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News and views of Bangladeshi community in Australia












Ramadan Mubarak
Mostafa Abdullah


1

Anas ibn Malik reported: A man said, “O Messenger of Allah, should I tie my camel and trust in Allah, or should I untie her and trust in Allah?” The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Tie her and trust in Allah.”

After my last article ‘The Divine Intervention’ was published in bangla-sydney.com, I came across this hadith of our prophet. I felt that it completely summarized what I intended to say in that article. I passed the hadith on to some of my friends and received some very interesting feedbacks, including some requests for further elaboration on it. This was a tough call for me. Nevertheless, I inferred that I must have had some insights of my own to attempt to write the article in the first place. So I set on to write this elaboration of my own.

May Allah forgive me for my ignorance and whatever I may say which may not be correct.

2

Among others, one rhetorical question that I faced; ‘If I do my work to the best of my abilities, does it really matter whether I trust in God or not?’ I would think that a straightforward, simple answer would be; if one believes in Allah, it does matter. But if one doesn’t, it would really be up to them. However, I have doubts that such a simple answer would suffice.

Let us consider the situation of a street beggar in the Dhaka city. A beggar must hope or believe that his/her effort is likely to yield something. And with that belief, he reaches out to you when you pass by in your car. He makes his case to everyone he can. Sometimes you grant him his wish, sometimes you don’t. When you do, do you give to everyone that stretches out his or her hand? Most often it is no. Your choice of person to give depends on who appeals to you most; in other words, the one who presents himself as the most deserving.

If the beggar relies solely on his belief but makes no effort, he would most likely die of starvation. By the same token, we must trust Allah while we go about our business to the best of our abilities. We must strive to do our best to present ourselves to be the most deserving. The outcome, however, is not in our hands just as the outcome of the beggar’s efforts is not in his or her hands.

Allah in His infinite magnanimity decides what is best for us, while we see only in the context of what is perceivable by us. We only see what is present before us, Allah sees in totality and decides and acts accordingly. (Ref: Surah Al-Kahf, verses 65 to 82 of the Holy Qur’an).

The truth of these verses hit me hard when the liberation movement for Bangladesh started on the night of 25th March, 1971. Most Bengalese that lived in a neighborhood of Mirpur, where our newly built house once stood, were massacred by the Biharis. We were spared the annihilation as at that time we lived elsewhere. Our house of thin walls and tin roof at Mirpur was completely destroyed in a tornado ten years earlier in 1963.

After our house was destroyed I often heard my father say ‘Nothing happens without a reason. The One above knows it all and He must have had a good reason’. He would say that we human beings can only see what is in front of us and what we can perceive. But Allah sees it in totality and decides accordingly. I believe that Allah in His enormity, for reasons best known to Him, may have had decided long before to save this family of three and hence caused us to leave the property by destroying it.


3

At the grey old age of 68, most often I am the oldest in Bangladeshi social gatherings (dawaats). This brings upon me a strange responsibility at times. Sometimes, the host requests me to lead a Du’a for some reason or other. First, I have rarely performed such acts in the past and I am hardly ever prepared for it. Most often it turns out to be, on my part, an insincere act.

By terming it ‘insincere’ on my part, I am in no way suggesting that we should not be performing Du’a as often as we do. In fact, one should ideally be in a state of Du’a at all times. Du’a is a privilege that Allah, in his overwhelming kindness has bestowed on us. One ought to be prepared at all times to ask for Allah’s forgiveness with the due fervor and humility that it commands; by appreciating its presence and indispensability in our lives and not as a passing social gesture.

I consider Du’a to be an appeal, an application for mercy and for salvation to Almighty Allah. When we make an application for anything; be it a job, a promotion, a raise or a grant, we put on our best face, best attire, best write up and generally make the best effort we can. We do it in order to earn the pleasure and favor of the one to whom we apply.

