We have all read about 'daur e jahiliyya', the period before the advent of Islam. Some of the key features that astonished us when we were in school were that, feuds between tribes stretched for generations on insignificant matters like whose horse would first drink water from a well! It is later, that I read more on this period and learnt some good as well as far worst things but most of us have only this memory of our education about 'daur e jahiliyya'. This period was like any other period in human history. Very much like our own period. Each 'daur e jahiliyya' promises the coming of a Messiah, like 'daur e jahiliyya' before Christ foretold his arrival and a Prophet always came to deliver the world from its social evils until our own last Prophet.
What about now? The very religion that our Prophet brought has been wickedly distorted and Koran, a guide for all times to come, has been grossly misinterpreted to spread the very conditions that call for deliverance and a rise of a Messiah. We, people living in this time do not even have the solace to expect any Prophet as our religion is complete and Islam is the chosen religion for us (Al-Koran)! But..wait a minute...what religion? Because my religion and that of Mullah Umar's is not the same. I have more in common with a humanist atheist than him. Is he our deliverer? Did we need any deliverance before the taliban came onto the scene? I do not think so. Many of our problems have been created as a reaction and response to the world that the taliban have created for us. I fail to fathom, on a purely humanistic level how they can justify killing of so many innocents, the apparent victims of suicide attacks and also the young recruits for these attacks. How can they kill in the name of God and his Prophet? The worst scenario they paint for us is that we would be over taken by USA. Granted, that we might. How is that any worst than living under their rule? What principles would guide their rule? Koran and Sira of the Prophet? No thank you. We have seen how and for what ends these have been interpreted.
Then what? No Messiah, an in-efficient and corrupt government, no religious authority capable of unifying the ummah and recognized by all, no civil leadership, then how would we get our deliverance from this 'daur e jahiliyya'? I always ask myself in what form would God's benevolence and mercy show itself? A lull in these suicide attacks would not be true mercy because fear of another on the horizon would always remain. My mind can only fathom mercy in this environment as a unifying force, either in a person hood or as a concept that would be universally acceptable and brings an end to these multiple and suicidal interpretations! Thus would come an end to this 'daur e jahiliyya'.
What about now? The very religion that our Prophet brought has been wickedly distorted and Koran, a guide for all times to come, has been grossly misinterpreted to spread the very conditions that call for deliverance and a rise of a Messiah. We, people living in this time do not even have the solace to expect any Prophet as our religion is complete and Islam is the chosen religion for us (Al-Koran)! But..wait a minute...what religion? Because my religion and that of Mullah Umar's is not the same. I have more in common with a humanist atheist than him. Is he our deliverer? Did we need any deliverance before the taliban came onto the scene? I do not think so. Many of our problems have been created as a reaction and response to the world that the taliban have created for us. I fail to fathom, on a purely humanistic level how they can justify killing of so many innocents, the apparent victims of suicide attacks and also the young recruits for these attacks. How can they kill in the name of God and his Prophet? The worst scenario they paint for us is that we would be over taken by USA. Granted, that we might. How is that any worst than living under their rule? What principles would guide their rule? Koran and Sira of the Prophet? No thank you. We have seen how and for what ends these have been interpreted.
Then what? No Messiah, an in-efficient and corrupt government, no religious authority capable of unifying the ummah and recognized by all, no civil leadership, then how would we get our deliverance from this 'daur e jahiliyya'? I always ask myself in what form would God's benevolence and mercy show itself? A lull in these suicide attacks would not be true mercy because fear of another on the horizon would always remain. My mind can only fathom mercy in this environment as a unifying force, either in a person hood or as a concept that would be universally acceptable and brings an end to these multiple and suicidal interpretations! Thus would come an end to this 'daur e jahiliyya'.
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