Now the Quranic articulation moves from mans proclivity to follow the stars of Hollywood & the power-brokers of Washington, London, Paris or where ever they may be to mans inclination, in general, to consume earths provisions in a haphazard, undisciplined & sinful way. The extended lesson here is to encourage man to benefit from the abundant & wholesome provisions of life, while avoiding its pitfalls; acceding to Allahs counsel in this area amounts to walking away from Satan, who turns man on to filth & nastiness. An outcome of the human tendency to evil & injustice is laws & officials that institutionalize immorality & inequity. Allah makes it clear that precedent is no basis for a divine system if these precedents are in violation of divine standards. Then the words from on high assail those who try to deify or exalt things or creatures that cannot hear or see. With this understanding there is a continuation of meaning between the previous ayah/verse & lesson & this one. O MANKIND! PARTAKE OF WHAT IS LAWFUL & GOOD ON EARTH, & FOLLOW NOT SATANS FOOTSTEPS; FOR, VERILY, HE IS YOUR OPEN FOE, & BIDS YOU ONLY TO DO EVIL, & TO COMMIT DEEDS OF ABOMINATION, & TO ATTRIBUTE TO ALLAH SOMETHING OF WHICH YOU HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE. BUT WHEN THEY ARE TOLD, FOLLOW WHAT ALLAH HAS BESTOWED FROM ON HIGH, SOME ANSWER, NO, WE SHALL FOLLOW (ONLY) THAT WHICH WE FOUND OUR FOREFATHERS BELIEVING IN & DOING. WHY, EVEN IF THEIR FOREFATHERS DID NOT USE THEIR REASON AT ALL, & WERE DEVOID OF ANY GUIDANCE? & SO, THE PARABLE OF THOSE WHO ARE BENT ON DENYING THE TRUTH IS THAT OF THE BEAST WHICH HEARS THE SHEPERDS CRY, & HEARS IN IT NOTHING BUT THE SOUND OF A VOICE & A CALL. DEAF ARE THEY, & DUMB, & BLIND - FOR THEY DO NOT USE THEIR REASON (2:168-171). In the previous lesson, Allah reminded us that He is the One God. He also reminded us that He is the dispenser of mercy & the provider of grace. Anyone in the course of human history, as an individual or as a society, who puts any idea or being into this position, claiming that there is a counterpart to God, has set himself up for eventual retribution from Allah. If Allah is the sole Maker & Designer of life & existence, it follows that He is the only one who can tell us what is right & what is wrong, what is moral & what is immoral, what is halaal (permissible) & what is haraam (prohibited). Another way humans confirm the Oneness of Allah is by accepting Him as the sole source of all human standards & principles, laws & regulations, & dos & don’ts. It is only sensible to accept our moral philosophy & legal criteria, as well as our practice of law & interpersonal behavior, from the Being Who creates & provides, Who designs & explains, & Who tests man after giving him His word. Thus are laws the extension of morality, & thus are both morality & laws the gifts of Allah. It is at this point that Allah tells us to partake of what is provided for us. The exceptions are what Allah outlines & explains in later ayaat or verses. This invitation to share in the earths abundance & copiousness is not an open invitation to capitalists & rugged individualists to devour resources at the expense of untold billions. Using Allahs permission of open access in this ayah for a vicious assault on natural & human resources is wrong, & DO NOT FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SATAN...(2:168). This is enemy behavior because Satan is the avowed & sworn enemy of man. It is not within Satanic behavior to move toward what is commonly & mutually good. Satan wants us to do what is wrong & dubious. He then wants us to establish & reinforce laws & canons that protect the wrong & the dubious. Humans are capable of doing all this if they are cut off from Allah. They are even capable of implementing satanic laws & claiming that these are in fact Gods laws. This is demonstrated in the history of Yahud & all Mushriks who opposed Allah. (mushriks are individuals or people who actively diminish the authority of Allah & promote the authority of others. They equate worldly powers with Allah & they denigrate Allah as “one among many” deities & authorities) & (Yahud – generally Jewish people) O MANKIND! TAKE OF WHAT IS RIGHTFULL & PLEASANT ON EARTH, & FOLLOW NOT SATANS FOOTSTEPS; FOR, VERILY, HE IS YOUR EVIDENT ENEMY, & BIDS YOU ONLY TO DO EVIL, & TO DO WHAT IS SHAMEFUL, & TO ASCRIBE TO ALLAH WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW(2:168-169). This ayah is an open invitation for everyone together to use all that Allah has provided for the human race on planet earth. Everything within the sphere of earthly existence is mans to have, with the few exceptions that are called the muharramaat (forbidden or unlawful things). Allahs system is a comfortable one as there is no tension between man & the world around him. The world was made for him, & there is a divinely sanctioned compatibility between mans nature & the universal system. This is Allah saying to man that everything around is yours, provided you act responsibly, & provided you access these worldly resources with moderation & good-intent, which is the way Allahs Khalifah (deputy, representative) is expected to be. All of this is to be understood & acted upon within a legal & social framework that also comes from Allah. It is reasonable to have Allahs natural structure at work with Allahs moral structure. If it is God who created & thought out the way nature is going to