Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!bes From: SX43@liverpool.ac.uk Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam Subject: Goats,Beards,and Action (Article from MuslimWise). Message-ID: <1990Dec9.012045.22045@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Date: 9 Dec 90 01:20:45 GMT Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi) Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 117 Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu Salaam all; I just got last month's MuslimWise.. although I should be tucked up getting over this 'flu, I just _had_ to share this one with you. Anyway it relieves the boredom. I would appreciate any du'as for a swifter recovery; I should go and crawl back to bed after posting this, gurgle, sniffle.. (BTW MuslimWise had plea for help this time round; they seem to be having cash-flow problems unfortunately. I doubt any of us are million- aires, though; you'll no doubt find out if they go under.) With Peace, (and 'flu.. :-( ) Fazal-Rehman. Title : Goats, Beards, and Action. Source : MuslimWise magazine (Nov90) p11 Topic : Halal Fingers has a go at the Muslim Community. (Get the pun ?! :-) Lines : 116 inc. Contact: BM MuslimWise, London WC1N 3XX England, UK. Telephone : 081-902-5968/6074 (England) -------------------------------------- "All rights are *NOT* reserved. Articles in MuslimWise *MAY* be reproduced without prior permission in any publication not published by Penguin. Being mere mortals we do get mad when somebody reproduces our articles and 'forgets' to acknowledge us. Articles on anything, so long as they have a name and address, are welcomed -- from Muslims and non-Muslims." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ GOATS, BEARDS AND ACTION ======================== (By Halal Fingers) It's amazing really, just how out of touch with reality our community is. Muslims, apparently are unable to distinguish between Right and Wrong any more : our priorities are so mixed up that we go berserk over one man's book and the insults he heaps upon everything we hold sacred and yet we are in the process of turning out potential Rushdies every day of the week. How ? Look at our behaviour. People are dying over an abandoned mosque in India ! If it's so important a place for the local Muslims, how come nobody has prayed there for the last forty years or so ? What are we coming to when Muslims in Bangladesh start rioting and looting against Hindus in 'defence' of that mosque, hundreds of miles away ? Enough has been written about the Gulf to give the general idea that Muslims are being made to look complete fools again, so I don't need to add to that. Talking of Mosques, the community (that's a joke) in east London are at it again, fighting each other over who runs east London Mosque. Everywhere you look, there we are, the great Muslim Ummah, fighting and squabbling with each other. Is it any wonder that 'young Muslims' are watching in confused amazement ? The behaviour of their elders (and supposed betters), is far from Islamic. So is it reasonable to expect youngsters growing up in 'Muslim' families to develop into sincere practising Muslims? The motto seems to be 'do as we say, not as we do'. Looking at the Prophet, Peace be upon him, and his companions, we can see that they led by example. Can we say that? Maybe, but what an example ! We send our children off to the mosques to learn about prayer and how to read the Qur'an but do we show them how to put the teachings of Allah into practise in their lives? No way, that would be fundamentalist, wouldn't it ? As long as they can read the Qur'an, we're happy. Think about it : they might as well be learning Greek or Chinese for all the effects the words of Allah have on their lifestyle. Look around you in the mosque at Friday prayer. Count the number of people without a beard. Easier still count the number with a beard, it won't take you as long. I'm not saying that a beard automatically signals a good, sincere Muslim; after all, there is a Danish (honest!) proverb which reads : 'If the beard were everything, then goats would preach'. But, the beard is the easiest of Sunnahs to follow. To do so, you do nothing, not a sausage, zilch. To go against his advice, you must make a conscious decision to shave; you are of your own free will, going against the Sunnah. So our youngsters don't even see the easiest of things being followed in their family and community. How then, can we expect them to follow the more complex obligatory things ? The beard is just one example. Many people take matters of Sunnah very lightly indeed, saying they aren't compulsory therefore they aren't important. But if we can't even get the small things right, what chance have we of getting the big, really earth-shattering things right ? How can we quote Qur'anic injunctions to people in efforts to correct their actions when they aren't even following the easy parts of their Faith, let alone the more serious issues ? Conferences, delegations and the like which try to seek an Islamic solution, say to the Gulf problem are a waste of valuable time. We're trying to talk to rulers of countries (whether Iraqi, Saudi or Kuwaiti or wherever); if they really cared about Islam, wouldn't their respective countries be ruled 100 percent according to the Qur'an and the Sunnah ? In fact, wouldn't their respective countries be just one Islamic State, not a myriad of nation-states competing against each other over territory and wealth ? Again, look at the Prophet, Peace be on him. He didn't go out into the streets of Makkah following the early revelations from Allah, calling for an Islamic revolution and the immediate implementation of the Shari'ah. He called people to simply believe in La ilaaha illa Allah for years, sowing the seeds of Faith, ready for the major injunctions later on. Despite our 'advanced' state of affairs, in terms of technology, scientific knowledge etc, we are getting too far away from the simplicity that was the Prophet's message, and the ultra effective methods of his call to Islam. Perhaps we are just too ignorant to think that such simplicity can teach us anything; that we actually know better. I think we need to look again at the little things in Islam, and try to put them into practice; to build our Islamic State from the foundations up, not from the roof down. If the goats can read this, I hope they understand. --Halal Fingers.