On Service; Your Soul, Winning & the World

On Service; Your Soul, Winning & the World

We must applaud the good news that two of our Muslim brothers have been awarded Nobel prizes this past week. In their different ways, Muhammad Yunus and Orhan Pamuk both exemplify the humane vision and integrity of our Golden Ages. That intellectual gold still shines out from the soul whenever a Muslim makes a creative act or contributes to the welfare of humanity. As a community we are indeed a “thousand points of light” but mashallah some take the lead in enlightening us in the darkness and confusion of our worldly affairs.

Muhammad Yunus is the first Nobel Prize winner from Bangladesh. Together with the Grameen Bank he founded, economist Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for microcredit programs that have helped more than 100 million women and men around the world take their first steps out of poverty, enabling them to obtain dairy cows, egg-laying hens and bankrolling other grassroots efforts. "Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty," the Nobel Committee said in its citation; "Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights."

"I am so, so happy, it's really a great news for the whole nation," Yunus told The Associated Press. The 65-year-old economist said he would use his share of the $1.4 million award to create a company, Social Business Enterprise, to make low-cost, high-nutrition food for the poor and also would work toward setting up an eye hospital for the poor in Bangladesh.

Thanks to Allah for the blessing of successful service! Orhan Pamuk is the first Turk to win the prize. His somewhat complex and difficult fiction deals with East-West identity issues, but he may also have been recognized for speaking out for free expression despite the recent efforts of powerful nationalist factions to put him in prison for having fictional characters in his novels describe the Armenian massacres as genocidal. He has calmly and effectively challenged government and society about human rights. As Pamuk has reminded us: 'Freedom of thought and expression are freedoms which people long for as much as bread and water. They should never be limited by nationalist sentiment, or (worst of all) business and military interests.”

But yes, this was a time of national pride, both in Bangladesh and in Turkey. In New York City, where he is currently a visiting professor at Columbia University, Orhan Pamuk told reporters that the Nobel Prize for Literature was not only given to him, but to all of Turkey, Turkish culture, and the language of Turkish. Pamuk added, "I think that this award will cause the world to re-examine Turkish culture as a culture of peace, and as a mixture of East and West cultures.”

In the UK, Jack Straw worries about self-isolation of Muslims. While he has misspoken in a clumsy way, and while the Pope has recently misspoken as well, they share a common concern that Muslims are building high walls that will prevent east-west dialogue and peacemaking with other communities. But we Muslims see many others building such walls as well.

This is one reason it is so heartening to have this recognition from the Swedish Nobel committee. But how to deliver this good news that Muslim inclusion is possible to the masses? And how to encourage self-respect in our community, not simply based on external awards but on service and results? How to reach those who do not read difficult novels?

We Muslims need an intellectual micro-credit program! We may need to supply cows and chickens for basic business development; but also to build deep spiritual trust and intellectual empowerment at a grassroots level. We need to remind people that power we need is not only materialist, worldy power, electric power, nuclear power. We Muslims can have the other sort of power that shines like light and illuminates the world from within.

Ramadan can be that micro-credit program for you and me. We can invest in our spiritual future through attentive and proportional self-sacrifice. But recall that the Prophet said: "Do not hurt yourselves nor injure others." We are also taught "...make not your own hands contribute to your destruction..." (Surah al-Baqarah 2:195); "...nor kill yourselves..." (Surah al-Nisaa 4:29). May I ask you something? Wouldn’t Ramadan be a good time to quite smoking for good? Wouldn’t that be a good investment in your future and your family?

Cigarettes and cigars have at least 43 documented carcinogens. Men who smoke contract lung cancer at 22 times the rate of non-smokers. Smokers are also highly at risk for heart disease, emphysema, oral cancer, and stroke.

Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradhawi states: "Muslims are not allowed to eat, drink or smoke (inhale) something which could lead to their death whether it be instantly or over a long period of time…(and) According to the methodology of the Shari'ah, smoking is prohibited." http://www.crescentlife.com/wellness/smoking_is_haram.htm

Shaykh Mahmuud Syaltuut, a former Dean at the University of al-Azhar has written: "The dangers of smoking are clear…. Furthermore, smoking is usually unpleasant to others, it leads to lung cancer and leads to the wasting of one's property (as had been prohibited by the Prophet (s.a.w))." http://www.themodernreligion.com/misc/hh/smoking-suicide.htm

For those young people carousing after prayers in the hookah cafes; for those men who light up right after the Adhan; sisters, brothers, beware; you have nothing to lose but your souls. If you lose that you cannot really be winners. Remember your health. Let's say our salaams like we mean it and win this one together.
.