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O Allah! Guide us, make our intentions sincere, accept our deeds, answer
our prayers, and make us of those who are patient.
La haola wala quwata illaah billaah.
Jazaka'llaahu khairan for this mail.This is indeed an excellent article
with the aim of reminding muslims
not to fall into the pit of shirk and disobedience.
Please,let's try and circulate this article written by Bro.Khalid Baig
to many muslim families because as sad as it is,many muslim kids have
fallen "in love" with the so-called popular Harry Potter.They know his
life history from head to toe.But I wonder how much love we parents and
our children have for the sahabahs and sahabiyahs when we know only
little of their lives.
Allaahu musta'an.
Maryam.
May Allah save us and our children from covert means of destroying faith
Harry Potter: Facts about Fiction
By Khalid Baig
Posted: 21 Rabi-u-Thani 1424, 21 June 2003
As expected there was much frenzy around the latest Harry Potter book.
Bookstores and clubs around the world arranged special midnight parties
and other events in celebration of the launching of the long-awaited
fifth book in the series. A grandiose countdown was held in Times Square
for the coming of the fifth book.
The book was set to break many old records. Online bookseller Amazon had
already received one million pre-orders of the new book, its largest
pre-order ever. Scholastic, the American publisher had ordered 8.5
million copies as the largest first printing ever. Worldwide, 13 million
copies of the book had rolled off the presses in a massive print run.
The other books in the Harry Potter series have been translated into
more than 55 languages, including Urdu, Persian, and Turkish. Nearly 200
million copies of the first four books have been sold in 200 countries.
What is all this craze about? The series chronicles the growing up of a
young orphan wizard named Harry Potter who attends a secret magic
boarding school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry is a very unique wizard. His parents are killed while he is a
baby by a wicked powerful wizard named Voldemort, but generally called
"you-know-who" or "he-who-must-not-be-named". Voldemort fails in his
attempt to kill Harry and instead is nearly destroyed when his magic
rebounds on him. Harry is left with a lightning shaped scar on his
forehead. Harry is sent to live with his "muggle" (non-magical people)
relatives for the next ten years. He lives a miserable life, tormented
by his aunt and uncle and his spoiled cousin. They attempt to keep him
from knowing that he is a wizard. Then, suddenly a letter arrives from
Hogwarts on his eleventh birthday, changing his life completely. Harry
finds out he is a wizard and rather famous for his encounter with the
evil lord Voldemort. Despite opposition from his aunt and uncle, Harry
goes to the wizard boarding school where he meets new people, including
his best friends Ron and Hermione. Harry discovers that he has both
admirers and enemies.
Each book details the events of one school year. The main characters in
the story have few noble qualities; they lie with impunity, use
profanity, don't respect their elders, break rules regularly, and are
unrepentant.
While the books are characterized by most people as innocent fantasy
and entertainment, they contain
many evil messages - not all of which are subtle. The books glorify
magic and sorcery. Harry and his
classmates regularly cast spells, brew potions, learn to tell the
future, communicate with the spirits of the dead, train magical animals,
and ride brooms. They study astrology, crystal gazing, numerology,
transfiguration, and divination. Darker things occur as well such as
murder, human sacrifice, drinking of unicorn blood, etc. The fight
between good and evil in this book is actually a conflict between "good
magic" and "evil magic", both of which are evil. The books are in effect
promoters of paganism.
They glorify magic and paganism while non-magical people, called
Muggles, are despised and portrayed
as boring, narrow-minded, and paranoid of magic. Not surprisingly, the
main characters in the story
have few noble qualities; they lie with impunity, use profanity, don't
respect their elders, break
rules regularly, and are unrepentant. And for all these qualities and
more, the books are popular and are having an effect. It is the "in"
thing to purchase the book. And not just the book. Children have gone
crazy over Harry Potter memorabilia, surrounding themselves with Harry
Potter T-shirts, posters, toys, costumes, wands, hats, etc. The media
has been glorifying the book that glorifies sorcery.
Welcome to the world of capitalism and paganism, where superstitions
and the occult reign supreme in
the hearts and minds of people, and where the twin forces have forged an
"alliance of the willing" that
is doing its "magic" on a global scale. Capitalism is all about
maximization of profits and if that requires appealing to the lowest
instincts and the darkest recesses of human nature, so be it. Millions
of dollars have been spent on advertising the latest craze on
billboards, buttons, bumper stickers, and posters etc. U.S. publisher
Scholastic alone has planned a $4 million marketing budget for this
single book - among the largest advertising budgets ever for a book. The
media machine --- equally adept at political,
cultural, and commercial propaganda --- has been doing its part
faithfully, paying a great deal of attention to the smallest events
relating to the coming of the fifth book. It has been glorifying the
book that glorifies sorcery.
Even if it were innocent entertainment (which it is not) the extreme
devotion would be unjustified. But this culture is given to extremes and
incidents of mass craziness are nothing new in it. The cabbage patch
dolls craze in the 1980s was similar to current craze over the Harry
Potter books. The Cabbage Patch Dolls were the fad of the 1980s. The
most distinctive feature about them was that each doll looked a bit
different from others and came with its own unique name and birthday,
"adoption papers," and a "birth certificate." Marketing gimmick and
television coverage combined to make sales explode starting in 1983.
Chartered planes were used to bring the dolls from the overseas
manufacturing plants to meet the ever increasing demand. Fist fights
among eager customers often broke out in retail stores when a shipment
of dolls arrived. In 1985, Coleco posted record sales of $600 million,
thanks to their Cabbage Patch Kids.
When life has no higher purpose, entertainment and fun become the
over-riding goal in life. When there
is no belief in or clear concept of God as Creator and Master of the
universe, superstition, sorcery, and the occult become fascinating. When
life has no higher purpose, entertainment and fun become the over-riding
goal in life.
It is a reflection on the state of the society that there has been
scarce opposition to this series that promises to become darker with
each new release. The Role of Muslims In this current state of hysteria,
Muslims should have played an important role in opposing this book and
exposing the flaws of this culture. It is theduty of Muslims to guide
the world, rather than blindly follow the ignorant masses. The Qur'an
commands us in Surah Al-Kahf, "And don't obey any whose heart We have
permitted to neglect the remembrance of Us, one who follows his own
desires, whose case has gone beyond all bounds." [Al-Kahf 18:28]
Yet, unfortunately, we find very little opposition or reflection from
Muslims, many of whom have chosen
to blindly follow the pop culture. Many Muslims have assured themselves
that the books are harmless
fiction. Others even claim them to be beneficial because they encourage
reading. Reading what? It
does not occur to them to ask that question. Islam prohibits both
pointless entertainment (lahw) and sorcery. But countless Muslims seem
to be unaware of that. And they are the ones fascinated by
Harry Potter
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