In the Name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful
I was reading Verse 9:74, wherein
hypocrites' declaration of belief in Allah and His Messenger was exposed to be
false! The hypocrites meant were those living then, that is at the time when
the Qur'aan was being revealed.
But it occurred to me, to my dismay,
that we, modern-day Muslims, could be such hypocrites as well!
We declare we are believers of the
Qur'aan! Really? Why do we then act contrary to some of the Qur'aanic edicts?
In Verse 17:110, Muslims are
instructed not to be too low in their voice during their prayers. But we disregard
this clear instruction and say our ظهر and عصر prayers inaudibly! Why?
In Verse 62:9, we are asked to
abandon all our mundane business and rush towards ذكر
الله immediately on hearing the Call for Friday prayer. What do we
do? We are in no hurry to leave our business! We delay our going to the Masajid
till it is time to start the ritual prayer. "The Imam's sermon isn't worth
hearing," we think. And the females think the divine directive is for men,
and not for women! So, they remain busy preparing meals for their men returning
from their prayers!!
Verse 2:187 directs us to fast إلى اليل till night. But we break our fast at sunset!
Sunset is not night. The atmosphere is still pervaded with daylight then. The
Qur'aan itself calls dawn and dusk to be the 2 ends of the day طرفي انهار and not ends of the night (refer Verse
11:114). Night comes when all remnants of daylight vanish from the atmosphere.
Just as fast starts, not at Sunrise, but at the start of dawn, it ends, not at
sunset, but at the end of dusk! But we do not bother, we follow what our
forefathers have been doing.
The elite amongst us - some of them,
not all, I grant - would rather have a pleasure trip around the world, than
perform a Hajj! On the other hand, there are some who would perform a Hajj or
an Umrah every year but would not spend on ameliorating some of the poverty
around them!
Some of us - the younger generation
particularly - usually enjoy a late-night show or remain busy with our mobile.
Then it becomes difficult for them to get up for the prescribed dawn prayer.
And, gradually, it becomes a habit! One day, they say a final bye to the dawn
prayer, and then, to all prayers!
Qur'aan instructs us to be truthful
always, and to stand firmly for justice even at our own cost! We casually go
against this instruction in the interest of our worldly gains. And we assume,
we have not done anything wrong!
Qur'aan repeatedly asserts that it
explains in detail all things necessary for leading a good, virtuous life. But
even our well-established Islamic scholars say that الربا(Ar-Riba) is not defined! In other words, they do not believe in
the Qur'aan!
I can go on and on recounting our
perfidies, but I am tired. I must stop here! The undeniable fact,
however, is that the modern-day Muslim is, generally speaking, a منافق, a hypocrite!
May Allah have mercy on us!
Amen,
Mohammad Shafi
