The Blank Page Before You

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

 

The Qur'an spends a great deal of time and text describing, using some of the most vivid imagery, the events of the Last Day, the Day of Reckoning, the Day of Resurrection. Much of the chapters revealed during the Prophet's ministry in Mecca (the Meccan surahs) are about the last day. This passage is but one:

 

When the sun is shrouded in darkness,

And when the stars lose their light,

and when the mountains are made to vanish,

and when she-camels big with young, about to give birth, are left untended,

and when all beasts are gathered together,

and when the seas boil over,

and when all human beings are coupled,

and when the girl-child that was buried alive is made to ask,

for what crime had she been slain,

and when the scrolls [of men's deeds] are unfolded,

and when heaven is laid bare,

and when the blazing fire [of hell] is kindled bright,

and when paradise is brought into view:

[on that Day] every human being will come to know what he has prepared [for himself]. (81:1-14)

 

A prominent feature of the Day of Judgment is the presentation of the scrolls, the record of the deeds of man:

 

Now as for him whose record shall be placed in his right hand, he will exclaim, "Come you all! Read this my record..." (69:19)

 

But as for him whose record shall be placed in his left hand, he will exclaim: "Oh, would that I had never been shown this my record..." (69:25)

 

And as for him whose record shall be placed in his right hand, he will in time be called to account with an easy accounting and will [be able] to turn joyfully to those of his own kind. But as for him whose record shall be given to him behind his back; he will in time pray for utter destruction: but he will enter the blazing flame. (84:7-12)

 

All the deeds one commits are written down "for the record." That way, when one stands before God in the reckoning, there is no way someone will be wronged: all of his or her deeds will be spread open and he or she will be asked to account for what they did. Who is writing down these deeds? Noble angels: And yet, verily, there are ever-watchful forces over you: noble, recording, aware of whatever you do! (82:10-12)

 

Yet, who is the real author of our book of deeds? Who is responsible for what is written in these books? We are. We are the authors of our own books. Whatever deeds we do; whatever actions we take; whatever seeds we sow, they are all recorded for the judgment. Thus, we are writing our books to be presented before God. Here is where Natasha Bedingfield's song is so relevant: Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

 

Each day our books are clean: they are "blank pages before us." Each day the slate is clean, and by our actions, we write the story of our lives each and every day. Thus, on the Day of Judgment, if we get our books in our right hands, we have won: we have made the right decisions, made the right choices, stayed on the right side. And in reward we are given eternal bliss and happiness.

 

YET, if we make the wrong choices, make the wrong decisions, stay on the wrong side, then our books are given to us in our left hands behind our backs. And we will then say: Oh, would that I had never been shown this my record, and neither known this my account! Oh, would that this [death of mine] had been the end of me! Of no avail to me is all that I have [ever] possessed, [and] all my power of argument has died away from me! (69:25-29)

 

And we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

 

Yet, we are all sinners. We all make mistakes. All of our books have chapters and chapters and chapters of bad things that we wish would have never been there. Is there any hope? Is there any way we can "edit" our books? Are our books written with permanent marker? No. We can edit our books: we can erase those chapters by asking God for forgiveness. When we repent, our books are "edited." The bad deeds are erased. Our bad chapters are "redacted" from view. In fact, the bad deeds are replaced with good deeds. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said in a tradition that a good deed will erase a bad deed committed before it. As long as we are on this earth, we have ample and open opportunity to ask God for forgiveness, so that our books can be edited and the ugly parts be redacted forever.

 

And do you know what the best part is? Our Lord is Ever Forgiving, Ever Loving, just waiting for us to come back to Him at any time. The Prophet Jacob (pbuh), when telling his sons to go forth and find their brothers Joseph and Benjamin, said: " Do not lose hope of God's life-giving mercy; verily, none but people who deny the truth can ever lose hope of God's life-giving mercy." (12:87) In 39:53, it says: [Thus speaks God:] 'O you servants of Min who have transgressed against your own selves! Despair not of God's mercy: behold, God forgives all sins - for, verily, He alone is much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace! (39:53)

 

We should never despair of God's mercy, no matter what we have done. God's mercy is much, much, much bigger than anything we have ever done. So, let us never let the opportunity to edit our books pass us by in this world. Let us always seek God's forgiveness; let us always "open the dirty window" of our hearts and "let the sun [ i.e., God's Light] illuminate the words that we cannot find." Let God's Light show us what proper words to use in our book of deeds. And let us always remember, if we ever fall, we can edit our books by seeking God's forgiveness and repentance.

