Written by :
Belal Fadl
Translated from Arabic by:
Doctor Deen
This article was written during the first Danish cartoon crisis.
Both writer and translator are Egyptian Muslims.
I was asked by my enthusiastic friend to join him in an online campaign, set up by several websites, to send e-mails to the Danish community expressing disapproval and resent on the sympathy or silence showed by some of its factions towards the caricatures that made fun of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace And Blessings Be Upon Him). I thanked my friend for his enthusiasm in defending in the Prophet, an enthusiasm I know stems from a solemn faith and an honest zeal, but after a few moments of thinking I asked him: "Suppose that a Danish citizen responded to one of your e-mails and wrote to you asking: ' If you Muslims greatly respect your prophet and if he is , as you claim, a man of such honour and importance and if his teachings, fourteen centuries ago, contain drastic solutions to all of your problems, then why are your communities stuffed with corruption, injustice, ignorance and disease? Why are we better than you in everything while we never claim that we follow the teachings of Prophet Jesus or the Holy Bible? ' How will you reply to such questions?!! "
My friend was silenced by confusion. He then gave me a stare as if he had seen Abdullah ibn Saba' (a famous hypocrite who lived at the time of the Prophet Muhammad) and walked away accusing me of sophistry, arousing doubts, passivity and other claims that I did not comprehend because I was searching for answers to my Danish questions that I wish that you , the reader, might help in finding as these are inevitable questions that we will definitely hear especially after the sounds of anger and rage have quietened and the sounds calling for a dialogue are coming form numerous directions after the battleground has been entered by many countries whom we ,unfortunately, fear to stand against. Maybe because if we simply boycott the American, Italian, French, German, Dutch and British products we will walk hungry and naked in the streets. And just as a reminder by the way, I would proudly support the calls for a boycott if they had emerged from a civilised perspective, as that of Gandhi's, that will make us self-dependant in everything from the food we eat to the clothes we wear. But i am not ready to participate in a deceptive campaign of hypocrisy where people are called onto boycott via mobile phones, personal computers and television screens; all of which we did not contribute in by a single screw or microchip.
I believe that this stream of thoughts has given you the opportunity to look for an answer to the supposed Danish question which if you are suddenly faced with will find noting but the impulsive reply : " We have reached this level of fragility, humiliation and disrespect because we ( and I have said it before and I will repeat it again and again) claim that we love the Prophet but it is a superficial love; a love that has never been manifested on our actions and manners. He asked us to learn but we have become ignorant. He told us to make achieving wisdom our utmost goal but we lost it. He told us to have mercy on one another but we damned one another and we divided ourselves into struggling sects; each hiding behind a saying attributed to the Prophet. He prevented us from injustice but we made it our mode of life. He ordered us to respect the elderly so we worshiped them. He ordered us to accept our daughters suitors by their good manners and piety but we did not accept them unless they were wealthy and famous even of they were ill-mannered and deviant. He denied Faith from the hearts of those who sleep satisfied while knowing that their neighbours are hungry, so we never asked about them. Millions are spent underneath belly-dancers, on gambling tables and in securing presidential processions while others choose to kill themselves than to face the demanding eyes of their children. The renown amongst us steals and he is left unharmed while when the needy steals, his pictures are published in the everywhere and he is insulted and hurt. We punish only those who rally against the ruler and call for making him accountable for his actions. We glorify ourselves amongst ourselves while we are midgets In the eyes of the world. We have become a burden on this planet and an experimental field for its superpowers. We have humiliated ourselves so others have humiliated us. we set plans for this Life and we forget the Hereafter. Our utmost hope is that the day passes with the least of losses and our greatest wish is that God protects us form the injustice of our rulers who have reached their near-divine position by imams who memorise the Prophetic traditions by heart; hiding what they want and revealing what their rulers prefer. The Prophet described them "as reading the Quran but does not pass their throats (to reach their hearts), they pass through religion as an emerging from an archer's (bow) ' "
The Danish citizen will listen to all of this with a cold Scandinavian interest and follow it with the question : "Then why don't you follow your Prophet's teachings then be angry for him?" It is there that, if you have a morsel of conscience, your only reaction will be a solemn apology to him, to all of Denmark, to all of Europe and to mankind as a whole because we asked them to respect a Prophet whom we never sought to inform the world about, whom our rage-provoking riot0incting governments did not spend a penny in spreading his message, kindness, just and mercy while spending millions over hypocritical operas that seek to glorify our minuscule rulers and leaders.
We have to apologise to the danish citizens because we treated them by the faults of a mere minority of them to the extent that our newspapers published, a few days ago, that 43 Danish passengers refused to leave the airport until they were heavily secured while we were supposed to follow our Prophet's tradition and welcome our guests to show them that Islam does not know collective guilt and that even if an ignorant person insulted our Prophet, that will neither harm nor affect his high status. If this insult would have happened at the time of the Prophet, he would have responded to it in the same manner he responded to the Bedouin who entered the mosque and urinated in it in the presence of the Prophet and his followers who before attacking the man where stopped by the Prophet himself who said : " Do not interrupt your brother's urination". The Prophet then went to the man and gently explained to him that this is a place of worship and he ordered for some water to be poured over the place. Such a civilised and humane response is the best example that teaches us hoe to react towards ignorance, insult and blasphemy and it is an example that is mentioned in the Quran : " Let not those grieve thee who rush headlong into Unbelief, not the least harm will they do to Allah..." Chapter 3 Verse 176
Shall we be brave enough to send this apology thus earning the respect of the world and to shift their attention towards our noble religion and noble Prophet? Shall we stand honestly in front of ourselves and feel ashamed of our rage in defending a Prophet whom we never sought to learn from and refuse that his name be used by by a corrupt ruler or a hypocrite or a bank thief or a biased imam? Shall we? I doubt but yet I wish that we do. I wish that we are up to the standard put by Chapter 5 Verse 67 : "O Apostle! proclaim the (Message) which hath been sent to thee from thy Lord. If thou didst not, thou wouldst not have fulfilled and proclaimed His Mission. And Allah will defend thee from men (who mean mischief). "
I bare witness that the Prophet Muhammad ( Peace And Blessings Be Upon Him ) has informed the Message and proclaimed God's Mission...but have we??
