The big media story this entire week has been the story of Oscar Pistorius. I’m sure you all must have heard about the story- The famous South African Paralympics champion was arrested last Thursday after his girlfriend was killed at his home. Whether he actually did premeditate her murder, or if it was in fact a real accident no one will ever know. Allah knows best about all things and there’s always loads of speculation and accusations in these types of cases. Honestly I’m not really interested in why he did it, if he did it with intent or if he really thought his girlfriend was a burglar. All of that doesn’t really make a difference to me, but there is something that does interest me about this case...
People have openly
and boldly voiced their opinions, there’s disappointment and outrage that a
National hero could do such a thing, people feel let down, angry and have even
gone so far as to call Pistorius a “monster”. All of this hype really has to
make you wonder. I doubt very much that this story would be so sensational if
Oscar Pistorius was just another man. In fact, these types of cases are not at
all uncommon in South Africa. Every week we read about people killing their
girlfriends or wives, police officers who can’t take the pressure and trauma
repeatedly make headlines for killing their partners. Not only police officers,
but reports of such incidents occur so often that sadly to say it’s reached a
point where it’s become rather mundane. Now my intention is not to minimise
this event. It’s terrible that a woman got killed, by someone she loved and
trusted; but it’s also equally terrible all of the other times it happens! The
only difference here is that this case involves “celebrities” and this is the
part that I felt I needed to comment on. When we “glorify” ordinary people and
begin to see them as these perfect role models then we tend to forget that just
like all human beings, they are prone to error, and then when they do make
mistakes or show their human weakness, we go crazy and lose our faith in them, but
we’re the ones who’ve created a superhuman image in the first place, so it
doesn’t make much sense to feel “let down” or “disappointed”, now does it?
Human weakness is
not something that is only reserved for us ordinary people. In fact, I would
think that those people who are constantly in the limelight are more prone to
give in to their human weaknesses. Not only do they have way more pressure than
the rest of us, but they also have way more temptations- and you know what they
say, “with great power comes great responsibility”- Perhaps when we forget that
Power only belongs to Almighty Allah, that’s where we begin to go wrong.
So yes, this whole
Oscar Pistorius story is a sad one, it’s terrible really that we should even
hear of such cases, but for people to be so outraged simply because they’ve
been let down by a “hero” doesn’t make much sense. If we’re going to call him a
monster or whatever else, then we should do that to all the men (and women) who
commit such crimes. If we’re going to be angry then we should be angry because
a woman was killed by someone she trusted, but then we should be equally angry
every time this happens. If we’re going to be upset then we should be upset
that things like crime, inability for self restraint, anger, and such things
are overtaking people, but this should be equally applied to everyone.
The question I
leave you with is this: How do we so easily turn the pages of newspapers, (or
scroll through the pages of the online newspapers), when the exact same cases
occur with ordinary people, and now that it’s a “celebrity” we all make a big
deal? It’s really got to make you wonder
what our ideals as human beings really are?
Furthermore, if we
glorify a human being and forget that Our Creator is the only one worth
glorifying then we will certainly be let down, big time. Even Allah’s beloved
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not wish for people to glorify him. He constantly
reminded people that Allah is the only One who deserves to be glorified and he
(pbuh) helped people to turn their attention towards Allah. Remember when the
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) passed away and the people were extremely sad to the
point that they did not wish to do anything, and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased
with him) stood up and reminded people of the verse of the Glorious Quraan in
which Allah Almighty says:
“Muhammad is
no more than a Messenger: many were the messengers that passed away
before him. If he died or were slain, will ye then turn back on your heels? “(Surat
Al-Imran 3:144).
After the people heard this they were more at ease and
able to go about with life again because they were reminded that Allah Almighty
is the only One worth glorifying, and Allah will never make any errors, indeed
only Allah is Truly Perfect and human beings can never come close to
perfection.
May Almighty Allah guide us all and help us to always
see truth, Inshaa-Allah Ameen!
