Page 16 Page 17 The Islamic Bulletin Noor Al-Malaikah Freeland “Sister, who is your Lord and Savior-do you not fear the hellfire?!” A fat man in a blue suit charged with spittle on his chin as he waved his Bible enthusiastically outside theWest Florida Regional Public Library. “You’re gonna be in Heaven, right?” I asked, my practiced reply in mind. And upon his immediate affirmative came my cheeky retort, “Well then, Hell doesn’t sound so bad to me.” Growing up in the “Bible-belt” provided lots of opportunity for self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics (my friends and I) to spar with so-called “bible-beaters” like this man. We had great disdain for organized religion and itsmembers; peoplewhowillingly submitted to theology and took the rolesof brainless sheep. Theyacceptedanythingapreacher saidas factwith nomore substantial evidence than their own faithandno required thought. My cohorts and I (to the best of my knowledge) had no more understanding of the “f”word thanwehadof thepurple/green gloop servedon Wednesdays in our school cafeteria. But through all our joking, sarcastic remarks, and even our disdain, I had a deep dark secret: I wanted to believe in God and my lack of faith scared me to death. I sat in church every Sunday, listening and waiting for Jesus (PBUH) to “enter my heart” (astaghfirallah). I wanted the understanding and the blind faith that I saw in the people around me. But it never came. When I read the Bible, I felt sickness inside. It held no more truth than an interesting novel. I could not pray in the name of Jesus (PBUH) for Jesus (PBUH) was a man. He ate as a man, spoke as a man, slept as a man and he accomplished miracles only in the name of God. I wanted to pray in the name of God. Christians seemed to worship a God who was no more than a man, no more superior than a king. Soon, all my hope once again became disdain. As I looked at mankind, this disdain took the formof despair. I disparaged our very existence and a hideous kind of cynicism captured my sick heart. People are utterly selfish-without honor.We are “civilized” dogs. Snapping andpissing and accomplishing nothing except perhaps to produce more of ourselves. We are faithless beings without any true loyalty and hypocrites in every right.We deserve nothingwhichwe own, and yet we truly own nothing. Shakespeare said it best when he called us clumsy untrained actors flailing around on the stage of life. I didn’t knowwhat came after death, but whatever horror it could be-it was nothing a human didn’t deserve. The fat man’s eyes widened and he pointed a crooked finger at me as he said, “Sister, HELL is no joke! Jesus is-” Something snapped deep inside me and I felt hysteria rise in my throat as-ignoring all on-lookers and passer-bys-I screamed, “WHO IS JESUS?!?” At this point the man got a knowing (okay, condescending) look on his face as he launched into the all too familiar “vapor, solid, liquid” analogy. I immediately interruptedhim,beyondmyselfwithire, “DoNOTtellmethat Jesus (a human!) is to God as ice is to water vapor!” I stood up and spread my arms apart in appeal, “we are creations of God and Jesus was like US! We lay no claim to perfection except our own knowledge of its existence. Look aroundyou! Look inside you! Look at your ownugliness! Ask yourself howGodcanbeanything likeyou-Howcanyoubeanything likeGOD!!!?” Tearswere nowstreaming downmy face and I was shaking as four or five people stared in shocked silence. “The only goodness we have comes from God but we continue to succor evil. You worship a man and you worship yourself. SURELY, if there is a Hell, you will burn in it for all your “knowledge” of God!” It took less than a moment for me to regret these words, thrown like stones in anger. However, today I do recognize their utmost importance in my life. As I looked around me that day, I saw many strange faces, all displaying varying degrees of reaction tomy tirade.One face, inparticular, was marked by grave interest and... curiosity. The man had dark Arab features and a long graying beard. In a moment, he approachedme and said, “I want to show you something.” I followed him into the library; we walked amid countless shelves of human “wisdom.” In silence, we reached the area marked “600’s-religion and philosophy.” He searched a moment and then proceeded to hand me a book entitled, The Noble Qur’an. It had a translator but no author. “Read this,” he said, “and find peace because Sister you are Muslim.” I read the Qur’an in less than a day and then I read it again. I felt the first stirrings of true trust in my life. For me, this volume answered every mystery I cared to question. One of the great guiding principles of Islam is that the believer should tread a path between fear and hope. He should not take it for granted that he will enter Paradise, because this will make him complacent, and he does not know in what state he will die. Nor should he assume that he is going to Hell, because this is despairing of the mercy