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The Dichotomy of Islam |
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by BS Murthy |
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It is nobody’s argument that Muslims as a human kind are any different from the rest of the mankind. But what of the constraints their faith imposes upon them to approach the issue objectively, as, indeed, any faith would? The shrill hurt that their ‘religion of peace’ is being dubbed as the ‘doctrine of death’, and the muted pain at the death of the suicide squads and their victims across the world underscore the dilemma of the Muslims and the dichotomy of Islam. Then came Hijra - the flight of Muhammad to Medina - and it changed the color of the Quran. In Medina, Muhammad found himself in a position of strength and as he set his sights on the conquest of Mecca, his ambition got focused and his energies were directed to achieve that goal. Of what avail submission and tolerance for embarking upon a conquest? After all, one needs to name the enemy and inculcate hatred towards the foe in the minds of the followers so as to stir them to fight. Thus Quran identifies them – “All they who disbelieve and deny our revelations, such are rightful owners of hell” and labels them as well – Jews, Christians and idolaters. Then it exhorts them to take on them, “Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that you love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, and ye know not” However, it is one thing to motivate the faithful to fight even with the divine diktat and another to remove the fear of death in their hearts. Once Napoleon famously observed that if only he had with him forty men who were not afraid of death, he would have conquered the world. While Bonaparte had only surmised, the prophet had realized that through Quran, first by deprecating life here on one hand and glorifying the life hereafter on the other. “Naught is the life of the world save a pastime and a sport. Better far is the abode of the Hereafter for those who keep their duty (to Allah). Have ye then no sense?” and “Think not of those, who are slain in the way of Allah, as dead. Nay they are living. With their Lord they have provision”, and so forth. What were those provisions for all who sacrifice their lives for the cause of the faith that Muhammad was set out to propagate was dealt with extensively in the Quran - “Enter the garden, ye and your wives, to be made glad.”, “Reclining on ranged couches. And we wed them unto fair ones with wide, lovely eyes.” And so on. It is for the Muslim community to collectively shut down the locks of this Islamic stream that supposedly leads the martyrs into the Paradise so that they and the others could make the best of life here itself. If not, they cannot blame the others to believe that the religion of Muhammad that ordains the faithful to wage jihad in the name of Allah, and promises a voluptuous Paradise to its shaheed was destined to play a disruptive role in the affairs of nations. |
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06-Nov-2011 | |||||||||||||
More by : BS Murthy | |||||||||||||
Views: 2256 Comments: 4 | |||||||||||||
Comments on this Article
v.haribabu 11/09/2011 05:11 AM
rdashby 11/09/2011 00:19 AM
BS Murthy 11/07/2011 12:08 PM
Prof. Shubha Tiwari 11/06/2011 22:21 PM |
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