Islam in Japan 2010 part 2

Chapter 1: Past

Unsuccessful 100 years for Da’wah in Japan

The definition of “Successful Da’wah Activities” certainly differs from a person to a person,
however, the author prefer to define the “Successful Da’wah” here as “Rooting Islam”,
means how deep Islam and Muslims rooted in Japan,
and how far Islam is Japanized in terms of language
(in another word, how far Japanese Muslims or
Japanese speaking Muslims are taking the initiative of Da’wah activities and linked with Japanese society).

When we define the Successful Da’wah as such, with all my respect to our elders and their efforts,
we sadly come to the conclusion that Da’wah activities in Japan for past 100 years
since its beginning has been unfortunately unsuccessful…

Of course, it does not mean that our elders did nothing.
They did a lot of important works like translating Qur’an into Japanese,
besides establishing the Japanese Muslim Organization called Japan Muslim Association in 1952
and they secured some graveyard for Muslims.

Also, it is nonsense to expect from them getting into the Japanese society or
giving some influence to the society if we consider how small their numbers were.

However, what makes a huge difference in rooting Islam is
whether Muslims successfully pass on the faith in Islam and its practice to the next generation or not,
because coming generations are the ones who continue our undone works
and complete the aim of rooting Islam in Japan step by step.

In this sense, when we look at the bright names recorded in the history of Islam in Japan,
we can hardly find their children or grandchildren working energetically
in the forefront of Da’wah fields spreading Islam with the spirits of JAPANESE FOUNDERS OF ISLAM…

To the limit of author’s knowledge, there are only TWO Japanese Muslim families
who passed the greatest gift of Islam on to their descendants and reached 3rd and 4th generations.
The one is HAMADA family and the other is SUZUKI family (May Allah blesses them and protects them always) .

Perhaps, main reasons for our elders that they could hardly pass on their Islam to their families were as below;

- Perhaps their sense of being Japanese were stronger than the sense of being Muslim
so they did not even feel “the desperate necessity” of passing on Islam to their families…Allah knows the Best.

- Their numbers were really small that they had such difficulties to overcome the negative influence
by surrounding Japanese society because one of the characteristic features of Japanese society is
requiring people to be SAME as everyone so the super minority Japanese Muslims could hardly survive.

- Muslims from outside of Japan had a lot less interests towards Japan and Da’wah for Japanese people
so they couldn’t get enough helps to protect their Deen.
There were some elders from outside of Japan (like Tatar, Syria, India, etc.)
who dedicated their life for the sake of Da’wah in Japan
(May Allah reward them great for that) but still their numbers were a lot less than these 20 years.


Lessons from the Past

As far as I can see, among many challenges that Muslims in Japan are facing,
the biggest challenge in my opinion that Muslims in Japan are facing is
how to complete our lives as Muslims and how to pass on Islam and Muslim identity to the next generations.

Our respected elders left us some points that we should be careful with;

1. Make as much efforts as we can in educating the next generations.
(Let them be Muslim Japanese, not Japanese …Muslim?)

2. Set up the educational system for taking cares of new converts/reverts to Islam.

3. Take balance in the daily life as Muslims and Japanese
(If not Japanese ethnic, then as a person living in Japanese society)

4. Secure as many living Role Models as possible for both new Muslims and growing children.


Historical records or modern researches say that there were thousands of Japanese embraced Islam
but the reality tells you either the information is incorrect
or many of those who supposed to have embraced Islam gone somewhere.

So the real feeling any Japanese Muslim would feel about the numbers of
his/her fellow Japanese Muslims brothers and sisters are only few hundreds…
but this is to be said, we cannot be sitting hopelessly blaming the lack of our numbers,
however, we must stand up and work for the sake of Allah
since even one person could make a big change if his/her intention was sincere enough to be accepted by Almighty Allah.



note:
3- Now, many of us Japanese or Japanese speaking Muslims are having their children growing. So, we are ahead of the period for 2nd generation Muslims in Japan.