Honor and respect for the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) is an essential part of Muslims’ faith. A couple of days before, the Saudi government had sentenced 6 Pakistanis for disrespecting the Prophet’s Mosque.
3 Pakistanis were sentenced to prison for 10 years while other 3 got 8 years imprisonment. Not only the Madinah court did impose a fine of 20,000 riyals per person but also confiscated the cell phones.
The aforementioned people chanted slogans against PM Shahbaz Sharif and his delegation in the Prophet’s Mosque. A big part of the population expressed grief and anger about the said incident.
Having a look at the names (Irshad, Anas, Muhammad Salim, Muhammad Afzal, Khawaja Luqman and Ghulam Muhammad) of punished personnel tell us the people who violated the Prophet’s Mosque are none others than Muslims.
The holy month of Muharram and the new Islamic year has just begun. Every year Muslims commemorate Ashura Muharram honoring Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) and followers’ sacrifice for Islam.
Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) belongs to the household of the Prophet (PBUH), from where Islam began and flourished across Arabian Peninsula. He was the grandson of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the son of Hazrat Ali (RA). His only crime was refusing to accept a tyrant Yazid, as a leader of Muslims.
On the other hand, the people in Yazid’s army called themselves Muslims but tried to force Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA) to accept Yazid’s tyranny. This tells us calling oneself a Muslim and being a Muslim are two different things; as the poet says; people think it is easy to be a Muslim.
Just as no Muslim can endure the disrespect of the Prophet’s Mosque, by the same token we have to ask ourselves the question today, whether we are truly Muslims or we have only named ourselves Muslims? Because in the Karbala, people on one side were only true Muslims even though the other side also claimed to be believers.
Perhaps it is the lesson of Karbala that calling yourself a Muslim doesn’t make you one. The followers of Islam have to prove their faith through their actions.
