Practising what one Preaches

Practising what one Preaches

1985 7 July 19-20 Practising what one Preaches (617) Malik Abdul Shakoor (b. 1946), from Budhal, in Rajouri, India, used to be an inveterate chain-smoker. Slogans like “Cigarette-smoking is harmful to health” and “When you light a fag you are setting light to your own hard-earned money”, would have no effect on him. He even used to force his friends to smoke. To have a cigarette after tea was so important to him that he used to say that anyone who does not do so has no right to partake of tea either.

But in the end Malik Abdul Shakoor gave up even his beloved habit, and it was just a trivial incident which persuaded him to do so. His three-year-old son, Farooq Qaisar, had developed a habit of picking up the cigarette butts that his father threw away, and putting them into his mouth. However much his father discouraged him, he would not pay any heed. One day, when the child's mother told her son off severely, he burst out: “But Daddy smokes, why shouldn’t I?” Malik Abdul Shakoor was shocked to hear the child’s words. Although he used to praise cigarette-smoking in front of his friends, in his heart he knew that it was a bad habit, destructive to character as well as health and money. True, he used to put on a brave face in front of those who urged him to give up smoking, but this was only because he was not ready to take their advice. Had be been prepared psychologically for the effort involved in giving up smoking, then he would also have been prepared to admit that he was in the wrong – that cigarette-smoking was a bad habit that should be avoided. But, reluctant to even open his mind to the evils of the habit, he would touch extremes of eloquence in his attempts to prove that there was nothing wrong with smoking, and would even press others to take it up themselves.

But now it became a matter of giving up smoking or risk ruining his dear son’s life. Suddenly all the mental barriers, which had prevented him from accepting a simple truth, broke down. He had stood firm when faced with powerful evidence, but he had no answer to the helpless cry of his own child. “If I don’t give up smoking,” he thought, “then how can I stop my son from smoking?” He could not bear to think of his son smoking, and using the fact that his father smoked to justify his action. The child’s simple words: “Daddy Smokes, why shouldn’t I?" made him into a new man. He immediately decided to give up smoking. It was Ramadhan – the month of fasting – and he vowed to forsake the habit there and then. Not only did he abstain from cigarette-smoking for the rest of the month; he gave it up permanently, and has not smoked since.

Muslims often say that before Islam can be communicated to others, the Muslims themselves must fully practice their faith. But the case of Malik Abdul Shakoor is a simple example which shows that the best way to reform oneself is to have a passionate urge to reform others. The truth is that Islam can only really be adopted, both inside and outside the present Muslim community, if Muslims are filled once more with missionary spirit. Only if they realize that they have a responsibility to convey the message of Islam to the rest of the world will they become responsible Muslims themselves. In their desire to make others into good Muslims, they too will become good Muslims, for otherwise people will protest, like Malik Abdul Shakoor’s son, that one who cannot practice what he preaches is not entitled to preach.