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Readers' column
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| Such a dangerous woman | |
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| By Amina Chibani, 01-05-2006 |
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| Nadia Yassine‘s supporters are numerous, but she also makes many jaws clench.Her detractors are as varied and assorted as the people who support or at least understand and sympathize with her cause. It’s explicable that she counts among her vilifying mass members of the “patriotic” cabal. It surely doesn’t do them any good to applaud her rejection of our current governing system. Who is to provide for their Ferraris, mansions and ship cruises if God forbid, an equitable and God-fearing government is to be instituted? She doesn’t have the blessings of our westernized elite either, not all of it anyway …no no , too die-hard and dark-ages to suit their refined tastes. |
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| What’s beyond me though, and surpasses my humble intellectual capacities is this microscopic but oddly conspicuous group of regular, middle-class Moroccans who lash out at her and her honorable father …words like “bearded bigots”, “obscurantist”, “theocracy”, “Iran” would often come up in their angry rattle. Not that I pretend to be able to elucidate their position, but my risk-taking nature urges me to give it a shot and try to understand what drove them there in the first place. |
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| Let’s recapitulate, may be I am missing something. Abdessalam Yassine is an erudite learned in Shari’ah law as well as the science of the heart .He enjoys a noble lineage all the way up to the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He set off a double-edged venture: a social one without which a spiritual one is impaired. He believes, based on informed probing of the Quran and the prophet’s tradition (pbuh) that to mend the miseries of this alienated humanity there is only one ultimate resort that is going back to the unspoiled sources. A return to the Creator through intense spiritual practice is mandatory if humans are to recover their lost humanity and do away with the bestial competition that gets them to kill and torment one another. |
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| A great religious adage has it that poverty is synonymous of apostasy .In other words , don’t expect a needy, hungry fellow to hear your genuine and caring plea for a cleansing of the heart and soul, the growling of his stomach is too loud to permit that. Great, now who is in charge of securing a decent material life for that fellow? In an ideal world, that would be the task of the head of state and his people. What if the people up there don’t really care, what if their sole interest is to squander the wealth they straight facedly steal from that poor fellow and throw him crumbs every now and then .that would be unfair, wouldn’t it? What to do then? Yassine suggests we face the head of state with the truth and peacefully ask him to repair what he and his crowd have caused. What if he simply won’t listen? Well, someone should do something…like what? Overthrow the ruler, kill and mutilate …brutally, violently and ruthlessly? …that’s not the prophetic method, is it? Yassine suggests we undermine the system from within. Educate the fellow, tell him he is human, tell him he has rights, he can express his discontentment, tell him it is alright, he can choose… tell him it is about him, it is all about him. |
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| If this fellow and others like him grow out of their ignorance and despair, the hegemony of the ruling autocrats would lose its base, it will spontaneously collapse. Then the beam of the divine message would be able to cross through, only then the fellow would experience the sweetness of a time spent mentioning and thanking God…no more growling!! |
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| Say!… what if that fellow isn’t that interested in the message you’re presenting, what if he willingly turns his back to you and chooses to wallow in sin and depravity. What would you do? … Impose? Chastise? Imprison? That is not the prophetic method either. Yassine says our message is one of mercy and tolerance. If the fellow is insensible to your approach, it is probably not his fault but yours. How good have you treated him, how well did you present the message to him, what look did you face him with…etc. Good! Now please tell me, what if everything is done right but the fellow still doesn’t want to hear about your values? In this case, says Yassine, he will have to comply with the rules agreed upon by the whole community and give the public space its due; however he will still be free to do what he believes within the borders of his private space. |
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| That’s the gist of Yassine’s message, and his daughter merely reiterates it using her own references and style. …makes sense to me!Why then, for God’s sake is the fellow, she and her father defend, putting her under such flak. My guess would be, he doesn’t know.“Oh God forgive my people, they do not know.” A prophet’s saying. |
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