Herd of sheep

by Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani Sahib

Is it possible to escape from the enmity between haq (the truth) and falsehood (batil)? Is there any way to avoid clash between eman (belief) and kufr (unbelief). History gives answer in negative. From Namrud to Pharaoh, Pharaoh to Abu Jahal and Abu Jahal to Bush every character call out loudly that batil (falsehood) never tolerates the very existence of haq (the truth). Darkness always chase light. Beasts feel delight in eating human flesh. If the oppressed bow down their heads, the oppressors’ intoxication of power knows no bound. The goats without shepherd fall prey to wolves easily. Thus can victory, in this contest of Haq and Batil be achieved without firm, unshakable trust? No way, the holy Quran says. A man having no warmth of belief is like dead, a mere block of ice. A group or society that lacks belief is like a herd of sheep, a lifeless skeleton. In this age do our hearts posses this wealth of belief and trust? The ground facts witness we don’t —not a bit.

No depth of feeling, no kindling of eman, no enthusiasm and passion for yaqeen (trust in God), no consciousness and ecstasy, no warmth and movement. Oh my God! Is it not the same ummah who called azan breaking dawn in the dark world, who kindled the candle of trust and belief in the atmosphere of doubt, who never bowed its head before anyone but Allah , and if forced to do so it preferred to get its head severed. Its integrity and brotherhood did not base upon country, language, color or race. It was raised only on the foundation of belief. In its manifesto, humanity was not divided into white and black, the rich and the poor, the Arab and Ajmi (the non-Arab), Saudi and Iraqi but it was divided into believers and unbelievers. It was the custom that made Salman of Persia, Bilal of Ethiopia, Suhaib of Rome and Adas of Nenva brother of one an other. They possessed no wealth of gold and silver, no reservoirs of patrol and minerals.

They did not have any grand palaces spread over miles, not cavalcades of vehicles and long rows of servants. Neither they behaved proud royal attitude nor demonstrated awe and splendor. Their chief wore patched up clothes and sleeper made of the bark of date-tree, but whenever he was out to visit Islamic countries, the drunk infidel rulers sitting hundreds of miles away felt the thuds of his camel’s hooves in the very center of their hearts. What was the thing these Arab shepherds possessed after all that struck their awe in the hearts of developed and civilized nations? Indeed it was nothing else but their firm belief and brotherhood.

Once upon a time a Turk raja ruled over Kabul. He paid one million dirhams annually to Hazrat Amir Muawiah as tribute. After Hazrat Amir Muawiah passed away he refused to pay tribute. When a group of delegates of new ruler reached him to demand the tribute he asked ‘where are the people who would come before you, whose bellies were pressed inward like starving people, their foreheads showed the marks of sajda (prostration), they wore simple dress and sleepers of bark of date-trees.’ The delegation told him those people passed away from this world and they were their successors. Raja replied, ‘we feared them but we are not afraid of you anyway. We shall not pay you tribute whatever you do.’

In the eyes of Raja the people in ragged clothes and sleepers of date-bark were strong whereas those wearing expensive dresses, strutting among a great number of servants had no value.

Our rajas, kings and princes, generals and colonels, presidents and prime ministers too want to raise their status and prestige in the eyes of world powers by means of apparent splendor, big cars, palaces of many hundred rooms and an army of servants, but these powers are not ready to confer on them a status more than pet birds and slaves. They are free to flap in the cage, peck at grain, fight one another, lay and hatch eggs but not allowed to fly in free atmosphere. Whenever some crazy bird try to get out of the international cage, his wings are flicked, legs are broken and some times even freed his body from the weight of his head.

They were not detained in the cage from beginning; they were eagles that perched on the peaks of mountains, ruled over lands and seas. But they did not like eagle’s life anymore and in pursuance of their carnal desires and lust for luxuries they adopted the life of vulture. They themselves picked and provided the straws for their cages. But still these cages can break and their sticks can spread. They can get independence if they flap their wings together. Their joint struggle can turn the flow, change the world politics and demolish Dajjal’s civilization and propaganda.

It can make slaves masters, and masters slaves. But what to do with the fact that the so-called splendor of the rotten western civilization, their wine has deprived their hearts of the warmth of belief. They have forgotten their identification and considered the golden-string cage their home. Expecting a great deed from a nation or individual who do not remember his reality and identification, and whose heart is empty from soft feelings of trust is like expecting acacia to produce rose.

It was yaqeen, the trust that gave the man brought up in Pharaoh’s palace the courage to crush the cage of slavery under his feet. It was the trust in God that enabled Hazrat Ibraheem Khalilullah to talk enthusiastically in the court of Namrud and sacrifice his beloved son. When the whole Arab was thirsty for the blood of the holy prophet, it was the trust that made the prophet say: ‘Uncle! By God, if they put the sun on my right hand and the moon on left and want me to stop this work, I will never give up until Allah dominate it or I perish in this cause”.

For those who trust in Allah , sea dries up and gives way, sticks turn into snakes, fire cools down. They want to get slaughtered but are saved. Only those die who run away from death. Only those lack warmth and vigor of life, who lack trust in Allah and those who lack trust are moving corpse. They are dead. Such society is not a society but lifeless skeleton, it is not ummah but a herd of sheep. Perhaps today we have only become a herd of sheep that is without shepherd and every individual of which fears his turn to be the feast of a wolf.