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Is an Islamic renaissance due?

 

KK Lidhoo

 

24 March 2008, Monday

 

 

CONSIDER THIS. The Moulvi Saheb would hold the Diniyaat (Religious) class. Saheb was a person of affable disposition, spoke Kashmiri as any Kashmiri person, wore a turban and other traditional Kashmiri attire, as did my grandfather. Both spotted a beard. Both ruminated over Tib, Towheed, Rumi’spoetry and the life hereafter. Both were honest to the penny. Now, our respected Moulvi Saheb, who was also a government teacher, would teach Diniyaat in the school. We also learned Kalma by rote, hardly understanding anything but we would take all this back to our home, recite the same with gay abandon. Nobody objected in our home to this. The evenings were reserved for the Bhagwat Gita and the Upanishidic stories. Nobody in our home perceived any threat for us to get converted to Islam, even if we recited Diniyaat all day long. Hinduism with its profundity had an attraction of its own.

        

It was heaven all around. People were Parhezgaars (devout and chaste). They were not theologians or masters of religious lexicon, but simple ordinary people pursuing their daily chores with utmost humility and a great majority of these people were Muslims. Later, as we were growing up, we understood what Kalma meant.

 

As ill luck would have it, all this came to an end. People started reading religious books, but hardly understood the holy Quran. They surely prayed five times a day but their Dua (prayer) lacked the Assar (potency). Fiery and inciteful speeches by those who only meant politics, suddenly gained the centre-stage. Islam was to be interpreted only in the way a particular opinion would project it.

  

Malady had struck one of the brilliant philosophies of equalising the society. The faith, which would have opened the doors and carried the potential of espousing peace in this really bad world, came to be known as the “nemeses of the same”. Strange are the ways of the evil that hijacks the good. They did not even heed the words of the Quran, “Do not confuse yourself. Hold the rope of faith firm.”

  

Having said this, doesn’t it appear that these are the best times for the Islamic world? At no point in history, did the Muslim nations enjoy well defined boundaries and territories, which were abundant with rare natural resources. They have got a great civilisational history but are at the threshold of modern technological world that can enhance their status beyond thought, which makes one think these can be the best times for Islam to flourish. But why are not the creative juices flowing? What is holding them back? What hinders them to build the institutions? Why can’t they just let go the baggage of the recent past and that further begs the question: Is an Islamic renaissance due?

   

 Unfortunately, Muslims seem to blame everybody else for their condition, but are not ready to introspect themselves. All this is not supposed to rattle them, because the writer of this piece is an admirer of Islamic world and values.

      

Those nations, who have chosen democracy and human rights, cannot be seen to be at variance with Islam. Democracy should no longer be considered a western ghost. It can also be applied in Eastern backyards. One fails to understand as to why do the Islamic nations continue to hold the view that by shutting the windows to the world, they can remain protected and safe and not defile their religion and way of life. But let it put on record that sometimes the reverse can be true. The world has yet to know the fragrance of Islam

 

Comment

 

Islam is the best relegion and muslims are the worst followers, said Bernard shaw once. Though it does not hold that much water, it does hold a little. as the auther writes, muslims are not ready to instrospect and reach at a perosonal, 'consensus'i would say, and they are all out trying to blame the world for their being what they are. Imran khan was once quoted as saying, muslims around the world are suffering from inferiority complex. though he did not eloborate on that like, i feel that it sounds true at times. Muslims around the world need not worry about the faith of the rest of the world. islam does, islam, islam does not encourage what many islamic organizations around the world are encouraging in the name of islam. take stock mymuslim brotheren and find the fire in you, and keep it burning and take it forward so as to bring in light to the world all times to come. Mullas and imams had better study qoran in detail and they should teach the new generation what islam teaches, in the true sense of the term. many islamic think tanks are poor in understanding Holy Qoran. it is the ill-intended relegious education given to the muslims kids today that makes the coming mulsim generation ill formed and wrogly directed. my words are not intended to hurt anyone who takes islam in its true spirit. long live qoran and its followers.

JAYPEE:   24 March 2008

 

 

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