Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
Character is the key to success, both in this world as well as in the next world. That means change character and you will change the people. Muslims lost their character, no matter how you look at it. Their Dunya was snatched out of their hands.
I don’t know with a lost character how Muslims can lay claim to leadership in matters pertaining to the Aakhirah. A slave people really has no Deen, except maybe the Deen of its worldly masters.
That is partly why there is so much confusion among Muslims about everything, whether it pertains to the Deen or Dunya, and whether it pertains to education or character.
So, want to change Muslims? Work to change their character. Change it from a loser to a winner character.
Now, that is almost directly from the Qur’ān: Change the character of a people and you will change their condition. Here is the Qur’ān: Innallaha laa yughaiyyiru maa bi-qawmin hattaa yughaiyyiroo maa bi-anfusihim.
So, what is the solution then? To Muslim problems I mean.
The solution is the same thing that the Qur’ān came to impart and using which Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, transformed the world: Ta’aleem and Tazkiyah.
That is (a) Education and (b) Character Building, both these terms to be understood and used in their widest and most inclusive connotations and not as tired clichés and meaningless shibboleths subjected to endless and futile Muslim pseudo-theological disputations.
That means, beyond all the talk about what ails Muslims in general and Indian Muslims in particular, it is time to talk precisely and practically about how to cure some of those character ills that have become so common among Muslims of India and the world. And do so from an Islamic as well as practical worldly point of view, both of which to me are one and the same.
There is little doubt that over the past half century or more the sky has indeed fallen on Indian Muslims: their life and limb, their honour and dignity, their economic wellbeing and progress and their social cohesion and political advancement have all been in peril.
And what keeps happening to Muslims around the world in so many different ways is nothing short of a wave after wave of tragedy and calamity.
Call it Kaarithah if you want. In the Indian context as well as in world context.
But to me, looking at this host of problems Muslims are facing, nothing compares in seriousness and urgency to the educational and character – want to call it moral, feel free to do so – backwardness Muslims have suffered over the past few decades.
By moral backwardness I mean a general lack of character. And by that I mean lack of mental toughness, spiritual growth, adherence to the eternal principles of honesty and integrity, commitment to sustained hard work and creative potential and innovative spirit.
From an Islamic point of view, morality and character are intertwined. Together, they encompass mental toughness and resilience as well as spiritual purity and loftiness. The Qur’ān calls this type of all-round character building Tazkiyah.
It was character – before Islam and after – that made Abu Bakr a Siddique: that is, a man who gave his word to the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, and never looked back.
It was character – before Islam and after – that turned a ferocious Umar into the most ardent and compassionate guardian of the poor, the voiceless and the powerless.
It was character – before Islam and after – that would not allow the most powerful ruler of his time in the world to raise his sword in self defence, or let anyone else to do so, for fear of shedding Muslim blood and unleashing chaos, anarchy and Fitnah in the Muslim world. Uthman, thus, sacrificed his own life, so peace and social stability will have a new lease of life.
His blood soaked the pages of the Qur’ān he was reading, as people with Muslims names – but without Muslim character – assassinated him in his own house.
ALI’S CHARACTER
And it was indeed character – before Islam and after – that made Ali the kind of hero that he was and that at the same time got him to walk away from a subdued foe after he, the conquered foe, in an act of desperation, spat on his face.
Here is how we can paraphrase that situation.
“Ali,” said the surprised man. “Why would you walk away from me and not kill me when I spat on you?”
“It is simple,” said Ali. “When we battled each other, you fought for your self-interest and I fought for God Almighty’s sake. I had no other reason. I had no personal stake in our fight. And I had no reason to hate you as a person. But when you spat on me, you made my blood boil and you made me furious over this personal insult the kind of which I had never suffered before.”
“If I had killed you at that moment of rage,” Ali continued as his conquered combatant listened in utter bewilderment and stupefaction, “that would have been a pure act of personal revenge on my part. My killing you in that state of personal anger then would not have been in the service of the higher cause of justice, human equality and universal peace to which I have dedicated my life.”
To control that towering rage, to resist that provocation, and walk away from a conquered foe! That was Ali’s character before and after Islam. Ali was a mere boy when he came into Islam with that character, which was later nurtured and built personally by none other than the Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, himself.
Focus on Changing Character
So, the cure for Muslim ills is character. But Muslims fail to come to terms with questions of character by confusing it with Iman, even though Iman is inextricably intertwined with character.
In fact, Iman is the best and surest foundation upon which to build character.
But in a certain sense people can have character without Iman Billah or belief in God. They could have a generalized kind of strong belief – in anything. That will give them character, albeit not Islamic character.
That is why I kept repeating the words “before Islam and after” in previous paragraphs. Those words are almost a direct translation of a Hadith that can be paraphrased as “Gold before Islam, gold after Islam.” Khairukum fil jaahiliyyah, khairukum fil Islam.
Thus, it is entirely possible for those without Iman Billah to possess superior qualities of heart and mind – character. But the best and highest level of character exists when it is rooted in Iman Billah.
And no character was more solid or supreme than that of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, which was not only grounded in the teachings of the Qur’ān but which was a full and complete embodiment of the entire Qur’ān.
Innaka la-‘alaa khuluqin ‘azeem, says the Qur’ān: “Your character indeed is great.”
“His character simply was the Qur’ān,” says the Hadith: Kaana khuquhul Qur’ān.
Thus, if the Muslims make claims of Iman, then that claim must be backed up by a solid personal character on the ground. They must embody the best and highest qualities of human character.
Muslims must embody the Qur’ān. Nothing less is acceptable.
That, however, is not generally the case. Not because Muslims don’t have it, but more because Muslims generally don’t even seem to be aware of it. By and large, they simply seem to have no understanding of what character really means and how to go about building and acquiring it.
So, if character is a fatal flaw among Muslims, the way to fix that flaw is to start building character. Merely trumpeting claims of Iman, while neglecting to focus on the question of character, will not cure Muslim ailment on the character front.
That means the Muslim situation will not change, as the Qur’ān makes it clear, till Muslims change their character: Hattaa yughaiyyiroo maa bi-anfusihim.
Let me repeat: Till Muslims change their character.
While Muslims around the world need this new lesson in character, in some ways Muslims of India may need it more urgently than the others.
[Write to the author at Drsyedpasha@aol.com. Also visit www.IslamicSolutions.Com and Listen to Pasha Hour International.]