When Mother Teresa, one of the last modern saints of the Catholic Church was, for the first time, asked to have her ministry filmed and reported about on television she was very reluctant. Only after an intervention from some Cardinal to whom the television people had turned for a favour she would finally give in and write them: “try to make the world conscious that it is never too late to do something beautiful for God.”
Something beautiful for God - the expression has inspired many people not only in the Christian world. People look for something beyond fulfilling a hard duty when they follow their religious principles, and beauty gives them a better direction than grey obligation. I am first of all writing this to encourage the work of my Muslim friend Nureddin Öztaş who already did a lot of beautiful things for his God, Allah. I know that he is worried about the lack of respect that a lot of Muslim people in the world receive. Maybe doing something beautiful for Allah is also a solution for this problem.
I have been connected to a wide range of young Muslims via the Internet, so I would secondly like to encourage all of them to do something beautiful for Allah. My wish is that they all find a personal way in showing the world the beautiful face of a life that is led under the assumption: there is a Living God. I know that many Muslims fear Islamophobia. To my opinion the best way to fight any negative feelings against Islam is to show the advantages of that faith, its beauty.
My friend Nureddin does something beautiful for God in, first of all, showing his personal friendliness to everybody around. Maybe this is the most important step to undertake. From Nureddin I learned that there is a very personal God in Islam and that you are asked to lead a life in his permanent presence. For Nureddin every daily human encounter carries within itself the chance to pass something on of the love and mercy that is the character of the ever-present God. Nureddin was born in Turkey and came to Germany when he was ten years old. He owns a pharmacy and he meets some hundred people every day. He tries to be friendly with them because he is aware of God’s presence.
When we first met I proudly told him about my own faith which I still think is very different from Nureddin’s: Christ became human so that his followers could live in the presence of a God-with-us. Nureddin replied gently that he liked the idea of such a God, even if he could not believe that God ever became man. In spite of our differences he agrees with every Christian that human life should be aware of the closeness of God and should mirror his presence in every possible situation.
Nureddin does a second beautiful thing for God. He engages in society projects. He is the president of a Ministry that gives lessons to school children after school, mainly children of immigrants with difficulties to get along in German schools. He and his friends are planning to have a complete new school open for Christian and Muslim children alike, a school where Islam is not taught but where nevertheless a spirit of respect and love shall reign, based on the principles of respect and love found in Nureddin’s religion. The plans for his school face a lot of objections in Germany because people here doubt that Muslims can run such a school without dark missionary ideas. From knowing Nureddin I am sure that people will soon find out that his school will be a good and decent place - a gift, brought by Muslim Germans to our society, something beautiful for God.
My third idea is maybe the most difficult: do something beautiful for God in finding freedom for others. There are only a few Muslim states in the world that have a working democracy. One of them is the Turkish, but Nureddin is nevertheless critical about the way in which the western world tries to impose, as he says, democracy on traditional Muslim societies. That is why he and I always disagree over the development in Iraq – I am glad for the Iraqis to have the chance for a living democracy, Nureddin is critical that it only means a forced-upon western style of life. Maybe we both are wrong, and that is why I propose a third way: to find a political system in which personal freedom is guaranteed and traditional values of Islam are guiding, reconciled with freedom.
My strong feeling is that right in this moment Mir Hossein Mousavi and his young followers in Iran are trying to find a way for exactly this kind of reconciliation. Wouldn't it be something beautiful for God, too, if they succeed? Showing the world the sympathetic face of Islam does not work without proving that all Muslims follow their faith in full freedom. Without freedom no real religion can ever live.
A personal word at the end: I got some new Muslim friends from following twitter. Search “iranelection” on twitter and you will get a whole bunch of people dedicated for freedom, for values, for Islam. Or type “marwa”, the first name of the Egyptian mother that was stabbed to death by a xenophobic madman in Dresden, Germany. You will find more young people, dedicated for dignity and non-violence. I am writing this not only for Nureddin but for all of you. Get out and do something beautiful for Allah. The world will see that beauty and love it – and love you.
The picture above contains words from Sura 1 and is taken from another blog.
Christian,
ReplyDeleteI got the tweet about your last post :) And i am probably the first ones to comment on it, since it is already 10:50am here in my island and probably germany is still sleeping :)
Love for allah and the ever-present god , muslims live with that everyday, and in my country where there is 17% muslims, we mostly live in the capital city, and you would be surprised how you can put a muslim on the right track if he's doing anything wrong just by reminding him that he has 2 angels on his shoulders and allah sees him even if he is alone and no one else is looking at him, thus he will refrain from committing bad deeds. This love, compassion and dignity, that the prophete mohammad (s.a.w) teached us, can be found in a book i read lastly by Dr Tariq Ramadan who was on my island for the launching of his book. It is called La vie du prophete , the life of muhammad. It shows the humanity of the prophete and it is those values that we should follow as muslims, and as the prophete said, whoever do not follow me are not muslims.
