Muslims’ Showcasing of the Disbelief

Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal 

The abuse of rituals

The enemies of Islam never preach idolatry to take the Muslims back to the old days of primitive ignorance. They allure them in different ways. They use and abuse the obligatory rituals of Islam to divert them from its core objective. The core objective of Islam has never been to promote a few selective pillars of Islam like five-time prayer, fasting, hajj, charity, etc. Rather, to build a powerful state of Islam with the full practice of the whole Qur’anic guidance. Truly, the establishment of an Islamic state and implementation of sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, pan-Islamic Muslim unity, and jihad in the way of Allah Sub’hana wa Tala are the indispensable parts of it. It is all about bringing an overwhelming victory of the Qur’anic code of life with its entirety overall brands of falsehood. The last prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) demonstrated how to achieve that end. It is indeed the only road map to foil Shaitan’s agenda and save people from the hellfire. Hence, nothing is more important for mankind than working to fulfil this agenda.

But awfully, a lot of harm has already been done to the Muslims and to mankind by abusing Islam’s own prescription. One of the five pillars of Islam is a five-time daily prayer, but it is being badly abused not only to belittle other pillars but also to dismantle the project of building the whole house of Islam. A prescription of a physician may contain a combination of five very important medicines to save a patient’s life –as it a common practice in treating a complicated disease. But, if anyone emphasizes only one medicine and ignores the other four then it would be equal to inviting death to the patient. It is indeed a homicidal crime. The aim of the prescription is to save a life using all suggested medication; not to glorify a specific item. Likewise, a horrendous crime is going on against the holistic prescription of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la in the name of promoting five-time prayer. One must understand that prayer is obligatory five times a day, but submission to the Agenda of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la is an all-time obligation. And His Agenda is to bring an overwhelming victory of Islam over all other ideologies and religions -as revealed in the Holy Qur’an in sura Tawbah, Fatha, and Saf.

Hence, the whole objective of Islam to move with its entire Qur’anic prescription; not to promote a single pillar –whatever important it may be. The whole house of Islam can’t be built only on few pillars. Along with the pillars, it also needs a huge infrastructure of an Islamic state and state-run institutions. It is so fundamental and indispensable that the prophet (peace be upon him) of Islam and his companions didn’t make any mistake to underestimate its importance. In fact, here lies the crucial gap of understanding between the Muslims of the early days and the Muslims of today. So, the outcomes at two different ages are also spectacularly different. They could attain victory after victory and emerge as the greatest World Power and could raise the finest civilization on earth. But, today, the Muslims are dipping down to a new low every day.

Example of using some pillars of Islam to undermine the others and even the whole project of Islam is huge. The works of an organisation called Tablighi Jama’at provide an illustrative example. Tablighi Jama’at has invented some new methodology –which was non-existent in prophet’s day, to distract the Muslims from some highly important Islamic obligations. Like the surge of sufism in the past, Tablighi Jama’at got a huge growth in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, and many other countries. Its main emphasis is to call the Muslims to the practice of five times prayer. The preachers of this organisation seldom talk about the implementation of sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, Islamic state, and jihad. Surprisingly, they have no enmity even with the worst enemy of Islam. They have no quarrel even with the most corrupt and despotic governments of the Muslim countries. A huge number of bombs, chemical bombs, barrel bombs, drones, and missiles are flattening Muslim cities and villages and killing scores of innocent Muslim men, women, and children. Even many secularists and non-Muslims come to the streets to protest against such atrocities. But, the people of Tablighi Jama’at keep their eyes blind and mouth tongue-tied vis-à-vis what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and many other Muslim countries. As if, they have seen nothing and have listened to nothing. The same is true with most of the imams, religious leaders, and the common Muslims. In the name of focussing on prayers or other rituals, they stay blind to ongoing deaths, rapes, and destruction in the Muslim World. They also pay a blind eye to the dismantling of sharia, hudud, khilafa, and Muslim unity. Such self-imposed blindness or silence is a highly punishable crime in the sight of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la, and will be awarded eternal blindness in the hereafter. So, the warning comes, “And whoever is blind in this life, will also be blind in the Hereafter and more deviating from the way.” –(Sura Isra, verse 72). 

