Dallas Natia Mushaira, aqeeda and women

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/dallas-natia-mushaira-aqeeda-and-women.html

There are two aspects of Mushaira I want to share;
1) Aqeeda or broadly devotion to the prophet and

2) Reduced role of women in the program.

Every one has a different level of devotion to the prophet and each one expresses it differently. As I go around different places of worship within and without the religions, I have learned to appreciate the “devotion” expressed in different formats.   

The Naatia Mushaira (Praise songs honoring the Prophet) reiterated a fact that Muslims are not a monolithic lot and I am glad we are accepting the diversity within without judgment; we are as diverse as God has made us.

Indeed, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made our life easy for us by predicting that there will be 72 (a metaphoric number to express diversity) tribes among his followers and each one was to compete in doing good.  You may find a refreshing wisdom in it; the prophet wanted us to accept that we are going to have differences but we will join in together in creating peace, salaam to every one of the humans that share the planet with us. There is a greater wisdom in the 2^nd part of that statement that one among you would be the  righteous one,  and here is the kicker; only Allah will judge that, not now, but on the Day of Judgment, thus we were encouraged to compete in doing good without being judgmental about the other.  

Most of the Muslims understand that Allah is Rabbul Aalameen (Lord of the universes) and not our exclusive God, and they also believe that the Prophet is Rahmatul Aalameen (Mercy to mankind) and not just the prophet of men, but women as well.

A few among us strip the universality of Islam and make it a private club, and become judgmental about others and pre-empt Allah and the Day of Qayamat and condemn people.  No one can judge the faith of others, if they cannot get the Malik-i-Yo Middin that is recited at least 17 times a day; then I have no Idea what they can get out of parroting it.  

Do we have the humility to respect the way “the other” tribes worship God and respect Muhammad (pbuh)? Are we arrogant to declare that others are wrong? Are we humble enough to accept that our tradition works for us, as others’ work for them?

This is the toughest question Muslim will face. Once the humility enters our hearts and arrogance exits, Taqwa (piety and spirituality) grows within us.

AMAZING NAATS

Great poetry was recited, at the same time I was respectfully swallowing how a few of us have made Muhammad (pbuh), a substitute for God. Please don’t say Naoozu billah, only God knows what is in one’s heart.

It was refreshing to hear these couplets;

            Nirali shaan hai us ki, a ummat-e-mustafai hai

            Amal say dur hai lekin aqeedate inteha ki hai

            ( there is devotion but far from acts of goodness)

And

            Mere pyare nabee nay mujh say bus itna chaha tha

            Faqt insaan kehla-oon, faqt insaan bun jaaon

            (My prophet asked me to be a good human, I hope to become one)

And

            Le aayi hai kis mukhaam per apni fikr

            Paighambar say Ishq hai, paigham say nahin.

            (we love the prophet but have forgotten the message)       

In the past, I have heard a few couplets, where the poet was close to saying God was born out of the Noor of the Prophet…   however the following lines were mild compared to what I have heard in the past,  these  lines lead to dual interpretations;

·        Sooraj may tab aanay lagi 

·        Naat padhna ibadat kay barabar hai 
          Reading in the praise of the prophet amounts to worship to God

·        Bus itna fasila hai Rasool aur khuda may, ek dil ke paas ek rag-e-jaan ke

·        Ek shabeha noor-e-haq, dur shakl-e insaani mili

As a person who appreciates every which way people bow to the creator, it was fascinating for me to see the reverence for the prophet expressed differently. One group loves the man for the glad tiding he brought to the society and admires him for being humble, and the other one makes him divine. To you is your belief and to me is mine.

Mahtab Hussein writes on the face book, “I do have much Love for my Prophet but never worship him. I do appreciate his Human Capacity, his Eloquent Speeches, his love for people & Humanity, his personal character and his human Qualities.”

That was my sentiment as well. I love the prophet for bringing Rahmat to the world; he brought pure goodness to all humanity, of which we the Muslims are a part of.

The role of women 

Prophet Muhammad brought Rahmat, kindness to humanity and uplifted women from the oppressive traditions. He established and treated them as equals.

Women & Men are each other’s garments, each other’s respect, each others partners, being just is what God commands you to be. This equitable relationship between the husband and the wife must be one of love, mercy, tranquility, and kindness.

“Scholars have interpreted this to mean that husbands and wives need mutual support, mutual comfort, and mutual protection. It is also a reference to the fact that spouses are each other’s sanctuary in so far as each covers the others’ shortcomings and preserves his or her privacy; hence the tranquility and harmony.” Bassam A. Abed & Syed E. Ahmad.

Among us Muslims, a few of us do not have the guts to speak up when we see something wrong.  With one mouth we say Prophet is Rahmatul Aalameen but with the other we have a different rule. That "sher" is reflective of the state of affairs with the South Asian Muslims. “Paighambar say Ishq hai, paigham say nahin.”

