Blasphemy and our anger

Blasphemy and our anger

“...hidden in this reaction against disrespect of the Prophet is the feeling of our own contempt. This hurts the ego of Muslims, i.e., how dare you show disrespect to the personality we regard our Prophet! It is this ego that gets injured and we mix up this egotism with our selfish reactions that we wrongly assume to be the result of our love for the Prophet. This is delusion ... the one who does not care about the wishes of the beloved, keeps himself busy in meaningless gossips and does not respond to the call of the muazzin, should be honest with himself and think if his claim to be a lover of the Prophet really suits him.” Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan

‘Ishq hai pyare khail nahiN hai

Ishq hai kar-e-sheesha-o-aahan’

A believer is not free to act at will. His beloved Prophet (pbuh) has left behind examples of an ideal social behaviour to be followed. In his lifetime, the Prophet (pbuh) encountered many blasphemous attacks on him, not only at Makka but even in Medina but the Almighty had provided him and his companions with a basic guidance:

“You shall most certainly be tried in your possessions and in your persons; and indeed you shall hear many hurtful things from those to whom revelation was granted before your time, as well as from those who have come to ascribe divinity to other beings beside God. But if you remain patient in adversity and conscious of Him - this, behold, is something to set one’s heart upon.” (Al-Imran 3:186)

Permission to take revenge and punish the blasphemer, should the situation so demand, may be inferred from this verse. However, ignoring such provocations has been strongly recommended.  

Nothing could be dearer to the Prophet (pbuh) than the pleasure of Allah (SWT) and the good of Islam and Muslims.  He saw it in the interest of Islam and Muslims to treat everyone in the best possible manner. So sublime were his morals that after the death of the chief of hypocrites, Abdullah ibn Ubai, who did not spare the Prophet (pbuh) during his life in Medina, that the Prophet gave his blessed shirt to be put inside his coffin and led his funeral prayer notwithstanding the fact that the revelation relating to hypocrites had come, “[And] whether you do pray [to God] that they be forgiven or do not pray for them - [it will all be the same: for even] if you were to pray seventy times that they be forgiven, God will not forgive them...” (Tauba, 9:80). When reminded by Umar (RA), known for his temper, about this Qur’anic verse, the Prophet (pbuh) replied that he had not been forbidden from doing so and whether or not to pray for the deceased had been left on his discretion. He then emphasised that if he was sure that the dead person would be forgiven after being prayed for, for more than 70 times, he would have prayed even more.

Such was the practice of the Prophet (pbuh) for whom our love is being discussed here. On several occasions Abdullah ibn Ubai committed acts that made him deserve execution so much so that at times it appeared to the companions that order to end his life would surely be issued. But in the interest of the Ummah, the Prophet (pbuh) thought it more appropriate to ignore his provocations.  How magnificent and how great were the manners and practices of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh)!

Our anger against the blasphemy against the Prophet (pbuh), as is being repeatedly committed for the last few years by the enemies of humanity, is a sign of our strong faith. But in our reaction to such incitements we need to bear in mind the interest of the Ummah and Islam and should follow the example set by our beloved Prophet (pbuh), if we are true followers and true lovers of the Prophet. Otherwise, we will merely be satisfying our personal egos and will be defaming the true spirit of love for Rasool Allah (pbuh).

We have seen how a young Muslim man risked his life and killed the Dutch film maker of the blasphemous film. But it has done no good and has had no effect upon the soldiers of Satan not to mention our slogans and daily demonstrations. Each day some cursed person in the west appears and tries to supersede the previous blasphemer in his incivility, rowdiness, blatant dishonesty and mischie.  

Is there any sense then in continuing to use these methods, witnessing their ineffectiveness and interpreting our outbursts as the display and requirement of the love for the Prophet? This is nothing but a show of our helplessness. Through such demonstrations we are encouraging and telling the devils that they can get away with any crime and that, as far as we are concerned, we cannot do anything more than beating our chests.

Why do we like to display, again and again, our shameful weakness?  Regardless of the ineffectiveness of our methods, one wonders if we have come to believe that our protests are virtuous deeds. God forbid, if this is the case then neither we have been able to understand the stature of the Last Prophet (pbuh) nor are we realising the dignity that we, as the slaves of Allah’s Prophet, have been blessed with by the Almighty. How sad and how shameful is this display of our weakness, coupled with our fallacy that this is a virtue, through these ineffective demonstrations, organised in the Prophet’s name!

What do we do then? This is a difficult question. This scribe tries to answer, from experience, according to his best ability and understanding. I invite others to ponder over it.  

There would be very few in Britain who would not remember the active role of Islamic Defence Council (IDC) in the campaign against Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses.

As the convenor of IDC, this scribe felt honoured in actively participating, with his best abilities, in that campaign. As part of its campaign, the IDC organised, on 28 January 1989, in front of the publisher, Penguin, a demonstration in which at least 25,000 Muslims from all over the country participated. In view of the fruitlessness of our conventional protests and bearing in mind the culture of the new world in the west in which we had settled, a method was suggested that was different from the protests in the Indian subcontinent: instead of angry and provocative slogans, community’s emotional and spiritual anguish was expressed through placards. This was a moral appeal to win support from the British public. We were under the impression that some noble souls would come to our support and would pressurise the publisher and the government to take steps regarding this issue.

