This Hajj, Let Muslims Re-Learn the Lesson of Human Equality!
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
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Muslims, if nothing else, this Hajj you may want to relearn your old lesson of human equality. And rededicate yourself to carry out the mandate with which God Almighty sent you in this world.
And called you “Khair Ummat” – the Finest People in the whole world.
It is, sadly, a lesson that over the past few dark decades you seem to be forgetting with remarkable speed!
One Thing Muslims Did Right through History!
Throughout history, that was one thing you had done right, Muslims: this business of Unconditional Human Equality.
Of course, along with all the other billion things that you did right in this world.
Such as, for example, cleanse countless households throughout the world wherever your Mission of Mercy took you from the Tyranny of Alcohol.
And remove the Curse of Usury and Interest from wherever your influence reached.
And spread Literacy and made Education available to everyone everywhere, throughout the Muslim world. And this was when one had to be from a Royal Family, or a priest, to receive an education of some kind.
And you made one human being equal with others regardless of any outward status differences such as wealth or race.
And made the cry of “God Is Great!” – Allahu Akbar! – fill the most distant lands and oceans of this planet.
Not this god or that, not your god or mine, but God Almighty, Everybody’s God, the One and Only God there is, there ever was, or there ever can be.
The world had never heard a cry like that before, rending up heaven and earth, to glorify One God – Real God and Everyone’s God – even though this earth and this sky had reverberated forever with the glory-cries of all kinds of others, whether it was a Caesar, an Alexander, a Pharaoh, or a Cyrus or someone else.
Wiped Out Racial and Gender Prejudices and Inequalities
And, along the way, Muslims, you wiped out Racial, Gender, Regional and National Prejudice, Exploitation and Discrimination from the map in whatever part of the world you set your most blessed feet.
And how the world begged you to grace their part of the world with your blessed footprints, bearing the Banner of Truth in your hands and the cry of God Is Great – Allahu Akbar – on your lips!
Not a tribal or regional God, but the one and only true and universal God, the maker and master of all tribes, nations, societies – and All the Worlds, as the Qur’an put it.
What an Expression you gave the world, Muslims: Rabbul Aalameen! Who had ever thought of anything like that before?
Established Justice!
And, Muslims, you cleansed God Almighty’s earth from a host of Injustices and Tyrannies. And established the Rule of Law wherever you went. And you ushered in a new and more robust era of Universal Justice everywhere and for everyone.
Liberated Humanity!
And you smashed the chains, and broke the bonds that held humanity captive and hostage everywhere and you set human beings free as never before.
And Muslims, you liberated the children of Adam from the slavery of their fellow-human beings and empowered them to choose freely, and with full consciousness, to be the slaves of the one and only true Master that there is: God Almighty, Rabbul Aalameen, the Maker and Master of the Worlds.
As one Muslim Liberator then put it to a King and His Court:
Oh King: We came not to kill or to conquer. But to Liberate Everyone from the Tyranny of Slavery to One Another to the dignity and freedom of Being the Slave of One True God.
Recent Dark Decades
But now, these past few dark decades, you seem to be slipping, Muslims – and slipping pretty fast.
Now, a handful of kings and tyrants and dictators sporting Muslim names and identities, and using brute and barbaric force, own and control you. And they claim ownership of the lands on which you live.
And these unlawful and Baatil usurpers and plunderers of the Wealth of the People, and Wealth of Nations, (with apologies to Adam Smith), whom no one elected to office, except in some cases of outright fraud and ruthless force, and who are accountable to no one, claim ownership over you, your lands and over the resources that God created for you and for the wellbeing of all those whom you can benefit and enrich in the world – just as you did when the Tide of Islam first swept the world.
Kings and tyrants and dictators who themselves are owned and controlled and manipulated by your former Colonial Masters in Europe and Elsewhere.
Sickness of Racism, Subtle and Not So Subtle
You have chosen, Muslims, to fall prey to the Sickness of Racism and Regional and National Prejudices of all kinds.
This is true with regard to your ancestral homes in the so-called Muslim world.
And you carry this virus with you wherever you go, whether it is America, Europe or elsewhere.