Mere pyare nabee nay mujh say bus itna chaha tha
Faqt insaan kehla-oon, faqt insaan bun jaaon
By Khalid Khawaja

The woman who gets beaten will take the beating in all cultures, but when shameless men conveniently use (abuse) Islam to justify their acts, Prophet is not a Rahmat to them any more, Prophet was not Rahmat to Asia Bibi. Who is denigrating the prophet worse than the cartoonists?  

I urge Muslims everywhere to bring about a change and I hope in Naatia Mushairas, whereever we hold; we would want to see a women sing the Naats. They have a greater love for the man who uplifted them than the men.
  

Recently, I have witnessed shameless men walking out from a public gathering when a Muslim woman went to speak. the greatness of women is they put up with this non-sense to keep the dignity of the event, thank God , we live in America, a land of justice and as Imam Feisal alludes, the principles of dignity and equality of Islam are practiced in this nation. We don’t have to let others denigrate our religion based on our acts.  I will speak up and I hope there are more “men” out there who have the guts to speak up.

You can see how some of these men could feed the Fox news; they are a fodder to the right wing news media.  Unless we speak up against unjust practices, the right wingers beleive that we are an accomplice.

Prophet Muhammad is a mercy to mankind and each one of us who truly believes in it has to make that happen. May Allah guide us all to receive the message of the prophet to act on it and not talk about it. Amen!

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Mike Ghouse

http://www.MikeGhouse.net/

Muhammad (pbuh) the peace maker

God willing this will continue with a series of talks on how different peacemakers around the world have contributed in creating an ideal society, the kingdom of heaven on earth where all humanity lives and feels home.

Tonight I spoke on Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) at Fun Asia, Richardson in a Natia Mushaira (poetry session in Urdu language in praise of the prophet) a tradition among Muslims of South Asia and perhaps others. I did not say anything new, but offered a new dimension to think about. http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/muhammad-pbuh-peace-maker.html

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I spoke to the predominantly Muslim audience gathered to sing hymns in praise of the prophet, a mercy to mankind. It is a South Asian Tradition, however,  not all Muslims celebrate Prophet's birthday differentiating between respect for him and making him divine. Prophet had said, only God is worthy of all worship. As a Muslim I know deep down no Muslim worships the Prophet, but expressess his or her appreciation in a vareity of ways.  Personally I accept the diversity,  it is a genuine admiration for a man who showed how to live in peace and tranquility with one self and with others.

I am simply copying the bullet points from my power point, but the explanations will come in the form of video later.

How did this program “Muhammad the peace maker” come about?

Every Year across America, the peace communities celebrate the season of peace from Jan 30 through April 4, a period of two months. These two dates are sandwiched by the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi and Rev. Martin Luther King

As Muslims we have not reached out to the communities and shared about Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) mission, who is Mercy and a blessing to mankind, meaning his systems, and his teachings if followed, could bring the ideal peace and justice to the world.

So, I asked the peace organizations that I wanted to present the role of Prophet Muhammad in creating cohesive societies, they agreed.

The house was packed and a majority of them had heard negative things about the prophet. It’s amazing how we human beings fall for falsities about others, Muslims do it, Hindus do it, Sikhs do it, and Jews do it… and so do the Christians and other. I am glad the people had a chance to learn about the prophet, especially when those cartoons were floating around.

Now, I have taken this up to speak about the Prophet, the peace maker in a series of talks on Peace makers.

This program was designed from a very generic point of view. Nothing I will say would be new, However, It will offer a new dimension that some of you (Muslims) may find it refreshing… 

Who is a peace maker? Would you agree it is the one who mitigates conflicts and nurtures good will and brings about a sustainable balance to the society?  Does that make sense?

What is peace? Peace can be defined as Justice, and Justice gives birth to peace; when there is justice, and there is a sense of security among people.

What do the expressions “coming home to”, “feels like home”… mean to you? It is like a child in a mothers lap, feeling safe and secure and knowing that if he or she is hungry and cry, justice will be served, he will be wiped or she will be fed. At home, you are at peace when you drop all your guards, and feel secure and safe.

When you are home with your best friend, you do not choose your words when you talk with him or her, you speak your heart, there is comfort, there is home in it, it is like being in mothers safe and secure lap. That’s what a home means, being yourselves and at ease.

The Ideal Society per Prophet Muhammad was a society like a mothers lap for a child.

I have not verified this particular Hadith (Saying), where the prophet says, the height of civility in an ideal society is where a woman or a child can walk any where any time without any fear. He is claimed to have said that if a woman can walk from Madina to Damascus without any fear, that is the ideal society, where every one respects and honors God and his words of creating a Jannah (kingdom of heaven) on the Earth. That is respecting each ones God given space.

The golden rule is same, exactly same in every religion - do unto others as you would want others to do to you. Treat others as you wanted to be treated.

Those who get their own religious message are good religious people, and those who don't, tend to be on the fringe and harbor ill-will towards others.

Allah o taala - the God almighty says in Quraan, “to every nation, every community and every tribe, I have sent a messenger, a prophet or a peace maker”.

God loves his creation, as the “Shaer (poet)” likes his “sama-een (listeners)” and wants to render the best Shaeri” for them. Allah cares about his creation and sends a peace maker to every nook and corner – no one is deprived of his love.

