Closing Pandora's Box

O ye who believe! be strict in observing justice, and be witnesses for Allah, even though it be against yourselves or against parents and kindred. Whether he be rich or poor, Allah is more regardful of them both than you are. Therefore follow not low desires so that you may be able to act equitably. And if you conceal the truth or evade it, then remember that Allah is well aware of what you do.¹

O ye who believe! be steadfast in the cause of Allah, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people’s enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. Be always just, that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is aware of what you do.²

In my 6^th form class there were 10 boys (including me). We had quite a weird bunch of guys.

• One was gay. He was an excellent singer. We made fun of him.
• One was extremely homophobic, spoke like a robot and loved America more than anything. We made more fun of him.
• One was a diehard Chelsea fan and came to school drunk on many occasions. We had a lot of banter with him, because he was a little mentally challenged loud mouthed.
• One was called Eid. His ability to change his tone from ghettoese to well spoken, grammatically correct English was quite startling. But with a name like Eid, how could you make fun of him?
• Two were Manchester United fans (like me), hard working (not like me), good guys (I was a bit of a *insert appropriate word here* back in the days).
• One was an Arsenal fan. Dynamite comes in small packages. He was small. Every Monday I’d happily remind him, “For the last however many seasons, the only silverware Arsenal have seen has been the studs on their boots.”
• One had the most ostentatious hair ever and would be seen each morning during registration drinking a can of relentless with a carrot cake.
• And then there was me.

Our form got along well with each other (apart from American kid). We played hilarious pranks on one another, like on valentines the gay guy gave the homophobic guy a rose. We shared a lot of friendly banter (mainly about football) and also a lot of homework (usually chemistry).

I was good friends with most of my form, especially the gay guy. We used to sit next to each other in Biology class, had long discussions (mainly me making fun of him) and he even nearly tricked me into seeing a BMW once (not the car). There was another Muslim guy in my maths class who hated the gay guy. “F***ing f*g,” he would say. “Look at that poofter. Stay away from me!” Once I was discussing this with the gay guy and I told him, “Though I do not think homosexuality is right, I also do not think it is right to discriminate against any person.”

But this post isn’t about the gay guy or any of the guys mentioned above.

*****

I was standing in the queue at the post office. In front of me were two hijabi girls, who had just come out of school. They had been talking about all sorts of stuff; boys, one’s boyfriend, Lady Gaga’s new song and then one of them said:

Girl 1: I heard this siiiiiccccck joke this morning.
Girl 2: What?
Girl 1: Why do Jews have such big noses?
Girl 2: Errrrm I dunno.
Girl 1: ‘Coz the airs free init.
Girl 2: I don’t get it.
Girl 1: Ah don’t worry about it, I got another one. How do you get 6 million Jews into a car?
Girl 2: Errrrm dunno.
Girl 1: *with a smug I am so clever look on her face* Stick ‘em all in the ashtray.

If looks could kill, she’d have been a gonner if her eyes happened to have crossed mine.

*****

When I wrote my 3-part thoughts on hate (1,2,3) I got an email from someone who wasn’t too happy with the points I made. “You don’t understand Islam at all,” The person said. “You’re a Jew lover.” Followed by a lot more things that are not appropriate to mention here. Am I really?

Fear of the unknown makes people do irrational things, say irrational things and believe irrational things. I already wrote a whole post on that in part 3 of the series on hate, but I wanted to revisit the topic. A significant proportion of Muslim youth (and adults) have this notion in their head that all Jews and Christians are worthy of Allah’s wrath. They seem to think they’re doing Allah a favour by spreading the hate. Some even go as far as usurping the rights of anyone that is not a Muslim. I’d like to ask them why?

“They’re killing our innocent brothers and sisters in Palestine,” they say.
“Who?”
”The Jews.”

Let us analyse that. That reply seems to insinuate that all Jews are responsible for the conflict happening between Israel and Palestine. If that was the case, what were those Jews doing marching in London among the pro-Palestinian protestors in the wake of the Gaza bombings (2009)? If all Jews are bad, then I guess following the same logic all Muslims too should be terrorists after what happened on 9/11 in America, 7/7 in London and with that young man (Abdul Farouk Abdulmtallab) trying to blow up his balls on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Let’s be just, and use the same measuring stick. If due to the action of a few Jews the whole of the Jewish community is labelled as being bad, then why not the same for the Muslims, and the Christians and the Hindus etc.?

If Jews are so bad, then why did the Holy Prophet Muhammad^(saw) marry one [Refer to Sister Sara’s comment below] why does the Holy Qur’an allow Muslims to marry them? The Holy Prophet Muhammad^(saw) married a recently converted Jew. And when the other wives of the Prophet taunted her or behaved harshly towards her she did not respond. Once Hadhrat Aisha^(ra) and Hadhrat Hafsa^(ra) called her a ‘Jew’ but she remained quiet. On the arrival of the Holy Prophet^(saw), she mentioned these happenings. He replied, “If they claim to be from the family of the Prophet then why didn’t you say that I am far superior because I am daughter of Haroon^(as) (Aaron), niece of Musa^(as) (Moses) and the wife of Muhammad?”. This wondrous woman I refer to is none other than Hadhrat Safia^(ra).

The Holy Qur’an talks of the Khaira-Ummah in the following words:

You are the best people raised for the good of mankind; you enjoin what is good and forbid evil and believe Allah…³

Let us not transgress the rights of justice (refer to translation at the top of the article) owed to one another for that is a commandment given to us by our Lord. I have been brought up being taught respect for others, their beliefs and their way of doing things. Just because it’s different doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wrong.

I was looking for a wallpaper of a Mosque to put onto my PC at home. Scrolling through pages and pages of pictures on Google images I came across the following picture. It looked beautiful:

That is to say, until I clicked on it and read the text on the right hand side. Bad people are found in every group, every religion, every society and every culture. I’d like to see you prove me wrong.

Come to think of it, once you remove the layers of labels everyone is surrounded by, we’re all essentially the same at the core. Whether we belong to different religions, different sexualities, different races, different sets of football fans, deep down inside, we all feel the same pain, the same hurt, the same happiness, the same fear etc. After all, we are all human and that is where it matters. Forget the labels and see the people who reside behind them.

Or maybe I’m just wrong, and just too nice. Maybe hate is the way forward (despite the lessons history teaches us contrary to that belief).

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Picture 1, showing mosque wallpaper taken from here
¹Holy Qur’an - Al-Nisa' Chapter 4 : Verse 136
²Holy Qur’an - Al-Ma'idah Chapter 5 : Verse 9
³Holy Qur’an - Aal-e-`Imran Chapter 3 : Verse 111