Dr. Pasha on Islam,
Muslims and the World
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time)
www.IslamicSolutions.Com
(201-300)
201
Guidance Comes from God- So Learn to Connect with Him
I am not saying Muslims should not be “nice.”
And I am not saying civility is not a virtue.
In fact Islam is all about being “nice” and kind and merciful and saying and doing “nice” things as much as you can.
But, at the same time, don’t beguile yourself into thinking that your being “nice” will automatically melt every non-Muslim or unbelieving heart and will necessarily lead to everybody accepting Islam.
If that were true, some of the arch-foes of Islam and Muslims, during the time of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, would have been among the first to embrace Islam.
For, they knew first hand, and only too well, what a kind, compassionate, loving, generous and “nice” man Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was.
The fact is that it takes more than a “nice” word or a kind gesture for people to see the truth of Islam and come forward to embrace it.
It happens when the doors of a human being’s heart are opened by God Almighty.
That is why no one, other than God, can take credit for “guiding” people.
People find “guidance” – Hidaayat as the Qur’an calls it – when the divine mercy smiles down at them. Not when someone – a human source for example – wants to “guide” them and not when they want to “discover” the truth for themselves.
That is why blessed and fortunate indeed are those who are guided. For, they receive guidance from above – and not from any other source.
This is not to say others – an identifiable human source – do not play a helpful role in either bringing people closer to Islam or in driving people away from Islam.
We are all perfectly capable of doing that, and we indeed do both those things all the time: helping people to open their eyes to the beauty of Islam or giving them cause to dislike Islam even more than before.
But the “guidance” part that puts people over the top positively or negatively in the form of either accepting or rejecting Islam? That comes from God and no one else.
202
Trying to Understand God and His Ways in His Creation
If you ask me why people accept Islam, I can give you two answers: one a very simple human one; the other a most complex unfathomable divine one.
From a human point of view, the process and outcome of conversion from religion to Islam, and, more specifically, from non-Islam to Islam, is the composite function of a billion variables, some known, most unknown or exogenous, each with its own specific value and error component, acting in concert, and the entire result being predictable or explainable within a certain margin of error, provided we have at our disposal all the theoretical models and methodological tools and instrumentations required for the purpose of figuring out these things.
I am calling this human equation simple because there is a way and there is a hope that somehow and sometime we can solve the puzzle.
The divine answer may appear simple when stated in our daily language but is unknowable in both theory and practice as it transcends the limits of human knowledge and powers of human understanding.
For it means knowing God in all his attributes and understanding the calculus of his mercy and dispensation and his grace with regard to his creation.
Simply stated, it does not lie in human power to know or understand God and the internal dynamics of the way he does things.
Our very humanity is defined in terms of our general inability to comprehend God or the ways in which he dispenses his grace and mercy to his creation.
Wa laa yuheetoona bishai im min 'ilmihi.
203
This Eidul Adha - Festival of Sacrifice - Ask: What Are You Sacrificing
Message for Eidul Ad-haa
My message for this Eidul Ad-haa is a simple one.
When Muslims and their small and big leaders proceed to slaughter and sacrifice their camels, sheep, goats and cows, I suggest they ask the following question of themselves: To what extent are they sacrificing these animals at the altar of God and to what extent are they sacrificing Islam and Muslims, and the overall wellbeing of God’s creation on earth, at the altar of their own egos; selfishness; greed; corruption; politics; ambition; and cooptation by and sellout to the Devil and his minions and agents?
204
Democracy Is from God and Dictatorship Is from the Devil
To the extent Democracy implies rights, freedoms and opportunities for participation and representation for “The People,” it is from God and it embodies the essence and spirit of Islam.
Dictatorship on the other hand, any kind or type of dictatorship, whether it is a civilian or military dictatorship or a hereditary monarchy pure and simple, that limits the rights and freedoms of “The People,” and denies them opportunities for full participation and representation, is from the Devil and it represents all that is alien and hostile to Islam.
205
A Dictatorship Is a Dictatorship, Is a Dictatorship, Is a Dictatorship
Tyranny has many faces and they are all from the Devil.
In case anyone has trouble understanding this simple equation, let me make it as clear as I possibly can: A so-called “Religious” Dictatorship or “Islamic” Dictatorship is still a dictatorship.
It is one of the many faces of tyranny.
Nothing more, nothing less.
In fact, such a so-called religious or theocratic dictatorship is all dictatorship and tyranny and no Islam.
206
Love of God and Love of God’s Creation - Different or the Same Thing
Your journey to God begins when and where your preoccupation with your own self tapers off.
The more ascendant and salient you make yourself in your list of priorities and in your own scheme of things, and the more prominent your child, spouse, job or business is in the calculus of your life, the slower and more arduous and fitful your journey to God and the farther and more uncertain your destination.
Unless, of course, you master the true Islamic way of doing things under which you love God first, and foremost, and unconditionally, and above all else, and then you compress and derive all your worldly loves, whether it is your love for your family, career or even yourself, from that single most dominant and all-consuming passion in your life – Love of God.
That total and single-minded devotion for God then validates, legitimizes, blesses and consecrates every other lawful love you may have in this world, whether it is love of a child, parent, sport, business, spouse, career, nation, society, culture or place.
