Three Perils in the Path of Working for Allah
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?)
Rand Corporation Policy Recommendation
No. I am not referring to the Rand Corporation recommending the physical elimination of the top 20 percent of those Working for Allah around the world.
That to me is a minor matter. And it is dealt with directly by Allah -- just as Allah deals with everything everywhere most directly and the way he wants.
Fa'aalun Limaa Yreed!
Genocidal Male Infanticide from a Time Gone Bye
Before Rand Corporation, way before, maybe 3000 years before, there was a fellow called Pharaoh in the Great Land of Egypt. He had decreed the physical elimination of one hundred percent -- and not just top 20 percent -- of all male children born to those who in any form or fashion believed in Allah.
Yuzabbihu Abnaa-ahum wa Yastahyee Nisaa-ahum!
Paraphrase:
"He ordered the wholesale slaughter of their male children,
while leaving the females alone."
That was a sweeping royal decree. And not a limited one like the Rand Corporation's policy perspective.
And Allah was there and Allah took care of it. And Allah handled that situation as only Allah knows and has the power and ability how to handle these situations.
Allah made Musa, Alaihis Salam, one of those children marked for slaughter and physical elimination, grow up in Pharaoh's own house, under Pharaoh's own roof, tutored, taught and trained and mentored by Pharaoh's own experts, so Musa, Alaihis Salam, will grow up to dismantle the house of cards that Pharaoh built.
My Worries Are Us, Not Them
My worries are different. They center on our own Islam and on how we do our Islam when we say we Work for Allah.
When Working for Allah, there are three concerns no one can escape, and no one should feel safe and secure about.
Just call them the Three Perils in the Path of Working for Allah. And they are:
a) Integrity of the Message of Islam.
b) Integrity of our work -- Working for Allah -- how we do it and for what reason.
c) Continuing Growth of our people.
Now, let me take these three things up, one at a time.
a) Integrity of the Basic Message of Islam
Shaitan's is long-standing trick is, if he cannot keep us away from Islam, mix it up in our heads.
Shaitan failed miserably in keeping Adam's Children from Islam.
But Shaitan was richly rewarded in turning things into a salad bowl in our heads.
For, if the message of Islam is garbled, that is not Islam no more.
I am not giving a Fatwa here, but that is where most of our folks are today -- and at a lot of other times. Muslims often take their Islam with a little bit of the Real Thing mixed with a lot of extraneous fillers thrown in to make Islam of the Day a rich personal brew for everyone.
So, you go and figure now, why, today, with 1,300,000,000 Muslims filling Allah's Earth in every place, Islam is still the way it is -- and the world is still the way it is.
That is because in most cases, and in most places, our Islam is a little bit of Islam -- of varying strength levels -- sprinkled on a lot of Life. And by Life, I mean whatever is important to people on a day-to-day basis, which the Qur'an called Hawaa.
Obviously, there goes my Iman, Allah knew the people he was making.
And, evidently, and there goes the rest of my Islam, so did Allah's Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, when he called them Ghuthaa' Ka Guthaa-is-Sayil.
Did I say "Them"? Make that "Us." For, it was us he was talking about!
Allah's Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, most likely, was talking about We The People -- the occupants of the Blessed Land of Islam! Don't you think?
And, do you think that may be because our life today, highly Islamic and Islamicized as it is, designer costume and all, often custom-crafted to our own unique comfort levels, each one of us, by this or that Pretender to Priesthood, or homemade by our respective personal efforts and craftiness, is little more than a little bit of Islam and a great bit of our own Hawaa?
b) Integrity of Our Work
How we do our work is most important. In fact, that is key to everything we do.
If we cut corners, mostly because that time and that effort and that energy were spoken of somewhere else, or if we compromise standards, either because we do not have the time, or the energy, or the skill level, we compromise Islam.
Nothing less.
And that situation arises, mostly, when we invest our time and effort and energy and attention elsewhere, and bring to the Table of Islam the leftovers.
And that equation is not a currency that works with Allah.
Listen to this Aayat Karimah:
Lan Tanaalul Birrah Hattaa Tunfiqoo Mimmaa Tuhibboon.
Paraphrase:
"Till you put on the table your most prized possessions,
Allah does not even look at what you bring to the table."
Aayat Karimah:
Laa Tayammamul Khabeetha Minhu Tunfiqoon.
Lastum Bi-Aakhidheehi...
Paraphrase:
"Don't go looking for the worst thing in your possession
that you may want to spend when Working for Allah.
You yourself will hesitate a thousand times
before you accept it, were someone to give it to you."
c) Continuing Growth of Our People
When our people are not moving forward, chances are they are moving backward. For, Shaitan is pushing them hard from the opposite side. For, they are always facing a super-strong headwind from Shaitan.
And if Shaitan cannot push them back, he deflects them from the track and pushes them into side alleys.
This is a natural law of physics, how force operates in the universe, whether it is wind or water or something else.
