URGENT QUESTIONS
You can’t remain neutral on a moving train, and certainly not when there is a genocide underway.
One of my favourite humans was the late, great historian Howard Zinn.
Zinn taught that we should reject objectivity in that narrow, anti-human, warped sense, which means not taking a stand or presenting data and remaining apathetic about its social effects. Objectivity only interested him if it meant telling the truth as you saw it, not lying, not distorting, not omitting information, not omitting arguments because they don’t suit your ideas.
His high ethics remind me of another hero of mine, the unflinching Norman Finkelstein. Finkelstein’s guiding principle in doing history is: don’t fear the truth.
Both were the products of blue-collar, working-class Jewish-American immigrant parents.
These noble Jewish sons allowed information and knowledge to humanise and move them truthfully. Their anti-war activism and fight for equal liberties for all often landed them in prison.
Their example squares questions for us: are we objectively true to life, and will it make us move, or what will it take to make us move?
In the Quran, God presses us for an answer of similar import: “Why should you not fight in God’s cause and for those oppressed men, women, and children who cry out, ‘Lord, rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors! By Your grace, give us a protector and give us a helper’?” [4:75].
God sent the Prophet (s) with the Quran to call people to goodness and justice. Some moved, but most stood still. They only joined later when the Muslims won the day after having suffered tremendous persecution.
A Zionist hatefest endorsing the Palestinian genocide happened in Cape Town, our city, and we did not move. Israel has killed tens of thousands and continues to slaughter hundreds more daily, and still, we remain unmoved.
So, what will move us? The new Apple or Samsung phone? The latest tech, fashion, cars, blockbuster films, number one singles, or God forbid, some pop icon or movie star?
We must seek refuge in God from such foolishness.
I believe wholeheartedly that God will humiliate the oppressors with or without our help. But I pray God makes us the cause of their humiliation.
The fight for the oppressed is a fight against injustice. Anything less is indifference and hence unjust. For we are siding with the oppressor if we are fence-sitters in times of tyranny.
You can’t hold genociders down until you’ve decisively routed them. Their lust for slaughter will only increase. And now, our passivity has once again settled us in the aftermath of wholesale slaughter.
The time could not be more urgent for us to answer God’s question. So, let us respond by praying that God makes us one of the helpers and protectors sought in the prayers of the persecuted: ‘By Your grace, give us a protector and give us a helper’ [4:75].
BECOMING PROPHET-CENTRIC
If we profess to be people of faith, we must want to become Allah and Prophet-centric.
The Prophet (s) said, ‘None of you will have faith till he loves me more than his father, his children and all mankind’ [Bukhari 15].
Do you want to know how to increase your love for Allah and His Prophet (s)?
Surround yourself with people who know and love Allah and His Prophet (s). And ardently read books that will enrich your knowledge and love for Allah and His Prophet (s).
Don’t habituate your life to noise.
Routinely build quiet days into your week by turning off the TV, radio and phone. Silent commuting, when driving alone, is a good way to begin.
Only when we are quiet do we open up to wisdom, which is otherwise inaccessible.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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