MUSLIMS & THE STRAIGHT PATH: Part - 1-0 - Islam Derailed

Muslims & The Straight Path  [Published 2010]

Part - 1-O

ISLAM DERAILED

When Prophet Mohammad came to Yathrib (later renamed Medina) in A.D. 622, there were two Arab tribes of Aus and Khazraj, and three Jewish tribes of Qaynuqa’a, Nadhir and Qurayza, living in that city.

The two Arab tribes accepted Islam, and they became the proud hosts and supporters (Ansar) of the Prophet and the Immigrants (Muhajireen). To the Jews, however, the ideology of Islam was not acceptable. But no pressure, direct or indirect, was applied on them to accept it. Mohammad granted them the famous “Charter of Medina”. This Charter guaranteed their civil and religious rights, and recognized their right to live – with other Muslims – as members of autonomous tribes.

In return, the Jews acknowledged Prophet Mohammad as the political sovereign of Medina, and they agreed to defend the city with the Muslims in the event of an invasion by an external enemy. They also agreed not to give aid, moral and/or material, to the enemies of Islam, especially to the Quraysh – the idolators of Makkah.

During the Umayyad period (that commenced about 30 years after the Prophet), no heed was paid to the Prophet’s dictat: live and let live. Various writers were hired to write books of traditions that suited the Umayyads. Court ulemas interpreted the religion to their advantage. Lot many colleagues of the Prophet, who resented the changes were hacked to death. In particular, the well-wishers and friends of Ali and his son, Hasan, were killed relentlessly. Wars were waged and territories annexed merely for the booty that it would bring. Pomp and show and a life of grandeur became inevitable consequence of the hordes of wealth which arrived on camel back from one battle front or other.

Soon it was forgotten that Mohammad spent all his life in a small house, with no comforts. He ate and wore simple. Ali, even when he was the Caliph of Islam, is known to eat bread that was so hard that others refrained from taking a share in it. He also wore garments with patches and at times sewed his footwear himself. 

During Ali’s Caliphate, when Salman – the Persian – was appointed the Governor of Madaen, he not only discarded all the pomp and pageantry which had accompanied his predecessors, but built a frail ‘frame house’ of thatch with his own hands, which was to be his home, court and guest-house for as long as he was going to be the governor of Madaen. He tried hard to change the character of the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. Not his subjects, but it was he who showed eagerness to ingratiate himself with them, especially, with those who were the chronically ‘under-privileged’ among them. He tried to evolve a system where the weak, the humble, and the oppressed would have absolutely no fear of the governmental apparatus, and that they would have absolutely no hesitation in coming to see him, addressing him as an equal, and demanding redress of their grievances. He also wished to put an end to ‘private imperialism’ by extirpating the ‘sharks’ that lived by preying upon simple and gullible people. He turned his hands, his head and his heart to anything that promised to yield safety, comfort, hope, cheer and security to them.

One of the aims of Salman as governor of Madaen was to insinuate the egalitarian mechanism of Islam into every detail of the life of the Muslims. Any distinction, among them, on grounds of economic and/or social privilege, smacked to him of treason to Islam.

Salman also considered it his duty, as governor, to be as close to the poor, the weak and the humble, in terms of shared values and heritage, as possible. He was, in fact, most anxious to convince them that they were far more important than he – Salman, the governor of Madaen – was! He firmly believed that his pleasure was not important for them but that their pleasure was absolutely indispensable for his own salvation on the day of the final reckoning when he would be standing in the Tribunal of the Creator.

This was baseline knowledge for Salman, the governor of Madaen. This knowledge owed its base in the teachings of Prophet Mohammad. Have you seen Muslims talking of Salman or giving examples from his life? If no, try to find ‘why’? And we find the Muslims boasting of the Umayyad rule and even the learned from amongst them still continue to praise unarguably the worst of Umayyad rulers. Why?

All such acts of piety and austerity were to change for the worse during Umayyad rule. Islam, which in the strict sense means “Surrender to God” and a Muslim is “one who has surrendered” was misinterpreted to the levels where the only thing that the Muslims cherished was the people of other territories surrendering to them. Since the booty was coming in hordes and thus benefiting all the people who mattered, there were only few voices of dissent. Those who resented this escape from the Prophet’s way of life were silenced, through the mode found most suitable. Had it not been for Karbala and the bold martyrdom of Husain (Prophet’s grandson, also Ali’s son and Hasan’s younger brother) and his companions, it would have become impossible for even the latter age Muslims to find the real face of Islam. It was only because of this martyrdom that the Muslims got to realize that the Islam being propagated by Muawiya and later by his son, Yazid, was far different from the Islam of Prophet Mohammad that Husain and his companions adhered to. Karbala saw even children as young as 6-month old martyred at the hands of the army sent by Yazid. The fact that Prophet Mohammad’s beloved grandson, who was referred to as the leader of the youths in heaven by none else but Prophet himself, was killed so ruthlessly within 50 years of Prophet’s death, speaks of the changes that occurred during this half century and how the lofty teachings of Islam were hijacked in such a short period.

The great revolution in minds that Prophet Mohammad had brought can be understood from the fact that despite such adverse circumstances, its after-effects kept resonating for a while and established Arabs’ undisputed supremacy and leadership in knowledge of various sciences for about 200 years or so. Stagnation and reverse movement had already begun by the time the Arabs were acknowledged by the world as excellent in various realms of knowledge.

Attempt by Muawiya to control what was to be written in history books, what was to be addressed in Friday sermons at more than 70,000 pulpits all across the Muslim world and what shall be the face of Islam in future, jeopardized the progress of Islam despite the fact that the new frontiers being created were farther and farther from the Muslim capital. Eventually, while the Muslim dominion continued to spread in all four directions, Islam got paralyzed. The Abbasids who replaced the Umayyads proved to be even greater conquerors but worst followers of the tenets of Islam. Muslims, who would have reached faster into the jet age, had they adhered to the true spiritual and social teachings of Islam, were led back into camel age, by none else but those calling themselves as Muslims.

Most unfortunately, the world got to know of Islam during this period when the conquering armies of Muslims marched past their lands. If they built a ferocious image of Islam with sword in one hand, they are not to be blamed!