- The piety brigade strikes again
One would not usually expect three letters to trigger such a furore. Last week’s commotion on the social media was started by nothing more than a benign RIP wished to Sushant Singh Rajput. The resulting explosion of bigotry was troubling even if it wasn’t exactly eye-opening (one can have eye-opening experiences only so many times). It was not permitted to pray for Singh as he had died a non-Muslim, the piety brigade vehemently announced.
Just as way too many atheists believe that anybody religious must have some screws loose, way too many religious folks think that anybody who is an atheist (or belongs to the ‘wrong’ religion) must be insincere. There is a marked dearth of goodwill and spirit of extending the benefit of doubt on either side; but the latter directly concerns our subject today. From the Muslim point of view, there can be at least two reasons for somebody not being a Muslim: either he did not get the message properly; or he received it all right but rejected it due to arrogance, convenience or some such reason. This is certainly not to say that Singh necessarily belonged to the first category. But the point is that there is no way to know that he belonged to the second category either. While there is no denying the existence of insincerity among many unbelievers, without a prophet in our midst how can one say about a given individual that he is insincere? And not knowing one way or the other, what is wrong with assuming the best on the part of others, especially when the Quran warns against erring in the opposite direction? [49:12]
The Quranic verse pressed into service to support the position that one is not permitted to pray for the non-Muslim after his death, and which became a twitter trend, was this: “It is not fitting for the Prophet, and those who believe, to pray for the forgiveness of idolaters even though they may be their near of kin after it has been made clear to them that they are people of hell fire.” [9:113] First of all, one would be hard pressed to find a Sikh who will admit to being an idolater. But let us not dwell on that detail. The subject of Chapter 9 of the Quran is punishment for those deniers of truth about whom God had declared that they had received and understood the message. The Prophet (PBUH) of God was among the believers so there was no room for any doubt. The verse has nothing to do with the non-Muslims of today. Whenever a verse of the Quran is quoted after tearing it loose from its context, the conclusions that are drawn are always flawed. This tendency to quote out of context is a very slippery slope. People have notoriously used other verses of the same chapter to justify all sorts of killings in the name of Islam with devastating consequences.
While there is no denying the existence of insincerity among many unbelievers, without a prophet in our midst how can one say about a given individual that he is insincere? And not knowing one way or the other, what is wrong with assuming the best on the part of others, especially when the Quran warns against erring in the opposite direction? [49:12]
Which leads us to a broader point; there are many non-Muslims around but now that the prophethood has ended once and for all, as far as we are concerned nobody is a kaafir anymore – not that we can know of, at any rate. The latter would be someone who deliberately rejects the truth knowing that it is the truth – something no man can be sure of about another man.
What the Quran really says about salvation is quite the opposite of what the piety brigade would have us believe. “Those who believe and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans – all who believe in Allah and the Last Day and do good, surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall be no fear upon them nor shall they grieve.” [2:62]. (The same thought is expressed again with a minor variation of words in 5:69.) Add the numerous places where the Quran makes it clear that apparent association with a camp or giving lip service to a cause mean nothing as far as one’s fate in the next world is concerned, and there can be no room for any doubt on the matter. God Judges men based on their attitudes and actions, not on what label they wore or which club they were members of.
But Singh committed suicide (a forbidden act), the righteous folks reminded us for good measure. Will it be too much to ask that at least some things are not seen through the prism of piety and impiety? If one could only imagine how disturbed somebody must be even to contemplate ending his own life, maybe one would think twice before judging him.
According to the Quran, every man is going to find with his Lord his just reward (or punishment); nobody will be wronged. So, our saying RIP is hardly going to change anybody’s fate. But to think good of others and wishing them well, whether they are living or dead, Muslim or otherwise, is for our own good. Hatred is a strange animal. Sure, it occasionally makes a man do things to harm those whom he hates. But what it does in every case without fail is to consume the life of the hater. Moreover, it is a manifestation of something already seriously wrong in his life. A man given to such emotions needs to be more worried about what is missing in his own life. Admittedly, the last time I checked there was no law against being bitter; so, it is fine if you decide to spend your life that way. Just don’t pretend the Quran told you so.
I used to scoff at any suggestion that Islam was in some sort of danger. Not anymore, for I have revised my position in this regard. There is no doubt in my mind now that Islam needs to be saved from self-righteous Muslims.
