Reflections

Life is uncertain. This brings us closer to Allah. In Allah, we put all our hopes, not in the cryptic words of an ignorant astrologer or soothsayer.


“No soul knows what it will earn tomorrow.” (Luqman, 31:34)


“The person who goes to a diviner or fortune-teller and believes in him has rejected that which was revealed to Muhammad (Pbuh).” (Musnad Ahmed, Hadith 9171)


The President of an American company informs his anxious employees that they are about to get a big contract that will ensure jobs for coming years. Then he adds, “Knock on wood.” If things are more uncertain, he will say, “Keep your fingers crossed.” Keeping fingers crossed is expected to ward off evil. Knocking on wood is meant to bring good luck by enlisting the support of spirits that, according to the ancient pagan Druids lived in trees. There are US Air Force crews who insist on touching or knocking on trees before taking off.


The fear of the number 13 is so pervasive in the United States and Europe that there is a term for it: triskaidekaphobia. American presidents, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt avoided eating at tables where 13 people were present. Many tall buildings avoid having a 13th floor or room number 13. According to one report published in 1990, this fear costs America more than a billion dollars a year in absenteeism, travel cancellations, and drop in trade on the 13th of the month. Of course, it is the horror of horrors if the 13th of a month were to fall on a Friday. (This has a Christian root… 13 is reportedly the number of people who sat at the Last Supper on the night Judas betrayed Jesus and it was a Friday!)


Welcome to the post-modern, post-enlightenment, neo-pagan civilization. Superstition is alive and well here. In a big city like Los Angeles or New York, one can find thousands of palm-readers, tarot-card readers, and astrologers who even have professional associations and certification programmes. Daily horoscopes are an indispensable part of even the most prestigious newspapers. Every year as the year ends, big names in the prediction business make big headlines-and millions of dollars-telling the world what will happen in the coming year.


Superstitions are as old as darkness itself. Fear of the unknown and inability to control or predict our own future have led people to all kinds of irrational acts and beliefs. But that was during the Dark Ages. In the age of science and technology, that was supposed to end. The Britannica notes, “Being irrational, it (superstition) should recede before education, and especially Science.” That did not happen.


So the experts have chosen to do the second best thing: put a happy face on their defeat by giving “scholarly” explanations. The Americana recognizes superstitions as part of being human. It calls it folklore. “Plainly, despite supposed sophistications, human beings are all the folk and thus are - the source of folklore.” It goes on to quote American anthropologist Melville Hersk-ovits as saying: “All human custom is meaningful; nothing without some living value survives in any culture.”


Such fancy rationalisation cannot hide the fact that belief in the irrational is a direct result of lack of belief in the All Knowledgeable, All-Powerful God who controls everything. He created this vast universe and it is running according to His plan. Not a leaf falls from a tree or a droplet of water from the sky except through His Will.


We do not know what will happen to us tomorrow, but He does. We put our trust in Him, seek His protection and help, and accept His Will. The person lacking this awareness will endlessly take omens from cats, birds, and mice; sticks and greasy stones; the sun and stars; or tattoos on one’s body.


The Arabs were as superstitious as anyone before Islam. They would not undertake a journey or do anything important without first “determining” that it would be safe to do so—by looking at birds and beasts. If a bird flew from right to left in front of them, that was a bad omen; flight in the other direction was a good omen. During travel, if a deer crossed going from right to left, the trip was cancelled. When they reached a destination, they would seek protection of jinn by supplicating to them. Yet, such deeply held beliefs and practices were uprooted completely by Islam in a very short period.


Much later, weakening of faith in segments of Muslim societies did lead to superstitious practices seeping in from other societies. Weakening of our understanding of and belief in the articles of faith inevitably leads to superstitions of one form or another. That, unfortunately, is the situation of large segments of our Ummah today.


The illiterate masses may go to a soothsayer who tells the future with the help of a bird. The western educated elite of their country laugh at their ignorant ways, yet depend on horoscopes, sayings of Nostradamus, and predic-tions of Jane Dixon. Both are equally ignorant and equally involved in unbelief!


There is no doubt that a believer faces the same uncertainities in life as a non-believer, but he faces them with the help of Allah. When announcing a plan, he does not knock on wood, he says Inshallah (if Allah wills), putting his trust in his Creator. “When embarking on a journey, he makes supplica-tion to Allah for his safety. When he is unsure about a plan, he seeks Allah’s help in making up his mind.


Sayyidna Jabir bin Abdullah reports: “The Messenger used to teach us Istikharah dua the same way he taught us chapters from the Qur’an. He said: When one of you faces a major decision, he should offer two units of voluntary salat and then he should say: “O Allah! I seek Your guidance (in making a choice) by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power, I have none. And You know, I know not. You are the Knower of hidden things”.


‘O Allah! If in Your knowledge, this matter is good, for my religion, my livelihood, and my affairs; immediate and in the distant future, then ordain it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if in Your knowledge, this matter is bad for my religion, my livelihood, and my affairs; immediate and in the distant future, then turn it away from me, and turn me away from it. And ordain for me the good wherever it be and make me pleased with it.’” (Tirmidhi, Hadith 442).


Each word of this du’a invites reflection. It shows how uncertain our life is. This brings us closer to Allah. In Allah, we put all our hopes, not in the cryptic words of an ignorant astrologer or soothsayer.


It is not the human destiny to be afflicted with superstitions, but it is just an evil consequence of unbelief. The light of Islam can cure it.

The most important objective of the month of Ramadan was to sensitise Muslims to the pangs of poverty.


After Ramadan has come the month of Shawwal. The day of Eid-ul-Fitr, and the first day of the Islamic month of Shawwal, marked the culmination of thirty days of dawn to dusk fasting during the month of Ramadan. It is also the day of thanksgiving on which Muslims congregate to prostrate before God and thank Him for having enabled them to fulfill their obligations. The obligations are, seeking spiritual proximity to God through regular and extra prayers, striving for moral discipline by conquering physical desires, and inculcating a hatred for evil. But the most important object of the month of Ramadan was to sensitise the Muslims to the pangs of poverty so that they could collectively attempt to alleviate the sufferings of the impoverished.


It is this humanitarian aspect of fasting which makes it highly relevant in the present socio-economic scenario of not only the Muslim world, but also the entire world. In his book “The end of poverty,” Jeffrey D. Sachs, quoting World Bank figures, says that eight million people die each year (nearly 22,000 a day) “because they are too poor to stay alive”. In an Oct 17 editorial, The Hindu highlighted the fact that “more than 350 million Indians remain desperately poor by any international norm”. In so far as the Muslims are concerned, a recent study conducted by Action Aid (India), the Jahangirabad Media Institute and the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, found, that in Urban India, 30.4% of the Muslim population lives on a annual household income of less than Rs.10,000 and only 5.6% above Rs.50,000. In Rural India, the figures are 41.9% and 0.1 % respectively!


It is time the rich among the Muslim community realised the enormity of this alarming situation. If indeed they empathize with the financial ruin of a big majority of their brethren, they are morally and religiously duty bound to extricate them from the muck of poverty. It is for these reasons that the Prophet (Pbuh) made it obligatory for all wealthy Muslims to contribute every year a minimum of 2.5% of their annual income as Zakath.


But today, in the name of religiosity, a bulk of the Muslim wealth is squandered on non-obligatory (nafil) pilgrimages to Makkah during Haj and Ramadan every year to say nothing about the money needlessly lavished on ostentatious weddings. It is conveniently ignored that a financially gifted Muslim is required to visit Makkah only once in his life time. If money spent on supererogatory rituals, along with funds generated through Zakath, is accumulated in a common fund and channelised to fight poverty, the economic and educational development of Muslims can easily be brought about which would in turn contribute to the process of nation-building. Muslims would then have a cause to celebrate Eid every year.