Use of Political Terminologies

Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'aala) says,

O believers! Do not say: Ra'ina, but say Unzurna and listen; and for the disbelievers there is a painful punishment. [Al-Baqarah:104]

The famous Mufassir Ibn Kathir explained in his tafseer of this ayah:

This verse refers to the Jews who used puns in their conversations with the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) in an attempt to make fun of him. They, (may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'aala curse them) addressed him with the word Raa'ina which literally means 'consider us' but can also mean 'stupidity', and when they greeted him they said 'As-Samu 'Alaykum' that is, 'death to you' rather than 'As Sallamu 'Alaykum' that is 'peace be on you'.

What this Ayah and its tafseer indicate to us is the importance of terminology. If a statement has a loaded definition contradicting the concepts of Islam they must be relinquished for the Islamic concept and its terminology. This is because the danger in calling to the Western ideas and concepts would mean the appearance of this foreign way of life upon the lives of the Muslims and this is both dangerous for our Islam and prohibited by Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'aala).

We have our own terminology and idioms and we must both use these and comprehend the importance of realising there meanings so as to work diligently to bring these back to life through the pre-eminence of the Islamic way of life absent from the world due to the absence of the Islamic Shari'ah.

Comment:

Today, Muslims discuss issues and proceed through life in the absence of the correct mindset, and for this reason, we see that Muslims cannot agree on anything, and oftentimes, discussions are an incoherent stew of haphazard ideas that typically break down and results in shouting contests. An example will be sufficient to demonstrate this point. The west-sponsored reformists make scathing attacks at one of their opponents for being a homosexual in their political satires and cartoons. And in the same breathe, these reformists claim that they are working towards ''pluralism''. The application of this concept in our society means giving homosexuals and lesbians the ''constitutional right'' or ''human right'' to form their organization, participate in the political process and to promote their deviated tendencies through the media machinery. If anyone were to show hostility towards homosexuality or lesbianism, the legal apparatus will spring into action to protect their ''human rights'' enshrined in the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights''. This is a vivid indication of how western concepts can be marketed through cartoons and so called political satires, if the masses remain naive. It is very easy for Muslims to reject a crazed evangelist with blond hair and blue eyes slandering the Prophet (saaws) or denouncing the Qur'an. However, it is an altogether different situation when the poison (e.g. pluralism) is injected slowly and systematically along with cartoons to tickle our emotions .This is not to say that Islam will be eradicated altogether. But Islam will remain reduced to a set of rituals and morals and Muslims will be given the ''freedom'' to practise Islam within the boundaries set by the secular ideology - the system which the kuffar wants to establish ''officially'' through their local agents as part of their agenda to check the rise in Islamic system which they refer to as ''Radical Islam'' for marketing purpose. Also, the kuffar will implement this new 'deen' in such a way that western concepts become fully anchored in the hearts and minds of the Muslims. Therefore the implementation will not descend upon us from nowhere, but will come about as a culmination of continuous agitation which the colonialists would foment behind the scenes. The agitation would be stirred up in such a manner that the masses themselves will be calling for these kufr concepts leading to a climax. Daniel Pipes, a neo-conservative bigot who ardently supports and advises US on the 'democratisation' projects in the Muslim world has the following to say regarding their disguised strategy:

''Because it takes time for full enfranchisement, the U.S. government should
encourage democratization, first on the level of civic society, and then, only
after that has been established, on the level of political leaders.''

The motive behind the urgency to ''democratise'' the Muslim world is indicated by another statement by Pipes :

''I propose mainstream secularists as the forward looking Muslims who uniquely
can wrench their co-religionists out of their current slough of despair and
radicalism. Secularists start with the proven premise of disentangling religion
from politics; not only has this served the Western world well, but it has also
worked in Turkey, the Muslim success story of our time''

The ''success story'' mentioned above, is the destruction of the last Islamic State in 1924, which implies that West is trying desperately to avoid the re-emergence of the Islamic State. According to Pipes, the Islamic system can prevented from resurfacing by activating the Neo-moderate Muslims to work for a new secular ideology. This new ideology is promoted in various parts of the Muslim world using different labels such as ''Moderate Islam'', ''Reform'' ,or ''Democracy''. To spark off this ideological war, the colonialists would probe for an ''internal'' matter within each nation to act as catalyst to help move things quickly along a designated political path. The lesson for us is that if we fail to apply Islam completely, then we leave a political, social, and cultural vacuum in society and in the world, and this vacuum will naturally be filled with Kufr.What is required, at this critical juncture, is a process by which we actively arrive at a set of ideas and principles that we believe in and wished to be governed by. This means initiating a thinking process, at least in the minds of those who are concerned, to question and scrutinize all the ideas that are being proposed to solve our problems. We should not accept any idea (e.g pluralism) through shallow unthinking means. Rather we should accept those ideas that are intellectually sound and will be able to comprehensively solve our society's problems.

If we succumb to our emotions, then we will find ourselves susceptible to the whims of anyone who wants to tickle or arouse our emotions by publishing political satires and cartoons whilst smuggling kufr through the back door . Also, we should not rely on cartoons and political satires for an accurate assessment of the events. We should fish through several sources like solving a puzzle.

We should live up to the statement of Umar Bin Al-Khattab (ra), when he said: ''I am not a deceiver and the deceiver cannot deceive me.''

Prophet(saw) said, Allah did not portion to man a thing better than intelligence. The sleep of the intelligence one is better than the wakefulness of the fool. No Prophet or Messenger was sent other than to complete intelligence.

Prophet(saw) also said: ''A believer does not get bitten from the same hole twice.''

First, the ummah got bitten due to implementation of capitalism, socialism, nationalism etc etc in place of Islam. The result is oppression, suffering and earning Allah's Wrath. And we will get bitten again if we respond to this wretched situation by calling for Western secular concepts.