Now 2 things more, i hope not to be too long.
On the election in Iran, for the election i was like many Non-iranians for Mir hussein Mousavi, he is the candidate of the young after all. But i am also for democracy which is much beyond elections and candidate names. Since, Mousavi went against an election results, i can no more support him. Nor can i support people who want to take the power from the street. Their is a word for this, it is called a putsch, this is very often done in african countries, and i am against this. People should be elected through elections. Ofcourse, it is always hard to be beaten by some votes at elections but this is it.
Ahmadinejad, why do i want this guy at the head of Iran now, for 2 particular reason which are:
1.This man is a patriot, he loves his country and will do everything to keep it away from harm, those who read between the lines and sat in a corner and tried to look deeper in Ahmadinejad seen the truth of what the man wants to do and that is, what if he lets AIEA inspectors check for nuclear weapons ? on that 2 possibilities, they find the weapons and it will only confirm what they already know and nothing more will happen, 2nd possibility, they do not find any weapons. Thus, their is no more any dangers to attack Iran, Israel with its fleet of F-16 and USA army at the borders of Iran can win the war overnight. What is doing Ahmadinejad is just bluffing and he will continue to bluff until they get the nuclear weapon. Because else Iran will be invaded if USA know for sure, they do not have nuclear weapons.
2nd reason why i support this guy now:
ReplyDeleteUSA's tricks have been unveiled with the sub-prime crisis and world economic crisis and it is also why it is the country which suffered the most, the reason is simple, all country, should have the amount in paper money that they have in gold, and some countries keep their reserves in dollar, but USA is the sole maker of the dollar, so, whenever it needs oil , food , or any goods from other countries, what does it do ? it prints more dollar paper notes and buy from arabs for oil , buys from africans for food and so on. And this is the ultimate free meal for the US citizens. Now comes ahmadinejad and hugo chavez, both men seen the deed and they thought why not sell oil for other currencies ? if chinese buy oil with them, they sell it for chinese money, yen, instead of dollars, then starts the big economic worldwide crisis, because USA is no more the sole money for trade, since one more strong money is now here and it is called Euros.
And All this happened because of Ahmadinejad. now, all the leaders of the emerging countries seen what happened and they are asking for what????
That the worldwide exchange money is no more dollar.
People should understand and we should as much as we can try to show them what is happening because, all this thing about Iran is not a religious problem. It is Just the fact that USA has big interests that ahmadinejad is kicked off from Iran's power. USA has enough problems in its lands to go to fight for liberty of iranians or afghanis or iraqis, this is just for oil and money, because if USA cannot buy oil for US dollars, it will not be able to buy oil as much as now and it's economic with crash by 50%.
I just hope it is not too long christian,
Always a pleasure to read your blog post, it inspires me a lot to write what is inside my head.
Thanks.
Dear Ashfaq,
ReplyDeletefrom my talks with Nureddin I know that many Muslims are critical against the USA. Nevertheless many of them have friends there, many even have a strong wish to live in that country. It obviously still has kept something from the ideals of freedom that drove the founding fathers of the constitution in 1776. Part of it is drowned in economic fraud, part in too much liberty – for drugs, for overheated sexual desires etc. Many Americans mourn these sad developments, too, and would like to see it changed.
On the other side there is a lack of freedom in many Muslim countries. This is true for Iran in particular. You certainly have seen the videos on YouTube about the brutal oppression in the streets of Tehran. Many people in the world mainly see Muslims as people under dictatorship and steady pressure – Police controlling women if they do not wear headscarves, prison for drinking alcohol etc.
Where is a middle road? Freedom a n d faith, Liberty a n d decent behaviour, and justice for everybody? My post was meant to encourage both – the ideals of freedom-fighters old and new, building free and democratic societies, and the ideals of God-fearing people like you as a Muslim and me as a Christian. An Islamic Democracy must not necessarily be built on the rules that are developed in Washington, Paris, Berlin etc., it should find its own ways. But it should guarantee the freedom of its citizens in a much better way than Cairo, Damascus, Riyadh etc. do right now.
Wouldn't that be something beautiful for Allah?
Love from Germany
Christian
Sir,
ReplyDeleteI am not against USA, nor against its people, nor against it's founding fathers. To be sincere, i personally appreciate John F. Kennedy a lot. I went to John Kennedy College might be this is why.
But i do not judge people and i do not think people should be judged but it is their actions that should be judged. Same for countries, in which case their policies.
