knicq
Thursday, January 26, 2006
  Test - theirs and ours.
People have been saying, implicitly or explicitly, depending on who was saying it, that this earthquake was Allah’s wrath. Why are we so fatalistic, I wonder? I came across these ayahs in Surah Baqara recently, and I found an answer to all such deductions.
“155. Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere,
156. Who say, when afflicted with calamity: “To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return”:-
157. They are those on whom (Descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance. ”
Why do our people not understand that life in the world is not a fairy tale affair, where the princesses are pretty, princes handsome, and villians ugly. If it were that simple, everyone would be a believer, save the Abu Jahal’s of this world. No, faith is just that - faith, and it is tested by bounty as well as by tragedy, and it is not easy to fare well in these tests.
The earthquake that shattered much of Azad Kashmir, and parts of Frontier (Pakhtoonkhwa?) on the 8th of October is the biggest test we as a nation have had to face. It is a test of faith, and of character. It is a great test for those who have lost loved ones in an instant, and must now come to terms with injuries, hostile weather, hunger, disease, and uncertainty. “Sabr” according to the Quran is where they must find solace, in Sabr and in Salaat, in patience and in prayer. For in these times of suffering, in these times of weakness, shaitan will attack them from all sides, and create in their hearts doubts of all kinds, raise questions in their minds as to why did Allah choose them to be victims of this tragedy. He will remind them of their good deeds, and make them skeptic of their value and importance. He will ask them if those good deeds were all of any good at all? Through patient and perseverant belief in Allah’s mercy alone will the people be able to stand up to these devious attacks, and I know it is not going to be easy for them.
It is not easy to hold on to one’s sanity after a calamity of this scale, and under such circumstances, to hold on to one’s belief is all the more demanding, all the more daunting. It is much easier said than done, and I am aware of that. We, who start complaining at the slightest inconveniences that hinder our daily lives, can have no idea of how much faith, and how much strength of character this task requires. One can only pray that Allah’s unlimited mercy arrives for them from all sides, and brings them comfort, relief, and reassurance.
It is an equally great test for the rest of us, who have been spared the horrifics of the earthquake. While, those affected must delve deep into their hearts to find the belief and the strength to come to terms with the after math of the earthquake, we must realize that just as their response to this collossal test could bring them the rewards of heaven or more misery from hell, so will our response determine our place in this world and in the hereafter. As Muslims, and as fellow humans, it is binding on us to reach out to our brethren in need, to do all in our power, and more, to lessen the impact of this catastrophe on their lives. This entails not just opening our wallets and digging deep in our pockets to donate, but it calls for us to open our hearts and dig deep in our souls to sacrifice. Donations alone cannot and will not help 3 million people made destitute in a minute; no amount of money, not even the five billion dollars the authorities say are required to rebuild the devastated areas and their people’s lives, can heal the scars left by crashing ceilings and crushing losses.
The money is only one factor, just the begining, what is required are lasting love, timeless devotion, and above all sustained sacrifice. Because it will be love and devotion for our people which will enable us to empty our pockets for these people, but it will be the spirit of sacrifice that will keep us from putting this tragedy behind us in a few weeks, or months, and getting on with our lives. Today, we need to decide to sacrifice our relatively secure and carefree future for the betterment of our brethren affected by this earthquake. Today, we need to realize that our people will need our dedication and attention for a longtime, they will need our support until the time they are stable themselves.
We cannot absolve ourselves of all responsibility once we have made our donations. The money sent today will be spent tomorrow, and might not be there day after, but it will be required for months after that. What happens then? Today, we need to set aside a portion of our incomes for a long time to come for the victims of this earthquake. Today, we need to own up, and take responsibility for specific people, specific children, or families until they no longer need their brethren’s help. We are a nation of a 150 million people, which means there are a fifty people to take care of each person affected by this tragedy. Essentally, every person needs to take care of his designated person for one week every year. It is a simplistic calculation, but it should become the premise for a large scale initiative. Yes, any such initiative will need thinking out of the box, but we must realize that after 7.6 on the Richter scale there cannot be a box - all boxes get demolished in a 7.6!
A tragedy that eliminates all structures in a society, a calamity that wipes out an area’s civilization cannot just be grappled with by money. It requires a structured approach, and a sustained effort until new strcutures are developed.
