The Prophet (peace and blessings of God be on him) has said: “Soon the nations will call one another against you, just as people call one another to eat from a platter of food.” A man asked: “Will this be because we will be few in number, O Messenger of God?” He (blessings and peace be on him) replied: “No, you will be large in number, but you will be like the floating rubbish of a flood, and God will remove from the hearts of your enemies their fear of you and shall place in your hearts wahn.” Those present asked: “What is wahn, O Messenger of God?” He (peace and blessings of God be on him) replied: “The love of this worldly life and hatred of death.” (Sunan Abu Dawood)
“…Surely God does not change the condition in which a people are in until they change that which is in themselves." (Qur'an 13:11)
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Blessings of God and peace be on His Messenger and his followers.
Foreword
If ever one wanted to put simply what exactly is wrong with this Ummah then I believe the above hadith, which clearly diagnoses the Muslims of the current era, and verse would be sufficient. Obviously there is a need to go deeper into the issues at hand and also to diagnose each particular problem and give ways to remedy them, but in terms of the questions that many a Muslim are asking today such as “why are we in such a state?” or “how do we pluck the Ummah out of its troubles and calamities?” then the above readings would probably be enough. But does one stop there? Of course not. The above should be taken as pillars of a program to reinvigorate ourselves and to transform our selves, our families, our neighbourhoods, our communities and ultimately our Ummah into one that recognises the realities of this life and this universe and to act and proceed accordingly. In this paper I intend to consider how the essences of the human condition are inextricably tied to what is happening in this Ummah today, the last and greatest nation of God’s servants. Our present state is a very perilous one indeed but the answers are all in front of us if we care to look and this is what I will be doing, God willing: addressing the problems of the Ummah, its causes, the complicated and elusive issues that we are confronted with and ways to rectify our collective condition, which all have to begin on the individual level.
Cry of the Soul
The overwhelming sense of the problem is one of spiritual deficiency, as we are integrated as never before with the nations of disbelief (kufr) and we have as a whole forgotten our traditions and our past which was built on self-purification and total subservience to the Creator. We are bombarded almost continuously with materialistic ideas, suggestions and philosophies, which pay absolutely no heed to the inherent spiritual nature of man, and have resulted in the secularisation of the world system, both from a political perspective and also for the most part the individual level. The tragedies of Heavens Gate, Waco and Solar Temple are a stark reminder that human beings are inextricably drawn to the Beyond and reject the World, that man has a historic need to believe in something and fulfil and nourish his spirit, but satiate this need through the correct means otherwise what will result is what happened in these incidents and also with other cult-like groups. Atheists, it has been suggested, tend to be surprisingly more spiritual for the very fact that they are more into themselves; you could say they worship themselves and are their own gods.
In the English language they are called religions, but there is no such word in the Arabic language. Islam, Buddhism or Christianity would be called a "deen". The word "deen" means literally a "way of life". To go further it is a way of life based on a set of principles or a set of beliefs. If you are a secularist/atheist you are still on a deen or a "religion". You have a set of principles (i.e. there is no God, man is his own master, there is no life after death, we were made by evolution etc), and you proceed with your life accordingly. Even in this corporate, money-driven society people attend yoga classes and meditation groups because although they will not admit it, the soul has to be fed as well as the stomach. For one cannot maintain a beautiful camel when there is a disease raging inside; similarly a way of life that pampers the material nature of man unceasingly and snubs the immaterial spiritual needs and yearnings is doomed. To suggest that we do not have a soul is ludicrous and anyone who does not accept his or her spiritual nature is deluded. Consider the following discussion:
Scientist: Prove to me the existence of God.
Priest: Okay. Did you love your father?
Scientist: Yes, very much so.
Priest: Then prove it.
Scientist: (Fails to respond).
