Ummah – My Bit for Change

The Lost Lesson

We all are entangled in various problems; and as time passes by, we sink ever deeper in difficulties of increasing magnitude. While a way out seems far out of reach, the tunnel gets darker as we proceed in our path. I believe I wouldn’t be wrong if I said that the severity of our complications is beyond our grasp and imagination. Yet, we try not to fix these issues we face. While distinct parties within the larger Muslim compass face distinct problems, the collective suffering and troubles that contain the whole Muslim Ummah arise from single root cause; this happens to be “The Lost Lesson”. As a result, we are not only lagging far behind in the race of nations in the world; instead, we strangle each other and come in the way of one another’s success.

This lost lesson happens to be the last sermon of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); taught to us some 1400 years ago on the 9^th of Zil Hajj in the valley of Mount Arafat. The essence of the lesson is to carry forward the prophetic legacy and teach humankind the essence of humanity. The Prophet’s teachings were not limited to the audience of the Hajj ceremony, but, in fact, are universal guidance for the Ummah in any given moment in history of the universe. These teachings emphasize the following:

Keep sacred the life and property of your Muslim brethren.
Don’t hurt anyone as you wouldn’t like others to hurt you.
Don’t deal in Riba, or to say “usury” (Numerous accounts in Quran and Hadith prohibit taking, giving or being a part of any transaction dealing with interest).
Don’t be party to inequity. Don’t tolerate, or quietly suffer, either.
Don’t forget that both women and men have rights over each other. Their relationship must be based then on mutual cooperation and respect.
Behave kindly and respectfully towards women.
Keep hold of modesty and chastity.
Don’t underestimate the importance of worshiping Allah (saying your five daily prayers (Salah), fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, giving charity (Zakat) and performing pilgrimage (Hajj).
Practice equality towards all, and stay away from all forms of prejudice and racism.
Establish justice and peace.
Never forget that everyone is fully accountable for their deeds in the sight of Allah Almighty.
Beware of Satan and his tricks that might sway us away from the right path.
Keep hold tightly to the sources, the Quran and Sunnah, of the last revealed religion, Islam.
Don’t keep this message for yourselves and propagate it to others.

We can heed words of wisdom and guidelines from the last sermon (Khutbah) of the Prophet (PBUH), and can transform the world to a peaceful and prosperous place but unfortunately our actions often contradict with the points of this lesson. We make fun of others as a habit and we put others through difficult circumstances and wrongly see it as our means to rise. Our financial and economic circumstances are overwhelmed by the filth that is Riba; additionally we often consider it a profit. Partisanship and bias are our core principles. Trying to go against the order of things and trying to compete with each other in a battle of survival, both men and women violate each other’s rights; especially men who often treat women like second grades. Women often act arrogant and proudly exhibit themselves in an indecent way. Many among us simply lack the basic knowledge to offer prayer, or fast; and zakat/charity has become a burden nowadays. Our society knows no justice and is in a state of anarchy and chaos; in fact, “justice” is an item that money and power can buy.

The Day of Judgment is not something we take into account and our misdeeds carry little burden on our conscience. Deviated we have, to the path of evil. We have let go of the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah. We read the Quran without ever going through its meanings. Propagating and practicing the teachings of Islam are followed by ridicule and such brand names as “Maulvi” (which actually refers religious scholars). It is as a result of such behavior that we have lost the last lesson of Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and are entangled in such dire dilemmas.

It is high time we woke up from our slumber and submit ourselves to the panacea that is the practicing and spreading of the last and lost lesson of Holy Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). This is our only hope.

Froth upon the sea

Islam is the second largest religion of the world with around 2 billion followers. It is the most practiced religion with followers in almost every part of the world.Its followers, Muslims, are generally very proud of their religious identity. But the plight of the Muslim nation,the Ummah as they call it, is not as it should be considering their size.

Being a Muslim, and especially a practicing one can sometimes be difficult.You will be the first one to be blamed if there is any bombing in a public place, you wont be accepted easily as an immigrant and you won’t be trusted easily.

The other and the probably the most disturbing fact is the “Decline of Muslim blood prices in the International market”. A phrase that can be used to describe the killings of innocent Muslims all over the world. Let it be Kashmir, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Syria and now Myanmar, it is this very nation whose bloodshed can be justified by almost all laws of the ‘civilized world’. Whatever the reason be, Muslim lives are claimed in the name of ‘restoration of democracy and rights’ or ‘collateral damage’.

It looks like the saying of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) were meant for today’s time.

“Very soon, other nations will invite others and fall upon you to attack and destroy you just like people while inviting others, fall upon a dish of food”. The companions of the Prophet (May ALLAH be pleased with them) asked ‘Oh Prophet of Allah (PBUH)! will this happen because we will be lesser in number at that time?’ “No.” The Prophet (PBUH) answered, “You will be great in number, but you will be like froth and scum like that carried down by a torrent (of water),. Allah will remove, from the hearts of your enemies, your awe and terror, and He shall fill your hearts with cowardice.” The companions asked “What is cowardice?” and the Prophet (PBUH) “Love of the world, hatred for death,”

An authentic hadith recorded by Abu Dawud and Ahmad

The vital lessons from Khader Adnan story

Khader Adnan was no stranger to “administrative detention” or rather imprisonment without trial by the Israelis. On this occasion however, the Israeli legal system may have regretted taking such a step. After all, how could they anticipate the up and coming, heroic and very long 66 day hunger strike that Adnan embarked upon? Israel was caught between the daily Palestinian driven demonstrations and the every growing media coverage that resulted from Khader Adnan struggle itself.

Twitter played an invaluable role. During Adnan’s hunger strike, Palestinians and their worldwide supporters tweeted their hastags up to the top 3 worldwide trending terms on a daily basis. Eventually headlines were made by the mainstream media in various parts all over the world. For Israel, this just would not do. Like a rabbit in the headlights, Israel could only do one thing to save it own interests and that is to get out of the way. It has now become in Israel’s interest to keep Adnan alive.

Adnan is currently in a Israeli hospital, taking in food upon the agreement of his release in April. The Israeli courts have ordered a review of the case for Adnan’s detention and whilst there is still some suspicion that Israel will simply put him back into the detention, we know that the Palestinians will never give up on him. They never give up on one of their own.

This is, in itself, an important lesson for the rest of the Muslims worldwide. Especially for those in the UK. Injustice and oppression of Muslims is rife in the forms of physical oppression from puppet regimes and terrorist nations or the political and ideological oppression through Islamophobia and teachings of a diluted Islam. Yet this is what we all have in common and, at the same time, have not only found it extraordinary hard and even refused to unite upon this issue over the past number of decades.

There is of course the exception of the Palestinians and others who face dire degree of persecution. The people of Kashmir are another apt example. They find time to help those worse off than themselves, such as Aafia Siddiqi, despite going through their own hell.

So, whats stopping us? Its more than just sectarianism. We no longer see it as our duty to help the oppressed, despite the fact it is Fardh for a Muslim. To make it even worse, we very rarely hear of such an obligation or leadership from our religious figures. Whilst there is a void of understanding and leadership on these issues, surely it comes to us as the Muslim mass to rise up for those who need us most.

If we are ever to unite and overcome the difficulties, we as an Ummah, face and help our oppressed brothers and sisters, our current attitude to them and to Islam has to change. Social media, especially twitter, a space without boarders or social divisions, is the best place to continue that movement. It is in this space we can directly impact the lives of others through our Islamically obligated driven activism hundreds of miles away.