 

When we get up each day, let us always keep in mind: Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten.

"The Rest Is Still Unwritten..."

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

I have always liked the song, but I have never had the opportunity to listen to the song or its lyrics in toto until I recently downloaded it on iTunes. It brought me to tears. That song is Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten." The song talks about writing one's own story, and the overarching theme encomapssed in this line: "Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten." Yet, with each group of lyrics, I find myself reflecting over my own life and book of deeds.

The song starts thus:

I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined

I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned.

Each of us, at the beginning of the day, is an empty page in the book of our lives. The ending is unplanned, because we do not know what will befall us.

The song then continues:

Staring at the blank page before you

Open up the dirty window

Let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance

So close you can almost taste it

Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin

No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else

Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

These lyrics have deeply profound meanings. At the beginning of each day, as we stare at the blank page of our life and deeds, we should "open up the dirty window" and "let the sun illuminate the words that you could not find." To me, that means we should open up our hearts - that dirty window made dirty by our constant sinning against the Precious One - to the Sun's light, His Light. His Light will allow us to see the "words that you could not find." His Light will show us the proper deeds to perform. His Light will show us the path and allow us to write eloquently in our Book of Life.

When we are "reaching for something in the distance, so close you can almost taste it," we are reaching for God Himself. And when we reach for our Precious, we should not hesitate, we should release our inhibitions and "feel the rain on [our] skin." What is that rain? What sort of rain is it? Dawud Wharnsby said in a song that "forgiveness falls like rain on our hands." That rain is God's mercy and forgiveness. Just as rain is life-giving, God's mercy and forgiveness is truly life-giving. It gives us our spiritual life back after we kill it with our ceaseless sin.

Drenching ourselves in "words unspoken" to me means immersing ourselves in lessons and understandings we have yet to learn from God and His Prophet (pbuh). Those "words unspoken" in the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the Hadith. "Words unspoken" in the ink and words of scholars. "Words unspoken" in lessons we learn by living our lives and reflecting over how close we have lived to the standard of God.

And we are able to drench ourselves in these words by living our lives "with arms wide open" to let God's light into our hearts (opening the "dirty window"). When we do this, we follow God's commandment: " Believers, enter wholly into peace and follow not the footsteps of Satan, for verily, he is your open enemy." (2:208)

The song continues:

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way

Sometimes, in our lives, we make mistakes, when our tried "are outside the lines." Just as Bedingfield says that she can't live by not making mistakes, there is no way we as human beings can do the same thing. We are cannot but make mistakes; we cannot but sin against God; we cannot but slip on the path. Yet, as long as we realize our mistakes and turn to the Lord in forgiveness, we are saved. The Prophet Muhammad once said, "Every son of Adam ( i.e., every human being) makes mistakes." Yet, he continued, "and the best of those who make mistakes are those who seek repentance." Not only that, he (pbuh) also said, "The one who repents from a sin is as if he (or she) has never sinned."

Yet, by far, the most important lyric of the entire song is "Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten." That is the main lesson of the song for me.

To be continued...

So, Why Torture Then?

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

The debate over torture is, once again, fresh in the media with the nomination of Federal judge Michael Mukasey by President Bush to become the next Attorney General of the United States. Last week, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he refused to define the technique known as "waterboarding" as torture, and now his confirmation by the Senate may be in jeopardy, although it seems likely that he will be confirmed by the Senate. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Mukasey on November 6.

Since we are on the subject, it is very interesting that anyone, let alone Judge Mukasey, would have any doubt as to whether waterboarding is torture. Presidential candidate Rudi Giuliani is not sure and says "it depends on how it's done" (so, if there's soothing music in the background, then it's presumably OK?). Joe Scarborough, MSNBC television commentator, also asks the question: "You know, that's the debate. Is waterboarding torture?