This discussion highlights some important points. Firstly we know God exists, but we cannot scientifically and empirically prove His existence, for he is beyond the physical. Secondly things such as the mind and soul, feelings and emotions such as friendship, pain, love, yearning, hate, and affection are immaterial aspects and although there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever they exist the scientific community has yet to produce evidence of their reality. The scientist of our short discussion would sacrifice her life to prove how much she loved her father but she knows, as does the priest, that she will never be able to produce tangible evidence (such as some dissected “loving brain cells”). Incidentally, this conversation is adapted from a scene of the movie Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis, a damning portrayal of the modern struggle between materialist and spiritual perspectives.
So is it enough to just say that God exists, we have a soul and let’s do some yoga classes and then get on with life? As everything is created for a purpose, so too are we created for a purpose and therefore we must seek out the only legitimate reason for our creation and then act on it. As we are inherently needy creatures by our nature, arrogance and pride are a hindrance to spiritual purification and success and we must recognise that it is natural for us to be subservient to the will of the only authority. No one has the right to be submitted to, obeyed and worshipped other than God, the creed of a Muslim (one who has submitted), is the pinnacle of human truth and this is why God’s Prophet (peace and blessings of God be on him) said “Whoever dies knowing that there is no one worthy of worship except God shall enter Paradise.” (Sahih Muslim) This is the answer to the most daunting question in the history of man: what are we here for and what is the meaning of life. God, our Creator, has said: “ I have only created jinns and men, that they may serve Me.” (Qur’an 51:56) This is the seed of the tree that is to nourish us, it is our guiding star to the ultimate destination: our Lord, King and Creator, the only One who can satiate our deep yearning.
For there are plenty of ways to nourish this hunger within us, but just like there are edible drinks (milk, water, juice) and harmful drinks (alcohol, liquid nitrogen, crude oil) there are also healthy and non-healthy ways to feed our spiritual stomachs. I do not mean to be funny in the least when I have used the examples of alcohol, liquid nitrogen and crude oil, although I admit it is bizarre. However, if I am thirsty and I have two glasses, one filled with slow-acting poison and the other with semi-skimmed milk, I must make the choice that will lead to satisfying the thirst and also that will not affect me adversely at all on a long-term basis (you can already guess which one I would take). If we do not satiate our spiritual appetites through the proper means then although we will be fine short term, long term however, we will be ruined. We might have our 3 hour bout of fun watching a movie in the cinema, the 90-minute football match or the day out to the theme park but our soul is yet to be fulfilled with what it truly needs, and by substituting the calm, serene silence of the outdoors with the bright and loud sensory attacks of the entertainment age we are forever losing our connection with what truly makes man tick; the howl of an owl, the crescent moon on a clear sky, the mountain towering over the plains, the stars lighting up the sky, the feel of the feather, the slow breeze brushing against your cheeks, the sight of the awesome expanse of the ocean, the sun setting, the sky turning red, the first rays of dawn, the striking thunderclap, the roar of a lion, the stealthy comet streaking across the sky, the face of a kitten. I mean how much memory does this computer have, 5Gb, 10, 20? One could go on about the beauties of Creation. God has told us to “…Travel through the earth and see how God originated creation; so will God produce the second creation: for God has power over all things.” (Qur’an 29:20)
“ Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of night and day, - there are indeed Signs for men of understanding, - Men who celebrate the praises of God, standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (With the thought): "Our Lord! Not for naught Hast Thou created (all) this! Glory to Thee! Give us salvation from the penalty of the Fire.” (Qur’an 3:190-191) Indeed the secrets of the Qur’an are the secrets of life itself, an invitation to the only natural course of action i.e. to submit to and worship Almighty God the way that He has commanded us to in his final revelation to Man, and not follow our own whims and desires.
