To be or not to be… an Apologist
9am in the office and my supervisors asks me how’s my mum. yep, nizam told me about the stampede at Mekah during our trip to drop off tasneem at her babysitter’s. He mentioned that no Malaysians were amongst the deceased so I promptly informed my supervisor that i knew insha’Allah my mum was fine. I then continued to say, "you know, Jackie, about the pilgrimage, if there are no accidents like this happen where many are killed, there will be many natural deaths amongst the pilgrims." i know this from a several experienced pilgrims who have witnessed deaths in Mekah during the Haj season and I am prepared to believe it. After all, where would be a better place for Allah Ta’ala to request His servants return to Him other than at the Holy Land in Saudi?
However, the moment i let that line escape my line of thought, it occurred to me that i may have come accross to my devout Christian supervisor as one of the many Muslim apologists who exist nowadays. with all the bad media coverage on Islam and Muslims, many of us decide to "put things right" by apologising for the actions of bad Muslim people (in this case, the stampede), and desperately try to explain that Islam does not sanction violence, honourary deaths, suicidal bombing, terrorism, child abuse, unfair polygamy to say the least.
As struggling-to-be-devout Muslims, we would all go through this process, but i have half-taken the advise of many scholars on islamonline.net not to become an apologist but to uphold the true beautiful image and meaning of Islam at all times. Don’t bother correcting the actions of non-practising Muslims but always spread the true meaning of the religion.
Then i read the news.
it was worse than i thought. close to 400 dead? though i know that death is inevitable, and returning to Allah when in worship is the best thing that could happen but i couldn’t help wondering if these types of fatalities could be avoided.
another non-muslim colleague behind me began harping "look at all these people! want to pray but end up killing each other!"
it really saddened me. as she was speaking to someone else who was providing a decent explanation, i decided not to interfere as the air of "apologism" was still hanging around my hemisphere.
then my mind started churning over the slice of christmas cake i was nibbling on: why would things like this happen? how could they be avoided?
I wouldn’t be able to answer the 2nd question as I myself have never been for Haj, but on why it happens? I thought of a few reasons.
(1) perhaps its because the majority of Muslims are from poorer, less educated countries, thus the practise and patience of Islam does not prevail during the Haj rites;
(2) "illegal" pilgrims emerge during the Haj and therefore the number of pilgrims exceed the given quota causing over-congestion;
these are just my opinion. but anyhow, no matter if you are an apologist or not, incidents like this stampede and other unfortunate mis-haps have never deterred true Muslims from upholding Haj as a pillar of Islam and performing it well.
it’s a good idea though to learn more on the correct way of performing Haj. education and knowledge and learning are always important for preparation in anything. Prophet Muhammad summoned the captured enemies of Islam after the Battle of Badr to teach the Muslims to read. So remember, knowledge can never run too deep. Knowledge and sincerity in heart will insha’Allah result in a wonderful Haj experience.
salaam, and may prayers and d’ua be with those who have passed on…
January 13th, 2006 at 3:11 am
assalam. salam ‘aidil-adha. guten tag!
when i first logged on to your blog, my attention just simply settled upon this particular post. Regurgitating from the first line (excerpt) - “nizam told me about the stampede at Mekah…”. gee… to my surprise, i initially thought he was actually up in Makkah and somehow passing on the message about the stampede! no wonder he’s been quiet all the while…
yes, those 2 reasons you pointed out bore quite the truth. but one thing that seems to elapse through the recess of everybody’s attention is the egotisticalness (is there such a word?) of the zealous jemaah themselves. i am referring to some or minute number of them. an ustaz over at my place was sharing his abhorrence towards such type of jemaah who went like overly emotional, e.g during the jamrah. the ritual was supposed to be done earnestly, yet modestly. ini ada yang sampai guna selipar (since they were running out of stones) and then shouted at the pillar, “setan! mati kao!”, “ambik nih, setan!”, etc. ek eleeh.. the pure or original attention is supposed to be throwing stones in embodiment of holy prophets Ibrahim and Ismail a.s. lepas tu ada yang pergi sana sebab nak bawak balik some holy cloth, ripped away from kaabah drape or something. kononnya bila gantung kat kedai, boleh laku bisnes. cheh!
that was what the ustaz was talking about, ‘indonesianically’, “iyaa.. di maleysia ini kursus nya pasal haji ya? bukannya kursus akidah…”
salaam
January 15th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
M-A-K-K-A-H - i knew there was something wrong with my spelling the other day! nope ches is still here. in fact probably running around chowkit for something or another. i’ll let him know you’ve been asking about him and get him to call you, though i know he owes you more that a phonecall. (thanks! xxx)
and what you gladly pointed out above. sure, it’s about education isn’t it? throwing slippers and ripping a bit of the ka’abah cloth… i’m really lost for words, i may even have to make one up. i’ve seen umbrellas and probably excess baggage being thrown at the pillars on tv, and honestly, it’s a good thing masjids here conduct courses on haj, just to put right what may go wrong.
someone let them know that ascribing any partners even at minor with Allah, is a form of shirk - i.e. the cloth for good feng shui!
thanks for reading my blog -
salaam, zeri