Sometimes I sit and ponder about the world and how the reality, the way we live, the things that matter or seem to matter, the way things are, the system that is being implemented, everything seem so different from what it ought to be.
As a Muslim, how do we reconcile the fact that what is said and mentioned in the Qur'an seem so distant and far away from what is being implemented in the real world? For example, the Qur'an tells us that Riba (interest) is haram and yet, the whole economic system is based upon Riba, the banking system, housing and car loans, savings, shares...even if we do not directly deal with Riba but the economic policies, international trading, buying and selling of government bonds, everything is wrapped in an economic system that is built upon interest.
When it says in the Qur'an that 4:141 "Allah will never grant the disbelievers to triumph over the believers"... one start to wonder about the condition of the world today where the US seem to have domination over the world, where the Muslim ummah are the underdogs being oppressed and persecuted all over the world in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. One may start to wonder what has gone wrong?
However, reading the recent case of Tarek Mahenna, an American citizen, a Muslim who was sentenced to 17 years in prison simply because he refused to become an informer for the FBI...reading his speech, his statement and when he said
"In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me."
His speech...his statement...made me realize that this is a man who sees the world as it truly is. How the reality today is nothing compared to the reality of what is right and what is wrong. Just because the world is what it is...does not make it right. it doesn't change the fact that interest (riba) is haram or that Allah will not make the believers triumphant.
The world we see today is like a mirage of water on a hot sunny day in the desert. it will disappear as soon as you reach towards it. History has proven to us that there has always been oppressors and time of oppression which will be replaced by time of security. We are currently being ruled by oppressors similar to the time of Ad, Thamud, Firaun and Quraysh. Those who lived during those times must have felt the way we felt...but as history has proven to us that times change and the political situation of the world is ever changing.
Things are changing the the people are changing...
Tarek Mahenna is an inspiration to many people, a man who sees the world truly as it is and is not afraid to stand up for the truth. One day...the truth will be reality.
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