The Place of Man
“Nor walk on the earth with insolence: for thou canst not rend the earth asunder, nor reach the mountains in height.” (Qur’an 17:37). For the person of understanding, the reality of this universe and our very existence leads to a natural condition in which he renders himself humble and helpless before the Most Just God and submits whole-heartedly to His commands, for which he will be rewarded eternally in the hereafter. Albert Einstein once said “ What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility." The above verse is a beautiful comparison and challenge to the arrogance of man, insofar as killing the arrogance with a simple comparison to the greater creation of the universe, as if to say, “So, man, who are you to be arrogant?” “ Assuredly the creation of the heavens and the earth is a greater (matter) than the creation of men: Yet most men understand not.” (Qur’an 40:57)
With such a rich spiritual background, Muslims are now knowingly or not on the defensive against a materialistic attack the likes of which probably has never seen the light of day. We live today in a spiritually, morally and ethically bankrupt culture that discourages in every way, albeit, implicitly, a return to God. It has become taboo even amongst Muslims to talk of God, the Most High; this is the extent to which we have become integrated into the non-Muslim mindset. The answers, lo and behold, are all in the Glorious Recitation itself, and we are to but return to it to allow it to nurture our souls once again, on the individual as well as global level. Time and again God has told us to think, to contemplate, reflect and to understand the reality (one of the names of God is The Truth (Al-Haqq)), for within contemplation lies oceans of wisdom. Let us not just pay lip service to our testimony (that there is no god but God and Muhammad is his Messenger), but make it a reality within the hearts and minds.
Ways to God
One of the ways to become closer to God is to learn and understand the meanings of the phrases that we recite in our five daily prayers; we say them so many times but we must know what they mean in order to foster a realisation of the essence of standing, bowing and prostrating at those times facing Makkah. Also to pick one of the names of God, the Most High every day and to sit for about ten minutes, ponder, contemplate and just try and internalise the reality of that particular name and become aware of its truth and reality. This will, if He wills, lead you closer to Him, and this depends on what level of awareness you are at and at which level you want to get to. This leads me onto another subtle point: the difference between knowing and feeling. We incessantly say Al-Hamdu lillah (all praise and thanks be to God) many times during the day, we believe in it and we know it. But do we truly feel it that yes, indeed every thank and praise is due to God and Him alone for creating this awesome universe and guiding me to the truth? Similarly, when we say to a brother or sister As-salaamu alaykum (peace be on you), again we say it many times in the day. But which one of us, when our tongues are forming the syllables, repeats in his mind (as he is repeating in Arabic on the tongue) that yes indeed I wish peace on you brother (or sister). This goes for every Islamic phrase, every supplication (du’aa), every verse of Qur’an when we recite it, indeed everything we do.
Our thoughts, our words, our actions must reflect the reality that should be in our hearts of the fact that these two angels are recording them and that God is aware of everything. This is the difference between knowing and feeling, believing and witnessing the truth of the reality of God, Glorified be He, the Most High. When we walk down the street, we should each have in our hearts the awareness that God is watching our every move; this is not paranoia, it is simply the reality, that is how great God is; He is aware of all things, hidden and bare. He is even aware of the movement of the black ant across a black rock on the moonless night; he is Al-Baseer (The All-Seeing). Indeed since all power is His, He has the right to be feared, but contrary to how the media portrays Al-Islam as a dictatorial fear-mongering philosophy, this is a simple matter of fact. If someone holds a gun to my head and I have been guaranteed that the person will not shoot, I am still aware that he is able to blow my brains out. So as a matter of fact I will fear that person for the reality of the situation; similarly (since all power is from God) God has the only right to be feared because He is the One who is preventing a hundred mile-wide rocks from pounding the earth into oblivion, He is the One who is forbidding the sun to run out of fuel, He is the One that is ordering the rain to continually refresh the earth and He is the One who is forbidding the earth not to shake out of control. So should we not fear Him?
We are all His property, we are owned by Him and He has the right alone to do whatever He wills with us; He is also the Just (Al-‘Adl) so it does not mean that He could for the hell of it just throw everyone into the Fire, although that would be His right and His alone would be the power to do so. This is yet another example of the natural order of things. Coupled with fasting, where one ties in the reality of the hunger pangs with the reality of the existence of God for whom you are enduring these pangs comes the concept of God-consciousness (Taqwa). Our relationship with God is eternally more significant than that with our parents, and so we should foster our closeness, our awe, our fear, our adoration, our worship and our love for Him.
