They Think They Have Done You A Favour By Becoming Muslims! Say: ‘Do Not Consider Your Islām a Favour to Me: Quran
By Ahmed Hammuda
14 January 2019
There is an Arabic expression along the
lines of, “Aslamat Sāra, Lā Zād Al-Muslimūn Wa Lā Qalat Al-Nasārā”,
which literally means: “Sara has converted (to Islām), neither increasing
Muslims nor reducing Christians”. The expression is sometimes said when a
person leaves Islām, as an idiomatic “who cares?” In any case, it is not an
entirely sensible expression. Entering or leaving Islām is not a matter to be
taken lightly.
However in recent times, where boasting
about leaving Islām is construed by pseudo-Islamic mannequins (called ‘think-tank’)
as ‘very brave’,[1] even in a society beleaguered by Islamophobia and piled on
anti-Islamic rhetoric, maybe there is some space for an Aslamat Sāra
attitude. So, if that bob of Īmān shakes at the news of pop stars no longer
‘convinced’ by an afterlife, below are seven points to help it settle.
I. Islām Does Not Depend On Its
Adherents, Unlike Other Faiths and Systems
Islām is not a reality that needs human
validation. It is a reality that transcends above the universe and governs
everything within it. In fact, there was a time when a single Muslim was called
the ‘community’ all by himself,
“Ibrāhīm was
a community (Ummah) in himself…” [2]
The message stood firm against the odds.
Ibrāhīm ‘alayhi al-Salām did not see his singleness as an existential threat to
the message of Islam as he knew his Lord was preserving it. Islam survived
through the 11th century Crusades, the 13th century Mongolian campaigns and the
15th century Spanish inquisition. Numerous political doctrines, religions and
strains died out with the demise of their adherents, save unadulterated,
Abrahamic monotheism that remarkably survives.
In fact, there will be a time when there
will be no Muslim on the face of the earth at all. This will come, as far as
the age of the earth goes, moments before its end (the Day of Judgement). But
the non-existence of Muslims who believe in the afterlife prior to the Day of
Judgement will not stop it from happening. Even without adherents, the universal
system of Islām endures.
Ii. Islām’s ‘Golden Era’ Was When Its
Adherents Were Fewest In Number
Having many people on your side cannot be a
bad thing, and Islām far from disparages huge numbers. In fact, the Prophet (Sall
Allāhu ‘Alayhī wa Sallam) says:
“Marry the
one who is fertile and loving, for I will boast of your great numbers.”[3]
But quality has always been centralised in
the few. It was a few who followed Nūh ‘(‘Alayhī al-Salām), a few who
crossed the river with Tālūt to meet Jālūt’s forces, and a few who were
persecuted alongside ‘Īsā the son of Mary (‘ʿAlayhimā al-Salām). The
Battle of Badr is by agreement the greatest battle of Islām, yet prior to the
confrontation, the Prophet (Sall Allāhu ‘Alayhī wa Sallam), supplicated,
“O Allāh! Bring
about what You promised for me. O Allāh! If you destroy this band of adherents
to Islām, you will not be worshiped alone upon the earth…” [4]
Here is Abu Bakr al-Siddīq (Radiy Allāhu
‘Anhu) with Iman weighing more than the Ummah’s masses combined,[5] Abū
‘Ubaydah b. al-Jarrāh (Radiy Allāhu ‘Anhu), whom ‘Umar later wished that
everyone would resemble, and al-Qa’qa’ b. ‘Āmr, whose voice and military
contribution were more effective than 1000 men.[6]
In fact, ‘many’ has almost never been
mentioned in the Qur’ān except with a form of dispraise. “Many of the People of
the Book would love it if they could make you revert to being disbelievers
after you have become believers.”[7] “Many of mankind are deviators.”[8]
“Surely many people are heedless of Our Signs.”[9] The list goes on.
