is not a solution, but then they can’t provide any substantial solution either. In their own minds they are confused-but rather than trying to find answers, they continue to follow the blind path of ignorance. In the end, its for us (the masses) to decide what path we choose. Media depict of such issues brings vulgarity to the forefront & when viewed or read about over long periods of time, it will have a sadly numbing affect on our society (especially the future generations to come). Hence, whatever path we choose to follow must be clear & transparent. Right and wrong are clearly identified, choice is ours.

Did you say ‘Secular Extremism’?

The phrase-“Give unto God what was God’s and to Caesar what were Caesar’s”- is such a charming phrase, full of all that is naïve, and based on wishful thinking.

Let me elaborate on secular grounds, using reason alone against the dogmatic principles associated with revelation, that there exists a very obvious contradiction in the statement, which is to say ‘what if God and Caesar disagree? Who to ‘give unto’ then?’

But let’s not concern the logical fallacies, or rather, intellectual dishonesties, secularists entail in their arguments. For now, we’ll bring to discussion the attitude they adopt in their desperate attempts to pin down all-things-religious.

And here comes the dilemma of our ‘pseudo-liberals’. You’ll never find them taking part in any real intellectual argument. They’ll never take your words as a basis of your argument but would rather first declare you “Mullahs”, “Ignorant”, “Religious Extremists” and so on. Then, they will simply take the stereotypes based on these words and try to throw false accusations on you.

It’s the easiest job to put your opponent in any given debate in his weakest position i.e. extremist and put words in the mouth of your opponent, based on awkward stereotypes and flawed assumptions. And by taking such childish measures they are in fact running away from any fruitful dialogue based on sound principles such as reason, empathy, honesty and maturity. Without these principles you are a child who, inattentive of what other people in the room are saying, is too busy talking to his imaginary friend. When told that there are secular extremists too, they simply deny any such thing. They simply say that only religious extremism exists as extremism belongs to the narrow minded which of course seculars can never be.

But I tend to differ.

After all, what would such liberals have to say on the secular fascism taking place on the streets of Karachi? All three political parties accused of violence in Karachi, namely the PPP, MQM, and ANP are secular parties working on purely secular motives. Alternative accounts would say that ethnic rivalries are the motives behind the everyday killings of ordinary citizens that we all have become accustomed to. But aren’t ethnic rivalries essentially secular in nature. So can we really back away now from admitting that ‘Secular Fascism and Terrorism’ does exist in our very metropolitan?

Secular fascism doesn’t only exist; it’s all over the place. It’s the rule, not the exception. For instance, look at the word fascism itself. Its roots are in a purely secular ideology that has nothing to do with religion. Those who upheld this ideology believed themselves superior to other nations on purely secular grounds. Certainly the killing of six million Jews had no religious motivation whatsoever.

Social Darwinism is another ideology that took refuge in what it considered “positive science”. It preoccupied the mind-set of the European colonizers and gave them moral justification for all their vicious acts. Of course, since they could “scientifically” say that they are a more advanced and evolved race, it was their duty to propagate their own race throughout the globe while colonizing, and in the process, plundering, looting, raping, subjugating and exterminating, whole civilizations. After all it was “a survival of the fittest” as Herbert Spencer would like it to be. But all was justified, secularly, as the “White Man’s Burden”, which made it so easy to forget the genocide of whole civilizations in America and Australia, and enslavement of millions of Africans.

But religion is always brought to the limelight on the accusation that so many bad acts are carried in the “name of religion”. But what about the horrifying acts carried out on the basis on secular things, like ‘democracy’, ‘liberation’, ‘civilisation’ and ‘justice’.

What about the most devastating wars the world has ever seen, the world wars? Were they not fought in the name of secularism? What about the cold war that frightened humanity with the unprecedented accumulation of weapons of mass destruction, scientific espionage, false polarization, and organized violence, even wars, in the third world.

What about the making of the nuclear bomb. Would any religion sanctify of the making of a weapon that could kill millions in an instant and ruin generations to come. And what about the bombarding of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; did they have religious motives, or secular ones?

The world is full of secular people and regimes involved in horrendous crimes against humanity.Unfortunately, in our own country we see an emerging secular “liberal” class that has some very strange tendencies.

For first, it excludes anyone with a different lifestyle and view-point, from being part of that class. If you do not detest and dislike everything associated with religion, if you do not think everything wrong with our country is because of religion; and most importantly if you do not make fun of religion and religious people then no matter how open-minded you are, you sir, cannot be a ‘liberal’.

