Dear Editor
ON this day, the 9th of Dhul Hijjah, the final month in the Islamic calendar and the day before Eid ul Adha, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) delivered his final sermon to his followers. In it, he specifically admonished everyone who listened that all people come from one place, that women are partners, not chattel; that regardless of our ethnicities, we are all equal with no claim of superiority over anyone else.
He stressed that we must do no harm, but try to do as many good deeds as we can. Perhaps it is convenient to forget that he felt it necessary in his last words to single out and remind Arabs that they have no authority over any other kind of a Muslim. He clearly understood his people. Today as we pray for forgiveness and mercy, we remember all those who are suffering and devastated by loss, the destruction of their homes, lives and family…from Houston to Yemen to Syria to Haiti to those traumatised by violence, oppression, war and terror.
Most of all, Muslims must collectively and individually decry the indecent excesses of the Kingdom of Saud’s degenerate, reactionary monarchy. For too long, they have trampled the rights of Muslims, rights that the Prophet himself never denied his followers. Yet, the descendants of one family have encouraged, funded and supported the indoctrination of generations of young Islamic scholars, who have been taught a corrosive, ethnocentric version of Islam, one that strays far from the compassionate mercifulness encouraged by the Prophet.
This cannot continue, we Muslims simply must not stay quiet when before our eyes, the spoiled, arrogant heir to the keys of our most holy places, continues to live an obscenely extravagant life, thoughtlessly squandering the wealth of the Ummah on expensive baubles and vanity wars that have shattered the lives of those already living in unbearable squalor, too poor to matter to their self-anointed royal neighbours. As Eid is celebrated throughout the world, we should all try to reflect on the love, forgiveness, empathy sacrifice and mercy of our Creator. And most of all, how we Muslims can be better people, neighbours, friends, citizens…and humans.
Regards
Scheherazade Ishoof Khan