Mindblown

Have you ever read a book that changed your mind in such a short time? 

I haven't until now - thanks to Lesley Hazleton in her fantastic writing, 'After the prophet'. I'm glad my trip with Ezrul to Kinokuniya led me to her book, nestled among array of bookshelves. 

The book is about the epic story of the Shia-Sunni split. I am embarrassed to admit that for someone who has heard about "Shiah-Sunni" for so long, I barely knew much except a one-sided Sunni version. In Malaysia, we don't have that in our curriculum and if you're in this side of the world, you mostly hear "Shiah is evil" without understanding much of why and how that rhetoric came about. The history I knew before this was mostly confined to:

1) Aishah r.a. was the enemy of Shiah 

2) Ali r.a. is the leader / imam of the Shias 

3) There was bad blood between Aishah r.a. and Ali r.a. 

4) Shiahs aren't real Muslims.

This reminded me so much of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. Much of the negative rhetoric around the Jews involves people's tendency to automatically associate all Jews to Israel or Zionism. I remember this being 'the elephant in the room' that I did not want to explore for fear that I am somehow disregarding my belief system by wanting to understand 'the other side'. 

When I was 25 and on holiday in Amsterdam, I visited the Anne Frank Museum. It was an extremely ordinary house with narrow wooden staircase and dim lights. There I was reading the description of Anne's writings while listening to the narration of the horrific experiences she endured. What's interesting is the consistent hope she harboured that one day it will be over...the whole experience made me see her simply as a bright young girl in a nightmare and not a Jew or Zionist. In that moment, I saw her for who she was instead of a label or character in a story. 

The same goes with this book. Some surprises:  

1) The close people around the Prophet SAW were hostile to each other e.g. some wives to each other, Ali r.a. and Aisyah r.a. especially during the Battle of the Camel where for the first time, there were civil war and bloodshed not just of Muslims but between the companions. This really opened my eyes that God is the judge between the conflict of two people and that each side has their own judgement and conscience. That does not validate one party and in some cases, there may not be a simple right or wrong party in a deadlock. 

2 ) The nepotism under Caliph Uthman Affan r.a. was so prevalent that as a reader, I sensed the downfall of the Caliphate began much from his time. In fact, he was the first Caliphate after Abu Bakr and Umar (r.a.) who was murdered by a Muslim. We are too judgmental on others and immediately write them off even though they are wrong whereas God has so much mercy on others. Reminds me that it is not for me to judge because they may have sought for forgiveness and changed - we can never see through the heart of others. Let God be the judge.