Assalamualaikum,
.................continued from part 28
The Muslims who are nationalists and believe in nationalism do not grasp the semantics and implications of the semantics of the terminology. As mentioned earlier, nationalism tries to unite people around flag and country. The rallying force of nationalism is people. It is for the people, by the people. It is the aggrandization of the people. In other words, it is the aggrandization of the creations (makhluk). On the contrary, the rallying force of Islam is Allah. Everything is for and due to, Allah, that is the agrandization of the Creator, Khaliq. Therefore, in uniting people for whatever cause, in Islam the cause is always Allah.
If the verse of 49:13 of the Qur'an were to be the basis of nationalism, then Muhammad s.a.w. would have called for Arab supremacy or Quraisy dominance, which he did not. It would have been more appropriate for him to gather Arab masses in detesting the dominance of the Roman and the Persian empires. On the contrary, Muhammad s.a.w. did the very antithesis of nationalism. He turned his risalah of tauhid to his own people, the result of which, according to the nationalists point of view, was split in unityof his people. Muhammad s.a.w. inevitably created enemies, strangely enough, his enemies were his very own people, the Quraisy.
Even more perplexing to the nationalists norm, his staunchest enemy was the person who had the greatest joy when Muhammad s.a.w. was born, that was his uncle, Abu Lahab.
The synthesis is simple. Islam's rallying force is Allah. Nationalism's rallying force is people. These two may not co-exist. Islam is the process, and national aggrandization is the by-product. Therefore Arab civilization, Turkish supremacy, Malay dominance or ketuanan Melayu, or any other form of civilization exaltation pertaining to races in this context were by-products of the aggrandization and exaltation of Islam.
For those Muslims who regard themselves as nationalists, I would like t0 pose them this tickler. Where did you get the teachings of nationalism from? As for me, I am a Muslim, my ideology is Islam and I acquired the teachings of Islam from my teacher, or my ustaz. My ustaz got his from his ustaz, and his ustaz got it from his ustaz and so on and so, until the lineage reaches the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. who of course recieved his teachings from Allah by way of Jibril. And you the nationalist? You have acquired your nationalist feelings and leanings from your teacher, who got it from his teacher and so on and on. Where does this take you? Eventullay you will end up with the French Revolution.
My teacher is Muhammad s.a.w. Your teacher is the French Revolution.
Have you heard about Nar and Jannah?
Which of the two teachers wil go to Jannah?
.............to be continued
