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Swap the Perils for the Pearls of ‘Allahu Akbar’
What’s the betting these days on the chances that if a
bearded bloke wearing a fat padded jacket ran into a supermarket or cafe in Paris and yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ all
the shoppers would duck and hit the floor? Or in any city for that matter?
It seems all these ‘jihadi’ attacks are preceded by invoking
the name of God most High in the Arabic language.
This distresses me. I
feel robbed. Sickened. They are making this profound phrase - ‘Allahu
Akbar’ – hateful and to be feared. The circumstances in which Allah’s beautiful name is invoked
to such violent and misdirected ends distress me beyond words.
Yet this simple phrase lies at the core of Islamic understanding
into what it means to be human. For now it has been wrenched from its
ontological root bed and is being used to herald inhumane actions of the most
despicable kind.
To any Muslim worldwide the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ state a truth of belief: Allah is Most Great, greater
than whatever can be seen or imagined, greater than any other power or force.
It gives comfort to Muslims who strive to do their best, who may err, who need
forgiveness for their errors, who need to remind themselves that at all times,
in all places and circumstances, ultimately Allah prevails over all existence. No matter how sublime or special,
vast or deep, astonishing or powerful, marvelous or wondrous are any of our individual or collective achievements, or any of the delights of this planet, Allah is yet
greater than all these qualities.
We recite ‘Allahu
Akbar’ several times a day in our ritual prayers to punctuate each movement.
When we first stand in prayer and raise our hands up level to our ears, palms
facing outward in a show of surrender, and say the takbir ul-ihram, we are placing ourselves firmly in a position of
surrender and reverence for the power that created us, shaped us, endowed us
with consciousness and conscience and will hold us accountable for every
action, thought and breath.
When we say ‘Allahu
Akbar’ we announce our recognition that our individual power and ability is
conferred upon us by a higher force, and it is to align ourselves to that force
that we utter it solemnly and with relief. Above all this force is one of mercy
and compassion: Kataba ‘ala nafsihi
’r-rahma – ‘Allah has inscribed or ordained upon himself Mercy’ (6:12 &
54). In one sacred hadith (hadith qudsi),
He declares ‘My Mercy predominates over my wrath.’
‘Allahu Akbar’
shares with ‘la ilaha illah’Llah’ the
same power to negate at a profound level the dualism that underlies our
experienced existence, and return us from a state of apparent separation to
integrated unification.
What kind of god is it that the destructive ‘jihadi’ serves?
A god of nihilism? Who appointed them as the apocalyptic arbiters of a truth
that even Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) did not prescribe or demand be testified
to by such savagery? By what right? By what authority? To pin the name of God
onto acts that are blatantly ungodly is devastatingly cynical. Such terrorism
is born out of a culture of despair, hate, rage, outward-looking blame, a
cankered victim mentality and a frighteningly distorted understanding of how a
Muslim should uphold Islam. Equally this horror story inversion of Islam did
not come into existence without the assistance of an unholy communion between
spiritually moribund architects of jihadi nihilism in concert with modern
industrial powers playing God, funding and training these murderous creatures
and setting them loose from Pandora’s box.
Give me back the pearl I know is in ‘Allahu Akbar’. Humanity is one in origin and end. Animated by one
common soul energy, we are manifested through an infinitely dazzling
kaleidoscope of humanity. Let the light and lustre of ‘Allahu Akbar’ shine,
through me, through all who love Allah, who love goodness, beauty, compassion,
cooperation, tolerance. In the paraphrased words of our Prophet Muhammad (S) –
which echo so many other sages throughout the ages - no man fulfills his purpose unless he loves
for his neighbor what he loves for himself.
