Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Zakir Naik is one of the most popular Islamic preachers and
apologists in the world: his YouTube channel has 2.46 million
subscribers, and copious videos explaining the clear truths of Islam,
the limpid purity of the Qur’an, and abject falsity of Christianity and
other religions. On Sunday, as the Good and Right-Thinking among us were
celebrating the Pope’s lovefest with
the Shi’ite leader Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq, Naik offered a cold dose
of reality by affirming that every non-Muslim, no matter how righteous,
even Mother Teresa, was roasting in hell for not accepting Islam. Many
Christian sects also teach that nonbelievers will suffer in hellfire,
but because of other elements of Islamic theology, Naik’s declaration
had an ominous edge that the Christian groups’ teachings do not.
In no mood to engage in the “interfaith dialogue” niceties that are
so fashionable, if utterly futile, these days, Naik tackled this issue
head-on in a video entitled “Will Good Righteous Non-Muslims like Mother Teresa go to Hell?” He explained, according to OpIndia,
that “there are four ways of going to Jannah (paradise). By the token
of time, a man is in a state of loss except those who have Faith, those
who are righteous, those who do Dawah and those who exhort people to do
patience and perseverance. Minimum four criterias are required to go to
Jannah.”
So what was Mother Teresa lacking? Naik elaborated: “For the sake of
argument, let’s assume that Mother Teresa was righteous. In Islam,
righteous includes a lot of things that I believe that Mother Teresa did
not have. What about Imaan (Faith in Islam)? If she does Shirk (follow
any religion other than Islam and thus prohibited).”
Shirk is the association of partners with Allah in worship,
and in Islamic law, it is the worst sin of all. According to the Qur’an,
the Christian idea that Jesus is the Son of God and the belief in the
divinity of Christ in general is shirk. Committing it makes one
an unbeliever (Qur’an 5:17) and places one under Allah’s curse (Qur’an
9:30). Naik cited Biblical texts, including statements of Jesus himself,
that he claimed supported the Islamic view, and concluded: “So,
according to Jesus Christ, Quran and the Bible, if anybody does Shirk,
be it Mother Teresa or anyone else, they shall not enter Jannah.”
This is more than just religious triumphalism because of Islam’s
doctrines regarding punishment of unbelievers not just in hell, but in
this world as well. “As for those who disbelieve,” Allah declares in the
Qur’an, “I will punish them with a heavy punishment in this world and
the hereafter, and they will have no helpers” (3:56). How will the
unbelievers be punished in this world? The believers will take care of
that, as the Qur’an also says: “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” (9:14).
