Balancing Rights and Duties

 

Man is a social being. Just living requires the recognition of the duties we owe to others, just as we seek to exercise our own individual and other social rights in the community. Islam provides a range of teachings that address the fine balance of rights and duties to be achieved in society as well as in family; in our relations with parents, spouse/s, children, other members of the clan. In this series of special discourses, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius comprehensively explains the vital considerations of justice, compassion and benevolence the Holy Prophet of Islam (sa) took into account while giving shape to the interpretation of rights and duties in social contexts. Read the Part 4 of this series, Friday Sermon of 02 September 2022 ~04 Safar 1444 AH below:  

Fulfilling the Rights of Fellow Muslims 

 

Alhamdulillah, Summa Alhamdulillah, I continue today the subject of my sermon on the rights of our fellow Muslims, especially the rights of the parents, and to what limit should they be obeyed, and the rights of one’s own child and spouse in respect of obedience to parents.

Civility in Religious Debates

Be it writing on social media, or appearing on television channels on public debates; the persons exercising their free speech rights have a duty to observe civility and courtesy, and not to fan hatred between different classes of people, nor spread bigotry among religious communities, especially so when they are leading politicians and spokespersons of a party ruling a country. When political elites fail to observe restraint and cross the red-lines in public discourse on people’s beliefs, or faith-related controversies; it invariably generates public resistance and political backlash, muddying the social relations- nationally and internationally.

Recently, two leaders of the ruling BJP in India, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, indulged in wanton anti-Muslim tirade, in public television and on social media. In their visceral hatred of the Muslim community in the country, these ruling politicians went to the extreme extend of attacking and vilifying the religion of Islam, and insulting the sacred memory of the Holy Prophet (sa) and his family. Making hurtful comments about the Holy Prophet’s life with his young wife Hazrat Ayesha (ra), these thugs from the majority community in the land sought to humiliate the minority community by insulting their religious beliefs. With the Muslims in India holding angry public demonstrations against the culprits, and many Muslim majority-nations in unison calling out the Islamophobia on full display in India, the episode involving the gross misconduct of its spokespersons embarrassed not only the governing party but also caused deep humiliation for the country’s image and standing internationally. [Inset: People hold posters during a protest demanding the arrest of suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokeswoman Nupur Sharma and expelled BJP leader Naveen Jindal. Credit: Reuters photo/ Deccan Herald/ PTI, June 10, 2022]. 

Despair and Spiritual Hope

The dismal state of contemporary politics 

When it comes to politics, many people are nowadays apprehensive of the future of their very own land as well as that of their generations and the general population of their country. What we see nowadays is that human rights are being forsaken for money politics and the power of the fittest, especially in the corrupted realm.

This is indeed a very delicate topic to develop [like in my Friday Sermons], yet very important, as politics, true unadulterated politics is really important for the good day-to-day running of our society, countrywide as well as worldwide.

Even if good people, with good and clear conscience strive to uproot the bad weeds in society and seek to transform the political world and make it a better place for the good management of the country, but unfortunately they are met with many obstacles in their way. One of these obstacles is money, the power of money, its power to buy the conscience of people and to put aside honesty and morality, and to dance to the tunes of the corrupted. Alas, our society today, in its global view is deteriorating day by day, and the evils of society are becoming rampant to such an extent that law and order also, in many countries of the world are getting corrupted and unable to function properly to defend the best interest of the nation and the world. The people of the world are suffering due to this mismanagement of their individual societies, which in turn have a bad repercussion on the global society.

Muhammad as the ultimately True & Perfect Political Figure

By the grace of God Almighty [Allah], Islam has the necessary measures to transform a society and make it function properly, and all credit goes to Allah Almighty through His commandments through the ages, and which have been perfected in the glorious and perfect book, the Holy Quran, and put into practice by none other than the best and seal of all prophets, Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh).

Satanic Impulses in Our 'Celebrations'

Last Friday Sermon of the Year 2016

Today, for the last Friday Sermon of the year 2016, like usual, it is my duty to make people, especially the Muslims, become conscious of the excesses and innovations which breezes through their lives, and thus making them imitate the non-Muslims and participate in unislamic practices.

