I studied in an
all-Muslim school. We used to have a forty-five minute class, or a period as we
called it, called Deeniyath. It means the study of Deen or religion. This is
the class I remember the most from my school days. I loved it for two reasons:
(1) the subject did not carry any weight in our academics and (2) it was filled
with stories which fascinated me, and to think about it - continue to
fascinate me even now. The teacher, we called him Molsaab (a Hyderabadi version
of Maulvi sahab), is the one I can never forget. He was a small, angry,
passionate man. Students feared him. Students hated him. I don’t remember
having any such fear or hatred towards him though. He was wonderful to me. He
told me beautiful stories I still remember. He taught a lot about Islam (ten
years of Deeniyath, so it is kind of obvious). Though I never knew how
important the classes would be, now if I look back, those are the ones that taught
me the most.
Islam promotes Deen and
Duniya - Religion and World, meaning worldly life is just as important. And that it is the basic duty of every Muslim to
seek education. If I may quote what I was taught by Molsaab – ‘Ilm ka haasil
karna, har Musalman, mard aur aurat, par farz hai’ said the Prophet. It
translates to mean that seeking knowledge is the duty of every Muslim (the word ‘farz’
if you may have noted, translates to duty, not a right, thus giving more importance to 'do what you need to do' than to 'demand what you deserve'). Similarly, we had a compilation of
thirty Hadees, which are the sayings and deeds of the Prophet. And then there
were stories.
Of the many stories I
heard about the Prophet during those ten years of Deeniyath, one which I recall,
and remember the most is the one about an old woman. An old woman who hated the
Prophet. An old woman who hated him so much that she would throw trash on him
every day when he was on his way to the mosque to pray. The Prophet never responded.
Never got angry. Never thought about taking revenge. And it continued for many
days. One fine day, the Prophet en route to the mosque, passing by the old
woman’s house noted that the old woman didn't throw any trash on him. The Prophet was not
pleasantly surprised, he was rather worried. He went inside the house to check
on the old woman, who apparently was severely ill. The Prophet helped her with
medication and she got back to her normal health. The old woman never troubled the Prophet again. The story seems childish, almost stupid; but there
were many lessons learnt in this stupid-like story.
As we grew up we were taught
that we, as Muslims, are to take the example of the Prophet and his life as an
ideal one to lead our lives. We were also taught that there is no way anyone
can be as perfect as the Prophet, but we must strive, we must struggle. I
believed in all those things. I believe in them today. I hope I continue to
believe in them until the end of my life. But for those who haven’t been taught
these things, they might just about start to question if Islam is what the
Muslims do. We, the Muslims, we flaunt our beards but our eyes are filled with
rage. We, the Muslims, we flaunt our skull caps while there’s only hatred in
our hearts. We, the Muslims, we wear pants above our ankles, and that makes us
a superior Muslim than the one who doesn’t. The beard, the skull cap, the pants
are all what the Prophet appeared like. But his eyes were calm, his heart was
full of love and he was the most humble of Mankind. Unfortunately, appearance
is what we learn and the intentions we conveniently ignore.
These are still smaller
things, but the so called Muslims have gone way ahead. They take hostages. They
kill innocent people. They storm into schools. They kill children. CHILDREN! All
these actions by those who claim to follow the Prophet. The same Prophet who
checked on a woman who threw trash on him every day. How can these people be
Muslims at all? How can they just not learn the basic teachings of Islam and
claim to be the clerics? These are not Muslims. We are different. What we are
taught is different.
While I learnt many of
the basic teachings of Islam in school, there’s this one thing I learnt a little later. A little
later when the so called Muslims had spread their terror throughout the world. A
little later when I was old enough to actually understand how basic it was and
how contrasting the so called Muslims had made it look like. A little later when I realised why we were taught to try and replicate the ideal life that our Prophet lived - because it is
not easy. It is a struggle. It is the biggest struggle a Muslim can take up. And
this struggle my dear friends, is the real Jihad. The Jihad we Muslims crave
for…
