Last week, we eulogized all the religions the world over, for the wonderful job they are doing in fulfilling the external aspect behind their formation. This refers to prompting us inter alia; to love one and another, without which we cannot love God. How can we truly worship God, if we depise His creatures-top of which are the humans? Pass mark was given to all religions for this external feature of continually instilling the fear of God in us and guiding us toward neighborliness.
The second and most vital one is that of uniting us with the Creator, from whose Court we were pushed out eons of time past, because of our curiosity to explore the created.
One must acknowledge the sensitive nature of issues that have to do with religion. It is a matter that borders on individual psyche, emotions and sentiments. It is the advice of the Wise that there are three things that, one should not enter into argument with anyone. They are: Religion, Politics and Sports. I would think because religion is more or less something that is of heritage and cognitive in nature, it is considered more delicate of the three.
But having not set out to promote any religion, or lure us to abandon whatever religion we are in for another, and the main objective remains to enable us sift the wheat from the chaff, in whatever religion we are practicing, we wouldn't be dancing on anybody's feelings, in this modest attempt to make us go for the Truth, as only the Truth shall make us free. Nothing else!
The real and unchanging Truth is the Word of God that has created the creation and everything in it and as it is said, without this Word of God was not anything created that was created.
The good news is that all true religions are in agreement that there is a creative Energy of the Supreme Lord by which everything - sentient and insentient came to be. Also, we found no argument that the same creative Energy sustains the creation and it is the ladder by which we can reach back to the Court of the Lord.
This Energy is known to all religions and referred to by several names in different climates, religions and sects.
A study of the teachings of all Saints revealed that each one praises this creative Energy of God and this underscores the fact that, at the base of every religion is the worship of this same Energy, although each religion has its own rites, rituals, ceremonies and formalities, but the One Reality, the essence of Truth and Spirituality is central and fundamental to each and every religion.
It is this same Truth that all Saints, Avatars, Prophets, Sages, Spiritual Teachers and all by whatever name we choose to call them have come to reveal to mankind. If we can access this Word of God on our own accord, there wouldn't have been need for any Saint for that matter.
The plight of mankind is that we live in this world which has been described as the pen-house of the Negative Power. This Force that is in charge of the three multi-dimensional worlds being the Earth, Astral and Causal planes, is referred to by several names. Muslim calls it Shaitan, It is Lucifer in the Bible and the same Force was referred to as the Prince of the world by Jesus. It is known as Kal or Maya by the Mystics of East, three of whom were recorded as the Wise men that visited Jesus at birth and offered that pure spirit child gift.
Whenever we are dissatisfied with what the world has to offer, the Lord in His own mercy will send His Messiah to the world to come and show those souls that are ready, the way out of the labyrinth we are currently marooned. These message-bearers of the Lord had appeared in different climates the world over and they all taught the same Word of God.
Basically, the Creative Energy of the Supreme Lord is not an exclusive preserve of any religion. In fact it is a birthright and the very core of all humans and indeed all the created without exception. Dwar or Logos is this Word of God dubbed in Hebrew language. Christians call it the Word, although in the Aramaic language of the Messiah, it is called Memra. The English translation is the Word.
It is instructive that Muslim Saints (not the local Imams who are mere reciters of the Holy Quran) refer to this same Energy as Kalma which is the Arabic word for inner sound. The Muslim philosopher Bulleh Shah described the Word as Ism-i-Azam- meaning the greatest Name. Yet, other Muslim-St Kabir called it Bang-i-Asmani. This is translated as the Sound from the Sky. Mualna Rumi a Muslim Mystic used the terms- Kalma-i-Ilahi-the voice of God or Sultan-ul-Azkar meaning King of repetition. It is also generally known as kun-faya-kun in Islam.
The purpose of bringing out all these is to emphasize the fact that the Word of God is very much known to Islam. If all these are alien to our local Imams or Muslim Clerics, the fault is not in the Islamic religion per se, but with the practitioners and slothful followers, who failed to research into the religion they are practicing and casually opt for people to interpret scriptures to them, in this modern day and age, when the same scriptures are available in languages of choice.
Having established that the Word of God is not alien to Islam, it will be ungodly to continue to evaluate Muslims by the notoriety of some of the demented followers who have no qualms in taking lives in the name of Jihad. When we go down to the base of the Islamic religion and all true religions, we will find common features in them all, such as, there is only one God, love one another et al.
That a non-Muslim was regarded as Kafir was a statement meant at the outset of Islam for a group of people, and not for the entire Universe. This is for the available fact that as Prophet Muhammad (POH) was founding Islam in the Arabic world, religions had been established elsewhere across the world, for the same purpose Islam was set up to achieve.
The founder of Islam- Prophet Mohammed (POH) was both a political and religious head. His administration was to a people in the Arabic world who were pagans and very primitive idol worshippers basking in the worst kind of crudeness. Some force or coercion would have been necessary to whip them back to line ceaselessly; otherwise, they were prone to return to their idolatry.
What is unarguable is that the early Muslims knew about the Word of God, although it is doubtful if those who use Islam as a means of livelihood these days without other vocation have a whiff of this Creative Energy.
