The ‘e’ letter has a unique significance in this dimension of 21st century. We are encountered by it a lot of times, sometimes as e-book or e-newspaper while at other times in the form of e-market, e-banking, e-commerce etc. But what is really striking is that now we are witnessing the evolution of Eee Muslims- A breed of ‘electronic’ Muslims which has come into existence as a result of fusion between the letter ‘e’ and boastfulness, show-off and deception.
An e-Muslim’s ‘boastfulness’ lies in the fact that he discusses a lot over those issues which are next to being unimportant, his little knowledge which makes him proud in his eyes, he wants everyone to listen to him when he is not ready to listen to anyone. His ‘show-off’ lies in the fact that his profile information and his spiritual level are in full contrast with each other. His profile reads ‘khilafah’ while he does nothing tangible for reviving it, ‘Islam’ while he is not even following its basic principles like offering salah etc. And finally he is a ‘deceitful’ person deceiving none but himself thinking he is practising Islam, while in reality he is not.
These people always comfort themselves telling others “cant you see, I always updated my status with some aayah of the Qura’an or with some hadith of Rasoolullah (sallallaho alihi wassalam), I am the admin of over 5 Islamic pages and of so and so group, what else do you expect from me?” Yet all these ahadith and the aayahs from Qura’an are not sufficient enough to prevent him from looking at the haram things, doing haram activities, going to forbidden places and speaking forbidden things. These quotes don’t even bring him to mosque five times a day, how can they bring him into paradise! A ‘reality check’ is needed here. We must evaluate our e-outlook with the real-inner look and compare the two, the former shall be far attractive and handsome than the latter and this I can say with surety will be the case with over 90% of the Muslims!
There is also another version of this, now a Muslim is no longer a threat to the evil doers, criminals and anti social elements. “Muslims” they say, “let them keep ‘tweeting’ and updating their ‘facebook status’ while we plunder the society of all ethical and moral foundations”. This Muslim will keep designing artistic and eye catching pictures, developing new web-pages and groups saying, “I Protest”, “In favour of Islamic code of life”, “against corruption” etc. But all of his efforts don’t make even an iota of influence on the society, while he in is dreams thinks, “I did a marvellous job, see everyone has ‘liked’ it”.
Muslims as an ummah today are suffering from a fundamental problem. We don’t recognize truly that Islam is a deen, not a set of do’s and don’t and yes or no’s. It is complete and comprehensive code of life which teaches us everything, everything means ‘everything’, how to offer salah, how to walk, how to talk, how to do business, how the society should be like, how the political and economic system should be like etc. But when we ignore this aspect of Islam we tend to develop our own designs and blueprints for everything. And today when we know the state of the ummah, our condition in this world and the hardships we are facing, each one of us has his own ‘methodology’ of changing this state. This is a natural corollary when we don’t recognize the deeni aspect of our deen. A casual look at our ‘news-feed’ in Facebook shall render dozens of ahadith and the aayat of Qura’an. Narrated by Abdullah ibn Masu’d, Narrated by Abu Hurrairah, Abdullah ibn Abbas says, Mujahid says, Qatadah says, Sufyan Thawri comments, May Allah be pleased with them all, such statements flood our news-feed in addition to the aayat of the Qura’an yet when we are over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world we are not capable of making any change. These people whom we often mention were just a handful, 313 in the battle of Badr, yet they had that capability that power to transform the whole world and establish from spain to India, from Africa to Europe to Asia an Empire built on justice, an empire of glory and an empire of unshakable faith. But then what is happening with us when we are quoting their statements, learning from the teachings of the same Messenger (sallallaho alihi wassalam) reciting the same book, why are the 1.5 billion incapable of doing anything?
Those men of courage and determination who are most mentioned but least understood were not e-Muslims, they didn’t primarily teach something which they didn’t themselves do, men who lived Islam in real time, with flesh and blood giving sacrifices for the sake of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’la), for the sake of Messenger of Allah (sallallaho alihi wassalam), people whose inner life was not in contrast with their outer life, people who didn’t make futile arguments and indulge in useless discussions, men of understand and of wisdom who by these virtues knocked at the Persian and Roman empires with dignity and honour and took the people out of the slavery of other people and brought them into the slavery of One true Master-their lord, The Most High Allah (subhanahu wa ta’la).
There is a basic principle which we should always keep in our mind, we must weigh all of our dealings and doings in the balance of Seerah. What would had Rasoolullah (sallallaho alihi wassalam) advised us to do if we would had reported these conditions to him. What? “Go on facebook, make a hundred thousand pages and two hundred thousand groups and a dozen other pages and everyday write one hadith, keeping a record of likes and comments you get...” This for sure wont be the answer of the one who is well-versed with the Seerah of The Prophet of Allah (sallallaho alihi wassalam), A man he was, may our souls be sacrificed on his blessed name, who witnessed over 80 battles (gazwat and saraya) in just a span of 10 years (Madinah period). This man from whose blessed hands do we expect to drink the water of Kauthar was a man who would live the deen which Allah (azza wa jal) revealed unto him in real time, he would order same to his noble companions.
Islam is not a religion of talk and speech, it is the deen of Allah which demands action, constant real time struggle with one’s flesh and bones, sacrifices in real time and determination and courage to establish the law of Allah (azza wa jal) in the land of Allah (azza wa jal). Shaitan has got his tricks and tactics; he makes us believe that we are doing everything, while in reality we are doing nothing. This ‘e’ nature of Islam and Muslims in the context of the above article is a deception and we need to be very cautious. Everyday a Muslim asks seventeen times in his salah to Allah (azza wa jal) to show him the path, “the Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger, nor of those who went astray.” We must know where we stand and with whom shall we be resurrected on the day of judgement.
Tail piece: This write-up should not be inferred in the sense of abandoning the modern means of learning, there is considerable good a person can do by using the ‘e’ letter. This write-up sounds caution that our main objective which is to preach and live Islam in real life should not get eclipsed with the ‘e’ practising and ‘e’ preaching.