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| Slave
to the World: Masochism Liam Brian Yost In
the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful In this present day of technological
advances and great freedom, there is still a group of people who remain
slaves. There is still a group of people who are hunted and persecuted for
standing firm in what they know to be right. Who are these people? These
people are you and I…the Muslim Ummah. The worst part about this slavery
as opposed to the slavery of early American history is the fact that we
have no physical ‘master’ to apply the whip to our flesh. We have no
one to drag us away from those we love and make us a stranger in a strange
land. The only true oppressor we have is the Dunya. But I’m hesitant to
use this word ‘oppressor’. To oppress something is to hold it back in
a sense. The American Heritage Dictionary defines Oppression as (1) to
burden one harshly, unjustly or tyrannically. (2) To weigh heavily on the
mind and spirit. So, looking at these meanings, it’s safe to rule out these words Oppressor or Oppression to describe this ‘slavery’ the Ummah is being held under. And it’s sad. Only because, if we could use these words to describe our condition, there would be some sense made of it all. But how do you make sense of a slavery that man willingly gives himself to. I’m not speaking of the complete submission that we should be giving to Allah subhana wa’ta’ala…I speak of a submission to what hurts us and those around us and that we enjoy, or think we do. As much as it pains me to say and as much as it may pain you to think of mankind this way, there is only one term I can think of to describe us; to describe mankind. That term is masochistic. Now Masochism is a term we like to use to describe behaviors associated with the rejects of society. When we think of masochism, we think of these strange people with their sick sex and pain fetishes. We think of dark night clubs with people dressed in strange costumes and doing the unimaginable. We think of this and we cringe at what mankind has become. Masochism is defined as (2) The deriving of
pleasure from being mistreated in some way. But I pose this question to
you who frowns in disgust upon hearing this word and thinking of those
associated with it. Are we, the Muslim ummah, any better than those that
we speak of when mentioning this term? Think about it. What are the things
that the dunya offers us that we love so much? That we have to fight so
hard to avoid? Drinking, smoking, gambling, numerous sex partners,
lewdness, coveting, lying to get what we want, speaking in a derogatory
sense, speaking of our wives/husbands private moments with us with our
friends and comparing stories, watching and reading pornography and last
but not least… neglecting our studies in Qur’an and Sunnah to watch
mindless television programs that fill our heads with ideas and gross
morality we would never come up with on our own. We get fed garbage and
rather than spitting it out due to it’s putrid state, we ask for seconds
and thirds. Is this not a sense of destroying ourselves slowly and getting
pleasure while doing so? Some will say “Ahki, this is no comparison”,
but it is! You see, knowledge of Qur’an and Sunnah is the one major key
to helping build up iman. If we neglect these things, we begin to slip in
iman. We begin to miss our salat. We begin to attend the masjid less and
less. And eventually, we will be in full submission to the Shaitan’s
playground… the dunya. We are not only killing ourselves physically in
doing all this, but we are assuring making a permanent place for ourselves
in the hell fire and moving ourselves away furthur and furthur from
Jannah. And we have the audacity to look down on those who appear lost to
us. But tell me what is worse. These people out there in the dunya that
sin and transgress out of ignorance? Or those of us that know truth and
bargain it for what we call a “good time”. This is something to think
of when you see yourself in the mirror day to day. Many will disagree with me in this. Many,
if they heard this in a group setting would sit there looking around at
one another, thinking to themselves, “What kind of a Muslim would do
such things? What kind of a Muslim could possibly be a slave to this world
and it’s so called pleasures?” To those that look around in search of
such a person, 9 times out of 10, they need to look no further than
themselves. Many have asked me about why doing things like making wudhu
before salat is important. When I explain to them that this is a
purification of yourself before going in front of Al-Majid (the most
Glorious), they say “I don’t think God cares if you have dirt under
your nails or how you smell. He loves us no matter what.” Many ignorant
Muslims hear this and walk away thinking “maybe this person is right”.
