Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
I wish Muslims were a smart, reasoning, intelligent and thinking kind of people – the kind of people the Qur’an talks about. Not the kind of dull, senseless, clueless automatons most of us have ended up becoming.
How I wish Muslims were really the smart, thinking kind. How I wish they were the kind of Muslims the Qur’an so methodically and meticulously describes and profiles.
Then they would be able to see who they really are. What their real mission on earth is. And how they should go about accomplishing that mission.
They will then understand what their Deen – their way of life and their culture – really is, and how they should live it in practice.
They would then know who their Rabb or master really is, and what he wants from them.
Then they would also know and understand who their Rasul, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, really was. And what his life – what his Sunnat – was really all about.
They would then know what that book – Dhaalikal Kitaab – the Qur’an, is really all about. The book that God sent as a guide and blessing for all of humanity.
And they would know and understand what their own role in this world really is. In this place on earth where God Almighty sent them – with the rest of humanity – as his own personal representatives and managers, with a clearly stated mission.
And an equally clearly spelled out methodology.
Muslim Mission on Earth
A mission that specified in the most clear terms that the job of the Muslims – and their responsibility – on earth was:
To encourage, foster, facilitate and promote all that is good, nice, decent, kind, compassionate, caring and noble.
To discourage and curb all that may be bad, evil, inhuman, cruel, dangerous, unjust, unfair, unkind, abusive, exploitative and harmful.
To work ceaselessly and tirelessly to end all forms of tyranny, as Thomas Jefferson once put it, over the mind and body of all men, women and children.
To treat everyone, without any distinction of race, color, gender or nationality, with respect, justice, equality and fairness.
To protect the earth and all that it contains from all harm and waste.
To serve all of God’s creation in all forms and shapes in every possible way.
To spread the message of love, kindness, compassion, niceness, equality, justice, fairness and decency everywhere.
To guarantee the most basic and fundamental rights to everyone, especially the weak, the oppressed, the powerless, the disadvantaged, the dispossessed and the voiceless.
To be compassionate, caring, generous and charitable toward all, regardless of color, caste, status, race, religion, gender, language, nationality or some other preferred marker of difference.
To place God Almighty, their maker and master, and the maker and master of everyone and everything else in this world, first, second and last in their life – and invite everyone else in this world to do so.
And to be, at all times, devoted to and mindful of God Almighty more than to and of anyone or anything else in this world – and to preach that message to everyone else in this world.
Profiling Muslims – And Others
This more or less is the official profile of the Muslims that the Qur’an provides.
According to the Qur’an, that is who the Muslims are supposed to be and that is how God Almighty defines their real role in this world.
And what a glorious portrait it is! And what a majestic and magnificent profile!
And what an absolutely amazing miracle it is – unlike any this world has ever known.
If some people today want to profile the Muslims, my very respectful message to them is: Hey, go right on ahead and do it! Make your profiles. Muslims are used to profiling. Profiling is nothing new to the Muslims.
Muslims more or less invented the game. They have a patent on it.
The original profile of Muslims comes directly from God himself. It is one that God Almighty himself designed. Your God and our God, God of everyone and everything, he is the one who gave us Muslims our first and most complete profile.
And he also profiled everyone else in this world. Read the Qur’an and you will find in its pages all the profiles you will ever need.
You will find in the Qur’an your own profiles as well as our profiles. You will find in it the profiles of good people as well as bad people; nice people as well as nasty people; believing people as well as non-believing people; and all kinds of other people.
The Qur’an will also give you the profile of all kinds of mixed-up and confused people. People who don’t know who they are or what they want. These are people who are here, there and everywhere. But they are truly nowhere. We Muslims thus are the original profile-makers of this world. At least the Qur’an is. At least our God Almighty is. That is, our God, who is really your own God, and who is truly God of everyone and everything.
Islam Is About Tomorrow
So, in reality, some of what I said earlier is some of what or who the Muslims are supposed to be. The kind the Qur’an talks about. That is their true profile – in the Qur’an.
That is their true identity and their true mission in life. That is why I wish Muslims of today were Muslims of the Qur’an. Not necessarily Muslims of yesterday, because that they can never be. For Islam is not about yesterday, but rather about today and tomorrow.
No one does or can live yesterday. We can only live today and tomorrow. For, life flows like an unbroken current and only what is to come is ours to claim. That is why someone said a long time ago that we never quite step in the same river twice. I know how obsessed some Muslims are about Salahuddeen or some other heroic figure from the past returning to fix their present and their future for them. It ain’t going to happen, folks! These folks played their innings and now they have retired to Allah’s pavilion to live in joy and felicity forever. They are not coming back.
It is up to the present-day Muslims to work to fix their present – or more accurately, their future. At least that is what Allah says in the Qur’an that I broadly paraphrase here: Allah does not change a people’s condition till they change it themselves.
So, it is always the future and not the past or even the present. For, the present already turns into the past within the blinking of an eye.
So, whether it is for Muslims or for the rest of the world, there is no such thing as returning to life the way it was yesterday. That can never happen. That is contrary to the law of Allah.
The stream of life on earth does not run backwards. It runs forwards. It runs from God in the beginning to God in the end, if you can figure that one out.
Even though our past continues to guide and shape our life in this world and the next world. And in the past is the Khairul Quroon – the most glorious of eras: the time the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihis Salaam, lived and established God’s law and kingdom on this earth.
That was the time when Salaam held its sway in the world and rained down from every treetop and mountain peak on men and women of every shade of colour and creed and on every animal and plant species.
A Future that Is a Throwback to the Past
All we can do, and all we must try to do then as Muslims, is to build a most glorious tomorrow for ourselves, and for the rest of the world, keeping before our eyes the immortal teachings of the Qur’an and the everlasting example of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam.
That is why I wish Muslims of today were Muslims of the Qur’an. For, they are the ones who can build a bright new future for themselves, and for all of humanity, that is as perfect a replication of the past as it is possible for any future to be.
And yet that is as perfect a product of the future and of its own times as anything can be.
No, it is not a contradiction in terms. It is a miracle. A divine miracle, directly from God Almighty. And that is precisely what Islam is – in all ages and places: a miracle.
A living miracle!
For, the more truly successful and glorious the future that human beings build for themselves, the more that future is going to be a throwback in its most central parameters to the life, times and example of the Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam – 1400 years ago. Absolutely no two ways about it. For, that was the very pinnacle of human glory and achievement on earth. It was as close to being the prime of perfection for human life on earth as this earth is ever capable of producing or witnessing.
[Write to the author at [email protected]. Also visit www.IslamicSolutions.Com and Listen to Pasha Hour International.]