Islam is indeed a religion of peace, a religion that calls for unity, a religion for the whole of mankind. Yet it is sad that as Muslims instead of preaching and trying to inculcate the concept of unity within our homes and communities, some of us are hell bent on causing division and segregation. Instead of our religious scholars bringing people together by means of establishing common ground, not all, but some scholars have chosen to cause division. In various suburbs including my own, the masjid which ideally should be a place of worship has now become a building whereby people within the community feel as though they own the masjid. A masjid is the House of Allah. Anyone has the right to pray in the house of Allah whether you have a beard or not, whether you wearing a trouser or shirt or a thobe. Allah is the judge of mankind. Not us humans. The masjid is not your home or family business. I am so livid at the sheer hypocrisy that exists within our communities. It deeply aggrieves me.
On several occasions religious scholars visiting from other countries were not allowed to perform prayers in the masjid as he was branded a salafi or branded a hundred other names. Yet, when we South Africans go to Saudi for example, we are all performing salaah behind the same Imaam. We have the very same Imaams CD’s and DVD’s playing in our homes. There has been incidents whereby a visiting brother was asked to recite a nasheed or Quraan in the masjid and because he did not have a beard due to the political situation in his own country, he was prevented from reciting the Quraan in the house of Allah by the very same crooked trustees who are hypocrites in every sense of the word. These same people refuse to listen to the Quraan live in a masjid setting because the Sheikh does not have a beard but will choose to listen to the same Shiekhs recitations in the car or at home. Where is the logic? Some of our religious scholars have seriously lost the plot and they are leading their followers astray as well. They have forgotten about the beautiful teachings of our Beloved Muhammed (saw), the manner in which he welcomed people of all races including his enemy. Nowadays when a scholar comes to SA from abroad, it’s a huge hallabaloo. A hundred and one people have to be consulted in order to welcome them. Should we allow them to read in our masjid or not. ( No.. it is not your masjid or my masjid or our masjid. . It is Allahs masjid).They will first judge the individual, criticise, etc etc etc and then permission is granted. There has been situations where trustees of one masjid condoned the visiting scholar to perform the prayers and yet the trustees of another masjid in the same suburb prevented the scholar from leading the prayer due to internal politics.
It is an absolute joke. For heaven sake, the person is a Muslim. As long as the person loves Allah, has the sunnah in his heart and the quraan in his soul,welcome your brother with open arms in unity.We expect western countries to welcome muslim refugees with open arms but we can't welcome our fellow Muslims from other countries with open arms just because they do not have a beard. In my opinion when a scholar from abroad comes to South Africa, the trustees of the biggest masjid within a suburb should take the initiative to host the scholar.All the ulema of that suburb should support the program and make themselves present. Not act as though they are more virtuous or more superior.Today it is so easy for our youth to go astray through drugs and alcohol abuse.Pornography is available at their finger tips. We should rather support the programs in our masjid whether it is facilitated by local or international scholars. Whether the person has a beard or not does not justify your actions of not wanting to listen to the words of the quraan.As Muslims we need to build bridges. That is what Islam is all about.South African Muslims are not the only Muslims in the world. We are not the best Muslims in the world.Infact we are a minority group.How the heck can the umma be on the straight path when our religious scholars are calling each other by derogatory names on social media. How can the umma unite when we fail to establish common ground on various topics. How can we achieve world peace when we have bickering and disunity in our own small communities?
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