In spite of the Word being at the base of Islam, this religion remains one of the most misunderstood. This may largely be due to the criminally minded and uneducated people who perpetrate a lot of violence in the name of Islam. But these people painting Islam evil are they truly Muslims? It is very much in doubt.
Inquisition into how Islam was founded, revealed that most of the people creating war, disaffection and all kinds of crime the world over can not truly be regarded as Muslims.
The word Islam means submission to the will of God. Islam, like all other religions, came to fill a gap, to supply a need. It actually closed a sordid gap in history. Arabia had been for more than fifteen centuries a reservoir of Semitic tribes, born and nurtured in the desert. They were nomadic, warlike, vigorous and restless and majorly worshippers of idols.
Very few of them if at all, derived hints of religion from Judaism and Christianity before the advent of Mohammed. The Arabians were a jolly lot, and merry went their songs, mingling with the tinkling of their camels
Into this medley of hodgepodge of beliefs and sensual pastimes, Mohammed (POH) was born in 570 AD. He was a poor shepherd boy, but very imaginative, enterprising and deeply religious. He married a much older but rich widow named Kadijah. The marriage gave him prestige and Kadijah became his first disciple when his movement began and rapidly gained momentum.
Timid at first and thereafter boldly, Mohammed began to preach against idol worship. There is one God Allah the Merciful. Allahu Akbar and Takbir all attesting to the Greatness of God. These were his first public declaration and certainly, the pronouncement was greatly needed in Arabia.
The lofty declaration antagonized those who profited from idol-worshipping pilgrims. It struck at the tender spot among the Meccans. They murmured, did they not prosper and drink their wines with their idol worship? Such a disloyalty to the city was not to be tolerated. This led to Mohammed being driven away from his home in Mecca.
Mohammed and his close friend and best disciple, Abu Bekr barely escaped with their lives. But they were welcomed to Yathrib which is known today as Medina, to which a good number of his followers had already fled ahead of the Prophet. This is called Hijrah, and it occurred in the year 622 A D. The Hijrah is so important to the Muslim and the Islamic calendar actually started in the same year of Hijrah in 622 AD.
Mohammed gained considerable following in Medina and the now ascending Prophet Muhammad returned to Mecca at the head of an army. Now powerful, he had little difficulty in convincing his erstwhile enemies that they had mistaken. Mohammed was the true Prophet. He instantly got them converted. That was it. What was more important was that Allah was superior to their idols. They gave up idolatry and followed the one God and His Prophet.
What followed was eleven years of vigorous proselytizing. Strong arguments were used. It was no time for hairsplitting metaphysics which the illetetare Arabs would have never understood. The Prophet gave the Arabians something infinitely better than they had. He came to Arabia like a great physician with a cleansing purgative. All Arabians came under the sway of the new Prophet. The desert stood up as one man and embraced the new order of things- The Islam.
Prophet Mohammed shed the mortal coil when his work was not finished and had barely begun. His devoted friend and disciple, Abu Bekr, became his Caliph and carried on in his name-Abu Bekr the Faithful. Abu Bekr continued the good work of the Holy Prophet and handed over to Othman the 3rd Caliph. None of them deviated from the path of Islam as assiduously laid down by Prophet Mohammed (POH).
With this insight, it is obvious we are merely exhibiting our ignorance, borne out of laziness to research into what the religion we are castigating stands for and by so doing, we are using the practitioners of those religions as standard. How grossly mistaken such is. This perception must change if we truly want to live with each other harmoniously. The key is TOLERANCE. He who has created us did it in a varigiated manner. He remains a Perfect God and His ways shall ever remain a mystery to mankind. If He had wanted us all to speak one language and belong to one religion, it was in His power to so decree, but He didn't for reason best known to Him and unfathomable to mankind.
In drawing the curtains on Islam this week, the takeaway is: If we are Muslims and we are not shown how to access the Word of God, we should be inquisitive and find out why, because the practice of the Word of God known as Kalma-i-Ilahi is achievable through Sultan-ul-Azkar- The only Camino Way to Aljana.
The Hadit which Islam ranks as only second to the Holy Quran, contains a narrative about Isra and Mi'raj, in which by the means of Ismi-i-Azam, Prophet Muhammad (POH) ascended live into Heaven. This was recorded to have occurred through Angel Gabriel, who came to the Prophet with Buraq and together they ascended into Heaven and met Jesus, John the Baptist, Adam, Abraham and other Prophets.
If we believe all these as Muslims, it stands to reason that it wasn't a physical phenomenon. It could only happen by transcendent Meditation.
For instance, the Muslims use Tesbir just as the Catholics do with the rosary. How wonderful it would be to realise the origin. They now use both for repetition by the tongue. But only mental repetition of holy mantra aids our concentration to go within. Having forgotten the method, we now settle for physical repetition that takes us no where beyond the emotional satisfaction.
Does any of the Islamic sects still know or teach this method of in-flight attainment? This is for our Muslim faithful to ponder upon, as we move on to take up Christianity next week.
On a final note, as we trepidate at the danger inheres in the inumerous imbeciles, and depraved victims of feudalism, roaming about our forest with AK 47 rifles, and who we erroneously label as Muslims, we should parri-pasu remember thousands of the finest of the finest Muslim individuals, whose paths have crossed ours, and who are great pride to the Islamic religion and humanity.
