Protests Final

This is the final part of a three part series, please find the earlier parts here and here.

In order to handle such situations, what we’re lacking is an understanding of how the Prophet of Allah (S.a.w.) and his companions handled them. Obviously, during the 13 years of early preaching in Makkah, and in the 10 years in Medina while inviting world leaders to Islam, there have been several incidents when someone grew so much in his audacity that he did something blasphemous to the Prophet of Allah (S.a.w.). We know that Abu-Lahb and his wife were known blasphemers, so was Abu Jahl during the stay in Mecca. While Caesar of Rome, Hercules of Syria, and the Iranian emperor all responded in aggressive negation, some even tearing the letter that contained Quranic verses. As far as I have found out, there’s been very few incidents when a Companion’s sword did the justice. But to that end, my knowledge is limited and requires your input. If we can just find out from the life of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and his companions how they responded in those events, we may end up having a destination as a nation after all.
[Knowledge gain August 2009: The book Ar Rahiq ul Makhtoom gives references of murders of a jew called Kaab bin Ashraf and another blasphemer who were both murdered by Sahabah (ra) and that too after deceiving them! So we have a precedent after all]

What we definitely need is having a strong media base. We need to create more opinion makers - like one of my friends has previously said in a circulating email chain, there aren’t much good Muslim writers on Wikipedia -to divert the masses in our favor, we need to show them the other side of the picture, in a more humane way. And this can only be done when the Muslim Media are strong enough and more importantly, united enough to send out a singular message to the world. I know that the points raised in this write up are not new, but I’ve written them in the hope that they may be able to tap a newer audience and just may reignite our dormant fire of Iman.

All we need to do is to make a start, and with a pure heart. We just need to find our individual strengths – some of us are good orators, some are good writers, some are good presenters, the mathematicians, the scientists, the number crunchers, the architects, the pilots, the marines, the astronauts, the multi-linguals, the multi-culturals, each has a strength, a niche’ that sets him or her apart - and then find out how to put it to the best use for Islam. Taking time out is easy. Just start by giving 5% of your time to the brainstorming session. If we’re thinking about it the same way we think about that next picnic spot, the new restaurant, that next car, that elusive better job, or just about anything that we’re obsessed about, we can hope that Allah would lead us to the correct path.

And just signing off, there’s a verse in the Quran (I can’t remember the reference) whose message is: If the love of your parents, your sons and daughters, your spouse, your business, your wealth, your houses or just about anything is more than your love for ALLAH, then just wait in a far corner for ALLAH’s verdict, and Allah doesn’t like such Kafirs. [Knowledge gain August 2009: At Taubah:24] Let’s analyze ourselves again and again, and try to explore ourselves how we can make the change. Singly, I’m very weak, but with you, and the omnipresent help of Allah, we could be the most formidable force in the world.

This is the final part of a three part series, please find the earlier parts here and here.