Dato’Haji Thasleem Mohamed Ibrahim with his sidekick
we are not able to reach to conclusions on many issues of importance because our thoughts are incoherent and disorganized. It is like having a road in front of us and the road is broken and has gaps after every few feet. But we assume that the road is smooth and continuous.
Resultantly, we keep falling in those gaps. We mix up a lot many issues in a flood of confusion.
We will say that Islam is a complete way of life and then divide the affairs of life into ‘secular’ and ‘religious’. Isn’t Islam a religion and it is complete? Then why this division? We will, however, not prepare a list of ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ matters despite being earnestly requested to do so – repeatedly.
I come across people once in a while who say that that they have ‘made’ hijrah from the West. (We made a hijrah in the Indian Subcontinent and should only read the headlines of one newspaper – everyday.) I am wonderstruck at this huge gap. They will believe that Islam is the best way of life and it is for the entire humanity. But practically they will exclude a significant part of the world from the ‘entire’ humanity and the ‘whole’ world. And they will not see the self-contradiction.
When we emphasize on the need for a huge component of rote learning and memorization in our curriculum then we give an impression that “We have actually tried hard with critical and scientific thinking. But it proved to be disastrous, you know. It did not produce the desired results (???). The students are not hard-working anymore, you see. They want it easy. You know how the new generation is. Our times were different. And you know they don’t send bright students to madrasaahs.”
An eminent speaker I met the other day. He started lamenting that the people do not send ‘bright’ children to madrasaahs. (I haven’t seen any students who aren’t bright – in their own way. Just as I haven’t seen any ‘ordinary’ and ‘common’ human beings in my life.) On the other hand, he was complaining that the syllabi of these institutions are extremely old. He did not realize why the people should send their ‘bright’ children to madrasaahs if the syllabi are so outdated.
I could not understand why the ‘bright’ students should be sent to these institutions if the curriculum is not up-to-date. How could or will an up-to-date teacher teach an outdated curriculum is beside the point. As if it was not enough, the respectable speaker started complaining about the graduates of madrasaahs. This wasn’t enough either. He was of the view that the madrasaahs should completely teach the Tafseer of the whole Qur’an and a student must necessarily go over the entire Qur’an – at least in translation.
I could not get a definite answer to my question about what was the real problem; the curriculum, the methodology, the students not being ‘bright’ or the Qur’an not being taught in full. We face a difficulty in staying focused on one subject while communicating with the ‘traditionally’ educated. With much difficulty I drew the attention of the gentleman to the core issue as he frequently stepped into sideways.
The ‘modern’ educated are very much appreciable in this regard. As a people, however, we need to develop a habit of staying with the problems longer. It will require that we stop repeating those sentences which we have heard a thousand times. The situations demand that we start ‘chewing the cud’.
We will talk about the need for more engagement with the fellow countrymen of other Faiths but will establish and perpetuate those educational institutions which are the antithesis of cohesion and engagement. Without noticing the self-contradiction. We will talk about Haqq-O-Baatil and will advise, too, for adhering to the former. We will, however, not call a spade a spade. We will still beat about the bush and stay away from the crux of it.
We read a lot of articles from many writers from all over the world. This is very important. But there is one apprehension. We might think that the journalists from across the globe will provide a solution to the problems. If we do so we may be mistaken. How could those who do not have the whole picture (who aren’t sure where the man has come from, what is he expected to do on earth and where is he going to) provide a solution to the vexed (???) problems of the world? If they still do that, it will be rare and, of course, admirable.
We are extremely concerned about educating every Muslim child but we do not know why we should do that. So we don’t know the reasons of this concern for Muslims which has become a kind of fashion now. It gives an instant impression that “I am in a much better situation, thank God.” No, we are not “in a much better situation”.
We ALL are poor (muflis). But there is something that does not allow us to concede that we are poor. We go about the idea of reform in circles and circles. I wonder if so many among us are trying to make things better – and for so long – then why don’t we see the results? The incoherence and disorganization in our thoughts is the diehard enemy of results.
Please don’t ever get impressed by quotations from Qur’an or Hadeeth or from history etc. It is most likely that the quotations will be out of context – ignoring the broader picture. It is most likely that we belong to a situation like Makkan and the quotation is of a Madeenan context, for example. There is also a slight chance that we may not be belonging to either of the two periods.
