What is the reason for the senseless manner in
which Muslims react in the face of provocation?
Perhaps we can trace it to their pride psychology. It
comes into being when religion is no longer treated
as a matter of responsibility, but as a matter of
pride. Such an attitude towards religion plays a fair
share in contributing to the degradation of the
Ummat, the community of believers.
The Qur’an says: “The faithful servants of God are
they who walk upon the earth modestly and, when
the foolish ones address them, answer: Peace.” (AIFurqan, 63)
However, the attitude is reversed when
religious teachings cease to inspire people to do
good deeds and a moral decline sets in. People then
become proud and haughty. Whether or not they
act upon the teachings of their religion, they believe
that they continue to be the chosen people of God.
Their attachment to their religion is reduced to lip
service: it exists in theory but not in practice; in the
outward form but not in spirit. When religion
serves only to show one’s superiority over others, a
high degree of moral perversion has been reached.
People hold their heads high and declare that they
are the upholders of a religion which has retained
the pure and original form of monotheism.
However, they contradict themselves by
manifesting such reverence for personalities both
alive and dead as should be accorded only to the
Lord, their God. They take pride in saying that
Islam teaches one complete equality, but they
continue to discriminate between man and man.
They are the first to pronounce in public that Islam
exhorts one to do good and shun bad in all
circumstances, but in private they disregard this. If
their attention is drawn to this contradiction in their
words deeds, they will turn hostile to anyone
daring to criticize them.
They take immense pride in describing the sublime
character of the Prophet, for instance, his resistance
to provocation; yet they themselves become
annoyed about quite trivial matters and even justify
their negative attitude by asking why they should
not react in the face of provocation.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
