Rebooting Islam: A Call To Ijtihad From A Physician's Perspective

Ijtihad, Rethinking Islam

21 Jan 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

Rebooting Islam: A Call To Ijtihad From A Physician's Perspective

There is no point in creating Loads of Muslims without valid quality control! The nation of Islam seems to be in problem. Things are being attributed to Islam which are inhuman and insulting to the entire human race. We need to find out what is going wrong? We need to address the issue with complete detachment and objective mindset, only then!! Yes!! Only then there can be a hope of finding a way out of the present mess the entire Muslim community is in...There is a rule in Medicine...!! It is called Mc. Gregor's law which goes as.... -- Dr. Sarkar Haider  URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1137   -----------------------------   Rebooting Islam: A Call To Ijtihad From A Physician's Perspective   There is no point in creating Loads of Muslims without valid quality control!   Dr. Sarkar Haider 19 Jan 2009, India   The nation of Islam seems to be in problem. Things are being passed in the name of Islam which are inhuman and insulting to the entire human race.   We need to find out what is going wrong?!.. We need to address the issue with complete detachment and objective mindset, only then !! yes !! only then there can be a hope of finding a way out of the present mess the entire Muslim community is in...   There is a rule in Medicine...!! it is called Mc. Gregor's law which goes as   "PUS SOMEWHERE!!, PUS NOWHERE & finally PUS IS THERE !!!"..  Unless the pus pockets are carefully identified , thoroughly incised & completely drained of PUS, no cure is possible.!. As long as pus resides, the host will continue to run fever no matter what medicines we give, for fever is not a disease in first place! It is a manifestation of some underlying issues which need to be resolved...   Most of the efforts of Muslim community are that of Make shift nature, it is like trying to heal a putrid wound with the help of Anti- Biotics whereas in reality it is Incision & Drainage which were required...!!   In short I feel Muslim nation is suffering from Identity crisis and lack of direction... gradually those who were supposed to guide the world towards light have fallen into the darkest tunnels of ignorance and intolerance.. A religion which boasted of universality has gradually turned into narrow by lanes of bigotry, religious hegemony and violence,   The religion which gave the world foundation to it's modern day Science (be it Medicine, or Engineering- "don't forget Tipu Sultan is the inventor of rocket Technology"), which composed greatest musical scores and poetic masterpieces, which preached love and tolerance (Sufis), which once produced greatest lovers of Human history which became legend (farhad etc.) has off late started to produce TERRORISTS!!!!.. What a shame!?.....   We'll have to carefully examine the cause(s) without being biased so that we may find out where the fault lies?... Is Islam incompatible with the other religions and ideologies of the world? or the followers of Islam are incompatible.?. Who is at fault.. ? Where is the fault line?...   Since I have used medical analogy at the beginning of this write up let me add yet another hard fact from the world of the ART OF HEALING  ..." Whenever a patient appears a diagnostic challenge and no clues are forthcoming then the rule of thumb is TO REVIEW THE ENTIRE CASE HISTORY OF THE PATIENT STARTING FROM A to Z, the history of patient being of foremost importance and invariably physicians do succeed not only in diagnosing the disease but also in designing the treatment model".   There is more I can possibly write but I think these analogies should have served my purpose of pointing out the management plan for rescuing the honour of Islam and it's followers..   Easiest approach off course remains to blame OTHERS for our problems but here again in terms of medicine OTHERS are not the cause of trouble !, agreed they can be opportunistic afflictions when the immunity of the host system is compromised like someone getting Tuberculosis because he has AIDS, the former is a secondary disease which comes in to existence only because of the primary disturbance, will it not be foolish to treat Tuberculosis and not confessing to the fact that our patient has got AIDS?. All treatment combined will not cure such patient because there is unreasonable dishonesty in treating agency's approach …   There is yet another analogy I would like to share with the readers.. Escherichia coli (popularly called e.coli) is a bacteria responsible for causing dysentery , Urinary infection , pneumonia and a lot more diseases BUT… the same e.coli is the boon for Genetic Engineers and Bio- technologists so much so that e.coli is popularly called the guinea pig of genetic engineers as it provides the perfect model for studying various mutations, gene manipulation, research and finding treatment for various degenerative and infective diseases.. the commercial INSULIN being used by the Diabetics is one such product .  