USI - THE UNITED STATE OF ISLAM!

Article by: AMEER MUHAMMAD AKRAM AWAN (during 2005-2009)

The Muslim Ummah has been without a ‘Caliph’ ever since the downfall of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Even though it was only in name, but at least some form of Caliphate existed during the Turkish Ottoman Empire, whereas now all we have is presidents and kings. While it is necessary for the Muslims to have an Ameer or Caliph, from whom all other Muslim rulers take guidance and support. This process continued till the end of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. To break up this centralization the West put in tremendous efforts. After the last Turkish Sultan the Muslim Nation had been deprived of this great blessing. Although there was a Caliphate movement from the subcontinent and other Muslim countries also made attempts, but their attempts were futile and in turn the ‘Caliphate’ System ended.

After a long interval the situation changed drastically and in Afghanistan, there was a revolt against the government of King Zahir Shah. Then after various other changes, there was finally the Russian attack, which was the beginning of the Jihad. It must be remembered that with the Afghan nation, Muslims from all over the world participated in this Jihad. These educated and aware youth, who were brought up in comfort and luxury fought in the harsh mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and embraced ‘Martyrdom’. As a result, the history of the world changed. The Russia, of which it was known that once it penetrates the boundaries, there is no turning Russia back. This invincible Russia came crumbling down with such intensity, that all the central Asian States that it had kept under control for the last seventy-five years, cropped up as independent states and started a fresh. Although this was only achieved after enormous bloodshed and the sacrifice of countless lives and much honor, but the price of freedom is always blood, it is never attained on a silver platter.

Now Afghanistan entered its second phase. The forces that fought against Russia, mainly comprised of seven major groups, headed by their own commanders and leaders. Probably four were fighting for the cause of Islam, while the other three fought for the Afghan cause. After the withdrawal of Russia, the problem of the formation of the Government arose, these groups decided upon a coalition and democracy after long drawn discussions. But the strange part was that all these Mujahidin had fought only for the implementation of Islam. Therefore this brought about the third phase. The majority of the Mujahids consisted of the students (tulbah) from Madrasas, who started a new movement. Here it is worth mentioning that only five people founded this movement. One of whom was nominated the Ameer and is the present Ameer-ul-Momineen Mullah Omar (Salamaho-Taala). These students launched a movement, which turned into Jihad against their teachers and commanders, who were defeated one after the other. And ninety percent of the land came under the fold of Islam and thus Mullah Omar’s status changed from an Ameer to Ameer-ul-Momineen.

The Muslim Nation was finally blessed with a form of Caliphate, which it had been deprived of for quite sometime, even though presently it is contained within the parameters of Afghanistan. Now the circumstances have taken a toll again, and a major catastrophe took place in America, which can definitely be called one of the grave disasters of history. Due to which America being enraged, plans to attack Afghanistan either to destroy or at least change the present Islamic form of Governance to a form of Administration of their choice. This is only one aspect, but there is also another side to this issue. Which is that it is possible that the American attack may trigger the realization of the need of the revival of Caliphate amongst the Muslims. And if Ameer-ul-Momineen Mullah Omar decides to nominate his representatives in different Muslim countries, on the hands of whom people begin to pledge allegiance, then will the Governments be able to stop this uprising? If this mission is initiated from the tribal areas and enters Pakistan from there, then what will be done? Or what if a similar situation arises in the Central Asian countries or the Muslim Countries of the Far East? It is possible that America’s hasty decision might bring about the formation of a USI (United State of Islam). Perhaps this will not be appreciated by America, but America and other Western Governments will not be able to prevent it. Since in various Islamic States, such Muslims are present who have not seen the Ameer-ul-Momineen, but have pledged their allegiance to him.

In my opinion, the Government of Pakistan needs to impart the above information to America.

DO UNTO OTHERS ...

written by Ra'ana Khan

Up until today I had heard “Do unto others what you would want them to do to you!” This quote had appealed to me much, but as I went through life, I realised there was something not quite right with it!

It was a simple enough rule to apply to ones life, and should have been enough to keep one humbly satisfied. But no matter how hard one tried to follow the rule, some amount of discontentment kept sucking at ones internal peace. And strangely enough instead of becoming increasingly humble, deep down inside I felt a kind of arrogance brewing. I know, this absurdity makes no sense, but I explored my inner-self enough to finally manage to hunt down why this was so. The reason for this strange discontentment and even stranger arrogance is far simpler than the implementation of the rule itself.

Lets go over the rule itself, since the resulting attitude is a direct consequence. “Do unto others what you would want them to do to you!” Basically what’s being asked of you is to be good to others, because you want them to be good to you. So when you begin to implement this rule to yourselves what you are doing is trying your best to change for the better, because you would want others to change for the better too. So you’re being good because you are hoping for others to be good to you. The harder you are trying to put aside all your negative instincts like revenge, anger, irritation, etc and the harder you are trying to cut people slack, the more that ‘hope’ of returned goodwill is turning into expectation. And here is where the crux of the problem lies. We do good to others, and then we expect them to do good to us. So our focus and expectation of reward is stuck on other helpless imperfect mortals who may or may not be following the same rule. It is here where the seed of arrogance starts to bury itself into our souls. When we are not reciprocated with goodness, we try to over come our irritation or negative feelings towards the person by rising above. And in doing so we actually ‘rise above,’ we rise above them! In our minds we begin to slowly place our self, little by little above person by person, on a mini pedestal, which is perhaps not so mini by the end of it.

As we ‘rise above’ the persons around us, in our minds, the irritation begins to wither away leaving behind this feeling we wrongly perceive as contentment. This contentment is in fact just an illusion, it’s called gloating in the glorified image that we have created of ourselves in our minds. And each time that we are good to someone, yet again we have given ourselves reason to be proud. We speak to people nicely, people who may be of a lesser educational or financial background, and we feel we have been ‘good’ in doing so. We believe we are humble and down to earth because we have been kind to those, who in our minds are below us. Thus we ‘rise above’ and the seed of arrogance grows to a plant, to a tree.

What an entirely bizarre situation to be in. You set out to better yourself, and end up being perhaps far worse and far shallower than you were to begin with. I could not understand what exactly the flaw was in the law, until I heard the following; “Do unto others, what you would want Allah^-SWT to do to you!” And this changed my world, understanding, perception and capacity to love and forgive.

“Do unto others, what you would want Allah^-SWT to do to you!” … If I were to make a list of what I would want Allah^-SWT to do to me, I thought that list would be endless. But I was quite wrong. It is perhaps so short that I cannot even call it a list!

I want Allah^-SWT to love me unconditionally and forgive me without accountability, as if I never sinned!

And thus my life is simplified and I am at utmost peace. I continue to love everyone unconditionally (as best as I can) & pray for them. But forgive them I cannot, because for forgiveness comes only after the acknowledgment of they’re wrong doing, and I refuse to acknowledge that, because I don’t want my wrong doings acknowledged by Allah^-SWT either!