To NFP and the liberals: What did the ‘water-kit’ have to do with Islam?

Recently in Pakistan, an ‘Engineer’ by the name of Agha Waqar Ahmad [1] invented a ‘water-kit’ that allegedly ran a car engine on just water. Obviously such an invention was to attract interest (given the country’s fuel problems) and criticism (given the country’s self-opinionated people).

The invention received mixed reviews. Most of the people who gave the reviews did not understand the second law of thermodynamics (many being undergrad students and holier-than-thou grads). Yet there were opinions given by some prominent scientists such as Dr Samar Mubarakmand (who said that a car could run only on water) , Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy (who said that the kit ‘simply cannot work’) as well as Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (who stated he had investigated the matter and did not find any fraud) and Dr. Attaur Rehman (who believed the kit could not work just on water but should be tested).

These are to be expected since this is a matter related to academics. Even allegations of fraud on Mr. Agha are not surprising given the past crazy inventions in the world of science. However what was surprising was that how a section of the liberal population of Pakistan felt this was an opportunity to somehow ridicule Islam and practicing Muslims. I do not personally think much of Mr. Agha’s ‘invention’ and i support a thorough investigation of the matter so that the good can be sifted from the bad and actual science from fraud ; yet I was appalled at the deliberate attempt by liberals such as Nadeem F. Paracha (NFP) [2] and the ‘Naked Tyrants’ [3] at using the water-kit to poke fun at and ridicule Muslims.

The ‘comedians’ Naked Tyrants uploaded a video on Youtube “Sawabkit – Car that runs on Sawab!” in which a car is shown that runs on sawab (reward for good deeds). To attain sawab they state that one has to ‘kill a kafir’ because other ‘good deeds such as namaz (Salah) and roza (Saum) could not start the car’. Mr. Paracha who is a well-known ‘cultural critic and senior columnist’ wrote a satire in which he has imagined Muslim inventions that would seem funny to him or put a twist around previous such ‘inventions’ to humor his audience.

Why did NFP and Naked Tyrants resort to doing this?

Let me ask them: How on earth did you make the connection between Agha Waqar and Islam? Agha Waqar hasn’t said he is working in the ‘interests of Islam’. Neither does he look like or proclaim to be as the liberals would put it : a Mullah. At best one could say he is working for the interest of his country. So why drag Islam into this?

The answer lies in the simple fact that the liberals do not find Islam to their liking. They conveniently reject this and say ‘we don’t like the Islam distorted by Mullahs’. Mr. Paracha and people like Naked Tyrants are a class of liberals known as liberal extremists. Some liberals or lazy Muslims may not be very practicing or not practicing at all, but they do not openly vilify Islam and expose their lack of knowledge of the religion along the way. This particular class of extremists leaves no opportunity to ridicule, taunt and slander general Muslims, Islam, the practicing Muslims and religious circles.

The liberal and secular extremist newspapers such as Express Tribune and Dawn are filled with the machinations of this generation of secular-educated, non-practicing (or hardly practicing), cocky , rude and intolerant characters who leave no stone unturned in exhibiting that they are not equipped with the basic knowledge to distinguish between religion and culture.

As stated above their real problem is with Islam and not ‘mullahs who distorted Islam’ (who we know as Ulema; and are well-respected actually). This leads to frustration as they cannot grasp why Muslims do the things they do. They know how to but not why. This is typified in the ridiculing of Qital fil Kafir ma harbi (war against belligerent non-Muslims) and Hudood (punishments) for non-Muslims who have committed an act for which Islam legislates the death penalty.

This particular problem has arisen because of the ban on teachings of Islam, particularly Jihad, at the school and university level where the meager Islamiat and Islamic studies do not suffice. However the knowledge of Islam, particularly Jihad, does reach this generation via the media dominated largely by extremists such as Mr. Paracha. Therefore they understand Islam and Jihad the way Mr. Paracha and his cronies want them to understand. This is why they make fun of not only Jihad against belligerent non-muslims but also the ruling of killing of those non-muslims and Muslims who insult Islam in Muslim lands openly ( and upon whom the hudood  are established).

