The Jihad we Muslims crave for...

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…