Drops of Dust

I have a line which, I must admit, I often use (to great effect) to win some points when chatting to a potential life partner (fancy and Islamically safe name for potential chic;)). It goes something like this, ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter.’ Yes I know, it may seem a clumsy and cheesy statement to make, but pulled of with the right degree of panache it is remarkably effective. This one-liner is an interesting one, even without considering its dimension as a women charming one. It happens to be more interesting in comparison to another line that comes often to the lips of many of us: ‘to exist is to resist.’

Essentially the message of the two sayings, may seem to be at odd with one another. Resistance (never a desirable thing) is encouraged by one, while peace and love(always desirable) promoted by the other. But are they really different? Or is there perhaps a time when resistance means being a lover and not a necessarily a fighter? Yes there is! Thank the Lord!

That instance and opportunity, believe it or not, is present to us today. That is, it is there for the taking for us South African Muslims.

But how, you ask, is it possible to exist in resistance and yet live in peace? Simple.

As Muslims we are required to resist the influences which differ from the ideologies and teachings of Islam. We are required to exert ourselves in preventing our lives from being encroached upon by disagreeable elements (disagreeable to the will of God that is). Resistance to these forces is mandatory.

In South Africa these forces are indeed present, probably in quantities greater than in other countries, but the nature of the resistance to them is different. We are not, through the grace and mercy of Allah SWT under oppression anymore, unlike the Palestinians or Chechnyans or Zimbabweans. We are not under the pressure that some Western Muslim communities experience. Our resistance is not against ignorance – we are exposed to numerous avenues of knowledge.

Instead our resistance is against ourselves - against our own whims, fancies, thoughts, laziness, decadence and naivety. Our resistance is one that is not captured by the conventional perception of resistance. Rather it is unique, requiring of us to change the way we behave, the way we think, and the way we live.

Just as the connotations of ‘I’m a lover, not a fighter,’ tends to suggest to some members of the fairer sex that the guy making the statement is thoughtful, caring and ‘deeper’ than the average guy(search me about that last point, I read it in an apparently authoritative publication. No, not FHM!), we as a Muslim community must begin to suggest to other communities that we are a caring, thoughtful, productive community. We must start to project the idea that as a Muslim community we are willing to be part of larger society, and more importantly that we are a community worth being part of.

For some Muslim in the world, indeed most, their existence is driven by the desire to liberate themselves from oppression. For us, it is about establishing a Muslim community in the mould of that great community of Muhammad SAW.