For New Year festivities, there is a fashion trending to organise all sorts of programmes in hotels and other places which have been transformed for the occasion. These End of Year programmes, including those broadcasted on TV, attract a lot of people. On TV, there are lots of channels which advertise to attract subscriptions, offering deals so that you may opt to subscribe with them during the last month of the year as well as the first month of the New Year. TV Channels also propose all kinds of activities like theatre, discotheques, singing and dancing competitions in several languages with attractive prizes. Many people come forward to participate. Moreover, there are all sorts of games of chance. It is a shame to see that so-called Islamic concerts are organised and for the End of Year and New Year posters are put everywhere for premieres of new films in cinema halls. People do not hesitate to lose time in long queues in order to buy those tickets for them as well as their spouses and children.

Twisted Thinking  among the Muslims

It is most unfortunate that many women are interested in all these distractions, especially Muslim women and girls, who have been barred from Friday Sermons and congregational prayers in the mosques, as well as Eid prayers after a month of fasting and as well as those of the Eid of Sacrifice (Eid-ul-Fitr & Eid-ul-Adha). They are denied the right to listen to sermons which are very important for a believer, male and female. Today's so-called Mullahs see all these as haraam (illicit) for the women and girls, and they have closed the door leading to Allah for them, and now those Muslim women and girls are holding fast to the door leading to Satan, whereby Satan makes everything seem beautiful for them so as to separate them from Allah and His Messenger (pbuh). So, according to these Mullahs, the door of the mosques are haraam (illicit) for the ladies, but now are all these satanic attractions which they have hold fast to halaal (licit) for them? Where will that door lead them? To Paradise or Hell?

Coercion- Against the spirit of Islam

A common misconception that has resurfaced recently and this time in a magnified, out-of-proportion blow is that the instrument for the spread of Islam was force. This is indeed an age-old allegation, the root of which kept on growing with hatred against Islam, to stop the progress of truth, peace and harmony.

Islam never advocated compulsion. If the Holy Quran, the books of Hadith and historical records are carefully examined, studied and listened to attentively, as far as possible, one is bound to reach one positive conclusion. That conclusion is that the allegation that Islam permitted the use of sword - or any other armament for that matter - for the spread of religion is shameless and utterly unfounded. This, in fact, is the view held by only those who have not studied the Holy Quran or the Traditions or other reliable sources of Islamic history without prejudice. 

Some have even gone to the extent of fabricating lies and levying unfounded charges upon Islam without inhibition. I know that the time is approaching fast when those who are hungry and thirsty for Truth will see through their deception. 

Can a religion be described as a religion of compulsion when its Holy Book, the Quran, has categorically prohibited the use of force for the spread of faith? So says the Holy Quran: There is NO COMPULSION in religion. (2: 257).

Can we accuse that great prophet of using force against others, who for thirteen years, day and night, exhorted all his companions in Mecca not to return evil for evil but to forbear and forgive. When, however, the mischief of the enemy exceeded all limits and when the various peoples around him made determined efforts to exterminate Islam, God’s attribute that He always defends His beloved one so demanded, “Let those who raised the sword perish by the sword.”

Respect Women and Their Rights

By the grace of Allah, I thus continue my Friday Sermon on the status of the Womenfolk in Islam.

(3) A Mother's Dignity

As mothers, the status of women has been raised by Islam to such an extent that nothing higher is conceivable. As the last law-bearing religion, Islam has provided for the every right and need of the female human species, and perfected them so that these teachings represent the best of teachings for generations up till the Day of Judgement. 

The Holy Quran says:  "Your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him, and that you be kind to (your) parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in your life, do not say to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: “My Lord! Bestow on them Your Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood.” (17: 24-25)

It is reported by Hazrat Abu Huraira (ra) that when the Holy Prophet (pbuh) was questioned by a disciple as to who after God and His Messenger (pbuh) deserve his fine treatment, the Prophet said: “Your mother.” 

He then asked, “Who next?” The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) replied: “Your mother.” 

