A group of people were hanging out. They were a group of colleagues that have just finished their work and sipping coffee and tea seems to be an escapee from those hectic hours. Sitting around the round table waiting for their orders, they chatted and suddenly a religious issue was brought up.
Sanchez : I've a religious pious Muslim friend. One day I asked him. "I've done so many good deeds, I helped people, being kind to people, I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't make sex before marriage. Am I accepted by the heaven?". Then my friend said NO.
I don't think that's fair. You always said God is always fair. So why after being so kind in my life I, heaven could not accept me? I'm a christian, but I don't really believe in it because of this.
Me : Basic principle of our teaching, only Muslim would go into the heaven. I can't explain in the way how Muslim looks at it because you might not be able to understand it. But let's take a logical example. Try look at it as an ISO standard = Heaven. OK?
Now, you might have a good running welfare/charity company. You helped a lot of people, poverty and etc. You have a great financial condition and everything. Simply say, your company is rocking. But, do you think you would get an ISO standard just because of that? ISO standard has it's own requirements and criteria that you need to fulfill hasn't it? So, it's something like that. In our teaching, our God has His own requirements and criteria we need to fulfill before we could be accepted into the heaven. No matter how good you think you are, if you don't have the requirement, you are not gonna be accepted. Unless, with His mercy and wisdom.
Sanchez : Hmm..OK. Why do Muslim always angry when some of them are called terrorist. Technically they are terrorist. Every country has it's own terrorists. But when it comes to Muslim's, no one wanted to accept that they are actually terrorists.
Me : Hmmm..basically we are so angry when they are called terrorist when they are actually trying to get back their land, their country. Israel knows the law and how to manipulate United Nations. They took the Palestinians land and then they proposed and urged Americas and United Nations to declare the Palestinians who ware fighting to get back their land as a terrorist. By doing this, the world's eye would be looking at their sacred mission as a terrorism.
We never agreed 100% on what they do. All the suicide bombing is not agreed by us. In Islam, we have our own code of ethic in war. We don't kill women, kids and old people. We don't disturb the church or the temple. We don't hurt innocent people.
These conversations were actually experienced by my friend. He told me the story and I think of this kind of answer if I were at his place. From my point of view, if we want to attract non-Muslim, we need to know how to address it by giving some example that they could understand, accept and relate it to the actual Islam.
I'm not sure whether the answer I thought of is actually a correct one to be given. But deep inside me, I know that I can't just say "Kafir or non-muslim will never be accepted into the heaven", in front of a non-Muslim whom you know is so kind and generous. It's not fair and obviously it sounds so cruel. And this would reflect our Islam's principle in their eyes right? They are not gonna understand how we understand it because they are not born in Islam. We are just lucky to be born as Muslim.
I always remember a story of a new Muslim (Mualaf) who is so used to drink. One day he asked his pious friend whether he can still drink after being a Muslim. And you know what?, the pious man didn't say "No!! Haram!! Allah hates it. You are not a good Muslim if you are doing so". But instead he said, "Yes, go on. It's your habit. I know it's really hard to not doing it. But everytime you drink, remember that Allah is watching you. Remember that Allah always knows what you do".
At the end, that guy didn't drink at all because everytime he thought of the fact that Allah is watching, he was trembling inside and couldn't do it. See, what would happen if the pious man answered him strictly the way we Muslim understand by saying that it's Haram? That guy might not be able to see the beauty of Islam.
Dakwah is really hard. You need to know how to touch people hearts in the correct way.
Joe, aku ingat nak share this entry in Iluvislam.com. Tapi aku tak tau la cara nak buat. Boleh ko tolong aku? Sebab aku nak tau gak pendapat orang lain tentang cara aku ni. Betul ke salah. mekasih
Comments
sumtimes...muallaf is so better than already one...=)
ngeh ngeh ngeh..
thaks green..tp aku takleh nk tolong pape pun.
Ada ustaz pernah beritahu kalau kita mensyirikkan Allah mcm yg dilakukan oleh org kafir yg tak percayakan Allah sebagai Tuhan mereka, mcmana Allah nak beri dia syurga. Umpamanya kita rajin buat kerja, tak curi tulang, cekap, amanah dsb tapi kita kerja dgn syarikat lain. Bila cukup bulan kita harap sykt yg satu lagi bayar kita gaji. Mana boleh jadi.
psst - ada yg kata ISO tu maknanya Ini Susahkan Org hehehe
but nice post.. actually ramai yg tak nk berdakwah sbb rasa susah padahal.. da memang tanggungjawab kita pon nk berdakwah. salah satu cara ialah ushwatun hasanah --> kelakuan yang baik.
dan non-muslim sng kita nk communicate our religion to sbb mereka bertanya.
Orang kita plak bnyk butakan mata dan tulikan telinga. thus jadi...
ignorance is a bliss.
=(
kena terangkan dengan non-muslim menggunakan logik akal...
nice entry =P