With over 1.5 billion believers, the
Muslim Ummah has never before experienced turmoil of the kind we are now
witnessing. As a result the greatest thinkers among the Muslim scholars are at
last beginning to wonder what is happening to this Ummah and why Muslims are
being so systematically uprooted from their communities and lands.
In this world, people who truly wish
to enhance their fortunes and raise the standard of their lives and civil rank,
do everything possible to complete their higher education and do their work by
the ‘book’. Everything must be performed according to the rules set by their
masters. Living in this manner introduces discipline and harmony into their
lives, a path they must walk if they are to be really successful.
Flouting of these rules, by any
group, results in indiscipline. Such behaviour warrants serious consideration,
as do the inevitable and serious consequences for the group.
This fact is also true when God
grants a book to a nation or to a people. When Allah gave this Ummah the book
we were faced with only two choices; either to hold it fast and obey or to
neglect what is in it. Both have consequences.
In the case of the previous nations,
Allah says: ‘In the beginning mankind was one single nation. Then Allah sent
forth Prophets as heralds of good tidings for the righteous and as warners
against the consequences of evil-doing. He sent down with them the Book
embodying the Truth so that it might judge between people in their disputes.
And those who innovated divergent ways rather than follow the Truth were none
other than those who had received the knowledge of the Truth and clear
guidance: and they did so to commit excesses against each other. So by His
leave Allah directed the believers to the Right Way in matters on which they
disagreed. Allah guides whomsoever He wills onto a Straight Way. S2 V213
The Muslim community was among those
who have received such a Book for guidance and were told: ‘We have bestowed
upon you a Book that has your mention. Do you not understand.’ S21 V10
What does it mean: ‘it has your
mention (zikr)’?
The scholars offer differing
explanations. Imam al-Qurtubi says: ‘it means it has the mention of the matters
of your religious affairs and rulings of laws and outcomes of your actions.
Also it says it means ‘it is about you, it is what makes you best in character
and best in your deeds. It also means therein everything that gives you life.
What is more important to understand
is that the Quran is all about people and what would bring them blessings,
success and good fortune and what would cause them wrath, failure and
misfortune.
The first verse of the Surah TAHA
lays down the purpose of the teachings of the Quran saying: ‘Taha, We did not
reveal the Quran to you to cause you distress’. S20 V1-2
Further it says: ‘Surely We showed
him the Right Path, regardless of whether he chooses to be thankful or
unthankful (to his Lord). S76 V3
The Quran is all about the life of
the mankind and what makes for blissful and happier lives. It is man and his
fate and destiny that is the subject of this holy Book.
The Quran again says: ‘Believers!
Respond to Allah and respond to the Messenger when he calls you to that which
gives you life. Know well that Allah stands between a person and his heart, and
it is to Him that all of you shall be mustered’. S8 V24
Probably the biggest irony is that
the Book, that was revealed to guide humanity and bless further the believers,
was not only ridiculed by others but has been often neglected and failed by its
own followers. No wonder the Messenger will complain on the Day of Judgement
saying: ‘And the Messenger will say: My Lord! My own people had made this Quran
an object of laughter.’ S25 V30
The turmoil present in Muslim lands
knows no boundaries and is totally destructive, destroying many towns and
cities, causing many thousands of deaths and presenting a doomsday scenario for
the people affected by it. Most importantly, people’s lives were destroyed even
after they were put to their greatest test. People behaved like animals or
worse and the quantity and techniques of torture employed far outstripped those
inflicted on inmates in Abu Guraib prison in Iraq.
What the opponents of Muslims and
Islam have destroyed is the concept of the unity of Ummah in the minds of
Muslims. They are now anything but Muslims. The West would never allow anyone
or any political groups to destroy the fabric of unity of their nations.
Differences are allowed to exist only to an acceptable degree. Quite rightly
the laws of these countries and legal rights they offer put a halt to any
further deterioration in the fabric of unity of these nations.
Groups of people have been created
in the name of Islam (with spurious religious titles) although they give no
allegiance to it and fail to serve the religion by any of their actions. People
take up weapons thinking that offers a solution, never heeding the advice of
our own Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Mercy of Allah be upon him, who warned
about this in his famous Hadith Qudsi and which requires our attention. It
says, with stark warning to Muslims: ‘Allah, my Lord, contracted the earth for
me and I saw its easts and its wests. And the lands of my Ummah would reach all
that was contracted to me. I also have been granted both treasures, the red and
the white. And I requested my Lord not to destroy my Ummah by a general famine
and not to let an enemy from outside who may destroy them to their last. My
Lord responded by saying: O Muhammad! When I make a decision it is irrevocable.
I will not destroy them by any general famine and I will not let an enemy
overpower them, other than from among themselves, who may destroy them to their
last, even if all the nations of the world may come together. It is only one
against other that would destroy the Muslim Ummah, even one (group) would enslave
another.
The Prophet then said: ‘I indeed
fear for my Ummah and about misleading leaders. And if once the sword is used
(when wars take place) in my Ummah it would never be taken back until the Day
of Reckoning’. And the Hour will not
happen until some tribes from my Ummah join hands with Polytheists and until
some tribes from my Ummah start worshipping idols. And there will be within my
Ummah some thirty liars all claiming they were prophets but I am the seal of
the Prophets, no Prophet will come after me, and there will always be a group
among my Ummah who will stand steadfast for Truth’. Narrated by Ibn Majah
We Muslims need to reflect on why
are we so eager to take guns into our hands for the causes of other people and
powers and destroy ourselves in the name of our religion. Why have we lost the
discipline the Quran taught us?
Another irony is that many Muslims
when asked about the teachings of the Quran, their straight answer is ‘Oh I
read the Quran every day and I know what is there’. Everyone sees himself as a
scholar, community leader, a faction leader or would like to be a leader of
some sort.
Unfortunately the qualities that
make a true leader are often lacking, indeed they are very rare!
Allah loves discipline among people
and then He blesses it. Discipline brings unity of rank and unity of purpose
but to end the current turmoil in the Muslim lands we need to humble ourselves
and become servants to the cause of Allah and His creation and not a tool for
destruction.
