A Change to Virtuousness, Or Hang on Corruptness

The Quraan and the Hadith were the main source of legislation that inspired the former Harar Emirate. Our forefathers had reference to these two glorious instructions. However, after the fall of Harar Emirate in 1887, our elders, elites, knowledgeable and intellectuals, who succeeded in the school of thoughts during the reign of successive emperors of Ethiopia, who worked hard to deviate us from truth, couldn’t persist in articulating our values with the modern world and didn’t leave any written traces to follow except oral materials that could gradually wear off (if not written), as we are experiencing currently.

The Harari Society is in chaos (endanger of Harari existence). We are nowhere to refer except oral resources. We are people of no guidelines, instructions, etc. Therefore, we argue with nothing and all our arguments, discussions and conflicts lead us nowhere except chaos, confusion, lack of confidence; effecting blots of immorality on our mental processor. Everyone is seeking a solution referring to his desire, but far away from attaining it. This resulted in turn backbiting each other, disgracing each other, and character assassinating each other; hence, hatred and jealousy stained our hearts. To get out of this confusion and chaos, we need a healing process to cure our wounds, and a solution to our mental troubles and to our hearts that are discolored with hatred and jealousy. Everybody feels something is gone astray, and everybody feels that he might have possessed the filling in his own way. Thus, let every individual make an effort to visualize what could be the best solution to heal our sad situation and how he might contribute within his ability and limits of knowledge. Once the individual understands this, he could play a role in his part rather than putting his noses on other individuals’ affairs. In this case, an individual can play any of these three roles:

To visualize what you can contribute to improve and heal the Hararis’ deteriorated condition and do your best to cooperate with others and accept ideas to make your contribution effective.
If you are unable to visualize and contribute anything then be a follower even though your ideas sound, listen to what other people tell you to do.
If you are not accepting the above mentioned, settle down and sit aside withholding your contribution of evil and give the people who accept the above mentioned a sound mind. Otherwise, you will be a devilish and a mischief of the whisperer.

The best way to help people at the event of chaos is to give them peace by avoiding your evil.

Our first duty is to specify and define our problem, which we are trying to find a solution for. What is the cause of our core problem? Is it something that is beyond our knowledge? Is it really lack of our ethical status? Is it really a deviation from the truth? Is it being a nation that has forgotten itself?

The Harari people were a nation that possessed its own value and moral. It advised and ordered the good and forbade the bad. The past regimes of Ethiopia have tried any and all measures they could to wipe out the Hararian people, but have failed. However, after the Marxist regime, our youth involved in atheist acts, except those who have been Mercied by Allah. It lost its love and uniqueness of its culture based on Islam and found the best values to be bad, and the worst to be good. It has completely forsaken its Islamic teaching and has resorted to a left wing or a right wing. Our youth had made Marx and Lenin as their symbol, and they made fun of our Quraan and Hadith. This has long been a veiled retroactive effect in our youth, which is very hard to wipe out, even though most of them tried their best to get rid of all of it. Still, the symptoms remain in their hearts, but I’m sure it will gradually disappear by making a great effort to follow the instructions of Allah (by strengthening the Iman with Akhlaaq – moral constitution). We forgot ourselves and the time became the cheapest thing among us. To work collaboratively towards success became a suppressive burden on us. Our thinking power is corrupted because we are imitative, not inventive with perseverance. We copy other people’s thoughts; we don’t initiate our own thoughts. In fact, we feel our mental weakness, which has become common in our Harari society, and reached a stage of guilty consciousness and shame. But we are silent and very courteous of our failures.

What is amazing is we are among the peoples who were given the first Ayah of Quraan, saying, “Read!” but we don’t read well, and if we read, we don’t understand well, and if we understand, we don’t practice it accordingly, and if we practice it, we don’t continue to practice it. Sorry to say, we Hararis contribute a lot of gossip, and the majority simply talks and argues. We talk too much and work too little. Most of us spend our time doing unnecessary things, and we pay no attention to the most important matters to be attended. We turn around ourselves like the Bull that rotates around the wheel. There is a legendary tale in Arabic: It was said that Juhaa made a waterwheel in a river, taking water from it and then returning into it. When he was asked, “Why is that?” he said, “It’s enough to hear the sound, and at least let me feel that I did something.”