It was when the ‘Ummah’ comprised of
handfuls, not hundreds of millions, when the empires of the east and west bowed
and surrendered. It was that small collective who heard the Prophet (Sall
Allāhu ‘Alayhī wa Sallam) saying to them:
“The best of
mankind are my generation, then those that follow them, then those that follow
them.”[10]
Iii. Our Happiness When People Convert
Is For Them, Not For Us
Seeing someone ‘take their Shahādah’ is
extraordinary. We push and shove to set our eyes on the spectacle. But in many
cases, we may never see the brother or sister again. And though seeing someone
embrace Islām often increases or reinforces our own Īmān, our happiness is
primarily unselfish. It is for them. It is their past slate that is wiped clean,
their life that has taken a momentous turn for the better and their hereafter
that has been salvaged. It is their
ability to see past the centuries of sustained myths and propaganda required to
keep them away from the otherwise irresistible Islām in the first place, that
we admire about them.
We love it when people become Muslim not
just because we desire to see in them what we failed to see in ourselves, but
because one more person has saved themselves from hell and absolved us from
their complaints on the Day of Resurrection. In fact, materialistically, there
is little in it for us but a duty to give long lessons in Ghusl and Wudū’,
along with a thought of that ‘student’ one day replacing us for our
inadequacies, as Allāh says:
“If you turn
away, He will replace you with a people other than yourselves and they will not
be like you.”[11]
Seeing someone leave only hurts for
precisely the opposite; that they failed at a hurdle, sold themselves short and
flushed a long life down the drain; that they gave precedence to transient
gratification over long-term success. It reminds us of the statement of
Hudhayfah b. al-Yamān:
“The thing I
fear most for this Ummah is that they give preference to what they see over
what they know; and are thus misguided without realising.”[12]
Iv. Challenges Garble out the Worst
Muslims
Exams separate the best students from the
worst. Difficulties bring out the real nature of people, those who can weather
the storm and those who crack under the strain. The idea that leaving Islām is
a ‘very brave’ thing to do is simply farcical. British Muslims face more than a
thousand hate crimes a year, are lambasted by some 500 posts a day and are
three times less likely to be considered for a job.[13]
Most challenges and difficulties in the
world today are faced by Muslims. Muslim vilification has become the
international media’s staple diet and the fad of new-age populists. ‘Very
brave’ is to be a self-assured Muslim, not someone who acquiesces and attempts
to join the ranks of the “dominant” race or class.
The Quraysh of Makkah thought they had
outsmarted the Prophet (Sall Allāhu ‘Alayhī wa Sallam) when, in the Treaty
of Hudaybiyyah, they stipulated that Makkah-bound leavers from Madīnah will not
be sent back to the Prophet. They forgot that when weathering a challenge, a
leaver is precisely who you could do without. On another occasion, in the
Battle of Uhud, a contingent of soldiers led by the hypocrite Abdullāh b. Ubay
b. Salūl left the Prophet and the companions, heading home. Later, during the
campaign of Tabūk, the hypocrites stayed behind altogether. But rather than
outlining the vulnerability of what became a much smaller contingent of Muslims
headed into the depths of Roman lands, Allāh said:
“If they had
gone out among you, they would have added nothing to you but confusion.”[14]
They say “sometimes more is less”. The very
word ‘Fitnah – yuftan’ comes from applying heat to an ore to bring out a base
metal, removing impurities and purifying the precious metal. Like when Allāh
says,
“Do people
imagine that they will be left to say, ‘We have Īmān,’ and will not be tested
(yuftanūn)?”[15]
It is this heat which particularly knocks
off those Muslims sitting on the fence, very ready to blame their ineptitude on
their dwindling religiosity, neither addressing the real causes of their
failures nor ending up winning anything in the hereafter.
“Among the
people there is one who worships Allāh right on the edge. If good befalls him,
he is content with it, but if a trial befalls him, he reverts to his former
ways, losing both this world and the Next World. That is indeed sheer
loss.”[16]
Leavers of Islām should know full well that
they leave behind nothing but a purer base, a surer assembly, and a firmer,
better bonded core, ready to weather whatever dreary day or turn of fortune
awaits ahead.
