Communal harmony is a fundamental requirement of every country, every community, in fact of every human being. Without communal harmony, no country can live in peace and tranquillity; it can’t drive prosperity and affluence; and it can’t touch the heights of development and civilization.
Whatever be the condition of the country will be in fact the condition of the citizens because a country is nothing but the state of the citizens. It’s a fact, but very unfortunately few people understand it.
The speed of development slows down if there is no communal harmony even if there are full capabilities and resources of the development and civilization and whatever creeping development takes place, it doesn’t have durability because it’s not inclusive; it doesn’t carry the efforts and opinions of all citizens; people do not feel associated with such development.
Also in such a situation, development does not only go slow, but you never know when the high towers of whatsoever the development that took place, get demolished and razed to earth.
In the absence of communal harmony, the circle of prosperity shrinks; wealth of the whole nation and all the springs of wealth get concentrated in the hands of the ruling community or the party; a large number of people, in fact majority of them, struggle for a piece of bread. Only few people get the opportunity to fill their tanks and irrigate their fields from the Ganga of prosperity; common people do not get the opportunity even to quench their thirst.
In the absence of communal harmony, huge human population is deprived of the wealth of peace and tranquillity; there is always an environment of risk inside the country and external dangers keep knocking the door.
In the absence of communal harmony, there is no country in the world today that may be declared safe and peaceful; civilized and developed; prosperous and flourishing; safe from internal and external dangers.
Today nobody is safe from this condition, neither the Asian countries nor the African countries nor the American countries nor the European countries; incidents keep taking place in all these countries that they may not be called peaceful; neither prosperous nor flourishing; neither civilized nor developed.
The situation prevailing in our beloved and beautiful nation, India is also not very different from other countries. Words like peace, tranquillity, prosperity, and flourishing have become alien to the citizens!
A majority of people in the country look anxious and depressed. We keep hearing about cases of suicide and self-immolation. Not only suicide and self-immolation, we frequently see even more horrible incidents.
The shameful fake encounters of Muslim youth and fires of horrible communal riots that turn the towns into ashes; these issues are a big challenge that is tarnishing the image of the country. It is very strange to see fire in human bodies while the creator has made humans with water and clay.
This is the condition of the common people. As for the Capitalists and leaders are concerned, they are no better than the common people, even if they are custodians of stocks of wealth and designations of power and seem to be enjoying their luxurious lifestyles and popular status. They are also deprived from the wealth of peace and tranquillity, they also face the dangers that common people have been facing. It has always been seen that when the situation gets disturbed, every one faces almost the same grievances; lower class and upper class; weak and strong; police and army; president and minister all face the backlash.
In brief, everyone is deprived of peace today and if someone is deprived of peace and tranquillity and surrounded by risks all the time, even a rope looks snake to him and all luxuries and facilities become tasteless.
So today whatever brutal operations are taking place in the name of counter-terrorism, the way Muslim youth are being targeted in fake encounters, and the way the dangerous waves of communal disharmony are being spread around the country, all of these are by-products of distress and disturbances.
Why is it the situation of the world so, including our India? There may be several reasons but it can’t be denied that one of the most important reasons is the absence of communal harmony. Absence of communal harmony has brought the world on the brink of devastation. Our beloved India is also burning today in the fire of communalism.
No one would be able to remain safe from this fire of communalism, so every serious and sincere citizen of this nation should think over this problem and try to find ways to get rid of this dangerous fire. No one should have this misunderstanding that if someone else’s tent is burning, his own tent would remain safe.
Whoever fuels the fire of communalism does it because they couldn’t yet recognise themselves. Neither could they recognise themselves, nor have they tried to recognise others but the reality is that they could not even recognise the creator and God. We should never forget the fact that we have not come to this world by ourselves, we are actually sent here.
Whoever has created this earth has created us to live on earth. He didn’t create us forever. He did that for few days. He didn’t create us without any purpose; actually he created us so that we obey him and live according to His wills while being on earth and do not start neglecting Him and following our own wills. He has created us so that we live as noble creatures; do everything according to His will; never disobey Him; never do anything that challenges His power and makes Him angry.
Somebody who oppresses others and colours his hands with other’s blood invites the punishment from the Creator. Such human beings can never run away from the grip of their Creator. He might get a chance for few more days but one day he will have to face the heat of his own brutality. If he is left in this world, he will certainly be caught in the life after death. No power can save him from the grip of that Day.
