We praise Allah. We bear witness that there is no God but Him, and we bear witness that Mohammed is His messenger and the Prophet. We ask Allah to shed His Peace and Blessings upon the Prophet, upon his family, his companions, and his followers to the Day of Judgment.

My dear Brethren, every once in a while Brother Aslam Abdullah, the Chief Editor of the Minaret, makes the courtesy to do some proof reading of the Minaret before it goes to print.

That is how I got to read a letter from a Muslim Sister from South Africa. She was not born a Muslim, but she embraced Islam. She lost her husband and held a single parent family including a daughter and a son. A family that was a Muslim family, with a mother doing her very best.

Unfortunately, at the age of seventeen, her son committed suicide. It was a grave shock to her, losing her only son at that young age. Of course she had to face the immediate duties of burying her son. For that, of course, she went to the Islamic Center.

You will be surprised to learn what happened. None of the members of the Islamic Center would take part in the funeral or the burial, on the pretext that the boy had committed suicide, and this was haram.

What a distortion of Islam this is. What cruelty has crept into the hearts of those Muslim brothers. Who of them did not disobey Allah sometime.

If the boy was guilty, what was the guilt of the mother? A Muslim mother left with a dead son.

It was as if they had already tried the son and passed the verdict on him to remain unburied. What if the son had been afflicted with an acute psychiatric illness, that compelled him to lose control?

But this was the unfortunate event. Until with the help of two Muslim sisters and a group of Christian men she could arrange for the washing, the Janazza Prayers, and the burial of her son.

This was the Islamic behavior that some Muslims chose to do in this calamity. I have been pondering and saying that to some Muslims, Islam begins with the knowledge of the rules and regulations. One of them could have a full Islamic Library in his head. Yet they can see the tree and are blind to the forest.

My dear brethren, before the stage of rules and regulations, before the stage of worship and behavior, before the stage of haram and "halal" and "makru" and "mandub", before memorizing and learning, we should not miss the total picture of Islam, the totality of Islam.

The total objective of the mission of the Prophet, Peace and Blessing be upon him, that was described to him by Allah, Praised and Exalted be He, in the Quran,

We have sent you for nothing else

Therefore it is so simple to conclude that anything which conflicts with mercy, does not run parallel with the mission of the Prophet, Peace and Blessing be upon him.

The Prophet described himself as "Ar Rahmatu al mozjah", the mercy presented by Allah to mankind. All his life, he was the best example of mercy. His was a mercy on far and near, friend and enemy. That was the psychology of the Prophet, Peace and Blessing be upon him.

Yet some Muslims are impervious to this concept of mercy. They want to make themselves judge, and pass judgements in situations where it is only for Allah to pass judgement. To have the courage to speak on behalf of Allah and to condemn a dead Muslim to remain unburied, to me looks like the ethic of cruelty. Cruelty is incompatible with iman (faith) and Islam.

At the time of the Prophet, Peace and Blessing be upon him, there was a man widely known to be a hypocrite. In secret he would ally with the enemies of the Muslims. Yet the Prophet knew it and many of the Muslims could feel it.

They thought of killing the man and his own son came to the Prophet and said, "O Prophet of Allah, let me kill my father."

The Prophet, Peace and Blessing be upon him, answered, "Never let it be said that the Prophet kills his followers. If he is a hypocrite we can only have the authority of implementing the law. But if there is no legal crime then we can not punish a man."

He knew that the man was wrong, but what about the son who was faithful? Isn’t the son deserving of some courtesy here? Or shall the son bear the burden of everybody cursing his father?

That son who committed suicide: What about a Muslim, faithful mother with the body of her dead son on her hands. She can not carry him, she can not wash him, or convey him to the funeral, or bury him. Isn’t it a shame that it was two women and a group of Christians who fulfilled that duty?

Al Hamdu Lillah, you and hopefully I know that the essence of Islam is Rahma. Whoever will need the Rahma of Allah, Praised and Exalted be He, has to build up a stock in his account. If you need the mercy of Allah, then give mercy. If you will ever need the forgiveness of Allah, then give forgiveness.

Still, so far I see Muslims now and then whose hearts are thick, whose emotions are dry, who know the rules and regulations, but miss the Rahma, which is the essence of Islam.

Islam, to me, can not be joined half-way. It can not be started with the rules and regulations and the do’s and don’ts. The beginning is the total realization of total mission of Islam, which is a mercy to the worlds.

Sometime ago, I was with one of those great scholars, a big Alim, with plenty of following. Our discussion led us to discuss the status of the illegitimately born child in Islam. Very promptly, he said, "To be killed."

So I said, "O, Abdur Rahman, suppose you and I were standing in this room, and through the door comes a sweet five year old boy, with a ball in his hand. He smiles at us and throws the ball to play with us. Would you go and kill him?"

The man took the message and said, "No, I wouldn’t kill him."

This example shows that knowledge is present in Muslims who lack the essence. This happens with many Muslims still.

May Allah inspire you, to live your life under the shade of the mercy of Allah, Praised and Exalted be He. And may Allah, make you instruments of His mercy, not of His punishment.

If you are an instrument of His punishment, expect that you will face punishment, and if you are an instrument of His mercy, expect that He will deal with you in mercy.

We ask Allah, Praised and Exalted be He, to fill our hearts with mercy, and to give us mercy when we need it. We ask Allah to make us instrumental in showing the way to other Muslims, who unfortunately are confused about Islam and give more importance to the rules than to the essence of Islam.

My dear brethren, what a great religion Islam is. The corollary is that only great people are worthy of carrying the message of this great religion. Only people commensurate with Islam should call themselves Muslims. Only people whom Allah led in their hearts the essence of Islam, which is mercy.

Without acquiring that, we have missed the beginning my brothers and sisters. Without starting with it deep in our hearts, we can not go on and say that we are the Muslims. Without realizing that the total mission of Islam is mercy, and that the Prophets mission is nothing but mercy, then we have not begun at the beginning.

May Allah instill in our hearts, His love, and love of our fellow Muslims, and our fellow human beings. May Allah make us always instruments of His mercy, and give us mercy and forgiveness on the day we will need them.