The experts are in no doubt whatsoever. "Waterboarding," says Malcom Nance, former chief of training at the U.S. Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School, "is a torture technique. Period." Writing on his blog, Nance says: "Having been subjected to this technique, I can say: It is risky but not entirely dangerous when applied in training for a very short period. However, when performed on an unsuspecting prisoner, waterboarding is a torture technique - without a doubt. There is no way to sugarcoat it."

The widespread assertion that waterboarding is "simulated drowning," according to Nance, is a mischaracterization. "It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word."

Waterboarding is a torture technique in which the one being questioned is strapped down, his head below his chest, and has a cloth either draped over his face or stuffed in his mouth. Water is then poured over the cloth. It was first used during the Spanish Inquisition (probably against Muslims...way to come full circle, eh?), and it has been a favorite of many tyrannical and despotic regimes throughout history. To witness what waterboarding actually looks like, click here.

Mr. Nance dismisses the claims of the "torture apologists," as he calls them, that techniques such as waterboarding have been effective in getting detainees to talk: "Of course, when you waterboard you get all the magic you want - because remember, the subject will talk. They all talk! Anyone strapped down will say anything, absolutely anything to get the torture to stop. Torture. Does. Not. Work." This has been repeated by virtually every expert in interrogation: torture is not an effective means of extracting information.

"Yes," say the torture apologists, "but we got information from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed by waterboarding. It was valuable information, too." Really? In October 2006, the Washington Post reported that, "Numerous sources have confirmed that the CIA used waterboarding in its interrogation of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 'high-value' prisoners." According to ABCNEWS investigative reporter Brian Ross, waterboarding KSM helped thwart a plot to attack a building in Los Angeles.

Yet, that is not factually correct. According to President Bush himself, that plot was thwarted in early 2002 "when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative. Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target, and how al Qaeda hoped to execute it. This critical intelligence helped other allies capture the ringleaders and other known operatives who had been recruited for this plot." Yet, KSM was captured in Pakistan after the plot had been thwarted in March 2003. So, if the Library Tower plot was revealed by waterboarding KSM, it was not new information. Thus, as Malcom Nance says, "Torture. Does. Not. Work."

Therefore, why torture a terrorism suspect? If we were to capture Ayman Al Zawahiri (he has lost the privilege of being addressed as "Dr."), and we subjected him to waterboarding and other such "harsh interrogation techniques," what would be the purpose, knowing that torture simply does not work? Revenge. It would be in revenge for 9/11. It would be to inflict pain on the man, to give him only a tiny taste of the immense pain felt by the nearly 3,000 people murdered on that day by his diabolical henchmen.

And he would deserve to be inflicted with such pain, wouldn't he? It would be fitting punishment for such a horrific man, a former doctor who betrayed his true calling and embraced the Party of Satan. It would be fun, wouldn't it, to watch him squirm and scream in pain and agony, begging us to stop "torturing" him. It would be fun, wouldn't it, to watch him squeal like a stuck pig? It would be fun, wouldn't it, to make him wail, naked, in the fetal position on the floor for hours at a time, all in the name, of course, of "gathering life-saving intelligence"? It would be fun, wouldn't it?

But, it would not be human. It would not be moral. It would not be American. It would not be who we are as a people. Rather, it would be America becoming as they are, and this simply cannot be the case, ever. I echo Mr. Nance's statement that: "I would personally cut Bin Laden's heart out with a plastic MRE spoon if we per chance met on the battlefield. Yet, once captive I believe the better angels of our nature and our nation's core values would eventually convince any terrorist that they indeed have erred in their murderous ways."

This sentiment echoes perfectly the Qur'anic principle to: "Repel thou [evil] with something that is better and lo! he between whom and thyself was enmity [may then become] as though he had [always] been close [unto thee], a true friend." (41:34) It follows the commandment of Jesus Christ on the Mount: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and send rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matthew 5:43-45)

Some may scoff at this and accuse us of being "soft" if we follow this course. And true, it may not give us that carnal satisfaction of seeing a mortal enemy suffer in sweet revenge. Yet, Christ said: "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven in perfect." (Matthew 5:48) Shouldn't we, as Americans, be, therefore, sons of our Father in heaven? Shouldn't we, as Americans, be, therefore, perfect?