Do I contemplate if I am worthy of making an application to Allah? Have I prepared myself at all for standing in front of Him, for Him to find me deserving? I find myself saying no.

What must one do to make himself/herself presentable for application to Allah? Same as one would do for all earthly business matters – only in this case, it is about our salvation and it is the pleasure of Allah that is being sought. There may be a thousand and one opinions among the Ulemas as to the ways in which Allah’s pleasure may be earned. Any number of them could be right or wrong and Allah is the best judge. However, I suppose all the learned scholars may agree on one common denominator; that one has to be a believing Muslim.


4

But that again poses some serious questions as to the definition of a Muslim.

Following the anti-Ahmadi riots in Lahore, Pakistan in 1953, a public court of inquiry was appointed with Justice Muhammad Munir as President and Justice M.R. Kayani a Member to investigate the cause of disturbance.

The report published in April 1954, stated on page 215: ‘The question, therefore, whether a person is or is not a Muslim will be of fundamental importance, and it was for this reason that we asked most of the leading Ulema to give their definition of a Muslim,……’.

It follows on page 218: ‘Keeping in view the several definitions given by the Ulema, need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed on the fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any of the Ulema, we remain Muslim according to the view of that alim but kafir according to the definition of everyone else’. (Source: The Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali).

With this in view I again resorted to give myself an everyday worldview of the definition of a Muslim. In our everyday world, we join or become members of groups, clubs, unions, professional networks and so on. As one joins any such entity and declares him/herself to be a member, he/she is obliged and bound by the basic tenets of such an entity. To have the privilege of calling oneself a member one must observe certain minimum obligations of that organisation or the group.

Let us consider the situation of the Bangladesh Army. For that matter it could be the army of any country. To be able to claim to be a member of the regular Bangladesh Armed forces, amongst other things, one must take the oath of allegiance, train to be a soldier , continue to train to improve combatant skills, wear uniform as required and come to the defense of the nation when called for.

During the Liberation War of Bangladesh, a great many freedom fighters fought alongside our regular armed forces. Some of those freedom fighters even exceeded in their bravery, achievement and sacrifices in comparison to the others.

However gallant combatants they were, none of them can claim to be a member of Bangladesh Armed forces unless he or she observes and follows minimum tenets of regular armed forces. By the same token, could anyone who does not follow and observe the basic tenets of Islam claim to be a Muslim?


5

As we all know these are five basic tenants of Islam:
1. Shahadah: declaring there is no god except God, and Muhammad is God's Messenger
2. Salat: ritual prayer five times a day
3. Sawm: fasting and self-control during the blessed month of Ramadan
4. Zakat: giving 2.5% of one’s savings to the poor and needy
5. Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime if he/she is able to do

In my opinion, one must be prepared to observe and perform these five basic tenets to be able to claim to be a Muslim. And only then I feel reassured that I may be worthy of acceptance of my Du’as as a Muslim by the Almighty Allah.

Once one has attained these minimum requirements, one ought to improve on it further through studies, devotion and practice in order to be a better Muslim. This is almost similar to the situation of the defense personnel in our analogy. A soldier, after attaining basic requirements, is required to improve on it throughout his life through training and exercises. He is committed to becoming a better soldier.

One may mistake that I am questioning the right of prayer for non-Muslims or of the ones that do not fit my notion of a Muslim. That would be the least of my intentions. On the contrary, I am willing to defend, to the best of my abilities, anyone’s right to prayer as long as it does not interfere with someone else’s.

My premise is: as in any other situation in our everyday life, to be eligible to claim the membership to Islam, one ought to observe and adhere to its basic rules and requirements. I suppose it would be equally true for any other organized religion.

Allah knows best if I am right. May Allah forgive us for our ignorance, mistakes and sins. May He give us the courage to seek the Truth. May the month of Ramadan bring the best out of us. May we refresh our souls by placing limits on ourselves as a way to gain greater personal insights.

Ramadan Mubarak.








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