Love Thy Neighbor – Omar Suleiman
In Part 4 of the with Dallas-based Pastor Mike Baughman, Imam Omar Suleiman answers a question in the mind of many people in the West who have become conflicted about their Muslim minorities: Can you be a Muslim and a patriot? Can the allegiances of a Muslim in a non-Muslim country sit side by side? Can you be a practicing Muslim and an American, British or French citizen?
So moving to kind of more contemporary culture and life, I'm curious about how it is that someone who's Muslim can function within a non Muslim country
as a and be considered a patriot of that country, right? You know, is it is that possible? Can that can that can those allegiances sit side by side? Can you beat? Can you be a Muslim and an American? Well, I mean, obviously, it'd be like a Muslim and an American. But can you have that kind of like, the allegiance to both? Is that what it was Ted Cruz, who said, I'm a Christian first, then I'm an American.
Imagine if a Muslim said that right?
Absolutely. No, that look, there's nothing absolutely nothing in our religion that teaches us that we cannot be good patriotic citizens in a non Muslim lands.
Just sort of, if we tied the previous topic that I just mentioned with this, with this topic, with this idea of citizenship, and so on, so forth, and residing peacefully, with non Muslims, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said, and this is an authentic narration, it's very powerful. He said, Don't fight with the Indians, if they don't fight with you. Don't fight with the Turks if they don't fight with you. And this is a theme in the Quran, that fight against those who fight against you. And that God does not prohibit you from having a good relationship from being friendly towards those that don't fight you. So this idea of people that don't fight you, you should, you should
always look for peace, you should look for a situation where you can have peaceful relationships and so on so forth. Not only that, but patriotism, this concept of being a good citizen, wherever you are, the Muslims functioned as a minority and Abyssinia very well in the life of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon them, and they lived under a Christian majority. And they were fine with it, they were able to function they were able to be good citizens and so on, so forth. So there is nothing wrong. In fact, you know, it is it is fully in accordance with our faith that you not only are a Muslim, but you are a citizen of your country, and you should love your country, and you
should be a person of a great reformation and a person who brings great good Islam stresses just like Christianity and Judaism, you know, the idea of being good to your neighbor, loving your neighbor,
the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he says that the angel Gabriel came to me and he kept on telling me to serve my neighbor to the point that I thought that he would assign inheritance to him that that the neighbor is stressed so much in Islam, that that there that he thought that there would be inheritance that would go towards the neighbor many different you know, traditions about going to sleep full while your neighbor is hungry, and so on so forth. And Islamic scholars even tried to define parameters like seven houses down this way so but the point is that you are taught to be an outstanding citizen you're taught to to treat to love your neighbors, treat them well.
To to help them and it's not it's not a PR campaign, you're not doing this to show that you're a decent human being you're doing this because you're because you are a decent human being because you are a Muslim because your faith teaches you This reminds me of you know, Jesus being asked the question, so who is my neighbor Really? And and then Jesus launches into this story that that lifts up, someone that no one would assume is the neighbor of the person questioning
and offers that broader perspective. So it's, it's good to hear that and that's, you know, I think another just strain of connection and a point of connection.