The internal enemies

Most of the crimes against Islam and the Muslims have been committed by the Muslims themselves; the external enemies only extended some helping hands. The destruction of Khelafa-e-Rasheda is an example. The abolition of Osmania khalifa is another example in modern times. The crime still continues. Sufism or mysticism committed huge damage to the Muslim Ummah in the past and still continues to commit by deflecting the Muslims’ attention from the despotic corrupt rulers. As a result, the evil rulers could grab the Muslim countries one after another and undermined Islam’s civilizational mission. While the Mongol murderers destroyed the Muslim cities and massacred the Muslim men, women, and children, these so-called saints stayed blind. While the crusaders occupied Jeruzalem –the first kibla of the Muslims and conducted horrendous genocides, they didn’t come out of their homes and khanqas to take part in jihad against the invaders. While the Muslims are under attack, staying inactive is itself a great crime. Such inaction helps only the invaders. Thus, these so-called sufi people contributed to the huge massacre in the name of purifying the heart. The Prophet (peace be upon him) didn’t leave behind such a legacy. They built sufi khanqas and ran circles of zikr. It is an innovation -as if, for zikr and for achieving purification, Muslims need separate institutions. Whereas zikr -remembrance of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la, is an all-time integral part of a Muslim’s life. A Muslim remembers His Almighty Lord (does zikr) even while he is sitting, walking, working, or lying in bed -as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an. -(Sura al-Imran, verse 191). Zikr is not the mere remembrance of His name but remembering the mercy, the glory, and the greatness of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. Five-time daily prayer, studying the Holy Qur’an, fasting, hajj, charity –in fact, all acts of ibadah are zikr. And the greatest zikr takes place in jihad. Under the barrage of bullets, bombs, drones, and missiles, zikr of a frontline mujahid gets an oceanic depth. A parasitic sufi seating idle in his safe haven can’t think of that depth.

Sufism and Tabligh Jamaat are in fact two blades of the same scissors. Tabligh Jamaat was started by two men of India’s Deoband Madrasa named Sheikh Ilyas and Sheikh Zakaria. They didn’t hide the fact that they were deeply influenced by sufism. In Sheikh Zakaria’s book “Fazayel-e-Amal”, he has been introduced by the publisher as a great sufi. These people and their organisations are indeed parts of the same social, cultural and religious engineering to keep the Muslims away from Qur’anic mission. This is why the most murderous rulers are very compatible with them. As if, condemning, protesting, and fighting against any massacre or crime is not required to be a man of good iman! As per Tablighi Jama’at’s recommendation, a man with good iman should focus more on five-time prayer. They do not recommend jihad. Whereas, fighting against an offensive enemy, by all means, is not mere politics, it is a binding obligation. It is indeed the spontaneous expression of true iman. Appeasing enemies equal to feeding crocodiles. It helps enemies’ fulfil political ambitions.

In India, even a non-political Muslim TV channel like Peace TV was closed down by the anti-Muslim Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, but Tabligh Jama’at is allowed to flourish. In Bangladesh, the fascist government of the Bangladesh Awami League is carrying out every brutality against Islam’s resurgence. But Tabligh Jamaat is allowed not only to hold an assembly of more than 2 million people each year but also receives full government co-operation. Every year, even the Prime Minister and the President of Bangladesh –who vehemently oppose any effort of the resurgence of Islam, also join the supplication (munajat) part of the ijtima. Tablighi people visit millions of households each year to make people perform five-time daily prayers. But what is the impact of such door-to-door visits and massive annual congregation on the morality, politics, and culture of the Bangladeshi people? In the history of Bangladesh, no other organisation could mobilise such a huge number of people to carry out its program. But such massive efforts didn’t help build people’s morality; the country still remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Moreover, under the rule of the most violent anti-Islamic fascists, Bangladesh has entered into the darkest segment of its history. The people now stand deprived of basic democratic rights. The police, the army the judiciary, and the administrative institutions work as tools for state-run thievery, robbery, and terrorism. Therefore, to stay in power, the ruling fascists can easily do robbery on people’s ballots in elections. Tabligh Jama’at itself now stands as clear evidence that innovation away from the Qur’anic roadmap doesn’t work. And the emphasis on one pillar of Islam like five-time daily prayer doesn’t work either. It can only cause huge wastage of time, money, and energy. And it can only increase the deviation from Prophet (peace be upon him)’s methodology.

