Muslim Preoccupation with Halal and Haram
Muslims love Halal and Haram talk all the time: What may be lawful and permissible in Islam and what may not.
That is what those two expressions mean:
- Haram means that which God Almighty and his messenger Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, have clearly and expressly forbidden.
- Halal means everything besides. That means all that which God Almighty and his messenger Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, have not expressly declared unlawful and impermissible.
Muslim fascination with the topic of Halal and Haram can at times be obsessive. And the higher grade Muslims they are, the deeper they are in it. It is, they think, their ticket to “Paradise” – Jannat.
Muslim Pursuit of Paradise
For, that is what they all want. Muslims I mean. They want to go to Jannat, which, of course, is how it is supposed to be: using this earthly life as a pathway to Paradise.
But what strikes me as interesting is that often it does not seem to matter how they go about doing it: getting into Jannat (Paradise) I mean.
It is an odd thing, but it seems true.
For, most of these turbo-charged, super-pious Muslims, in their break-neck march to Paradise in the Next World, Aakhirah, could not – so it would seem – care less what happened to This World right here in this life – Dunya.
And to the affairs of this world.
For, all they seem to care about is for someone or something – anything – to help them to hopscotch and land in Paradise.
Caught Up in the Minutiae of Fiqh
Therefore, what seems to excite and thrill many of them is the minutiae of the Fiqh of Halal and Haram – Halal Meat, for example – especially in places like America. Give them a few pounds of Halal Meat, and give their children the rudiments of “Islamic” education, no lark on wing could be happier and no canary in a cage could sing chirpier.
For, these Muslims see their preoccupation with the minutiae of the Fiqh of Halal and Haram as their ticket to a palatial destination in Paradise.
And, in the meantime, for all they care, the world of Allah can go to hell right here in This World, as some would say, in a hand-basket. They couldn’t care less.
Allah! God Almighty! How I have watched them all these decades. But that is my Muslims. Not much has changed.
Haram: A Different Tack Maybe?
Here, in this write-up today, however, I approach this question of what really is Haram from a somewhat different perspective. I do it from the point of view of some of what is happening right here in This World; right now; right before our eyes; and that involves all of us and the rest of the world of Allah; whether we know it or not; and whether we care about it or not.
And it does so in the most profound and far-reaching manner.
I want to do it by highlighting some issues about what is going on right here in This World, in today’s Egypt in particular, reaction to which may really separate the chaff from the wheat from among us human beings, both Muslim and non-Muslim.
I mean separate the bad guys from the good guys.
And it may actually even turn out to be the real price of Paradise in the Next World. Just in case God Almighty decides to inquire of us where each one of us stood vis-à-vis the bloody and barbaric events in Egypt: all the atrocities and all the injustices and cruelties the criminal military junta has unleashed on the defenseless Egyptian people on a daily basis.
Claiming Islam and Messing with Politics
I don’t think it will quite cut it to answer God by saying we were too busy looking for Halal Meat and ensuring the “Islamic” education of our kids to bother about the far-off land of Egypt and its people.
Or say something totally stupid like: We really don’t mess with Politics anyway. You don’t like the word “stupid”? Okay, change it to something like “inane, foolish and preposterous.” They all mean the same thing: STUPID!
Nor would it help, I don’t think, to rub our hands and plead: “Kunnaa Mustad’afeena Fil Ard” – meaning, “We were totally helpless. We were weak and powerless. We had no recourse. No way of dealing with it. What could we do?”
If anyone had even half an ounce of intelligence, they would know that this statement, uttered right in front of God, is as blatantly and radically “political” as anything can ever get. And there are still super-pious fellows in this world who run around claiming: “We don’t mess with politics?”
Really?
Open Your Mouth and Utter a Word of Support
For, I can almost hear the angels of God say: “You mean, you could not even open your mouth and utter a word of support or sympathy for the victims?”
“And you could not find any way to denounce the atrocities that were going on in Egypt right before your eyes on television?”
“And you could not even shed a silent tear or two in the safety and solitude of your own homes?”
“Just how did you manage that?”
“What kind of human beings does that make you, anyway? And you think your reward for that kind of loser life in This World should be Allah’s Jannat today in the Next World?”
Can You Hear the Angels Say It?
I can clearly hear the angels say that. That is because nothing keeps the angels quiet when they have something to say. And, if you pay attention, the angels are always saying something.
They are either doing Tasbeeh combined with Hamd, as the Qur’an says: Yusabbihoona Bihamdi Rabbihim.
Or they are saying what bloody mess human beings will make of God’s earth:
Man Yufsidu Feehaa wa Yasfikud Dimaa’.
Or they are, in fact, blessing the denizens of the earth and asking God to forgive them: Wa Yastaghfiroona Liman Fil Ardi.
And a few other things.
So, people, I can hear the angels say it loud and clear.
Saving Your Personal Humanity – And Whatever Is Left of Your Islam
So, let me recap here some of the bloody and barbaric goings-on in Egypt.
And let us hope that someone, somewhere, Muslim or non-Muslim, will pay attention, even at this late hour, and find it in their heart to shed a tear or two for the victims of the military’s crimes in Egypt, and thus try and save what is left of their own humanity – and of their Islam, such as it may be, where Muslims are concerned.
60 Years of Brute Military Dictatorship in Egypt
For over 60 years past, Egypt was under a most brutal military dictatorship. World powers plundered and exploited this rich and strategic land most ruthlessly and deprived generations of Egyptians from a life of honor, dignity, democracy and freedom.
