Ever thought about the astounding hadees of the Prophet (ﷺ) about entering into the lizard hole – Step by step, inch by inch?
SubhanAllah! It seems, as if we are following the same pattern, and path trodden before us step by step, inch by inch even to the extent of following them into the lizard’s hole.
First let’s read that hadees –
Abu Sa’id al-Khudri reported Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
You would tread the same path as was trodden by those before you inch by inch and step by step so much so that if they had entered into the hole of the lizard, you would follow them in this also. We said: Allah’s Messenger, do you mean Jews and Christians (by your words)” those before you”? He said: Who else (than those two religious groups)?
SubhanAllah! If we reflect deeply on this hadees, and notice the trend around us, we will realise that we are also following exactly the same responses when confronted by any event as was reciprocated by the ones before us (Jews and Christians).
Let me put forward few of the patterns of responses/ arguments in points, then will address them one by one inshaAllah.
1- “We don’t know what’s in the heart, let’s not judge.”
2- “We can’t do anything, we are just waiting for the promised saviour.”
3 – “Our scholars, ulemah have not told us about it, so why should we believe it?”
4 – “We are suffering because of our sins, be more pious. Don’t criticize the rulers, criticise yourself.”
5 – Similar Samiris, and Today’s Golden calf.
6- Taking part of scripture, and rejecting the other part of the scripture.
7- The Parable of being Donkeys carrying the books.
8- “What change can your mere criticism make on the Ummah, let alone the rulers, just consider it wrong in heart, don’t say anything?”
Let’s take the first response –
We often find Muslims saying – “We don’t know what’s in the heart, let’s not judge.”
We often hear this argument whenever someone tries to rectify the mistake of those in charge or authority for their wrong actions or inactions.
Examples to quote –
“Don’t even gently remind a sister to wear hijab, you don’t know what’s in her heart.”
“Don’t even criticise the muslim rulers for their inactions to stop the genocide with all their might and mains, may be they are not doing anything due to some wisdom, we don’t know what’s in their heart.”
Well! That’s what exactly people before us did, they watered down the true preachings only to hearts.
St. Paul was one of the preacher of Christianity but he has water-downed the Christianity to only hearts.
The repercussions of the adulteration can be felt even in the present age.
Islam has a clear stance on it –
Umar رضي الله عنه said :
‘We judge by what’s apparent and we leave their inner secrets to Allah.’
The second similar pattern –
“We can’t do anything, we are just waiting for the promised saviour.”
Even Jews of Madinah were waiting for the promised saviour but then when the saviour arrived, they didnot acknowledge.
Waiting for the promised saviour passively is not sufficient as from the Hadees of Umm Salamah (r.a) we have realised that there will be an institution already.
Narrated Umm Salamah (r.a), Ummul Mu’minin:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Disagreement will occur at the death of a caliph and a man of the people of Medina will come flying forth to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see that, the eminent saints of Syria and the best people of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam.
Third similar pattern –
“Our scholars, ulemah have not told us about it, so why should we believe it?”
We often hear from Muslims -“Our scholars, ulemah have not told us about nationalism being haraam, working for the re-establishment of Allah’s deen (in muslim lands) so why should we believe it?”
SubhanAllah! It seems we are following exactly the same pattern.
They (Jews and Christians) have taken their rabbis and monks as their ilah ….
(Holy Quran 9.31)
‘Adi ibn Hatim reported: I came to the Prophet ﷺ while I had a crucifix of gold around my neck. The Prophet ﷺ said, “O ‘Adi! Remove this idol from yourself!” I heard him reciting the verse in Surat al-Tawbah, “They have taken their priests and rabbis as lords besides Allah.” (9:31) The Prophet ﷺ said, “As for them, they did not worship them, but rather when they made something lawful for them, they considered it lawful. When they made something unlawful for them, they considered it unlawful.”
Sound similar?
Yeah!
