Honouring The Prophet
Just how is it possible that in honouring the Prophet Muhammad, pious believers forget to honour all those around them? To be civil to one another, to respect the other's being and space is to do honour to one who brought the word of God among them.To believe in Allah should reflect on this earth compassion and caring for others among whom one lives. Not to intone the words as they are expected, as verbal ritual, but to truly see others as they are, accept them and do them the honour of regarding them as worthy of respect.
In Pakisan a stampede took place after a religious gathering meant to honour the birth of Islam's Prophet. A stampede? Why the hurry? How is it that hordes of people can come together to mark an anniversary of great moment to their religion, yet there is no harmony among them as peaceful and loving souls? Does this do honour to the memory of their Prophet?
This stampede, this onrushing of thousands of women remains unexplained in the short news item that I read. What the item did indicate was that a child had fallen, and was crying. One of the women within that vast congregation of women leaving the Sunni Muslim Faizan-e-Medina centre in the city of Karachi heeded the child's distress and momentarily bent down to take the child into her arms.
Those women streaming directly behind this woman continued their progress unheedingly, swamping her, stepping right over her and the disaster grew proportionately with the mass of women and children seemingly blindly continuing to proceed, exacerbating the impossible crush of bodies and the tragedy of helpless women and children succumbing to the crush.
In all, twenty-nine women and children died in that meaningless push to exit the religious centre. One can only ask an anguished "why?".
Is this the manner in which one worships and does honour to the greatest symbol of Islamic triumph? What could possibly have been uppermost in most peoples' minds in exiting the centre post-sermon? Judging from their inability or unwillingness to govern themselves civilly perhaps nothing, nothing at all. Where kindly thoughts of others co-existing in peace should have reigned after the contemplation of the life of Muhammad, it would appear that a thoughtless haze existed.
Ritual has its place in religions and culture, but the sanctity of human life and the care taken to ensure its continuance should be uppermost in the minds of civil, peace-loving people everywhere, religious or not.
In this particular instance, regrettably it was not.
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, April 11, 2006
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