How Can We
Understand the Struggle We're In?
DarulHarb -- Muslims Under Siege...
By Yahiya Emerick
The Blessed Prophet Muhammad once said that there will come a time when
it will be so hard to live as a Muslim that it will be like holding onto a hot coal.
Many feel that this is a good description of the times we live in. Never
before has the entire existence of real Islam been under such assault both from
non-Muslims outside as well as people with Muslim-sounding names from within.
Muslim countries are socially, politically and morally in disarray. Un-godly and/or
secular forces have vanquished Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism and turned
them into nothing more than religions of slogans and "personal choice".
These same worldy-oriented, or secular people, have turned their sights on the last
obstacle to total world depravity and demonization of the mind and soul. This last
obstacle is Islam. We are the last people on Earth who seriously speak about
goodness, morality, honesty and faithful adherence to Divine precepts.
The mantra of the Christians and Jews is "separation" of church and state.
Separation from God is what they mean and philosophically they would not be able to
deny it. Only people who take their religion as less than serious would ever think
to exclude its teachings and precepts from their political, social and private lives.
The trends of the emerging world mono-culture all point to one, oppression-filled
future. Everyone will be "wired" into the advertising/corporate slave
system in which they will be told what to buy, what to wear, what to think and what to
believe. Literacy will actually plummet as reading skills diminish under a barrage
of video images and short attention-span sound bites. This "dumbing down"
of the human intellect is already being noted by educationists and scholars all over the
world. The rich are getting richer while the poor grovel and fight over the ever
shrinking pool of crumbs. While the world may never succumb to the scenarios
outlined in the science fiction books "1984" and "Brave New World",
nonetheless, after the enlightened civilizations of China, Rome or the Abbasids lost the
will to think anymore, uneducated barbarians took over leading to many "dark
ages". Who is foolish enough to believe that "history has ended"?
Upheaval is inevitable, as Allah says He gives nations their turns of prosperity
and decline.
So again, why are the secular after us so much? Only Muslims tell people to pray
regularly. Only Muslims speak about accountability to God anymore. Christians
say all is forgiven so do as you please. Jews say there is no afterlife and that
Jews are the only people who matter. Buddhists are too busy contemplating the wind
in the forest and making trinkets for .99 cent stores to notice. Hindus- well, they
just riot all the time and feed bananas to their stone gods. Anyone else is
marginal. Look at the flaky new-agers and crystal peddlers!
The world is full of Muslims. But it is not full of believers. There's a good
chance that the majority of people you will meet with Muslim sounding names are actually
enemies of Islam. They are the hypocrites and wrong-doers spoken of so many times in
the Qur'an. Real, genuine believers will be few and far between. Most Muslim
societies have been corrupted for a long time and produce generation after generation of
selfish, "me-oriented" people who claw for wealth and treat their fellow human
beings like trash. It's just as bad in the non-Muslim world, but it hurts more when
we see people who should know better being small-minded.
Only by learning, living and teaching the pristine Islamic program can a person raise
themselves up to a higher level of being. Islam has more love than Christianity,
more communal togetherness than Judaism, more contemplation and clear-reasoning than
Buddhism and more meaning than secular humanism. This is the program that has it all
for anyone who would make it a part of their life and soul.
Only when a person is surrendered to Allah do they have true peace of mind and
contentment. This is what we want to teach people. It is unlikely there will
be a truly Islamic political reality for quite some time now. The self-promoting
"Sheikhs" and revolutionaries that run around chanting "Death to (fill in
the blank)" are hardly mature political leaders anyone would want. Hey, the
Blessed Prophet had to wait over a decade to mold a dedicated group of believers in the
heart of enemy territory before a real Islamic polity could be established. Are we
more impatient? Why haven't we followed his Sunnah and developed brotherhood among
ourselves in our isolated places?
The reactionaries among our ranks would simply cut everyone's hand off the minute they
claw their way to power. This is not what Islam teaches nor was the Blessed Prophet
a wild extremist crying about punishment all the time. When you read his sayings and
study biographies of his life, you find that he was a very thoughtful and reasonable man
who listened and acted with wisdom. His companions learned from this example and any
hot-heads among them were taught to control themselves. (Umar ibn al Khattab learned
self-control after he had become a Muslim.)
Despite the actions of the hypocrites, Islam moved forward because it spoke to people's
hearts. Islam wasn't made successful by "morality police" walking the
streets and beating people without hijabs or beards. The people policed themselves
based on their love of Iman. This love came from a teaching method that embodied,
love, respect, understanding and wisdom.
If we want a true spiritual Islam to prevail over the madness of the non-Muslims and the
idiocy of non-practicing "Muslims" or wild, "punish everybody"
revolutionaries then we had best form ourselves and our children into decent, wise and
thoughtful Muslims who know the how and why of what we do.
For over five hundred years now, the emphasis in Islamic education in the Muslim world has
been on mindless memorization and repetition. Almost all the great works of
literature, science, mathematics, astronomy, tafseer and philosophy were
accomplished
between the years 800 and 1400. Very little original work has been done since then
except to repeat the works of earlier scholars without verve or imagination.
Go to any Islamic studies class anywhere in the world and you will see stagnation and
resistance. There are a few good examples, but there are far too many less than
ideal situations. To change this will take a shift in understanding. Islam is
a living, breathing spiritual way of living, as well as a system of law. Without the
spirit, the law is an empty shell. As the famous Imam al Ghazali explained, he
learned everything about Fiqh but his heart wasn't satisfied until he understood that
Islam begins with the heart first.
Our mission is to breath new life into the spirit of Islamic learning; to lift it back
into its proper perspective so that men, women, boys and girls everywhere will be happy
when they consider Islam. To change a person's attitude towards something is to gain
their allegiance. Remember that. A child won't love to make Salah simply
because you order them to. When you convert their heart and mind then you will never
need to tell them to obey their Lord. They'll do it on their own.
The Islam of the Blessed Prophet was an intensely spiritual experience. This is what
we must bring to our students. All else is a waste of time because the battle we are
in is for the soul of humanity. We need to improve our readiness or perish.
