Recently, the news regarding a student, Saad Aziz, from IBA
being involved in alleged terrorist activities has set the media on fire. The
news indeed is shocking because it questions the very role of education in
terms of breeding logical and stable members of the society. I was amongst the
many who were extremely taken aback by this news and I saw myself praying that
this is a false allegation and that it gets to be known as such. However, if
the allegations are true then there are very important factors that need to be
considered before deriving any conclusions from such an incident.
Looking through all the articles and bulletins, it seemed
that the student’s growing a religious tendency seemed to be the sole reason
for his inclination towards such acts. While, in such time and age, due to the
acts of a few, it surely does seem that religion may have some link with
radicalization but that is in fact completely false and baseless. A related
article by the Guardian gave useful insight on the matter, with one of its
statements being; “The fact is that the role of religion in radicalization (and
de-radicalization) is grossly overestimated. There is actually no empirical
evidence to support the claim that religion (any religion) and ideology are the
primary motivators of violent extremism.”
Although, such incidents may be becoming increasingly
common, it goes against principle and logic to consider what is true for a part
to be true for the whole. Perhaps a simple comparison may suffice as an
explanation, Islam itself is like water; in its real form and use, it
instigates life and without it there is no life. However, this very same water
can wreak havoc and cause mind-blowing catastrophe when it comes in the form of
tsunamis and other disasters. Similarly, our religion in its true essence is
the source of life, a manual and guidance for entire mankind. However, damage takes
place only when it falls in the hands of wrong people who very conveniently
misquote its verses and use it as a means of brainwashing other people. These
people do so in order to serve their own ulterior motives and while such
motives and their causes are unknown because they cover them under the facade of
religion, nonetheless, it needs to be clear that their acts are by no means in
accordance to or supported by religion.
Allah is our Judge; and Islam by no means allows us to take
the responsibility of judging others and taking their lives into our own hands.
Our religion commands us to have courteous relations even with non-Muslims; let
alone Muslims. So how can we go about judging even those who are Muslims
whether they may be practicing or not. Without a doubt, our religion requires
us to command good and forbid evil but it nowhere goes near to violence or to
taking the lives of others into our own hands. In fact, at the time of the
Prophet (S.A.W.W.) in a war, one of the Sahabah
overcame his opponents and just as he was about to kill him, the opponent
recited the kalima, yet the Sahabi killed him. When the Prophet
(S.A.W.W) found out about this incident, he called over the Sahabi and asked the reason behind his
doing so, so he said that I still killed him because I felt that he only
accepted Islam due to fear and in order to save his life and not because he
truly wanted to do so. The Prophet (S.A.W.W) reprimanded his act and said that
did you tear open his heart that you knew his intent?
Religion and religious appearances have no link with any
terrorist ideologies; just because religion is being misused by people doesn’t
mean that it breeds such ideologies. Just like such people have no right to
judge others similarly people should be careful of judging religious or
religious looking people as well. It is as disturbing for us as it is for those
who don’t adorn such appearances when people do such acts because they are not
only causing direct damage as a result of their acts but also defaming and giving
religion a bad name which it certainly does not deserve. It seems that the time
is here about which the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) said, "There will come a time
when holding on to your Emaan
(belief) will be like holding onto hot coals." May Allah Ta’ala guide us and make us firm on His
religion and may He protect us from those people who misinterpret it and use it
to misguide others. I hope and pray that we are able to recognize people for
who they are and distinguish clearly between right and wrong. This time and
these incidents are a trial for everyone, may Allah Ta’ala protect us in this time.