Only the Muslim who is slave to dunya and weak in iman would think this
way. I personally have seen many Muslims attend salat without having made
wudhu beforehand…their odor has said volumes. I’ve seen them show up
wearing any old thing to go before their creator. The most sickening part
of this is that if these people were to go to a job interview, they would
dress to the height of fashion and smell better than they ever have in
their lives! So, a man who dishes out cash takes precedence over your
creator. You and I have both been guilty of this at one time or another.
But as the Prophet (saw) said “The best of you are not those that never
sin… the best of you are those that sin and repent.” You see, the
dunya is a destroyer. The Prophet (saw) said that the dunya is a prison to
the believer. But to the average man looking to fulfill his carnal
appetite, the danger is not so apparent. The Shaitan is a master of deceit
and the best of liars. Being such, he can take the worst and make it
appealing to all the bodies’ senses. If this danger was blatant, there
would be no fight; no inner jihad against our carnal natures. If it were
so easy to see its putridness, we would avoid it the way we would avoid
entering a burning building. If there was a burning building, not only
would we not enter, but we would breathe a sigh of relief that we’re not
in there and give thanks to out creator for keeping us from harm’s way.
So, if Shaitan wasn’t good at what he does, then he wouldn’t
have a chance in leading mankind astray. As
odd as it may sound, credit has to be given where credit is due. We have to face the fact that we, as
people, do not possess the knowledge the shaitan possesses. He is indeed
smarter and more powerful than we, and without the guidance of Allah Subhânahû
wa' Ta'ala, we would be left helpless to his will. Again,
many will have their faces all distorted at what is being said about the Shaytân
and his wisdom in comparison to us believers. Have you ever noticed that people pay more attention to what they take into their bodies and absolutely no attention to the words they spew forth from it? Did you ever notice that when it comes to one’s salvation, most can have anything sold to them? For example: Most times when people seek answers that their Holy books do not give them, most of the time, they’re doing nothing more than seeking verification for the heinous acts they do in everyday life that they know to be wrong. A perfect example of this is Muslims smoking, which I’ve seen much of. Their excuse? Well nothing in the Qur’an and Sunnah says anything about smoking. Smoking is not mentioned specifically, but we’ll touch on that in a little bit. Anyway, the person is looking for answers, so a Buddhist might say something that appeals to them and what they want to do, so they say to themselves “I like the sound of that” and adopt it as their own. Sometimes even going as far as to drop one belief and replace that belief with this new found “knowledge” That is until this newfound knowledge goes against something else they may like to do…then they go on to the next set of values and the next until they find justification for what it is they now wish to do. So, you see when dealing with our souls and
our salvation.. it’s a big game to most. A bargain hunt if you will.
Searching for the best pleasures for as little cost to our souls as
possible. But…if someone brought before us, a contract that would either
help us gain or lose money. Now we would stop. Now we would sit down and
think rationally. When it comes to the soul its “Yeah, I like this! And
let me some of that too!” all without a thought. When it comes to us
possibly gaining or losing worldly goods, that’s when we sit down, pull
out our glasses and read over the fine print like a banker or an auditor.
Giving the utmost attention to every little detail and asking question
after question. The Ummah is in a sad state. We are just as guilty as
those we point fingers at, yet we’re too stupid and blind to see this.
We are always looking for an excuse; a scapegoat. Getting back to the
smoking as I promised earlier, I notice many Muslims smoking these days. I
ask them “Why are you smoking? This is haraam” Dumbfounded that a
“convert” would ask such a thing of a so-called born Muslim they give
the excuse of “the Qur’an
and Sunnah say nothing of smoking.” My god, does it need to be spelled
out for them? Must you tell them every little detail? When on Earth does
the common sense kick in?! For those fools that like to make such excuses,
I have the following for you, the reader, to give to them. Perhaps you
know that all nations of the world - Muslim and Kafir alike- have now
started to fight smoking, because they know that it’s very harmful.
