Dear Mr. Pope

written for a newspaper:

Once again the Muslim world is under the spotlight, this time in regards to Pope Benedict’s recent comments on Prophet Muhammad. He quoted a Byzantine emperor stating that Muhammad has brought nothing new to the world that wasn’t “evil and inhumane”. However, his comments are not unusual, as they fit into a centuries old stream of anti-Islamic rhetoric coming from those solely seeking to provoke a negative reaction from Muslims. In the midst of the “war on terror,” it was only a matter of time before religion became entangled on both sides of the front. It now seems that Islam is not only being pinned against democracy, but Christianity as well. This meditated agitation of Muslims seeks only to showcase Islam as a series of violent protests and riots.

Despite the worldwide condemnations and calls for apology of the Pope’s irresponsible comments, there has not been an answer to the question: HAS Muhammad brought anything new that wasn’t “evil and inhumane”? It is however one of the many questions that Muslims have been forced to answer in recent years.

To see the goodness and humanity in what Muhammad brought we need only to look at his words. In his final sermon, shortly before his death he addressed his followers, “O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have rights over you […] Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and committed helpers [… ] All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non­Arab nor a non­Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.” These words may seem to belong in the era of the Civil Rights movement, but were uttered over 1400 years ago.

Muhammad left us a way of life that sought to return people to a state of virtue and righteousness. Islam was only a return to these ideals and not a beginning because it is a continuation of the same inherent message that Judaism and Christianity brought to the world.

If we review history we find that Muhammad used Islam’s doctrines of peace, brotherhood, and humanity to clear the darkness that had settled over pre-Islamic Arabia. In a time and place where new-born girls were buried alive for their lack of social value, Islam gave women the right to live, inherit wealth, and be equal members of society. Women’s rights, is a concept that has only recently taken hold internationally. Islam brought justice and peace to places of extreme corruption and lawlessness. The city of Madinah was on the brink of being destroyed by tribal warfare, when it’s leaders sought Muhammad and the humanity in his message to bring peace to the ravaged city. Not only did he bring stability but also he united in brotherhood tribes and factions that had previously fought each other for centuries. It is clear to see that Muhammad’s words and his actions embody the same ideals and principles that we all value here in the West.

There are no crimes unique to Islam, not even terrorism. To say that terrorism is rooted in the fundamental teaching of Islam is just as ridiculous as saying that child molestation is rooted in Catholicism. Which of course is not true. Islam does not hate freedom nor does it fight against it. All violence is reactionary, and it is impossible and irresponsible to take the events taking place in the world today out of their political and economic context. There is no sole reason for something happening, and there is no one catalyst of change. Instead of fanning the flames of hate and animosity, instead of working against promoting a peaceful world, we can all accept our responsibilities toward one another. The same responsibilities that have been enjoined on all people of faith, to respect, honor, and care each other.

Reflections on Pakistan and India’s Yaum-e-Azadi

There is a lot to learn from the history of Pakistan and India’s independence. It has many important lessons we can take into consideration in our present day situation here in the United States.Muslims had ruled the greater part of India from the 7th Century all the way up to the fall of the Mogul Empire in the 19th Century. During the British rule of India, Muslims lost a great deal of power and influence in the subcontinent. The legendary esteem and might of the Muslim empires in India was quickly demolished.

Muslims were at a critical point in the early 20th Century in India. Most Muslim leaders felt that Islam faced the threat of extinction in India due to the strengthening of Hindu nationalist groups. It was during this time when Hindi started to become the official language of India. Hindu nationalism flourished calling their struggle ‘a to return Hindu ideals and customs in India after hundreds of years of Muslim oppression.’

What put the Muslims in such a weakened state was not only their lack of unity or at least solidarity but how they reacted to pressure from the British and Hindu nationalist during the 100 years prior to Independence. Instead of struggling to maintain or improve their condition, most Muslims submitted to the fear of being socially ostracized. They gave up excelling in education, business, and politics because this might yield retribution. When the time came to decide the fate of Muslims in India, they had no leverage. This is why Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, and the others saw a separate Muslim state as the only solution for Muslims to save them from extinction (at least in India).

Had Muslims continued to be successful in all areas, religious, economic, political, and social; and if they had maintained their influence in India who knows maybe India today could have been one of the largest Islamic countries.

In the United States we have a similar situation brought on by different circumstances. Muslims are at a pivotal point right now. With the majority of the country disliking Muslims, and in case you haven’t noticed there is some hostility here towards us. In fact there have been many calls to kick out Muslims from the US. Never would you here people saying to kick out Catholics, because of all the contributions they have made to society. There are so many Catholic hospitals all over the country that at least 20% of the population goes to one at least once in their life. If we haven’t contributed anything to society than we are of no value here. Now, I don’t mean to make it sound as if we need to please people. However, if we are expecting to be accepted and liked here, lets face it most of us are, then we should learn from the mistake of the Muslims in India. We should strive for excellence in every way. I’m not advocating assimilation, but active participation in society; leaving what is forbidden but enjoining fully in what is good.

Now going back to the problems the Muslims had prior to independence; the biggest thing that held them back was the disunity. Unity is a powerful concept that cannot work overnight. Even during the time of the Prophet SAW unity among the Muslims took time. From my observation before there can be unity there must be solidarity. Before we can move as one, we must all be walking in the same direction. Once we realize and accept that we have common goals, responsibilities, and purpose then we are headed in the same direction. When we can start to solidify on these ideas of commonality, then we can more easily forgo our rights and our desires for the sake of the group. Unity almost seems like an abstract concept that is almost utopian. I think that comes from our misunderstanding of what unity is. It’s not so much being the same people entirely or even achieving synthesis in a group, but just being able to work together for a common cause. And even unity doesn’t mean freedom from problems, just the ability to solve them together.

Virginia’s Allen refers to Indian student as a monkey

Virginia Senator George Allen, a potential 2008 Republican Presidential candidate, called out an Indian student at one of his campaign rallies on the Kentucky border of Virginia. Allen reffered to the student as “Macaca,” which according to Webster’s means “a genus of Old World monkeys including the rhesus monkey (M. mulatta) and other macaques.” He also said, “Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia”

It’s pretty sad if you ask me, just goes to show Allen’s arrogance. Being a Virginian, I really hope this sets his campaign back. By the way his opponent is Jim Webb.

Muslims under stress?

So it seems stress is no longer reserved for corporate drones or single-moms, at least thats what a new report in The Journal of Muslim Mental Health tells us. Yea, that’s what I said too, now they have a journal to publish any scientific evidence that we are crazy. Apprently 9/11 shook the imbalance of stress in America, allowing more people, including the Muslims, to enjoy this fundamental part of Americal life. The reason? Well, it seems to stem from the little known fact that most Americans hate or at least fear us. To be honest, I just can’t grasp how my shaved head and fist-long beard would intimidate somebody. Jerry curls and a fu man shu, now that’s scary combination.

Muslims really seem to be afraid of discrimination whether it’s at work, school, or Gap. They have good reason, a recent poll stated that more than 31% of Americans felt prejudice against Muslims (the same amount said we should carry ID cards) and 22% said they wouldn’t want Muslim neighbors. I bet you anything they interviewed my neighbors for that poll, who ironically are Muslim too.

So now imagine this scenario: you walk into the Gap, looking for a pair of faded jeans, and the 3 guys at the counter stare at you funny. That means that at least one of them hates you because your Muslim, the other two are gay so just try not to give any mixed signals. Either way your destined for bad service. The way I see it, it’s just our turn to be the victims of American society’s indiscriminatory hate. It happened to the Blacks in the South until recently, it happened to Chinese on the West coast, and to Jews in the Northeast. It was only a matter of time.

Now all joking aside anxiety is really taking a toll on us American Muslims. The USA Today reported on this recent study saying, “Muslims, who made up 70% of the study’s participants, had poorer mental health than Christians.” Can you believe it? And an even more shocking conclusion, “[...] Arab-Americans, they had much worse mental health than Americans overall.” Another scare tactic, watch out for the mentally-imbalanced American Muslim; just when we thought we were in the clear.

I think the remedy for this problem is fairly simple. We need to take it easy on our self. We have it hard as it is, just trying maintain as a Muslim is difficult. If despite being in a environment that isn’t exactly Shari’ah Compliant, we are still able to hold on to our deen, then that is something to be thankful of. The world’s going to be full of “playa-hataz.” As humans we tend to hate what we can’t understand. As long as there is this ignorance amongst the general public, discrimination is going to exist. If we think we have it bad, just remember how bad the Prophet (peace be upon him) had it when he went to Ta’if.

