Back in 570 AD, a great personality was born with the name Muhammad Bin Abdullah. It was the time when ignorance was at its peak – people used to gamble, drink alcohol, with the practice of girl infanticide too rampant. Muhammad Bin Abdullah came as a light for the people of Mecca. Part of Muhammad’s mission was to end girl infanticide and establish explicit rights for women. With time as the Islam took roots once again, Muhammad preached for endowing equal rights to women as were given to men. It granted women divinely sanctioned rights including that of inheritance in property besides her social and marital rights. It perhaps was for the first time after quite a while that girls were given the right to reject or accept a wedding proposal or for that matter initiate divorce. Look how beautiful this religion Islam is!
Prophet Muhammad may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him showed respect towards women which wasn’t done earlier. As time passed Islam gained a good position worldwide and it emerged as a fastest growing religion globally. One of the famous writers, Michael Hart in his book ‘The Hundred’ mentioned Muhammad (SAW) as one of the influential personalities of this world has ever seen.
The name Muslim was the synonym to discipline, decency, modesty besides other cherished qualities a human can have, but if we pay a look towards the Muslims in the contemporary times, we see a total contrast. We as Muslims have unfortunately lost our identity somewhere! Nowadays we are influenced by singers, dancers, actors and other such people and we had adopted western culture, we are impressed by their way of dressing, talking, eating and things they do or say, which somehow has degraded our value of a true Muslim. The Muslim which portrayed a good character, a character which was firm on his faith and the faith that showed light to millions and zillions of people all around.
By indulging in practices against the basic principles, we are heading towards an jeopardizing end.
There are many issues on which we have witnessed clamour in recent past by different quarters, however it is we people (read Muslims), who have given them the chance to intervene in matters clearly pertaining to us only. I seriously don’t think anyone from outside our faith is responsible for all we are facing because we have sidelined the basic principles and teachings of our religion preached to us by Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
According to an international media house, what is happening to Muslims around the globe is more eye catchy. In many so called liberal and developed countries, we see Muslims are being dealt with harshly, just for the fact that they are Muslims.
Who is responsible for all this? In my opinion we Muslims ourselves are wholly and solely responsible for everything that is happening around the globe – I think this sentence covers it all.
We need to focus on our roots to say precisely the ordainments of Quran and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
The simple yet impressive lives of those Muslims had gained a great position worldwide, but we are day by day losing our identity. It’s high time we choose the Islamic and Quranic principles of liberty over regression, modesty over garishness, peace over political Restlessness, inter racial harmony over racial hatred And forgiveness over revenge. We are not identified as Muslims just by beard or Hijab, but also by our conduct. So the question remains, why are we influenced by westernization? We need to teach our children how to live a life according to religion and we need to show them our roots. This religion must come as a reason to spread peace and happiness worldwide. As Allama Iqbal (RA) had said; “Be embodied in the light of good character even if Iblis sees you, become a Muslim!” Islam prescribes norms and codes for righteousness and good character that make up a body of moral qualities and virtues. Islam has not changed but we as Muslims have lost, so the need of the hour is to follow our religion whole heartedly and let the world see how beautiful Islam and Muslims are!