If we remember the days the present government took over, Harar has taken its share of own government; we have been conducting many meetings, inside and abroad. From these meetings there have been decisions, recommendations, guidelines, etc. Unfortunately, nothing has been achieved; all of what was discussed was left on paper or memory. We are accustomed to excellent speeches, but we are not accustomed to do excellent work, in other words, we speak too much and expect others to do what we spoke out and recommended. Usually we decide and admire our decision, but we don’t evaluate and follow the result of our decision. Of course, speeches are very important, but they are useless if they are not implemented. The worst of it is that we are a minority, but divided and follow different ways and became a minority of a minority. All of us are aware that division weakens us, but unity strengthens us, but we encourage and insist in remaining divided with our immoral acts. It is difficult for us to stand by ourselves as a minority. We need to have tight relationships with others. Even in this modern world, the most powerful and advanced nations are trying their best to unify their military, economy and even political as a cooperative body that can benefit all. But we, being minorities are divided ideologically, politically, and religiously, while other neighbouring nations watch us as people who observe their culture, tradition and religion, but we didn’t benefit from that potentially powerful value. Our spiritual power became destabilized.

After the Marxist regime, the wave of absolute eradication of religion has affected our obedience to God. We lost the spirit of loyalty to Allah. Our hearts became very insensitive and unsympathetic to Allah’s instructions. Neither the Marxist education, nor the Capitalist education has been able to cultivate our hearts with spiritual guidance that will enable us to be compassionate to each other. As one of our scholars Muhammed Iqbal said about these modern schools, “These schools can open the eyes of the new generation for many information, but never teaches the heart to produce a single tear for the loyalty of Allah.” We misused the spirit of the Islamic religion, which is the main spirit for our existence. We are nothing without Islam. We engaged ourselves in these worldly materials that will vanish. The main message of Islam was to purify our hearts and inspire our characters with Quraanic moral. As Allah said in Surat-al-Shams, 91:09, 10

<<Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that corrupts it! >>

If this spirit is changed with Quraanic moral, the society will be changed. Allah never changes a person unless he changes himself. Allah said in his Quraan, Surat-al-Ra’d, 13:11

<<Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls). >>

It is true that we pray, fast, and celebrate religious occasions. This doesn’t mean that we are observing our Islamic religion and fulfilling what Allah has asked us to fulfill. Of course, we celebrate these religious occasions, but we rebel against our moral obligation. The worst of it is, we made the instructions of Islam as a mockery, and the mockery became as a religion. We decorate the walls of our houses with verses of the Quraan instead of decorating our lives by practicing the verses of the Quraan, and the best that Allah blesses is to practice the verses of the Quraan. Allah said in Surat-al-An’aam 6:155,

<<And this is a book, which we have revealed as a blessing, so follow it and be righteous that you may receive mercy>>

The main key of Harari personality is the Iman. This Iman of Islam made our forefathers lead other neighbouring nations. Allah gave them victory over the most powerful emperors in Africa, in spite of its minority and insufficient power. There was a legend that our fathers always told us. King Minilik sent Tef to our Amir Abdullahi, the Amir of Harar, which means we are many in number. In turn, Amir Abdullahi sent to King Minilik barbare, which means we burn our enemy like that.

The deficiency is in the whole nation, and everyone is the victim of selfishness. Every one of us feels innocent and to him others are guilty. Everyone sees the dirtiness in the eyes of others, but never sees the dirtiness in his own eyes. Everyone expects others to do the task, but no one does it. Everyone expects others to sacrifice, but no one sacrifices. Everyone expects others to contribute, but no one is contributing. We believe in Allah, but we do not obey Him. We love Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), but we don’t follow his teachings. We would like to enter Paradise, but we don’t strive to fulfill the requirements of entrance to Paradise. We fear to enter Hellfire, but we follow the ways that guide us into Hellfire, let Allah save us from it. We are proud to be Muslims, but we don’t do what elevates Islam. Bless those who purify their hearts and work hard and call others to do the same.

Think of the behaviour of our ‘ulamaas’ and how they act. Were they able to contribute any solution to our problems? Think of it. Think of our houses and the transient of worldly materials that we boast to each other. Think of the unjustifiable competition among us. Think of our wealthy Hararians back home, of their boasting and competition with each other with big villas and materials while relatives are hungry and in bad condition, such as contaminated water, insufficient health services, etc. Think of how we judge a person by his materials and not his good morals. Think of a very decent poor person who is treated ill fully and think of the dreadful rich person who is well treated. Think of teaching each other how to pray, and be good but couldn’t abandon fawahish (sinful matters). Think of how we teach each other al-amru bil ma’ruufi, wan-nahyi-anil-munkar but we couldn’t practice and tell each other the truth. Think of how we fast, but couldn’t cultivate our hearts with Taqwa to abandon backbite, hatred, discredit each other etc.

We Hararians, do we have good things? Of course, yes! There are tremendous amount of good values, which some nations don’t even possess. So what happened? What happened is that all our good values are coated and shattered with corruption or nervous characteristics (totally lack of Akhlaq).

This is what we are.

Finally, two things are before us:

We live in it in corruptness, hanging our heads in shame
Or challenge our corrupted state of affairs and work very hard for a change to virtuousness

Think of this my brothers and sisters.

Abdurahman Sherif

Posted: August 23, 2004