“Command righteousness and forbid wrongdoing…” (S. 3:110)
Depending on the translation from the Quran, the phrase may also be translated as commanding what is just and forbidding what is evil, commanding right and forbidding wrong, and other combinations of “enjoin” or “command”, “right” or “just”, “wrong”, “unjust”, or “evil”. We here at Interfaith Library are doing that today!
The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting and attempted bombing that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher.
On July 20, 2012, a mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises. Dressed in tactical clothing, James Holmes set off tear gas grenades and shot into the audience with multiple firearms. Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them from gunfire.
On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and six were adult staff members.
On a balmy June evening in 2015, a young man with a blunt bowl haircut walked into the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, to join a Wednesday night Bible study. As the worshipers closed their eyes in prayer, the man fired at least 70 shots, killing nine people.
Two years later, on a bright Sunday morning in November, a man in a skull face mask fired some 700 rounds outside and inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, leaving at least 20 people injured and 26 dead. A pregnant woman, her unborn baby and the 14-year-old daughter of the church’s pastor, Frank Pomeroy, were among those killed.
On May 14, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in Buffalo, New York, at a Tops Friendly Markets store, a supermarket in the East Side neighborhood. Ten black people were killed and three other people were injured.
On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers, and wounding 17 others. Earlier that day, he shot and wounded his 66-year-old grandmother.
We here at Interfaith Library are not overlooking other mass shootings and senseless violences that is perpetrated here in America everyday. The reason for this post is to ask the God-fearing people of this country a simple question. What are your silent prayers doing? What are we going to do collectively to take a stand? What are we going to do about these guns?
Allah (i.e God) is Al-Adl, The Just, and He is Al-Rahman, The Most Merciful; He never wants ill for His servants, He only wants the best for us. There are a lot of evidences in the Torah, Bible, Qur’an and Hadith that helps us understand this and also helps us to understand why we are tested and tried.
On the other hand, the greatest temptation Shaytaan (i.e. the Devil) throws at us is the idea that we should be able to live a self – sufficient life. He wants us to be masters of our own lives, living only for ourselves and trusting only in ourselves. He does not want us to rely on Allah.
In the Torah, the metaphor for evil is darkness. No more than the absence of truth. A void of reality. Like darkness, Evil has no power of its own. From where, then, does it derive the power to cause so much pain in the world? Generally speaking, from us, from our fear of it. That we consider it a “something” worth negotiating.
With every spoonful of worry we foster it, with every glance of trepidation, every concession we make from our lives to acknowledge its threat — until Evil rises brazenly to attack us with our own instruments.
In the Bible, Ephesians 6:10-18 ESV it is taught, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, …”
In Islam, a famous Hadith, on the authority of Abu Sa`eed al-Khudree (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say, “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.” [Muslim]
With all this said and shared, we can no longer stand by and be silent. We can no longer just pray about it. We can no longer have candle light vigils when catastrophes strike. We must collectively take a stand and say, ”Enough is Enough!”
If you know evil is present, call it out and lets collectively remove it. Hold your spiritual and political leaders accountable. Press for HEAVY gun laws and regulations. Heck, why do we need them anyway?
List of countries in which civilian gun ownership is illegal
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Comoros
- Eritrea
- Fiji
- Guinea-Bisseau
- Maldives
- Marshall Islands
- Myanmar (except for Chin people)
- Nauru
- North Korea
- Palau
- Seychelles
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- Timor-Leste
- Vatican City