And this is in no small measure a product of the new ownership and management under which your lives presently function: the new patent that all these false Kings, Tyrants and Dictators hold over your lives and destinies.
These false Kings, Tyrants and Dictators were told to condition and divide you along the lines of race, “religion,” wealth, status, region, nationality and everything else. They were told to infect you with all these new diseases. And now you have become carriers, Muslims.
You are no longer a cure to the problem of prejudice and racism in the world, you are now among its perpetrators.
You, Muslims, are now the New Sick People of the World, worshipping the new gods of race, wealth, power and status, your kings and their agents gave you.
False Scholars and Ulemaa’ Soo’
Scholars of Evil – as they used to be called at one time in Muslim history – are now holding sway over your lives and destinies, Muslims. And they give their Fatwas, and use their influence and authority, not to liberate and empower you, and the world, but to usher in a new era of bondage and exploitation for all.
Many of these people, who don exaggerated Islamic garb, affect super-piety in public, and frequently carry paper credentials of Islamic knowledge and scholarship, are in the pay of the same false Kings, Tyrants and Dictators who have imprisoned you, and who themselves are owned and controlled by the former Colonial Masters.
The present-day Egypt is only one glaring example of all of this.
Let Hajj Be a Liberator
You have seen many a turning point in your young life, Muslims. But, despite your 1400 years of history on this earth, in terms of historical time, you are still young.
So, let Hajj 1436/2015 be a new turning point in your life. So, start over.
“Sabaq Phir Padh,” says the bard Iqbal, may God bless him, meaning: “Relearn the Old Lesson!”
So, wake up, Muslims, and relearn your old lesson of human equality all over again. And let this Hajj 1436 be your Liberator.
A Young Nation
You are still a young nation, Muslims. In many ways, you are still in the prime of your life.
Christians beat you by at least 500 years. And the Jews are older than you by a millennium or two. The Hindus, the Buddhists and Zoroastrians maybe are all even older.
Countless other Ummats came and went before you as God had ordained them to. Some we know about; some we don’t even suspect were around.
So, you have faced the vicissitudes of your young life with fortitude and courage, Muslims. And come out victors in your countless collective battles with Shaitan and his hordes.
Reset Your Clock!
It is time for you now Muslims, this glorious Hajj of 1436/2015, to reset your clock.
And it is time for you to rededicate yourselves to the mandate that you were commissioned to carry out in this world: to erase from the world such common scourges of humanity as racism and regional and national discrimination and prejudice.
On this day of Eidul Adha 1436/2015, you must relearn the lesson of human equality and respect for universal human dignity that used to be your forte not so very long ago.
One Great Big Revolution
What a revolution that was that you unleashed upon God’s earth, Muslims! All of fourteen hundred years ago!
Way before so many other great revolutions happened in the world. Revolutions like the American Revolution in 1776; the French Revolution in 1789; and the Russian revolution in 1917. These were all revolutions that profoundly changed the world.
But before them all, and much more profound, complete and powerful than them all, was the Islamic Revolution spearheaded by the Qur’an under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – in the 7th Century.
Your revolution came before all of these and was more profound and thoroughgoing than all of them put together. And yet it was more benign and beneficial to all; and more inclusive and tolerant of all; and more compassionate and gracious to all.
What a miracle this was! It is this miracle that the world awaits again, Muslims.
Gender Parity: A Most Thorough-Going Revolution of All
This was a revolution that was as cultural as it was social and political, even though it carried many of the hallmarks of what people would call a “religious” or even spiritual revolution.
And what was that revolution about? It was about totally rearranging the male-female human dynamic to make it one of near-perfect equality, reciprocity and symmetry.
And that revolution was unfurled by mentioning women in the same breath as men. And doing so to declare that:
“Women have rights over you the same way you have rights over them!”
Or as the Qur’an put it:
Wa Lahunna Mithlul-ladhee Alaihinna.
No one had ever heard anything like that before – or for nearly a millennium and a half thereafter.
Make Hajj 1436 a Turning Point
Therefore, this Hajj, will Muslims re-learn the old lesson of human equality? And make it a turning point in their life – and in the life of Islam and Muslims?
That is my message to Muslims for this Eidul Adha 1436/2015.
For, nothing may be more important in the world today than this.
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