I am quite sure that my people find it
blasphemous to think let alone speaking about wether Mandela, who never professed
any religion, be in heaven! Man has always been very curious to know whatever
things that are unknown to him and history is full of many detailed records
of this behavior. It is, therefore, not surprising for a common man to
hypothesize what might be happening in heaven, allow his mind raise
questions that might lead him astray!
To Muslims, myself included, Islam is the only true religion all humans are expected to embrace. Again the same Islam teaches
us that God’s knowledge is infinite and that his mercy overwhelms his wrath. To
me this is a divine indication that God wants us not to limit him in our own
understanding and just take him as God of vengeance.
The
death of Mandela triggered the above hypothesis in my mind, which I find it quite
innocent and sincere, given the current injustices in this world and what is
happening in the Muslim countries in particular. Mandela was a man who
believed in equality of all human races and social justice their color, faith
or creed notwithstanding. He, willingly, once said that he was ready to die for
those values. Consequently, he lost over two decades of his life time to prison in defiance of an oppressive government whose architects
believed in Christianity: the apartheid. It was the man whom we considered an “atheist”
who defended what the holy books taught, whereas the believers in God deprived
fellow human beings their God given rights. On the other hand, look at every
corner of the Muslim world, the believers of the only true religion, where a
Muslim kills follow Muslims to “Please Allah”!
Yes,
you have every right to refute my thinking and question whatever is in my mind,
but I believe you cannot deny me the benefit of doubt so that you can soberly
ask yourself, given that God is so merciful and He told us his mercy overwhelms
his wrath, will it be sinful to “say that God, with his infinite wisdom and
mercy, can be kind to the late Mandela and make heaven his abode?”
In
this world we have people of different faiths who claim to be devoted believers
of God and are the “True representatives” of God in this world, who day in day
out commit or condone heinous crimes against humanity. Just to mention a few; think
of the crisis in Myanmar where the supposedly peaceful followers of Budha, the military
government forces, prevent fellow human beings to procreate and deny them right of
citizenship in the country where they lived hundreds of years. Think of
Palestine, where the believers of the holy Torah are humiliating fellow human
beings and denying them the basic necessities of human dignity, think of Iraq
where the followers of Islam force their fellow Christian country men to
migrate their motherland. Think of Sudan where the light skinned Arab Muslims
continuously degrade and consider their fellow black Muslims less human beings
and massacre them in their homeland. Talk about Egypt where a school boy
was thrown in jail for simply having a ruler with anti-government logo as the
sons of former president are said to be free of all alleged wrong doings and
cases against them thrown to the dust bin. Think about the so called center of
Islam, Saudi Arabia, where foreign domestic workers are mistreated, raped,
tortured and deported to their countries without any compensation. Think of
Mauritania where to this day enslavement of human beings exists with the
explicit support of the Muslim Scholars in that country, look at the injustices
in Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and even Lebanon.
I
don’t have to forget about my own Somali people, who claim to be hundred per
cent Muslims and followers of the teachings of the tolerant Islam, where
somebody is killed for something they did not chose: belonging to a specific
clan!
Considering
all that and how believers in all religions who claim to be closer to God than
late Mandela have turned this world into hell for its inhabitants, don’t you think
with the grace of God, Hs infinite wisdom He can receive Mandela in heaven
so that when those “holier than thou”, godly people, find themselves on the
wrong side in the afterlife, they will know what mattered was not beliefs but
fighting for and defending the God given rights, equality of all mankind.
Only
God knows, but I believe we have no right to limit Allah into our own limited
human, dogmatic knowledge and understanding!
