http://www.observer.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,562647,00.html
'When the innocent are murdered, we all go into the dark with
them'
War
on terrorism - Observer special
The globalisation debate
Ziauddin Sardar
Sunday September 16, 2001
The Observer
Who
could have done such immense evil? I have asked this question as
many times as I have seen the pictures on television. Every
viewing fills me with unspeakable sadness. Are people calling
themselves Muslims capable of such atrocities? Are they reading
the same Koran? Are they the followers of the same Prophet
Muhammad?
As a
Muslim writer, I am expected to know the answer. People ask me to
explain the mind and motivation of terrorists and seek Islamic
explanation for the actions of the hijackers. My neighbour wants
to know what kind of Muslim does such horrendous things. They
believe I can provide a rationale for how people become suicide
bombers, mass murderers and justify their evil.
I
tell them what the Koran says: 'Even if you stretch out your hand
against me to kill me, I shall not stretch out my hand against you
to kill you. I fear Allah, the Lord of the World.' I paraphrase
the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad: the murder of one innocent
person is akin to the murder of the whole of humanity. I tell them
that the Prophet forbade the killing of civilians, women and
children, the old and infirm, the wanton destruction of property,
burning of crops and slaughter of animals, even in a full-scale
war.
They
ask me about martyrdom. 'Aren't the suicidal hijackers buying a
ticket straight to heaven?' Islamic theology, I tell them, is not
a business transaction. No one, but no one, knows where they'll
end up. Only God knows. Even the Prophet wept with fear that he
may not be forgiven. The Islamic doctrine of martyrdom was
crystallised in the action of Imam Hussain, the grandson of
Prophet Muhammad on the battlefield of Kerbala in October 680AD.
He stood with his 70-odd followers against an army of 4,000
well-equipped soldiers, to uphold justice against injustice in the
full knowledge that it would cost him his life. His sacrifice was
the inevitable consequence of holding firm to what is morally
right, not a sought-after, self-chosen, wilful self-sacrifice of
one acting beyond any moral or ethical restraint. Suicide
hijackers disdain the preciousness of each and everyone of God's
creation, themselves and their victims; they cheapen the name of
martyr.
To
sacrifice one's property, security and comfort and, if there is no
other way, one's life, for the cause of what is right and just is
martyrdom for all faiths. But faith also teaches the limits of
human understanding, that we will all be judged and the meaning of
our actions made clear by the Most Compassionate, the All Knowing.
Martyrdom, like life, is the gift and judgment of God, not of men.
Only within the bounds of belief, within attachment to the duties
of faith, can anyone hope to walk the path to paradise.
Neither is the paradise of Islam some kind of brothel that
provides the services of '70 virgins' to its denizens - the
nonsense the press attributes to these murderous paradise-seekers.
Far from being an abode of pleasure, the paradise of the Koran is
a place of sublime innocence. The 'virgins', or 'houris', derive
their name from the eyes of gazelles. They personify beauty and
innocence; these eyes have never cast their gaze on sin. In the
gardens of paradise, the houris utter only one word: 'Peace,
peace.'
Creating the Kingdom of God on earth, as it is in heaven, is the
basic message of Islam. This is the true meaning of jihad. Now
there's a word. The very mention of the term sends shivers down 'civilised'
spines and leads many, glibly, towards 'holy war'. Surely, these
paradise-seeking martyrs have declared jihad on America? Acts of
terror are not jihad. They violate the explicit word of God,
Prophet Muhammad and the reasoned consensus of all believers. The
greatest jihad is the war on injustice in one's own soul, the
injustice that can conceive of terror tactics and lose all
restraints and respect for the sanctity of a human life. Jihad is
the reasoned struggle of each individual to work within the bounds
of moral action, to extend the protection of justice equitably to
every human being, irrespective of colour, creed or place of
origin. Jihad is the obligation to make peace a lived reality for
all human beings.
All
this, the belief of the vast majority of Muslims, is the
antithesis of the credo of the suicide bombers. We try to live a
good life in hope of paradise. We seek to do justice that paradise
may be granted to us. We walk humbly before God, not claiming
divine assurances as our own prerogative. In case you are
wondering, I am paraphrasing a Biblical verse, from the Book of
Micah (6:8) in the Old Testament, a common framework for Jews,
Christians and Muslims alike.
Islam cannot explain the actions of the suicide hijackers, just as
Christianity cannot explain the gas chambers, Catholicism the
bombing at Omagh. They are acts beyond belief, religious belief,
by people who long ago abandoned the path of Islam.
The
faith I hold, the faith of Muslims, the justice we seek is an
obligation to promote and make real in each life freedom from
tyranny, neglect, need, dearth and suffering. The justice we yearn
for is the life blood of a humane society with dignity and freedom
for all. It cannot be found by blasting innocents apart in an
inferno of twisted metal and concrete. When the innocent are
murdered, we all go into the dark with them. When the innocent
suffer, their suffering is ours.
•
Ziauddin Sardar is a leading Muslim writer. His Introducing
Muhammad is published by Icon Books, £8.99
