ASK MAULANA

ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered Maulana Wahiduddin Khan on Muslim violence and negativity A Muslim friend of mine is very upset about the horrific terrorism that self-styled ‘Islamic’ groups continue to commit in the name of Islam. Because of what these groups are doing, she has become embarrassed to be seen as a Muslim by her friends from other faiths. When she goes out, she is apprehensive that others might discriminate against her or wrongly look at her with doubt and suspicion just because she has a Muslim name. What advice would you have for her and others like her? Your fear lies within and has no existence outside of yourself. You should completely free your mind of this thinking. You must be convinced that these terror acts are not truly inspired by Islam but are done by some misled Muslims. I am myself an example of this way of thinking. I travel in India and all over the world and have no such fear because I have completely disowned the violent acts of Muslims. If you do not disown these acts unequivocally, you will have fear. I think that many Muslims think and talk negatively. Instead of asking God to bless and guide people of other faiths and to bless the whole world (and not just Muslims alone) with love, compassion, peace and prosperity, they ask God to destroy people of other faiths. Why is this so? This practice by certain Muslims is wholly against the spirit of Islam. This is well illustrated by an incident that occurred in the early history of Islam. In the time of the Prophet in Madinah, some people from a tribe killed Muslims while the latter were unarmed and unprepared. Knowledge of this made the Prophet utter certain curses against those who had murdered the Muslims. But at that very moment an angel from God appeared and admonished the Prophet not to call upon the curse of God on anyone. After this incident the Prophet never called upon the wrath of God upon any person. So, if Muslims are engaged in the act of cursing others, they are doing something that is certainly forbidden (haram) in Islam as the Prophet himself was asked not to do so.