LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR
I love Islam. And I am immensely proud to be a Muslim because of Quranic verses like these: “Those who have been driven unjustly from their homes only for saying, ‘Our Lord is God.’ If God did not repel some people through others, many monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, where God’s name is much invoked, would have been destroyed. God will surely help those who help His cause—God is strong and mighty” [22:40].
The universality of the Islamic Scripture and its recognition and protection of other faiths is unmatched. When Christian Europe was mercilessly persecuting the Jews, and antisemitism reached fever pitch, Jews living in the Arab lands enjoyed safety and societal integration because the call for tolerance, compassion, inclusion and mercy runs deep in the Quran.
We live in a world that has become violently intolerable, where faith has increasingly come under attack, not just by non-religionists but also by people of different beliefs and even between those holding different views within the same tradition. Voltaire, the French Enlightenment philosopher, writes in his Treatise on Toleration about a man falsely accused of killing his son and was then executed. But later, it dawned that the real reason for his execution was because he was a Protestant. His treatise, written in 1763, was a call for religious tolerance and freedom of thought from all classes of fanaticism. Voltaire addresses his plea in a spirit similar to the Quranic verse above: that is, if we purport to be people of God, then we should protect all His people, regardless of persuasion, against all injustice. Voltaire’s cry for empathy, tolerance and understanding is as fresh and urgent today as when he penned it.
FORSAKING GUIDANCE
I believe, without a doubt, that the state of the Muslim project is because we forsake Divine Guidance for self-interest: “And the Messenger (s) will say: “O my Lord! Verily, my people deserted this Quran'” [25:30].
The Arabic word in the verse translated as deserted is mahjūrā, which is from the root hajara: to abandon, forsake, dissociate, separate, part, give up, renounce, forego, leave behind. The Arabic word hijrah is from the same root and is now almost exclusively associated with ‘The Hijrah’, the famous migration by the earliest Muslims from Makkah to Madinah due to persecution. Their departure was to preserve the Word of God, while many of us migrated from His Guidance and still do.
PS. Make reading the Quran (translation if you don’t understand Arabic) a daily habit and a non-negotiable. Start with two minutes a day, then scale up once you’ve established the practice. For the best book on building habits, read Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve read it seven times already. It’s just that good.
‘Consistency is the currency for mastery.’
Showing up every day is critical for living a productive and meaningful life. Even when we don’t feel like doing what must be done or when life gets in the way, we must find a way to show up and get the reps in. The best way to not lose momentum is to scale down the activity when days do not allow you to complete it perfectly. Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (s) said:
“The most beloved deed to Allah is the most regular and constant even if it were little” [Bukhari 6464].
We are currently seeing activism for Palestinian liberation in full cry. If we are to drive the fight and further the cause, we must remain consistent until Palestine is free. People’s lives and freedom are at stake.
Until next week, InshaAllah
Zaahied Sallie
Author of The Beloved Prophet – An Illustrated Biography in Rhyme
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