The Boat Parable

In last week’s “Reflection”, I mentioned a hadith by the Prophet (may peace and God’s blessings be upon him), which was narrated as a parable, talking about a group of people who boarded a boat “some of them took the upper part, and the others sit in the lower deck”. One of those in the lower part took an ax and started making a hole in the bottom of the boat. Seeing this “foolish” and dangerous action, those in the upper part immediately prevented him to do so. If they did not prevent him, they all would have perished.

The person who tried to make a hole in the bottom of the boat may have wanted to do it with a good intention (not to disturb those in the upper part every time he has to get water which he and his fellows need). Whether with good intention or otherwise, such a big mistake can put the lives of all the passengers of the boat at risk of sinking. Hence, knowledgeable people who can foresee possible problems in some behavior should act responsibly to prevent dangerous actions to occur.

Then I said: the problem of the Muslim Ummah today is that they have lost the steer, so the boat is in real danger...

I have received a comment saying:

“I think that this discussion is really important and the hadith you mentioned is fundamental. In fact, it seems like it raises the not least critical issue of pluralism. How do people negotiate the navigation of the boat with all their diversity? Is the boat still one single boat? Or has it been broken down into smaller ones? Or do they still have any control over it? Is there even a pilot? Etc.

Let’s suppose that there’s still one boat, in the absence of one single captain (amir), how do we manage the presence of those who think differently in all the spectrum of the Islamic belonging, from one extreme to the other? Looking at the spectrum, how different or far am I from the norm (if any) or say the middle?”

Replying to that comment let us continue the discussion. The parable contains simple and specific points to be considered:

1.   There are people who are in the top part of the boat (we can say they are the more knowledgeable), and others on the lower deck (lower level of knowledge).

2.   The less knowledgeable people may do a great error, either because they are ignorant or they are irresponsible.

3.    A great error may cause some catastrophic consequences, so the knowledgeable people are the ones responsible to watch the situation and prevent dangerous errors perpetrated by less responsible ones.

Muslims in the world today consist of different groups; most of them have superficial knowledge of Islam.

Fortunately, there have always been personalities and even groups, of very learned persons here and there, who try to teach their students how Islam should be observed in the unceasingly fast evolution that occurred in the last decades, or how their perception should be in today’s mankind’s historical arena.

Confronting the harsh ideologies controversy of today, many Muslims are confused because of several elements:

·      low living standard;

·      lack of faith education, lack of Qur’anic teachings, and       

lack of general knowledge;

·      liberationist invasion through all kinds of modern media;

·      most Muslim countries governed by yielded agents of the

big powers.

One of the great errors that occurred to the Muslim Ummah, was that they did not react properly to prevent the cession and occupation of Palestine in 1948, which caused the expulsion of the majority of Palestinians from their homes to many countries in the world, and the implantation of so called “State of Israel”. That disaster has caused the world’s Muslim Community successively a lot of torment and agony. Many efforts were made by some eminent scholars in the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Indo-Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and North Africa, but have been wasted or damaged. When the Ikhwan in Egypt sent volunteers to aid the Palestinian resistance in 1948 they were forced to go back and were rewarded by persecution and jail. And in the election of 2012, when the Islamic parties succeeded with two thirds of the Parliament, the Military junta overthrew the legitimate government, abolished the Parliament and put the elected President and thousands of his supporters in jail. Thousands have been killed, and thousands fled out of the country.

The erudite Muslims everywhere today have a huge responsibility to teach and educate as much as possible the new generations. They should present to them Islamic teachings with appropriate and proper way, by widening their perspective to understand its canonical object.

For example, in today’s critical time Muslim scholars should make clear the errors and damage done by the group who claim to have established an “Islamic State” while they did in fact a lot of damage by their senseless and horrible actions. They fight here and there with the slogan “jihad”, while the real jihad can only be achieved within the Islamic Law.

At the same time, Muslim scholars should warn people to not be captives of those anti-Islam ideologists who pretend to renew Islam, so that it could fit “Modernism”. This is a false pretention. Islam is God’s guidance for humanity to live their life healthy, wealthy and wise. Islam urges its adherents to improve their material life to the best level possible, with the guidance given by their Lord, not by adapting their lifestyle to “Modernism”.

Islam does not allow Muslims to live outside the continuously developing civilization. They have to strive for mankind’s prosperity in this world and in the life to come. God says in the Qur’an:

“And thus have We willed you to be a community of the middle way, so that (with your lives) you might bear witness to the truth before all Mankind, and that the Messenger might bear witness to it before you..” (2:143).

The Muslim community should be active wherever it may be, in order to expand the Islamic civilization.

God has ordered His Messenger to tell his followers:

“Say (O Prophet): Act! And God will observe your deeds, and (so will) His Messenger, and the believers: and (in the end) you will be brought before Him Who knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being’s perception as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature’s senses, and He will tell you what you used to do” (9:105).

If God has willed Muslims to be “a community of the middle way”, who might bear witness to the truth before all mankind, it means they have to be in a lofty level of wisdom and might. To reach that goal all Muslims must strive, individually and collectively, with the hope that in the end, the passengers of the boat will be in a safe position.