[author image=”http://hunzanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/02.jpg” ]Shah Zaman Founding Chairman and Child Rights Activist at The Milky Way Movement[/author]
We are the citizens of one country so all of us own it in all possible ways but does this country owns us equally? The answer is dubious. It was clearly said by the founder of this nation that religious affiliation has nothing to do with the affairs of this state so, you are free to opt for any religion and carry out its practices. Today after six decades we are seeing the outcome of not following our founder.
The news that a christian couple is tortured to death and then burnt in a brick kiln for allegedly disrespecting the holy Quran by a muslim mob raised many questions about my identity as one, and the fact that the women was pregnant paralysed my soul and faith for many hours. I began to ask myself if those were muslims and they did that to safefuard Quran then who am i? if I am a muslim I should support this holy task and if I am not I should getup and take revenge for this act against humanity as suggested by Quran itself that the punishment of a killer is death. An internal voice, I guess the response of humanity, started guiding me out of this complexity. I went to the Life of my Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), my favorite leader, statesman, commander and philosopher to find out what He taught. After visiting many incidents in His life like the Journey to Taif, migration to Madina, throwing of garbage by an old lady, defeat in Battle of Uhad and victory of Makkah, killing of beloved uncle in an inhuman manner by hinda and so on and so forth. It slowly began to dawn on me that the Man who was sent as a blessing for all the times has taught His followers many lessons; to mention few are patience, forgiveness, kindness, justice, the art to learn from defeat and celebrating victory, respect for everything that even includes green standing fields, insects, dead bodies and above all regard of other religions. I then found that this action is incomplete contradiction to the Prophet’s (SAW) basic teachings.
The next question in my mind was whether this mob really followed the teachings of Quran inorder to guard its sanctity or not? Human being is the subject of this Holy Book which appeals and influences the scholars of all times for its rich content and subject and then it later addresses the muslims about how to behave in a civilized manner. It tells us to respect humanity at all possible ways and unite us all by stating that the human race has been evolved from a single soul. The beautiful expression that the saviour of one human is equivalent to the saviour of all human race removes all hatred and biasness. Thus the quran also teaches its guardians to respect and love humanity. Now if some people who apprently claim to be its custodians behave this brutally, merely shows that they are themselves insecure of their character as true believers.
Now comes the last question; what if the couple really has done it alleged for? Quran itself gives us the basics of a whole judicial system, which states that punishment should be given if the charges are proved. We are living in a coutry with abosulte majority of muslims and have islamic courts which must be used to punish such offenses. So, it would have been better for the self appointed custodians not to have benefited their own poor understanding of religion but acted in accoradance with what really Quran and the Prophet (PBUH) command, so as to become true custodians.
This was one of many such incidents that occurred around us based upon religion and sects. Religion is there to glue humanbeings and to refresh their social behaviours but these incidents must force us to think about our ways of approaching religion and the source of its learning at humanlevel. We need to think whether we are perfect as practicing believers and keep on improving or we are defaming our religion more than the combined acts of nonbelievers? The only consideration of “cleanliness is half of faith” brings forward all the reality about how good believers we are.
Three days ago we muslims baked three bricks in a brick kiln which have now built an everlasting wall between us and humanity. How will we justify and disown this act and its perpetrators? is beyond our courts and human values.