There is a comforting fact however, and that is that more and more Americans are embracing Islam, despite what may be said about the pre-exisiting Muslims here. More and more Americans are realizing that Islam is not what they see on CNN but something that can bring peace not only to hearts, but societies as well. If our goal in this country is for da’wah, then we should realize that we are still in good shape and not let anything phase us. If we’re just here to benefit from the value of the American dollar, then don’t feel bad if they don’t hire you because your name is Mohammad. So before you start poppin Prozac, just remember our purpose here; and if that doesn’t help just remind yourself of the struggles the Prophet (peace be upon him) went through to spread Islam.

By the way, I’m going to bill you for this counseling session.

American History 101: What you didn’t learn in class

And now class, time for our history lesson for today…

Today we find ourselves living under the repressive guise of European cultural dominance. The European’s great discoveries and advancements in science, technology, and exploration built the foundations for the modern world, or so they say. Now, I don’t mean to completely diss the Europeans, who except for completely destroying all that is sacred in this world for the last 400 years, have achieved many great things (like french fries). The attitude of a superior European culture that existed throughout the latter part of the last millennia, are still very much in existence today. History is one of the biggest victims of cultural dominance. When only one group of people’s version of history remains or only one group of people are allowed to interpret history you are not only losing out on valuable irreplaceable discourse of events we are affectively destroying other people and their heritage. When a person’s roots are cut off and destroyed, his stake in this world no longer exists, making him vulnerable for extinction. If a man doesn’t know where he came from, that means he doesn’t know where he is going either.

Many of us know Christopher Columbus as the valiant Italian explorer, who in 1492 discovered the “New Word” by landing on the island of Guanahani (called San Salvador by Colombus). However, historians now hold that the Romans and Carthegenians already knew about South America which is shown in one of Ptolomey’s maps. Also, it is pretty much fact know that Leif Erricson and the Vikings were the first to reach North America, although they didn’t settle. Also, some historians claim that Zheng He, a muslim admiral of China’s huge navy, arrived at the “New World” decades before Colombus or de Gamma with a fleet of over 300 junks (boats up to 400 feet long!). But perhaps what is most interesting about the discovery and the settlement of America, is it’s Muslim roots.

The atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition in the 15th Century led by the infamous King Ferdinand and Isabella, tortured and killed Muslims and Jews, and those who lived escaped to north Africa and Asia. This period ended the Muslim rule of Spain (Al-Andalus) and the Catholic church was reinstated as the official religion of Iberia. Many of the Muslims and Jews of Berber descent went to the Canary Islands, and others were sold into slavery to work in ships that sharked the Mediterranean. Amazingly, any of these Muslims either by way of their own expeditions or by Spanish ships ended up in Ameria.

The Mirror

In urdu there’s a famous saying, “mujhko ‘aina dhika diya” the rough translation being “they showed me the mirror.” This phrase means in essence that the mirror was turned to you, so you could see your own fallacies instead of jus everybody elses.

When you look around you, you see the fallacies and problems within the Muslim Ummah. We all see them and are always talking about just what these problems are and how to solve them. For now, I’m trying to quell my frustrations with other Muslims. Partly because when I look at my own self, (By Allah’s Grace) my reason uncovers traces of these same problems that exists within me, that are either expressed when triggered by a certain spark or have the potential to manifest themselves into something permanent in my behavior and thinking. I don’t look for the faults in others, but I do notice them because I’m familiar with them… in myself. Really it’s hard sometimes to change others, because you know you’re still a work in progress, and your past sometimes still haunts you. But there really is no ultimate level we can reach, perfection is impossible…and we aren’t asked to be perfect, just to try to get as high as we can and when we fall, to get up and climb even harder. And we will fall, it’s almost guaranteed, but that’s why theirs that rope of Allah to hold on to.

“O you who believe, beware of Allah as is befitting Him and die not except in a state of submission. And hold tight to the rope of Allah all of you and do not divide yourselves. And remember the generosity of Allah upon you when you were enemies and He joined between your hearts and so you became – by His grace – brothers. And you were on the brink of a pit of fire and He saved you from it. Thus, Allah explains His signs to you that perhaps you become guided.” (Qur’an 3:102-103)