So, let us take stock of our lives, do we have a week?

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9 Responses to 'Test - theirs and ours.'
1sh_gufOctober 23rd, 2005 at 6:38 am
…with all my little very little potential and energy (…I know that bhai), not a week but the whole stock of my life
2BaptizedLuciferOctober 25th, 2005 at 6:16 am
hate the mullahs especially since they are goin around saying all those ppl deserved to be punished. Great. now mullahs will play god and tlel us who is going ot hell and hw isnt. I rem reading a sahih bukhari hadith that the wrathe ofallah comes on all, even tho its meant for a few. And that each one ffected by it is judged accordingly when they are raised. So how come th emullas are deeming everyone a sinner? including innocent kids? None of em seem to be talkin about the test it is for all of us. The whole nation has united, magar in mullahs ko hain nahin, its a perfect chance for them to market themselves again. retards! :S
3BaptizedLuciferOctober 25th, 2005 at 6:17 am
im tired of collecting relief. ineed away from it for a while. before i go insane thinking of all those going insane over there.
4FelicityOctober 25th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
And someone should ask those mullahs if the Pakistani’s were greater sinners than the ido-worshipping hindu’s across the border. I thought God could forgive anything and everything except shirk. Not so, apparently, if you go by the mullahs.
This is just thier chance to revive the religious fanaticism that Musharraf has been attempting to put an end to. But it’s not as if their goals are noble and they really wish to see people follow the golden path of Islam… this is just their chance to rile the people against Musharraf’s governement and regain power. This is political propaganda more than it is a religious call. Had they an ounce of purity in thier cause,God would have helped them make something of it by now.
5SaeedOctober 25th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
if u were to believe my flatmate(who’s from isb,btw), d quakes were a result of subterranean nuclear tests.So were the tsunamis (US behind those,obviously),as for the quake in india in bhuj,last time’round, well those can be credited to pak!!!Oh, he even mentioned the illuminati somewhere in there…
6BaptizedLuciferOctober 25th, 2005 at 8:19 pm
saeed, u have some interesting company lol
7knicqOctober 26th, 2005 at 9:44 am
Sh-guf: Your spirit is uplifting…hope most of our country men feel that way…and you should under estimate the potential and energy a scholar like you possesses.
B.Lucifer, (as in Lucifer Baji )It isn’t just the Mullahs who are going around saying that kind of thing. It is most people who look at it that way. How are you channelizing the relief you collect. Perhaps, we can combine your efforts with another team that I know is working on it.
Felicity: Coming from that part of the land, I must point out that shirk is a way of life in these parts, actually it is so in the whole country. Idol-worshipping is not the only kind of shirk.
Shirk and bid’at characterize the Islam of Pakistan, what else is all that thronging to mazaars, dargaahs and peer dhakoslas. This is not to say however that I believe this earthquake was the wrath of Allah, and not an aazmaish/test. But, come to think of it, who can know? Maybe it is somewhere between the two…a warning of sorts for the rest, and an azaab for some and an aazmaish for others. Allah works in mysterious ways…
I do realize that I seem to be contradicting my own thoughts in the post, but after the sort of disturbing reports that have started trickling in along with those uplifting stories, one just never knows.
As for Musharraf, while it is a given that those fanatics and extremists were the bane of our society, and needed to be weeded out before they destroyed the whole nation, let us be under no illusions that the methods Musharraf had resorted to were anything but counter-productive.
Moreover, by presenting a westernized Islam, and egging on a westernized culture not in line with our own cultural, and religious values he has himself underlined what the ignorant Mullahs had been trying to say unsuccesfully all along- that the mullahs way is the only alternative, the real Islam, to the onslaught of the west. He started out well, and lost direction along the way.
As an average Muslim Pakistani, I am left as frustrated as before at the wrong depiction and promotion of Islam.
Musharraf has just taken us from one extreme to the other extreme, paving the way for the first extreme to return with a vangeance. Before long, a Khomeini will rise, and the people of Pakistan disgusted with the westernized and watered down Islam Musharraf and his cronies have been propogating will carry him to the “throne” on their shoulders - only to suffer under him until they carry the next Musharraf to the throne. It is a vicious cycle.
