By Sheikh Khurshid Alam
Ramadan has instilled a sense of piousness in many netizens. People keep forwarding all sorts of “Islamic messages” to all their contacts in this month. Whatsaap, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all those social networking sites, which you know better, are abuzz with such “Islamic messages”.
This is the third and last part of Ramadan and the time for some to retreat in the four walls of the Masjid and for others to make gala preparation to celebrate Eid. The Muslim pockets of Kolkata like Topsia, Khidderpore, Metiabruz, Ripon street, Rajabazar etc has started witnessing the ‘chanda’ (donation) collection from the shop wallah, factory wallah, residents and anybody who can shell out few bucks for the preparation of Eid. The preparation will consist of installation of stages at every possible street-corners and placement of loudest loudspeakers. Each show-organizer will compete in terms of latest musical hits from Bollywood and Hollywood, even if they don’t understand a word. Who cares about the lyrics, the music should be loud to wake everybody from one month’s devotion and lead them to ecstasy, and after all, Muslim youth should let the world know that it is their Eid! And, why only the youth, their middle aged counterparts will also be there to cheer them on. Some folks will prefer to shut their ears and march to the safety of their homes.
Allah sent his deen, Islam with all the resources for its survival and propagation. What are those things which any idea needs in order to survive and propagate? I believe that it is an organized structure of Finance, Media and Politics. And, don’t you think Islam has it all! Yes, it has the strongest financial system with special mention of the system of Zakat. Islam has the best medium at its disposal; the information dissemination platform in the form of Jumah Khutba. The Ummah has failed to bank on its free media, the Jumah Khutba. Each and every issue can be dealt by this media and every week the Ummah can be instilled with fresh ideas and inspirations. And Islam has the best of political systems, which, if followed can bring peace in this world, inshallah.
So, talking about Jumah Khutba, it is pertinent to mention that our Imams in the Masjid defeat the purpose of the opportunity given to them every week, where they get a good number of audiences from the locality, where they can very strongly object to the social evils and promote constructive steps for Ummah rather than raising controversial and disputed topics of fiqh, always criticizing the other schools of thought, bragging about the superiority of one particular sect, etc.
Iqbal has rightly said:
“Qaum kya cheez hai, qaumon ki immamat kya hai,
Iss ko kya samjhain ye becharey do rakat kay Imaam”
This same pulpit can be used to send a strong message to those youths who are involved in collecting ‘chanda’ by muscle power and destructing the image of Islam by unleashing a series of evil activities on the eve of Eid and after Eid that Islam forbids those actions of music and dance and disturbing the whole locality. It is the time when most Muslims will be busy in Eid shopping and will be so tired that they may even miss Lailatul Qadr. Many Muslims will be spoilt for choices of their new dresses not even thinking for a moment that our brethren in Gaza and other terror inflicted areas are struggling to get a piece of cloth for ‘Kafan’.
So, my dear brethren, we cannot keep on lamenting on out conditions for ever and keep blaming others for this. It is time for us to introspect ourselves and initiate the change from within. My sincere appeal to the Imams is that they should not simply remain the paid staff of the Masjid but rather understand their potential and lead and guide the Ummah. Several people like me, who speak to small groups, can put less impact on the Ummah compared to the message delivered from the pulpit of the Masjid.
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Sheikh Khurshid Alam is student of LLM at Aaliah University, Kolkata