Yes, we too have made the contemporary scholars as ilah, if they don’t say anything about asabiyyah, nationalism which has no place in Islam, and is inflicted upon us in the past 100 years through Sykes-Picot agreement, the curse of which we have seen how from little Aylan Kurdi who was washed ashore to the Rohingya refugees who were stranded at sea for months, fleeing their oppressive country couldn’t find any nation opening their man made borders for them.
Infact! The recent ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine is happening because of the Nationalism where every muslim nation is thinking about their own, selfish national interest, considering the oppressed Ummah as not their own issue.
Fourth similar pattern –
“We are suffering because of our sins, be more pious. Don’t criticize the rulers, criticise yourself.”
Paralleled with Europe – Dark ages, where the church was ruling by adulterated Bible and thus a lot of oppression was inflicted upon the masses, Thomas Hobbes (Christian philosopher) used to propagate – Obey the rulers even if they are wrong as it will cause greater turmoil (fitnah).
They used to have – Divine Right of King Doctrine – “You are suffering because of your own sins, so be more righteous.”
Well! We need to understand that in Islam there is no obedience to the disobedience to Allah.
The obedience of the ruler mentioned in Islam is for that ruler ruling by Allah’s ahkaam, and not by kufr or man made laws.
To say we deserve such tyrant rulers is a pessimistic psychology, and it is shifting the blame of the tyranny on the innocents.
To say we should be focusing on tazkiya e nafs only for stopping the genocide in Palestine is the same argument the ambassadors of Dark Ages (followers of compromised, adulterated Christianity) used to put forward.
To say we deserve such tyrant rulers is a fallacious argument – Before Abubakr (r.a) became the caliph, there emerged the false prophet Musailmah, the munkar e zakat (deniers of zakat) but Allah honoured the people with such a just ruler Abu Bakr (r.a).
Fifth similar pattern.
Similar Samiris, and Today’s Golden calf.
A lot many Samiris today are inviting to the Taghoot everywhere.
We need to understand that Allah swt has clearly commanded us to reject taghoot.
فَمَن يَكْفُرْ بِٱلطَّـٰغُوتِ وَيُؤْمِنۢ بِٱللَّهِ
Surah baqrah ayah 256
Taghoot is false gods, their false systems.
We often wonder in amazement that how come children of Israel started worshipping Golden Calf even though they saw such clear signs from Allah swt, just because the calf used to make some noises with the passing of the wind, and was glittering to the eyes, as it was made up of gold?
But we often fail to recognise – Today’s Golden calf – which are all these right and left wing scale, when one makes some of the noise, they seem glittering to the apparent eyes.
We really need to understand that it is the psychology of the by and large people who were subjugated to the oppression and tyranny for a very long time that they often are carried away with that which appears glittery and generating some noise.
We often hear, “At least they are saying something, at least they are making some noise, at least something…” and this at least something has resulted in believing and submitting to the golden calves.
The sixth similar pattern –
The Parable of being Donkeys carrying the books.
“The example of those who were entrusted with ˹observing˺ the Torah but failed to do so, is that of a donkey carrying books. How evil is the example of those who reject Allah’s signs! For Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.”
Holy Quran 62.5
SubhanAllah! We see exactly the same pattern today. People are rewarded for memorising the Holy Quran, lots of institutes are opened researching and preaching Holy Quran on individual levels, but when someone talks of the implementation of the Holy Quran on societal level then such carriers are put behind the prison. Are we not befitting in the same category of donkey carrying books? We are not observing it, as we were ought to do so.
Seventh similar pattern –
Taking part of scripture, and rejecting the other part of the scripture.
Belief in part of the scripture, and rejecting part
أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍۢ ۚ فَمَا جَزَآءُ مَن يَفْعَلُ ذَٰلِكَ مِنكُمْ إِلَّاخِزْىٌۭ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَيَوْمَ
ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰٓ أَشَدِّ ٱلْعَذَابِ ۗ وَمَا ٱللَّهُ بِغَـٰفِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ٨٥
“Do you, then, believe in some parts of the Book, and disbelieve in others? So, what can be the punishment of those among you who do that, except disgrace in present life? And, on the Day of Judgement, they shall be turned to the most severe punishment. And Allah is not unaware of what you do.”
