Pasha Hour International:
Live From America!
December 8, 2007
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Welcome to another edition of PASHA HOUR INTERNATIONAL: LIVE FROM AMERICA! A Program about Islam, Muslims and the World — Unlike Any. Every Friday 9:00 P.M. Caribbean Time 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time. And 6:30 A.M. Delhi Time. To listen to Pasha Hour International go to www.IslamicSolutions.Com and click on Pasha Hour International on the menu bar.
All the Names People Used to Call Us
And those of you, in the media or anywhere else, for whatever reasons, want to call us “Mawzlems,” go ahead and say it.
Those of you who want to call our Deen “Izlam,” go ahead and say it.
Beat up on Islam and Muslims all you want. Distort the name. Distort the pronunciation. Distort the meaning and content. Call us all the names you want.
That has been our history. We have no complaints. But when you are done badmouthing us and twisting and distorting everything about us, do sit down for a second or two and listen to what we have to say.
Make some kind of an effort to find out who we really are and what we stand for. I am not saying you don’t know right now, but make an effort. You never know.
There was a time, people used to call us “Mohammedans.” Their logic was everybody worships their own man. Christians worship Christ, Buddhists maybe worship Buddha and so on.
And these fellows, who believe in Mohammed, must be worshipping him. So let us call them “Mohammedans.” That is how the logic went.
Some folks even called us “Mohametans.”
It is God Almighty Who Gave Us the Name Muslims
So there was a time when television people used to say “Mawzlems” and “Izlam.” Then they hired some instant “experts” — drive-by experts I call them — to look into it. Nowadays you can get these drive-by Islam experts dime a dozen.
Finally folks learned to say Islam and Muslims.
Our situation is that we did not happen to pick the name Muslims by ourselves. It was not decided upon by a committee. It is Allah, God Almighty, who actually named us Muslims.
You may not believe it, but that is what the Qur’an says.
Huwa sammaakumul Muslimeen, is how the Qur’an puts it. Paraphrase: He named you Muslims.
Huwa — he. Who’s he now? I would say God, for that is what the context seems to suggest.
Or maybe Abraham, if you read the context somewhat differently.
I am speaking to all of you now — Jews, Christians, Hindus, Atheists, even the Muslims. That is who came up with this name: Muslims. God himself, I mean. Anybody got a problem with that name, take it up with God.
Muslims are on their Path to Paradise
Are the Muslims going to Jannah — Paradise I mean? Absolutely!
Once you die believing and saying Laa Ilaaha Illallah! — No god but God — then surely you are on your way to Jannat, Paradise that is.
And if you add to that Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, is God’s prophet; and if you die believing that firmly in your heart, then surely and absolutely you will enter paradise sooner or later.
And nothing and no one can stop you.
But the question is what about the status of Muslims in this world?
The problem is that the Muslims themselves are as clueless as the rest of humanity about Islam and Muslims.
Clueless Muslims
Some of us Muslims might have read all kinds of books on Islam and worked with all kinds of Imams, leaders or Sheikhs, some white and some black, and some of them decked out in all kinds of fancy clothes and costumes.
But in spite of all that stuff, many of you my dear, beloved, respected, honored Muslims, sometimes are as pathetically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly clueless as the rest of humanity. You yourself know so little about Islam and Muslims.
You seem to know so little about whom you really are and what your Deen really is.
Sometimes the sheer wealth of Islam seems to overwhelm you. It is a bit like that little fellow who found himself in the Ali Baba cave and didn’t know what to do. So you are in this granddaddy of all Ali Baba’s caves. You don’t know where to look.
There isn’t anybody telling you these things in a clear and coherent fashion. Fellows are giving you little nuggets on how to wash your hands; how to tie your turbans; what the women should be doing; how long your pajamas should be and all sorts of other stuff, some of it real, some of it fanciful.
But no one is giving you the real thing.
Muslims and the Real
Perspective on Islam
But you, my dear Muslims, often seem to miss the real story about Islam and Muslims in the midst of all this confusion of detail.
And when someone dares to bring it up with you, you pretend to be too busy with other things. It just does not come to you naturally to pay attention to some of these serious questions that get raised.
Yes, you are supposed to go to Paradise but that is not the issue now. Your responsibility now is to make this world a better place when you leave it.
You are born into this world and you live here and you die here, however you die, but you are supposed to leave it better than you found it. That is what God Almighty created you for.
And that’s Islam for you in a nutshell.
If that is what you are doing, I am tempted to say Hallelujah. Or Alhamdu lillah, if that is what you want me to say. But the tragedy is many of you don’t even know what Alhamdulillah means.
