Blasphemy, Food Crisis, and the Test of Our Love

BLASPHEMY against Prophet Muhammed (saw), the last Rasool (Messenger) of Allah, is at an all-time high in this era. That equals disaster for this world. We all know that all the creatures and even Allah Himself send Darood (praises) to Muhammad (saw). There can be no good news for this universe when evildoers and agents of Satan are allowed to disgrace the Rasool (saw) of Allah unchecked. Remember the chain of events and the effect of good news when Rasool of Allah, Muhammad (saw), had declared his message and position. Remember Surah Jinn of Qur’an and its background. Jinn were searching as to what particularly had happened, or was going to happen, on the earth, and their searching necessitated strict security measures against eavesdropping so that they were driven away from wherever they tried to eavesdrop in any way.

“The extraordinary measures were adopted in the heavens only on two kinds of occasions: first, when Allah might decide to inflict the dwellers of the earth with a torment, and the Divine will might be that before it was actually inflicted the jinn might not know and convey its news to warn their friendly human beings of the impending disaster. Second, that Allah might appoint a Messenger on the earth, and strict security measures might be adopted so that neither the messages being conveyed to him be interfered with by the satans nor should they be able to know beforehand what instructions were being given to the Messenger. Thus, the saying of the Jinn means: ‘When we noticed that strict security measures had been adopted in the heavens for the safeguard of the news, and the meteorites were being showered profusely, we wanted to know which of the two things happened: whether Allah had caused a torment to descend suddenly on some people on the earth, or a Messenger had been raised somewhere on the earth. We were on the lookout for the same when we heard the wonderful Revelation, which guides to the Right Path, and we came to know that Allah had not sent down a torment but had raised a Messenger to show the Right Way to the people’” (The Meaning of the Qur’an, Volume 6, Page 92, by Syed Abul A’la Maududi).

The sum of all the blasphemous novels, books, cartoons, caricatures, pictures, videos, and films, and their widespread dissemination and publications means that something horrible is going to happen. Such blasphemy is an invitation for the wrath of Allah and torments.

The first torment we immediately notice on this earth is the “food crisis.” Why is there a food shortage now all over the world?

The English demographer and political economist Thomas Robert Malthus provided a now defunct theory of food shortage. Malthus, who was ignorant of Divine laws, predicted in 1798 that, congruent with an unchecked population growth, there would be an acute shortage of food in the near future and famine would become globally epidemic and eventually consume Man. According to his forecasts, the population of the world would die from hunger in the midst of the twentieth century (in the unchecked population growth of the world). It didn’t happen. Malthus’s theory failed. As a matter of fact, the food production rate of the world was much higher than the population growth in the last century.

Food scarcity is not the result of population growth. It is the result of rebellious attitude towards the One God (the Nourisher, the Sustainer, the Provider, the Caretaker, and the Supplier of human needs). If you are rebellious to God’s laws and principals, unjust, and oppressor and if you hate the person whom God loves the most, then God will not love you but will bring torments one after one.

Muslims, who possess the last divine Book, the message of the last Messenger (saw) of Allah, have extra responsibility for this world and the people. Every one of us has to decide now and define our role to save ourselves, other Muslims, all other people of the world, and this universe from the torments and disasters.

We can begin right now by doing these things:

1. Start Reciting Darood, numerous times without counting, day and night (making sure to keep your taharah and wadoo).
2. Start knowing the will and wishes of Rasool (saw) of Allah, what exactly he wants from us.
3. Stop doing all the things that he (saw) prohibited, and start doing all the things he (saw) told us to do.
4. To test our faith, we should frequently ask from our hearts, “Do I love Rasool of Allah more than myself, my parents, and my family?” Following Allah, His Prophet (saw) should be our most loved entity. He is our ideal appointed by Allah and will remain our ideal till the Day of Judgment.
5. Instill the attributes of his character in our lives. Consider him (saw) ideal in all spheres of life. He was the mercy of mankind.
6. Take the advice of Brother Muhammad Ateeq, resident of Scarborough, Toronto: Whenever you cook any good food –like Biryani, Pulao, Qurma, etc— send some of the food to your neighbors (particularly non-Muslims) and tell them the hadith (saying of the Prophet) to explain that you are distributing the food to your neighbors because the Rasool of Allah ordered us to do so. Tell them that we can’t be good Muslims if we do not share our food. In this way, you can easily convey the message of Muhammad (saw) and the message of Islam. The door of the heart opens from the door of stomach.
7. Study the Seerah (biography) of Prophet Muhammad and apply his example to your life.
8. I have decided to publish two books on Seerah for the West on behalf of my company Seerah West, Inc., in near future (Insha Allah):

1. The well known researcher of Seerah, Late Maulana Suleman Nadavi (who completed the remaining 5 volumes of Seeratun Nabi after the demise of Allama Shibli Nomani, the best book on Seerah ever written in Urdu language) wrote another book on Seerah “Rahmat e Aalam” for common people and youth. It is easy to understand and adopt. Insha Allah, we will publish the translation in American English with high quality printing production. This is a small book and consists 164 pages of Urdu. More or less, the pages in English will remain the same. I hope that this will be one of the best books on Seerah for North American masses.

1. Late Maahirul Qadri, a well known Urdu literary person of Pakistan, one who has written several stories, poems, and novels, wrote a novel on Seerah of Prophet Muhammad. All the plots and dialogues presented in the novel are realistic and adopted from Seerah of Rasool (saw). North American masses love to read novels. Insha Allah, we will publish this novel in English very soon, and it will be the best gift for our non-Muslim friends and youth.

 

Jawed Anwar can be reached at: jawed@DailyMuslims.com

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