Bonds of faith
“The believers are nothing else than brothers.” (Qur’an 49:10) How can that be? I know have two brothers and one sister but they are my blood (physical) brothers and sister. How can anyone else be my brother? Yet God has said the Muslims, the Believers in God and His Messenger are brothers and sisters unto one another. Oh but they are; that Muslim there and this Muslim here are your brothers in Islam and in all ways this relationship goes deeper than the blood relationship between even one’s mother and her son. He is my brother because our relationship has to do with the very essence of our existence and our intimate relationship with the rest of Creation and its Creator. Our blood relationships are intimate with only a few people, yet we do not treat an unrelated Muslim brother or sister like exactly a brother or sister. Why? This is another problem that we have where we have become mentally divided into families, castes, tribes and artificially created countries. For how longer are we going to fail to realise that the bond of Islam (of submission unto God) transcends the trivial limits of the world? For how longer are we going to live in our narrow-minded, bigoted and biased bubbles that we have created for ourselves? Someone once said that change is painful, but someone has also said “no pain, no gain”.
However, we must make an effort and our current predicament as an Ummah, the constant military offensives by the non-Muslims, economic and trade sanctions and the injustice rampant in the Muslim as well as non-Muslim lands is the price we pay for disunity; this is the raw truth and reality that we must be humble enough to admit and strong enough to act on. We have certain rights and responsibilities as regards to each other and the sooner we start to learn these and fulfilling them, the sooner our situation will get better. The disbelievers have been conquering us and dividing us for centuries in the Indian sub-continent, in the Middle East, in the Caucasus, in the Balkans, in Africa and in Asia; let us recognise their efforts and put an end to their nefarious schemes. Let us refuse to roll for the disbelievers, the ones who have rejected God, mocked Him,, mocked His Prophets, ridiculed his Revelation, slandered His Messenger, slaughtered His servants, spread humiliation and abasement across His earth. My dear brothers and sisters, these are the ways of the disbelievers and so George W. Bush has informed and reminded us: we are either with God or the ashamed Devil; there is no middle way. The truth is the truth, whether it emanates from your enemy or your friend. The world is a witness to the raw power and strength of brotherhood in Islam, even the Prophet Abraham (peace be on him) after many efforts decided to reject his own father for his evil polytheism. Most of us are not even related to the disbelievers, so is it not easier for us to reject them rather than follow in their footsteps: “To you be your Way, and to me mine.” (Qur’an 109:6)
The Prophet
“I have studied him the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an Antichrist, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity.” (George B. Shaw)
“And verily you (O Prophet) are on an exalted character.”(Qur’an 68:4)
“It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the greatest messengers of the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian Teacher.” (Annie Besant)
“The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves…” (Qur’an 33:6)
Our relationship with the most selfless and noble Prophet is the closest relationship that any nation in history has had with their Prophet. He said: “None amongst you can be a true believer until I am dearer to him than even himself.” (Bukhari) But how do we foster our love for him who lived fourteen centuries ago?
All praise is to God, who has facilitated the thorough documentation of the Prophet Muhammad (blessings of God and peace be on him) by his companions for later generations. No figure in history has ever been recorded on paper to the degree that the Prophet of Islam has, not the Messiah, not Moses, not Abraham, not our father Adam or mother Eve (peace be upon all the prophets of God), not Julius Caesar, not Buddha, not Hitler, not Guru Nanak. Furthermore, although we have not (thankfully) deified the Prophet as the Christians have done with theirs, there is a degree of objectifying the Prophet to the extent that he becomes inaccessible for us and this is by and large probably the greatest tragedy that has befallen this Ummah.
