Burn The Deadwoods And Reform Your Faith
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
7 September
2023
"The
"invitation", or call, to accept Islam has to be extended to
non-Muslims and Muslims who do not observe Islam in its complete form. Calling
non-Muslims and "inconsistent" Muslims to Islam is considered by
Muslim theologians to be an unconditional duty of every Muslim. Every Muslim is
regarded as a missionary of Islam."
That a
learned man like Mr Moin Qazi entertains and endorses the
condescending concept of Dawat-e-Islam (Invitation to Islam) is really
sad, nay shocking. Inviting others (non-Muslims) to the fold of Islam is
tantamount to disparaging their faiths.
The very
objective of all missionaries and evangelists in Islam and Christianity has
been to tempt and tantalize the people of other faiths. What do these
missionaries do? They brainwash their prey and use highly pejorative terms like
Hidayat (roughly 'prudence') and Hitgashmut (Realization in Hebrew). If Islam
wants to co-exist in a peaceful manner with the followers of different faiths,
it will have to get rid of this missionary zeal and delete the words like Dawah
and 'Hidayat' from its theological vocabulary because Dawah clearly
connotes ' an act of converting people to Islam ' and 'Hidayat' means, '
god-send prudence to the 'benighted' soul.
Let others
live and die in religious and spiritual darkness. Let them get roasted in
hellfire. Stop using pontificating and highly derogatory terms like 'Saving
your soul,' 'Religion of peace,' 'Heathen' and 'Kafir.' Rather, you save your
soul. Neither Allah nor Jesus should be projected as Saviours of mankind.
Allah, Jesus and his Father are just among a truckload of gods for the convenience
of respective followers of different religions.
Bishop
George Berkeley opined four hundred years ago, "Religion cannot be
completely wiped out from people's consciousness, But it can be modernised and
refurbished in its approach and appearance. So, a religion must assess and
evaluate its contents and remove all those teachings and tenets that have
outlived their usefulness." He said that in the context of Christianity
but it applies to all man-made faiths.
Dawat-e-Islam and evangelization have lost their
utility (in fact, they were never useful at any point of time in the religious
history of humans). Burn these deadwoods and reform your faith. No Tabligh can
teach you anything new that you didn't know. Trust your own prudence and find
your own way. You're your best spiritual master and mentor.
----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in
comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed
articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including
Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/burn-deadwoods-islam-christianity-dawah/d/130623
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism