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We were talking about the need for
self-assessment in our lives and I presented two sayings of our
prophet (pbuh), which are the bases of Islam. If you meet this
acid test then the paradise will be waiting for you. Not only
this; your home, your country and your life will be like
paradise too. I will repeat these sayings again, that:
“We base our
actions on good intentions”
And that,
“We should
wish for our brother what we wish for ourselves”.
The first saying is the base of Islam and
the second one is the base of recognizing human rights. If we
adhere to these strictly we can gain such a piety which is the
objective of Islam and should be preferred. Allah says that,
“whosoever developed piety has attained salvation”.
Let us now move on and look at the
significance of the first saying we quoted. Are we fulfilling
its requirement? The whole basis of this saying is the good
intentions. It demands that whatever we do should be in
subordination of Allah’s commands and there should be no
adulteration of that. Our actions should not be to please
people, and if you give alms, it should not be to show your
generosity. You should not try to advertise your piety and
generosity with your own words, however if people recognize this
on their own then it will be their will. “Allah gives honor and
fame to whoever He wants.” Whatever Allah wants from you he
creates such an environment for you. At times He makes a person
known to all and at times He hides the greatness of the person
until his death. This has always been the case. Quran revealed
the names of some of the prophets, and also that prophets were
sent to all the nations and nobody knows their names, but
Allah. In the same way, no body knows how many of the Allah’s
chosen ones came to this world and when their mission was
completed they were called back by Allah. Don’t even think what
the people will say. Just keep on doing good deeds. Your only
mission should be to please Allah, not to please the people,
other wise it will become concealed heresy. We have already
discussed the point that Allah likes only the sacred things, so
avoid the unclean things. If you construct a building on weak
footings the building will soon fall down. There is no
substitute to sincerity, and lies cannot last. The objective
should be that irrespective of whether people consider you pious
or not, generous or not, you should work towards pleasing Allah
only. Only He will be rewarding you and not the people. In the
words of Quran “do not be like a water bubble, which breaks
easily, instead be like water itself, which will exist till the
Day of Judgment” Since the things that benefit human beings
will be ever lasting, you should do good deeds, which will
continue to benefit humanity. If do things for your own sake
then it will be considered extravagance, however if you
construct a canal for the benefit of people like the “Canal of
Zubaida” or construct Inns and wells like the Sher Shah Suri
did, then your fame will be everlasting and your points of
virtue will be considered on the Day of Judgment. Same will be
the case with mosques the Shah Jehan (empror of India) built
will give him points of virtue, while his Taj Mehal (which is a
grand building and one of the wonders) will not earn him any
points of virtue. Here we should remember one of the prophet’s
(pbuh) sayings that, “worst investment is in the form of bricks
and stones”. In his time both his mosque and living quarters
were made of mud. All his companions even when some of them
were well to do, lived in mud houses.
Let us now go to the second saying of the
prophet. This is brief but so wide ranging in significance
that, according to scholars of Islam, if we would practice it
then all the requirements of human rights will be fulfilled and
all the benefits to humanity will be attained. If we keep in
mind that “we should wish for others what we wish for
ourselves”, then we cannot be unfair to any one. Let us start
with the example of time, of which Allah has taken an oath of
and thus has expressed the significance of it. Would you like
that somebody was late for you and you keep on waiting till
midnight for him, or children are kept hungry for your sake, or
a sick person who has to eat at an appropriate time should not
eat. Obviously you reply will be in negative. If that is the
case then why should you keep others waiting for you, and on top
of that you were late and should stay late to compensate, again
will bother the hosts. If this was our attitude then how could
we impress the non-Muslims about the values of Islam?
