Those who are damned

The hundred of thousand of poor people who have been ravaged by the unusually high monsoon rains, are actually suffering at the hands of the incompetence, corruption and negligence of duty by the rulers. But instead of helping them, a class of ulema is rubbing salt on their wounds by declaring from their media berths that they are suffering due to their own sins. If Allah Almighty has punished or damned some nation, He has also given the details of their transgressions. But these ulema don’t pay heed to that. Because these ulema are the well-wishers of the ruling elites on whose wealth they depend upon for their own affluence. The way they treat the poor has nothing to do with Islam or its tenets. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have looked down upon the suffering masses and said that they are reaping the fruits of their own deeds.

If these ulema are to be believed then floods, earthquakes and natural disasters would first Islamabad where looters and plunderers of public wealth are ensconced in comfort. After that, the hordes of feudals, usurers and exploitative classes would have faced the deluge. Next in line for the wrath would have been the dastardly abodes of those in North Waziristan who use the Lord and His Prophet (pbuh)’s name for terrorism to bomb mosques, imam bargahs, schools, hospitals and spill the blood of the innocent. They would have incurred the ire of God who let the blood of children flow freely. They who blow people to smithereens by sending suicide bombers to hustling bustling markets. But they are all safe from damnation, enjoying the comforts of life while those who till the lands with their blood, sweat and tears and grow sustenance for the God’s creation , rear cattle for providing milk to children and go to their beds after toiling away have been plunged into disaster. What could be their sins? They don’t even have time to think about sinning as their homes disappear in an oncoming deluge of water. The God that we believe in can’t be this cruel. Such blasphemous idea can only occur to those who either don’t know anything about God or are spreading malicious lies about him.

Allah Almighty, about whom these ulema give the wrong idea to people, has repeatedly instructed his followers to be honest and hardworking. To earn money rightfully. To help the creation of God to the best of their abilities. Moreover, the qualities that Allah Almighty has appreciated are present in these very assiduous hands. The villages of these people don’t even have the conducive environment where sinning can take root. They cannot amass the wealth necessary for unlawful spending. Which can be doled out to earn usury. They themselves pay an arm and a leg in the form of usury and debt. They are the targets, not perpetrators, of injustice. They don’t get their due wages. They spend a life of ignominy which Allah has repeatedly instructed to ameliorate. They are the ones who are the rightful heirs of God’s mercy and benevolence. When these very people are suffering from death, disease and destruction, are they no longer God’s beloved? It cannot be. They have reached such a state due to the loot and plunder of those who Allah does not like. Who have been warned of a reckoning and they will not be able to escape it.

But the ulema tell such people of salvation while saying that the meek are doomed to suffer. In reality, the former are the real sinners. Those suffering are merely paying atonement for others’ sins. They aren’t suffering from damnation but are being tried. They will be rewarded for their tribulations. Those who were showered with ravaging rains will now be owed showers of blessings by God while the wrath of God shall descend upon those who are labelling these people’s trials as punishment and tarring them with the wrong brush.

Why can’t the ulemas with their showmanship on the media see those who are actually deserving of damnation? The Almighty has repeatedly pointed them out in his scriptures. If we see those indications that God has given in His texts, we will see that the true targets of Gods’ ire are found in the congregations of these ulema. They are those who mislead the people. They are those who are hypocrites. Who praise others with praise that is rightfully reserved for The One. Who do nothing but feast on fowl and are sated with sweets. Who sell God’s word for personal profit. Those who make a trade out of religious proselytisation will be doomed one way or the other. Those who play a smoke and mirrors game with God’s creation in the name of religion and politics. Who don’t condemn terrorists and those who are terrorists.

If the logic of the ulema is to taken at face value, then the people of the countries that are totally bereft of Islam and Islamic teachings are much more deserving of Allah ka azaab than the people of Punjab and Sindh suffering from the floods and dengue. Then the countries where those things deemed unlawful by the Quran and Sunnah are considered legal and lawful would be suffering. Are they? If they are deserving of reckoning, why do they have every comfort, leisure and blessing available to them in abundance? Why do our maulvis visit these ‘dens of iniquity’ regularly when so few Muslim live there. Do these ulema close their eyes and put their fingers in their ears when they roam the streets of Europe and the US. Is it not true that paragons of piety have been witnessed in the throes of debauchery while they visit the West and indulging in act considered sins.

The Almighty’s wrath never descends upon the meek and innocent. It descends where his religion is used as a tradeable commodity. Where it is used for personal petty gains instead of working hard for halaal earnings. If Pakistan is at the mercy of natural disasters, it is not because of the ‘sins’ of the awash unwashed masses. It is because religion is a buy-and-sell here. It’s because God’s name is taken in vain.

The writer is one of Pakistan’s most widely read columnists.