Bismillaahir Rahmaanir
Raheem Friday 6
Sha`baan 1437 A.H.
Assalaamu
alaykum wa Rahmatullaahi wa Barkaatuhu brothers and sisters in Islam. I pray
that Allah azza wa jal eases for all of us completely our paths to Him. May
Allah give us Allah because in Him there is total sufficiency. Aameen Yaa
Quddus Yaa Salaam Yaa Allah.
So,
I wrote; ‘Fire in the Belly’ ‘A stage play’ which was inspired by my late dad,
may Allah azza wa jal grant him an abundance of His Nuur. Aameen Yaa Nuur. I
found myself in a typical village in the north whose inhabitants were Muslims
in the month of Ramadan. Their challenges abound. They had no proper water,
clothing and shelter. Their Islamic knowledge was almost nil. And they just
lived their lives like that without any help from the Ummah. Then I cast my
mind back to Kumasi where I lived. In this holy month, it was common to see so
many acts of charity go on. Foods especially are in abundance. One thing that
was popular was the ‘iftaar’ saga. During iftaar, some people shared foods to
people and took pictures and videos of them. That was a good thing but those
they were feeding was the problem. They fed those who could well feed
themselves and their families whiles people like those in the village I was;
stayed hungry. Let me cut my story short on ‘Fire in the Belly.’ Read the book
and let us all pray that we do not become victims of the temptation of money;
of this worldly life; of the ayah;
‘Those who unjustly eat up the
properties of orphans, eat up nothing but fire into their bellies. They will
soon be enduring a blazing fire.’’
(Surat
An-Nisa, the Women, Chapter 4 ayah 10)
Now,
I have about five other stage plays and you are going to see one titled; ‘A
Letter to the Maker of Laws’ on the market very soon in shaa Allah. This is a
book I have a ‘special agenda’ for. Keep smiling to Jannah! Let me tell you
about it!
We
hear every day, and for all those who have been through the missionary school
system; we know for a fact that some non-Muslims in those institutions just
love to make life quite unbearable for the Muslims for whatever reason. The
State gives us all a ‘right to worship’ but that right is clearly being
infringed upon by other people who have just made it a point that they don’t
like Muslims and their ways.
I
have, alhamdulillaah, not experienced that direct show of disdain for my Deen
before as an individual but such stories are numerous. Yet I remember quite a
few disturbing cases whiles in the Senior High School. I attended an all-girls
missionary Senior High School. On Eid days, we had to stay in school, no matter
what one will not be given permission to go home. On one Eid day, our GMSA
Patron decided to seek permission for all of us to go and pray in a nearby
town. Gosh! You should see the stress he was put through. Meanwhile a handful
of some Christians were permitted to go out for a programme they were invited
to right whiles our Patron was struggling to get us a permit. Now,
alhamdulillaah, the permission was granted with a strict time limit place on
it. And then the confusion, who was going to transport us? The school buses
were standing there empty. These handful of Christians were given a bus and the
Senior Housemistress who was behind these tough times was being reluctant at
letting us have a bus too. In the end, she made us join the handful of
Christians. Guess what! We put on white veils and our church cloth. She made a
comment;
‘Why are you wearing these scarves in
the school? Can’t you wait until you get there before? ‘
She
made it with that face. You can guess ay! And come and see crying in the bus
whiles the bus moved. Frustration galore!
I
remember clearly witnessing more than once one of our reverend fathers openly
deal with us the Muslims and how barbaric our religion was; making all kinds of
fun about some of our beliefs. I just sat at the back with my colleague Muslim
prefects and laughed at him and his ignorance. But the case was that serious
that you begin to see some obviously Muslim girls beginning to renounce their
Islam with some excuses like;
‘My father is Christian and my mother
is Muslim and I live with my father and so I go to church…blabla…’
‘My parents are Muslims but we don’t
really practice Islam…blabla…’
‘I am from a Muslim home but I want to
become a Christian even though my parents will not agree…blabla…’ etc.
And
what I saw on visiting days as I presided over the visits as protocol prefect
shocked me. These Muslim girls’ parents come all ‘Islamically dressed’ and
mostly speaking Hausa and other local languages with them. Sad indeed! And the
parents were totally ignorant of what their girls were up to in the school.
The
stories are endless…
We
see our nurses in those ‘little dresses’ that do not fit the concept of hijab.
And even though the country has allowed them to wear veils, some health
institutions and/or individuals have decided to still deprive them of that
right.
A
Muslimah goes for a job interview and she is given the ultimatum to either take
off her veil and get the job or find the exit. Ignorant people keep making fun
of the Muslimah for her kind of dressing. Muslims in general are faced with all
kinds of ignorant attachments; terrorist, uncivilized people, etc.
Now,
my worry is not so much the people who put us through these frustrations as it
is about how confident, daring and vocal we are about these unfair treatments.
My worry is about those Muslimahs who would rather put away their hijabs and
even their Islam just so they could fit into these lives, just so they could be
accepted by these people. My worry is about those of us Muslims who would
rather sacrifice their Islam just to please these people instead of being bold
enough to let them know what was right and what was wrong; educating those
ignorant people about Islam; so I decided to write this; ‘A Letter to the Maker
of Laws.’