The basics are ignored

The first thing must be done first, and in Islam, the first thing is iman (faith). No good deed –even not the sacrifice of life is acceptable to Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la without im’an. Iman is the starting point of a Muslim’s life. But iman is not mere belief in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la; rather the full integration with the objective, vision, and mission of Allah Sub’han wa Ta’la. Even the idolaters of the Arabian Peninsula believed in Allah and named their children Abdullah (slave of Allah), Abdur Rahman, etc. But in practice they integrated with the ancient falsehood; and they did war against His sovereignty, His Prophet (peace be upon him), and His revealed law. The same arrogance now overwhelms the whole Muslim Ummah. As a result, they stand against the fundamentals of Islam like sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, jihad, and pan-Islamic Muslim brotherhood. Whereas, iman, taqwa, and jihad go together in Muslims’ life; and get nourishment and sustenance only from Divine knowledge. Hence seeking such knowledge was made compulsory on day one of the revelations of the Holy Qur’an. Five-time prayers, month-long fasting, and hajj were made obligatory more than a decade later. Im’an, taqwa, and jihad work together as the most powerful engine in a believer’s journey towards paradise. It also sets the true direction and agenda in life. Otherwise, other religious rituals can’t save people from hellfire.

After a failed encounter against Prophet Musa (peace be upon him), the magicians who brought iman on Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la were cut into pieces by the order of Pharaoh. But such terrible torture couldn’t distract them from faith. Minutes before, they were fully disbelievers and engaged in sin. But the power of their iman was so forceful that it quickly transformed them to 100 percent believers and made them shaheed. The depth of their iman impressed Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la so much that He mentioned the event several times in the Holy Qur’an and raised their status as the model of true im’an for all people of all ages to come. Although they didn’t get any chance to offer a single unit of prayer, their strong im’an did the job fully to please Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la. But those who perform rituals like 5-time prayer, month-long fasting, hajj, and give charities throughout the whole adult life, how many of them attain such impressive iman? In fact, here lies the greatest deficit in Muslims’ life. In rituals, iman has lost true importance.

Hence, im’an and its implication must be understood first before understanding any other pillar of Islam. Without perfection of iman, one can’t perform rituals like prayers, hajj, fasting, or others with the required perfection. Even a munafiq can take part in rituals –as was the case at the time of the prophet (peace be upon him). They didn’t need any iman for that. They were the embedded enemies. This moral disease has always been endemic in all ages but now has reached a diabolic prevalence. With such disease, people get easily deviated from the Qur’anic roadmap. They become friends of the worst enemies of Islam; and get quickly complicit in their crimes. Truly, this is the case with millions of so-called Muslims in the Muslim World, now. So, the US-led coalition could kill more than 1 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq with their complicity. And the Russia-led coalition is running a similar massacre in Syria. Hence, it is the strategy of the enemies to destroy iman of a believer first; not his rituals like five times prayer, month-long fasting, hajj, or zakat. Even the White House and the Kremlin staff spread prayer mat and offer iftari but drop bombs and send drones to kill those who nurture iman on sharia, hudud, khilafat, jihad, Islamic state and global unity of the Muslims.

Like any disease, moral disease has also its starting point. It starts with the lie in the declaration of imaan. More than a billion Muslims claim that they believe in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la and His prophet (peace be upon him). But how perfect and how sincere is that belief? Belief in Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la and His prophet (peace be upon him) is an indivisible package. Islam is all about believing and practicing all components of the package. There can’t be any disbelief or compromise in any single element of that. Iman is inclusive and comprehensive. It is the source of Divine light in believers’ everyday life, and shows the Qur’anic straight path (siratul mustaqeem) in every segment of his journey. It is the firm belief not only in the oneness of Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’ala, but also in the truthfulness of His prophet’s legacy. It is also the belief in the supremacy of His Sovereignty, His revealed Book –the Holy Qur’an, and the Qur’anic prescription of sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, trans-ethnic Muslim unity, migration, and jihad in His way. Iman also entails the belief in the Qur’anic decree of enjoining the right and eradicating the wrong (a’maru bil ma’ruf wa nehi’anil munkar) –as the prescribed mission for every Muslim.

 The belief in the prophet (peace be upon him) is also inclusive. His legacy includes not only the preaching of Islam but also the establishment of an Islamic state. And, he was also the Head of the State. Hence abiding by his tradition entails the practice of his state policy in education, politics, warfare, administration, laws, people’s welfare, judiciary, and other practices. His legacy also includes jihad fi sabilillah to defend and expand the territory of the Islamic State. A Muslim also needs to believe in the Qur’anic revelation that obeying the prophet (peace be upon him) is obeying Allah Sub’hana wa Ta’la –as revealed in the Holy Qur’an “Whoever obeys the prophet, he indeed obeys Allah” –(Sura Nisa, verse 80). Hence, a Muslim must stick to the prophet (peace be upon him)’s legacy; it is an obligation. But if his politics, culture, law, judiciary, economics, state institutions, administration, and warfare deviate from Prophet (peace be upon him)’s path, how can he claim to be a Muslim? 

