London attacks neither for Islam nor for Muslims

Brethren, I did this essay at that highly auspicious hour when celestial beatitude made itself available for the lowly and the mighty. I realized that it had become urgent and important that I dedicate today’s essay not to their memory (the London attackers). In other words, this essay today is not meant to preserve their memory- the memory of those who appeared to be Muslim but whose conduct is the exact anti-thesis of Islam. Rather, this is essay is in their memory -the memory of those innocent British citizens who were atrociously caught down and violently murdered by individuals whose soul had been sold to the ghoul; individuals whose minds had been led to the latrine and permanently locked in. Remember here in Nigeria, the war against violent extremism is still on; parts of our dear country is still under the jackboot of elements who believe that violence is religion; that the more innocent people they murder the faster their entrance into paradise.

But in trying to memorialize those innocent victims, the question that agitated my mind was why and how did the world succeed in producing perfidious elements who now try on a daily basis to put asunder what the Almighty has put together. Lo! and behold, I did not look far for answers before I chance upon the following from the book of Hadith on my shelve. The Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (upon him be peace and blessings of the Almighty) is reported to have said: “There will be in my Community a dissent and a faction, a people with excellent words and vile deeds. They will read Qur’an, but their faith does not go past their throats. They will pass through religion the way an arrow passes through its quarry. They will no more come back to the religion than the arrow will come back to its original course…They summon to the book of Almighty but they have nothing to do with it…” It is a long hadith. Reading this tradition brought to mind some of the statements the violent marauders made while stabbing and killing innocent souls in London. I could not imagine how seemly it could become for a Muslim, be it in this sacred month of Ramadan or not, to hold a weapon of violence and dastardly bring it down on the body and soul of his fellow human beings without any just cause.

But I asked myself once again: “Are these atrocities being perpetrated simply because these elements desire to balance terror with terror; are these acts of violence being perpetrated out of necessity to balance the terror in anti-terrorism campaign being waged by Western powers in parts of the Muslim world with greater terror and violence?

Consequent upon a cursory review of Islamic law and jurisprudence, I could not find any instance in which wanton destruction of lives and properties could either be a strategy of war or a methodology in Muslim-non-Muslim relationship. The day Hamza, the Uncle of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was killed by Wahshi, the grief became so much on the Prophet’s heart that he said: “I would kill thirty people in vengeance”. But the Almighty soon revealed a verse which forbids the Prophet from carrying out his threat. The verse reads: “If you have to retaliate, let your retaliation be commensurate with the wrong which was done to you; but if you endure with patience, the best reward indeed is for those who endure with patience” (Quran 16: 136). Our Prophet eventually pardoned Washshi; the latter eventually accepted Islam.

Brethren, it is my candid opinion that those who died in the recent attacks in London were in reality not the only victims of the incident. Rather, we are all victims. It is the Muslim Ummah who shall continue to carry the bier; it is every conscious Muslim who shall continually be burdened by the sense of guilt; by the knowledge that so-called Muslims were involved in the act. Or how do you feel each time you hear the words “Islamic terrorists” being mentioned? Do you not wonder what for Almighty sake is “Islamic” in wanton destruction of lives and properties? Do you not feel burdened by the disconnect between your understanding of Islam and that of that ‘brother’ who detonated the shrapnel that sent innocent British citizens to their grave in Manchester?

Thus, the world has become very dangerous for human beings to live in. It has become dangerous partly because Muslims, who the Quran envision as the salt of the world, are becoming sour to “taste”!