Vol. 29 No. 12
RABI-UL-AWWAL 1437 l DECEMBER 2015
A Sunnah response to the Paris attacks DR AUWAIS RAFUDEEN OW do we think of a Sunnah response to the Paris attacks? Granted, the Sunnah is vast and there are different ways of thinking what such a response should be. Mine is but one such response. What motivated the Paris attacks? Clearly it was anger, Isis anger at the role of the French in the Middle East; and the underlying anger of young French of North African origin at a society that refuses to regard them as real equals. And then there was the anger rightly felt by many Muslims at the media coverage of the event. It appeared that Parisian lives – mostly white lives – were privileged over brown and black ones that have died because of Isis or Boko Haram atrocities. And then there is also the justified exasperation of Muslims – an exasperation that can easily turn into anger – at the seeming inability by the West to realise that it shares a large responsibility for the current unfolding of events. And so, abominable as the actions may be, they should not be surprised when their sins come back to haunt them at home. And the result of this anger is a lack of empathy: you don’t care about our people so why should we care about yours? To a certain extent such a reaction is natural. It’s part of human nature to react this way and, if the Sunnah is anything, it is embedded in an understanding of this nature. And a lot of this reaction is, of course, really an appeal to justice: help create a truly just world, it says to the West, and then we all can be less worried about such attacks happening again. And justice is an underlying principle of the Sunnah. So, to a certain extent, we can perhaps speak of ‘righteous anger’. But anger, even righteous anger, is not the default position of the Sunnah. On the contrary, and no matter how understandable such reactions may be, the Prophet, peace be upon him, is very clear as to the default: ‘Don’t become angry.’ This is a remarkable statement. The Prophet (SAW) is ordering us to fight that innate and immediate anger within all of us that can be so easily be sparked by the cir-
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The ‘rampies sny’ ceremonies at the Cape are fragrant and colourful. Women gather in mosques to chop and scent lemon leaves and flowers before placing them in sachets. These are then offered to the people who attend the Moulood celebrations. The above image is of the ceremony at Masjidul Quds, in Gatesville, in January 2015 (Moulood 1436). Photo ISGAAK EBRAHIM
cumstances around us. We are not to regard this anger as natural. We have no right to instinctually act on it. The Prophet (SAW) is asking us to exchange our lower self – and anger thrives in the lower self – for a higher one, where anger is kept firmly under control. This requires us to take recourse to the virtues of patience, forbearance and strong determination to take the high road at all times – virtues that are cultivated by prayer and entreaty to Allah, among other practices. The road is not easy. It, seemingly, offers no immediate
rewards, no quick victories. It gave no spectacular resistance. But it was the road taken by the Holy Prophet in Makkah, at a time of tremendous persecution. And its rewards came to be seen in due course: it fundamentally changed character, it built people of tremendous beauty; indeed, it built the greatest generation in the history of humankind. And so it was the same beauty that shone through when the Prophetic mission achieved temporal triumph in Madinah: the real triumph was the creation of that beauty, not the dominion over Arabia.
Beauty is the benchmark of the Sunnah. When something is spiritually ugly and repulsive, such as the killing of civilians, whoever they may be, it is far from the Sunnah. When we create ‘us versus them’ categories, when our initial righteous anger translates into lack of pity for others, we are very far from the Sunnah. We need to reclaim, we need to listen carefully, to the default position on anger. We need to continue nurturing institutions where this default position is taught, where it is imbibed, and so, where we nurture human beings who deal beautifully with
one another. We cannot be defined by the injustice of others. In the end, we are them and they are us. Their injustice does not bring them any final triumph nor will retaliatory injustice – the product of anger – bring any victory. We need to transcend both and the Sunnah, which has proven that we can transform the hardest of hearts by restraining our anger, triggering the capacity for true change in all of us. Dr Auwais Rafudeen is Senior Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies and Arabic at University of South Africa.