Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Dear Brother burhan

Salamalikum

ISLAM AND TERRORISM

By the grace of allah i do hope all goes well with you. I had written an earlier email to your site dborha help line, but failed to get an answer . so i write to you. if you are goign to post this on the web site. please dont use my name. As much as your site is knowledgeable  and makes it a lot of interesting matter to read from the point of view of the holy quran and its contents and meanings i must say that some questions are still unanswered for me

Question

From whatever little knowledge of the holy book, i cant understand that even though all the rules and regulations exists about followign the religion why are muslims all around the globe still the leaders in perpetuating henious crimes of terrorism. Why does one muslim brother from one sect of islam always preach hatred towards the other sect of islam. To clarify this you just have to watch some of the shows of bbc showing sunni muslim priets preaching hatred towards the shite comunity in pakistan. Even though islam is considered a tolerant religion ( proven by the fact that when the talibans were destroying art and culture in afganistan, even the high priests of iran, who are die hard in thier views raised an objection towrds it). In afganistan people from t he taliban are actually kiling their own brothers and sisters by not allowing lady doctors to practice. If it was not right for lady doctors to exists, can you imagine how you would have been born or the difficulty your own memebers of the family would have , if they could not consult a lady doctor.

How come whenever you tell someone that you follow islam , that person alwys looks towards you with some sort of uncomfortable way.

In short why do we muslims take so long to change, and also take longer to accept change for the better.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

ANSWER:

Islam and Terrorism

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and who-ever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

All the laws for society and individuals are clearly laid out in the Holy Quran, and the practice and implementation of all these laws were practically done and lived by the Messenger of Allah (saws). Thus, these two sources, the Quran and the Practice of the Prophet (saws) become our source of guidance to Islam.

The concerns that you have mentioned above are mostly true, but we must be able to differentiate between the religion of Islam, and what the muslims do. What you have highlighted above is some of the acts that the muslims do, most of which have very little to do with the Quran or Sunnah; although the people who do these misdeeds try to cover or justify themselves from the Quran.

What has happened today, is that the muslim world in engaged in taking a thing, which holds a small or minute position in the whole basket of Islam, and making a huge deal out of it. And on the other hand, the things which are considered vital and important, are made to seem insignificant and inconsequential.

Lets do a simple exercise and see for ourselves where we stand. Firstly, we can take the world population and divide them into two big segments. The believers and the non-believers. Then among the believers there are three basic segments in different formations.

The true believers of the Quran and Sunnah.

The people who differ in ‘aqeedah’ or faith, or involved in shirk (associating other gods with Allah).

The people whose ‘aqeedah’ or faith is fine, but differ on the smaller aspects of jurisprudence.

Whatever the differences between the believers are, we are not allowed in Islam to wage war or kill people, just because the two sides do not agree with each other. This is absolutely against the principles of Islam. What we should do is try to invite them with humility and wisdom to follow the Quran. If they accept your invitation, fine. If not, they have the freedom to follow whatever they think is right. But at no time are muslims allowed to fight or wage war and kill innocent people in the name of religion.

The time today is to unite the muslims, not to point fingers and break this unity. What has actually happened is that we have been divided by nationality, color, race, language, etc. In Islam, all these creeds and divisions hold absolutely no value. We are all one community, whether we are Arabs or Indians or Americans; whether we are black or white; whether our tongue is Telegu or Malay! We are all one community and united in the worship of the One Lord Alone. There are many muslim places which are forcibly occupied by the dis-believing forces, who are stronger in power and louder in their statements.

They kill our brothers, sisters and children in the name of peace! They drive them out of their lands by force and persecute them! They enforce their laws and their systems on these free souls in the name of peace! This world has become a place today where the strong oppress the weak, and the rich oppress the poor. Thus, we should strive to unite and raise our voices, and fight if need be, against this oppression, wherever it may be. But because we are so engrossed in so much in-fighting between the muslims, we are being hurt from all sides.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verses 190-191: And fight in the way of Allah with those who fight against you, but do not commit aggression; because Allah does not like the aggressors. Fight against them wherever they confront you in combat, and drive them out from where they drove you out! Though killing is bad, persecution is worse than killing!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 22 Surah Hajj verses 39-40: Permission to fight has been granted to those against whom war has been waged, because they have been treated unjustly! And Allah is certainly able to help them. These are the people who have been expelled unjustly from their homes only for the reason that they said, “Our Lord is Allah”.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisa verses 74-76: Those alone, who barter away this worldly life for that of the Hereafter, should fight in the way of Allah. Then We will bestow a great reward upon him who fights in the way of Allah, whether he be slain or be victorious. Why should you, then, not fight in the way of Allah for the sake of those helpless men, women and children who, being weak, have been oppressed, and are crying out, “Our Lord, deliver us from this habitation whose inhabitants are unjust oppressors, and raise a protector for us by Your Grace, and a helper from Yourself.” Those, who follow the way of Faith, fight in the way of Allah; and those who follow the way of disbelief, fight in the way of ‘taghut’ (Shaitaan). So fight against the helpers of Shaitaan with this conviction that Shaitaan’s crafty schemes are in fact very weak.

Regarding the Taleban and the likes, the truth is brother, our information is based solely on what we hear from the Western press. Their animosity and sense of justice towards the muslims is not even a secret anymore. They take a small thing and give it so much attention, that it seems it is the biggest nuisance in the world.

