Why Does It Have To Be "Us Versus Them" All The Time? Tak Letih Ke?

Ok lets leave the politics aside for awhile. 

An old friend sent me this video. The non Muslims will yawn at it - I absolutely will not blame you at all. This is the up and coming and very forceful religious speaker Ismail Ibn Musa Menke - born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. Ismail Ibn Musa Menke, who is of Indian origins, is the Mufti of Zimbabwe.

The Muslims may not be able to make head or tail of this video. The message sounds simple enough.  But the motivation (the mens rea) seems a little ominous. Despite Ismail Musa Menke's obvious eloquence it is a tad too "us versus them" again. 

Muslims unite against the non Muslims. 
Muslims unite against the kafir. 
Muslims unite against the disbelievers. 

Tak habis habis. May I make a better suggestion - why not "Muslims unite with non Muslims".  Not to worship together, not to pray together or repeat mantras together. 

Let Muslims and non Muslims unite to work together, do business together, play badminton together, run the country together, party together, go on holidays together, uphold justice together, fight oppression together, to show respect to each other, to promote kindness and goodwill among all human beings, collect stamps together, sms each other, WhatsApp each other and stuff like that. 

You know - do some fun things together lah. Asyik nak gaduh, gaduh, gaduh saja buat apa? So boring lah.

Muslims fighting with non Muslims is an Arab tribal invention. It has nothing to do with Islam. The tribal Arabs like to fight. They fight among themselves, they fight among their neighbours, they fight with anyone and everyone. If they see non Muslims they fight as well. The tribals like to fight. That is why they are so stupid.  (Or is it vice versa !! )

What say you folks? Instead of this useless 'let us unite against them' nonsense. Not only is it tiring and boring but that is exactly what makes the Arabs so weak. When you preach hatred you will become weak.

There are also some other issues here in this video that need some clarification. 

The guy in the video is throwing around a lot of words. Over the centuries many of these words he is using like kafir (kuffar), muslims, mukmin etc have acquired a well accepted and well recognised meaning. 

Perhaps we can stop to ponder their literal meanings as well.  Often their literal meanings may not not match 100% their "accepted" meanings or derived meanings. This is just an exercise in being literal. 

So what is the literal meaning of kafir? 

Once you understand what is the literal meaning of kafir, you may also scrutinise who is a kafir. 

You must also understand the literal meaning of 'muslim'.

Once you understand that, then you may again scrutinise who is a 'muslim'.

You must also understand literally what is 'iman' and 'mukmin'.

Once you understand that, then you may scrutinise who is a mukmin. 

We must understand that in the Quran 'deen' does NOT mean "religion".  In the Quran there is no Arabic equivalent for the English word "religion". 

The Arabic language experts tell us (and I agree) that the Arabic word 'deen' means a way of life. This is important. A 'deen' is indeed a way of life.

Kafir is rooted in the word 'kafara'. According to the etymology of the word 'kafir' it literally means to cover, to hide, to conceal, to deny (pull the wool over peoples' eyes?)

Etymology

From Arabic كفار (kaffār) or كافر (kāfir ), both from كفر (káfara, “to cover, to hide”). 

This means the commonly accepted understanding of kafir as a 'disbeliever' or 'unbeliever' is a derived meaning. It is not exactly the literal meaning. I hope you can appreciate this point. 

The word 'muslim' means submitting or resigning oneself to something. 

 from Arabic muslim "one who submits", from root of aslama "he resigned."

Its derivative "Islam" means "submission".  In the Quran, Allah commands Abraham : 'Aslimu' (Submit yourself). 

To which Abraham replied 'Aslamtu lirabbil alameen' (I submit myself to the Lord of the worlds). See Surah Al Baqarah : 131 (or 2:131).

'Iman' is linked to the Arabic word 'amanah', 'amina' etc which mean "trust". For example, Amanah Saham Nasional or National Unit "Trust". So  'iman' and 'mukmin' are rooted in the Arabic word which also means 'trust'.  

Just a reminder ok - here I am referring to the Quran literally.

So once you understand the literal meanings of 'kafir', 'muslim' and 'mukmin' then you can know what and who is a denier, a submitter and who can be trusted. 

Now ponder this - say we have two groups of people. Group 1 is transparent, hard working, prosperous, generous, cooperative, peaceful, hygienic, harmonius, orderly, trustworthy, they submit to a right way of doing things, they are stable, polite and courteous. 

The other Group 2 is the exact opposite - not transparent, lazy or not hard working, poor, stingy, selfish, uncooperative, fighting, not harmonius, unhygienic, disorderly, cannot be trusted, they do not submit to a right way of doing things, unstable, rude and impolite. 

Again taking the literal sense, between Group 1 and Group 2, to whom would you apply words like trustworthy, submitter and denier? ? Please think carefully.

Dont you see that this is already happening in the world today? There are Groups 1 and Groups 2 in the world today. If you had an empty map of the world and a bunch of colouring crayons and you have to colour the countries of the world according to Group 1 and Group 2, how would you do it?

Then ponder this - which group do you think Allah has favoured - Group 1 or Group 2? 

Would these then be the submitters or the non submitters? 
Would these then be the deniers or the non deniers?
Would these then be the trustworthy or the untrustworthy? 

So we have to very carefully study the literal meaning of the Quran as well. We may yet be able to save ourselves.