The message is the same in all Religions, Avatar Krishna says, whenever and where ever there is Adharma (social disorder), I will emerge from among you and restore the righteousness, the dharma back. It is almost like the laws of nature, the physical laws seeking balance, every piece of matter seeks its own balance, it’s built into it, if it fails, and it collapses. Indeed Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made it clear that he did not bring a new religion, he just brought the same message that 124,000 other messengers had brought, it was comprehensive and inclusive message.

Look at all the peace makers of the world; they all came to fix the societies. Moses, Buddha, Zarathustra, Mahavira, Krishna, Rama, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Bahaullah… and all the peace makers and they did fix their respective societies. Their work is marked by utter un-selfishness, all their work was geared towards creating a functioning society.

Muhammad the peace maker:

Now let’s talk about a few things that Prophet Muhammad set the examples for, there are over 15 items, but respecting the time, I will keep to a few of them.

Darood please.. Allahumma soli ala, syedina shafiana o maulana muhammadin o barik o sallim.

MODELS OF PEACE - AMIN 

The first model he created for the world to emulate was the title and honor he received from his community – THE AMIN, the trust worthy, the truth seeker and the one whose integrity and honesty was beyond question. Mind you, he was called AMIN, not by Muslims but others.  He was called Amin much before he set out on his mission to work on building the concept of Tauheed, the oneness of humanity, oneness of creation, oneness of God where every one feels home; being in the lap of the mother, safe, worriless, anxiety-less, safe and secure.  Hinduism has a beautiful word for it Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the whole world is one family, indeed every religion has the idea of oneness built in to it. 

Heck our pledge of allegiance is fashioned that way,one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Whether they are Muslims, Christians or Hindus, or Americans, Chinese or Arab, the fulfilment of that vision is gradually realized and never 100% ,  less than 1% of any group does not get that message.

Here are fifteen key ideas, as I have said earlier, every one of you know every one of the following stories, all I am asking you to look at it afresh and the deeper dimension embedded into these in creating that one family and mothers lap for the humanity.

It is essentially expanding and sharing with you what Rahmatul Aalameen means in terms of peace and tranquility to humans.

•        Aswad stone story - a model of peace to mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill

•        Taif Example - good will is sustainable over revenge against those who pelted stone at him. Did he not turn the other Cheek? He knew violence begets violence and goodwill nurtures peace.

•        The Old lady throwing trash, it is the patience and genuine caring without having an ill-will towards the one who has the ill-will towards you. Can you apply this in your daily life?

•        Prophet walks up to a Jewish procession and kisses their Torah to show respect and consciously creating values of inclusiveness and co-existence.

•        What is a Good deed, Quraan 49:13 and Prophet’s example of planting a seed or sapling that will benefit others?

•        Peace Treaty signature – Muhammad Bin Abdullah instead of Muhammad Rasool Allah – Prophet gave an example of learning to respect the otherness of other, one of the greatest examples that can be applied in peace making between Israel and Palestine of any situation.  Can you think of how valuable this is in peace negotiations?

•        Muhammad (pbuh) was the 2^nd Human in history who carried an interfaith dialogue; the other was Cyrus, the Zoroastrian king. I will cut to the point… He offered Najran Christian scholars to pray at his mosque when the time for prayer came. Can you imagine this? He did not believe what they believed, he did not believe Jesus was son of God, but yet he offered them to pray at his mosque. What does it tell you? Showing respect for others belief.  I have written an explanation of Sura Kafirun that you may want to visit.  http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2008/07/sura-kafirun-un-believers.html

•        Madinah charter, one of the first pluralist documents offering freedom to practice ones faith – the other one was by Cyrus. The prophet was the king, civic and religious leader, he did not have to offer freedom to any one. But yet he chose to initiate the charter offering Jews, Christians and others their freedom to practice their religion.  It’s a lesson for Muslim majority nations to follow, if at all they follow their own prophet.

•        Treat no prophet above the other, it is one of the most powerful verses in Quraan, it is to prevent Muslims from believing that their prophet is superior and bred arrogance in them. The moment one feels superior to the other, conflict takes root. One is trying to look down and the other is fighting. That is the bravest thing to say and that is the right thing to say, religion is all about humility and not arrogance. As I said earlier, you knew the story and here is a dimension that some of you may have missed.

·        Honoring Bilal a superior place in paradise to remove the prejudicial barriers that existed then; how many of your are guilty of it? Yet some claim they are Aashiq-e-Rasool, (fans of the prophet, without following his teachings). There is no room for prejudice in Islam an it is prejudice that destroys the social fabric of the society.

•        Men and women are each others garments?

            Equal rights for women...

•        inculcating the values of equality through the prayers, fasting etc

•        establishing individual responsibility for one's behavior

•        emphasis on free will/ arrogance  spirituality

Next time around, I will give a full presentation and go in detail on all the points and perhaps in Urdu.

Thank you.

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer. He runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and is committed to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, and Peace & Justice at your place of worship, school, work place, seminars or conferences.  He is a media commentator offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. 

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/