COULD MANDELA BE IN HEAVEN!

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!