Be afraid of our own religious fanaticism

                                                   Picture credit: Furqan T. Siddiqui
                               

I am really blessed and fortunate to be brought up in a home where anyone is welcome irrespective of race, colour, creed or sect for that matter. I grew up listening to qawwali music along with various other genres of music as well. I was exposed to the various facets of life from a young age and it taught me tolerance and acceptance of others. I am sure many of you out there must have heard about the tragic assassination of Amjad Sabri Sahab who was a well known and well respected musician who specialised in Sufi music. A radical faction of the Taliban have taken responsibility for his life claiming that he was not a Muslim and hence needed to be killed due to blasphemy. The prophet Muhammed (saw) was a peace loving human being. His heart was filled with kindness and compassion towards others. He respected everyone. How then can we as human beings run down or condemn another person's belief system. When you visit Makkatul mukarramah you will see millions of Muslims and everyone has their own variation of praying. Just because they pray differently to me does not mean that they are bad people and neither does it mean that I am superior over them. Sabri Sahab was a qawwal. He expressed his love for his Creator and the prophet Muhammad (saw) through poetry and music. And whilst many hardcore fanatics out there have condemned his way of devotion I am of the opinion that he probably had a deeper love and connection with his Lord than these merciless fanatics. A person who is close to his Lord will not murder and kill innocent people. When you get close to your Lord, Allah softens your heart. Who are we to judge or run down another human being when we are not sinless or faultless ourselves? If you don't agree with a person's belief system that's fine. Carry on with your own life. But don't condemn anyone. The irony is that his assassins have in actual fact given him a death in Ramadhaan whereby the doors of paradise will be open for him. The fact that he was shot makes him a shaheed. Our duty on earth is to do good and spread good. We are not here to label people. Take the good from every person that you meet and discard the bad.Always ask Allah to give you eyes that enable you to see the good in others. This is the essence and the basis of Islam. It is such a perfect, practical religion that is followed by imperfect, impractical followers. ......