This piece of article may appear distasteful to many, especially those who are severely infected by the 21st century’s virus of secularism. But every infection has its own medicine, like for instance education can keep a man from decaying in the darkness of ignorance, as it is to think that medicine can keep a man from dying.

The saying of the last prophet really appreciate the present-day realities wherein some of the Ummah of this late generation failed to grasp its meaning, so they failed to prevent it. The saying of the Prophet goes like this, “Surely, you will follow the ways of those nations (Secular world) who were before you, span by span and inch by inch. So much so that if they entered a hole of a mastigar  (sand lizard), you will follow them”

Let us appreciate our present time if indeed we follow the secular world. Our manner of celebrating wedding today is that if you are a well-off family, at least five (5) star hotel is most recommended to hold the wedding with all kinds of expensive decorations. Islam never suggest to hold the Islamic wedding in a grandiose place for GOD hates the extravagant  (pretentious) people. The dowry is not fixed how much you want to give, even millions if you can afford but not the celebration.

When a man goes to college, He wants to be a lawyer of a man-made system where he can attract more clients and eventually make money and good reputation to make him popular. He prepares to apply where there are lots of money to corrupt, like Bureau of Customs or BIR. His mindset is all about secular world or material interest. He forgot that the other meaning of life in Islam is service to humanity and not  merely for remuneration as practiced by many.  

Now when he got money, he proposes to run in politics where he can attract huge money  to serve his people according to his slogan and speeches. He even used the words of GOD or even claimed that he was commanded by GOD in his dream to run, but his heartbeat speaks nothing but money, fame and glory. This is how the secular world  confront us squarely, and deceive us unknowingly.   

All men and women wish to find the truth, but not all who engaged in search for truth literally finds it. Some discover it in the sense of removing or cutting through the cover of ignorance or misunderstanding which obscured the pretentious man to find its location. This obscurity always failed the pretentious man to differentiate between telling a story that grows only out of his imagination like many books today in the markets, and the story which unimpeachably corresponds to events as they happened, such as the revelations in the Holy Qur’an and the authentic sayings of the Prophet.

It appears in modern politics today that pretentiousness is one of its characteristics which has occasionally infected human mind to respond correctly to the call of his duty as a man of integrity. So human error is always at stake.

We must look and feel the soundness of the saying of the Holy Prophet on a constructive picture of the events that the Holy Prophet puts forward in his Prophecy. Where we stand now in this civilized world where the Ummah who joined the game of politics kill his brothers to gain money and fame. This refers maybe to the last phrase of the saying of the Prophet “So much so that if they entered a hole of a mastigar (sand lizard), you will follow them”.  

Under our naked eyes, no ordinary man can predict the future, neither any man can determine the nature of his being without divine guidance to think of himself where he came from. Except the prophets in the past (Peace be upon them) who were endowed with the power to see the picture of the next events  that may serve as our guidance.

Because of man’s perversity to follow the divine guidance, we always failed to learn the lessons of history as prophesied by the last prophet  Muhammad (pbuh). Man is naturally pretentious and arrogant which is very dangerous, that sets the world aflame, and now a global phenomenon.  

The is the offshoot or collateral damage of man’s arrogance and pretension, the natural calamity, the rapid changes of global temperature, the appearance of all kinds of abnormalities and deformities, including incurable diseases. Arrogance and pretension are the mother of all diseases that men of today could not expel from their hearts.  Let history in the past guide us to the future. One writer inscribed in his book.. “Yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision. Today well lived will make every yesterday  a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope”  This is how the men of profound wisdom spent their life, like the Prophets and the Sahaba  (the companions of  the Prophet.). No amount of time or false articles can erase their contributions to the history of mankind  simply because the truth is eternal and immutable.

Another Mindanao State University (MSU) professor is kidnapped. This time in Lanao del Sur. Biology professor Sherwin Nacua, English professors Herbert Taberdo, Frank Amarillo and some 20 other faculty were on the way home from classes after 3 in the afternoon on board an ARMAC jeep from Marawi City en route to Iligan City , an hour away, when unidentified armed men  accosted the vehicle in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur fifteen minutes away from the city.
The MSU-Main campus is within Muslim-dominated Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur. More than fifty percent of its  student and faculty population are non-Muslims.

Witnesses said the passengers, mostly females and Visayans, jumped out the windows, fearing for their lives. Only Sherwin Nacua was taken aboard an FX vehicle said to be on the way to Piagapo town, a hilly undeveloped town, said to be a traditional hideaway for local kidnapping syndicates.

Philippine National Police Provincial Director Paniares Adap was in Piagapo Thursday evening, negotiating for Nacua’s release.

Silliman University graduate Sherwin Nacua, 45, had been teaching in the MSU-Main Campus for the past 24 years. Described as quiet, soft-spoken, sharp , diligent and sincere, Nacua was a former employee of the Aga Khan Museum.

Just last Sunday, another faculty from Jamiatul Muslim Integrated Foundation (JMIF),  Lolita Rodriguez, was kidnapped and released two days ago in Saguiaran town.

According to Provincial Government sources, the modus operandi of the Maranao kidnappers was to use networking,  passing the victims from one kidnapping group to another to leave no trail. “They are organized kidnap for ransom groups and are purely out to gain money,” said Governor Mamintal Adiong’s Chief of Staff Amenodin Macalandap. The victims are mostly non-Muslims, who are not residents of the province, one of the poorest in the country, populated by mostly Muslims.

Lanao del Sur is part of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which will undergo elections this August 11.

Nacua’s abduction is the third kidnapping incident this year but faculty members of MSU have been kidnapped in the past. Last March 29, Jung Tae-yung, a Korean businessman, and Victor Macasera Jr. had been abducted in the province. Yung was a mining investor interested in chromite potentials in Butuan City and Ditsaan Ramain , Lanao del Sur.

Macasera and Jung Tae-yung were released after 56 days in captivity due to  a concerted effort of negotiations by traditional leaders, local government units, intelligence group , PNP and military .

Local lawyer Bayan Balt condemned this “latest assault on the personal liberty of Prof. Nacua. This proves the incompetence of our local officials and the impotence of the police authorities to protect the people.”

One analyst blames the standstill in peace talks  to the rising criminality in ARMM. Just this morning,  some five employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative (BASELCO) were abducted in Tuburan, Basilan. More than two weeks ago, a band of outlaws  held an ABS-CBN television news team and their university professor guide for nine days in the jungles of Talipao in Sulu province. Allegations that ransom was paid for their release was confirmed by police.