VTMBH Article: Body
Enter Ramadan 1423. As Muslims seek the best of this blessed month, they will be apt to remember the brethren who have fallen victim to a vicious cycle of violence Ramadan after Ramadan.
From Bosnia to Kosova and Palestine, and from Kashmir to Afghanistan, the tragic saga continues. In the latest threat faced by the Muslim Ummah, a U.S. war of aggression looms large over Iraq. While Muslims all over the world are praying to Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala to avert an attack that may kill untold number of innocent Iraqis, U.S. oil companies are busy carving out petrospheres in the post-war Iraq. Its like vultures circling a dying prey, or sharks in a feeding frenzy.
The unforgettable lesson this year, as in Ramadans past, is that our rebelliousness against the Creator has caused the weakness, which in turn has invited the aggression. Many Muslims fail to understand this; they ascribe all the material reasons to our downfall and think that only if we had better technology, better this and better that, we would have prevailed. While the above reasons are obvious, they are only the products of Muslim degeneration on the ideological front.
This Ramadan we are praying that Americas killing machines will be halted, that we will not have to once again agonize over Iraqi Muslims running helter-skelter to escape the lethal rain of U.S. bombers, as in Afghanistan last year.
Donald Rumsfeld, the steel-jawed U.S. secretary of defense would not have any problem bombing Iraq during Ramadan. Last year, he advocated the continued the bombing of Afghanistan during Ramadan, arguing that Muslims have fought wars during the fasting month. Yes, but those were wars. What America did to Afghanistan and is planning to do with Iraq can only be classified as naked aggression.
This Ramadan, as we pray for the elimination of the threat of aggression, it is time for deep soul searching. Prayers, if accepted, can avert the current crisis, but how long will we pray and not back our prayers with sincere actions? Are prayers the means as well as the ends?
Why are Muslims, described in the noble Quran as the best people raised for mankind, in such a wretched state? Allah (SWT) wants to honor His believing servants. That we are today dishonored and humiliated shows we have incurred the displeasure of the Creator.
Allahs promise to His obedient servants is that He will make them viceregents on earth, establish their <i>deen</i> firmly, and replace their state of insecurity with security. None of these promises seem to hold true in our current predicament. Allah does not renege on His promises. So what went wrong? Whats obviously wrong is that the Muslims today have ignored the conditions attached to Allahs promise.
At the moment, Western civilization has imposed an ideological war on Muslims. The United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent some other Western powers, are employing every weapon in their arsenal to defeat Islamaggression, propaganda and deception.
Many Muslims have reacted to the Wests success by joining extremist groups whose aim is to defeat their adversary by any means, even if it means using tactics not sanctioned by Islam. In so doing they have unwittingly fallen into the ploy of the West, allowing the West to liberally apply the label of terrorism on Muslims and Islam. So far the West is winning, and Muslims are on the defensive.
Muslims recapture of their rightful place would be possible only by way of the methodology of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon), which is recorded in its minutest details. Anything other than that will prolong the misery and must be rejected. A return to the prophetic way must be among the bounties we seek this Ramadan. Let the spiritual rejuvenation brought on by the month-long abstemiousness carry us through the rest of the year, and beyond.
From Bosnia to Kosova and Palestine, and from Kashmir to Afghanistan, the tragic saga continues. In the latest threat faced by the Muslim Ummah, a U.S. war of aggression looms large over Iraq. While Muslims all over the world are praying to Allah Subhanahu Wa Taala to avert an attack that may kill untold number of innocent Iraqis, U.S. oil companies are busy carving out petrospheres in the post-war Iraq. Its like vultures circling a dying prey, or sharks in a feeding frenzy.
The unforgettable lesson this year, as in Ramadans past, is that our rebelliousness against the Creator has caused the weakness, which in turn has invited the aggression. Many Muslims fail to understand this; they ascribe all the material reasons to our downfall and think that only if we had better technology, better this and better that, we would have prevailed. While the above reasons are obvious, they are only the products of Muslim degeneration on the ideological front.
This Ramadan we are praying that Americas killing machines will be halted, that we will not have to once again agonize over Iraqi Muslims running helter-skelter to escape the lethal rain of U.S. bombers, as in Afghanistan last year.
Donald Rumsfeld, the steel-jawed U.S. secretary of defense would not have any problem bombing Iraq during Ramadan. Last year, he advocated the continued the bombing of Afghanistan during Ramadan, arguing that Muslims have fought wars during the fasting month. Yes, but those were wars. What America did to Afghanistan and is planning to do with Iraq can only be classified as naked aggression.
This Ramadan, as we pray for the elimination of the threat of aggression, it is time for deep soul searching. Prayers, if accepted, can avert the current crisis, but how long will we pray and not back our prayers with sincere actions? Are prayers the means as well as the ends?
Why are Muslims, described in the noble Quran as the best people raised for mankind, in such a wretched state? Allah (SWT) wants to honor His believing servants. That we are today dishonored and humiliated shows we have incurred the displeasure of the Creator.
Allahs promise to His obedient servants is that He will make them viceregents on earth, establish their <i>deen</i> firmly, and replace their state of insecurity with security. None of these promises seem to hold true in our current predicament. Allah does not renege on His promises. So what went wrong? Whats obviously wrong is that the Muslims today have ignored the conditions attached to Allahs promise.
At the moment, Western civilization has imposed an ideological war on Muslims. The United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent some other Western powers, are employing every weapon in their arsenal to defeat Islamaggression, propaganda and deception.
Many Muslims have reacted to the Wests success by joining extremist groups whose aim is to defeat their adversary by any means, even if it means using tactics not sanctioned by Islam. In so doing they have unwittingly fallen into the ploy of the West, allowing the West to liberally apply the label of terrorism on Muslims and Islam. So far the West is winning, and Muslims are on the defensive.
Muslims recapture of their rightful place would be possible only by way of the methodology of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon), which is recorded in its minutest details. Anything other than that will prolong the misery and must be rejected. A return to the prophetic way must be among the bounties we seek this Ramadan. Let the spiritual rejuvenation brought on by the month-long abstemiousness carry us through the rest of the year, and beyond.