Faatima
Zahra is a 15 year old Senior High School girl whose mother is a nurse and her
father is a lawyer. She wonders why her mum puts on hijab at home and has to
take it off when she is at work. (Note: Hijab is not a veil. Hijab is the
concept of the overall covering of the woman). Her father is a lawyer whose
great concern is to fight for the human rights of people especially the weak
and vulnerable such as the Muslims. Faatima wonders why her cousin, Hameeda, a
very intelligent young lady is sent away at every job interview just because
she refuses to take off her hijab.
Faatima
wonders why her English Teacher just hates everything Islam, for no tangible
reasons. She wonders why a student will be punished for just performing his
prayers in his dormitory at his free time. Her mind is unsettled and being a
brave, confident, intelligent and daring girl, she thought that she had to do
something about it.
But
isn’t it interesting? She is just a very little girl. She isn’t the wealthiest,
nor powerful, nor the strongest. She was only a girl. She thinks to herself;
‘What can she do whilst she is as she
was; wealthless, powerless, young and weak?’
She
decides to write a letter to someone special; pouring her heart and mind out.
Was
she ever able to start and finish her letter? Who did she mean by ‘the Maker of
Laws’? Did she ever deliver her letter to the Maker of Laws? What were the
things she told him/her? Did he respond to her letter? Did she achieve her aim?
So many questions and the answers are all in the book. Keep smiling to Jannah!
Make sure you grab your copy and grab some for any non-Muslim you know in shaa
Allah!
Now,
my special agenda is to have our young Muslimahs especially, take up the
personality of Faatima Zahra; be daring, be confident, be knowledgeable about
the Deen, be God-Conscious, be smart and intelligent, be wise and have a
passion for positive change. This will give them the positive push to go
through the various discriminations they are likely to be subjected to as
Muslims in their schools, environment, work places, etc.
When
we are also able to get non-Muslims to also read it, at least, it might be a
wake-up call to them to rethink their decisions of oppressing the Muslims
wrongly.
If
you are interested or know anyone who will be interested in buying this book in
bulk at the cheapest price for free distribution to non-Muslims especially,
please contact me through this blog, whatsapp, email or facebook.
An
Excerpt
HAMEEDA:
As I walked, they called me
names. Taliban, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorist, Al-Qaeda and many others. And they
were tertiary students who should know better. They stand in front of my school
Hall and insult him, the Prophet, the greatest man of all times. They should
not ask the Muslims, they should ask great Historians like Michael Hart. Little
boys and girls who know virtually nothing about him. When I react, they call me
violent. What do they expect from me? To applaud them for insulting me and the
people I hold dear? Would they do same to me were I to call their fathers and
mothers derogatory names?
STORYTELLER:
It is like beating a child and
forbidding him to cry. And they call us rowdy just because a few have been
rowdy. But is rowdiness not found in every category of people? Whether Muslim
or not? Whether black or white? Whether rich or poor?
HAMEEDA:
To dodge these kinds of
humiliations, most of us throw away the precious values that Islam instil in us
and adopt the others. We want to be like everyone else. We want to please them.
Very unfortunate! Very unfortunate.
STORYTELLER:
Hmmm! Very unfortunate indeed.
HAMEEDA:
Why don’t they find out what
Islam really is? Is the Qur’an not translated into the languages they
understand? Are Hadith books and other Islamic literatures not all over the
place in English? What is their fear? (She exits)
STORYTELLER:
What is their fear? (Lights
go out and come on again with Hameeda and Faatima Zahra seated on a mat)
HAMEEDA:
You know, these things must
really be put to an end. When I was in the Senior High School, we the Muslims suffered
a lot too and it is no different from what you are going through now. Even
after this many years, these people haven’t changed their attitude towards us.
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
Sometimes, I really don’t
understand how some of them could hate us so much just because we are Muslims.
What wrong has Islam done?
HAMEEDA:
It is something that one can
never fathom. You know the painful aspect of their forcing us to join them in
their worship?
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
Tell me.
HAMEEDA:
They say so many bad things
about Islam that is so untrue that makes us cry sometimes. Because of that some
would prefer to say they are not Muslims just so they will be acceptable to them
at least. It is a pity. And they would not even give you the chance to teach
them the truth.
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
Things are no different now
cousin. What I do is that when something like that happens, I walk up to the
priest or teacher who gives the sermon and try to explain what the truth really
is to him whether he likes it or not. And when I see a Muslim in the school
trying to change his or her identity for acceptance sake, I talk to him or her
in detail. I win some and lose some because some of them cannot simply
withstand the humiliation.
HAMEEDA:
(Surprised) You do that?
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
Yes, I do that.
HAMEEDA:
And do they ever take it? They
might turn you into an enemy one day.
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
(She smiles) The funny thing is that they mostly tend to apologise
and blame their sources of information yet they never stop doing similar
things. I’m trying to convince them to start reading the Qur’an and the sayings
and actions of the Prophet, peace be upon him.
HAMEEDA:
(Impressed) I always feel very proud of you cousin and I wish I
had done what you are doing when I was like you but I know it is never too
late.
FAATIMA ZAHRA:
You are an inspiration to me
sister and I love you very much.
May
Allah azza wa jal accept our every minute effort to please Him. Cleanse our
hearts and continue to purify our intentions. Safeguard us from ‘riyaa’ and
grant us QalbunSaleem in ease. Aameen Yaa Lateef Yaa Affuw Yaa Mujeeb Yaa
Allah.
Jazaakumullaahukhairan
always!
Love
fiisabilillaah always!
Rubaba-ElhaamMmahajia-RahmaSabtiu-MorlaAgooro-Kangara
(Keep smiling)
+233 279-073-410(Whatsapp)
