Take
a good look at your life. Chances are you live very comfortably.
You probably have a nice home, a warm bed, your own room, and a
family to lean on. You complain at times that you are hungry and
have nothing to eat. But this isn't true, is it? When you say
this, it usually means there's no junk food to snack on. You are
used to good meals and most certainly cannot do without them.
School
is a place where you often don't want to be. But it's also a
ticket that will take you on the journey to university and then
to the destination of a glamorous career and luxurious life. You
regard education as a tedious chore and definitely not a
privilege.
Close
your eyes for a moment. Transport yourself to a foreign land —
a foreign land where you are not welcome. You have been forced
to flee your homeland due to political strife created by
power-hungry individuals. You have witnessed indescribable
brutality, the images of which scream silently in your mind. You
were present when your brother was savagely stabbed with a
machete. The strength your mother displayed when she was
violently violated, and her tears of humiliation afterwards are
indelibly engraved in your memory.
The
taste of boiled leaves is still bitter in your mouth. The
gnawing grimness of hunger continues to growl in your tummy. The
innocent days of your childhood are but a dream. They come to
you in a gentle mist of slumber, only to be viciously shoved
away by the dark clouds of violent remembrance.
No
longer will you walk the gentle valleys of your youth, swim in
its streams, stroll its sidewalks, breathe in its nightlife, or
own any part of it. Even if you were to return, the land you
once knew and loved is no more. It has changed irrevocably, as
have you.
You
are a refugee. You are a displaced person who has no country to
call home. You are shunned by the people whose land you now
inhabit. You are seen as a leech sucking up available jobs,
depriving the locals of what they perceive to be rightfully
theirs.
Money
is scarce and you share a home with another family, or maybe two
or even three other families. Space is limited and the only
privacy you have is within the confines of your mind. Your heart
aches to escape, your soul strives to soar, but you are a
prisoner of reality. You are a refugee.
Why
do we treat refugees with such contempt? Why are we so arrogant
to think we would never find ourselves in this situation? We
only have to look at one of the most recent natural disasters
— Hurricane Katrina — that destroyed the city of New Orleans
in the United States, to become cognizant that refugee status is
not only accorded to third-world country citizens. We could all
find ourselves in this stark situation one day, fleeing our
homes with just the clothes on our back, abandoning all of our
belongings. May Almighty Allah protect us.
As
Muslims, our duty toward refugees is clear. Allah exhorts us to
treat refugees with kindness and to provide them with whatever
help we can. Sadly, I have seen supposedly pious people, who are
punctual in their salah, perform hajj every year, these
men have big beards and their wives wear niqab, yet they
treat refugees with minimal respect. These people give refugees
menial jobs, substandard accommodation, and are made to feel
like outcasts. On the days of Eid celebrations, they are invited
home for a meal, but they are made to sit at a separate table.
Is this what being a good Muslim is all about?
In
the Companions (may Allah have mercy on them), we have the
perfect example of how to deal with refugees. The Ansar of
Madinah were the sublime embodiment of kindness and helpfulness.
When the Muhajirun emigrated from Makkah to Madinah at
the command of the Prophet (may peace be upon him), the Ansar
welcomed the them with open arms.
Each
Ansari brother took one Muhajir brother as a partner. The Ansar
gave one half of their wealth and belongings to the
Muhajirun. Can any of us fathom the true weight of this? Who
among us can honestly say we can even imagine, let alone give,
one half of our wealth to someone who has none?
What
better model of equality can there be than this? It was an
unprecedented act in the history of mankind and has never been
repeated since. Each Ansari brother competed to outdo the other
in good deeds to the extent that if a man had two wives, he
would divorce one so the Muhajir brother who did not have a
wife, could get married.
[Show
their affection to such as came to them for refuge, and
entertain no desire in their hearts for things given to the
latter, but give them preference over themselves, even though
poverty was their own lot, and those who saved from the
covetousness of their own souls – they are the ones that
achieve prosperity.] (Surah Hashr 59:9)
Allah
praises the Ansar who gave up everything out of love for Allah
and His Messenger (peace be upon him). And it was not only the
rich who gave of their wealth. Even the poor gave what they
could.
The
Ansar were magnanimous in their generosity and harbored no
ill-feelings toward the Muhajirun. They practiced ithaal (preferring
another over yourself) so that even when the war booty was
divided only among the Muhajirun, they felt no jealousy toward
their brothers.
We
obviously do not possess the great qualities of the Companions
(may Allah be pleased with them), but even so, we can try our
best to emulate them. Let us strive to redefine our paradigms
and alter our perceptions of the individual worlds we live in.
Let us seek to better ourselves at every turn. The next time you
see a foreigner walking in the street, imagine you were them. We
can get involved in community refugee centers and help those who
need our help. And in turn, Allah will look with mercy upon us.
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