The death of Pope John Paul II
Comment by khalid hasan
Amid
all of the extensive coverage afforded to the Pope’s obituary and eulogy in
the wake of his death, a significant minority of liberals have been attempting
to seize the opportunity afforded by this event to advance their own set of
ideas against that of his soon to be announced successor, and the Church more
generally. These liberals have
sounded out their views via most media outlets.
The main thrust of their rhetoric has been to call for the election of a
more ‘modern and progressive pontiff’ as his successor.
In
order to try and offset this liberal sneering lest it prompt liberal elements
within the Church establishment from mounting a concerted effort to see the next
Pope having a distinctively ‘liberal’ leaning, the Church has sought to try
and preserve Pope John Paul’s conservative legacy, partly through trying to
elevate him to the position of a Saint, in addition to Cardinal Angelo Sodano
referring to him as ‘John Paul the Great’ at his requiem mass.
Liberals
have sought to highlight the late pontiff’s (as well as the Catholic
Church’s stance more broadly) conservative stance upon the issues of
homosexuality, abortion, contraception and to a lesser extent, the ordination of
women priests. The liberal position
is founded upon the premise that on these issues, the pontiff and the Church
were out of sync with the norms in modern democratic pluralistic society.
Liberals have argued that the Church with a new liberal-minded pontiff
needs to ‘modernise’ in light of the changes within present society.
Conservatives within the
What
interests us in this event and intriguing debate, is the ideas and campaign of
this liberal minority, for in it contains a very significant lesson and stark
remainder of the implications of what they are arguing for.
In
essence, liberals in the West have been engaged in a struggle against the Church
for the last 400 years. This latest
snipping is an attempt to further weaken what they view as religious
infringement and intransigence in the face of secular modernity.
Not content with separating the Church and religion from the state,
liberals have recognised that religion occupies a space in public life that they
find abhorrent and wish to see the Church’s religious teachings and tenets
systematically changed to reflect their own secular values.
While
it can be convincingly argued that Christianity as a whole has largely succumbed
to the pressure of liberalism and disregarded many of its basic principles,
there are a number of key tenets that the Catholic Church under the late pontiff
still adhered to, such as those mentioned above, that liberals wish to see
challenged.
Unfortunately
many Muslims still poke fun at the plight of the Church and Christianity,
without fully appreciating the brevity of what liberalism wishes to achieve.
On this occasion the liberal’s target is Christianity, but more often
than not, it is Islam. For example,
Lawrence Korb, a former
“As
Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion and the dominant religion in
large portions of the developing world, the
Unfortunately
for Mr Korb and many more like him, Islam is not open to wholesale challenge
under the guise of ‘reinterpretation,’ unlike Christianity.
The Anglican Church is still reeling as a result of
‘‘reinterpretation’ that has led to the ordainment of gay priests and the
abandonment of the text of the Bible condemning homosexuality.
Examining
the pitiful plight of the Church and Christianity generally, through reference
to the Qur’an and Sunnah provides a telling warning for the believers not to
make the same mistakes as the Christians have done; mistakes which we can all
now see have led the religion becoming a source of mockery, and the revealed
texts disregarded.
In numerous verses of the Qur’an, Allah (SWT) has clearly explained to us the mistakes that the Christians (and the Jews) made. Each explanation provides a telling warning to us, if only we look carefully and seek to apply it. For example, in Surah at-Taubah, Allah has stated:
They
(Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords
besides Allah and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah, son of Maryam (Mary),
while they were commanded to worship none but One Ilâh
(God - Allah) Lâ ilâha illa Huwa (none
has the right to be worshipped but He). Praise and glory be to Him, (far above
is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).2
Regarding
this verse, Imam Ahmed, at-Tirmidhi, and Imam at-Tabari recorded a hadith from
Adi bin Hatim, in which the Prophet (SAW) recieted this ayah.
Adi bin Hatim replied: “They did
not worship them.” Upon which
the Prophet (SAW) said:
‘Yes
they did. They (the rabbis and
priests) prohibited the permissible for them (i.e. the Jews & Christians)
and allowed the prohibited, and they obeyed them.
This is how they worshiped them.’ 3
Even more pertinently, we ask Allah to be guided to the straight path and not be like the previous generations each time we pray and recite al-Fatihah. As regards the following verses of Fatihah:
You
(Alone) do we worship, and You (Alone) do we ask for help.
Guide us to the
Imam Ahmed and Imam at-Tirmidhi recorded that Adi bin Hatim reported that he heard the Prophet (SAW) say:
‘Those
you have earned the anger are the Jews and those who are led astray are the
Christians.’ 5
And in another narration:
‘Verily,
the Jews have earned the anger (of Allah) and the Christians are misguided.’
6
Our
position as believers in all the revelations that Allah sent to man (which is
clearly stated in Surah al-Baqarah, verses 4 – 5) comes with great
responsibility. If we are true believers, then not only are we a
custodian of Allah’s message; continuing the legacy of all the Prophets (AS),
but we are also tasked
with defending
and propagating this message in its original unaltered format.
Let
the plight of the Church be a lesson to us.
References
1.
Lawrence Korb,
(2004), “The Gulf and US National Security Strategy”, Center
for Defense Information (CDI), Emirates Lecture Series No. 58, 8 October, http://www.cdi.org/PDFs/GulfSecurity.pdf,
p. 7
2.
Surah at-Taubah, verse 31
3.
Cited in: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (2000),
Vol. 4, abridged 1st English edition, (
4.
Surah al-Fatihah, verses 5- 7
5.
Cited in: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (2000),
Vol. 1, p. 88
6.
Cited in: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (2000),
Vol. 4, p. 410
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