If a human being understands this fact, he will never oppress others; will never take others’ lives; forget taking lives, if somebody ever gets harmed by mistake, he would not sit in peace until he apologises to him and makes him happy.
To elucidate the severity of the matter, it will be enough to know that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), who was the last Messenger of Allah and who was sent to all mankind as a gift of mercy and till the time he lived on earth, he lived with mercy. When he was about to leave the world, he called people and said:
“Brothers! My time has come, if I owe anything to anyone, here is my belongings, please take back your rights and if I have beaten anyone with the hunter, here is my back, please come forward and do the same with me and never ever think that it will change my feelings for you. No, Never! It is not the statute of a prophet that he would keep hate for anyone in his heart. I want to meet my creator in a condition that I don’t owe anything to anyone.”
He announced and nobody came forward to take his right. He repeated such announcements after prayers in the mosque but no one came forward. And who would have come forward? He was a man of love and affection; came as a gift for the humanity who always wiped people’s tears, shared people’s burden, never beat anyone, never deprived anyone from his rights, never hurt anyone!
Actually the biggest issue before human beings is the success or failure in the hereafter. Very naïve is the person who gets deceived by temporary blessings and starts exploiting others with his power and status ignoring the consequences.
There is nothing in this world better than the belief in the Hereafter to recognise yourself; to control your anger; to live humanly with human beings, and to stay away from the disobedience of the creator in day-to-day matters of life.
Teachings of this belief is present in every religious book but the materialist human being is not ready to think beyond this world, he does whatever comes in his mind and doesn’t think about the consequences. How would he face the creator after death?
Since we are discussing communal harmony, it’s necessary to make it clear that there is no scope of communalism in the religion of Islam that is sent by Allah because Islam is not a religion of any specific sect, family, caste, race or community. The religion of Islam belongs to all mankind on earth and addresses all humanity. Allah says:
“O mankind! Verily, there has come to you a convincing proof (Prophet Muhammad) from your Lord, and We sent down to you a manifest light (this Qur’ān). So, as for those who believed in Allah and held fast to Him, He will admit them to His Mercy and Grace (i.e. Paradise), and guide them to Himself by a Straight Path.” (Surah Nisa : 174-175)
In the same way in another place Allah addresses all mankind:
“O mankind! Worship your Lord (Allah), Who created you and those who were before you so that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious).” (Surah Baqarah : 21)
Similarly Allah addresses all mankind:
“O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife [Hawwa (Eve)], and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is ever the All-Watcher over you.” (Surah Nisa : 1)
There are a number of verses like this in the Holy Qur’ān, which make it very clear that this religion doesn’t belong to any single community, group or race, rather it belongs to all living mankind on earth. That’s why it doesn’t only address Muslims, but addresses all mankind.
It is a big tyranny with the religion sent by Allah, that He sent this religion for the welfare and wellbeing of all mankind and with the aim of bringing them from darkness to light, to upgrade their positions but a majority of human beings disrespected the religion and put their all efforts to extinguish the lamp of light.
All respected citizens of our nation should know that this religion is just like air, water, sun, moon, earth and other assets of earth. As these assets that are created by Nature do not belong to any one community or race but to all, in the same way this religion of Islam also belongs to every citizen of this nation rather to all mankind living on this earth.
It is a great blessing from our God that He guided us with the right path together with these unlimited assets and wealth. He told us how to spend a good life in this world. He even told us how to walk on this earth, how to talk, how to behave with others.
Allah says:
1. “And walk not on earth with conceit and arrogance. Verily, you can neither tear nor penetrate the earth, nor can you attain a stature like the mountains in height.” (Surah Isra : 37)
2. “And turn not your face away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah likes not arrogant boasters. And be moderate (or show no insolence) in your walking, and lower your voice. Verily, the harshest of all voices is the voice of the donkey.” (Surah Luqman: 18-19)
3. “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you with Allah is one who has Taqwa [i.e. one of the Muttaqun (pious).Verily, Allah is all-knowing, all-aware.” (Surah Hujurat : 13)
These are just few examples to realise that this religion of Islam is a religion of love and regard; it gives respect to all human beings and teaches them to love each other, it describes all human beings as brothers and generation of single parents. So where is the question of Communalism here?
(to be concluded)