Organization and etiquettes at the dinner were our exemplary
landmarks, however we have downgraded ourselves so much that as
soon as the dinner is announced we all together pounce upon the
food and create problems for the hosts who will not even be able
to keep up with the supply of food at the dinner table. Not
only this, each one wants to have the best part of meat, and
fills his plate with food which he may not be able to eat and
during this hustle for food the people may even soil their
clothes. If we had kept the saying of the prophet (pbuh) in
mind, then we will not get involved in this nonsense. We have
forgotten all the etiquettes that Islam taught us. We were
supposed to act according to what Quran and prophet teaches us
and that we should arrive on time as we had promised that and
Allah will ask us about keeping our promises on the Day of
Judgment. Our prophet (pbuh) was always punctual, so much so
that one day some body told him that he would be back soon but
could not return soon, however when he came back after long time
he found the prophet (pbuh) waiting for him at the same spot.
We have a lesson to learn from this. Islam teaches us that we
should receive every one with respect and should make a place
for him in the gathering. Similarly when we have food in front
of us we should take the portion, which is on our side of the
serving dish. We should learn the organization from the prayers
and apply it to our practical life. If we are in a crowed, we
should not push people around and should make room for other
people who are passing bye. We should not throw peels of fruit
on the street lest someone may slip over them, neither should we
create obstructions on the road rather we should remove these.
Do not overstay at somebody’s house so much that the host gets
tired. We should not call names to others and neither should we
usurp or damage someone’s property. We should not harm the
people who are not fighting us and neither should we take our
life or kill somebody. We should not give or take bribes and
should not produce undue hindrance in the work. We are not
even supposed to give gifts to our officers and they should
deposit it in the government’s treasury if they receive a gift.
So we see that Islam has provided us with all the guidance in
life, however we try to do just the opposite and then expect to
be called Muslims. We make promises to break these. We get a
service and then make excuses when it is time to pay the bills.
Islam teaches us that we should pay a laborer before his sweat
has dried. Even during the performance of Haj, we push people
around to give a kiss to the sacred stone (Hajr e aswad) of
Kaaba. I myself have been there many a time in my life; however
I could only once kiss the sacred stone and that too with the
help of a religious policeman. I was waiting for my turn to be
able to kiss the stone, but people kept pushing me back.
Finally the policeman saw this and he came to my help and
stopped others until I could kiss the sacred stone. Religiously
it is not essential to give a kiss to the stone and a gesture
could be made from a distance so I never tried again. Similar
is the case at the place of Abraham (pbuh), where people instead
of two Nwafils start long prayers. In Medina too at the
prophet’s mosque people take over the sacred pillars of the
mosque to others inconvenience. So people do not bother to
worry about inconvenience to others as long as they are
comfortable. We have many other such examples of people’s
social misbehavior. Back home too they would damage the
farmer’s fields by walking through these, steal the crop
particularly in the orchards, sugar cane fields etc. In the
trains they would just take over the whole berth and not bother
about any body else’s inconvenience.
These were some of the examples of practice
of people. Let us now move on to the manners in speaking. We
have been taught to keep our voice down when speaking, however
when we want to win others over by just raising our voice rather
than use of logic. We have been taught to not interrupt when
someone is talking. Even during prayers if the Imam is making a
mistake in recital of Quran, we are supposed to let him try
three times before we interject. Islam has taught us the ethics
which we easily choose to forget and have stopped considering a
part of Islamic teaching. Islam is not only a faith but a way
of life also, and we are expected to fully follow it. It
teaches us ethics in every walk of life. If we read Quran we
should follow its teachings too, otherwise we will be hypocrites
and going against the word of ALLAH. Most of the other
religions are concerned with faith and rituals only and apart
from that you could do any thing in any way. On top of that
many of our scholars do not emphasize the social aspect of
Islam. As a result according to one scholar of the west said
that, “Islam is the best religion in the world and its present
day followers are the worst people”.
In this book I have tried to present to you
the picture of present age Muslims and I apologize for using
bitter words at time and pray to Allah that if I committed some
mistake in this, May He forgive me.
Allah Hafiz.
Shams Jilani |