In short we can say there is a beneficial e.coli & a harmful e.coli, both have similar appearance and internal structure but there is one crucial difference, too subtle to notice on routine examination but of paramount significance…!! Their STRAINS are different!!!   Similarly if we generalize the e.coli example, we may say that all Muslims are same….but some produce honey of Love, literature, knowledge, Arts & Science and some STRAINS do produce VENOM of terrorism.   Destiny favoured me by enabling me to live and practice various schools of Islam ( Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Barelwi , Deobandi etc.) in last two decades, after observing all the schools I feel like saying that if we consider inherent goodness and wickedness of humanity as such, there are good people and bad people in each sect but certain schools do seem to have liberal , tolerant outlook and certain others do appear to be different, intolerant, illiberal…   In a straight forward religion like that of Islam there should have been little room for confusion and identity crisis but we see a number of different sects with apparently minor and benign looking differences but IN REALITY these benign differences have their roots in extremely big issues which continue to live like dormant pus pockets on the body of Islam. Over past centuries the Muslim leadership in the form of Ulema and scholars have deliberately steered clear of such controversial issues leaving them unaddressed in the name of caution! The result is in accordance with the famous prophetic tradition the world has seventy three sects among Muslims only..and imagine only ONE is professed salvation!!!.. Don't we see that the Muslim nation is resting on a volcano of destruction where 72 sects are doomed and only one is entitled redemption!?...   Fortunately or un-fortunately this famous tradition (hadeeth) is accepted by all the major sects of Muslims, then should not we be more active in pursuing the true path?.. We cannot afford to take chances because odds of this hadeeth are not very encouraging,   Muslims of the world are apparently a homogenous mass but in reality are quite different in terms of cultural beliefs and practices and as the common sense would dictate any religion to be universal will need to expand it's folds to the maximum degree where masses of different origin could easily enter along with the paraphernalia of their local customs and beliefs, such religion can in no case afford to be narrow and suffocating to the followers. But in reality we see a relatively unyielding face of Islam with harsh punishments, threat of eternal damnation with the practices which continue to have a HEAVY Middle eastern (rather Central Arabian) influence..   One can examine the history of Islam and it should not be difficult to see that the only thing Islam and it's prophet ensured was absolute MONOTHEISM, there is no compromise on that account but otherwise most of the prevalent practices of the Arabs of 7th century were assimilated into the main body of the Islam and a code of life was evolved.. That code undoubtedly was the best code of it's time but now we are living in 2009 but still the cultural beliefs of say Indians, Brazilians or aborigines are not well represented..!   There has been a perpetual debate on the causes of prevalence of such large number of Muslims in Indian sub-continent, this certainly is not the result of aggression by Muslim rulers, there is some definite contribution of the Muslim rule in India but the factor on which most scholars agree is the role of SAINTS (sufis) in spreading the message of love, peace and people on their own opting for Islam as their religion of choice.. there were no forced conversions rather the voluntary admissions to the school of Islam and such conversion proved long lasting unlike the conversions brought about by rulers and conquerors say for example in Spain ( Andalusia). Curiously the Islam and it's magnificent prophet from it's inception stood against the concept of Monarchy and Royalty but since the early times Islam was hijacked by the rulers who ruled on