of Allaah, which is forbidden. So the believer does righteous deeds, and hopes that Allaah will reward him for them, and he avoids evil deeds out of fear of the punishment of Allaah. If he commits a sin, he repents in order to gain forgiveness and protect himself from the punishment of Hell. Allaah forgives all sins and accepts the repentance of those who repent. If a believer fears that the good deeds he has sent on before him are not enough, as you suggest, then he will increase his efforts, in fear and hope. No matter howmany righteous deeds he has sent on before him, he cannot rely on them and take them for granted, or else he will be doomed. He keeps striving and hoping for reward, and at the same time he fears lest his deeds be contaminated with any element of showing off, self-admiration, or anything that will lead to them being rejected by Allaah. Allaah describes the believers (interpretation of the meaning): “...those who give that (their charity) which they give (and also do other good deeds) with their hearts full of fear (whether their alms and charity, etc.) have been accepted or not), because they are sure to return to their Lord (for reckoning).” [al-Mu’minoon 23:60] So the believer keeps on striving, fearing, and hoping, until he meets his Lord, believing in Tawheed (Divine Unity) and doing righteous deeds, and earns the pleasure of his Lord and Paradise. If you think about the matter, youwill realize that these are the right motives for action, and that righteousness cannot be achieved in this life in any other way. As regards to what Christians say about original sin, this matter needs to be approached from several angles. Firstly: The Islamic belief concerning human sin is: the individual bears the responsibility for his own sin; no one else should bear this burden for him, nor should he bear the burden for anyone else. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): “And no bearer of burdens shall bear another’s burden...” [Faatir 35:18] This refutes the idea of original sin. If the father commits a sin, what fault is that of his children and grandchildren? Why should they bear the burden of a sin that someone else committed? The Christian belief that the descendents should bear the sin of their father is the essence of injustice. Howcan any sane person say that the sin should be carried down the centuries by all of humanity, or that the children, grandchildren, and subsequent descendants should be tainted because of their father’s sin? Why I Embraced Islam Dr. Tariq Al Suwaidan discovered some verses in the Holy Quran that mention one thing is equal to another. See below for some astonishing results: 24 - Al Rajul (Man) 24 - Al Mar’ ha (Woman) 115 - Al Dunia (This Life) 115 - Al Aakhirat (The Hereafter) 88 - Al Malaika (The Angels) 88 - Al Shayteen (The Satans) 145 - Life 145 - Death 11 - Iblis (King of Devils) 11 - Seek refuge from Iblis And amazingly enough look how many times the following words appear: 5 Salat (Prayer) 12 Al-Shahr (Month) 365 Al-Yahom (Day) 32 Sea 13 Land Sea + Land = 32 + 13 = 45 % Sea 32 / 45 * 100 71.11111111% + % Land 13 / 45 * 100 28.88888889% = 100.00% Modern Science has only recently proven that the water covers 71.111% of the earth, while the land covers 28.889%. The Miracles of the Quran will never end. There will never be a time where mankind can fully take in the knowledge that is in this holy book. It is a treasure of which guides those that want to succeed in this life and the hereafter. Following Are Excerpts From a Letter by Malcolm X After His First Pilgrimage America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered ‘white’-but the ‘white’ attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color. Never have I witnessed such overwhelming spirit of hospitality and the true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this Ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad, and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors. There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and the non-white. You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth. During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug-while praying to the same God-with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was die blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of ‘white’. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana... We were truly all the same (brothers)-because their belief one God had removed the ‘white’ from their minds, the ‘white’ from their behavior, and the ‘white’ from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, in reality the Oneness of Man-and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color. With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called ‘Christian’ white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds. Sincerely, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) Math in the Quran Letter from Mecca
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjQ1