25 October 2018
We feel we Surti Sunni Vohras should pay more attention towards ourselves as well as assist our fellow Surti Sunni Vohras to become better at acquiring and using our religious education to live as well-informed and practising Muslims.We feel whilst trusting the ALMIGHTY ALLAH to help us we must also learn to help our selves as well as help our fellow Vohra brothers and sisters and extend our efforts to other Muslims to get everyone to make better use of their religious education in their everyday lives.
We feel we need to change our thinking about our religious education and its uses. Many of us feel it is acquired for carrying out our daily prayers and others feel it is for teaching others to read the Qur'an. What many of our people assume is as we know not totally right. Our religious education must mean much more to us as it is meant to help us live our lives as Muslims. We feel we should turn our attention to our Prophet s.a.w. our greatest teacher and example setter for all Muslims and for all mankind. We should learn from the examples our Prophet s.a.w. set and give the religious education we have the real meaning it deserves and is entitled to.
We know we are living in a very fast changing environment which is bringing along with it many challenges for all. What we need to do is learn to face the challenges as Muslims. We need to remember that the changes we see around us should not make us move away from our religious beliefs and the expectations placed upon us as Muslims. We need to learn to live, work and socialise as Muslims under all circumstances. Avoiding all the challenges which come our way may be difficult or even impossible. But learning to understand the challenges and learning to face them as Muslims will be possible and it is something we must do.
We feel, to help us face the challenges we must turn to ourselves and ask ourselves if we are behaving like Muslims or if we have become victims of the challenges. Our behaviour we feel will give a very good indication as to how successful we have been in facing the challenges. To help us cultivate the sort of behaviour that would enable us to face the challenges we need to work hard to acquire behaviour as expected of us Muslims and use it in our inter-actions with everyone, be they Muslims or not.
We feel we must once again start using our kinship terminologies like MA, BAVA, BHAI, BAHEN, DADA, DADI, NANA, NANI, CHACA, CHACHI, MAMA and MAMI as well as other terminologies. There is nothing old fashioned about our suggestion. We are not trying to stop anyone from progressing but, progress should not mean that we give up something that helps us liaise with others with respect. We feel the use of kinship terminologies will help us have closer bonds both with our relatives as well as others. Kinship terminologies carry a lot of value as these help us not only to identify our relationships with other family members but also helps us get closer to other persons. Kinship terminologies also carry with them a lot of respect. Respect is very important for all and for us Muslims it is something which we must try our best to acquire, use and retain.
When it comes to talking to someone, we feel, and our readers will agree with us that our talking without the use of kinship terminologies or using inappropriate terminologies sounds hollow and can also hurt people's feelings. We come across some young persons in their early teens who for example call a 75 years old person “BHAI”. This cannot be right, and it should not happen. The reason for doing so is simple as some young people feel it unnecessary to use terms like DADA or NANA when addressing an older person. Using kinship terminologies some of our younger persons feel is old fashioned. We feel we need to give communications with our people and with anyone else more feeling and more intimacy by referring to those we meet with and talk with by using appropriate inship terminologies that helps reflect the person's age and standing. Do not let pseudomodernity and westernisation, intruders from the outside, deprive us of the bond we as Muslims need to have with our fellow brothers and sisters and with anyone we come in to contact with.
We feel if we can help generate more respect through use of kinship terminologies we will with the ALMIGHTY ALLAH'S help have more of our people greeting fellow Muslims and acknowledging the presence of those who are not Muslims. We should not wait for someone to greet us or show respect towards us. Greeting and showing respect should not be left to the less privileged persons we meet with. We feel if our better educationally, economically and socially placed persons could take the initiative to greet others as well as show respect it could allow others to feel inclined to greet and show respect to other persons.
The change in our people's thinking and willingness to address our family members and others appropriately will, with the ALMIGHTY ALLAH'S help lead to better family relations and better relations with others. We feel when we meet others at themasjid or when attending a janaza, if we greet those we know or those we do not know will help us to socially and religiously get closer to them and by using kinship terminologies to address them will certainly draw us closer to all other persons.
By showing respect to others, others will respect us. The use of respect, we feel, will make us more respectable as Muslims and respectable as citizens of our country. Respect for others will also make us better neighbours, better pedestrians, better drivers of our motor cars and better users of buses or trains and make us behave with kindness towards older persons, persons with disabilities, our women folk and children.