Second, it’s the greatest supporter of US imperialism. If it’s the Raymond Davis issue, they’ll say ‘Well, he has ‘diplomatic immunity (whatever that is)’; if it’s Aafia Siddiqui, they’ll say ‘she is a terrorist and deserves every piece of brutality thrown at her’. If it is a drone attack on innocent civilians, they’ll say ‘we do not have the technology so we have no other option because, after all, our lifestyle is ‘threatened’.

And third, it side-lines all human right calls when it comes to religious people; the state murder of the female students of Jamia Hafsa was justified, with no room for sympathy whatsoever, because they were used as a ‘human shield’. (So the next time a person uses your daughter as a human shield to save him from the gun in your hand, you should kill both).

Such liberals are not liberals at all. They’re extremists. Full stop!!

You are what you SPEAK

“I sent my brother a text message asking if he has a particular novel I was after and he replied in affirmation. I texted back with a wink and the words ‘I’ll be highly obliged if you could bring it”. He later smiled meaningfully and commented that my “highly obliged” reflected the mentality of a slave. I shrugged my shoulders and remarked, “As if taking a degree in English literature was not a reflection enough !”

A few weeks ago, a cousin of mine was asking about some symbol on orkut and her brother pretended as if he doesn’t know. And as I was standing nearby I shouted out ‘that word’ loud and clear. And her brother looked at me, shocked. The word is commonly used amongst youth these days without shame and has vulgar connotations. And with this, the realisation dawned upon me that I’m getting accustomed to all those words which are not a part of my culture, slowly and unknowingly.

In the book ‘Doing English’, the author has clearly stated that with every word of a foreign language comes the whole cultural package. And this the fear took over me. Am I falling through the bottomless pit of a foreign culture?! From then onwards I became conscious of every word that I use and am trying still to shun every word that does not reflect decency.

But how many of us actually realise that? Last year while attending one of the presentations of the research group in our department, the professor said that not every word can be translated. In Arabic we use words which have no direct one word in English or any other language. It’s true for Urdu, English and other languages as well. The words become terminologies! Once attending the lecture of philosophy, a professor said that we should avoid using words like “enlightenment” and “modern” because these are not words with simple meanings, for Occidentals these are terminologies that have derived from their history and culture. These words date back from the 16th and 17th Centuries, the age that Europe called The Age of Enlightenment; the shift from homo-centric to the ego-centric culture, when man became more important. And these all are not part of our culture.

In ‘Notes Towards the definition of Culture’, T.S. Eliot says that Europe’s culture is deeply seated in the religious history of Europe. Muhammad Asad in his book The Road to Makkah says that he has come to the theory that the European prejudice and hatred towards Islam and Muslims is dated as back as the first Crusades. It has become part of the culture. And it was T.S.Eliot who said that culture is derived from religion and faith (with it or the lack of it). And as writers cannot write in a vacuum, and they incorporate their mind-set into the whole experience of writing, we see the reflection of their beliefs, culture and thoughts. So, when I am reading Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Dickens, Bronte or James, I am actually exposing myself to their culture and beliefs. I remember a fellow student saying that it seems as if we know more than the average European about their sects and religion and history. It’s incorporated in their literature.

The first ever department of English was established in the colony of Subcontinent. The English believed that literature would incorporate certain values in the Indians without them realising it. And this would help them make better slaves. And they would not realise the religious moulding through literature. So, literature became a tool of making us more “civilized” in the eyes of West to serve their own purposes. Literature, if read passively, works subtly yet moves your insides violently. Your mind would accept things subconsciously or unconsciously and may affect your whole way of thinking. And I realised that you need to be active when reading literature, alert all the time, in order to keep different beliefs and metaphysics at bay.

The recent writers of Pakistan, who chose English to be their medium of communicating their ideas, do not reflect the embedded culture of the East. And when I’m talking about Muslim writers, I’m talking about the culture of Islam. The writers have not only chosen English but they have incorporated the ideas of Europe, their culture in those writings reflecting their own “slave-ish mentality”. The embedded idea in our minds that ‘doing English’, eating with forks and spoons and sitting on a dining table reflects the marks of civilization, without realising that in our culture, eating with your hands and sitting on the floor are the marks of being “civilized”.

It’s high time for us to realise that our culture, literature and everything else have a centre, and that centre is Islam. And the unification in things comes from that one centre. We may be able to institutionalise every “branch” of knowledge, but the centre would allow a Muslim to see things in totality and not in fractions. And we see all that in the works of Muslim poets from Rumi to Iqbal. So, even if we are to read the Western authors, we need to counter the effect by reading our own literature in the languages of the East, mainly Urdu, Arabic or Persian. It’s high time to stand facing the current and yet not lose our grounds. And we can only do that by standing in our own cultural grounds and not borrowed ones. We have far more better examples than those of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.”