Why it is absolutely necessary to protect mosques from politicians

Society Religion & Philosophy
1

We all know that politics is a dirty business of wheeling dealing in order to use and abuse state power for the interest of one group of people or the other.

Mosques on the other hand are the sacred places meant for spiritual growth of the congregation.

During the time of Mohammad pbuh, he was able to keep the dirty politics out of the mosque and hence it was OK to use mosque for government business.

However the later years clearly proved that politics became dirty and sahaba got into their internal struggle for power and fame. No wonder we read about war between Ali and Aysha, and later the political assassinations of Muslim leaders.

That was the time, mosques should have been cleaned up from politicians to restore the sanctity of sacred places. Unfortunately it wasn’t done so.

Fast forward to 21st century, and politics has become even dirtier than what it was in the time of Sahaba.

Many Ulama have become dirty politicians, and many politicians have grown beards to be the pretend-Mullahs.

Thus as Muslims we have lost our centers of spiritual healing by turning our mosques into cesspools of political hatred. and now sadly, the mosques are regularly bombed and suicided by one group or the other.

It is time to restore the status of mosque as a place of peace and spiritual healing. And politicians should be banned from spreading their crap in our holy places. It doesn’t mean a politician cannot come and pray in the mosque. Off course he or she is allowed, but under one condition, that he will respect the sanctity of the mosque and solely focus on spiritual aspects and avoid politics in the mosques.

2

Re: Why it is absolutely necessary to protect mosques from politicians

^ Peace burqaposhx

It is clear that your stance is the secularisation of Islam from statecraft. But the argument you use above is not the best solution. Rather if we maintain the masajid as the social/religious/civil/and to some degree legal centres of our communities then we will encourage an Islamocentric people to flourish.

Rather your suggestion should have been that we need to address the commercialisation of masajid and start to take active part in the community rather than allow local business men to be committee members and implement their personal money making agendas. We do not need to remove the politicians from the masajid as such but we need to weed out corruption at every level from society.

3

Peace psyah.

I understand what you are saying. the problem with making musjid do too many things like:

social
/religious
/civi
l/and to some degree
legal

is fraught with confusion. And confusion is the biggest enemy of people. It is during the confusion when fasad and nifaq gets into the institutions.

We must avoid confusion by focusing on one core value or core objective. Otherwise the institution becomes jack of all trades and master of none.

These days you go to cardiologists for heart issues and to obgyn for child birth. Even though both the specializations are doctors but you will never ever go to an obgyn for issues specific to your heart.

Masjid too needs to define and focus on the clear role of providing spiritual guidance to its congregation.

And if someone wants to bring politics to the mosque he should be stopped with clear warning of ex-communication.

1400 years ago, mosque was probably the only community center in the area. Now there are plenty of places that serve specific community purposes.

For example legal issues are now discussed and presented in the court. Politics is carried out in the parliament building, government business is spread in multiple layers of city, state, and county level buildings. That's why it is a must for mosque to be focused on its core value.

For example, in old times Pakistan, mosque provided the main place with toilet and shower. So people used to go to mosque in the morning for such needs (in addition to prayers). Now we have many more homes with plumbing, so tradition of going to mosque for sleeping and taking shower is slowly dying out.

It is a must to set up clear rules to protect our mosques' sanctity.

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Re: Why it is absolutely necessary to protect mosques from politicians

^ I see how you are viewing this situation and you have presented a plausible analogy, but I can just as easily say that obgyn or cardio or maxillofacial or pre-natal or out patients are all different departments housed in the same building called a hospital or clinic.

Even then each department will have an admin section a nurse to assist and doctor to be the decision maker and so on. All of these functions have a common goal which is to treat and provide welfare ... well there is a common goal in civil/legal/religious/ and social circles also ... this common goal should be Islam ... the operation of a harmonious life which involves all of these areas.

Of course within the masajid you have a prayer area where no other activity is being done at the same time as prayer, you can have a consultation area, a library, meeting rooms, class rooms, and so on. Affiliated to and linked with the masajid, but minding their own business, but joined in ethos and share a common goal. This is all I am saying.

Parindo Ki misaal
5

On theory I agree. There is no problem with mosque serving as non-political non-discriminatory role in social sphere.

However the real experience shows that very few mosques have been able to retain their MAIN purpose aka spiritual enlightenment of their congregations. The rest have become a circus for politicians and Mullah-looking-politicians.

That reality is the one that prompted the thought about purifying and refocusing the role of mosque away from the dirty business of politics.

History Mystery