And doomed generations after generations of them to a life of bondage, serfdom, suffering and humiliation
Domestic traitors and paid operatives served as cat’s-paw of powerful foreign masters, who had now discovered this new method of ruling the world by proxy as a more efficient way of domination and exploitation of weaker nations and peoples compared to their earlier methods of direct colonial invasion and occupation.
Fairest and Freest Elections in All of Egyptian History
And then all of a sudden, on January 25, 2011, the Egyptian People launched a revolution and broke the back of the military dictatorship, putting an end to 30 years of the most brutal and uninterrupted Military Emergency regime.
Then the Great People of Egypt held elections which the whole world – both friend and foe – hailed as the fairest and freest of all.
And in successive waves of those free and fair elections, the Great Egyptian People elected a President, the first one to be so elected in all of Egyptian history.
And they elected a National Parliament – the freest and fairest Egypt had ever seen.
And they put in place a 100-strong Constituent Assembly that included representatives from every conceivable segment of Egyptian society, which then went about meticulously drafting a National Constitution in a process that was as transparent, open and inclusive as anyone had ever seen in any part of the world.
In fact, not too many other nations and societies of the world had seen anything like it before.
And then the Egyptian People ratified that constitution by a vote of nearly 65 percent, a superior rate than most nations of the world had been able to achieve.
First Civilian President, First Civilian Government
Now, for the first time in its history, Egypt had a civilian president that was elected in the freest and fairest elections of all.
And now Egypt had a national constitution that was approved by the broadest masses of the Egyptian people.
And now Egypt had a truly representative parliament whom the people had put in power with their own free ballots, after having waited in long, scorching lines for hours and hours and hours.
All this was in 2011-2012: the year in which God blessed the Great Egyptian People with the true blessings of Freedom and Democracy that only few nations around the world enjoy.
Egyptian Democracy in President Morsi’s Own Words
Nothing illustrates the true nature of the new democratic government of Egypt better than the words of Dr. Morsi, Egypt’s new and only democratically elected president in all of Egyptian history.
These few words tell the full story of all that happened in Egypt all these years.
These words of Dr. Morsi tell the story of the Revolution of 25th January, 2011, that swept the cruel and corrupt tyrant Mubarak out of power.
They tell the story of the stunning victories of the Ikhwan at the polls in election after election after election that took everyone’s breath away everywhere.
They tell the story of the criminal military coup d’état of July 3, 2013, in which Muslims and non-Muslims, Egyptians and foreigners, sacred and secular, all played such a prominent and significant role.
These words of President Morsi tell the story of the wave after wave of bloody and barbaric massacres that the criminal Egyptian military and police perpetrated on unarmed Egyptian civilian masses practically every day thereafter.
President Morsi’s Words Hold a Mirror to Our Face
And, at the same time, these few words of President Dr. Morsi hold a mirror in front of everyone’s eyes in which for the whole world to see its face.
That is right! You will hear Dr. Morsi’s words. And you will see your face in the mirror they hold to your face.
You will see what kind of a human being you are. And if at all you are a human being by any respectable measure.
And you will see what kind of a Muslim you are. And if at all you have been able to salvage any amount of your personal Islam after the way you reacted to the events in Egypt.
You will know all that in a flash of deafening and blinding divine light striking your heart, provided you have a heart that is pure and healthy and caring.
That is, provided you are among those about whom Allah says in the Qur’an:
Man Atallaha Bi-Qwalbin Saleem.
Paraphrase:
“You bring to the table a sound, 'healthy’ and fulsome heart.”
Read and Reflect and You Will Know
Fa-Sawufa Ta’alamoon
Read these words of President Dr. Morsi carefully, and spend some time reflecting on them, and you will know not only what precisely happened in Egypt but also why it happened – and where it is all headed in the foreseeable future.
These words – if you take the trouble to properly analyze and understand them – you will know that few as they are, they contain in them the seeds of a complete explanation of the recent events in Egypt (2012-2013), including the election of President Morsi as well as the criminal coup d’état by the Egyptian military and its financial and political backers both inside and outside Egypt.
These words constitute an encrypted cipher, a political and historical cryptogram, if you will, of Egypt’s politics and history of the past 100 years.
Unravel the cryptogram and you will know not only Egypt’s past, but also Egypt’s present of the last few years – and of the last few months, weeks and days.
It is all there – in President Morsi’s words.
And, at the same time, you will also know Egypt’s future as far as the human eye can see.
Fate of Those Who Committed These Atrocities
And, along with all this, you shall behold, in these few words, also the future – both in this world and in the next world, both before “man” and before God – of all those, both so-called Muslim and non-Muslim, both so-called religious and secular, both inside and outside Egypt: all those who conspired to destroy Egypt’s budding Democracy and conspired and cooperated to return Egypt to the clutches of the most brutal and barbaric military tyranny this world has known in a long time.
No words can possibly portray that terrible fate of all these bad people – for, bad people is what they are: human scum – more starkly than the words of the Qur’an:
Wa Sa-Ya’alamul Ladheena Zwalamoo Ayya Munqwalabin Yanqwaliboon!
Paraphrase:
The people who committed all these atrocities and injustices shall soon enough know what fate is about to overtake them.
This is not an empty boast proceeding from a human agency, but the most portentous words of the master and maker of the world.
