Their Jihad, Not My Jihad
I attended a talk just now, at the uni. The title was as written, 'Their jihad, not my jihad'. When I first read the title, I thought that it would be very interesting..as it would be talking about jihad. Something that I have just started to learn how to appreciate! So, I attended it, there were two of us, me and my little sister. I thought the topic is interesting enough that it would attract so many people to the talk. Unfortunately, happened to be that there are only the two of us, who are obviously Muslims in the lecture hall. Only the two of us. Then, there were some jews and others were non-muslims. It was...hurm, rather confusing. I was expecting ISOCs would be around. They are always active and participative in these kinda things. After all, I think that the talk was organised by them. Interestingly, it was actually not by them. It was by a society I have never heard of.
Anyway, enough of this, what I want to say is about the talk that was delivered. The content of it. It was extremely, with an exaggerating tone, an unbalanced speech that could have distorted the image of Islam towards those have lack of knowledge of what is really happening around, in this world. She, I think, has a secular thought of Islam. She was talking about the differences between Islam and Islamic politics, which she called as Islamicism. I was rather shocked to listen to her account. It was not holistic. She just can't separate those two. The Deen (the way of life) with the politics. Islam is syumul, it covers all parts in life including in the art of managing people's life which is the politics itself.
However, looking at the lighter perspective, I understand that she was trying to promote the importance of keeping peace within the world's community. She was advising people, convincingly, not to encourage hate. Anything that related to promoting hatred should be put aside! Indeed this is what everyone wants. A peaceful life. World of no war, grief and sorrow. Yes, I understand. But, the way she say, I strongly believe, was against the teaching of Ad-Deen. She said, with confidence, that those who have never taken a good look at the Charter of Madiinah, the first Islamic Political Constituition, should have a look at it. Everyone should read it, she said. She said, it had the value of secularism in Islam. Hurm, this is a distorting statement. The Charter of Madiinah promote secularism? I just can't help it. Or may be she is referring to a different types of secularism, if there are any. Fiuhhh..this is challenging indeed!
She said that, problem arises when some people can't accept the current condition. When there are Muslims who are working for the global domination. She believes that this is unnecessary. She believes that Muslims should not be working so hard to return the Khilafa' system. Ouch, madam..that hurts. Or it was only me who was so blocked from accepting and understanding what she was trying to say?? I don't know! I know..she was not to put those things in the way she had put it regardless of the good deeds that she was trying to do! I understand when she said that war leads to sorrow. Indeed. But, for her to say that it is not relevant...it was even more irrelevant. War in Islam is about protecting our own religion, life and few others. She did account for the guidance that ALLAH gave in the Holy Book on what should and should not be done during war, it was true. But, I don't know...the way she put things was frustrating. It was frustrating when she said that Islam and politics should not be mixed. It was confusing when she said we should westernised the Muslims rather than ruining the west. Ouch, we are not trying to ruin the west madam. We are just trying to spread the true message of Islam. OUR religion. It was true when you said that the greatest jihad in Islam is the jihad against our self in quest for the truth. But, you can't just rule out the jihad to spread the message of Islam. It is da'wah and it is something that we, everyone of us, should be doing.
However, it is interesting when you said that Muslims should try to have dialogues with non-Muslims. Talk with the non-Muslims as it is creating a barrier between us if we just kept quite. People just don't know what to talk about with us if we just withdraw ourselves as we have no common grounds. Yes, you are again right. For this, I would totally agree. :)
There are some more, but this is long enough. So, that's it. Just to add some more, it is about the meeting that I have attended before this particular talk. It was a DIW meeting. Discover Islam Week... a special week organised by Islamic Society as a work of da'wah. It seems so contrast since in the meeting we discussed on how to promote Islam is how to do da'wah, but in the talk, the speaker said that we shouldn't be trying to change everyone into us.
Anyway, enough of this, what I want to say is about the talk that was delivered. The content of it. It was extremely, with an exaggerating tone, an unbalanced speech that could have distorted the image of Islam towards those have lack of knowledge of what is really happening around, in this world. She, I think, has a secular thought of Islam. She was talking about the differences between Islam and Islamic politics, which she called as Islamicism. I was rather shocked to listen to her account. It was not holistic. She just can't separate those two. The Deen (the way of life) with the politics. Islam is syumul, it covers all parts in life including in the art of managing people's life which is the politics itself.
However, looking at the lighter perspective, I understand that she was trying to promote the importance of keeping peace within the world's community. She was advising people, convincingly, not to encourage hate. Anything that related to promoting hatred should be put aside! Indeed this is what everyone wants. A peaceful life. World of no war, grief and sorrow. Yes, I understand. But, the way she say, I strongly believe, was against the teaching of Ad-Deen. She said, with confidence, that those who have never taken a good look at the Charter of Madiinah, the first Islamic Political Constituition, should have a look at it. Everyone should read it, she said. She said, it had the value of secularism in Islam. Hurm, this is a distorting statement. The Charter of Madiinah promote secularism? I just can't help it. Or may be she is referring to a different types of secularism, if there are any. Fiuhhh..this is challenging indeed!
She said that, problem arises when some people can't accept the current condition. When there are Muslims who are working for the global domination. She believes that this is unnecessary. She believes that Muslims should not be working so hard to return the Khilafa' system. Ouch, madam..that hurts. Or it was only me who was so blocked from accepting and understanding what she was trying to say?? I don't know! I know..she was not to put those things in the way she had put it regardless of the good deeds that she was trying to do! I understand when she said that war leads to sorrow. Indeed. But, for her to say that it is not relevant...it was even more irrelevant. War in Islam is about protecting our own religion, life and few others. She did account for the guidance that ALLAH gave in the Holy Book on what should and should not be done during war, it was true. But, I don't know...the way she put things was frustrating. It was frustrating when she said that Islam and politics should not be mixed. It was confusing when she said we should westernised the Muslims rather than ruining the west. Ouch, we are not trying to ruin the west madam. We are just trying to spread the true message of Islam. OUR religion. It was true when you said that the greatest jihad in Islam is the jihad against our self in quest for the truth. But, you can't just rule out the jihad to spread the message of Islam. It is da'wah and it is something that we, everyone of us, should be doing.
However, it is interesting when you said that Muslims should try to have dialogues with non-Muslims. Talk with the non-Muslims as it is creating a barrier between us if we just kept quite. People just don't know what to talk about with us if we just withdraw ourselves as we have no common grounds. Yes, you are again right. For this, I would totally agree. :)
There are some more, but this is long enough. So, that's it. Just to add some more, it is about the meeting that I have attended before this particular talk. It was a DIW meeting. Discover Islam Week... a special week organised by Islamic Society as a work of da'wah. It seems so contrast since in the meeting we discussed on how to promote Islam is how to do da'wah, but in the talk, the speaker said that we shouldn't be trying to change everyone into us.
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