Take the case of the Buddha statues. There was such a hue and cry, but no one realizes that these statues were in Afghanistan for almost 5000 years! That means that they were there during the time of the Prophet (saws), and also there during the time when Afghanistan became part of the muslim territories under the leadership of Hadrat Umar (r.a.). They left the statues alone, so why this sudden need to destroy the statues. I read the interview of the Foreign Minister Al Mutawakkil of the Taleban which he gave in Washington D.C. I am not sure if I can get my hands on it now, but it basically said the same thing. His side of the story was that there was a Norwegian or Sweedish group who allocated $4m to rebuilding these statues. The Taleban apparently told them to use this money towards medicine or education in the country as that was the need of the hour. But the Group apparently insisted on rebuilding the statues and the talks with the Taleban authorities did not go well. The Afghanis took their arrogance as an insult and some Taleban leader ordered that the statues should be destroyed! And this gave the Western media an excuse to highlight the intolerance of the muslims.

Ditto regarding the lady doctors or women education. Islam, as a matter of fact, encourages one, whether man or women, to gain education and knowledge as much as they possibly can. What transpired in Afghanistan and how much truth does the reports of the Western media hold, Allah Alone knows best.

Have you noticed something about the Western media? When some ‘cult’ in Waco Texas burns and kills hundreds of their followers, they delink it from their religion! When some lunatic blows up the State building in Oklahoma, they delink it from their religion and make it an individual case! When some lunatic shoots randomly at 20 innocent people at a McDonalds, they do not link the person with his religion.

But when anything is done by a man named Abdullah, Mohamed, etc. they immediately link it with Islam!!! They made a super-hero out of a person like Ossama-bin-Ladin. Everything that happens is related to him… no matter where it happens! Even in the fantasies of Hollywood or even Bollywood, it is humanly impossible for a human to do all these acts in unison! But they have the whole world believing that this one man is responsible for all these ghastly deeds!

In the New World Order, for them to remain heroes, they need to create an imaginary villain after the fall of Communism … and Islam was an easy scapegoat and fitted the bill perfectly. And in spite of all their gory details and accusations of extremism and terrorism, Islam is growing at phenomenal speed all over the world. In their ignorance and prejudice of Islam, the fact is that they are scared and just have no idea how to stop this movement. No matter what you do or say, they will never be satisfied with you, until you become one of them.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verse 120:

Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with you unless you follow their religion. Say: "The guidance of Allah that is the (only) guidance." Were you to follow their desires after the knowledge which has reached you, then you would find neither a protector nor helper against Allah.

Thus what we need to do brother, is to look at Islam and then look at the deeds the muslims do today. Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) said these famous words: “If I had seen the muslims, I probably would never have converted to Islam. It is the Mercy of Allah, that I first read the Quran and understood Islam, before I met any muslims.” You cannot look at the deeds of some muslims and decide on Islam. Rather, we need to study Islam, and then judge the muslims and their deeds.

Another ironic thing is that when it comes to religion, some people always look at the worst possible example and conclude that there are flaws in Islam and thus could not be the Right Way. But in the terms of the world, they never do the same. Let me give you some examples:

One would never take the example of the worst possible marriage, and conclude the institution of marriage is wrong, and therefore he will never marry. He would blame the partner/s in that particular marriage.

One would never take the example of the worst possible bankruptcy, and conclude that doing business is wrong, and thus never start a business.

Or one would never take the example of the worst possible school on this planet earth, and conclude that gaining education is wrong, thus he will never get educated.

But when it comes to Islam, we sit here and point fingers at the worst possible regime and say, “See the atrocities and the killings and the injustice these people who claim to be muslims do. Thus I will never become a muslim.”

Brother, what we need to do is first and foremost find out what is the exact Message which has been revealed for our guidance by our Creator. This Message is the 600 odd pages of the Al Quran, and this Book are the very words of our Lord and Creator, Allah Subhanah. And that is Islam! Then we try to formulate our lives according to the boundaries set by Allah so that we can live a pure life in this world, and await the Mercy and Forgiveness of our Lord in the Hereafter.

Allah will not ask us about the deeds of the Taleban or the ones who kill innocent people. Allah will ask you and I whether we followed his commandments of the Quran or not. And that is how He will judge us.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 6 Surah Anam verse 70: And leave alone those who have taken their ‘deen’ as a sport and past time, and have been deluded by the life of this world. Nevertheless, you go on admonishing them by reciting the Quran to them, lest any person should be seized because of his own deeds; and that too, at a time, when there would be no protector, no helper and no intercessor to rescue him from Allah; when no conceivable amount of ransom would be accepted from him. This is because such people shall be seized, in consequence of what they themselves had earned.

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 43 Surah Zukhruf verses 43-44: So, hold fast to the Book that has been revealed to you, you are surely on the Siraat al Mustaqeem. The fact is that this book is a great honor for you and your people, and soon you shall be CALLED TO ACCOUNT for it.

Thus brother, the truth of the matter is: Islam is Perfect, the muslims are not. Do not judge Islam by looking at the muslims, but rather judge the muslims by looking at Islam!

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

May Allah guide you and us to read and understand the simple and plain words of the Glorious Quran. May Allah increase our knowledge from the Holy Quran. May Allah guide us to the Siraat al Mustaqeem.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan