Seeking His Pleasure Through Patience

Assalaamu’alaikum everyone!

Hope you’re all doing fine, Insya’Allah… I’ve been sneezing a lot today, haha. He must be Telling me something

Anyways, below is an excerpt from The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad by Tariq Ramadan

Haha, I’ve been wanting to buy this book since I saw it in the Best Reads for 2008 list at Wardah Books and I was tempted to buy it at Books Kinokuniya last week. But since I couldn’t really afford it, I guess this is Allah’s Alternative for me: I found it at a library

SubhanAllah (:

The Pact of the Virtuous

Abdullah ibn Judan, the chief of the Taym tribe and a member of one of the two great alliances of Meccan tribes (known as the People of the Perfume), decided to invite to his home all those who wanted to put an end to the conflicts and establish a pact of honor and justice that would bind the tribes beyond alliances based on tribal, political, or cemmercial interests.

Chiefs and members of numerous tribes thus pledged that it was their collective duty to intervene in conflicts and side with the oppressed against the oppressors, whoever they might be and whatever alliances might link them to other tribes.

This alliance, known as hilf al-fudul (the Pact of the Virtuous), was special in that it placed respect for the principles of justice and support of the oppressed above all other considerations of kinship and power. Young Muhammad, like Abu Bakr, who was to become his lifelong friend, took part in that historic meeting.

Long after the Revelation had begun, Muhammad was to remember the terms of that pact and say: “I was present in Abdullah ibn Judan’s house when a pact was concluded, so excellent that I would not exchange my part in it even for a herd of red camels; and if now, in Islam, I was asked to take part in it, I would be glad to accept.”

(Reported by Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham and confirmed as authentic by various sources, including al-Hamidi, and partly by Imam Ahmad)

…

The second teaching is no less essential: at a time when the message was still being elaborated in the course of Revelation and of the Prophet’s experiences, he acknowledged the validity of a pact established by non-Muslims seeking justice and the common good of their society.

The Prophet’s statement is in itself a blatant denial of the trend of thought expressed here and there throughout history of Islamic thought – and to this day –  according to which a pledge can be ethically valid for Muslims only if it is of strictly Islamic nature or/and if it is established between Muslims.

Again the key point is that the Prophet clearly acknowledges the validity of adhering to principles of justice and defending the oppressed, regardless of whether those principles come from inside Islam or outside it.

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I initially wanted to share a different excerpt, but today, as I was reading yesterday’s newspaper, I came across an article regarding counter-terrorism efforts and apparently one of our Ministers here has set up a website called P4Peace.

I’m really interested in inter-faith harmony efforts, and I like to read up on the counter-ideology methods adopted by different nations, so I went to that website.

Aaah Masya’Allah… I totally support this effort! I don’t care that it’s set up by a non-Muslim, as long as it promotes peace and justice amongst people.

Because that’s one of the purposes of Islam. Our beautiful religion has NEVER taught us to create chaos or make life hard for others.

This is the promo vid for Search for Common Ground.

Founded in 1982, Search for Common Ground works to transform the way the world deals with conflict – away from adversarial approaches and towards collaborative problem solving. We work with local partners to find culturally appropriate means to strengthen societies’ capacity to deal with conflicts constructively: to understand the differences and act on the commonalities. 

And this is one of the many beautiful songs produced by the organisation:

It’s our responsibility as Muslims, as the Ummah of Rasulullah s.a.w. to ensure that peace exists in this dunya. Let’s spread peace in any way that we are capable of. As long as it doesn’t go against Islam of course (:

Fi Amanillah!