The Joy of Islam?

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Yet another cog in the left’s propaganda machine, Religion News Service (RNS), had some bad news for us recently: it seems that “Islamophobia” is on the rise. Improbably enough, however, RNS noted happily that amid all the inexplicable “hate” they’re supposedly receiving, Muslims are soldiering on, not only courageously, but also joyfully.

Joyfully? Really? Now, joy is one word that is not often associated with Islam. Back in the salacious Seventies, we had “the joy of sex,” and there’s always “the joy of cooking,” but the joy of Islam is something else altogether. The image of a grim-visaged Muslim cleric pronouncing a death fatwa comes straight from the Ayatollah Khomeini, the man who issued the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie, and who forbade publication of photos taken while he was smiling, lest the Iranian people get the mistaken impression that he might not be as grim, unforgiving, and relentless as he looked.

Khomeini, who dedicated his life to understanding Islam fully and properly and implementing it correctly, even explicitly denied that joy had anything to do with true Islam: “Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious.”

And yet now we are supposed to believe that Eid was full of “joy,” and that Muslims are fighting with “joy” against the evil and joyless “Islamophobes.” RNS stated that “last month, Muslims marked Eid al-Fitr amid war in Iran and surrounding countries, continued bombings in Gaza, violence in Sudan, crushing immigration enforcement and rising anti-Muslim attacks and verbiage, coupled with fear permeating in American Muslim communities as Islamophobic political efforts rise.”

Eid al-Fitr was on March 19 this year. In its little summary of Muslim victimhood, RNS didn’t bother to mention the fact that on March 1, a Muslim migrant opened fire in a bar in Austin, Texas, killing three people and injuring 13 others. Then on March 7, two pro-ISIS Muslims screaming “Allah akbar” threw a homemade shrapnel bomb at a crowd of pro-freedom protesters in New York City. Five days after that came two jihad attacks in one day, when a Muslim crashed his car into a Michigan synagogue and opened fire, while another Muslim started shooting at Old Dominion University, murdering one person and injuring two others.

Instead, RNS depicts Muslims keeping their chins up amid all the “hate” they supposedly, and unaccountably, receive: All their alleged fear “didn’t stop about 480 Muslims and interfaith allies from gathering in Washington, D.C., in late March for a celebration that deliberately centered strength and joy, purposefully called An American Eid.”

RNS also tells us that the “goal to instill joy was a success.” Haris Tarin of the Muslim Public Affair Council (MPAC) explains: “Joy is the beginning. Joy gives us the ability to speak truth to power. It gives us the ability to bring partners into the room and get them on board. But even this struggle, this fight we’re in to save democracy and push back against nationalism and extremism, even in that process we need to bring joy into the mix.”

How does one do that in an Islamic context? After all, Khomeini said there was no joy in Islam, by which he meant that it wasn’t a source of earthly happiness. Very well. How, then, does the believing Muslim gain access to the true joy that only Allah offers? The Qur’an’s answer is chilling. It tells Muslims that when they fight unbelievers, Allah will use them as his instruments to punish those unbelievers, and reward the Muslims by healing their hearts: “Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, and he will lay them low and give you victory over them, and he will heal the hearts of people who are believers, and he will remove the anger of their hearts.” (Qur’an 9:14-15)

So if a Muslim is depressed, or suffering from ennui, and is finding no pleasure in life, he can take hold of Allah’s promise to heal his heart if he wages jihad warfare against unbelievers. This is the source of joy in Islam. Unbelievers should take note, and do all they can to ensure that they do not become a Muslim’s pathway to joy.