In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the
Merciful
MY VISIT TO
Alhamdulillah, my trip to
A friend of Br Ata, Br Ozair,
a very interesting character not to be forgotten ever, came in the
early hours of the morning, picked me up and my respected uncle Br Alavi to visit the grave of Hazrat
Abu Ayub Ansari (RA). He
led morning prayers in a mosque of that area and I really enjoyed his Tarteel. As the grave of Abu Ayub
Ansari (RA) was surrounded by hundreds of “Zaireen” in the morning hours, he took us first to the
graves of Abu Darda, Waqas, Abu Saeed Khudri and many more Sahabah who are resting eternally
in Istanbul [May Allah be pleased with each of them] Later on,
we visited the grave of Abu Ayub Ansari
(RA). It looked like the “Darghah”
of Dataganj Bakhsh
of
A friend of my ICNA’s
Rafiqu Mohtram Aminuddin
Hussaini, Br Mohammad Khan Kayani
was also known to Br Ata. He contacted Br Khan and he came to see
me in the Hotel Erguvan in the evening. He is a
Pakistani, married and settled in
We were staying in Erguvan
Hotel in
While talking a lot with Br Ata, living in
1. Islam is not a religion as
Judaism and Christianity are but it is a Deen. As such, it covers the
entire spectrum of human life, both in individual and collective
spheres, from birth to death and from cradle to grave, but, unfortunately,
we by our own action have limited its sphere to Salah, Sawm,
Zakah and Hajj and a few rituals and feel that we are Muslims, obedient to
Allah alone. It would be not correct. We have transformed our Deen into a
religion and the western powers are conspiring to keep us restricted to this
truncated concept of Deen by every possible means at their command
and our secular minded Muslim brothers and sisters, every where in the Muslim
and non-Muslim world, are running after it blindly. This is a great
tragedy and
2. Our Deen is based on a definite Aqeedah:
Tawheed, Prophethood, Amana and Accountability in Akhirah. The stronger the
Aqeedah, the stronger will be our Iman, the
character and its trustworthiness. The Aqeedah has transformed
our Deen into a Movement. When a Muslim considers about his/her Iman in
Allah (SWT) and struggles for what He demands from him/her,. he/she cannot feel rested till the entire humanity
becomes obedient to his/her Creator and Sustainer or he/she gives up his/her
life in that pursuit. The Aqeedah keeps a Muslim agitated
for the whole of his/her life and he/she moves around in search of like
minded brothers and sisters to establish the authority of Allah on earth in an
organized and collective format.
Thus, Islam is a Deen and a Movement and not a religion as Ummah
is practicing today.
3. Allah (SWT) has not only sent the
Guidance but appointed His Messenger to present the Scripture, the
Qur’an, to his people, explain its complexities and delicacies and produce
himself as its most perfect model for his fellow companions and the
followers afterwards. Prophet Muhammad (S) presented a practical
model of the Qur'an in his life pattern till eternity for Ummah to
follow. Now the “Falah” of this Ummah lies in
following the way he (S) struggled for Allah's Deen to establish His
authority on earth as Qur'an ordains: “Rise and warn: And glorify thy
Lord" [Al-Muddassir]
Our salvation lies in understanding Islam
as the only way or the system of life that Allah had revealed through Prophet
Muhammad (S) and how he (S) established Allah’s Deen in this world as a
political entity. Muslims have no choice but to follow it meticulously if they
are to regain their past glory in this world again.
In response to a
question that we all are Muslim and follow the Deen of Allah in the same way as
I have elaborated. I told the brother that had he or the Ummah been following it on
the lines envisaged above, none but only Muslims would have been dominating the
world. Then not "you" but EU would
have implored at your doors to accept them as the integral part
of your would-be Islamic society. Whereas the position is
reverse. It means your claim of following Islam in its totality is not correct.
Something somewhere is wrong. We will have to do our home work first afresh and
then see how the world behaves.
[Note:
The words as presented here might not be the same but the concept and contents
were the same as elaborated above. I presented
this theme extempore even without notes]
Later on, a lot of questions were put to me
about Dawah in American perspective. I explained them the activities of ICNA,
ISNA, CAIR, MPA, different Imams and Dawah in Jails but with the addition
that all is going on in a very “unsatisfactory” way. There is a great need that
Ummah must be united to work individually at their different places at “national”
level and collectively as a whole body on global level towards the
resurrection of its fate. Working together for a decade or so some light of
hope will, Insha Allah, be visible at the end of the tunnel.
This is all that I have seen and envisioned
during this short trip of about four days to a Muslim land of about 70 million
people. It is still full of promises and has a great future to play at both the
places: as the member of EU, if it maintains the character of a Muslim, meets
the urges of Iman and is not “lost” in the hub of European
secular-liberal culture at London, Paris, Bonn and Brussels or remains as a
free society of Muslim Ummah with eloquent past, provided it gets out of the
“treacherous” influence of International Zionism, Anglo-American hegemonies and
gets rid of the frequent interference of its arrogant-secular-military
dictatorship that “wrongfully” claims to be the guardian of Turkey.
May Allah open our hearts and minds to
understand the gravity and urgency of the situation and give courage
and Tawfeeq to all of us to play our respective part both
individually and collectively in reconstructing the fate of the Ummah to new
heights of fame and respect in the community of nations in order to get the
pleasure of Allah ultimately in this world and in the life Hereafter.
Shamim
Siddiqi
March 28, 2006