He was sent to be exalted and praised, no doubt for the name Muhammad means the one who is praised, and his name in the heavens, Ahmad, means the most praised one. Nevertheless he was not meant to be just praised and recited blessings and peace (salaam) on once a week and celebrated once a year on his day of birth. Far from it, he was to be taken as a guide and teacher from whom one learns and acts on; indeed this is how the blessed Companions took him: as a guide. We have today lost sense and sight of the man who sowed his own clothes, who cleaned his own house, who when tested with unimaginable difficulties bore the most patient of faces, whose enemies trusted him with their possessions due to his scrupulous honesty, who bought his own food from the market. The one who literally walked among us and blessed us with his Light: “…There hath come to you from God a Light…” (Qur’an 5:16).
So how do we come to know him? We come to know him through reading his biography (the seerah), learning his example (his sunnah) (he said once: “ Anyone who dislikes my sunnah is not of me” (Bukhari and Muslim) ) and by sitting with the righteous people of today, whether they be scholars or saints for they literally embody the characteristics of the Prophet (peace and blessings of God be on him). This mightiest of Messengers ascended to the highest plains of existence and held court with the Creator of the universe and then was sent back down to continue his mission of bringing the world from darkness to light for he was sent “…not but as a Mercy for all of creation.” (Qur’an 21:107). That means that every atom, every molecule, every particle of sand, every drop of water, every animal, every human, every spiritual being, every jinn, every planet, every comet, every asteroid, every star, every quasar exists only by the mercy of the best of creation, the Seal of the Prophets, for God has said to him: “If I had not created you, I would not have created anything.” (Maktubaat of Imam ar-Rabbani) People pride themselves on being fans of Madonna or Beckham, wearing what they do, doing what they do; let us show that we are fans of the Prophet of God, inwardly and outwardly.
The most important aspect of his example that we need to implement is his treatment of people; too many Muslims pride themselves today on following the sunnah of the beard or the robe (thawb) and miswak, yet these very Muslims are some of the most arrogant, obnoxious, hard-hearted people I, for one, have ever met. Following every one of his examples is important, but we undoubtedly need to prioritise some over others and to inculcate the sunnah of good manners and correct behaviour into our children, as well as ourselves.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of God be on him) is the one who is to guide and take us to the court of God, so let us free ourselves from all negative inclinations and give ourselves over to him, for any other course of action spells doom for this life, let alone the next. Let us learn about him, follow his example and above all nurture our love him, for loving the Apostle is in reality loving the Creator who sent him. A man once came to him and said: “When does the last Hour fall?” The Prophet (blessings of God and peace be on him) said: “What have you prepared for it?” The man said: “I have not prepared much, except that I love God and His messenger.” The Prophet (blessings of God and peace be on him) said: “Everyone will be with those one loves.” (Abu Dawood) His exalted station on the Day of Judgment is by virtue of his intercession for mankind and the perfection of human possibilities in him through his unrivalled character and divinely inspired knowledge. We are shown through his life why indeed he is the Best of Creation and why we should increase our love and praise for him.
Perspectives
“I’ve got no money, man. How I am going to afford the rent and my expenses?” For university students this is a much heard of line. I heard this being said by a brother (let us call him Ali) about a year ago and the conversation between him and another brother (call him Omar) continued as such (I am paraphrasing):
Omar: Brother, do you believe that God is calling the earth to continue travelling at about 68,000 miles per hour around the sun with His command?
Ali: Of course I do.
Omar: Do you believe that He created you the way you are now from a microscopic clot?
Ali: Absolutely. Why?
Omar: Wait. Do you believe that it is God who is maintaining the finest of balances between the forces of positive and electric charge in the atomic world?
Ali: Yes I do.
Omar: If God can maintain all this then do you not think that he is able to provide for you?
Ali: I see your point, my brother.
Omar: Then have patience for God is the One who fulfils His promises and is the only One who helps.