No doubt our protest was appreciated (especially because, in contrast, two weeks earlier at Bradford, demonstrators had burnt a copy of Satanic Verses) but we failed to achieve what we had aimed for. Two weeks later, Ayatullah Khomeini issued the fatwa to kill the author and the publishers. The Government, that was unwilling to hear our moral and civilised appeal, displayed such eagerness in providing protection to the author that it seemed that the cursed author was its agent.  This experience convinced us that western world had a different temperament and different mindset and that only when we have the power we could make them feel our feelings.

After America-Taliban episode, an unending series of mischiefvous acts has started. And each mischief is far more outrageous than the previous one.  The degradation and contempt in the latest film has reportedly crossed all the limits of decency and no government wants to take notice of our woes. Efforts are being made at the UN since 1999 by the Muslim World umbrella body Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to limit the scope of the shameful western culture of “Free speech” but western governments are not listening.  (Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US Ms Maleeha Lodhi has detailed these painful failures in The News of 25 September 2012).

Are the senseless methods adopted by the blasphemers part of a strategy to create hatred in the West against Holy Prophet (pbuh) and his deen? The answer is NO. There is a method in this madness. Behind these acts is the fear created by the signs of the Islamic world’s renaissance. United States launched this campaign, now in its twelfth year after 9/11, through what it calls “War on Terror”. This crusade has been waged to destroy, using most powerful weapons, all those forces that, in US’s view, are working for this renaissance. The production of the series of sacrilegious films and cartoons is part of this American crusade.

Unfortunately in the demonstrations against this latest western crusade we are witnessing as tragic and as painful incidents as took place in Pakistani cities on 20th September 2012: destruction of our own properties, worth billion of rupees, at our own hands and, as a result, our own brothers being killed by our own police. Such incidents widen even further the gulf and increase lack of confidence between our governments and the public. Who can think of an Islamic renaissance in such a situation? Further, this intensifies the anti-west, specially anti-US, feelings in Muslim youths who then do not hesitate in resorting to any available method through which, they think, they can take the revenge of this indignation. And the US looks upon them as “new terrorists”.

Does this situation not demand that, in spite of our deep emotional pain, we ignore western provocations in the same manner as we see in the life of the Prophet (pbuh)? When we are unable to do anything to stop these devils then is it not more dignified to follow the guidance shown in the aforementioned verse of chapter Aal Imran? If we think seriously, this Qur’anic guidance is particularly for a situation presently confronting us. In the given circumstances, the only solution to solve the problem is to ignore their mischief mongering, fail their plans and thus put an end to their ongoing devilish campaign.

What justification is there in expecting western nations to understand your pain and anguish? What makes you think that they will support OIC’s efforts to introduce in international law a provision to bridle these hooligans? They are even against Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law. What sense is there in expecting the nations, which oppose laws providing for the sanctity of holy personalities and places in your own countries, that they will take such measures on their own lands?

Wait for the day when we shape our lives according to the wishes of Allah and His Prophet (pbuh) and, thus, become able to bring Muslim World’s renaissance. This will not happen by carrying banners in demonstrations with proclamations of Ishq-e-Rasool. This will come by surrendering to the dictates and desires of Allah and His apostle. Without doubt, at present we are not in this state, a fact that we may be unaware of or may be deluding ourselves into believing that we love the Prophet. In order to explain this point further, listen to the following story:

In the last century among the great ulama was Maulana Syed Munazir Ahsan Geelani (1892-1975) who had been blessed by Allah (SWT) with the wealth of ‘Ilm as well as love of the Prophet (pbuh). Writing about his student days in Darul Uloom Deoband and his teacher Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan, (1851-1920) he narrates, “Bukhari was being taught. The well-known hadith came: ‘None of you can be a momin until I become dearer to you than your wealth, children, and every human being.’ This faqeer submitted: ‘Alhmdulillah, even a common Muslim is blessed with the wealth of love for the Prophet (pbuh) the proof of which is that to an extent he can tolerate the insult of his parents... but slightest disrespect for the Prophet (pbuh) enrages him and he loses self-control. We have seen it many times that on this issue they have put their lives in danger.’ Upon this, Hazrat Shaikhul Hind said: ‘No doubt what you have said is true. But why does it happen? You have not reached to its depth. Love demands that each and everything is sacrificed to please the beloved. But the general behaviour of Muslims regarding the wishes of the Prophet (pbuh) is before you and me to see. What did the Prophet desire and what is that we are doing? Who is there who does not know this fact? Then surely love cannot be the reason of Muslims not tolerating disrespect for the Prophet.’

“This humble self then submitted: ‘Please tell us what the exact reason is?’ Hazrat Shaikhul Hind, a great expert of human psychology, explained: ‘If you think about it, hidden in this reaction against disrespect of the Prophet is the feeling of our own contempt. This hurts the ego of Muslims, i.e., how dare you show disrespect to the personality we regard our Prophet! It is this ego that gets injured and we mix up this egotism with our selfish reactions that we wrongly assume to be the result of our love for the Prophet. This is delusion ... the one who does not care about the wishes of the beloved, keeps himself busy in meaningless gossips and does not respond to the call of the muazzin, should be honest with himself and think if his claim to be a lover of the Prophet really suits him.’”  (Ihata-e-Darul Uloom mein beete huwai din, pp 15f).

(Source: By Atiqur Rahman Sambhli

The writer is London-based Islamic scholar of Indian origin.

For feedback, please email at atiquesambhli@talktalk.net

obaidur.rahman@gmail.com)