RIYADH, 19 May 2005 — The international media say that the Islamic world is very emotional. Some say that these emotions are a result of our commitment to our religion; others say it is because the Islamic world has suffered many losses and has had many challenges in the last fifty years or so. And the recent incident of the alleged desecration of the Holy Qur’an confirms the effects of these incidents on the Islamic world.
What we are faced with today is a pattern of how the Islamic world receives and responds to situations and events. This pattern seems to be an emotional one and some would suggest that the patterns show signs of a “clash of civilizations” between the Muslim world and the rest. The issues uniquely affect the Islamic world in a way that no other society in any part of the world is affected. Opinions of course vary and I would like to quote from one of the letters recently published in Arab News. The letter was written by Rabbi Kenneth L. Cohen of the American University in Washington, D.C. He writes: “I would ask Muslims to understand and appreciate that most Americans are disgusted by this sort of brutish behavior and find it both deeply offensive and incompatible with American ideas of freedom and tolerance. I fully understand Muslim anger at this provocation.” I thank the rabbi for understanding the situation.
We know if a person depends purely on his emotions when judging things, he might leave clear judgment and the chance to think logically far behind. We know from our religion and from what the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH )said that strength is not losing control of your emotions but by controlling them at a time of anger. Today in the Islamic world there seems to be pure emotion and nobody is directing it to benefit a specific cause. Whenever a problem comes up, these emotions of ours seem to run wild in all directions and we are unable to make use of the energy.
In the recent incident involving the alleged desecration of the Holy Qur’an, almost every part of the Islamic world reacted with the outrage and anger that we all felt. But what do we have in our religion and in our beliefs to help us in how we perceive and respond to such issues?
First, I believe no one can actually desecrate the Holy Qur’an. That’s how I felt when I heard the news; if a human being did try to do such a thing, he would be desecrating himself and whoever he represents. The Holy Qur’an is far above these earthly human acts.
Second, it is clearly stated in the Holy Qur’an that we are required to verify the truthfulness of information when we receive it so that we do not react to something that might be wrong. In other words, when we hear news such as this, first we should ask, where did the information come from? Who has published it? Why? And what is the appropriate reaction?
Maybe it sounds impractical to ask us to do these things, but the point I’m making is that if we do not do these things, we run the risk of succumbing to emotion. When properly directed, “emotion” is a fine thing and a strong force. We unfortunately seem to have our emotions really running out of control; we miss the points made above and the ability to use our emotions as well as directing them to areas where they are needed in the Islamic world.
When this particular news broke, we did not stop to ask ourselves any questions. The response on the streets of Afghanistan, Indonesia and other Muslim countries was violent and resulted in needless deaths and injuries. All of this happened when the news had not even been confirmed. Now I hear that “Newsweek” has retracted the story. I hope we can make the best of our emotions by directing them positively toward areas of our world that need them. Let us ask God to help us be patient and then listen, think, and finally decide how to make an appropriate response to any information that comes to us.
— Fargad Al-Madhi works at Riyadh’s King Abdul Aziz Medical City, National Guard Health Affairs. You can email him at: [email protected]
