Religion

News organizations are businesses subject to supply and demand just as other businesses are. They know that sensationalism sells, and the event on 9-11

created a tidal wave for profitable possibilities for them. Americans were shocked and enraged by those attacks, and that made for a perfect storm as the mass media efficiently fed the publics’ frenzy.

The masses should know that sincerity in religion is demonstrated by G-d’s choice of the best human example to establish religion for Him.

The brief paragraphs that follow, display simple but common Islamic principles that confirm extremism is alien to Islam.

When truthfully examining Islam, deducing that it is on an excellent foundation is easy, however, its followers are not always grounded on the same.

All of humankind agrees that G-d condemns taking innocent life with uncivilized savagery.

Islam is not empty of warnings, as the Qur’an reminds the believer of the fate that awaits those who exceed the limits placed by G-d.

G-d has said in the Qur’an revealed to Prophet Muhammad, “Fight until there is no more persecution and religion is free for G-d.”

Cease hostilities against your enemies is indicated by the first half of the preceding verse, once they have terminated their aggression. Religion is sacred, but the followers of it should know that unscrupulous characters can put it to practice before the people, in a way that was not G-d’s intention. That is the greater priority to know from the second part of that verse.

In order for society to progress, religion must not be used to dictate the lives of the people. Keeping them uneducated, or afraid to explore and extract goodness from creation is evil. For lives dedicated to G-d, religion has to be free. It can’t be the exclusive property of despots or some special class. The Qur’an says that in the life and freedom for man that G-d created, the better state for man is achieved when he practices self-restraint on his own. Not a religious restraint imposed by a government. Muhammad the Prophet demonstrated this with the society he established.

Forgetting how G-d presents Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an, is a criticism of Islam’s followers. G-d revealed that Prophet Muhammad is an excellent human model and is sufficient as a leader for all people to follow.

Prophet Muhammad had to be ordered for the good of his new followers to “Fight until there is no more persecution and religion is free for G-d.” His peaceful nature disallowed him to seek to fight against those who did him much wrong. His enemies attacked and injured him so brutally, that the people could hear the blood squishing in his sandals as he walked away. He sought or required no retribution.

A requirement that Prophet Muhammad placed on the muslims even in the mist of the raging battle was, that they also had to prevent their natural G-d given inclinations from infectious battlefield savagery. His command also was that noncombatants were to be left alone and not treated the same as those warring against them. To not destroy even the trees or the cultivated products that the people will need to sustain themselves at the end of battle.

The cold-blooded tactics that we regularly witness in the news presently, aren’t found in the battlefield campaigns of Prophet Muhammad nor is that spirit found in the pages of the Qur’an. What are its origins then? Muslims have given the higher priority to the worlds influence, rather than to Islam.

G-d revealed to Prophet Muhammad in the Qur’an : “And follow the best thereof.”

Life at all its changing stages, is attended to with religion. Life for the individual, the family, the community, even the life for the whole world. Following “the best thereof” brings out the best results.

The Klansmen insist that there is Biblical support for the bizarre concept of humanity they preach. The media doesn’t label them ‘Christian White Supremacist’. And I can understand why. When the terrorist use verses from the Qur’an to justify their abnormal reasoning, media shouldn’t label them “Islamic Terrorists.” There is no Islam in their actions.

Islam present to muslims, instructions on how life is to be lived in due proportions. The extreme views from the detractors of Islam, reflect just how skewed the news has become since the attack on 9-11.

Even while encountering the hypocritical face in contrast to the noble document that said “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…..”, the slave descendants of America sought to find relief using the most precious ideals of the new nation, not by desecrating or skewing its beautiful principles.

The great abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, along with others, questioned the commitment of America and its citizens, to the great values championed by its venerated guiding documents. Those American giants rightly exposed deficiencies in the people for living up to the high civil standards those documents articulated. The abolitionists goal was to raise the peoples’ moral conscious, not to tear down its beacon of light.

The lessons this nation learned from its history of clumsy social change, spurred it to finally recognize and protect the life, the liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of all its citizens. Americans should discern the need for the same with respect to Islam and its wayward following.

African American Muslims see the convergence of America’s special regard for human life with the values that are extolled by the life of Prophet Muhammad whose guiding light was the Qur’an. America could easily win the hearts and minds of other muslims if she would shout to the world that she sees the clear difference between the extremists and what Islam demonstrates.

Peace.
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