The misery that befalls humanity because of the lack of true Islamic morals and manners

Posted by: "The Ideal Muslim" forthemuslim@yahoo.com   forthemuslim

Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:06 am 

 

The Ideal Muslim: Characteristics of the Ideal Muslim According to the Qur´an and the Sunnah

 

The IDEAL MUSLIM

The True Islamic Personality of the Muslim Man

as Defined in the Qur'an and Sunnah

 

By  Dr. Muhammad `Ali Al-Hashimi 

Translated by Nasiruddin Al-Khattab and Revised by Ibrahim M. Kunna and Abu Aya Sulaiman Abdus-Sabur 

Copyright and published by the International Islâmic Publishing House (IIPH), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1999.

 

The Ideal Muslim  is a man of the highest moral character. In his relationship with his Rabb, himself, family, parents, relatives, friends and the community at large, he has a most excellent example in the prophet of Islam (pbuh). His idealism is further strengthened by the characters of the first generations of Muslims who excelled in all the various fields of human endeavor. He is reassured by the teachings of Islam that he also can reach these noble heights by working to improve his character daily.

 

Chapter 7: The Muslim and His Neighbors

 

The misery that befalls humanity because of the lack of true Islamic morals and manners

 

Hence we realize that the misery that has befallen humanity throughout the world has occurred because of the lack of true Muslims in positions of influence and authority, and because of the swamping of true Islamic principles by backward, manmade systems, which have brought nothing but misery, poverty, exploitation, hunger and nakedness to so many, at the same time when mankind has conquered space, launched rockets and satellites, and put men on the moon. The international food and agriculture organization attached to the United Nations announced in 1975[4] that between 20-100 million people in Africa and Asia faced the possibility of death from starvation in the next few years, and that if the situation were allowed to continued, 3 million would be likely to die every week, while between 460-1,000 million people were suffering from malnutrition.

 

In the same year, news agencies reported the story of a young European woman who had volunteered to work as a nurse in some region of Africa where the people were suffering from chronic malnutrition. She had a severe mental breakdown that verged on insanity, after witnessing a bloody fight between some African children whose hunger drove them to compete savagely for a piece of mango. The fight did not stop until one child had plucked out the eye of another. None of the children concerned was any older than 8 years. This hunger has also caused many cases of total blindness, because of the constant lack of vitamins; children are so severely underweight that they look like skeletons. They have little or no resistance to illness, and are truly between the jaws of death.

 

At a time when hunger is stalking Africa and Asia, we see the West, the rich nations who constitute only 20 % of the world´s population but own 80 % of the world´s wealth, going to insane lengths to hold on to this wealth. In 1975 Brazil burnt thousands of tons of coffee; the EEC (now known as the EU) spent $50 million to destroy surplus food and agricultural produce; and America pays its farmers $3,000 million annually for not growing anything - all to keep prices in the world´s markets high! American farmers killed tens of thousands of calves, and buried them, to keep the price of meat high, when in the same year tens of thousands of people died of starvation in Africa, Asia and Latin America!

 

How great a difference there is between the humane culture of Islam, which does not let a poor man suffer because of the scent of cooking from a rich neighbor´s house which may aggravate his hunger, and the materialistic culture of the West which is threatening millions of people with death from starvation. How miserable are those who are striving to adopt materialistic systems, whether Western or Eastern, stumbling blindly in the black night of jahiliyyah. How great is the responsibility of the Muslims to be the bearers of the torch lit from a blessed tree, neither of the East nor of the West, which alone can dispel the darkness of jahiliyyah, illuminate hearts and minds, and restore mankind to guidance, security and prosperity.

 

[4] The Arabic edition of this book was first published in 1981. Needless to say, matters have hardly   improved in the two decades since these statistics were produced. (Translator)