The answers to our worries are all in front of us and it is easy to spiral out of trusting God and into the poison of self-reliance and despair. This is the way of the disbeliever, not the one who testifies to the power of God, the Most Great. We just need to step back and look at things from a slightly different angle. In fact having the correct perspective is essential if we are to raise ourselves from the slums of ignorance and into the enlightenment of Divine wisdom; ignorance is in fact exactly that: the lack of correct perspective, and one can relate this to the whole way that we run our lives.
Just to give an example: there have been many instances of Muslims getting into physical disagreements with each other. What I mean is that a verbal disagreement leads to a fight starting between them, teeth flying everywhere and blood being spilt. As I say it is Muslims who are involved and despite the fact that it is unlawful (haraam) for Muslims to fight one another, these same Muslims, even if they are drug-running, alcohol drinking, womanising, non-practicing Muslims, would probably never dream of inflicting structural damage on and violating the Holy House of God in Makkah, the Ka’ba and its surroundings; indeed such a thought begs belief doesn’t it? However, if, as the Prophet teaches us, the blood of a believer is more precious than the Ka’ba and its surroundings then how in God’s name can we inflict any damage on a Muslim? I leave this to you to think about.
Every situation that one confronts has two possible approaches to it: the approach of as per in the sight of God or the approach of one’s own inclinations. To be successful, one has to adopt the former and a big part of achieving this is constantly reminding oneself of the reality of things.
The Choice
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon”. (Matthew 6:24)
“Glory to God, Who created in pairs all things that the earth produces, as well as their own (human) kind and (other) things of which they have no knowledge.” (Qur’an 36:36)
Mammon is a biblical term for riches or wealth and the last sentence of the verse could be understood as: You cannot be a slave to both God and money. Indeed this equates to the concept of associating partners to God, the Most Great; this is the one unforgivable sin. In fact one could extrapolate a whole number of analogies regarding the above verse. Consider the following adapted discussion I had with a neighbour a few days ago. I was out for my usual after-dinner walk as I feel it helps me digest the food:
Neighbour: where have you been?
Me: just for a quick walk
Neighbour: oh, so you went for a power-walk?
Me: sorry, a what?
Neighbour: a power-walk.
Me: what’s a power-walk?
Neighbour: what you’re doing now, basically. It’s the in-word for it.
Her last statement (“It’s the in-word for it”) demonstrates her willingness to allow herself and her personality to be moulded by the popular culture or by other human beings and this is the whole framework of most of today’s society. Nowadays, self-proclaimed experts of magazines, music shows and the lives of the “rich and famous” dictate personality, fashion and lifestyle trends to people who have no essence or personality of themselves, and it’s a great tragedy to witness the resulting shallow nature of people who are taken in by these influences.
People follow the money all the way to the top, and if you have it then you can have a say as to how I can run my life, and assumptions of the dominant culture are hardly ever questioned. The secularisation of society has had a great impact and people hardly ever ask as to whether the secular (almost religious) rituals of attending sports events, visiting shopping malls and spending reams of money (all this consumerism) are the answers to life’s questions and problems. Man is capable of so much insight, as evidenced by the Prophets who were the embodiment of human potential, yet attempts to enlighten each other are very rarely encouraged. As God has said: “And I have not sent you as a giver of glad tidings and a Warner to all mankind, but most of men know not.” (Qur’an 24:38) How true is this? Out of 100 people, how many will admit their faults, how many will give up all that they have to serve God and how many will speak up sitting in a group of people against an evident injustice (like someone backbiting or telling lies). Most surely like the programmer knows of every benefit and every flaw of his software that he has written as does God know intimately every flaw of the human condition, and even though he has highlighted them clearly in His final revelation few people take heed.