V. Being Muslim Is Not Supposed To Be a
Walk in the Park
Altruism, charity, nurturing children
properly, checking on your neighbour, resisting temptations, speaking out
against wrong—the list goes on—is what a Muslim is first, and is hard work
second. Islām is neither a fashion, mere identity, nor a material possession
that assents to any of our ways and desires. It was sent to guide to what we
know, and to what the distortions of an era have made us forget.
Some leave Islām after feeling they bit off
more than they can chew. But what is better, to find a truth you voluntarily
chose to follow difficult, or to capitulate to the very lusts that you left
behind? Every Muslim finds one thing or another difficult, but why do some
assume that Allāh’s greatest commodity, Paradise, is cheap and easy to attain?
A champion does not enter a ring intending
to throw in the towel but insists on getting up after every knockout. Allāh
says:
“O Mankind!
You are toiling laboriously towards your Lord, but meet Him you will!”[17]
We boast about ‘keeping our noses in the
grindstone’, ‘blood, sweat and tears’ and ‘burning the candle at both ends’
[18] to save for a package holiday that could turn out boring and stressful.
Why then do we think we can pioneer Islām, around our own tastes and fashions
when it is our deliverer to eternal bliss and ultimate enjoyment?
Vi. The Majority of Leavers Do Not Leave
Islām on Ideological Grounds
History and the contemporary have shown
that there are no ideologies that can rationally compete with Islām.
Islamophobes will happily jibe, mock and defame, but come a civilised debate
and what a pity.
As such, the majority of leavers,
observably leave due to some sort of bad experience either unrelated to the ideological
framework of Islām, or fail to rationalise an Islamic teaching with a different
ideology, a cultural norm, practice or premeditated craving of their own, many
a time carnal. Those will validate what they long craved by ‘reforming’ Islām
to follow suit or raise doubts about the religion itself. Let us get real, was
it 15-billion-year-old observable evidence that made that leaver question the
Qur’ān’s account of creation, or a new boyfriend?
The Shaytān knew it was Allāh’s order he
disobeyed but wanted to validate a premeditated superiority complex, paying
attention to what he thought validated that complex, “I am better than him, You
(Allāh) made me from fire, and made him from clay.” But he (conveniently) paid
no attention to the fact the order to prostrate came from Allāh himself. His
intellectual gaffs were because he had no ideological leg to stand on. The
reason he left was because his continued arrogance blighted his ability to be
true to his fault of refusing to prostrate in the first place.
It is useful to remember this hierarchy of
disagreement when considering the bulk of the attacks levelled against Islām’s
foundations.
VII. Being a Muslim is not a favour to
anyone but yourself
Imagine if I were to give you a pen. The
following week I call asking for your help towing my car, “because I gave you a
pen”, then I text you needing help with my shopping “because I gave you a pen”.
Soon, I will find my pen in an envelope with a note reading “with thanks.”
Imagine then if the receiver—you—was instead the person demanding favours and
gratitude. It is madness. Imagine then if the gift was far better than a
pen—Islām itself.
Some Bedouins embraced Islām near the 10th
year of the Hijrah, long after the severe persecution of Makkah, the Hijrah,
the Battle of Badr, Uhud, the startling Battle of the Trench and the testing
pledge to avenge the blood of ‘Uthman rady Allahu ‘anhu they took with the
Prophet under the tree (al Ridwan). Despite those latter Bedouins taking part
in nothing of this, they felt that their Islām deserved the appreciation of the
Messenger (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam), forgetting that it is them that
ought to have shown gratitude to Allāh for His inimitable gift that came to
them on a silver platter in far more comfortable days:
“They think
they have done you a favour by becoming Muslims! Say: ‘Do not consider your
Islām a favour to me. No indeed! It is Allāh who has favoured you by guiding
you to Īmān, if you are telling the truth.’”[19]
Likewise, leavers should know that nobody
felt that your Islām was disruptive, ground-breaking or a monumental rift in a
Da’wah that is divinely preserved and administered by men and women who
struggle against desires and weaknesses, for your departure to be disruptive.