 Showcasing the disbelief!

The best way of marketing a product is to showcase it in a marketplace; otherwise, even the best product can’t catch the public eye. The same is true with Islam. Hence Islam is not for practice in caves; and nor in a hostile state where showcasing of its beauty is restricted. So, migration from such an inimical state is a great ibadah in Islam. The greatest preacher in human history like Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) couldn’t convert more than 200 hundred people in his 13 years of hard work in Makkah. But when he could showcase the blessings of an Islamic state, education, sharia, hudud, social welfare, culture, judiciary, and trans-ethnic brotherhood in Medina, a huge mass conversion started. Within a decade Islam appeared as the number one World Power. Other great prophets like Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) and Prophet Musa (peace be upon him) couldn’t attain that success because they were not allowed by the evil forces to showcase the Truth. Shaitan and his followers understand the strength of such a strategy; so it is their key objective not to allow the Muslims to showcase the beauty of Islam in the form of a full-fledged Islamic state. Rather, they allow only to showcase the disease and disbeliefs of the fake Muslims. Therefore, like protecting the rare animal species, the US-led enemies of Islam are protecting the most despotic corrupt Muslim rulers as the model of Islam in the world. So their disbelief and disease get showcased on the global stage as Islam. They call this ugly perversion as moderate or mainstream Islam.

Both belief and disbelief in Islam have their own distinctive expressions. Iman (belief) of a true believer expresses through his good deeds –as fire expresses through its heat. So, in the Holy Qur’an, iman and amal-us-saleh (good deeds) are mostly mentioned together –as if they are the twin expressions of a believer. Thus, a Muslim turns into a showcase of true Islam. Only this way the early Muslims could work as powerful magnets to attract millions of people to Islam; otherwise in those days, they didn’t have any propaganda machinery. But now, they are doing the opposite. They have turned into ugly showcases of moral disease and disbelief. True iman, sharia, hudud, khilafa, shura, pan-Islamic Muslim brotherhood, jihad have no place in that showcase. Rather, divisive walls, racial hatred, extrajudicial killings, parochialism, nationalism, secularism, despotism, and corruption are displayed as Islam. This is indeed the most damaging disservice to the cause of Islam and serves the agenda of Shaitan.

In absence of showcasing of true Islam, millions of visits by Tablighi workers at the doorsteps of the people have utterly failed to make any discernible impact. They are very selective to talk about iman, yakeen, and ibadah, and not about sharia, hudud, shura, khilafa, jihad, and Islamic state –as if these are not the parts of Islam. As if the Prophet (peace be upon him) didn’t put in practice these basics of Islam. Such selective and restrictive prescription on Islam has failed to bring any visible change in belief, behavior, actions, attitude, politics, and culture of the Muslim ummah –even not in the Muslim life in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan where they are in huge number. Is it the aim of Islam to make some big ijtama and putting more volunteers on the street to call people only to five-time prayer? Was it the practice of the prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) and the early Muslims?

If iman and yakeen do not have a visible expression in deeds, politics, culture, behaviour of people, do they really exist? They fail to understand that changing people’s beliefs, behaviour, actions, attitude, politics, and culture is a massive task. Prophet Nuh (peace be upon him) worked day and night for 950 years but got very little success. Spending few minutes in a group in reciting Fadayel-e-Amal (the commonly recited book of Tabligh Jama’at) or listening to short lectures by laymen or long munajat by bujurgs (old sheikhs) is not going to make any big difference. That didn’t work in the past either. The same is true about thousands of non-political Islamic organisations working in the Muslim World. It needs to engage in massively social, cultural, educational, political engineering. For that, a powerful Islamic state with its various massive organisational infrastructures is indispensable. Only then, a state becomes the most powerful value-adding industry on earth; then citizens turn into the most refined and civilised humans –as was the case in the early days of Islam. Only because of such an Islamic state, the early Muslims could raise the only true humane civilisation on earth. And indeed, this was the highest achievement in the whole length of human history. For establishing such a state, the early Muslims had to pay the price. More than 60 percent of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) companions needed to sacrifice their lives. And, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and his rightly guided khalifas needed to be in the driving seat of the state. That is the greatest and the most important legacy of the prophet (peace be upon him) and his great companions. How can a true Muslim deny or ignore that? But now, the Muslims are paying a heavy price, too. That is to spread and defend the virus of moral disease and disabilities. By their own money, efforts, and blood, they indeed feed the engine of their own downfall. 08/04/2017