The Guidance of the Prophet

Muslims which was the initial cause of the retaliation by the nonMuslims. The Muslims do not tell of how their own actions affect others. They only tell of the reaction by the other party. In such matters, they defend their case by asking, if a thief breaks into your home, what ought to be your response? This is a one-sided argument, because it labels the opposite party a ‘thief’ without there being any genuine reason to do so. The truth is that Muslims provoke others into reaction and retaliation. First of all, such provocation has to be stopped. There is no use in weeping and crying out against others when one’s own behavior is provocative. The Prophet of Islam once made an observation on how to deal with such situations: Fitna (evil) is dormant, God’s curse is upon those who awaken it. (Al Jame As Saghir Lis Suyuti , Hadith No. 5975) Due to the baneful result of this one-sided reporting, Muslims all over the world have come to regard themselves as the oppressed and others as the oppressors. It has made the Muslims develop a negative cast of thinking. They hold those belonging to other communities to be their enemies and so they hate them. Their lives are full of hatred rather than of love. The evil of biased reporting is not simply that it is not factual. It lies rather in the fact that it has turned the Muslims of present times into hypocrites. It is not possible for Muslims to build their lives by separating themselves from other communities. They have to make compromises again and again to further their material interests. As such , in spite of their negative thinking based on hatred, they are compelled to establish social and economic relations with other communities. In spite of harboring hatred in their hearts, they have to extend the hand of friendship to others. This is undoubtedly living by a double standard, and another name for this double-standard is hypocrisy. One-sided reporting, that is, describing only one aspect and hiding another, is not to be glossed over. It is indeed very harmful in that it encourages shallow thinking, to the point where the ability to differentiate between truth and falsehood is lost. The reader of such reporting comes under the influence of communal prejudice. He is no longer a realist in judging matters of moral importance. He becomes devoid of any feeling of well-wishing for others. He suffers from negative thinking. In the first stage, he voices complaints about others but, at a later stage, this develops into hatred. In the ultimate stage, he comes to regard violent activities against others as lawful. If, The Guidance of the Prophet