Yes, our great scholars of the past were of the same calibre. Al-Biruni came up with the first scientific calender for the Jews and Christians in his studies into their holidays. Through his mathematical and astronomical background, he detected their errors and corrected them because, he said, unless he did so "they will always be in error". He did not even thought that they were kafirs and so why help them - a position that we Muslims in general take today.
We seem to overlook the fact that Allah is the God of everybody and of everything and that we therefore are interconnected with one and all. We also do not seem to appreciate the fact that Rasulullah s.a.w. was a "rahmat li al-'alamin", namely a blessing for all the worlds, inclusive therefore of Muslims and non-Muslims, human and non-human. In fact, this is the very fact that made Rasulullah s.a.w. a universal prophet as compared to other prophets such as Prophet Musa, Isa, Daud (salam alahum) who were prophets only for their own communities.
In keeping the teachings of Islam, the person of Rasulullah, and even ourselves, exclusively to the Ummah, we are actually degrading the status of Rasulullah to that of the other prophets, namely, that of a prophet for their own "kaum" only ("Ummah" in the case of Rasulullah s.a.w.) and Islam to just one more religion rather than the true, universal and the everlasting religion that it is.
I have always had my reservation over the "intoxication" that Muslims have over themselves and their own exclusive affairs. Are we suppossed to be so? Anyway, new Muslims are coming up from the West, and although they have yet to find their western-Muslim identity and are still in the transition stage with lots of confucion and lack of self confidence as yet, but soon enough, they will take over as the torch- bearer of Islam. This in fact, is the history of Islam - aggressors to Islam turned out later to be the the champions of Islam.
Best wishes to us all. KO
posted by Interactive Muslimah Association (IMAN) @ 9:13 PTG
5 Feb 2010 -
IIUM will be organising a talk on kalimah Allah on Feb 5. Muslimin and muslimat are invited to join the program.
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From the President's Desk
I woke up before fajr this morning with a thought over Faridah's mail. In my previous two mails, I had explained to some details why I strongly believe not to get into a tango with people whose mission is to revise Islam for their own specific purposes, humiliate our 'ulama' and discredit mainstream Muslims....
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