A large section of the liberal population now believes that the Qadianis are Muslims. I doubt any one of them have read the most thorough proof of Qadianis being non-Muslims: Gift to Qadianis – 6 volumes (Tohf e Qadianiat) [5] by Ml. Yusuf Ludhianvi Shaheed. They have not read the book, they don’t even know what a Qadiani is (and if they do it is obviously from Qadiani sources or liberal extremists; remember Mullahs distorting faith?). Yet based on this uneducated judgement they give lectures of ‘tolerance’ to religious Muslims who have been outraged ever since the birth of the Qadiani religion whose biggest crime is not only to insult the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) or to reject his words but masquerade as Muslims with full commitment to take as many Muslims in their religion as possible. It is these acts that not only puts them out of Islam but also makes them worse than Jews, Christians and other non-Muslim. They are known as Zindeeq.

Yet the tolerance of liberals does not extend to anyone who criticizes their way of life or even disagrees with it. One of the great thorns in their sides is Amar bil Maruf wa Nahyi an’il munkar (enjoining good and forbidding evil) which is obligatory upon Muslims [6]. They conveniently forget that ‘enjoining’ does not mean forcing or interfering nor judgement. It is a general encouragement to do good. Their selective tolerance goes down the drain as soon as they are faced with Amar bil Maruf and Nahyi an’il Munkar. They get angry and frustrated. A recent example of this was the young man in Pakistan who shot his mother because she woke him up for fajr salah!

Therefore to let this frustration out Mr. Paracha and his offspring of liberal extremists such as Naked Tyrants who have grown up on the Islamophobia espoused by the media, make fun of and ridicule Islam in every way possible. In Mr. Paracha’s article he has conveniently  confused Arab culture with Arabic. Mr. Paracha people don’t put ‘Al ‘ before things because they are impressed with Arabs, they do so because Arabic is the language of Muslims!

Newsflash: in which language do you read the Salah and Qur’an?.

So it is love and devotion to Arabic not Arabs that leads to adoption of Arabic in our speech. In Islam no Arab is superior to non-Arab by virtue of ethnicity or race and vice versa. Mr. Paracha goes on to spill his hatred for Zia era quite forgetting (or perhaps not knowing) that Zia era was not exactly an Islamic era but a conservative era labelled ‘Islamic’. Why on earth would Jinn be used to generate electricity when this has never been the practice of Muslim scholars of the previous generations? Where did Al-Ghazzali, Ibn e Rushd, Ibn e Sina and Ibn e Khaldun espouse any such theories in the Age of Muslim Scientific Advancement? Where does Islam say that Jinn are to be used? Also how can one say Zia’s era was Shariah based when in fact Islamic banking was retained? Do these people even know what Shariah is or do they believe anyone who claims ‘Shariah’?

Mr. Paracha also exhibits his lack of knowledge of recent applications of Shariah when he declares that Muslim women are punished for adultery and not men. The ruling is same for both and it has been applied on both in recent times. Its only that a stoning of a man would not sell and so it isn’t filmed.

His article is filled with ridicule of people not connected to Islamic scholarship and of theories not endorsed by religious circles. One example of the former is Dr. Amir Liaquat , a self-proclaimed self-studied scholar who no one except the gullible take seriously, and of the latter is HAARP. Tell me Mr. Paracha are all the conspiracy theorists the fundamentalist Muslims that you so hate?

Mr. Paracha again shows his hatred for islamic practices and regulations he does not like by ridiculing the sunnah of the Wives of the Prophet (PBUH): niqab (head veil). He shows his ignorance of the importance of Life after death when he pokes fun at those who warn of eternal damnation. In Islam the thing which is emphasized is that one should not look at the size of the sin but the Greatness of the One who is being disobeyed. Constantly we are warned to repent and supplicate to Allah (SWT) to not punish for our wrongdoings and write death as a non-Muslim in our fate thereby condemnation to hell forever. Yet this man has the arrogance (and stupidity) to poke fun at this? Know that every word and action of ours is written down and if any of it makes Allah (SWT) angry He can take away Islam from us instantly and give us death on kufr. This is our basis of freedom of speech. The subjective selective freedom of speech of liberals is unacceptable in Islam. Their distance from Islam has driven them to the point that they have begun to make fun of it.

