By
Arman Neyazi, New Age Islam
22 May 2021
We Need
To Awaken The Compassion, The Kindness Within Ourselves And Help The Humanity
Survive
Main
Points:
1. We need to
awake our humane trait today before it is too late.
2. Being Humane
is the cure to every evil, whether in the form of hatred and communal virus, and
its devilish aftereffects.
3. To defeat
Covid-19, we need compassion for the world around us.
4. ‘The choice
is between reacting with fear or responding with kindness’: Chris Germer and
Kristin Neff.
-----
Being
compassionate and humane is the cure to every evil, whether it is in the form
of hatred or communal virus, and its devilish aftereffects. Every religion
advocates compassion. We are human only if we have compassion ingrained in our
personality. The creator of the world is called, ‘Rahman Nir-Rahim’, the
Most Compassionate, the Most Kind and the Most Gracious etc. and thus man being
a vicegerent of God as per the Holy Quran, (‘It is He who has appointed you
vicegerent on the earth…” (Quran 6:165)), has got compassion embedded in
his trait. Many of us would have lost this trait because of the social or moral
effects but for sure it is still alive inside us and this is the most opportune
time to bring it to the fore. Our world is crying for help, we need to awaken
the compassion, the kindness within ourselves and help humanity survive, in our
way. We should be mindful of the fact that ‘a compassionate act is rewarding
here and hereafter’ no matter how small and inconsequential it may seem to you.
If Not
Today, When, Asks Humanity
Ask a
question to yourself, If not today, when will you awake your humane trait? This
is not a time to consider our differences, religious or social. The time
demands to come alive to our inter-religious and inter-social ingrained
harmonious nature and work among the people devastated by the killer epidemic
forgetting all our dividing lines. So does, Bhagwan, God, Lord and Allah wish.
If we did
not express our gratitude towards our Creator, for all the rewards He has
bestowed upon us, today, tomorrow it may be too late, considering the Hadees,
give under:
“A man
giving a dirham as charity during his life is better than giving one hundred
dirhams as charity at the moment of his death.” (Sunan Abu-Dawood)
Today is
the time that we are needed to come out with all the compassion and kindness
that we are born with. We have to do what we can as an act of compassion on our
own as it is more rewarding than what will be done for ‘rewards’ for us after
we are gone.
Compassion
For The World Around and Outside Us
All of us
who are God-fearing and respectful to all the religions and believers of; ‘O
mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples
and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the
sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and
Acquainted. (Surah Al-Hujurat: 13) - Sahih International’, indeed need to work for all irrespective of
male, female, tribes and nations.
Compassion
is the only worship, the only prayer that we can do today by encouraging
inter-religious, inter-community and inter-nations ethics by destroying our
hatred and ill-gotten emotions by invoking the love and kindness within our
spirit. We need to cultivate the feeling, ‘it is the charity and love that
tests our faith and humane virtues’, and bring the human being forward for the
deeds of compassion, that can defeat Covid-19 and the virus of religious and
colour hatred. We must follow the following Ayaat of the Holy Quran and perform
our part of compassion in winning the life and property of the needy and the
destitute among us.
Have you seen the one who denies the ˹final˺ Judgment and does not encourage the
feeding of the poor? So woe to those ˹hypocrites˺ who pray, yet are unmindful of
their prayers; those who ˹only˺ show off, and refuse to give ˹even the simplest˺ aid. (Surah Al-Ma'un - 1-7) — Dr Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran
And they give food in spite of love for it to
the needy, the orphan, and the captive, [Saying], "We feed you only for
the countenance of Allah. We wish not from you reward or gratitude. (Surah Al-Insan - 8-9) - Sahih
International
Prophet
Muhammad Pbuh was sent to the world as, ‘a mercy to all the worlds’ and true to
the saying of Allah, the Most Merciful, in the Holy Quran, (“And We have not
sent you [Muhammad] save as a mercy to all the worlds.” (Quran 21:107))
lived his life teaching compassion, love and kindness to his Companions and
people around him through his actions and deeds. Consider the following
Ahadees:
“Every Muslim has to give in charity.” (Sahih
Al-Bukhari)
Whoever does not show mercy to our young ones,
or acknowledge the rights of our elders, is not one of us. (Musnad Aḥmad)
The merciful will be shown mercy by the Most
Merciful. Be merciful to those on the earth and the One in the heavens will
have mercy upon you. (Tirmidhi)
If one has
to witness the true spirit of Islam, one has to notice that compassion is the
most vital ethic of Islam than anything else. The Holy Quran carries the
keywords, Rahma, Ihsan ‘Adl, And Hikmah, the words that can be
translated as, compassion, benevolence, justice and wisdom. We, therefore, need
to come true to the expectations of Allah, the Most Kind and His Apostle,
Prophet Muhammad Pbuh by exhibiting our utmost compassionate nature at a time when
our generation needs it the most.
United
the Humanity Will Stand, Divided It Will Fall
If nations
and individuals kept fighting the ravaging epidemic as is being witnessed in
most of the cases, except a few, it will be difficult for the world to get rid
of it. This epidemic does not respect the boundaries of nations or religions or
colours of the human being, it bites all. The world, therefore, has to bury its
differences and stand in compassion like one nation, one humanity and one race.
Compassion
therapists Chris Germer and Kristin Neff have said:
‘The choice is between reacting with fear or
responding with kindness’
We, as
world citizens are reacting with fear and thinking of our own as, ‘Nation
First’, ‘Me First’. We are not being kind towards others taking the world as
one nation in our fight against the devastating epidemic and here lies the
defeat, the human race may have to face, God-Forbidding.
The human
being has to bring all its humane traits to the fore by being connected, aware
of others, kind to all and compassionate for the world citizens to defeat our
one and the only enemy, at present, the pandemic Covid-19.
And
Allah knows the Best.
----
Arman
Neyazi is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/compassion-covid-19-rahman-nir-rahim/d/124865
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