He asked again: “Who next?” He (pbuh) said again, “Your mother.” The man put the question for the fourth time and it was only then that the Holy Prophet (pbuh) said: “Your father.” (Bukhari)

This Hadith shows the paramount importance which the mother enjoys in the eyes of Allah and in the life of his children and family. She is deserving of much more respect and care, three times more than the father.

Terrorists, Islamophobes and Our Faith

CURBING VIOLENCE & RETURNING TO ISLAM

No one can deny the fact that terrorism, barbarism and violence are among the “malaise” from which the Islamic world is suffering in today’s fast growing global world. The rush and invested energy to seek and work for material progress has on the other hand brought about the moral and spiritual decline of human beings, including Muslims. They find their spiritual foundations shaken and to further complicate the situation, it is not a secret to anyone that a few Muslim countries have become the greatest producers of drugs and other intoxicants which are exported to African and Asian countries where there exist a majority of Muslim countries, and this despite the fact that Islam condemns the consumption and sales of intoxicants.

Modern psychologists and specialist doctors in the field had discovered that an excess of drugs and other intoxicants lead to terrorism and violence in the various forms they exist. Under these circumstances, the American and European mass-media have caught the golden chance to present the Muslims as a band of terrorists in the late 20^th Century for the simple reason of frightening the non-Muslim world and to tarnish the image of Islam. And, during the 1990s, the mass media embarked on an aggressive campaign to accuse the Muslims as barbaric people who are still living in the pre-Islamic age and given to debaucheries by frequently using the connotation “Jihad” in their own distorted comprehension. This campaign of theirs have gained all the more weight at the turn of this new era (the 21^st Century) when a so-called or well-planned venture to depict Muslims as terrorists was put into execution with the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (the World Trade Centre and Pentagon Attacks).

Islam's Legacy: Non-violence

The greatest Muslim and non-Muslim historians can bear testimony to the fact that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has never, on any single occasion during his prophetic mission in Mecca or Medina used violence to counteract his enemies’ persecutions, but it can be safely said, without exaggeration, that he was the first leader to have taught “non-violence”. However, today “non-violence” is associated with Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela when people at large tend to forget the teachings of Islam which are universal. It is equally true to mention that with the present situation, almost all religions in this modern age are in a state of crisis; but Islam being a complete code of life does not lack solutions to the problems of violence affecting society. 

'No' to Aggression; Only self-Defence'

Islam on Slavery and Prisoners of War

Prophets and other messengers of God come to liberate humans from their chains. Divine teachings, in their pristine essence, are designed to emancipate them from their slavish bondages.

Compared to all other religions of the past, Islam provides far more evolved teachings that are mindful of the predicament of slaves. Its teachings are designed to abolish and root out this abominable practice through radical transformation of the social order, even as it provides teachings for fair treatment of all, including in times of war to the Prisoners of War. Islam permits defensive war against the enemies of the State when it is faced with aggression by other nations and peoples. In the course of such inter-State conflicts, Muslims can capture and retain prisoners of War till the end of hostilities and thereafter, release them as a grace or for ransom.

In the history of the world, rise and fall of nations is a reality. Likewise, profound teachings get blurred in the distance of time. People forget the true traditions and invent new customs of religions, and thereby alter and reshape original teachings. Hence, though Prophets in the past never took slaves, their followers have abused that legacy of freedom and fairness.  Hence, slavery had been perpetrated also by the so called men of religion. Despite Islam’s clearest exposition on the dignity and equality and equal rights of all human beings, like Jews and Christians and the Hindus among them in society, even Muslims cannot fully absolve themselves from the stigma of practicing slavery. 

In a religious and international context, where the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) practices slavery against its enemies in the name of Islam, and also many other world nations permitting working/labour/social/political conditions amounting to modern forms slavery that infringes upon elementary considerations of humanity, the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Saheb (atba) of Mauritius warns the world community on the need for returning to the just teachings of Islam that seek to abolish slavery and ensure fair treatment of all, including even to prisoners of war in times of hostilities.  

Reproduced below are extracts from the Friday Sermon of 05 February 2016 ~(25 Rabi’ul Aakhir 1437 Hijri):