So who has the real Islam : liberals or fundamentalists?

Let us settle this once and for all. If the liberals accuse ‘mullahs’ of distortion do the liberals have the real Islam of 1400 years ago? The Angle Jibraeel (AS) decided to convey real Islam to the liberals of Pakistan after the Ummah had been misguided for 1400 years? The truth is they either do not know, or reject, how Islam reached us through scholars and chain of narrators that preserved the teachings. (Details can be found in Answering Secularism I). One simply cannot claim to know Islam by self-study or by learning from those who did self-study. Even the least practicing Muslim knows through Muslim culture that teachings of Islam are going to be preserved by Allah (SWT) till the Day of Judgement. This necessitates that there be a mechanism that continuously filters real Islam from fabrications and reprehensible innovations. This also necessitates that never in 1400 years the true message of Islam be lost [4]. This further asks us to investigate how Allah chose for Islam to be propagated from one generation to the next; and it was definitely not via self-study.

Therefore any claims by liberals of distortion of faith are uneducated and incorrect to say the least. But who among the liberals has ever picked up a book on Fiqh to read let alone go to a seminary or islamic center to learn Islam? Those who have learnt something yet chose to stay liberal or combine liberalism with Islam are another category. They are all misguided as we have just demonstrated. For this reason my request to people is to stop paying attention to what they are saying about Islam.

If Agha Waqar was a ‘Mullah’?

Of course this would have meant Eid came early for liberal extremists. Express Tribune would have been filled with daily blogs by pseudo-intellectuals demonstrating their lack of knowledge. NFP and his liberal kids would have had a field day ridiculing every single action of Agha Waqar from his posture to his blinking and speaking etc. If this recent escapade wasn’t proof to any unbiased person of the intolerance and blind hatred for islam  that liberals have, then that surely would have been.

What does Islam really say about Science?

Contrary to what the Atheist extremists would have you believe Science and Islam aren’t mutually exclusive. Tawakkul , which is often misunderstood, simply means to trust in Allah (SWT) and go for the means. Then of course to achieve something a Muslim would do everything he can without losing his head and without succumbing to stupidity or arrogance. Science is basically the extension of the command of Allah (SWT) to ‘see and observe the Signs given b y Allah’ so that one may affirm their faith in Islam. Of course science is also a tool to better the standard of living via various inventions, improve military might etc. Islam doesn’t oppose this but it opposes opulence and total warfare (military first). Unfortunately due to rampant secularism in Muslim lands these vital things are not taught in schools and people take science either as an uneducated means to prove Islam or disprove Islam, while neither is logical given our limited intellect.

Introducing the ‘Liberal Car’

How did they miss the idea of building the Liberal Car? After all it is a car that runs on gunah ( ‘reward’ for bad deeds) which the liberals have no objection to doing openly. Whenever you are down on fuel on the road simply take out your cellphone and text ‘Qadianis are Muslims!!!’ to your entire friend list via your SMS package and then enjoy your ride to your destination. Happy driving!

Edit: Naked Tyrant Productions (NTP) later stated their aim was not to make fun of Islam but expose people who do things (termed as ridiculous by NTP) under the banner of Islam.

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agha_Waqar_Ahmad

[2] http://dawn.com/2012/08/02/science-for-the-ummah/

[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8O6aN9tno (warning: profanity)

[4] Asr e Hazir mein Deen ki Tafheem or Tashreeh – Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (page 44).

[5] http://www.nubuwat.org/Library/index.php/authors/maulana-muhammad-yousaf-ludhianvi/book/1-ahmediyya-books/4-tohfa-e-qadianiat-volume-1

[6] http://qafila.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/the-work-of-tableegh/