Misrepresentation of faith

I have been told, obliquely and bluntly, that my faith is not progressive. Not once, not twice, but several times by several people and on several occasions, I have been told the same thing.

Without getting into an emotional fight, let’s check it out, especially because the observation came from friends and learned ones at that.

As I understand my faith and its history, and I think I understand them right, the Prophet (PBUH) was a huge political liberal. Hence, there is no compulsion in religion (Holy Quran). To take the argument forward: In the Madinah Charter, the Prophet (PBUH) spoke of absolute tolerance, absolute freedom and absolutely no discrimination against those who didn’t share his faith. And it was then when the seeds of liberty were sowed. Not by self-regarding religious campaigners, not postgraduates in political science, but by the Prophet (PBUH) himself.

And it was then when the seeds of liberty were sowed.

But I do have the courage of my conviction to admit that a sustained and violent campaign by thousands of faithful is responsible for the aforementioned insensitive observation. They (hardliners) have forgotten, and in totality, that no one is above faith, but everybody is above twisted faith. And their view of faith is enormously twisted. What else? From children travelling in school buses to running around in playgrounds to women shopping in malls to entertaining sportsmen to men having dinner, they have spared none. They have bombed them, injured them, killed them, reduced them to refugees, created millions of beggars out of them.

The attackers are not alone, we know that. But the executioners and the planners of such bloody campaigns will do well to remember that photographs of beautiful children bleeding, half-dead mothers, fathers carrying their dead children, torn limbs send out only one unhealthy message to the world: Does all this have something to do with their belief? And that is absolutely understandable. Nothing to be wrathful about.

Well, no matter how hard they try they cannot deny that their bloody movement, which doesn’t have a centralised command, is a complete misrepresentation of Islam.

Their behaviour fully violates the tenets of Islam. Yes, those highly flexible liberal tenets that won the hearts of millions in countries thousands of miles away from Makkah and Madinah.

Nothing that has nothing to offer spreads. Islam had, it spread.