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Prophet Muhammad (peace andblessing be upon him)said,
“The faithful, in their love for one another and in their having mercy for one another and in their kindness toward one another, are like one body; when a member of it ails, all(the parts of)the body call one a not her( to share the pain) through sleeplessness and fever.”(Muslim)
The difference between Islam and most other religions is that it did not content itself with merely establishing acts of worship and abandon the needs of society to any form of governing body. Rather, Islam established ways of conduct, relationships, and rights and obligations for the individual vis-avis members of his family and the nation and for the nation vis-a-vis other nations. The reform of society was the main target of Islam. Even acts of worship contribute to the achieving of this reform. Within the framework of human society, the Islamic nation is a compact union having resourse to itself, possessing an inner sense of responsibility for its own members, and resisiting decay, both individually and collectively.
This social solidarity (takaful) is apparent in all aspects of Prophet Muhammad(P.B.U.H.)’s Message. The history of mankind shows that few societies have developed as strong a sense of solidarity or have cooperated as closely or acted as mercifully as have Islamic societies.
Developing this two-way responsibility is Islam’s principal way of achieving reform and social solidarity.
The individual’s responsibility for the community in Islamic societies and conversely the community’s responsibility for the individual are primary magnitude, constituting a trust of life and the highest of its responsibilities. It is for that reason that Islam introduced community worship. Islam also enjoins the group not to neglect the individual, obligating it to safeguard his vaious interests, to respect his rights and freedom and to harmonize different interests. In Islam, praying in groups is prefgerred many times over to praying individually.
The individual is thus an integral element of the Islamic society; he perfects it and is perfected by it, he gives to it and receives from it and he protects it, and is protected by it. Developing this two-way responsibility is Islam's principal way of acheving reform and social solidarity. Islam has impressed the meaning of these two types of responsibility on the individual and collective conscience in order to guarantee for Muslims the life of a unified, sound, happy and productive body in a classless community.
According to the Prophet(peace and blessings be upon him): “Every one of you is a shepherd, and every one of you will be questioned about those under his rule: the ruler is a shepherd, and he will be questioned about his subjects; the man is a shepherd in his family, and he will be questioned about those under his care; and the woman is a shepherd in the house of her husband, and she will be questioned about those under his care; and the woman is a shepherd in the house of her husband, and she will be questioned about those under her care...Thus, every one of you is a shepherd and is responsible for those under his care.”(Al-Bukhari)
In the words of the Glorious Qur’an: Hast thou observed him who belieth religion? That is he who repelleth the orphan and urgeth not the feeding of the needy.(Al-Ma’un 107:1.-3)
Those who entered the faith...prefer (the fugitives) above themselves though poverty become their lot. (Al-Hashr 59:9)
Islam has the individual say in his invocations: Place not in our hearts any rancor toward those who believe. (Al-Hashr 59:10)
When this precept is practiced to the full, the heart of the individual is dedicated to society and to his complete submergence in it.To the group , Islam declares that believers are naughty else than brothers. Therefore make peace between your brethren.(Al-Hashr 49:10)
The blood of the Muslims shall be answered for the least worthy among them is entitled to their protection, and their hand is lifted against those who are against them as the
Pophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Help your brother whether he is the doer of wrong or wrong is done to him.”
The Companions asked , “ O Messenger of Allah! We can help a man to whom wrong is done, but how could we help him when he is the doer of wrong?”
The Prophet replied, “Hold him back from doing wrong.” (Al-Bukhari) An outstanding illustration of the decree that society be responsible for the individual’s behavior can be found in this parable by the Prophet (peace abd blessings of Allah be upon him):
“The example of the person abiding by Allah’s order and restrictions in comparison to those who violate them is like the example of those persons who drew lots for their seats in a boat. Some of them got seats in the upper part, and the others in the lower. When the latter needed water, they had to go up to bring water (and that troubled the others), so they said, ‘Let us make a hole in our share of the ship (and get water) saving those who are above us from troubling them. So, if the people in the upper part left the others do what they had suggested, all the people of the ship would be destroyed, but if they prevented them, both parties would be safe.” (Al-Bukhari)
This understanding between individual and society of common responsibility for common interests is the basis for resisting social ills, and every method for achieving reform would remain fruitless unless preceded by such an understanding.
Source: Abd Al Rahman Azzam, Writer (www.onislam.net)
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