And yes we do have a duty to tell as many people to hold on to that rope as possible and to help them hold it, even if we ourselves have a light grip. Because we are believers and we are all auliyah (protectors, friends) of each other. InshaAllah someone will be there to help you strengthen your grip as well. And really we are so blessed, but at the same time don’t realize how close we are to the edge of true belief. Often times we walk very close to the edge of true belief, the other side being a big fall (disbelief) and we think that we are safe. We don’t know how many times we cross over the line and by His mercy are able to cross back over, for the most part unscathed. So many things we take for granted and place little value on. Many of us take a thing like waking up for fajr very lightly, I know I used to. I would think if you don’t wake up, “whatever it is okay, sleep is an excuse.” But salaah is a duty; however the ability to perform that duty is also a right that can be taken away. We don’t understand this too well because that’s not always true of things in the material sense. In this dunya we have rights that can be taken away, but those rights are not always obligatory to do. It is obligatory for our body to breathe oxygen, and someone (Allah) gave us the right to breathe the oxygen. If it is taken away, then we simply die. Allah can take that away from us, the ability to make salaah. To know that you are being denied that opportunity for the blessing is scary, and that there is a severe punishment for it. And it’s due to something of our own doing, because Allah is Just and Merciful. He is not going to strip you of your rights if you committed no crime that you haven’t repented for. Allah is sufficient in our affairs. The more we struggle in the right direction the more some things will become easier for us. At the same time, there will be things that will become difficult and we WILL fail sometimes. But don’t despair because this is too a blessing from Allah if we have patience and steadfastness.

Allah knows best. May Allah give us all the hikma to know what’s right and wrong, to patience and steadfastness to bear our trials and stick to the straight path, to have Taqwa of Allah and to increase us in our Imaan, and let us die not except in the state of Islam. May Allah strengthen our hearts to love Him and His Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him. Ameen.

Drowning in Minor Details

“O you who believe, enter into Islam wholeheartedly.” [Al-Baqara: 208]

The beauty with Islam is that everything is complete. Everything you will need is already given to you and it all makes sense. Any misconceptions, misunderstandings, and confusion is brought upon by our own shortcomings. We tend to overcomplicate things and forget the essence of what really matters. There is no doubt that when it comes to religious matters, nothing can be completely ignored. Not even the smallest detail should be excluded from the whole of Islam. However, Islam is not just mere belief; it’s an entire way of life. Encompassing things from worship, behavior, business transactions, and even down to the proper way to relieve ones self.

It took 23 years for the Message of Allah to be fully revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and to be conveyed to the people by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The time-span was completely up to Allah and His Wisdom, but that amount of time was needed by men to be able to fully know and comprehend this beautiful way of life. When you analyze the Qur’an and the chapters and verses you find that the early surahs (during the Makkan period) generally focused on the topics of Tauheed (Islamic Monotheism), the Day of Judgment, and righteous conduct. These were simple yet very important matters that were needed to be set as a foundation of what was to come next. The primary role of the Messenger (peace be upon him) at this point was to be an announcer and a warner. The later revelations (during the Madinan period) also talked about the earlier stated issues but also introduced new issues that were pertinent as the Ummah was expanding and so on.

The point being that in everything there are major and minor details. The major details would be such that neglecting them would take us out of Islam, such as our prayer. The minor details would be ones that we are not punished for if we do not do them, such as fasting extra days of the year. Nothing can be ignored, without the major details you have nothing, and the minor details only support the major. However, everything must be taken in strides and depending on ones own abilities, distinctions must be made on how to approach the major and minor. It is not rational to come to the masjid every night for Taraweeh during Ramadan, and neglect the five daily fard prayers. Today many muslims drown themselves and others in what can be called the minor details and lose sight of the major issues such as Tauheed, Charachter, and Salah. We spend years of time and reasearch and dialougue on topics so far our of reach and so irrelevant that could have been better spent on an issue such as perfecting or character. Disunity, ignorance, and the complete lack of sincerity in the Ummah is what has resulted from the excessive overemphasising these minor details.

To draw an analogy, the point I’m trying to make holds evident in the human body as well. The heart, respiratory system, brain, etc. are vital to our existence; but if we lose a toe or a finger we can still live and be healthy.

“say: Verily my prayer, my sacrifice, my life, and my death are for Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds.” [surah al-An'aam: 162]

We must never stop the struggle to improve ourself. Trying to do too much at one time, especially if one isn’t prepared for it will just lead to an “iman burn out” and can leave you at a worst position from where you started. This is what I have learned from my own personal experience. When you take it with ease and patience and work to perfect a smaller number of things at a time, you will find that it is much easier to do and it becomes more solidified, InshaAllah. We should fear Allah the best we can in our striving to reach the highest imaan. Punishment comes only after knowing the Truth. There is no punishment before knowledge, and after knowledge there is no excuse; and Knowledge is obligatory. Allah knows best. May Allah increase us in our imaan and knowledge and save us from ignorance and evil. Ameen