CONTINUED...
Surah
Al-Muddaththir 74: - (The Enveloped One)
With the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Very-Merciful
0
you enveloped in a mantle, [l]
COMMENTARY:
The Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alyhi Wa Sallam is addressed
in this Surah as : - (0 you, enveloped in a mantle ... 7 4
: l ) - The word al-Muddaththir is derived from dithEr which
refers to a 'thick, warm over-garment [such as a cloak or
mantle] which a person wears in winter over his other clothing
in order to protect himself from the cold.' The form of address
is affectionate and endearing. The two forms of address, al-Muzzammil
and al-Muddaththir, are near-synonyms.
~
MA'AARIFUL QUR'AAN ~
TO BE CONTINUED... |
Why
The West Craves Materialism & Why The East Sticks To Religion
By Imran Khan (ARABNEWS)
-----------------------------
My
generation grew up at a time when colonial hang up was at
its peak. Our older generation had been slaves and had a huge
inferiority complex of the British. The school I went to was
similar to all elite schools in Pakistan. Despite gaining
independent, they were, and still are, producing replicas
of public schoolboys rather than Pakistanis.
I
read Shakespeare, which was fine, but no Allama Iqbal - the
national poet of Pakistan. The class on Islamic studies was
not taken seriously, and when I left school I was considered
among the elite of the country because I could speak English
and wore Western clothes.
Despite
periodically shouting 'Pakistan Zindabad' in school functions,
I considered my own culture backward and religion outdated.
Among our group if any one talked about religion, prayed or
kept a beard he was immediately branded a Mullah.
Because
of the power of the Western media, our heroes were Western
movie stars or pop stars. When I went to Oxford already burdened
with this hang up, things didn't get any easier. At Oxford,
not just Islam, but all religions were considered anachronism.
Science had replaced religion and if something couldn't be
logically proved it did not exist. All supernatural stuff
was confined to the movies. Philosophers like Darwin, who
with his half-baked theory of evolution had supposedly disproved
the creation of men and hence religion, were read and revered.
Moreover, European history reflected its awful experience
with religion. The horrors committed by the Christian clergy
during the Inquisition era had left a powerful impact on the
Western mind.
To
understand why the West is so keen on secularism, one should
go to places like Cordoba in Spain and see the torture apparatus
used during the Spanish Inquisition. Also the persecution
of scientists as heretics by the clergy had convinced the
Europeans that all religions are regressive. However, the
biggest factor that drove people like me away from religion
was the selective Islam practiced by most of its preachers.
In short, there was a huge difference between what they practiced
and what they preached. Also, rather than explaining the philosophy
behind the religion, there was an overemphasis on rituals.
I feel that humans are different to animals. While, the latter
can be drilled, humans need to be intellectually convinced.
That is why the Qur'an constantly appeals to reason. The worst,
of course, was the exploitation of Islam for political gains
by various individuals or groups.
Hence,
it was a miracle I did not become an atheist. The only reason
why I did not was the powerful religious influence my mother
wielded on me since my childhood. It was not so much out of
conviction but love for her that I stayed a Muslim. However,
my Islam was selective. I accepted only parts of the religion
that suited me. Prayers were restricted to Eid days and occasionally
on Fridays, when my father insisted on taking me to the mosque
with him.
All
in all I was smoothly moving to becoming a Pukka Brown Sahib.
After all I had the right credentials in terms of school,
university and, above all, acceptability in the English aristocracy,
something that our brown sahibs would give their lives for.
So what led me to do a 'lota' on the Brown Sahib culture and
instead become a 'desi'? read
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