To Save Mankind’s Boat ...!

Nu’man bin Bashir narrated the following

parable given by Prophet Muhammad (may

peace and God’s blessings be upon him):

“The likeness of the person who observes

God’s ordinances and that of the person

who transgresses them is like a group

of people who share a boat:

some of them have seats in the upper deck,

while the others sit the lower deck. Those in

lower part have to pass by those in the upper

part to get water, and they think that by doing 

that, they are troubling them. One of those

in the lower part took an ax and started

making a hole in the bottom of the boat.

People of the upper part came and said:

What is wrong with you? He said: You have

been much troubled by my coming up to you,

and I have to get water. Now if they prevent

him from doing that, they will save him and

save themselves, and if they let him to do

what he wants, they will all perish”.

(Recorded by Al-Bukhari in his “Collection

of Hadith”)

All mankind, since the first human being, are newcomers in this planet. God has made them responsible, to be the main actors in exploiting its goods and governing all its inhabitants. The last Prophet (may peace and God’s blessings be upon him) has illustrated their condition in the above mentioned parable. He described them as being together, passengers of a boat crossing the ocean. For the safety of those passengers, they need regulations, cooperation and a harmonious relation. Their errors can put them all in danger. Small errors should immediately be repaired. Discipline should be guarded seriously to prevent senseless actions from any of the occupiers of that boat.

In reality, we should understand that, for the sake of peace and prosperity for all mankind, an awareness of the necessity of cooperation and the acceptance of rules should exist in everyone’s mind.

To be realistic, Muslims in the world today are like being on a boat, crossing the international arena. They need to be aware that even personal errors can affect the whole community and cause bad consequences; so if the errors are seen as normal in the wider circle of society, this will bring a terrible danger.

All Muslims in the world today are suffering, and it seems paradoxical to say that the hardship in the so-called Muslim countries is greater (Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, among others). The main reason is that people do not heed God’s advice: to cooperate with each other in righteousness and in defending themselves against any aggression coming from the outside. The “big powers” with their mighty influence maintain their aim to divide people in groups, and to govern them with tyranny. The wise people have no power, many of them are in jail, persecuted and under oppression.

I think the main problem of the world Muslim Ummah (= community) today is that they have lost the steer, so the boat is in real danger. And the passengers  instead of being concerned and acting cooperatively

to adjust the steer, are busy quarrelling between themselves for less important things.

God has admonished the believers in this way: “And obey God and His Messenger, and do not quarrel with one another, lest you lose heart and your spirit may desert you. And be steadfast, for, verily, God is with those who steadfast” (8:46).

We see now the majority of the Muslim nation lives under tyrannical authorities, and the society is divided in rigid chauvinist groups, although all of them adhere to Islam. And as Muslims, they are supposed to behave with tolerance, not only within the Muslim community, but also with others. Let us see how the Qur’an guides the believers to act towards non-Muslims:

“God does not forbid you to treat kindly and deal justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes. Assuredly God loves the just. God only forbids you to take allies those who have fought against you for your faith, and driven you out of your homes, and supported others in your expulsion. And whoever takes them as allies will truly be wrongdoers” (60:8-9).

So this is the real Islamic way that should be traced: steadfastness in fairness, and kindness and tolerance in behaviour. This is not chauvinism.

Those authoritative tyrants in Muslim countries think they are so brave confronting their own people, but are in fact cowards in facing the enemies. Since after the second world-war, they are subjugated to the “big powers” who have planted a base in the heart of the vast Muslim World, in Palestine, by encouraging the Zionists to mobilize Jews from all over the world and established an entity called “Israel”. In addition to that, those “big powers” obliged Muslim governors to put their huge wealth under their supremacy. And this tragedy has been continuing ever since, by so many ways and means. Among these malicious means, they created the so-called United Nations Organization with its affiliates. Through this big organization the big powers can control everything and everywhere.

We have never seen justice occurring through those big whales in the so-called United Nations Organization. When any small country afflicted by oppression from any member of the UNO and complains, either it will be ignored, or even if the concerned body of that organization has taken a decision in the benefit of the complainer, no sanctions will take place.

But also we should not lessen the wickedness of those in the Muslim “boat” who call themselves the liberalists, who consider Islam like the Church in the middle age in Europe, and attempt to keep the new generation at a distance from the Islamic teachings. They are little by little trying to remove a lot of the religious curriculums in public schools. And we find this trend in certain political campaigns in many Arab and “Muslim” countries, sometimes they use glittering slogans like “new religion presentation” or “the renewal of religion”. Of course it is normal that from a century to another we can have a renewed presentation, but it should be done by the qualified knowledgeable people in the field, not by greedy and ill intentioned politicians. And this has been done all over Muslim history.

To conclude I would say, that aboard the “Muslim Boat” we have many different strange trends of people, even though they are not the majority, but it is not easy to escape their danger. May God intensify the real Islamic trend over the others.