The New Nation - Internet Edition

Maswood Alam Khan

Saint Jibrail used to come in contact with Hazrat Muhammad (SM), our last prophet, once every year to reveal to him our Holy Quran, but in the year 632 he came twice. Our last prophet sensed his time was coming to an end that year, and advised his close associates to call as many people as possible from various places to join him in his final pilgrimage to Mecca. More than one hundred thousand Muslims had participated in that unforgettable pilgrimage.

Hazrat Muhammad (SM) led the pilgrims from Mecca up to the Mountain of Arafat where at the foot of the mountain a sea of people stood in front of him silently as he sat on his camel and delivered a monumental speech of historical significance---a speech that in short described Islam as the complete code of life, a speech that transmitted the most eloquent message on human rights.

Before conveying teachings on unflinching faith in oneness of Allah, rights and equality of humans especially of women, fraternity of mankind irrespective of their color and creed, honest living, forbidding usury, five daily prayers, keeping out of Satan's mischief, fasting during the month of Ramadan, giving wealth in Zakat to the poor and performing Hajj (for one who can afford) Hazrat Muhammad (SM) prefaced his address with a poignant preamble: "Oh my people, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether after this year I shall ever be amongst you again. So, listen to what I am saying very carefully and take my words to those who could not be present here today."

"Take my words to those who could not be present here today"----is the order of our last prophet Muslims have since our prophet had passed away been carrying out in different parts and corners of the world. One of those corners of the world is a vast swathe of landscape (190 acres) open to sky on the bank of the River Turag at Tongi, ten miles away from the capital city of Dhaka where three-day long Bishwa Ijtema (World Conference on Teachings of Islam) is held every year during winter for the last 44 years with 2 to 3 million attendees, all Muslims, from home and abroad---a mammoth gathering which some people describe as the second largest gathering of Muslims next to Hajj, though in fact the number of attendees in Bishwa Ijtema at times exceeded that of pilgrims during hajj in Mecca.

We the mortals with a sense of rationality gradually realize that we have but to bid adieu to this world day after tomorrow, if not today; before breathing our last, therefore, we want to be reassured of some peace in the other world. Religious faith is our solace that we would live in comfort in our afterlife if only the Providence is not unhappy with our deeds in this temporal life. We drown in our prayers to God our fears of afterlife.

Notwithstanding our errant, sinning and aberrant life in our office and home we believe that our last minute joining in with millions in Akheri Munajat at the end of Bishwa Ijtema without having to comply with other must prayers in our bygone days would surely absolve us from all our sins. Some of us even fancy calling Bishwa Ijtema "a Hajj for the poor."!! We immerse our bodies in the River Ganges to purify our past life from anathemas and sins. So, we gather in great number whenever we come to know there is a shortcut to haven, such as the weekly Jumma Prayer, nightlong prayer on Shab-e-Barat or Akheri Munajat at Tongi to bypass the longer route of everyday prayers---heightening God's displeasure with our double standard to cheat at our religious obligations.

A gathering---however mammoth---must not be compared with Hajj. Hajj is a compulsory rite for each Muslim to perform at least once in his/her life while nowhere in Quran or Hadith has it been made compulsory for a Muslim to attend an Islamic gathering other than in Mecca. Bishwa Ijtema, like any gathering of Tablig Jamaat, is meant for scholars to disseminate in clear terms the 'boyaans': the messages of Allah as enunciated in Quran and sayings of our last prophet. Anyone, Muslim or non-Muslim, should participate in such gatherings for the sake of his/her own quest for knowledge.

We should solicit presence of non-Muslims in Bishwa Ijtema because our last prophet wished to illuminate the whole mankind with the radiance of Islam. Advice of Hazrat Muhammad (SM) in his farewell sermon that "Take my words to those who could not be present here today" should be construed as enlightening people who were still in the dark about Islam and its beneficence: people who are Muslims only by their names and just the opposite by their deeds or non-Muslims who are yet to know the true meaning of Islam.

