When Denial of Shirk (multiplicity of gods) becomes an Oppression!
In the Qur'an we learn of the sage Luqman's (alay his-salaam) bequest to his children, "Indeed Shirk (the association of others with GOD) is the greatest of Oppressions".
For it is an oppression against your own self since GOD had taken the oath from you when you were but atoms issued from the loins of Adam (as), at the beginnings of our creation (Surah Araf).
It is an oppression against the whole of mankind, since without the recognition of a transcendental singular GOD, who can conceive and put into action a Universal Justice.
(http://shafeesthoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/fallacy-of-shirk-polytheism-agnosticism_07.html?m=1)
And it is an oppression against the whole of Creation that cries out against and only bears man's insolence because the command of
GOD preceded and took precedence over it.
However even given all that, we live in a singular time when those who make it their primary business to deny Shirk (the multiplicity of gods) have become the greatest oppression against us.
For the people I speak of may well be my brothers is religion, but that should only encourage me to stop them when they err.
They are those who believe themselves to be the blessed, the guided, the Ahl ul Sunnah wa'l Jamat. Are we not all?
But these particular ones hold three fold program that they believe purifies them above all others.
That program consists of the
affirmation of the primacy of the Qur'an and Sunnah, the fear of Biddah (innovation), and the denial of Shirk.
In reality, all in reverse order.
And it is this misplaced and indeed over-emphasis on Shirk denial that is the root cause of their oppression on us.
For Muhammad (saw) said of us, being his Ummah, that he feared not for us to revert back to Shirk, but for us to become neglectful of our minor duties and responsibilities that men hold over men. And so it has been throughout our ages that the five rights that GOD holds over us
have never been neglected, save possibly one.
And that one whilst it is GOD's
right, and our duty to perform in obedience to HIM, it is the one whose benefit to others is abundantly clear.
It is the Zakat; the right that the poor, needy and traveller hold over us through GOD's grace.
The portent of Muhammad (saw)
is true, that whilst we uphold those things we neglect the right of a brother over a brother; the salaam, the overlooking of errors, and when they can't be overlooked then the consideration of excuses, and the brotherly goodness in all that it entails.
And it is these people in their pursuit of the denial of Shirk that run roughshod over our rights.
For they do not understand that the denial of Shirk does not of itself lend one to belief.
Whilst the accursed devil recognised the supremacy of God, he failed in his submission to HIM. And even supplicated for an everlasting life that he might lay in wait for the children of Adam on every highway and pass.
The Cornerstone of Belief.
The denial of Shirk is not the cornerstone of our belief.
Rather it is the doing of good; the smile, the social acts, and the upholding of all that is right and the fight against all that is wrong.
For Muhammad (saw) told us as much when he said that belief has seventy branches and the least of it is the removal of harm from the paths that men walk.
And not the denial, nor the rail, against Shirk.
And it is this over-emphasis on the thing that Muhammad (saw) under-emphasised for us that have visited a great oppression on the Ummah of Rasulullah.
Our HERITAGE.
For the house of al-Saud, and their ideology of
the ahlul-sunnah, has destroyed and continues to destroy our heritage: the
places that witnessed a phenomenal time that was the Prophet's life.
Where another would keep historical sites and use
them as a means of education for the people, they un-keep them, destroy them
and ignore them.
A very precious heritage on the verge of being
lost, because they fear that which Muhammad (saw) did not fear.
And even if they were right in regard to the few,
why squander for the many, that which would greatly benefit us all.