work, then by His love & mercy, He also chose to equip man with a legal system that was also thought out & made to be compatible with the rest of His creation. Otherwise, the only other possibility, akin to the Deist approach, would be a detached God who created & calibrated nature but then created man & left him without help & guidance, to struggle with nature, take on nature, & conquer nature, or be conquered by it. But this tension & schism between man & nature & between man & God, is not the way Allah meant us to live. This area - the One source of guidance for both the universe & man - has been a playing field for Satan, who wants man to behave as if there were no relationship between natural laws & mans laws. With such separation of nature from man, or universe from life, or heaven from earth, our human existence becomes one of tension, animosity & instability. The schism between Allahs laws of nature & Allahs laws for man sets human society up for unpleasant consequences that are generated by foul human behavior, all instigated by the satanic influence that separates synagogue, church, & mosque from state. It then takes little time for men to begin to poke fun at God & then demean Him. This is what is happening in today’s Western civilization. The norm has become Satans, although churches, synagogues, & temples are all over the place. The fact is that Satan has succeeded in privatizing religion & secularizing the state. The robes of clergymen & judges are empty because the clergymen cannot enforce his morality, because Satan has enforced his. & the judge cannot enforce the commandments of his religious beliefs (if any). Both institutions are empty shells. BUT WHEN THEY ARE TOLD, FOLLOW WHAT ALLAH HAS BESTOWED FROM ON HIGH, SOME ANSWER, NO, WE SHALL FOLLOW (ONLY) THAT WHICH WE FOUND OUR ANCESTORS BELIEVING IN & DOING (2:170). This verse or ayah compares 2 courses of action: following what Allah has communicated via scripture or following what has passed down from forefathers & ancestors. What Allah has disclosed to man is known: The Quran. Other scriptures are less distinguishable because they have been tampered with for centuries. But the Quran authenticates & renews the purposes & contents of all previous divine books. But there are those, & they have power nowadays, who say in effect, Certainly not; we will not follow this Quran. We will follow the course of our fathers or our ‘founding fathers.’ This was the attitude of the mushriks of Arabia & also the Yahud of that time; & it also describes the Muslims of Arabia & the Yahud of our times. It is also true of any group of people who are called to adopt Allahs way but choose to adhere to the ways of their predecessors. These types of people are building a case for ethnicity & nationalism. They cling to their ethnicity or race; they speak about their common origins or their roots; & they throw in common experience to cement their tribal or blood solidarity. Ethnicity & national identity are closely connected though they are not the same; nevertheless it is difficult to understand ethnicity without also studying the formation of nations. Though the myth of origins may be rooted in a selective or inaccurate reading of history, it becomes a defining myth for nations & groups that base their identity on genealogy rather than on ideology or identification with Allah. This concept, which holds sway today, is usually characterized by a along shared history & by shared cultural traditions. There will normally be other features such as common geographical origin, common language, common literature, or common religion, although not all of these need be present. Ethnic groups may have experienced hardship, persecution, or dislocation from territory, & these experiences may strengthen, & sometimes revive, the sense of common identity. Often the term ethnic is used for minorities of immigrants experiencing discrimination within a society, thus the emergence of ethnic identity & of ethnic groups based on shared experience of oppression & deprivation. In some cultures, only the upper class is seen as truly embodying ethnic purity, while the mass of people are considered to be from diverse origins & cultures. Thus the Frankish conquerors of France in the 6th century ruled over a Romano-Gaelic population. Only after many centuries was the notion of a unified French nation-state developed. In English society, ethnicity & culture are closely bound up with class. In many countries (South Africa under apartheid is just 1 example) an ethnic minority dominates & governs the diverse majority. Ethnic identity is closely related to the concept of nationality, & there are ethnic bases for the emergence of nations: ties, memories, myths of origin, & so on. A civic nation in Western civilizations definitions is a political & territorial concept, membership of which is based on residence rather than descent (real or alleged). But often nationalism attempts to reconstruct a golden age of ethnic purity, drawing on myths of heroes & conquests. As ideas of nations & ethnicity come together, ethnic purification or cleansing often results. Indeed, where a nation is defined in terms of origin & descent, ethnic purification is logical & perhaps inevitable. The pure body must be cleansed of foreign & alien elements, either by murder or by expulsion. Thus the relationship between ethnicity & nationhood varies. The nation may be regarded as a single