Fifteen hundred years back when women and slaves as commodities were transacted in the open markets, when nobody could dream of equal rights and status of all humans Hazrat Muhammad (SM) led crusades for the liberty of slaves and women. He helped obliterate the borderline between masters and servants and unleashed those who were sinking under the weight of usury. Hazrat Muhammad (SM) was in fact the first trailblazer of human rights in the human history.

If Tablig Jamaat's primary goal is what Hazrat Muhammad (SM) in his last message on farewell pilgrimage exhorted his followers to do---"Take my words to those who could not be present here today"---proponents of all Tablig gatherings, big or small, should invite non-Muslims first and focus on human rights as the cardinal duty of Muslims to ensure as our last prophet all his life repeatedly pointed at equality between men & women, between masters & servants and between haves & have-nots for our harmonious life on earth.

After suicide attacks reportedly by al-Qaeda that crashed the World Trade Centre in New York City on September 11, 2001 and subsequent invasion of Iraq by USA many westerners started wondering why Muslims are so desperate for their religion! Are Muslims by nature aggressive?

Does Islam teach Muslims to kill innocent people? After delving deep into Islamic Studies and Islamic history as curious readers they, to their awful revelation, found out that the fact was just to the contrary. Overwhelmed by Islam's philosophy for the sake of humanity Americans, especially after 9/11, embraced Islam as their religion in greater numbers.

Curiosity is the capital of tourism. Commerce hovers on the edge of curious crowds. 3 million pilgrims during Eid-ul-Azha and 2 million pilgrims during the month of Ramadan & another 4 million during the rest of the year for performing umrah constitute a gigantic volume of business in terms of income from travel and tourism fetched by a total of 9 million pilgrims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia throughout the year. Businesses worth millions of Indian Rupees are transacted on a single day by big and small traders during Ardh Kumbh Mela in the Indian city of Prayaga (also known as Allahabad) where 70 million pilgrims from around the world gathered in January, 2007---the largest gathering in history. Thousands of our village fairs grew up at sites where religious festivities have traditionally been held. In our country, traders on clothes and apparels and traders on sacrificial cattle do their 70 percent business on the eves of Eid-ul-Fitre and Eid-ul-Azha respectively.

Given the kind of enthusiasm already generated by Bishwa Ijtema, commerce worth multibillion dollars may also grow on the bank of the River Turag where hordes of curious tourists interested in humanistic philosophy may pour in if we can make the Ijtema an annual event on Islam's appeal to humanity targeting people of different religions, colors, creeds and scholastic backgrounds. Bishwa Ijtema, as has been developed today as a gathering of multimillion people, should be deemed Bangladesh's multidimensional goldmine from the religious and economic points of view, provided our religious leaders and members of our think-tanks consider how the three-day long Ijtema may be retailored where world class scholars can deliberate on Islam's roles in human rights to attract more tourists from various corners of the world. The Ijtema will then be an annual event of global importance where, for instance, one scientist will deliver his erudite lecture on climate change, one economist on interest-free microfinance, some political scientists on human rights and mainly some Islamic scholars on "how Islam is a complete code of life" as has been enunciated in Quran and Sunnah.

But people from any developed country would never spend money to travel all the way to Tongi if we cannot make their sojourns in and around Dhaka city interesting, safe and exhilarating with a lot of amenities and facilities tourists and travelers care about.

A tourist who had planned to visit Bangladesh for sightseeing (not necessarily for participating in a Tablig Jamaat) may tailor his/her itinerary in a way so that s/he may just pay a cursory visit to Tongi during Bishwa Ijtema with a view to passing by the largest gathering of Muslims. Who knows, a tourist from Norway while window-shopping in a nearby mall on the bank of the River Turag during Bishwa Ijtema may hear from the Public Address System an excerpt from the Holy Quran in English that may by happenstance help her dig a brand new meaning of life!