Time for constructive re-evaluation
| Khatib : | Sadullah Khan |
| Khutbah No: | 56 |
| Khutbah Date: | 04/11/03 |
"Take account of yourself before you are taken account of"
Iraqi lesson
The painful reality of the unprovoked war on Iraq has embarrassingly led to the liberation of the Iraqi people from the clutches of a murderous dictator. Many innocent people who were victims of the vanquished dictator (Saddam) and then of the immoral sanctions imposed by the vanquishing Allies, have lost their lives in the crossfire between these two forces.
Questions abound:
- What is the prize that is being fought for? Is it purely freedom for the Iraqis?
Would we have helped them if they had no oil?
Who will be controlling the oilfields?
Who will reconstruct Iraq and are particular companies (such as the Haliburtons) getting the contracts?
If the aim is to remove dictators and violators of UN resolutions then are North Korea and Israel next on the list? - Why is the Muslim ummah's condition so helpless?
Where are our true leaders?
Why are we constantly caught in the quagmire of subjugation (Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, Iraq...)?
Why do we seem so impotent in resolving our own issues?
When are we going to become architects of our own destiny???
Truthfulness and honesty is an integral component of good character and good character is essential feature of true Believers. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to paradise."
An honest self-evaluation requires ...
- a tremendous degree of self-awareness and the ability to stand apart from one's self and critically analyze one's thoughts and actions.
- being truthful in judging one's self. We tend to view ourselves primarily in light of our best intentions and judge others in the light of how we interpret their actions. Others may judge us according to our last worst act.
Pro-active or Reactionary?
- In order to be empowered one's attitude needs to be pro-active, not reactionary. Reactionaries respond to events, trying to mend damages done, while those who are pro-active build according to their own initiative.
- We need to move from making excuses to providing ideas, from blaming others to finding solutions, from making mere promises to fulfilling commitments, from letting things happen to making things happen, from focusing less on the inactivity of others to attending to one's own possible contribution.
Reflect on the following ...
- When negative events keep repeating themselves, there may be a lesson that we are not learning.
- The tendency to constantly find fault with others may indicate the need to correct ourselves.
- "Allah will certainly not change the condition of people unless and until they change themselves." (Qur'an 13:11)