My Advice to Muslims

[Ieuan ab Arthur]

Hi All:

I received this out of the blue today. Any comments?

MY ADVICE TO MUSLIMS:

It Is Not Enough To Be Good; One Must Also Show The Right Path To Others Who Might Otherwise Do Evil.

Dear Muslims!

You know that to eliminate all kinds of vices from the world and to promote good is the responsibility of every Muslim. Allah, the Lord of the universe, says: "You are the best Ummah who have been created to show the right path to the people. You command for doing good and forbid from doing evil, and you have faith in Allah"

The Holy Prophet (SAW) has also said that everyone amongst you is a caretaker and is responsible for his subordinates on the Day of Judgement. Rulers will be answerable for the citizens of their state, every family head will be accountable for the members of his family and will be asked as to what he did for their reformation, education and better life. He will be asked as to whether he forbid them from adopting the bad ways, and helped them in leading a pious life or not. The Holy Quran has called this task as "Enjoining (People) To Do Good and Forbidding (Them) From Doing Evil."

Respected Muslims! The world history reveals that until Muslims performed the task of commanding the people to do good and barring them from doing evil, the pious people remained dominant in those societies and there was peace and tranquility and satanic forces were subdued. But, when this collective responsibility was designated only to clerics, and the common Muslims ignored this task, in spite of the efforts of the clerics, waywardness spread quickly. A wave of offenses, terrorism, tyranny, evils, sins, ignorance and anarchy engulfed almost every segment of life. Disorder, commotion and chaos were on the rise in the world society, wrecking the peace of all mankind.

The Holy Prophet (SAW) has warned of this danger in these words:

"I swear to the Lord Who is the Master of my soul (it is your duty that) you must enjoin (the people) to do good and forbid (them) from doing evil, otherwise, the day is not far when Allah Almighty will unleash His wrath on you, and then you will pray (for help) to Allah, but your prayers will not be answered." (Trimdi)

The world is facing disaster upon disaster every day and people are expecting a major catastrophe. The deeds that have been forbidden by God are being committed openly. The evils are increasing, while the virtues are fading out gradually. Tyranny, oppression and carnage are going on, liars and cheats are overcoming. Terrorism, bribery, corruption, evil, nudity, vulgarity and wickedness have assaulted the world. It seems we have reached inferno before the Last Day. History tells us that such a situation arises when people are being cursed by God.

It is feared that members of the previous generations will be accountable for their individual deeds on the Day of Judgment, but present generation will be thrown as a whole into hell after a collective prosecution, because the nobles of this generation remained as silent spectators instead of restraining the wrongdoers / terrorists from committing cruelty, sins and misdeeds.

The Divine punishment to an ancient civilization seconds this fear. There were three groups during that period. One was of knaves, the second was of the people who did good deeds but did not halt the disobedients from transgression. The third group was of the people who followed the Divine doctrines as well as restrained others from disobeying them. When God cursed the nation, the people exempted from this torment were those who had been observing the limits fixed by their Master and were stopping others from wrongdoing as well.

There is another but similar happening. The residents of a town had been engulfed by an ocean of sins. However, there was a noble man who was always busy in worshipping God, but he did not bother about persuading others to give up their bad ways. When God ordered the angels to destroy the town, He said: "Overturn the town on the person who was anxious to save himself from the Divine Punishment, but was not endeavoring to save others from it".

I advise the virtuous people of the world that they should not only depend upon their prayers to save themselves from the Divine Punishment; rather they should lead the Evil Doers and followers of Satan who have gone astray, to the right path. They should undertake this task against Evil Doers with full determination. Only then will their virtues and prayers save them from the Divine Punishment.

S.A.Rehman
Peace Activist
PAKISTAN

Ta ra 'wan,

Ieuan "all mail" ab Arthur

[A Turtle Named Mack]

You know, this could either be a remonstrance to stop the violence being perpetrated by Muslims against other Muslims and against non-muslims, or it could be a call to forcefully convert all the non-Muslims. One interpretation i would cheer for, and the other would at the least make me cringe. And i have a feeling that those who most need the peaceful interpretation would take it the other way.

