I dedicate this post to a question raised by a friend of mine on facebook. He had linked this intresting footage on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUUNonUgE8&NR=1 , and though I believe that it is somewhat biased by some mild form of selectiveness, I still find it particularly heartwarming and at the same time, profoundly regretful that the Arab World does not enjoy this atmosphere quite often, all hail taboos traditionalists mixed with religion.
I’d like to begin by citing a scenario between Sheikh Al Qaradawi and an interviewer. In a program that has earned my respect and my attention, known as Shari’a and life, our Sheikh was asked “What country, given the current time, would you personally classify as a Muslim state?”
“None.” He replied. “To classify a country as a Muslim state, it is essential for both civilians and government to have a clear and transparent understanding, in addition to a mutual agreement on Islamic standards. Without this harmony, no country of such nature exists.”
Should Arab countries that have been prosecuted by tyrannical figures and have now reclaimed their freedom head for religious standards? Me, being born in a generation that where most of us are born, citing what we know about religions from what we have been taught in school and tradition by families have one answer. No, no and double no. Because for religion to act as a constitution, civilization must be willing to know, practice and animate that atmosphere before claiming to adopt it. It is essential for us Muslims to rectify and honestly acknowledge the fact that most of us speak out of ignorance or what we are told. If you don’t believe me, then right at this very moment, this very second, I want you to ask yourselves if you can cite the exact source that practicly says “You should pray five times a day”.
Attention. This moment of awkward silence has been brought to you by Google. ~Damien Stryker, Radio Talk Show host I’m familiar with.
Not saying that you shouldn’t of course, I’m only stating facts. We are capable of demonstrating our basic functions, and yet, most of us can only do so much as to cite the sources for half of them. But that is the case of us twentieth century religion passionists. Go ask your average Christian “What is the Gospel?”
Ksht! Google!
Once again, I’m not saying that they wouldn’t be able to answer it. The weakness lies in the fact that most of us are capable of only answering it on a general basis, leaving us vulnerable to some intelligent jerk that is aware of it, but would use citations of perhaps weak basis to refute the fact that our belief is true. In our ignorance of propagating what we believe to know, we give room for weaker basis to grow stronger, thus we inevitably lose the debate. Majority doesn’t always win, especially when they all stand out as …stupid; they’ll look like they’ve been deceived. I could illustrate a gazillion examples of speaking out of ignorance, but I don’t want us side tracked from our topic.
I sincerely believe that Islam is a method of life that should be pursued from every stand point. But in order for us to pursue anything, we need to be familiar with the steps we are taking. In the twentieth century, most of us have only contributed to the demonization of a religion by reflecting and repeating what cultures and traditions have taught us rather then citing the sources for it. We live in a time where sexual education is conceived by Arabs to be taboo, when in contradiction, it was provided to the youth in the sound methods the Prophet had supported back in the day.
I’ll water it down to a simple statement. You cannot assume to be fair by ruling people with standards that they or yourself are not properly educated by. The U.S, itself, endures this dilemma, where the people are governed by a democracy they themselves are unaware of, giving room for governing bodies to exploit them. If I personally saw someone in the U.S reading a pamphlet that states the Bill of Rights, I’d be either impressed or would make the natural assumption that this guy is applying for citizenship. Let’s face it. Barely anyone knows it.
You want to know who are governing our wold today? Not jews, not muslims, not christains or secularists, but hypocrites. People who would score a four point O GPA in a Marketing degree. Because they’re good at exploiting people’s ignorance.
And that’s my thought Khalid. Sorry for keeping you up.
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