Locked up for Real

I read 2 books lately that really made me think, especially after one of my previous posts about Muslims being imprisoned:

The first one is by John Grisham (one of my favorite authors since I was young). It details the false imprisonment of one man in particular in a small town in Oklahoma. You can get the gist of the story from the link above, but what really affected me about this book was the tests that Allah(swt) puts the non-Muslims through. For some reason, I was having a tough time coming to grips with it. As a Muslim we have the emaan that whatever happens to us is good, and a test from Allah that we must be patient through. But for someone who doesn’t have that foundation to fall back to I really wonder what it is that keeps them going and how they get through these difficulties. Kind of reminds me of The Hurricane. When I see these types of things, I wish that they had Islam to help them during those tough times. Especially because it is often not even the actual test that breaks a person, but it is how they are forever changed afterwards that is sometimes difficult to deal with.

But I do see from it a few underlying themes such as the need for us to be put through tests to strengthen ourselves and change our outlook. I just make du’a that Allah(swt) gives us the good of this life and the Hereafter and spares us from punishment in both (ameen). It is really amazing what some people go through, and it really makes one question how they might respond if put through such a trial. Sometimes I wonder if people fail these trials by not coming closer to Allah(swt) after they have been relieved of the test - and many people have, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) comes to mind offhand (the story of how he converted).

The second book, Enemy Combatant, however, really touched me more. It is one of those books that puts things in your life in perspective for you, and you hope that you can learn a lesson from their experience without having to experience it yourself. Enemy Combatant is the story of Moazzam Begg who was imprisoned in 3 different places, most notably Guantanamo Bay, all without being charged of committing any crime. It was really a moving story to put yourself in that situation of being uprooted in the middle of the night not knowing the reason, leaving behind your family, your children, your pregnant wife, and being taken into interrogation and torture, not being able to contact anyone or be told why you are held. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to endure that, and then go back home and try to get back on with a normal life. The book itself gives a good look into how the prisoners interacted with each other and with the guards, along with the daily struggles they faced.

Some of the interesting things I noticed from the book was how br. Moazzam’s being well read in a variety of subjects actually enabled him to befriend some of the guards and to communicate and talk with them on a common level despite the circumstances. You also see the bonds that the prisoners had with each other of Islam, something that can never be taken away. The most gut-wrenching part though, was thinking how it must have felt to be away knowing your wife is pregnant, and then to imagine your child growing up without ever seeing his father until quite some time later, and then after that to readjust and integrate yourself back into a ‘normal’ life. You also wonder to what depths a person is afflicted to the point that one allows himself to subject another human being to torture and inhumane treatment.

It shows you that when everything in this dunya is taken away, you have nothing left except your relationship with Allah, and that your affairs are in His Hands. With everything taken away from them they had nothing left except for the dhikr of Allah, and the Qur’an, and in all reality as hypocritical as I feel saying it, this is all what should be the basis of our life. The time we have here is extremely precious and we must make use of it (another book plug on the Value of Time by AbdulFattah Abu Ghuddah). Aside from all this though, it scares me to see the path we are heading towards. It seems like only a matter of time before Muslims are put in internment camps or something like that, may Allah protect us.

It lends to a few other problems as well - namely, a lack of education amongst the Muslims on how to deal with political and societal issues in a correct manner. It seems we have one group of people who are overly emotional and go to extremes in reacting, thus ruining it for the rest of us, and we have another group who are completely apathetic and ignorant. The Muslim community must come together and find the proper means of fighting these injustices within the framework we have been provided. This requires a commitment to education not only of Islam, but the society in which we live and function. As much as we think we are insulated from the evils of society, it was only after reading this book that I really realized the way that we are viewed by people, and we have to work hard to change that image.

I hope that the injustices amongst the Muslims are stopped, and by the same token, I hope we carry the same message into our own communities to not commit injustice against others either.

Lastly, it is in this vein that I also sadly report the arrests of some people in Houston, on what looks to be similar trumped up charges. May Allah(swt) protect us all. You can also get more information on other detainees at CagePrisoners.