Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

An Unfortunate Religion

|

An Unfortunate Religion

His mere entry into the room was good enough to catch the attention of all. He was accompanied by a strong and usually disgusting smell of a scent, which is mostly used without considering the tastes and sensitivity of others. He was wearing a typical white dress which was neat and tidy. His turban was neatly worn and he held a string of beads in his hand and his one finger was busy in rolling down the beads one after the other. His second hand was busy in gently rubbing his beard which glowed in the light. He had tried all his best to give a message that he was a true Muslim who strictly followed the teachings of Islam and it was evident from his appearance and action. When he saw that people were impressed of him, he gave that gentle smile which comes on one’s face when he sees others being impressed and defeated. His appearance had at once impressed the others and now he was feeling that proud which occupies one’s mind and behavior when he impresses the others.

When he sat down after shaking hands with the people in the room, he was still showing his proud by slowly rubbing his beard. Later on, when he started talking, he tried his best to use more and more Arabic words in his speech. It all looked really impressive but to me it came a bit artificial when the man was overwhelmed by the desire of appearing important and winning the attention and appreciation of others by showing himself distinct and important.

This is one of the numerous scenes which shows the number of people, who try to gain importance and attention by using the religion, are increasing day by day and such behaviors are creating a lot many complex problems to the minds and thoughts of others, especially Non-Muslims who refer to us to see the true picture of Islam and instead we try to show the picture of religion that pleases us and makes us feel more important.

In my childhood, I visited a number of religious scholars with my elders and they were the true pictures of humility and perfect behavior but one never felt their behaviors to be artificial. They talked less, showed their importance even less and emphasized on treating others nicely and serving the needy, both by their sayings and act. They were truly educated and had great respect for all those who had knowledge of any kind, be it religious or scientific. But with the passage of time, illiteracy and ignorance vanished away a lot many good things from our society and now there are those who don’t have time to study books and discover the true teachings of Islam, rather they believe that only by changing the external appearance, they would be able to enter the realm of Islam and would be benefitted from its unlimited blessings.

This limited but dangerous approach has established an easy way for all those who wanted any source or medium to satisfy their needs of showing their importance and this disease is spreading rampantly.

This thinking approach is accompanied by a number of similar factors and as you might agree, this approach is found only in the illiterate and limited-knowledge societies of the world. Their first emphasis is to change the dress and make it ‘Islamic’. I have looked upon a number of books but failed to find any statement or order that should describe the ‘Islamic dress’. There are present only criteria that how much of the body should be covered and the dress should not be sex-provoking (as it happens in some cases). Except this, there is not present any obligation that one should wear the dress of any specific area or culture. With these criteria, dresses like pants, shirts, jeans and other things (which are usually termed to be ‘Non-Islamic’ by them) are all allowed to be worn by a Muslim. In the same way, when we show strictness in the dress of women, it attributes more to our cultural and traditional backgrounds instead of Islamic orders.

Then they have given the wrong concept of prayers. Prayers were meant to link the follower with his creator but now it is meant to gain more importance among the fellow-beings and even if we understand the true spirit of prayers or not or if we perform it with its conditions or not, we must offer the prayers so as to avoid the criticism by others and it is the reason why, our prayers are not giving the results that were promised of them and instead of offering prayers five times a day, both our hearts and minds are left unchanged and unaffected. Same is the case with Awraad (or continuous repetition of the names of Allah) as they were meant to change the condition of our minds and hearts and refine our souls but unfortunately, it has become a source of continuously cramming or redundantly repeating some names, which doesn’t affect our inner world of soul and heart.

When we talked of external appearance, beard is also very important. In Turkey, one who is having a beard is considered very pious and honest and he is trusted by all and people, who can rise to such degrees of religious pithy and social honesty, keep the beard while it is exactly the opposite in our society. We keep beard without understanding its accompanying responsibility and with this beard, we tell lies, abuse others, cheat others and do all the bad works and defame the beard and Islam. It is the reason why, in majority of the countries of the world, a person with a beard is considered ‘dangerous’ and this image has been developed by us, not by the Non-Muslims.

Another attribute of this ignorant mindset is emotionality and sentimentality. They would talk about impossible things, narrate the bombastic stories from past and force others to do things which may have no link with rationality and sound thinking. Of course, this habit is never alone and is accompanied by baseless, empty and exaggerated claims of spreading Islam or making similar achievements and as we see, such claims have never taken a practical shape. It is the reason why, I laugh on all those who boast that they will destroy the West or United States because the complete GDP of their country doesn’t equal the annual revenue of an American multinational business organization.

The biggest problem in this regard is the zeal to correct others without correcting themselves. They would always think of changing the people (of course, external change would suffice for them), and then they would like to change all the people in the world. This claim appears to be so stupid when they have not succeeded in changing themselves and they dream of changing the billions of people who are far better than them in many regards.

And their dangerous impact comes in form of hatred and bloodshed because when others don’t imitate them, they openly propagate hatred against them and in extreme cases; this has resulted in sectarian bloodshed and violence. Increasing violence in Islamic countries between Sunnis and Shias and this and that, stem back to the same stupid management of the religious issues. Such a fundamental and extremist approach can also be held responsible for increasing militancy and religious violence in the countries of our region.

There were a number of truly educated religious scholars who wanted to show the true picture of religion to the people but they were silenced by a blind bullet and it shows that there are definitely present international powers and agencies behind these dangerous games.

When we come to the solution side of this problem, true education seems to be the only solution. Be it religious or scientific, the more we study, more we enlighten our minds and discover the true teachings for humanity, kindness, love and humility which are only antidotes of this venom.

In the end, I extend my hearties apologies for all those who are following Islam with sincerity. I respect them and laud them for their efforts but mentioning above factors was also important as they have degraded the true shape and teachings of Islam and their true followers.

(Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com)

Go Top