The 'holy' spam

I keep receiving these mails in which my fellow Muslims urge to boycott some company because they are funding nations fighting against Muslims, some contain photos of clouds, trees, or other natural things having shape resembling 'Allah', 'Mohammad' in Arabic. Some of them tell a story of some shaikh in Saudi Arab who dreamed of our prophet Mohammad (sal.).

Each time I receive such a mail the first thing I do is delete it.

The people who advocate boycotting a certain company should know that most of the MNC's belong to the part of the globe that is desperately fighting against Muslims. In a way all of them are funding war against Muslims. So why not boycott all of them? But it is going to be extremely difficult as these companies are functioning in our countries and our people are their share holders so in a way it will hurt them as well as ourselves. The development you see around yourself in recent years is a result of money pumped into our country by these MNC's.

Anyone who has the slightest idea about how companies function would agree that in our age it is extremely difficult for a company to fund some army specifically to fight against a certain community. By the way MNC's employ thousands of people around, many of whom are Muslims plus most of them face a crunch on the finances to remain in the competition which again make it more difficult for a company to do the 'funding thing'. As far as I know these company's are run by very cunning people who are smart enough to calculate the losses if an entire community, and that too the second largest one, boycotts their products. I don't thing they can afford to intentionally play with the sentiments of any community leave alone Muslims. They are more interested in running their business and earning profits. If some director, employ or stake holder of a company is giving away his/her money for a 'cause' that is his/her personal business you can not blame the company for it. But Everybody seems to have a flare for conspiracies.

The clouds having the shape of 'Allah', 'Mohammad' or some other holy sign seem to be reinforcing belief of some people in their religion. Well, if no such cloud, tree or anything else appear will we loose our faith? I have seen similar pictures that show natural things of the shapes of holy signs of various religions. Should I change my religion the next time I see a cloud of the shape a Holy Cross or OM? After every natural disaster pictures pour in that show some holy idol or sign unhurt while the rest of things are destroyed by the disaster. What if such a picture is proved to be the creation of some jingoistic person? Will my 'reinforced' faith should loosen up a bit? But that will be really embarrassing for sure. My point is that my belief is not dependent on a picture that shows a cloud of the shape of some holy sign.

And yeah that shaikh, who dreamt of our prophet Mohammad (sal.) must have a very weak knowledge of 'Sunnah'. Mohammad (sal.) had already predicted these things a very long time ago, I think. Anyway that shaikh story is decades old, I first read it in a pamphlet that was being distributed outside a mosque 10 years ago, went to my father and told the story, in return he told me that he heard the story a couple of decades ago. Amazing how long these stories can remain in circulation. I read a similar story but it was some Hindu lady who dreamed about 'Kaali' (offcourse, This 'holy' spam concept is not limited to muslims only. It gives me relief thinking that at least we don't mind adopting such stories from other communities). These stories are available in all the versions, flavors and 'brands'.

Very sparingly comes a mail that contains some genuine information or at least something that makes sense. I wait for such a mail, I preserve it and forward it.

So please give yourself and your ISP a little rest, stop crunching the bandwidth by broadcasting such mails, send me pictures of children and flowers instead.

May Allah give us peace and show us the right path.

Mohammad Vaqqas