authority of Islam fulfilling their desire to rule and thus also indirectly helping the Islam to grow, but the primary intention was to rule.. Ever since the civilized world is created, the religion of the ruler becomes the religion of the ruled.. and this is also how Islam progressed as religion. The Islam spread through love and sainthood had a lot of spiritual and philanthropic content whereas the one spread by rulers and conquerors was primarily need based having more physical element than the ideological content. Understandably the Islam of saints was tolerant to other religions and ideologies but the Islam brought by rulers was inherently aggressive because it was preferable to have subjects of the same faith as that of ruler irrespective of the subject's   mental and spiritual commitment towards the concept of Islam, or we can say that the Islam brought through Love was compassionate, accommodating and free from greed or fear of persecution it was kind of TAILORMADE to the taste of Public it invited in to the fold of Islam whereas the Islam of conqueror was a kind of READYMADE extra large kind of shirt which though was worn by neo-Muslims but hardly fitted their requirements. There are off course some exceptions amongst the rulers too for example SLAHUDDIN AYYOOBI popularly known as SALADIN to the western world, showed such a great degree of respect for the subjugated population of Jerusalem after it's capture that the public fell in love with this conqueror , he was praised by his opponent Richard , The Lion Heart of England who was the then caretaker patron of Judeo-Christian Jerusalem and thus Saladin is immortalized in the world history but such occurrences were truly uncommon, the invading monarchs had variable degree of respect for humanity in accordance with their variable degree of faith and purpose, and thus probably the expansion of Muslim state was not always an effortless process.   Over next few hundred years all these strains of Islam got mixed up and each party came up with the kind of explanation and execution which served their purpose best, gradually the doctrine was designed and each varied considerably from the other if not outwardly then definitely in it's fundamental believes ( for example the schism between Shia and Sunni sects of Islam over the heir ship issue of Hazrat Ali  r.a.a( the cousin and son in law of Prophet who became the 4th( last) Caliph of Islam and is regarded the FIRST IMAM ( the physical and spiritual leader) by the Shias . In view of the Shias the  Ali r.a.a deserved the all kind of state, religious, spiritual and Temporal powers after the death of Prophet and those who did not handover the due charge to this divinely rightful owner have done this on purpose to sideline Ali and his progeny from the throne of Islamic leadership, Shias maintain that this act of injustice was the biggest event which changed the course of the future Islam irreversibly and the chaos in Islamic nation is the direct result of this mischief subsequently more crimes were added to the already sinking ship in the form of martyrdom of Imam Husayn ( the son of Ali) at the hands of the forces of Yazeed the then ruler of greater Syria whose father had snatched the caliphate from Husayn's father Ali   by applying sheer ruthless politics. Since then the chain of martyrs has unending list and each Imam was eliminated by the contemporary rulers in order to attain complete autonomy over the ever expanding Islamic empire, Till 11th Imam (named Hasan askari) each Imam (Guru) was killed by the dark forces who continued to rule in the name of Islam while conveniently eliminating all the rightful heirs (all belonging to the sacred bloodline of the Prophet Mohammad). There were certain others too who though not from the bloodline of prophet but had guts to stand up against the mockery of religion and the ruling class found them dangerous , they too were eliminated ( like ABU-DHAR, a famous companion of the prophet who was known for his fearless straight talk).   The Islamic nation raised a hue and cry citing Foreign hand as the cause of their problems each time there was a crisis, but the most basic and radical problems always erupted from the core of Islamic nation and not from outside. Outsiders did take advantage  from time to time but strictly in capacity of OPPORTUNISTIC  PATHOGENS as I already explained in the beginning. The host had weak immunity and the outsiders simply complicated the illness.   To explain the whole irony following couplet is pertinent:   AJAB TAMASKHUR HUA ISLAM KI TAQDEER KE SAATH   SHABBIR* ZIBAH HUE NARRA-E-TAKBEER KE SAATH!!!   *Translation: Can there be greater Joke with the destiny of Islam? Than shabbir (* Husayn- the grandson of prophet, son of Ali and himself the 3rd Imam as per Shia belief) getting his neck sawed by dagger while the Muslim murderers chanted ALLAH –O- AKBAR (God is great!)   Thus we see that we got Muslims all around us, their basic tenants and practices remain almost same but what varies is their STRAIN like different e.coli bacteria I used for my example, understandably some produce Peace, joy happiness, brotherhood and some produce venom of terrorism.  We have Sufis on one extreme who have absolute LOVE and concept of FANA in their doctrine, who welcome entire humanity at their doorstep and we also have TALIBANI Muslims who have extremely rigid interpretation of Islam so much so that JIHAD appears not as the last resort but rather at the top of their agenda in their workbook. They do not mind destroying the BAAMIYAN BUDDHA statues in Afghanistan (something which had existed during all the past Muslim rules of the Afghanistan). They imprison girl children to the boundary of small homes never to see the light of the day (immaterial if prophetic tradition / Hadeeth says, "it is Duty of each Muslim man and woman to acquire knowledge"). Who do not mind trading Opium for arms, who patronize all kind of terrorist activities in the world so much so that in present times an average Muslim is finding it very hard to explain his innocence.  They are very very judgmental and ready to blow up into pieces the non- believers and those Muslims who do not subscribe to their ideology ( Like Everyday Karachi blasts in the Shia mosques). They blow up Muslims into pieces not only by their bullets and explosives but also at times by their sheer force of social boycott of PATHETICALLY UNORGANISED MUSLIMS, yes ! An average secular person (be a Muslim or a non- Muslim) is always devoid of any syndicate or organized group .I remember an interesting editorial in the GUARDIAN (U.K) titled " GOD HATES RELIGION" wherein the author had criticised existing ORGANIZED church (in the context of U.K) for PLAYING GOD. If I borrow from the same analogy then these hardcore radical Muslims are Playing God, Judging, terrorizing, maiming and punishing people all around the globe. All is carried out in the name of Islam. But wait and see that the Quran says " AND THESE TRANSGRESSORS WILL CAUSE TURMOIL IN THE LAND AND WILL CUNNINGLY USE THE QORANIC VERSES TO JUSTIFY THEIR INHUMAN CRIMES"..   I have described the two extreme STRAINS of Islam in the form of SUFIS AND TALIBANIS. The remaining sects like Barelvi, Shia etc. will find their place somewhere near the centre of this spectrum. Though I hate to say this but Incidentally Talibanis are the ones subscribing to the Deobandi ideology and Saudi Arabian strain of Islam conceived and disseminated by the Ibn-e-Tymia and a clergyman named Abdul Wahhab al- Najdi in close association with the present ruling family of Saudi Arabia called AAL-E-SAUD ( the Progeny of King Saud). In fact the Local emir of Dariyya   (a small district in Central Riyadh province of Saudi Arabia) Saud entered into a historical pact with a local clergyman named ABDUL WAHAB wherein both the parties swore to help each other in establishing and expanding their respective state and religion at the cost of blood and belongings . This was something akin to AUGUSTUS the Roman emperor using Christianity for expanding his kingdom and later also gaining official recognition from the old time enemy Roman empire not only recognition but now even riding over the chariot of power driven by wheels of might and money of the empire. The world witnessed unprecedented boom in Christianity all through the globe. In case of Wahhabism too the state machinery of Saudi Arabia provides all kind of logistic and material support to Abdul Wahhab's version of radical Islam. This has greatly increased after the oil boom of Arabia as the funds available now are enormous and all the missionary activity technically called as DAAWA is carried out through the dedicated and organized teams which operate at the grass root levels in Muslim communities across the world. No wonder we witness Islam as the fastest growing religion of the world!  but here I remember yet another tradition ( hadeeth) from the Prophet of Islam "Towards the end of days there will be hardly any true Muslims left, the world will be occupied by hypocrites and one will not find  even 40 (forty) true Muslims.!. I leave this to reader's intelligence that with the given rapidly progressive trend of Islamization of the world how this prophecy will be fulfilled?!!...   