The testimony, of “no one has the right to be worshipped but God” is indeed the key to paradise after our deaths, however, if the key’s ridges are not correct then the door will not unlock. Similarly this testimony has to be acted upon and fulfilled rather than just spoken and forgotten about. Many Muslims today testify this on their tongues, but do their ways of life, words and actions also testify to it? This is the question that we must ask ourselves constantly: are we really Muslims? Do we really serve God, or are we serving the world and our own base desires and inclinations? Remember we either let the disbelievers dictate to us how we run our lives or we allow the only One whose authority it is alone to dictate to us.
In the past decade, the Muslim world has been rocked by choices of serious proportions in the form of allowing non-Muslims (most of the time Americans) to establish military bases on Muslim soil and to help these forces to murder fellow Muslims with the excuse that “if we had not have done it, then they would have imposed economic sanctions or outright wiped us off the face of the earth.” For example, the US military presence in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and the recent collusion between Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf and the allied forces in the second Afghan War. My question is simply this: do you obtain help from the disbelievers or God, do you serve them or God, is it because of their will that we are alive today or God’s will, do we obtain our provisions and security from America or God, who commands the rain to nourish the earth and who keeps in check untold numbers of natural disasters? Indeed, it is God who changes kings and empires and not America that changes kings and empires.
Just because God does not have a bank account with J.P. Morgan or uses Tomahawk missiles, SSBNs, Abrams tanks, aircraft carriers and an Ak-47, this does not mean that he is unable to help us. How dare we impose limits on the One who has no limits? The “most powerful nation on earth”, with all its money and firepower is still unable to ward off from its homeland the devastation that is visited upon it by the likes of earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and volcanoes. Furthermore, saying that “Islamically it was wrong, but pragmatically there was no other choice”, is one proclaiming that for the Muslims there are two different ways of dealing with mankind on the Day of Judgement. Nay, there will be only one set of scales. “ O Messenger, rouse the Believers to the fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the Unbelievers: for these are a people without understanding” (Qur’an 8:65); and if you don’t believe this then you don’t believe the Battle of Badr took place.
Brothers and sisters, there is no middle way; like you either help the oppressor or the oppressed, like you are either with Bush or with the terrorists; similarly you are either Muslim or non-Muslim, you either serve God or you do not. Also we must never be taken in by the secular, atheistic deception of “I run my own life” for that is still serving other than God. “Freedom” and “democracy” are just deceptive slogans to remove us from our Creator and are calls to be free of God’s authority and make your own rules and this only leads to the penalty of the Fire after our short period here on the earth.
Final Destination
“Human beings are asleep. And when they die they wake up.” (Abu Hazim)
The funeral prayer was over and each one of us was going over to the burial casket, placed in the courtyard of the mosque, of the brother who had just passed away. As I went over to him there was a crowd of brothers each passing by, looking through the small window to his face, murmuring a prayer and walking on. When my gaze passed over from them onto his face it struck me: this is it. This is the culmination of all the years of our lives and our efforts; the overwhelming finality of it all hit me like a clap of thunder deep into my heart as I looked at the brother’s face that, truly, this is the end for all of us no matter how much we might not like it or not want it. His face was completely devoid of any life whatsoever and it seems that he had entered into a permanent sleep, his body left as a piece of meat and his soul wondering or being taken wherever, only God knows. As I looked and walked around the courtyard, there were brothers swearing, backbiting and trying to find ways to scam money. Yet when one of them walked over to the casket all vain talk stopped and you could tell that that person is aware of the reality whilst looking into the resting brother’s face, but then he would go back to backbiting afterwards. A startling realisation began to dawn on me: Muslims today try to avoid facing the reality of death as much as possible, it is as if they are running away from it as fast as they can little realising that the wall that is about to stop them dead in their tracks is nothing other than the angel of death, Azra’il (peace be on him), waiting with open arms. For me, what the Holy Prophet said at the beginning of this section above was no truer than in that courtyard on that Sunday afternoon. Even when you momentarily glimpse into the face of a dead person you will wake up if just for a second. This is a sickness of the disbeliever who quickly gets the funeral out of the way so he does not have to think about death and gets on with his life; the “if I cant see it, it won’t affect me” approach.
