in one of the islamic conquests, a fight broke out between one of the muhajerin and one of the ansar, the muhajer (the person belonging to the muhajerin, which are the people who traveled with the prophet from mecca to medina) yelled "oh muhajerin" and the ansari (person belonging to the ansar, the people who promised to support and protect the prophet when he came to medina) yelled "oh ansar", and the factions started fighting.
When the prophet heard of the incident, he got very angry and said, "you are calling by the calls of Jahileyah (days prior to islam, known as days of ignorance/jahilyeh) when I am amongst you? Leave what you are doing, it is rotten!
The prophet (pbuh) described 'Asabiyah' (nationalism/tribalism - or the act of supporting a group of people based nationalistic or triblistic relation or ties blindly and with excitement/anger) as being rotten.
The condition of the islamic nation today, from hate of one another to the fights between each other, and between muslim nations are all acts that would have saddened the prophet (pbuh). The spread of Asabiyeh in the Islamic nation is like the spreading of fire, it spreads hate and evil and injustice.
The fall of the Islamic nation and culture is due to asabiyeh, and the prophet was correct when he described it as rotten and evil/bad, and on the negative influence it has on the rise of the (Islamic) nation.
If you have Asabiyeh to your nation/country, or if you are proud of what you are then know that you are copying the acts of Iblees (devil). Iblees was the first creations of God to be proud of what he was. When God almighty ordered him to bow to Adam, what did Iblees say?.. He said 'I am better than him (Adam), you God (almighty)have created me from fire, and have created him (Adam) of mud/clay. What Iblees did was wrong.. who told Iblees that fire is better than mud?
And on that basis, regretfully, some people follow the act of Iblees. Who told you that the Saudi Arabian is better than the Egyptian, or the Sudanese better than the Libyan or the Syrian better than the Lebanese? Who told you anyways that the Arabs are better than the non-Arabs?
The prophet (pbuh) said, " An Arab is only better than a non arab, ONLY by piety and devoutness to God". People are compared by piety and not nationality or who a person is.
The Prophet was right again to forbid us from asabiyeh as it is an imitation of the Iblees.
On the day of Judgment, the ones who will be more favoured or the scale on Judgment day is piety/devoutness to God. Which means the person standing next to you on that day will be the person that had the same level of piety and not the person with the same nationality as yours, in other words you will find the Bengali, Pakistani, or Indian, whom sadly are despised by some people, are on the highest levels because of their piety and devoutness to God.
I am not saying that one should not like/love his country, on the contrary one must like his country/ or country that he/she lives in and also to love his home nation, this is desired.
That is why one of the companions asked the prophet: "is it of Asabiyah for a man to like/love his people/tribe. The prophet said: No, but asabiyah is when a man supports his people/tribe even when they are doing evil."
(i.e. To knowingly support your people/tribe just because you belong to them and they are your people, even though their cause might be one of evil doing(
Asabiyeh is not only in matters regarding nationality but also in matters of religion, for example a group of people (shown in the following video) pray in two different directions because they couldn't agree which way the Qibla (direction to Mecca) was.
Honestly I do not find a solution to Asabiyeh (in the Arab nation) except under Islam. Arabs throughout their history have had Asabiyeh in their blood and were never united under what is called Arab or (Arab nationalism). The only time Asabiyah was solved was during the period from the prophet, to the caliphates and the early ages of the Islamic empire. Why?
Because at that time people treated each other on the bases of brotherhood through religion. In other words I would treat you as a brother even though I am of a different nationality.
No comments:
Post a Comment