ethnic community with common bounds of culture & religion: Jews, Orthodox Greeks, Sikhs, Irish Catholics, & so on. Thus in some cases religion is meshed with ethnicity, & usually it turns out that religion is subordinated to ethnicity; for instance the Greek identity was inseparable for hundreds of years from the tradition of Byzantine Orthodoxy. In some instances, migration also related to ethnic identity because members of a community may relocate to a new country, replacing or expelling the previous inhabitants - as did the European colonialists who settled in the Americas at the expense of the native American population. Later other groups may enter the community. The US, Australia & South Africa present examples of diverse communities with conflicting concepts of ethnic & national identity. Over time, notions of ethnic origin & national identity may change. There are some 40 million Americans of Irish, or part Irish, origin of whom over 50% are of Protestant background. But very few of these regard themselves as Irish, & the term Irish has come to be associated exclusively with Roman Catholics. The term ethnics is often used to describe particularly minority groups, though such usage is redundant, for if some are ethnics, then all are. More common in Britain is the term ethnic minorities, a term often used interchangeably with black population. In the US, by contrast, ethnics is often used as to refer to groups other than blacks - Greeks, Poles, Italians, etc. Ethnicity is central to European notions of identity, not least since the erosion of political forms of identity. This ayah is particularly informative as notions of ethnicity extent to become fully-fledged racial or racist concepts. After Allah has made the whole earth open for all peoples, the notion of building communities & nations on the basis of ancestral solidarity reeks with racism as a foundational basis for human societal aggregation. Ethnicity is often used as a euphemism for race as in the term ethnic minorities. In the UK, the Race Relation Act of 1976 refers to ethnic or national origins. Indeed the concepts of ethnicity & race are often used interchangeably, yet while there is overlap, the concepts are different. Race is a pseudo-biological concept, closely related to color, & racism is a structural & cultural reality that results in discrimination & disadvantage. Ethnicity is not necessarily related to race, color, or religion, although these will often affect it. Ethnic identity will be passed from one generation to another, & may include distinct languages, religions, political, & cultural styles & so on. Over time aspects of ethnic identity may weaken, as with many children of South Asians in Britian. However, in situations of conflict, ethnic identity may be aroused & strengthened, & may become the basis both of withdrawal into enclaves & of organizing & campaigning for improved conditions. Thus the Italian enfranchisement in American cities, or the Chicano movement of agricultural workers of Mexican descent in US agricultural areas, are examples of such strengthening of ethnic identity. In the context of racism & deprivation new forms of ethnic identity may emerge such as the African American identity. The political systems in the West allow Arab Americans, Pakistani Americans, & their kind to function along such lines as lobbies, pressure groups, & so forth, as long as they are willing to submerge their Islamic character beneath their ethnic identity. If these Muslims were mentally independent enough to raise their Islamic identity above all else, then the West would make it difficult for the ones who consider themselves Muslims first by characterizing their socio-political activism as religious fanaticism. This is the case with the Americans whose ancestors were brought to America by force in slave-ships hundreds of years ago, & who are now beginning to discover their Islamic character. These blacks are to be tolerated as long as they accept the limitations of ethnic identity but if they dare think about their Islamic identity, then they are not welcome in this land of the free. There is considerable concern that the concept of ethnicity is being appropriated in a racist form. Some consider this appropriation inevitable. The growth of ethnic nationalism presents a major challenge to anti-racist work. There has been criticism of ethnic absolutism & the tendency to see a nation as culturally homogeneous, some people argue that ethnicity has replaced social class as the major form of social division. There are indications that nationality & citizenship are increasingly being understood in terms of ethnic origin. There has been a growth of ethnic exclusiveness in Germany, where a strong emphasis on stock is part of the racial heritage. While the current stress is more on customs, language, culture, & institutions, such a stress is similar to the earlier concern with blood & descent, & may be identical in its effects. The naturalization laws of Germany are a case in point. Turks (Muslims), who lived there for decades & whose children were born there, are not entitled to German citizenship because they are not ethnically German. Even the US is looking closer at its naturalization laws, with a tendency to tighten the screws on those seeking US citizenship. In Britain, there is a increasing tendency to see nationality as connected with partiality & descent. A few years, the concept of ethnic