Dr. Michael Savage's Recent Comments About Islam and Muslims

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate

Dr. Michael Savage, nationally syndicated talk-radio host, recently made several angry comments about Islam and Muslims on his show on October 29, 2007. I know they were angry, because I personally heard him say them. I tried, to the best of my ability, to transcribe word for word some of them to correct some of the errors of his contentions about Islam and the Qur'an.

Now, Dr. Savage is wholly entitled to his views on Islam and Muslims, and I am not here to pick a fight with him or his listeners. While I do not agree with his views, I do respect his right to believe what he believes. But, there are some things in what he said that are simply not accurate.

For instance, on his program, he said: "I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not gettin on my all-fours and praying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don't wanna hear anymore about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I'm sick of you ."

Now, I think I can speak for the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world, not only in America, when I say that I don't want his wife to be in a hijab or his daughter to be in a burqa. Why, there are millions of Muslim women - pious, devout Muslim women whom I consider my sisters in faith - who do not wear the hijab. I am against compelling anyone to follow another's religious beliefs. The Qur'an, the book which Dr. Savage said is a "book of hate," tells me: "There is no compulsion in matters of religion." (2:256)

Similarly, when he says "I'm not gettin on my all-fours and praying to Mecca," that's totally fine. I have no problem with this at all. Yet, when we Muslims do that - get on our "all-fours" and pray to Mecca - we are only following in the footsteps of the Prophets of the Bible:

"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying..." (Genesis 17:1-3)

"And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?" (Joshua 5:13-14)

"Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:37-39)

Dr. Savage also said: "Your Bible has been revised several times. The Jewish Bible has been revised several times. Not the Koran, though. They still live in the Seventh Century. 'Kill homosexuals, cut the clitoris off women, put women in dark clothing, cut off anyone's head who doesn't agree with you.' What kind of religion is this ?...I can read chapter and verse. I can see what it says in their book of hate. It says that if you see a stranger who is not a Muslim, either convert him or kill him. You want me to quote the sutra, I'll quote the sutra. Page after page after page is about...a religion that teaches convert or kill, a religion that says oppress women, kill homosexuals, kill the Jew, kill the Christian, kill the infidel, page after page after page and we're supposed to sit here and listen to this rubbish about a religion of peace ."

Now, I agree with Dr. Savage that, if the Qur'an did in fact say the things above, if what he says is Islam, then I would be completely against that religion. Yet, Islam is not that religion. Islam does not call for the murder of anyone (although some Muslims do). There is no verse in the Qur'an that says "convert or kill." None. I am a staunch defender of freedom of faith (see the link on the right). I have condemned, citing the Qur'an itself, the view that those who leave Islam should be killed.

The Qur'an does not say "kill the Christian," or "kill the Jew," or "kill the infidel." Most certainly, there are Muslims who claim this, but they are completely wrong. They are as much my enemy as they are Dr. Savage's. When it comes to Jews and Christians, the Qur'an says this: " Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to a common word between us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords besides God. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him) " (3:64) The Qur'an is ardent in its defense of the sanctity of human life:

And do not take any human being's life - [the life] which God has willed to be sacred - otherwise than in [the pursuit] of justice..." (17:33).

And the servants of the Most Gracious are those who...invoke not, with God, any other god, nor slay such life as God has made sacred except for just cause... (25:63-68)

These are but two of the many, many verses that specifically prohibit murder of the innocent.

Furthermore, no verse in the Qur'an instructs Muslims to "cut the clitoris off women" (although some Muslims, abhorrently, do just that). Female genital mutilation, in fact, predates Christ by thousands of years, as even Ayaan Hirsi Ali admits. It has nothing to do with Islam, no matter how many Muslims may think the contrary. The Qur'an does not call for women to be put in "dark clothing." I do not know from where Dr. Savage got his facts about Islam. The religion of which he speaks is not the religion that I follow, not by a long shot.

To be absolutely clear, I am not calling Dr. Savage a liar. Yet, the things he said about the Qur'an are simply not correct, and I just wanted to correct those mistakes. And God knows best.