A R C H I V E S
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| From the hub of my Qalb |
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| jaihoon |
| 06/02/02 at 04:58:14 |
| [in reference to the thread- What is Quran... posted at http://www.jannah.org/cgi-bin/madina/YaBB.pl?board=library;action=display;num=1022476247;start=0 ] -------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes it takes some storm to bring calm. Sometimes a little pain to bring little gain. The massacres at Jenin and the violence around the Church of Nativity has awakened, at least, the community from the pillow-laden lifestyle. Thank God. At least a portion of them has given up the colonial sleeping pills dumped into their stomach and heart from the West. The Arab world is on a threshold of change. New ideas and new actions are taking place. Governments have become more people involved. Intellectuals and governments are joining hands. Countries like Bahrain are experimenting with democracy, but ensuring that it doesn’t make people crazy. Qatar is pushing ahead with media reforms and other kingdoms are showing more popular activism in its support for the Intifada. Protests and marches, like never imagined before, are filling the streets. Khair. One such protest which raised much furor in the media was an open letter by a Saudi WOMAN to the US ambassador to Saudi kingdom. After expressing her daring indifference to the US hegemony with these words, “we do not care if we incur the wrath of your President Bush…We do not care if our children never attend your schools and your universities or our tourists never enjoy the wonders of Disneyland or Universal Studios. What we care most for is our faith, our dignity and our sacred homeland” she concludes in even more courageous manner that defied the Arabic tradition of conformity to accepted norms, especially those expected from the so-called ‘secluded women suffering behind the oppressive veil’, "Here is my signature. Here is my name. Let it be the first name listed in this letter of protest and indignation. See! I am not afraid. I dare to speak. Along with Israel Shamir, I call for citizens to take arms against the bloody dictator Sharon." Bingo! Here is a cent percent Arab woman! Here is the true descendant of Asma bint Abu Bakr! Here is lady as courageous as those at the time of Caliph Umar who dared to question the Caliph himself. A true specimen of Arab honor and valor. Here is Professor Afnan Fatani, a Saudi professor of English language and style. Another writer directs her emotion straight at the US president. She doubts whether he is a true believer in his own religion. And instead of issuing fatwas for the Islamic world, better take care of his pet animal. "I am not sure of Bush’s qualifications to speak for his own religion. If it means anything to him, how could he have allowed the Church of the Nativity and other highly esteemed churches to be attacked? I request you, Mr. President, to take care of your pet dog. As for Islam, it has its own scholars who have ruled that the suicide bombers are martyrs. Whoever usurps our land and occupies it is an enemy who deserves to be fought until he gives it up." With much enthusiasm, I approached my Arab colleague to acquaint him with this article published on ArabNews, an online Saudi English daily. But his indifferent reply killed my ardent joy: ‘Is it in Arabic?’ he asked with a light stroke of indifference. ‘Well… No.’ I sighed and away I moved. And then I sat Wondering at the fate Of things happened to date So less love, so much hate! Like any other race, Arabs too have their peculiar traits. And one among them is their superior preference for their language. In pre-Islamic times, Arabs addressed the non-Arabic speaking people as Ajam (meaning mute or dumb person). But this attitude was buried by the Unlettered Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. That being so, one can now imagine what would have happened had Quran been revealed in a language other than Arabic? Imagine the indifference it would have evoked! Undoubtedly, the Arabic of Quran is and was not the Arabic of layman language. In fact it is not the style any one in the whole of humanity. If it were, say of the Arabs, then someone among them, say a poet or a philosopher in Makkah, could have produced something similiar to it. As Almighty challenges them in the following words "And if ye are in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto Our slave (Muhammad), then produce a Surah of the like thereof, and call your witnesses beside Allah if you are truthful." The purpose of this ‘if…then…’ article is not to doubt the wisdom of the Creator in His Choice. Nor to bring down the greatness of the language itself. Nor to address the flow of spread of Islam as a mere ‘historical mistake’. But to understand its significance especially in an era when Pan Arabism has almost replaced the Pan Islamic spirit in the Arab world. Modern Arabs have not made any significant effort to reach their message across other cultures due to language barriers. And for this very reason there is widespread misunderstanding about them, which remains unsolved. No amount of financial donations can clear the misconceptions about Arab world prevailing in the West. Unless there is a media alternative in the language understood by the west, the misconceptions shall remain. The Arab League had planned for an English satellite channel to show Arab’s perspective to the world, but that is yet to materialize. To conclude, Jaihoon wishes from the hub of his qalb that the honorable Arabs, especially of the GCC, abandon their psyche of indifference towards the ‘Ajami’ cultures. They too have a tongue. They too can speak. The whole of humanity is one. We have no grade over one another. We are the petals of the same flower. It is the fortune of humanity Among us descent Beloved of Almighty. As imam Busiri (ra) says Muhammadun [saw] Ashraful A’rabi wa’l Ajamai Muhammadun [saw] khairu man Yamshi ala qadami = Of Arab and Ajam Muhammad [saw] was the best Of all those who walked on earth Muhammad [saw] was the best. True faith in the message of Quran brought to us by the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam helps us to view different cultures and its languages on an equal plane. Today if we see inferiority in the minds of some Muslims towards their fellow believers, then it due to the lack of faith in them. The Holy Messenger [saw] did not find any hesitation to take the strategic millitary advice from the PERSIAN Salman al Farisi. Nor did he feel bad when Ka'ab (the poet) praised him calling him 'shining as the swordof INDIAN make'. Nor did he stop his companions from going to CHINA in search of knowledge. - JAIHOON ::) |
| 06/02/02 at 05:12:02 |
| jaihoon |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |