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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| e-Dawah and Cyber-pen-warfare - What are we promot |
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| amatullah |
| 09/07/03 at 11:17:30 |
| e-Dawah and Cyber-pen-warfare - What are we promoting? Farid Ahmed, Greenbelt, MD, USA Whether we like it or not, lot of our time are e-lapsed on internet these days. No, I don’t mean it to be a lapse. But it may, if we are not careful. It is certainly a blessing from Allah (SWT) that we are able to communicate in cyberspace which is so easy, so fast, and so efficient. And like any other blessing, it is therefore a test/trial as well. Because of its exponential nature of spread, one prudent use of a keystroke may buy us eternal peace. On the same token, its inadvertent use may show up as an unfortunate differentiator on the Day of Judgment. Alhamdulillah, many of us are using this blessing in a positive prudent way; in response to misinformed criticism of Islam, they provide good chunks of information, healthy arguments, objective deliberation, and proactive web dissemination. [May Allah (SWT) increase their beneficial knowledge and let us all be benefited from their knowledge.] In spite of that, sometimes unwillingly, we do e-lapse and get trapped in mere arguments over positions, personal vendetta, subjective criticism, and reactive comments. More dangerously, some of us sometimes forget our ‘role’ and make motion with severe emotion without appropriate knowledge and etiquette. So, what is that ‘role’? That simply is Dawah. We all are individually responsible to call to our Creator’s way passionately and incessantly, with wisdom and best preaching as mentioned in Ayah 125 of Sura Nahl. “Invite to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'ân) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better.” This is the premise of this write-up. In light of a lecture titled ‘Guiding to Allah- By the Book’ [1], I would like to explore how best we can enjoy our cyber-ride with an objective of Dawah only. In this first part of a multi-part writing, let us analyze the ‘what’ part of e-Dawah: what are we giving Dawah to, what are we going to promote? Whether we write an article, or respond to someone’s question, or are engaged in an e-debate, this is the bottom-line question we need to be aware of all the time. Fortunately, the answer to this question is also mentioned in the same Ayah [Al Quran 16:125] - we are calling towards Allah. We are to talk about the issues Allah (SWT) instructed us to, through the prophets over and over again. For example, i)Tawheed - the oneness of Allah, ii) Preparation for the eternal life, iii) Betterment of the mankind , iv) Intelligent use of this earth and its resources. These are a few of the core issues we need to remember during our cyber-pen-warfare. I like to emphasize here the ‘CORE’ issues as opposed to the peripheral issues that sometimes willingly or unwillingly we are driven into. Most of the time, Islam opposing groups deliberately make a cloud of pesky tabloid issues. While, some of those may deserve attention, we really need to come out of that cloud by turning on the lights of more important core issues. And once that is done, the cloud is over and the peripheral issues are also understood clearly. Therefore, our focus shall be on the brand products of Islam not the peripheral/tabloid issues. Let me be more specific. Islam opposing people love to attack with anything they have in possession. They oppose because they see some anomaly (according to their perception) in certain aspects of Islamic way of life. We need to understand that most often this erroneous perception is due to the lack of understanding of certain core issues in Islam. Therefore we need to be focused on that. [On a side note, as an engineering student, I can see it as a problem of signal to noise. There is too much noise in Islam opposers’ discussion covering a whole spectrum of uncorrelated issues. We need to enhance the signal component by shedding the light frequency of issues of specific core topic and by averaging out that pesky noise component.] A vast majority of people who oppose Islamic rulings and raise questions about peripheral issues do so, because of their sincere ignorance as opposed to arrogant ignorance. Focusing on the core issues have an amazing positive impacts on these truth-seeking minds. Here is an example of April Szuchyt, a convert to Islam, who in her own words say, “…In the beginning , my reactions were typical of any liberated, educated Western woman with no knowledge of Islam. I accused Islam of being oppressive to women and obsessed with rules. I did not realize that I was missing the ‘big picture’ that God is bigger than all other details.” [2] We need to delineate that BIG picture of core issues. And the core of these cores in Islam is Tawheed-the oneness of Allah (SWT) [3,4], because a) The concept of Tawheed points to the objective of creation of the mankind and the jinns. [Al Quran 51:56] b) This is related to the covenant the humanity as a whole made with Allah. Mankind testified and accepted the ‘Rubuyiat’ of Allah (SWT) [Al Quran 7:172] c) The primary mission of the prophets as mentioned in about one third of the Quran is Tawheed. d) All other parts of Iman emanates from the concept of Tawheed [3]. e) There is a misconception among us that people already know this basic part of Iman. But in reality, we know little about the implications of Tawheed in our life, and more sadly, we don’t know that we know little about this important aspect of Islam. If you compare the writings on Tawheed with any other tabloid issue like hijab or so, what would you find? It will put us on shame. Now, a big picture of core issues come from the identity or uniqueness of Islam compared to other man-made isms or other distorted versions of the preaching of other prophets. In light of the four core issues mentioned above here is a partial list of uniqueness [1] that we need to drive home in our writing: a) Islam is the most widely followed purely monotheistic religion in the world. It is based on the oneness of the creator, sustainer, and manager of the universe. b) Since it came from the creator, it is flawless. c) Islam has universal appeal. It addresses all mankind and it is for all mankind irrespective of cast, color, and creed. There is no concept of chosen creed in Islam. Islam is unique in talking about universal issues. Islam is the only religion which testifies the truth of the teachings of all the prophets from the beginning. It is the only one that links all the prophets in one thread. d) Islamic laws are in conformity with human’s nature and as such it has the most reasonable, explainable and just set of rules. The set of ‘Belief’ in Islam are not merely belief; they are called ‘Iman’ which is much beyond the realm of blind faith [3]. All of the branches of Iman are supported by explainable evidences, clues, and similitude. e) Islam is unique in its evolution. Here the manuals/guidance of the creator shapes the community as opposed to other man-made isms where the community is a trial-and-error product of culture, norms, and customs. f) Islam is unique in its blessed style of conveyance where the spiritual and the legal commandments are intermingled. Islam appeals to the heart of an individual; it is unique in this sacredness of its impact. It is also unique in its balanced combination of fear and hope. g) Islam is unique because it is the most comprehensive and complete code of life that encompasses every bit and piece of life. The next question then is how can we focus on the core issues? Allah knows best and we all have to go back to Him. References Guiding to Allah – By the Book, Lecture notes of Muhammad Al Shareef, Al Maghrib Insitute, www.almaghrib.org Silent No More; Confronting America’s False Images of Islam, by Paul Findley, Amana Publications, July 2002, ISBN: 1-590080-01-7 . Al Tawhid:Its Implications for Thought and Life, Dr. Ismail Raji al Faruqi, International Institute of Islamic Thought, ISBN 0-912463-79-1. The Fundamentals of Tawheed- Islamic Monotheism, Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, Al Hidaya Publishing, ISBN 1-898649-40-5. |
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