Send this to ten people else...

by Shahista Asharia

I received a very interesting email yesterday, talking of the importance of the Qur’an. But as I scrolled down, I cringed as I read what was next..

I didn’t mind the sender asking me to forward the email to 10 people. They were just doing Amr bil Maroof, right? But it didn’t end there.

Apparently, Ahmed only sent the email to nine friends. The next day, he lost his job and crashed his Bentley.

Abdullah was slightly more fortunate. Being more popular meant that he had 20 friends that he could educate about Islam! Naturally, a week later he won $10 million in a Las Vegas Casino. In a halal way, of course.

I could go on for years about Ayesha whose computer was infected by a virus, or Badr turning into an ape-like creature for laughing off the threats.

It is easy to ignore these emails, and some of the absurdities even put a smile on one’s face after a long day. But problems begin when we use tacky hoaxes to attempt to propagate Islam.
For example, a video entitled “Mojiza in Karbala” is being circulated, in which it is claimed a group of revellers died while dancing in a party. In fact, the video was of a Jewish wedding in Israel where the floor gave way. No relation to Karbala whatsoever. Maybe they confused it with Kabbalah.

Similarly, a video of a man in a Julus is being brandished as Imam Mahdi (aj), probably due to his resemblance to the imaginary paintings of some Imams.

These hoaxes are trivialising crucial matters and make us a laughing stock. Not only do we not need to resort to such cheap tactics to spread messages like Karbala, where just hearing the story is enough to make one weep, but they also have a negative effect on the youth regarding belief in miracles.

With the term being thrown around like a hot potato, and with many of the “miracles” nothing more than bored, overzealous individuals having a field day with Photoshop or MovieMaker, the true value of a miracle is being lost.

The shame is that many genuine miracles are ignored because of the sheer number of “fakes” circulating around. When anyone has the stomach to doubt a blatantly fabricated “mojiza” people are quick to accuse them of lacking belief.

I am in no way claiming that all the miracles are hoaxes. On the contrary, it is perfectly possible that many of them are manifestations of Allah’s (swt) power over Earth.

What I am saying is that we have a living miracle which we have with us in our own homes, that we can read and implement in our daily lives, and that is the Holy Qur’an. What greater miracle could one ask for?