Why is it so that most Islamic terrorist have Saudi version of Islam as their faith? Why Osama bin Laden is Saudi? Why 9/11 culprits were mostly Saudi? Why Mullah Omar studied and graduated from a Deobandi school in Pakistan? Why All Talibanis are always Deobandi.   And what can be more nonsensical than the Deoband Seminary ulema convening a massive conference where terrorism is condemned!!! , I'm yet to see a non- Deobandi Muslim terrorist in our socio- Geographical setting, and therefore the whole idea of holding a conference and condemning Terrorism is a sham and pointless. Even more ridiculous is Indian press and media giving this conference undue importance.  When the media does such things this indicates only two possibilities; either they are not willing to dig out the root of evil or they are simply too naïve to suspect anything. The second possibility is more plausible, as is evident from the unfolding mystery of Mumbai - a carnage where our security, intelligence and media all were so easily outwitted by a handful of miscreants.   Interestingly enough shortly after the Deoband meet the Barelvi sect too held a conference on terrorism where Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan the grandson of Aala Hazrat Maulana Rehan Raza Khan R.A and Convenor of the meet invited guest speakers from entire India including all religious and ideological denominators. The show was locally hit , with massive participation of the public. The Kashmiri identity issue raised by Prof. Gilani of Delhi university (of Parliament terrorist attack controversy) was fiercely countered by the organizers stating on podium that WE Are INDIANS AND WE HAVE CALLED ONLY INDIANS TO DISCUSS OUR PROBLEM IF YOU ARE NOT AN INDIAN MR. GILANI THEN YOU MAY KINDLY LEAVE..!!   But this conference was never covered in any of the national newspapers or magazines or T.V. channels except in local Hindi newspapers like Amarujala and Jagran. What does this indicate? Apparently our naïve media is just after sensationalism not bothering to know the real picture nor interested in giving the right kind of voices any platform rightfully due to them.   It is high time that the world in general and Muslims in particular understand the Aetio-pathogenesis of the FEVER OF TERRORISM  and take necessary steps so that this epidemic does not turn in to a global pandemic (in fact this already has). Emergency resuscitative measures are needed at once on the part of Muslim scholars, state authorities and average Muslims.           The Muslim scholars form a council and try to honestly diagnose the PUS POCKETS plaguing the entire corpus of Muslim community and formulate a foolproof  action plan which can be offered as the best solution to every Muslim of the world in general and of the Sub-Continent in particular , so that future damages are taken care of.  { When I say scholars I would like to add that not only Arabic literate Clergymen are scholars as is the popular misconception among Muslims, but the modern educated and rational minds, be they Doctors, Engineers, Scientists, Philosophers, Thinkers etc. too are scholars and ulema.) By future damages I mean nothing less than the THIRD WORLD WAR. I'm sure the day Muslims learn to recognize their actual scholars and leaders, Uthman R.A will not be killed while reciting the Quran that he himself once compiled and who still was a caliph when murderers killed him, Ali R.A.A won't be sacrificed, Hysayn R.A will not need to die at the hands of the Muslim forces of Yazeed, and in present times 9/11 and Blasts on Indian soil can probably be averted. When people like zakir Nayek donot spread mistrust and systematized mis-information about the Imam Husayn and Karbala tragedy while fooling average muslims with their computerized koranic recalls (do not forget IBLEES (Satan) too was the most learned angel only next to God.                     Islam is a DEEN and not a religion; this is a guiding force for living a good life in accordance with the divine principles of existence and co-existence. Let us not allow Terrorists to hijack the cause of Islam. We also need to ensure that people who actively want to convert the whole globe into Muslim ummah should also be treated intelligently, because if something is inherently good, it is bound to attract people and if something is not worthy then why others should be invited? There is no point in creating Loads of Muslims without valid quality control. *A medical analogy to Terrorism & general crisis in Islam.  Copyright: NewAgeIslam.com URL: http://newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1137