Thoughts in Ramadan.

9.9.2010.

To-day is the last day of my 65th. Ramadan, though clearly it does not mean that same number of months of fasting. It seems appropriate that the news on the proposed burning of the Quran by a Christian pastor in the US "to commemorate" the 9/11 aircrafts attacks of the NY WTC has caught my attention, and I share my thoughts here.

The Quran has had desecretions right from the times of the Righteous Caliphs who compiled the Surahs down to the present day. So this burning of whatever number of copies of Quran is not by itself disasterous , much less fatal, to the Quran. The Word of God, as Muslims believe the Quran to be, surely cannot be destroyed by the physical act of burning printed copies of it, any more than the content of the Bible can be erased in like manner.

The teachings of the Quran is to-day held absolute by almost a third of mankind who profess by it, and many more who respect its message. These are the numbers that must be obliterated from the face of the earth  for the Quran to be erased from the knowledge of man. 

The contents of the Quran have been propounded for more than 1,400 years, and its principles tested and practised, with success, throughout the world. The Quran mentions the frailties of man, and human history bears  ample examples of them. The Quran puts a high value to life of any form, and condems unreasonable killing of any kind. 

What the perpetrators of 9/11 did was not from the tenets of the Quran. Christianity and Judaism have as many examples of crimes committed in the name of religion as Islam.  In as much as the terrosist act of a Christian Northern Irishman in recent times cannot cast total condemnation upon Christianity, nor can it be said that some misguided acts by Muslim individuals, ipso facto, have the sympathy of the Muslim community. 

Instead of burning copies of the Quran, as many as possible should be distributed among the non-believers, so that they can try and find out what it really says. If they are true believers of their own God, they should find the content of the Quran not abhorrent to their own religion, because the Quran disallows forcing religious belief, but says to each group is its own belief .

Notwithstanding the  popular Western perception to-day, Islam signify peace, tolerence and the "middle way." The facts of history bear proof also that Muslim communities from the days of the Prophet Muhammad to the  long reign of the Ottomans have been more tolerent of the Jews and other religious groups than  contemporary European states. 

Are we our brother's keepers ? Do we answer for the misguidance of our kin ? The fabric of society is surely many textured, and the spectrum of mankind many hued. That is why all the religious scriptures of the world, as does the Quran, teach man to " enjoin the good and forbid the wrong".  And how surprisingly similiar their injunctions are. 

The pastor in the news clearly is not even following his own religious teaching. 

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