My take on the issues of race, religion, and authoritarianism
- Everyone has a degree of piety associated with them which is something that can grow and diminish with time, however, only God has the wisdom and authority to decide who among us is more pious. Therefore, there can be no worldly political system where piety can be ascertained for an individual or a group. It follows that this uncertainty has been left by God so we could deduce our own system of governance. This is another way for God to test us.
- We keep referring to God as Allah which, for many people, sounds more like a proper noun than a common noun after repeated usage. Allah is not God's name. It is just Arabic for God. God has many names, but Allah is not one of them. I wrote an article in a newspaper about this confusion after 9/11 and I believe this is a huge cause for confusion.
- The prophet's last sermon aims to unite people, not divide them. The only difference among people is their piety and not their race or language. So this fact cannot be overstated enough. There is one nation, the human nation, in the eyes of God. We certainly are not qualified to divide this unity of peoples from around the globe and assign roles and levels of piety to people or a group of people. It is simply not our job. On the day of judgement, God will be the one to make that judgement.
- Humans are all the same. Nothing changes in me physically, or in my genes or in my heritage when I accept Islam as my religion. And if I go back to paganism, I am still the same person. A person born in Pakistan is the same as a person born in Namibia, or America. That is a fundamental principle of Islam. If it so happens that this value is shared by the West then so be it. The only religions that differentiate among people are hinduism, judaism, and christianity. Hindus divide people in castes and races. Jews consider the Bani Israel to be above the rest of the world, and Christians believe themselves to be superior to the gentiles. This is antithetical to everything Islam.
- The idea that a Pakistani person needs authoritative rule, religious or secular, and an American person needs a democratic rule is hypocritical. All of us in America would find it extremely hard to stay here if the religious right overturned the constitution and we had to live under strict Christian rule. However, we don't like to extend the same rights to the minorities in Pakistan. When authoritarian rule is imposed, rights are tramepelled, people are abused. That's the nature of authoritarian rule. Opinions, differing from the official mantra, are crushed and everyone has to fall in line. There will never be a time when all the people of a country have homogeneous values and opinions. So this pursuit is futile as well as hostile. Humanity prospers through integration and compromise. If we are not prepared to support the same rights for the people of Pakistan that we enjoy in America, then we should be prepared for stifling and fanatical regimes in Pakistan where all power is concentrated in one person. It is a deluge to say that power rests with God. It always rests with the ruler and since God is not there to take him to task, he is not even accountable.
1 comment:
I respect that every person is entitled to their opinion but dialouge and discussion often gives us a chance to reflect and potentially revise our opinion.
In hope of a open minded consideration I write my comments, corresponding to the "Nut's" points:
1. I agree that people should not be judge of piety of a person as it is between them and their Lord. We should use give everybody a good standing (close to the concept of 'innocent until proven guilty') but usually a person's good or bad nature/personality and presence and lack piety reflect in their actions and interactions. Also, to be considered God is perfect and justice is an attribute of perfection hence God will not do injustice. Although his mercy is wide spread and guarantee of forgiveness accompanied with sincere repentence, His decisions including to punish the evil doers immutable.
2. Allah is a proper noun of God. I would invite you to do further research and would be happy to provide some references. I don't understand why it causes confusion. All good names belong to Allah (or God if you prefer), no matter which name you use to recall Him it is the same one and only entity. I don't see why anybody would have a problem or confusion with someone recalling their Lord in any language or using any word as long as they don't force their belief on others.
3. May be the definition of piety would help eloborate this point. One definition Meriam Webster uses is "dutifulness in religion". My basic understanding is, piety is doing what God has commanded and staying away from what He has forbidden. To know what God has commanded or forbidden one has to find their one true God and obey Him. (He and Him are not references that God has a gender, God is beyond matter, space or time which are His creations).
4. They is more to human than the physical attributes (viz. heart, thought and soul). I agree with the basic point that Islam does not differentiate between people based on cast, creed, race or skin color.
5. I am not sure all Americans are happy by the implentation of democracy in the USA or if democracy is a panacea for all problems of the world, specially when everybody has their own definition of democracy. I think there is a lot of hipocracy if one does an open minded analysis of US foreign policy, is it representative of the people in this democracy ? It might not be a fair to compare Pakistan with America, let's say it would not be an Apple to an Apple comparasion in lots of regards. I agree that basic morality and human rights should be universal.
I hope I started a thought process rather than being just critical of an individual's opinion or presenting my own in contrast to Arsalan's
Ali
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