Buying Jannah At Sale?

(The following prose has also been published at  Chowk.com and Pak Tea House )

Fida'yaan-e Muhammed!

Do you know what this means?

"The lovesomes of the Prophet"!

This is what they declared they were.

I still hadn't recovered from the distress that the realization of the state of affairs in my land that Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti's murder had brought with it all too starkly (and ah-just-so-yet-again!), when today the tv screen began flashing with the scenes from the bomb blast site in Nowshehra, a mosque where people had gathered together for the Friday congregation!

11 people had died. Many others injured.

So what is it really? THIS MUCH bloodshed! All in the name of ISLAM - The religion that names Peace?

I am going berserk trying to decipher who is killing whom? Who is the bad guy in the thriller, and who plays the good cop? Could anyone please inundate me?

Cringing I try to push back this numbing pain and try to focus on these chips once again... No, no interpretations. Just plain, simple FACTS.

Facts without any leanings of fiction so as to not stray away from logic!

This time I wont let my personal biases interfere: enough of it, THANK YOU!

Hmm.... So where do I start from? .... Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti?

Here goes my attempts at trying to understand the picture...

FACTS

Regarding Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti:

• A fellow human being. CHECK
• A fellow countryman . CHECK
• A responsible member of the society. CHECK
• A person brave enough to speak his mind. CHECK

So what went wrong between him and the 'claiming' devotees of the Prophet that made him lose his life and put them on a sure track to Jannah? 

Lets try to understand through this image of the pamphlet they dropped at the killing site 

(sourced from web) 

Since its not a wholesome shot of the script, the readable words are: 

 "In the Islamic law, a blasphemer of the Prophet ..... Either you will remain alive, or us ..... And one Christian infidel Shehbaz Bhatti ..... And now by the grace and glory of Allah ...."

I do not have to state my religious leanings to those who have been frequenting this space. As for others, before you go ahead with labeling me as yet another, in vogue, religion-basher, I am a proud adherent of "lā elaha ella Allahu, Muhammad ur-rasul Allah".

I am a proud bearer of my identity as a Muslim, and as a believer .... until of course, I come across these self appointed arbitrators of the echelons of faith and belief (and everything that falls in between).

The much in-trend zealous concept of Jihad, having a loose interpretation of bloodshed of the infidels makes me check back with the Scripture I follow. Is it really the faith they are trying to implement, or the absolute lack of it, I wonder. 

So, as I begin wondering, lets get back to FACTS...

FACTS, Once Again

• The over-hyped blasphemy Law is a MAN MADE LAW! CHECK
• Criticizing the law, by any means, through any definition under the sun, DOES NOT amount to blasphemy. CHECK
• Without going to Law, killing someone on the charge of such auto-sentenced blasphemy, in person; is MURDER. CHECK
• Anyone, with the slightest regard for the teachings of the Prophet can not call a gang of serial killers as Fida'yaan-e Muhammed! CHECK

I reach here and the excruciating heart ache begins to take the better of me. 

Why am I saying all this? 

Does it matter anyway?

Does anything matter at all?

I dont carry a sub-machine and dont kill people in cold blood, so does this make me an inferior Muslim? 

I listen to all that fast-track JJJ (Jannah-ensuring jingoist jargon) of the AK47, and I am left stupefied.  Whatever happened to the God's word: 

And fight in the path of God with those who are fighting with you and do not transgress, God loves not those who transgress.(2:190) 

DO NOT TRANSGRESS!

O, we, the holy warriors of the Lord, 

Do we even understand what is meant by transgress?

Do we have even an inkling of what is described as limits?

Why cant we answer an argument by an argument?

Why cant we listen to a dissent of opinion before setting out on a barge of lamentation of a perpetually endangered Islam in the Islamic Republic that is this land?

Why do all them uber-believers opt for Jihad Bis-saif (Jihad of the sowrd) over Jihad Bil-nafs (Jihad with the self), whereas its the latter that is more preferred?

You want to know the reason?

Here join me for the facts...

FACTS, Yet Again

• Taming the self is a far more unpublicized, and much more difficult job than pushing the trigger of a gun. CHECK
• Everyone looks for a shorter route to success. CHECK
• Firing squads amid short cuts to Jannah always lead astray. DOUBLE CHECK

Wa Allahu Alam.

PS:
In the dark ages Europe, the clergy declared those opting for physical cleanliness, as infidels.
In today's Pakistan, the self-proclaimed "fida'yaan" declare those defying the hypocritical practices, as infidels.


Little difference, eh?