There is a possibility that the quotation is from a person who is sure about everything and has never been slightly confused about even a few things. May be the quotation is a result of deep conditioning. May be the sermon is from someone who has never tried to put all the ideas (or pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) in order and organize them. So we shouldn’t take chances.
The incoherence and disorganization in our thoughts (which naturally leads to incoherent and disorganized actions – and there is no force that can stop it from happening) is eating into our vitals. What to do now? We need to be watchful in our conversations. We have to very carefully and critically listen to every speech or read every piece of writing (including this one). We have to be many times more cautious than we have ever been.
We shouldn’t do so only when we are in the gathering of ‘others’. We need to do this even more when we are in ‘our own’ gatherings. If we do not do so, the discourse will not change which is precisely what we need to change. We will not be moving to the second stage which is long overdue. This is the price that we as a people have to pay for a CHANGE which we all are yearning to see.
Why did Pastor Terry Jones decide to go ahead with the burning of a Quran after promising never to do so in September? How did a radical act by this fringe individual in Florida lead to several days of massive protest and violence in Afghanistan? What is the relationship between this sort of extremism and the world's religious traditions?
In the wake of these events, Odyssey Networks discussed these questions and more with Imam Muhammad Musri, President of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. The answers are chilling lessons on the power of hateful rhetoric in the age of global connectivity and what happens when religion is distorted to serve the ego and agenda of an individual.
History is one of the three sources of knowledge according to Qur’an. Qur’an recalls the landmark events of the past and does so for specific purposes. This is why we notice that it mostly omits the names of persons and does not mention the exact year and time etc. It does not mention unnecessary details. From the temporal (related to time) and spacial (related to space) it extracts what is atemporal and aspacial, not confined to both. This style of Qur’an teaches us a lesson i.e. what should be the focus while studying and narrating history. We get lost in the details of history focusing on the names of persons, places and dates etc. We go into such minute details of the past that the present escapes us. If we teach history with the Qur’anic outlook we will learn the right lessons from the right (or factually correct) stories and will not repeat the same mistakes which is the sole purpose of learning history.
For example, those occasions and events in history which caused division among Muslims should serve as a warning against division and (if rightly understood) should not further divide the Muslims. But this is precisely what those events do – defeating the very purpose of history. There are signposts in history which warn in big red letters not to go in a certain direction. But we make sure that we certainly move in that very direction. We remember the minute details of a historical event but forget the very lesson that we were supposed to learn from it. It is like reading “Deep Excavations Ahead” and falling blindly precisely in the same excavations.
We have a good number of experts in history in our Institutions. With such a big number of them we should have been in a much better shape. Imagine the same number of people constantly showing us mirrors. Because it hasn’t happened as desired we have been constantly cleaning the mirror (the RSS-VHP-BJP et cetera). We should have obtained a wealth of knowledge about the reasons for the rise and fall of nations and those reasons should have been popularized among ALL. By now all of us must have known quite clearly about the signposts, detours and the red lights. We cannot remove or put any new signposts in history. We cannot change a single name nor can we relocate an event. We have no control upon that. Therefore, what we have no control upon (the past) should not consume our time so much that we ignore what is present.
We have experts of history in its various periods which we have very clearly defined and identified. This is a very good work. But we remain in those periods the entire life. Is this the purpose of history – to remain glued to the past? When will we come back to the present after learning from history? If anyone argues that we don’t remain in any given period forever and it is false to assume so then I will ask where is the impact in the present, then? “Darakht apnay phal se pahchaana jaata hai” we have heard from our elders. We need to revisit the purpose of studying history and convince ourselves to MOVE ON after learning a few lessons from it. Not focusing on the real purpose of history, however, we notice what Anwar Mas‘ood has aptly described about the excavations on the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro:
‘ibrat ki ik chhataa(n)k baraamad na ho saki
culture nikal paraa hai manou(n) ke hisaab se
We have a knack for beating about the bush and remaining away from the crux of it. This is why I argue that we do not have the Book in our Right Hand. Those who teach this Book they, too, mean the same thing from the ‘minority’, for instance, as those who do not (claim to) hold that Book in their Right Hand. Let us learn the teaching and learning methodology from this Book. This will be the only Criterion (al-Furqaan) to know what are the issues and which are the non-issues. When we focus on the non-issues ignoring the issues (there is no other way to focus on the non-issues) then I wonder what is happening. The Book, however, will make us pause about our well established pre-conceived notions and (mis)conceptions. It might give a different meaning to things. It might help us look for a clear purpose behind everything – including history.
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