Not a fifth column

Orientalist focus has shifted. 

They still seek to undermine the historical basis of our culture, casting false doubts over mutawatta... that which has come down to us from various independent sources. 

Indeed it is opportune that attention to detail in historical analysis originated within our own body of knowledge, well before anyone else. 

In this age they enlist our own academia, even the likes of Al-Azhar, against ourselves, when they support doctorates that declare that when we live in Ireland, per se, we are living the closest to an idealised Islamic lifestyle. 

It is no laughing matter when they grade each country, or society, according to an Islamic Index that shows that Muslim countries are the bottom of that pile. 

It is no laughing matter when the likes of Hamza Yusuf says that if you complain then you should emigrate to Muslim Lands where you freedom for religious expression, and devotion, will be limited. 

After the period of silence, when yearning after the revelation had replaced the initial fear of it, God revealed Ad-Duha (the Morning Brightness) as both a consolation and an affirmation of the Messenger (saw). 

This was before the public call to belief. 

And yet even at that outset, by means of affirming the Messenger’s actions before revelation, Islam was defined as a social religion concerned with social justice- feeding the poor, looking after the orphans and destitute. 

And then close on it, so much so that they are twinned, came al-Inshirah (the expansion or solace), a premonition of what was to come. 

“Verily with hardship there is ease. 

With hardship there is ease.”

The Messenger (saw) told us that on the day of no doubt, that he would make sajda (prostration - where we fall on our faces in humility before God) to Allah, to his hearts content. 

The implication being that he (saw) never made so within his earthly life. 

That there was always some other right pressing on him.  

That his way, and our religion, has much more to offer than the worship of the Most Gracious, as is His right and our inherent need. 

Indeed our faith is not to be content with it being practised in our homes, as the Orientalist and their agents wish.  

Nor is our faith to ignore the social injustices that pervade society. 

Nor is our faith to ignore the political hypocrisy that condemns our brothers and sisters a continent away. 

We live in the eye of the storm, and whilst it is calm here in the West, be of no doubt that the troubles that face the World’s worst off have roots here. 

When it is said to them do not make mischief in the land, they say “we are the peace makers”. That is the political hypocrisy that is clearly evident within this sea of calm, whilst all about are in turmoil. 

And it is our religion that holds that to be a looking glass for this body politic, and to hold up and show off the ugliness of their hypocrisy to their very faces, is a powerful calling. 

To do that with honour, ability and humanity, for all, is all that we should aspire to. 

That we might try our best to affect change, for the betterment of the World at large, for everyone from Africa to the Americas. 

And truth be told to the likes of our Scholars that wish for us to bury our heads in the sand, that democracy demands that we contribute. 

And what better way to contribute than to call out the hypocrisy of this false democracy, the hypocrisy that enslaves other countries to dictatorships, and then to be the standard bearers to a better- more inclusive- way. 

For holding out for truth and justice for others less fortunate than ourselves, who live on the other side of the world, should be part and parcel of this democracy. 

And we should be able to do so without fear of being labelled a fifth column, or a traitor. 

For far greater things bind us together, than separate us, because of where we live.

What I have said here is my opinion. If it is wrong then that wrong belongs to me. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation, not via lectures, nor speeches, nor this. 

Shafees