cleansing has entered the vocabulary. In the shifting sands of Western opinion some reject the idea of ethnicity, arguing that race & culture are adequate categories. Some African American writers, such as Cornel West & Paul Gilroy, argue for a new approach to black culture & identity, which transcends the absolutism & “essentialism” of nationalism & ethnicity. For this reason, the powers that be exclude the Quran from public discourse because it gives man the necessary building-blocks to enable him to solidify a community & social structure that refers to Allahs rules & laws, His moral precepts & concepts. Ethnic monitoring is the practice of collecting statistical data based on ethnic origin. It was practiced unofficially in parts of the ministry of labor in East London in the 1940s, but only developed on a large scale in the 1980s. It was introduced into the civil service & other organizations in 1985. On the other side of the Atlantic, the ethnic question is so deeply embedded in the American psyche that a person who applies for a menial job is asked about his or her ethnic or national origin. What type of national or ethnic quality distinguishes one human from another in, let us say, serving a cup of coffee at a restaurant, or selling computers at a department store? But race runs deep in the instincts of the Western decision maker, even down to the level of ones local restaurant or shopping mall. So who is reactionary & who is backward? These ethnoracists, who put into law their own experiences & traditions, enforce them on others without any consideration for the ethnic, racial, & cultural differences of these others? They call themselves conservative (a neat word to hide behind), but the ever truthful words of the Quran expose their true persona: they are like goats who roam around, understanding nothing of what is said to them. If their shepherd calls out to them with words of counsel as to the herd society they have created, they just hear noises in the background. These people are less than human at the level of social organization & cross-cultural communication. At least a beast can hear & see according to its instincts, but these people cannot hear & see at any human & responsible level, & SO, THE LIKENESS OF THOSE WHO ARE BENT ON DENYING THE TRUTH (OF ALLAHS POWER) IS THAT OF THE BEAST WHICH HEARS THE SHEPHERD’S CRY, & HEARS IN IT NOTHING BUT THE SOUND OF A VOICE & A CALL, DEAF ARE THEY, & DUMB, & BLIND - FOR THEY DO NOT USE THEIR REASON (2:171). Muffled, thickheaded & incoherent. One could ask these founding father fanatics, Where are your ears, tongues, & eyes? Are they of no value to you? You act as if you cannot sense human experiences of co-existence, as if you cannot detect the flow of history, & as if you cannot see the bloodshed of racism & bigotry! But this is what happens to those whose attachment to ancestors is deeper than their affection for Allah. This is what happens when people listen to their gut instinct & not to their better judgment. & this is what happens when the laws of God are invalidated & the laws of the jungle prevail. The ayat of the Quran present man with an open world, a world without barriers of national racial segregation & ethnic pre-occupations, a world that blends the laws of Allah in the realm of nature & in the realm of man. The ayat direct our attention to 2 categories of people who try to subvert the harmonious blend Allah created between the physical laws that govern nature & the social laws that govern mans interactions. The first group wants an open world that has no barriers to their transnational businesses & enterprises, while the rest of humanity can be locked up within artificial frontiers & international borders. These argue for the elimination of trade bariers, the lifting of undue taxes on import-export transactions, & a globalization free-for-all. They are not interested in what the Quran says; They are only interested in maximizing their profits & indulging their appetites. Their idea of partaking in a free world is pursued through usury (they call it interest), bribes, illegal transactions, plundering regional resources, expropriating fertile lands, colonization, transnational theft, & all the abominable acts that render the rest of us borrowers, consumers, refugees, war-victims, & generally speaking, dislocated people. These call themselves the internationalists or globalists. & then there are those who care nothing about the fraternity of the human race. Their concern is to bunker down in their paranoid thoughts & try to militarize their ethnicity or race with ideas of supremacy, racial purity & global segregation. Their concern is the survival of their race by any means necessary. These call themselves nationalists. Both the internationalists & the nationalists are following in the footsteps of Satan because they ignore what Allah says about the whole affair & seek their own self interest, national interest, or race” interest. & sure enough, as the ayah warns, Satan through these 2 types of people has generated animosity: class animosity & race animosity. & THUS IT IS THAT AGAINST EVERY PROPHET WE HAVE SET UP AS ENEMIES THE EVIL FORCES FROM AMONG HUMANS AS WELL AS FROM AMONG INVISIBLE BEINGS THAT WHISPER UNTO ONE ANOTHER GLITTERING HALF-TRUTHS MEANT TO DELUDE THE MIND... (6:112).
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:42:02 +0000
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