A person’s Islām does not benefit Allāh for
their departure to harm Him. Likewise nothing that Allāh obligated upon us
benefits Allāh in the slightest. He was the Almighty, the Wise, the
All-Powerful before everything in existence and our obedience did not increase
Him in any of this.
Any individual obligation is likewise an
obligation on the rest of society. Just as Allāh commanded you not to steal and
to lower your gaze, He likewise commanded millions of others. So who ends up
benefiting? You yourself. You, being the beneficiary—whether you realise it or
not—of what is Halāl and what is Harām is enough a payment. So Allāh, through
His rulings gave you and then rewarded you on top of what He gave.
When the messengers called their people to
Allāh’s worship, did their people generally accept or reject their call? They
rejected it. Almost all the prophets we have been informed about, however, told
their people: “I do not ask you for it any payment. My payment is only from the
Lord of the worlds.”[20] This is despite knowing well that their people were
less than willing to pay for something they rejected to begin with! It is as if
the prophets are telling them, ‘Since I am calling you to what is entirely your
benefit, I would otherwise instinctively deserve to be paid for it, but the
magnitude of that benefit I am bringing you is so great that none, save Allāh,
can pay for it.’[21]
Islām is an inimitable privilege and blessing,
and supreme way of life and salvation that attracts for every leaver, thousands
of entrants. What is ‘supreme’, stays so, even if a person is as deprived and
naïve as to throw it away for whatever petty return. Likewise, what is already
supreme cannot be made better by its followers. It is entirely a privilege to
them that they should fear losing, the same way as they would fear to be thrown
into fire.
“Our Lord, do
not make our hearts swerve aside after You have guided us. And give us mercy
from You. You are the Ever-Giving.”[22]
Notes:
[1]
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6393821/Zayn-Malik-reveals-no-longer-identifies-Muslim.html
[2] Qur’an 16:120
[3] Sunan an-Nasa’I on the authority of
Ma’qil bin Yasar
[4] Jami` at-Tirmidhi on the authority
of ibn ‘Abbas
[5] Bayhaqi, Mawquf on ‘Umar rady Allāhu
‘anhu
[6] Ibn al-Atheer – Asad al-Ghaabah
[7] Qur’an 2:109
[8] Qur’an 5:49
[9] Qur’an 10:92
[10] Muslim on the authority on Abdullah
ibn Mas’oud rady Allāhu ‘anhu
[11] Qur’an 47:38
[12] Recorded in Hilyat al-Awliyā’, Abū
Nu’aym al-Asbahānī0
[13]
https://mend.org.uk/resources-and-publications/factsheets/
[14] Qur’an 47:47
[15] Qur’an 29:2
[16] Qur’an 22:11
[17] Qur’an 84:6
[18] Meaning to get little sleep
[19] Qur’an 49:17
[20] See chapter 26
[21] Reflections based on Sheikh
al-Sha’rawi’s Tafsir of al-Hujuraat
[22] Qur’an 3:8
Ahmed Hammuda is the Middle East Editor at Islam21c and one of our
regular contributors. His interests lie mainly in the field of Middle East
Affairs and how they reflect on Muslims living in the West. He is an
accomplished Electrical engineer by trade and has been involved in various
Dawah activities over the course of his education and working life. He has
transferred the same analytical approach required in engineering into a careful
and measured approach in his views on politics.
Source:
islam21c.com/theology/seven-messages-for-those-who-leave-islam/
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-ideology/ahmed-hammuda/they-think-they-have-done-you-a-favour-by-becoming-muslims!-say--‘do-not-consider-your-islām-a-favour-to-me--quran/d/117451