Somewhere, for the last decade, the US has gone openly with his ex-president W. against muslims and has also put the whole world in a deep mess with its economy. Thus, if changes should be brought, they should be aimed at making a better world with less economic power to the US which has put us all in a deep mess.
As far as the repression in Iran is concerned, I am against taking power by the force. I am for peace talks. The people in the roads of Iran wanted to take power by force and wipe down the government. The repression even a bit violent was of the same violence we have seen last week in France where a guy was shot in the face by policemen and lost his eye due to a FlashBall shot. How about the violence against the Ouighour people in China. How about the violence against the people in Nepal. How about the repression of the russians on Tchechenia.
The World media's camera and opinions are only on Iran. And the same violent repression any democracy would use to keep up the government is seen as too harsh when it is done in Iran. Why is this so ?
Sincerely yours
Ashfaq.
@count of Monte Cristo - Because we do not have the same values - If you watch the film The last samourai - you will maybe understand the muslims.
ReplyDeletein one of the scenes, a samourai ask his chief why doesn't he kill himself ? ( here the samourai was talking about tom cruise who was a lieutenant of US army and that the samourai had captured and normally within the japan culture, a soldier when captured, it is more honorable for him to end his life than to remain captive) then the chief replied to the samourai ( it is not his culture )
From this you will see and understand that a few in other cultures, understand yours, and a few in your culture understand others cultures. You should refrain from criticizing and think what you have is the best. Might be it is the best for you. But for others it is the worst.
Is there misery in saudia arabia, in U.A.E, qatar, koweit, jordan, ofcourse not.. they are the richest countries in the world and they have not lost a penny during the World economic crisis.
Those values of democracry and justice, they have a more beautiful one which is the justice of god and the laws of god on which they have been relying for 1300years and your democracy is only 60 years old and you are trying to impose it on everyone ??
Your democracy which caused the proliferation of AIDS !! come on .. open your eyes..
@ The Count of Monte Cristo -
ReplyDeleteExplain what you mean by misery sir ?
What about dictartorship ? Qatar/koweit/KSA/Jordan/UAE are monarchies or democracies..
This is not oppression.. in KSA and the other countries i precited !! it is their way of living !!..
What about Europeans countries ? Gays are not oppressed but they do not have the same rights as everyone, do they ?? do they have the right to wedding ?? they do not have that right in Europe nor in America .. what are talking about?
What about minorities ?? i am in a country of 60% hindu, 15 muslims and 20% africans and the rest europeans.. still the minorities suffer some inferiority because hindus are favored. This is in every country where there are majority and minorities. Take china and the ouighour minority for instance. Take the muslim minority in india. Take the minority of white in mozambique. It is a minority problem, not islamic.
I only said, they did not suffer of global economic crisis because the islamic banking system is a perfect system since it is a god sent system, not a human one with flaws. And same for the laws of humans v/s the laws of god.. Until humans, do not understand this, you will continue to suffer on this earth..
@ The count of Monte cristo -
ReplyDeleteOppression is what israel is doing on palestinians, stopping them from getting water, food, education .. their is no problem to get water, food and education in KSA.. children are paid to go to University which they go in their ferrari/lamborghini/porsche.. My definition of oppression is more similar to that of the Oxford dictionary and your definition exists only in your mind.
"should we tolerate this "way of living" just because it's their "the way of living"??just because it's their "culture"??"
HAHA .. tolerate !! who are you to tolerate ?? that is the problem. it is NOT your problem. it is not your business. Just live your life and let others live theirs the way they want to.
"why when Europeans do it it's bad but when Muslims do it it's good since the others do it??"
- what are you talking about ?? You are sick or stupid ??
"what about Sharia law? is it from Allah also? then why it's injustice toward women, gays and minorities? or it's not from Allah and just the "perfect" banking system is the only from Allah?"
- Sharia law is from allah and all the main parts are in the 2nd chapter of the quran. Go and check please. and stop talking stupid things. I have no time to discuss with you if you do not know what you are talking about.
Their is no injustice towards women, gays and minorities in KSA, jordan, UAE, Koweit, qatar.. have you ever been outside egypt brother ??
What would be justice for you ? give me your definition of doing justice to them ??
Do some works to open your mind.. In the 5 countries i gave you. Give me the rate of rapes/crimes/accidents.. compare it with ANY european country and see which laws are more effective.
@The count of Monte Cristo -
ReplyDelete"Just live your life and let others live theirs the way they want to. " quoting myself.
This is the true definition of liberty. If you have not understood that yet, what are you fighting for ??
Well Ashfaq, why you call me stupid? is this how Allah commanded you to talk to others?
ReplyDeleteiam afraid you don't read what I write well beside you discuss in a barbaric way by calling me stupid so I won't be able to continue this discussion, good luck.