Salaam

How would you meet God?

CNN documented this article in which Saudi Arabia's top cleric asked the uma, "How would you meet God? With innocent blood you shed or helped shed?" I was struck by the question, which I in turn asked myself. "How would I meet God. With innocent blood I shed or helped shed?" Ask yourself this question. Remove the political rhetoric that has clouded the previous year. Ask yourself this simple question from a Muslim cleric. This is such a Baptist question from a Muslim. This is individual responsibility for personal action or personal complicity in the action of another. "How will you meet God?" I must say that I have blood on my hands. My nation is, as I write, shedding innocent blood. What have I done to prevent this beyond punch a card in a voting booth. Have I put myself at risk for the defense of another as Christ did? No, I must answer an emphatic, NO!

I have a dear brother and sister who are Muslim and live in another country. They are wonderful people who have performed the Hajj and have given sacrificially for the benefit of their family and friends. They work hard to follow God as they have been taught to do, and seek to know Him better every day. My nation's foreign policy is such that if they were near a target of my country's military and were killed in the pursuit of military targets, they would be classified as "collateral damage" and their families would possibly be sent a letter of condolence (forgive me if I doubt). Their crime is that they are not Americans. Would you condone your family's death in the war on terror or the war on drugs? Look around your neighborhood and imagine death and destruction in the name of war on whatever. This is "collateral damage". "Collateral damage" have names, dreams, laughter, children, God's plan for their lives, and love for each other. Please honestly ask yourself

"How would you meet God? With innocent blood you shed or helped shed?"

posted by Abdul-Salaam @ 1:39 PM