The hadith at the beginning of this essay does not in any way imply that because the Ummah loves the world and fears death today that in order to rectify our situation we must now a have a fanatical fascination and love of death and live like monks. Islam is a way of balance and all the answers to our problems are clearly spelled out. We should accept death for what it is, a natural but tough phase of life that is a door to the greatest of relieves. It is when the snare of the world and the deceptions of the Devil finally end because for the true believer, the world is a prison and for the disbeliever it is a paradise. We have to live this life like we are going to die at any second and act accordingly, despite the fact that you may live for eighty years or more; this leads to a morally, ethically and naturally sound and content human when he constantly prepares for the meeting with his Lord. The more we take ourselves to account today, the easier the accounting process will be tomorrow on the Day of Judgement. In the spirit of this hadith cited at the beginning of this section, let us consider ourselves already dead and wake up now.
The capacity of shortsightedness in human beings is astounding and the ability for us to apply disproportionate importance on things that on the grand scale of things are irrelevant. Prophets by their very nature as God’s representatives are healers and when Prophet Jesus (peace be on him) came into a deeply materialistic society two thousand years ago, his message was all about death and the hereafter. He taught people that this life is a bridge and to quickly get across it and stop building on it; we today live in another wealth-building age that is stifling any sort of spiritual revolution, on the personal or the global level. People look down on you if you are not constantly making reams of money as if this is the meaning of life and unfortunately many Muslims have fallen into this mindset. In the same way that Prophet Jesus told us that the next world is what is important, this system today is telling us this world is what is important. This system makes us feel that the hereafter is distant, yet the reality of it is that the hereafter is closer to us than this world because we are travelling towards the hereafter and away from the world. It tells us that the hereafter is a delusion as opposed to Prophet Jesus’ message that this world is a delusion. As Muslims we believe that this worthless world is a delusion (as the Prophet (blessings of God and peace be on him) warned us many a time), as we should, but this is by and large not being reflected in our ways of thinking, living and acting. This is why we have become lovers of this life and haters of death. We sit in our rooms and houses talking and complaining endlessly about the problems of the Ummah, so-called “armchair politicians”, yet one rarely hears a brother (most of the times the elder brothers) bring up the issue of why exactly it is that we are in this position and what we can do to rectify it. Do we not care what is wrong and are we not interested in how to go about changing our condition?
Brothers and sisters, our problem is the state of our hearts. Our problem is the very fact that we have chosen to cling to this world and to distance ourselves from the hereafter, until it inevitably comes. One of the root meanings of the word “dunya” in Arabic is to reach out for grapes that you can never grasp, and this is the nature of this life: it will always evade you and you will never be satiated with it. “Dunya” is the illusory nature of the world that makes you think you are permanent, that you can transgress and that you are independent of God. He has sent prophets to all of the nations in history and finally Prophet Muhammad to all of Mankind as a final warning to teach us the reality of things and to wake us up to the truth of our existence and to act on it. "Verily this dunya is cursed and all that is in it is cursed except for the remembrance of God and all that goes with it and a scholar or a student." (At-Tirmidhi) The same way that the Messiah took people out of materialism and into spirituality, this Dajjalic system is taking people out of spirituality and into materialism. Most if not all of our problems can be delineated into the imbalance between our perspectives on this life and what is beyond and we must regain the balance otherwise it will spell catastrophe for us. For the believer death has already suffered before he has met death, i.e. the spectacle of death itself is not the issue it is the issue of meeting his Lord. “Whoever loves to meet God, God (also) loves to meet him and whoever hates to meet God, God (also) hates to meet him.” (Bukhari) Therefore, our problem is not of death but it is of the meeting with our Lord; the hatred of death is the hatred of meeting with ones Lord and whosoever looks forward to death is in fact the one who looks forward to the meeting with his Lord and Creator, God, the Most Great.