People need to understand that Pakistanis are a people who define themselves as Muslims, and because of the regional as well as religious influences will always be a conservative lot, which is to be differentiated greatly from an intolerant, oppressive and extremist lot. Their way of life aligns greatly with Islam in its true form, but varies infinitely from the extremist or the “moderated” Islam the Mullahs and Musharraf respectively are trying to force down their throats. The one thing that needs to be got across to our people, the one thing they actually need to be educated about is avoiding shirk. Nobody seems to be doing that.
I digress, out of habit. Its just that the Mullahs and Musharraf are the two faces of the same coin - the khota coin. The ounce of purity is missing in either agenda.
Saeed: I’d like to hear what your friend has to say about the hurricanes….what are the chances of him attributing it all to the construction of those Palm Projects off the coast of Dubai?
8FelicityOctober 26th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
You’re right about the shirk, and also that we really don’t know if this really was or wasn’t God’s retribution.
However, I don’t think you can ultimately blame the president for forcing the Pakistani public down a more westernized road. Pre-Musharaf Pakistan was already walking that route. We would be where we are today culturally, Musharraf or no Musharraf. It’s just easier to point a finger and put the blame on someone. It provides for a more convenient solution: get rid of the guy to get rid of the problem. It’s what we’ve been doing all along, blaming a person. We don’t realize that it’s not one person changing our culture. It’s all of us.
Back during the Zia-ul-Haq days when the Hadood Ordinance was introduced and when, essentially, these Mullah’s really gained power, assisted of course by the US-cause west of our border; it wasn’t as if things were really in control. We had a government advocating a very conservative Islam, but that didn’t keep our youth from still being fascinated with the west, or at the very least, the Indian culture, the movies etc, long before cable or ssatellite television was around. Where we are now culturally is where we would have been regardless of what government propogated what kind of religion. The allure of the open, less conservative western ideology is far too great. Protectionism wouldn’t have held us back. It DIDN’T hold us back. The only thing that could keep us rooted would be good parenting, good schooling, where we would learn of the virtues of what we believe in and then make that conscious choice to follow along that path.
My point is, lets not blame the mullahs or the Musharrafs for who we are. We are a nation of fingerpointers. We love blaming somone else for our misfortunes. In fact even reading through what I have said, given nothing else, I put the blame on parents for not doing a good enough job. We talk about our culture as if we’re the exceptions to the rule, as if we aren’t a part of it. We forget that we have our own job to do. We need to do our own soul searching and go beyond making heartfelt statements and having intellectual discussions. We need to act. We need to change ourselves and become better human beings, become more God-fearing. That’s the biggest charity we can give the world right now, by starting with ourselves and our own children and giving the world and our country better citizens.
This is the test. It’s a test of our spirituality, our intellect, our hearts and our ideologies. This isn’t just about how we can materially help others. This about how we can help ourselves.
Ignorance is not stupidity. Knowing what is right and still doing the wrong thing is. By that definition, we’re a nation of idiots, and if this earthquake doesn’t slap us into our senses, nothing will.
9knicqOctober 27th, 2005 at 3:08 am
You are so right Felicity, as always.
However, I would like to add that the leaders of a nation have a bearing on where the nation heads, politically, as well as culturally, and a responsibility to ensure that the nation heads in the right direction. You will note I often club Musharraf with his cronies. The captain must stay the boat, and where the boat heads eventually, does bear on his captainship.
Zia’s regime turned a blind eye to the monster of extremism, and look where it got us. Musharraf’s regime, by endorsing the handful who stray miles from the path of Islam in their pursuit of westernized way of life, is allowing the other extremism to take root.
Zia and subsequently Nawaz Sharrif’s era had their fair share of modernists, as you rightly pointed out. It is the nature of a people - they will resent, denounce and when opportunity presents itself go against what is forced down their throats.
Taking what you pointed out further, I would say that protectionism, of either kind, can never be the answer. “Amr bil maroof wa nahi anil munkar” is the answer.
At the end of the day, people should be provided with positive atmosphere conducive to making the right choice. None of our Governments has ever made that provision.
Here is hoping and praying that we all do change ourselves, do become more God-fearing, and give the world the biggest charity we can give. Here is praying that we be rid of our idiocy. Ameen.
 




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