Gaza and Iman

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Sorry for not been blogging for a long time. I have been writing my thesis although it's not finish yet it will inshaALLAH come to an end soon, please keep make dua for me.

In the mean time, I have been also following the devastating and heart-breaking disaster in Gaza. What is happening there is the fault of all humanity. No one side only is taking the blame, nor a few parties of people or nations but it is the error done by all humanity in the 20th and 21st centuries. For the countries involved in the WW1 and WW2, for US, UN and British to "give" the Jews a piece of Palestinians land, for the continuing support of many countries all over the world to the US, not having the courage to speak out their stance and opposition to the US and Israel, fear of the economic and military power of the US, for the disunited arab countries and muslim countries, for the weak iman of the muslims all over the world, today we have this grave humanitarian crisis happening in the holy land of three biggest Abrahamic faiths in the world.

Iman is faith, to believe in at least a God. Since there is only one God under the Abrahamic tradition, there cannot be my one God and your one God, but all that we are worshipping is that the one and only the God. The simplest form of iman or faith as clearly said in the Quran consists of three principles:-

1. To believe in the God (which basically means belief in one God)
2. To believe in the Day of Judgement
3. To do righteous deeds

"Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."

~ The Holy Quran, Surah al-Baqarah (The Chapter of The Cow), verse 62

This simply just means that a human who has faith should only do good deeds (e.g., helping the poor and needy, uphold justice, be merciful, make peace, etc.) because what we do will be asked and judged on the Day of Judgement by the one and only - the God. If this doesn't make sense for you, we shall explain it from the reverse angle? If you believe in a God, a God who has the power over everything, who created the humans and the universe, who is the most merciful and most just, who created also the Day of Judgement to reward those who have done righteous deeds and punish those who have oppressed others and themselves, then, there is nothing to earn the mercy of the God and avoid the wrath of the God on the Day of Judgement except by doing the deeds that the God has prescribed for the humans, which basically are righteous deeds that will do good for oneself and the whole of humanity.

Come back to the crisis in Gaza, I just want to ask everyone (whatever your believe is), look into your heart and ask yourself, is what happening now something right? If you have even an ounce of mercy in your flesh and blood, will you not call for a ceasefire now? How many more sacred lives are we going to take? Knock the door of your faith, of your iman (for my muslim brothers and sisters), what will the God ask us on the Day of Judgement about what is happening now?

Remember that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) told us that, "Whoever of you sees an evil, he must change it by his hand. If he cannot, then he must change it by his tongue, and if he cannot, then he must change it by his heart - and that is the weakest manifestation of faith" (Hadith collected by Imam Muslim). Are we not in the weakest state of iman now for not being able even to voice our discontent and disagreement or even to stop the wrong that is happening now?

Aren't upholding justice, peace and mercy; and forbidding injustice, oppression and killing, righteous deeds in the eyes of the God? Isn't this the teaching that we have learnt about iman? So where is your iman, my dear brothers and sisters? How will ALLAH help us if we don't even have that bit of iman in our heart? How will ALLAH answer our prayers if we don't even try to increase our faith?

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.