Assalamu Alakum Brothers/Sisters
Sometime I feel really sad about the situation of deteroirating standards of Living in Muslim Society,...And only recently that I started realising, that perhaps muslims have lost the WISDOM to understand others viewpoints / inside story, they have attributed all their miseries to the Alleged conspiracies of the outside world and so on....
I am pasting some stuff from an article which clearly demonstrate the kind of discussion we are having between Brother "abrother4truth" and other brothers....For that matter the message is for those who have been unnecessarily advising him....
“Anybody desirous of success should spend some time in introspection (self-observation) and contemplation (observation).”
Conspiracy or not, Muslims are to blame for the terrible backlash against Muslims in Western Media. The simple reason is that when a crazy Christian does something terrible, everyone in the West knows it is the actions of a mad man because they have some knowledge of the core beliefs and ethics of Christianity. When a mad Muslim does something evil or foolish they assume it is from the religion of Islam, not because they hate us but because they have never been told by a Muslim what the teachings of Islam are all about. That's why they label Muslim as Muslim, while they label Individual for others.
Their political discourse remains the same as earlier, blaming others for their plight and arguing that they are discriminated against in India...But Indian Muslims need to do some collective introspection as well. For fifty years, the religious and political Muslim elite has not shown any interest in the socio-economic betterment of Muslim masses."
Various arguments are given to explain this predicament. Many Muslims claim that this is a result of an alleged ‘conspiracy’ hatched by others. A large number of Muslim religious leaders, not just in India alone but elsewhere too, seek to explain many of the serious problems of the Muslims in this manner. They claim to locate the ‘hidden hand’ of others behind all their manifold problems. Some of our ulema or religious leaders also seek to provide what they claim is religious justification for this sort of explanation, before which people, even those who are not satisfied with the narrow-mindedness of the approach of these ulema, are forced to keep shut.
In my opinion it is not true to say that the Indian Muslims have no problems at all simply on account of being Muslims and that, in practice, they enjoy equal opportunities in every field with others and that all fields are equally open to them. Nor, however, is it true to say that all, or even most, of these doors have been closed to them and that oppression has now come to be a matter decreed by Fate for them. It is unfortunate that many of our religious leaders believe that the only way out is for a messiah-like figure to appear to deliver them from the situation in which they find themselves. It is equally unfortunate that the Muslim political leadership considers heated rhetoric, empty sloganeering and angry demonstrations as the solution
On the internal front, the single major problem afflicting the Indian Muslims is their woeful state of education. If, after independence, we had focussed simply on promoting education as our agenda, I believe that half the problems that we appear to be confronted with today would not have existed. It is in the field of education and knowledge that we should be focussing our energies, not in engaging in endless controversies with others.
For the Indian Muslims, and Muslims all over the world in general, an intellectual renaissance has now become indispensable. This includes a renaissance in their political, social as well as religious thought. There must be a re-thinking of certain strongly-held notions that have come to be seen an essential part of traditional Islamic thought, although these may not actually be so. In this regard, ijtihad or critical reflection on issues is of immense importance and we can no longer avoid it. Unfortunately, however, many of our ulema continue to ignore, and even deny, the need for ijtihad. Many Indian ulema have simply no idea of the needs and conditions of today’s age. They simply lack the capacity to understand the demands of the times and the need for appropriately addressing these issues. This is a matter of very grave concern.
One issue of considerable importance in this regard is that of relations between Hindus and Muslims. There is an urgent need to revise certain traditional negative understandings upheld by some of our ulema about Hindu-Muslim relations, and to articulate alternate understandings that can help promote, rather than hinder, cooperation and friendly relations between these two communities. Some of our ulema, based on an incorrect understanding of certain verses of the Quran and Hadith reports attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, erroneously argue that true friendship is impossible between Hindus and Muslims. Some of them seek to equate the polytheists of Arabia with the Hindus, and, on this basis, claim that Hindus are the biggest enemies of the Muslims. This, in my view, is not at all correct because the polytheists that the Quran refers to as enemies of Muslims are those who fiercely opposed the Prophet and waged war against him. The laws related to them, I believe, cannot be applied to other people who are not open and avowed enemies of Muslims.
In this regard I must also mention that many Arab ulema are unaware of contemporary global political developments. They have no understanding of the particular conditions and contexts of Muslims living in largely non-Muslim countries, which some of them wrongly brand as dar ul-harb. This is completely wrong. Further, their thought is moulded by the tradition of jurisprudence that developed in the context of Muslim political supremacy. Their writings often leave an indelible impact on simple minds. They rant and rave against secularism by branding it as ‘anti-Islamic’, and have produced huge amounts of literature to make this point. And because the madrasas do not teach their students to relate the tradition of Islamic jurisprudence to changing social and political conditions and contexts, they are unable to understand these vital issues properly and so become wholly conditioned by the contents of this sort of literature. This is an issue that urgently needs to be addressed.
In every country, minorities do face additional problems and issues, and it is unlikely that these can ever be fully resolved. The correct approach in this regard is to accept these conditions as facts and then to work for realistic solutions, instead of stirring unnecessary controversies. Unfortunately, we Muslims focus all our attention on seeking to highlight the causes of our problems instead of working to solve them in a practical, pragmatic and sensible manner.
Unfortunately, the West does not know what every Muslim scholar knows; that the worst enemies of Islam are from within. The worst of these are the khawaarij who delude others by the deeply dyed religious exterior that they project. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said about them, “When you see them pray you will consider your own prayers insignificant. They recite the Quran but it does not exceed the limits of their throat.” In other words, they don’t understand the true meanings. The outward religious appearance and character of the khawaarij deluded thousands in the past, and continues to delude people today. The Muslims should be aware that despite the khawaarij adherence to certain aspects of Islam, they are extremists of the worst type.
Our Prophet said, peace be upon him, “Beware of extremism in your religion.” Islam is the middle way between excess and neglect. Zealots are a plague upon religion. These extremists come in two types. The first is a reactionary extremist who falls far right of a centre-point. Reactionary extremists do not want any pluralism; they view the world in melodramatic, black and white, good and evil terms. They are good and anyone who opposes them is evil. From among the Muslims these are people who ‘excommunicate’ any Muslim who fails to share their interpretations of the Quran. They use takfir and character assassination as a tool for marginalising any criticism directed at them. (This is what I am seeing in the discussion between brothers in this thread)...
Muslims on the other hand, generally prefer to attack the West as the sole reason for their problems when the truth is we are bankrupt as a religious community and our spiritual bankruptcy has led to our inability to even deliver the message of Islam to Westerners in a time when they were giving us platforms to do so.
It is ironic that the Western media while producing many vile programs on Islam has also produced and aired material of the highest quality with a high level of accuracy only to be vilified by Muslims because it was not good enough. Where is our media? Where are our spokespeople? Where are our scholars? Where are our literary figures? The truth is we don’t have any - and so instead of looking inward and asking painful questions such as why we don’t have such things and such people, we take the simple way out by attacking people whom Allah tells us will do mean things, say bad things and plot against us. And always when we are warned we are told to be patient, to work for the good, to trust in Allah, to return to Allah, to implement our deen.
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From shock and denial modes, the Indian Muslim community has recently begun to introspect and take positive efforts.....For instance, Recently Muslim scholars, activists and clerics got together and issued fatwas delinking Islam with terror. An eighteen coach Sheikh ul Hind Express from Deoband carrying two thousand clerics set out on a journey with a message of peace and integration.A total of six thousand clerics from twenty one states met in Hyderabad to issue more fatwas against terror activities.
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