Islam forbids everything that is harmful, because the Prophet (saw) said:
"There should be no harming or reciprocating harm." Undoubtedly
there are foods and drinks which are beneficial and good, and others which
are harmful and bad. Allah described our Prophet(saw) in the following
terms: So, you see, the Qur’an and Sunnah
don’t say anything specifically about smoking, but the believing Muslim
should know better and needs to stop making excuses to justify our
weaknesses. Not addictions, not obsessions, but WEAKNESS! Addiction and
obsession are nice ways to tell people they’re weak. We are all weak
when it comes to certain things in this life…otherwise we wouldn’t be
human. But it’s our duty to our Creator to see to it that these things
are flushed from the body. What things are these? These are the “Two
Desires” as Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali likes to call them. These desires
are gluttony and sexual desire. And when you think about it…all things
haram boil down to the need to satisfy one of these two desires. Our
desire for sexual satisfaction or our need for more of anything is what
causes us to slip off the straight path on a continuous basis. This is why in the beginning of our salat in Surah Al-Fatihah we say “Ihdinas siratal mustaqeem” or “show us the straight way”. We need to ask for this constantly due to our gluttonous natures and where those natures can lead us. The so-called pleasure of this world does no more than soil the soul. Sure one may look good on the outside to another person, but the soul is filthy and filled with a need for more. It’s not enough to just say these people are dangerous. It’s not enough to say “Oh, just leave them alone, they’ll destroy themselves eventually.” People who focus on only themselves the way these do, care little about how their actions affect the next person, thus making them a menace to society. The Muslim has to begin to take steps towards first making Islam his life. As many scholars have said, Islam is not a religion, but a way to live. It’s been said that the Christian sees the Muslim as an oddity and somewhat outlandish because of the way the women dress and the way the men wear their beards and the such. This is not at all outlandish. This is called living your faith day after day and not just in the church. I personally have seen many be holier than holy in the church and be total rogues outside of it. This is where we and the Christain differ. For most, Christian and otherwise, God comes into play only when they need something materialistic or some kind of comforting in a bad situation. After the material is gotten and the grief is comforted…the person says “God? God who?” These types have always been and have been mentioned in Qur’an numerous times. The sad thing is you’d think after all this time that mankind would have figured out that this is not the way to go. But mankind is guilty of picking and choosing what he wishes to remember, and for him to remember God in his daily life would mean he would have to knock off his precious foolishness he commits on a daily basis. This is just proof positive that the Shaitan has his finger in everything having to do with the dunya. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to do the wrong thing and how hard it is to do the right? Or how we can tell someone we hate them with ease, but the words “I love you” are the hardest in the world for some to say when they care for someone and wish for them to know. The wrong in the dunya is purposefully made
easy for us to accept and to “enjoy”. This is our test as believers in
the one true God. Unfortunately, we spend more time studying our textbooks
in school to prepare us for upcoming exams. On a daily basis we neglect
the study of how to save ourselves from eternal torment; the study of how
to discipline ourselves in a world of temptation and false promises of
quickly gotten gratification. We all should be ashamed of the state
we’ve let ourselves get in; this state of a victim mentality; of blaming
the next man for what we do and don’t have. This must stop soon or we
are all as good as done for. The Prophet (saw) once said “The wise one
is the one who can admit mistakes and makes himself blameworthy”. When
we mention the Prophet (saw), we mention him with the utmost respect…as
we should. Now, which of you is going to be the first to not only mention
him (saw) with respect, but go out into the dunya and bring his name and
his mission the respect he and it deserves by living the way he (saw)
taught you in the Sunnah? Many will give a show of hands, but that’s as
far as it will go for you. To those who mean it and have the intention of
trying…may Allah guide and bless you along the straight and narrow path
that leads to Jannah. May He turn from you all that is bad and turn
towards you all that is good. To those who don’t plan on doing what you
say you’re going to do and are just trying to look good in front of your
fellow Muslim brethren…I wish you the same insha’Allah. Asalamu AlaikumWarakbatulah Warbarakatu Contact
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