Ramadan day 7- Reflections for Juma Qutba
2665 Villa Creek, Suite 206, Dallas, TX 75234
I received the following email from my African American Muslim friend who reads my writings, “Mike; I keep sending you such information because someday likely you will meet our Brother and I want to start to introduce you now and before any actually meeting because I am very aware of the opinion of many immigrant Muslim of us and generally it is not good and some have told me to my fact “You All are not Real Muslims” ……not realizing that it was us that paved the way for them to have some peace here.”
A few Arabs think that the Pakistanis are not Muslim enough, and the Pakistanis don’t see Indian Muslims to be Muslim enough, and Indian Muslims don’t think the Bangladeshis are Muslim enough and I guess they don’t think the Rohingi Muslims are not Muslim enough and there is no end to this baseless thinking and is contrary to the teachings of Islam in this case.
Much of the wisdom and guidance in Quraan boils down to the things we need to do to keep a balance in the society, where no one has to be afraid of the other. Islam in one word: Justness.
Look at the practices in Islam – the Salat and fasting for instance, what do they do to you, and what is the cumulative effect of it? Allama Iqbal said it well, “Tujhe kya milega namaaz may” what do you get out of fasting and prayer, if it does not make you a humble person. Humility broadly means treating, feeling and acting equal with your employee, spouse, kids or others; Muslim or not. How do we measure up?
Pathetic material came up in the Economist yesterday, how Shia and Sunni are denigrating each other and calling each other infidels? Do they throw the Prophets’ last sermon out of window? Do they follow the Sunnah? I hope our Imams are urging their congregants not to denigrate others, absolutely not, for their own good in the long haul – so they can live in a safer society.
Religion, ethnicity, nationality and race should never be slapped with false labels for the acts of a few. Statistically, if you meet “one” Muslim, Hindu, Christian or a Jew and he or she turns out to be a bad person; you can claim that 100% of Muslims, Hindus, Christians or Jews are bad.
And if you meet two of each and only one of them turns out to be a bad dude, your statistic is halved; only 50% of Muslims, Hindus or others are bad.
But when you meet 1000 of them in each group, most likely the following statistics will emerge.
95% of people in every religious group get their religion right
02% of people in every religious group are enforcers, tyrants
02% of people in every religious group are easy goers
01% of people in every religious group are intolerant ones
The statisticians can tell what a reliable sample is, which will yield similar results no matter where and when you test. This has been my observation of several groups that I have been a part of for nearly 20 years, and a part of my e-lists that I mail to Atheists, Baha’i, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Native Americans, Sikhs, Wicca, Zoroastrians and others.
Not sure how many Muslims and others can shed their arrogance and prejudice towards others, I want to assure every Muslim, yes, every Muslim that he or she can count on receiving full dignity and respect from God for them and their belief and their tradition, whether they are a denomination of a Islam or of any religion. We are all God’s creation (Children is not a descriptor in Islam).
As a fellow human, you can count on me to treat you with full respect for who you are, and as a symbolic gesture, I will visit your sacred place without hesitation, simply to honor your uniqueness that God has endowed you. I will not agree with you, and you may not agree with me, but we can respect each other; both of us are God’s will.
Thank God for his guidance, I have made the time to visit every denomination among Muslims and have been with Aztecs to Zoroastrians and every one in between. I am confident of my faith Islam, that I follow and give respect to every one who is confident about his or her faith. When you do not have a strong faith, you shy away from knowing others and run from others, God wants us to know each other (49:13), so together we can create cohesive societies that are good for you and I and every one around us.
This is what God wants, to get along and keep the social, economic, spiritual and emotional world in balance and harmony with oneself and with others, and I believe that is God’s will.
The pictures in the link above are of Ifaar and Suhoor at Masjid-al-Aqsa and Bait-al-Muqaddas and a street in Jerusalem before Iftaar. If you wish to see 250 pictures of entire Israeli and Palestinian lands, let me know, I will send you the link. I have traveled from Jerusalem to Golan Heights in the north and from Haifa down to Tel Aviv and in between been to Jericho, Nablus, Nazareth and other cities.
The bus tour guide was giving mis-information about Islam, she said Islam has six pillars, the first one is Jihad and she explained it means killing the infidels. It was not easy, but I am not going to let falsities go unquestioned, finally the tour operators agreed to change to five and also the right meaning of the word Jihad. Jihad is like nuclear power, in the right hands it is beneficent to the whole humanity and in the wrong ones, it is hell. Jihad in itself is a word, neither bad nor good, it is the struggle to fight our own conscience and win over the humanist ills like anger, hate, malice, jealousy etc. It is the user of Nuclear power that is good or bad, and not the word. Less than 1/10th of 1% abuse nuclear power, Jihad, Religion, presidency, chairmanships of corporations etc. They are dangerous, and we need to round them up and not what they are affiliated with; family, religion, nation, pastor or their holy book.
Two Dutch Imams and I was on the bus, we did our Iftaar with the dates and we gave the Adhan as well in the bus. If you have an interest in seeing my individual share of work, please visit http://www.israelPalestinedialogue.com
What does God really want?