What I took home from Shaykh Y. @ Masjid a-I.(Mind you I was late today.)
CartoonsDo not be preoccuppied, so much so to the point of rage with how they portray us, but be reflective of what we do.
There was a Shaykh who prayed and remembered God always. One day a woman became pregnant and accused the Shaykh of fathering the child. The People told him that the baby was his. "Is that so?" the Shaykh said. And he was given the responsibility to take care of the baby. So he did. Several years later the woman later recanted and said this child in fact is not his, but the fisherman's son's. "Oh forgive us Shaykh. It's isn't your son." the People said. "Is that so?" he said.
They've drawn him, they've done worse--much worse and so should we flare up in such violence to prove points? They said, "We've drawn cartoons!". And we what? Ignore them or say, "Is that so?" and continue on our ways.
A lady's baby wiggled himself out of his carrier and fell on the ground. Alarmed, the woman carefully picked up her baby and meticulously inspected each part of his body to make sure nothing was broken. She wrapped him back up and loved him even more than she had loved him before.
This is the way we should be. We should take the opportunity to examine our community and to learn
even more about the Prophet (salalahu alayhi wasalaam) and take care to improve our condition and love him
even more than we did before.
(2 other opinions regarding I agree with regarding the cartoons.
Declaration/
ClashoftheUncivilized)
FitraThere is a purpose for the Essence that God blew into us. This fitra is
pure. It serves to create our own unique challenges and obstacles so that we may return to it. Often times we want others to go through these challenges for us, but we must go through it ourselves to be purified. Like the distillation process in a chemist's lab, we must pass through the tubes and at different points be subjected to the fire, so that we might come out distilled and pure in the end. Or like the ones who are oppressed and given to calamity (death, illness, poverty, war & the billion types of oppression etc.), they endure patiently and carry the burden with the understanding that there is purpose behind it.
3 Types of People(I'll get the narrator next time I see him insha'Allah)
There are 3 kinds of people who do not have to deal with Judgment: those with fadl, those who are patient through calamity, and those who love others simply for the sake of God. Let us become of those people. Ameen.
So we must turn inward and focus our energies on ourselves and strive to reach this fitra we've been blessed with.