Surah baqrah ayah 85
This ayah was pertaining to the Jews and Christians who used to believe in part of the scripture and reject the other part. SubhanAllah! Are we not treading the same path trodden before us? We also talk about, and take the pillars part of Islam like shahadah, salat, zakat, saum and hajj but we reject the building which rests on these pillars, we reject the practical implementation of Islam in its entirety as complete system.
And the eight similar path on which we are treading which was trodden by those before us –
“What change can your mere criticism make on the Ummah, let alone the (corrupt) rulers, just consider it wrong in your heart, and don’t say anything?”
- SubhanAllah! Following exactly the same pattern of the second group of sabbath event.
We know Bani Israel was completely prohibited from doing any work or lighting a fire. It was the fishing village, and that meant they were not allowed to fish on Saturdays.
As part of the test from Allah, on Saturday, all types of fish would appear in the water, and were so abundant and prominent that they could even be seen playing at the surface. The fishermen devised a foul play regarding Allah’s order. They would lay out their fishing traps on Fridays, and the fish that visited on Saturdays were caught in the traps. On Sundays, the fishermen would collect the fish. In doing so, they deliberately disobeyed Allah – even if technically they did not fish on Saturdays, the fish in fact were caught because of their trickery and deception.
This event made the community divided into three groups.
The first group – Disobeyed Allah swt openly.
The Second group – Remained silent in the face of all this transgression. They did not participate in the evil but also did not rebuke or stop them from doing it, in fact they used to ask the third group who used to advise the first group not to transgress Allah’s limits, “Why do you preach to a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish with a severe torment?” meaning, in today’s terms, why bother correcting these people, because Allah will punish them anyway?
The Third group used to obey Allah swt, and used to counsel, and warn those who were disobeying Allah swt, and were transgressing His limits.
The third group replied to the second group- To be absolved before our Lord – Allah and perhaps the transgressors may fear Him.
The third group knew they have to do it so that they can present it as an excuse infront of Allah that they did what was in their capacity.
SubhanAllah! We find exactly the same path trodden again today, we witness the first group who is actively disobeying Allah swt,
and the second group asking the third group not to criticise the wrong doers, and Allah will deal with them.
To conclude – We are literally treading the same path trodden before those who were before us – the Jews and the Christians, step by step, inch by inch to an extent that it seems we are on the verge of entering into the lizard’s hole.
وَقَفَّيْنَا عَلَىٰٓ ءَاثَـٰرِهِم بِعِيسَى ٱبْنِ مَرْيَمَ مُصَدِّقًۭا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ ۖ وَءَاتَيْنَـٰهُ ٱلْإِنجِيلَ فِيهِ هُدًۭى وَنُورٌۭ وَمُصَدِّقًۭا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلتَّوْرَىٰةِ وَهُدًۭى وَمَوْعِظَةًۭ لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ ٤٦
وَمَن لَّمْ يَحْكُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْفَـٰسِقُونَ ٤٧
“Then in the footsteps of the prophets, We sent Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the Torah revealed before him. And We gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light and confirming what was revealed in the Torah—a guide and a lesson to the God-fearing.
So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are ˹truly˺ the rebellious.”
Surah Maidah.
I am ending on this ayah where Allah Al- Hakam (The Legislature) is saying regarding Isa (a.s) that he (a.s) was sent on the footsteps of the previous prophets, confirming what was revealed on the Prophet Musa (a.s) in the Torah, and those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are truly rebellious, and in another ayah it also says that such are the zaalimoon who do not rule/judge by what Allah has revealed.
SubhanAllah! Are we not treading the same path by not judging as per what Allah Al-Hakam has revealed in Holy Quran?
We have 57 muslim nations but not a single one ruling by Islam, and then we wonder why are we not even able to stop the ongoing genocide unfurling right infront of our own eyes? It is because we, as 57 muslim nations are complicit in it by being transgressors, and by being az zaalimoon.
May we realise the slippery, and dangerous path of those trodden before us so that we can stay away from following their mistakes step by step, inch by inch, to an extent of entering to a lizard’s hole.