Here is the original Peace-tolerance.com.

He has been sending out emails and messages of this sort for a couple of years. The administrative contact for his domain is "Rehman, Arif"

[Dondi]

At least someone is speaking out against terrorism and extremist measures. There ought to be more Muslims coming out of their mosques to condemn the activities that give their religion a bad name.

sounds almost exactly like the last sermon I heard from a fundamentalist christian, just substitute a few names.

...but present generation will be thrown as a whole into hell after a collective prosecution, because the nobles of this generation remained as silent spectators instead of restraining the wrongdoers / terrorists from committing cruelty, sins and misdeeds.

I think that the main problem here is that one's concept of "wrongdoer / terrorists" could easily fit another's concept of "nobles".

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by Dondi

At least someone is speaking out against terrorism and extremist measures. There ought to be more Muslims coming out of their mosques to condemn the activities that give their religion a bad name.

While it may make them look better in the eyes of the ignorant to do so, why ought they do so?

[lord_feldon]

I think there are at least 2 reasons why Muslim leaders aren't often reported as condemning terrorism:

1. There is no Muslim Pope, no one single voice of Islam, so even if local leaders do speak out, its highly unlikely to be carried by national media. If people don't hear it or see it, they rarely know it. Similarly, most of such speeches would be inside of Mosques, and what happens in Mosques is not generally reported on.

2. Many Muslims simply feel no connection whatsoever with the "Muslims" who commit such acts, and feel no need to do anything about it. It's rather like a cousin you never knew going apoplectic and killing 6 people. Though you may appear like you are in a situation to be greatly affected, you aren't.

[Mickey Blue]

Originally Posted by Dondi

At least someone is speaking out against terrorism and extremist measures. There ought to be more Muslims coming out of their mosques to condemn the activities that give their religion a bad name.

I used to sorta feel this way, but a Muslim friend of mine told me this (paraphrased):

"By saying that we [Muslims] should go out and condemn the actions it implies that we hold some level of blame, or at least some default suspician just for our faith and more often then that skin color or ethnicity. That we have to "prove" our loyalty where as a non-Muslim does not suggests we are partly at fault and have to apologize."

I think that makes alot of sense, at least to me. A Muslim person in America (or abroad) has no more reason to apologize for the extremist terrorists then I do, or President Bush does, they are no more related to the group then anybody else.

-MB

Originally Posted by Dondi

At least someone is speaking out against terrorism and extremist measures. There ought to be more Muslims coming out of their mosques to condemn the activities that give their religion a bad name.

I'm a Christian. I feel no particular reason to condemn Bush, Blair and their ilk on that basis, however.

oh, and plenty of Muslim leaders have condemned terrorism. it's just not reported - peace and tolerance being less sexy than jihad.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Jonny T

I'm a Christian. I feel no particular reason to condemn Bush, Blair and their ilk on that basis, however.

There is the difference that Bush and Blair were not representing themselves as making their decision because Christianuity required it. They are Christians, but did not claim divine right as authority for their decisions.

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

There is the difference that Bush and Blair were not representing themselves as making their decision because Christianuity required it. They are Christians, but did not claim divine right as authority for their decisions.

Dunno 'bout Blair, but Bush said that God wanted him to be president. Therefore, I'd assume that he feels that every decision he makes is the 'correct' one in God's eyes.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by MapleLeaf

Dunno 'bout Blair, but Bush said that God wanted him to be president. Therefore, I'd assume that he feels that every decision he makes is the 'correct' one in God's eyes.

He may, but that is still a very different thing from representing one's actions as demanded by one's religion.

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Originally Posted by A Turtle Named Mack

There is the difference that Bush and Blair were not representing themselves as making their decision because Christianuity required it. They are Christians, but did not claim divine right as authority for their decisions.

No, but Bush obviously made his decisions as an American, and as an American, I feel like I need to applogize to the world for him, even though I voted against him three times (voted in the Republican primary in 2000 'cause there weren't any interesting Democratic races that year)