In order to see why serving Islam and the dissemination of Islamic values among people is a matter of such urgency, it will be sufficient to spend a few minutes thinking about the Muslims of the world.
When we look at the peoples of the world and the Muslims living all over it, the importance of Muslims' living by these moral values to the utmost of their abilities can clearly be seen. Just about every day, in newspapers and on the television, we witness the chaos caused by the failure to live by the moral values of the Qur'an, and see the lives of people who face almost unbearable difficulties on account of the cruelties inflicted on them. From Palestine, Indonesia, East Turkestan, Chechnya or anywhere else in the world, images of people made homeless for a tiny plot of land and beaten before the eyes of their children, and of children seeking to defend themselves with stones in their hands, are familiar to us all.
Wars and civil conflict are still going on all over the world. In these, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Algeria, Tunisia, Eritrea, Egypt, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Ruanda, East Turkestan, Chechnya, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar or Sudan, hundreds of thousands of unarmed people have lost their lives, women have been raped or tortured. Millions have been forced from their homes, crippled or lost their loved ones. Innocent children have been shot, babies slaughtered in their cradles and people crippled by landmines as they sought to flee. People have been subjected to a never-before-seen savagery, oppressed, and forced to struggle to stay alive in inhuman slave camps. Such oppression is still going on in many parts of the world. Women and children are still being oppressed and brutalized. Muslim territories are one by one losing their independence, and Muslims are waiting for help from people of good conscience, but are unable to make their own voices heard. The importance of this matter becomes clearer when one has a brief look at just some of the few things going on in countries where Muslims are oppressed.
People and innocent babies oppressed and tortured to death, people unable to afford even a crust of bread, people sleeping in canvass tents in freezing temperatures, people unable to afford medical treatment or forced to wait for hours or even days in hospital queues despite being old and weak, people slaughtered for being members of a particular ethnic group or tribe, women, children and old people thrown out of their homes and lands because of their religion, unbelievable waste on the one hand and people dying from hunger and neglect on the other, tiny, defenseless children, too young to take care of themselves, thrown onto the streets, children unable to play or go to school but who have to work or beg in order to keep their families, people constantly living with the fear of being killed by their enemies…
Everybody is aware of the existence of such people. One can see images of such unfortunates every day in newspapers and on the television. Many of us see the difficulties these people face and sympathize with them. Yet when the subject changes or we switch channels or turn over the page of the paper we are reading, we forget about such people's existence. Most people do not think that an effort has to be made to free these people from their predicaments. They put the responsibility onto other shoulders by saying "It is not up to me to save those people when there are so many more rich and powerful people in the world."
The fact is, however, that wealth and power alone are not enough to make the world a place of well-being in which everyone can live together in justice, peace, security and plenty. Although there are a great many wealthy and developed countries, people are still starving in Ethiopia for instance. The fact that people still have nothing to eat despite the existence of so many advanced technologies and rich worldwide resources is one of the clearest indications that wealth and power are not sufficient on their own.
In order for wealth and power to be used for the benefit of these needy people, others must first be people of good conscience. The only way of doing that is having faith. Only people of faith constantly employ their consciences when acting.
In conclusion, there is only one solution to the injustice, chaos, terror, slaughter, starvation, poverty and oppression in the world: The Moral Values of the Qur'an.
Looking in general terms at the problems facing the world, it can be seen that they all stem from lack of reason, and such emotions as hatred, enmity, self-interest, selfishness, apathy and lack of compassion. The only way of resolving these is by means of love, affection, compassion, sympathy, the desire to serve others for no reward, sensitivity, devotion, friendship, tolerance, common sense and reason. Such characteristics are only to be found in people who live totally in accordance with the moral values of the Qur'an. In His verses, Allah reveals how the Qur'an leads people out of the darkness and into the light:
... A Light has come to you from Allah and a Clear Book. By it, Allah guides those who follow what pleases Him to the ways of Peace. He will bring them from the darkness to the light by His permission, and guide them to a straight path. (Qur'an, 5: 15-16)
In another verse Allah reveals that everything on Earth will collapse when people fail to live by the Qur'an:
If the truth were to follow their whims and desires, the heavens and the earth and everyone in them would have been brought to ruin. No indeed! We have given them their Reminder, but they have turned away from it. (Qur'an, 23: 71)
At this very moment, even as you read these words, millions of people are either being oppressed or trying to stay alive in the face of cold or hunger. Or they may be being torn away from their homes, families and children and exiled from their lands. People of good conscience must therefore consider these things and behave as sensitively as if all this suffering, these tragedies and difficulties, affected them and their own loved ones. They must look for ways of being of material and psychological assistance to those seeking help. People who believe in Allah, who possess conscience and common sense, are commanded to assume this responsibility in a verse of the Qur'an:
What reason could you have for not fighting in the Way of Allah-for those men, women and children who are oppressed and say, "Our Lord, take us out of this city whose inhabitants are wrongdoers! Give us a protector from You! Give us a helper from You!"? (Qur'an, 4: 75)
The question of how this service is to be given is made clear by considering the verses of the Qur'an. In order for the moral values of the Qur'an to overcome irreligion, the most important thing that needs to be done is for Muslims to wage a struggle on the intellectual level. The purpose behind our building this website is to guide Muslims towards doing this. That is because the only salvation for the needy, the hopeless, the abandoned and the defenseless is for the moral values of the Qur'an to be disseminated and adopted all over the world. Describing the moral values of the Qur'an and communicating the message of the religion is a most important and urgent responsibility of every Muslim.
Those who fail to listen to their consciences, who are insensitive towards and uncaring of orphans, the poor and the innocent, those who spend the blessings given to them in the life of this world on empty things, those who are unmoved by the oppression of women, children and the elderly, who tolerate the spread of all forms of immorality and wickedness and who encourage that perspective in others, will all be held to account in the hereafter:
Have you seen him who denies the religion? He is the one who harshly rebuffs the orphan and does not urge the feeding of the poor. So woe to those who perform prayer, and are forgetful of their prayer, those who show off and deny help to others. (Qur'an, 107: 1-7)
No comments:
Post a Comment