By
Arman Neyazi, New Age Islam
5 April
2021
Allah has
created this world like a garden, where there are flowers of different colours,
sizes and fragrance. Some of the flowers do have thorns in them, even then
those flowers are a part of the beauty of the garden. Besides being thorny they
carry fragrance which attracts people towards them. Not all the flowers carry
pleasant fragrance. Some flowers do have the fragrance you do not like but it
does not mean that they are not beautiful and a valuable part of the garden. In
the gardens, we have trees of different shapes and sizes having different kinds
of fruits - sweet and sour. Sour fruits are not useless, sometimes they are
very useful as they are used for medicines of the diseases that cause pain and
sometimes death to human beings. So even the fruits human beings do not like to
eat are useful to them, hence cannot be cut and thrown. In some cases they are
protected for the benefit of humanity.
Photo Courtesy/Can Islam Be French? Pluralism and Pragmatism in a
Secularist State. By John B. Bowen, 2010, Princeton: Princeton University
Press. ISBN 9780691152493
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In the same
fashion, the world we are living in has people of different colours, castes,
creeds and religion. They have different festivals, different ways of living
with different habits of food and different fashions of clothing. We may not
like some of them for their colour, castes or religion but they also are as
useful as the sour but life-saving fruits.
We the
people of this world are like the different varieties of flowers and trees of
the garden, called the universe. We are made for each other and are necessary
for the beauty of this creation. We all have to be a part of this garden to
make it beautiful, peaceful and harmonious. Some of us may not be liked by some
others among us, but those people are also a part of this world and are as necessary
as those sour fruits of the garden which we do not like to eat, unless it is
necessary to save our life.
Islam
Understands the Value of Differences; It Values and Respects Them
Islam has
created a world where all its inhabitants have equal rights, be it in social
matters or religious. Islam does not consider people with their religious
beliefs but as a human being created by Allah, the creator. Islam knows that
all do not belong to the same social concept and the same religious concept but
they all belong to the world, created by God with all its magnificent and
glorious colours and customs and creeds.
Allah, the
Almighty has never talked of only Muslims but for the whole world and the
people reside in it. The following very well-known Ayat of Surah Al-Anbiya
tells it all.
“And We
have sent you (O Muhammad) not but as a mercy for the ‘Alameen (mankind, Jinns
and all that exists)” (al-Anbiya’ 21:107)
In the eyes
of Islam, Muslims and Non-Muslims both are a part of this amazing world and so
to keep the harmony of the society going, Allah in His Book, the Holy Quran has
time to time given commands to His servants guiding to act with their parents,
relatives, friends and neighbours.
Relationship
with Non-Muslim Parents
If a Muslim
has non-Muslim parents and if the parents are reluctant to let him follow Islam
and teach him Shirk, the following Ayat is revealed for the guidance in Surah
Lumen 31: Verse 14-15, as under:
وَوَصَّيْنَا ٱلْإِنسَٰنَ بِوَٰلِدَيْهِ حَمَلَتْهُ
أُمُّهُۥ وَهْنًا عَلَىٰ وَهْنٍ وَفِصَٰلُهُۥ فِى عَامَيْنِ أَنِ ٱشْكُرْ لِى
وَلِوَٰلِدَيْكَ إِلَىَّ ٱلْمَصِيرُ
And We have
enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing
her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to
Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination. (14) English - Sahih
International The Noble Qur'an
وَإِن جَٰهَدَاكَ عَلَىٰٓ أَن تُشْرِكَ بِى مَا لَيْسَ
لَكَ بِهِۦ عِلْمٌ فَلَا تُطِعْهُمَا ۖ وَصَاحِبْهُمَا فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا مَعْرُوفًا
ۖ وَٱتَّبِعْ سَبِيلَ مَنْ أَنَابَ إِلَىَّ ۚ ثُمَّ إِلَىَّ مَرْجِعُكُمْ
فَأُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُون
But if they endeavor to make you associate with
Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them in
[this] world with appropriate kindness and follow the way of those who turn
back to Me [in repentance]. Then to Me will be your return, and I will inform
you about what you used to do. English - Sahih International
The above
mentioned Ayats are commanding the Muslims not to obey their non-Muslim parents
when they try to deviate them from the righteous path and ask them to commit
Shirk but to treat them with kindness.
Consider
this Hadees related to Non-Muslim parents:
Asma’ bint
Abu Bakr As-Siddiq (May Allah be pleased with her) said:
“My mother came to me while she was still a
polytheist, so I asked the Messenger of Allah, ‘My mother has come to visit me
and she is hoping for (my favor). Shall I maintain good relations with her?’
He (peace and blessings be upon him) replied,
‘Yes, maintain good relations with your mother’” (Al- Bukhari and Muslim).
Non-Muslim’s
Social and Religious Rights Protected by Islam
As far as
protection of the rights of the non-Muslim, in a minority, is concerned,
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) has given strict instructions in the following two
Ahadith. Many of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad have narrated the
following Hadees regarding the protection of the rights of non-Muslims.
‘Beware, if anyone wrongs a Mu`ahid [i.e. a
non-Muslim enjoying the protection of Muslims], or diminishes his right, or
forces him to work beyond his capacity, or takes from him anything without his
consent, I shall be his adversary on the Day of Judgment” (Abu Dawud).
And the
Hadees narrated by `Abdullah ibn `Amr:
The Prophet said, “Whoever killed a Mu’ahid
shall not smell the fragrance of Paradise though its fragrance can be smelt at
a distance of forty years (of traveling).” (Al-Bukhari).
Muslims
residing in the Muslim countries have much to learn from the above two Ahadith
and exhibit the Islamic character by protecting the social, political and
religious rights of all the non-Muslim brethren.
Even doing
business with non-Muslims is not forbidden as Allah apostle, Prophet Muhammad
(SAW) used to have business relationship with them. Consider the following Hadith
narrated by Hazrat Aisha (RA):
“The Messenger of Allah bought some food on
credit from a Jew, and he gave him a shield of his as collateral (ضمانت)” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
The Hadees
narrated by Jabir ibn Hayyan about the respect shown to the non-Muslim
funerals:
“The Prophet and his Companions stood up for
the funeral of a Jew until it disappeared” (Sunan An-Nasa’i).
The world
today is mired in sectarianism, communalism, regionalism and hypocrisy and
hatred towards each other, unknown of slipping towards the end of the tunnel of
more darkness harming the social ethos, that are the beauty of this world. Let
us take lessons of love and harmony from the flowers, the trees and the fruits.
Let us not be like the wild animals of the dense forest where each one of them
is prying on each other. Let us live together. Let not the Islamophobes lies of
Muslims hate all others spread. It certainly is not going to bring any positive
result towards you as one reaps what one sows.
Islamic
teachings of love and equality, in the Quranic Ayats and Ahadith, are the
answer to the Islamophobic utterances of the Islam haters, if understood and
followed. Followers of all the religion must understand that spreading hatred
and talks of ‘others versus us’ is harmful for the cultural ethos that create
the beauty of diversity all over the world. It is not about Islam alone, no
religion has ever talked of hatred and hypocrisy.
We all must
follow, ‘For you is your religion, and for me is my religion.”
لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ
And
Allah knows the best.
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Arman Neyazi is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-pluralism/islam-pluralistic-approach-towards-non/d/124654
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