Ah what an age we live in where we judge one another at the drop of a hat (I don’t know where this expression comes from, I have never dropped my hat!). Anyway this post presents yet another issue ailing our Ummah and keeping us from being united as I discussed in one of my earlier posts – Friday Qut’ba – Ummah : United or Divided?The issue is of being judgemental and accusatory of others. This attitude makes it very hard for any seeds of love to germinate in our hearts. Our hearts solidify and we don’t seem to feel anymore. As one of the Hadith goes, the only way to soften a rock-hard “qalb” (heart), is by reading the Qur’an. So anyway, what gives us the right to judge that Shias are not really muslims? What gives us the right to pass judgement on ‘progressive’ muslims? What gives us the right to judge ‘fundamentalists’. Do we as humans have the same capacity to judge as Allah (swt)? Do we see the situation in its entirety and then make our judgements? Do we know everything possible about a person before we make a judgement? What about the Hadith that says that even an atom’s weight worth of good counts in the eyes of Allah. Can we actually keep track of all the atoms worth of good the individual we are judging has?
Sadly even on some muslimeen blogs I see a lot of judging going on. The progressives are against the fundamentalists and the feminists are against the traditional and the sunnis are against the shias and the bearded are against the non-bearded, the hijabis against the non-hijabis…and well it goes on. It is a transgression to judge someone when we ourselves are not perfect. Judging should be left to the only perfect being – Allah. Our duty is to follow the deen, and unite with our brothers and sisters worldwide in following the deen as well. What chance do we have of becoming a collective Ummah if we cannot stop with the finger pointing? Is it not enough to know that we all believe in the Oneness of Allah and accept that Muhammad (pbuh) is the last prophet? Is it not enough that all muslims believe in the Qur’an?
Once we allow ourselves to stop being so judgemental, we can then spend that extra energy more constructively – experiencing the true meaning of brotherhood in Islam. Just as for a marriage to be successful, both parties have to make compromises, for an Ummah to be successful we all have to make adjustments to each other. I also realize that this is a daunting task, probably a mammoth that we may not be able to tackle in our lifetime. But, we cannot have a defeatist attitude because then we are not laying the groundwork for our kins to continue this work. So we must keep fighting for the right ideal within our Ummah for however long we have on this earth.
I also think we have no right to judge non-muslims. Spending time judging people is an exercise in futility. It gets us nowhere and we end up hating or getting more frustrated. An incident happened at work a few years ago where all the brothers gather together for prayers. Somebody brought up Rachel Corrie and her sacrifice for the Palestinian cause against the IDF. The brother says, “Inshallah Allah will accept her sacrifice.” I thought that was a fair thing to say, after all, she did give her life to save a muslim. This other brother almost yells out, “Brother, that is Haraam. You must not make du’a or ask Allah to accept this sacrifice of a non-muslim.” Frankly, I was appalled. If we have such hatred for non-muslims, especially the ones that are helping our cause, how can we hope to ever improve as an Ummah? Did the Prophet (pbuh) teach us to hate? No, only in battle do we raise our swords. But we do not strike innocent people, nor do we kill enemy who have no weapons. Well then why do some people have this attitude? And if we hate, then how do we expect to do Da’wa? How do you expect to invite non-muslims to Islam with this attitude? Mashallah, there are many converts today. They see the beauty of Islam, but they also have to see this bad side of our Ummah. We all need to work collectively to get rid of this bad side. A very famous Hadith of the Prophet (pbuh) relates that the Ummah is like a human body; if one part is injured the entire body feels the pain. That is exactly what the Ummah is! Think about how deep that Hadith is.
My plea to my brothers and sisters is, please be tolerant of each other, please curb your anger and hatred, please learn to love, please learn to show the other cheek sometimes, and in the end, Allah will make us stronger for that. Ameen.
B E L I E V E R 
Mashallah excellent advice. I think we forget that we will all be judged on Yaum Ul Qiyamah. I see this alot as well it’s very sad subhanallah. Then we wonder why the non muslims think of us as they do. Great article. Jazak Allahu Khairan.
By: Umm Luqmaan/Sheryza on March 2, 2007
at 4:18 am
Shukran Ya sister. I think the only way we are going to be able to rise above some of these issues is by highlighting these and bringing realization to the Ummah. Inshallah eventually when such issues are talked about enough people may change inshallah.
By: believer786 on March 2, 2007
at 6:48 pm
This is a very important reminder, brother. We tend to fall into this too soon. And a person is being judged depending on whether he/she agrees with me or not. Not by his/her qualities.
By: Manas on March 3, 2007
at 4:17 am
Jazak Allah brother Manas.
By: believer786 on March 3, 2007
at 3:46 pm
A(l)-ssalaamu ‘alaykum.
About the rachel corrie thing.
The Truth is her blood is on the entire Umma[t]. Not Israa^iyl who are known for their murderous habits.
Once a person came to Rasuwlu-(a)llah S’AWS desiring to do Jihaad with Rasuwlu-(a)llah S’AWS, he forbade the person and told him to first embrace Al-Islaam then do Al-Jihaad. He obeyed Rasuwl-(a)llah S’AWS and was takne shahiyd by Allah. Al-‘hamduwli-(a)llah.
By right we should have prevented Rachel Corrie from going to Falas’tiyn even. It’s a warzone. But desperate fools tend to take help from anyone, and like the fools that we are, we took the help of this perhaps gentle-hearted kaafira[t].
In the end, her sacrifice is in vain. Serve no purpose, neither to us, or to herself. She died a kaafira[t].
Fact is she do not make ‘salaa[t] to Allah, thus all her deeds will be rejected.
Do the right thing Muslimuwn, if an another “Rachel Corrie” pops ups, tell them to first embrace Al-Islaam, then go to the fronts.
As for the whole issue above. I remind you of one word: Cancer.
If it can be heal, sure, but once it become problematic, sometimes it is best to just remove it to prevent it from spreading. Rasuwlu-(a)llah S’AWS himself indicated that our woes will start WHEN WE STOP PREVENTING Al-Munkar and start enjoying the worldly life.
You are asking people to uphold the status quo, the mixing of fisq and Islam, the mixing of ‘haq and ba’til etc. something Allah has decreed that this should never be done nor tolerated. Why do you want to return to the ways that brought down this Umma[t] in the first place? This umma[t] is in shambles because we start tolerating things that we should have not tolerate in the first place.
Problem with people they got this dream of an utopian society. That is not the goal of Al-Islaam, look into our history, they bicker, they even fought each other etc. It is never Al-Islaam goal’s to built an utopia on Earth, rather a society that stands firmly on The Way o Allah. Firmly upon Truth. Enforcing Rights, begining with Allah’s then Rasuwl and so on. And ingrained with high sense of Justice. The noble path.
So some of us have to take a harsher stance in other to rectify this mistake. It is simple as this, any revolution has to start with a group of people fighting their own people. Rasuwlu-(a)llah S’AWS prophethood and Abuw Bakr’s khaliyfa[t]-ship are examples of this.
By: Goimaalik on March 17, 2007
at 5:43 pm
“On judging muslims and non-muslims”, is really a well written article to draw the attention of muslim Ummah to the Islamic way of life and to appraise them about the constant threats to the religion of Islam.
I am a student and learning Quranand its teachings,and I also have read the Bible . I thought Bible to be also the authentic book but I was shocked when I scrutinized the discrepancies and inaccuracies present in the Bible.There are more than 50,000 discrepancies found in the new version of the Bible.
CHRISTIANS CLAIM BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD.
I want to ask do the God make mistakes?There are more than 50,000 discrepancies and inaccuracies in Bible. There is not a single verse in the Quran which is incorrect and I challenge any non-muslim to show me a single verse from the Quran which goes astray. Here are some of many discrepancies found in Bible:
1) The names of the twelve apostles given in Matthew 10:2-4 are different from those given in Luke 6:14-16
2) The daughter of Saul,according to Samuel 6:23 at her death left no children and according to Samuel 21:8 she left five children.
3) Similarly Bible gives the two different versions of the death of Judas.Matthew 27:5 states:”And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple,he departed,and went, and hanged himself.” Act 1:18 states: “Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness,and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.”
4) Another discrepancy can be seen in the following verse of the Bible.According to Matthew 12:40 Jesus, Allah`s blessings be upon him,stated: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale,so shall the son of the man be three days and three nights in the heart of earth.Jesus(P) was buried on Friday evening and raised on Sunday morning,making it only one day and two nights ,and not three days and three nights .
5) According to Luke 24:51 ascension of Jesus took place on Easter day.But ACTS 1:3,9 states that it took place forty days after resurrection.
6) Furthermore, Genesis 6:3 states:God limited the human life span to 120 years,but Genesis 11:10-32 states: But soon after, people lived 140-600 years.
7) Also,the first born son of God according to Exodus 4:22 is Jacob,but according to Jermiah 31:9 it is Ephraim.
These are just few of the evident discrepancies of the Bible which a casual reader can notice .THanks be to ALLAH that no one has ever found any discrepancy in the QURAN.
DO THEY NOT CONSIDER THE QURAN;HAD IT
BEEN FROM OTHER THAN ALLAH,THEY WOULD
SURELY HAVE FOUND THEREIN MUCH
DISCREPANCY.
(NISA 4:82)
By: Mustafa Mushtaq on June 10, 2007
at 10:03 pm
Asslamaalaykum Goimaalik
I do respect the intention in which you wrote your response, but please think about what you are writing and the consequences of what you are saying.
As for Rachel Corrie, you don’t know if there was belief in her heart nor do you know what her intentions where, when she decided sacrifice her body under a bulldozer in protest against injustice (unless you’ve discovered a way to read thoughts). Therefore it’s not up to you to decide what Allah (swt) had already decided for her in the akhira. Surely is it not better to see good in people rather then find faults? Don’t you realise that no one is perfect (except the Prophet (saw)) and you have faults like anyone else (including me!), though your faults may be different to others.
As for the story you quoted about the person who wanted to go to Jihad but was refused by the Prophet (saw) unless he professed Islam…… it may be a valid story and you may have made a sincere effort to understand it…… but don’t forget, the Prophet (saw) also accepted help from his dear uncle Abu Talib (who is said to have died a non-believer) in the cause of Islam. This was a man who raised raised our Prophet (saw) and protected him till his death. If he deserves our respect, despite being a non-believer, then what of people whom we don’t know what is in their hearts or their faith? (personally I don’t know what was Rachel’s faith or if she had one)
This why it is important when quoting hadiths of the Prophet (saw) and applying them to our understanding of the world, we make an attempt to look and the ‘big picture’ and not just specific bits. I don’t claim to be a scholar so I don’t profess know everything. Inshallah we should all make an attempt to learn.
By: nobodyisperfect on June 27, 2008
at 5:16 pm