Dar Islam is on Fire

The human rights movement is growing throughout the world. Muslims can be proud to participate in this jihad for justice, without losing love for each other or faith in Allah. On Friday, Shirin Ebadi, a lawyer and human rights and democracy activist, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her persistent efforts to protect the rights of women and children in Iran and worldwide. She is the first Iranian and Muslim woman to win the award.
Iranian reformists celebrated her recognition as a boost for democratic reforms in Iran, and Sister Ebadi took the opportunity to criticize the US for its aggressive statements against her homeland, affirming that reform can only take place within an Islamic society, and cannot be imposed by others.
This choice by the Nobel committee comes at a sensitive moment, when Israel's spy agency Mossad has drawn up preemptive attack plans on six sites in Iran it suspects are being used to prepare nuclear weapons, according to an article in Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s most well-established magazines. Israel, with hundreds of nuclear weapons itself, regards Iran as its chief military threat since the downfall of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has imposed an October 31 deadline on Iran to prove it is not secretly developing nuclear weapons.
However, in Iran, powerful hard-liners denounced Shirin Ebadi’s win as secularist interference in the Islamic republic's domestic affairs. They had earlier jailed Ebadi for her efforts to expose corruption and murder in government. She had also criticized brutal tactics against the student movements and an old law that allows parents to murder their children without punishment.
Clearly Islam, as organized religion, recognizes the importance of human rights and justice, but interpretations and specific applications according to Shariah law vary considerably. This is valid, and adjustments can be made— for example, last week Mohamed VI of Morocco made some minor revisions of Islamic family law. Still other “moderate” Muslims take “reform” even further. We can disagree. We can discuss. Meanwhile, authoritarian traditions and new technology may both endanger the Muslim individual and the family, and insha’Allah discussion of this subject can proceed without accusations of heresy and deviation, and without violence.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) opened their conference Saturday, October 11, with a call for "the eviction of foreign forces from Iraq". This summit will address concerns arising from terrorism, Israeli aggression, globalization and "campaigns against Islam, the protection of Muslims and human rights” in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Azerbaijan, the Philippines and Somalia.

Dar al Islam sometimes seems like a house on fire. However insha’Allah we Muslims will accept this time of testing with patience. Perhaps we will better feel our complete need for His Mercy and begin to appreciate the miracle of His Gentleness. I think of Ahmad Sam'ani’s 12th century book on Allah’s mercy “Rah'h al Arwah”. Sam’ani writes that the Prophet Adam was told, “As for Us, we have two houses; in one we can spread out the dining-cloth of good-pleasure… in the other We light up the fire of wrath… if We were to let you stay in the Garden, Our attribute of severity would not be satisfied. So leave this place and go down into the furnace of affliction and the crucible of distance. Then We will bring out into the open the deposits, artifacts, subtleties, and tasks that are concealed in your heart”(Samiani p. 297).

Sam’iani also writes, “Time, space, entities, effects, traces, shapes, existent things, and objects of knowledge must be erased completely from in front of you. If any of these cling to your skirt, the name of freedom will not stick to you. As long as you do not become free, you can never be a true servant of God” (Sam'ani: p. 120).
You yourself are a house—do not neglect the exterior or the interior renovations. May Allah guide us towards true freedom. Meanwhile let our prayers be with all political prisoners including those brothers held in indefinite detention at Guantanamo. Will they see light at the end of the tunnel soon? In a rare public statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross has finally condemned the indefinite detentions without charge or access to lawyers and blamed it for ``a worrying deterioration'' in the prisoners' mental health. Twenty-one detainees have attempted suicide 32 times. Yes, guards watch over these hundreds of men. But Allah watches over all.