Allah promises to those who cultivate iman and who lead lives of purity, of
moral integrity and the grandeur of character, He promises to them you will be the greatest dominant force in this earth... (Q 24:55)
The infidels of Makkah jeered at them and said that: "Your leader wants to boost your morale and holds out false promises." But history tells us that this small group of Muslims became the master force in the world and remained
the supreme political and ideological power for centuries! This was the promise that was fulfilled, and the Holy Qur'an says:
Honour belongs to Allah and His Prophet and to the believers. (Q 63:8)
to those who possess a dynamic, loving and vibrant faith in Allah. To them belong the honour and if we do not have any honour in this world, then we are not Mu'minin. The promise came, but not to the Muslim, not to those who pay
lip service, not a mere intonation, nor a spiritless proclamation of the shahadah. Shall we remain in this state? Is it really worthy of a human being to stay in this abject condition? Do we realise that we have reached the rockbottom of our degradation? The proof of it is that the most persecuted, the most hated, the smallest ideological minority in the world, that is, the Jews, snatched away from you your qiblah al awwal Jerusalem, surrounded on all sides by so called muslims.
Those Muslims are helpless in spite of the fact that they are begging for help from the Soviet Union, China and elsewhere but still cannot do anything! What a contrast between that handful of Muslims in Makkah, to whom that promise was made and fulfilled, against the heaviest odds, What a pity for us that we are almost 2 billion and we cannot do anything!
This hopeless apathy is a measure of our iman. We have no iman! And we still believe that the system of guidance, the Qur'an and sunnah, is true! That is the biggest tragedy. We have no iman but we believe; hence we cannot say
on the Day of judgement that we did not know. We will be told: "You knew it, but you did not follow My guidance, you followed your hawa al-nafs, your baser or lower self! You followed the devil."
Allah has promised and proclaimed: Whoever revolts against the devil and establishes his loyalty towards Allah, he
obtains a support which will never fail him, (2:256)
Why is all the support failing us? Don't we think? Don't we have minds? Have we become so foolish and ignorant not to understand and this at least?
Islam is the alchemy that transforms all the base metals into gold, and it has proved itself to be the alchemy. It was sent by Allah to the most backward people in the world — the Arabs of those days.
Thomas Carlyle in his On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in History said: "They were a people who made no mark in known history, those nomadic Arabs, a handful in number, filthy and barbaric in character. To them
was sent Allah's greatest prophet, and within twenty years, this crowd of barbarians was transformed into a group of supermen!" And they challenged the entire world of batil (of all that was false) and they conquered the world
and they established the truth! What are we doing? If my remarks sound bitter I very much beg your pardon. But ask the doctors – a patient who suffers from malaria should not be given anything that is sweet - the remedy for malaria is bitter quinine
Another important point raised was that the Muslims in the United States and the UK, are living in a western-oriented country. They are a minority and living under a non-Muslim majority. This problem is not confined to the UK only. It is to be found in every Muslim community, even in Pakistan, which is a country with an overwhelming Muslim majority. The Muslims are leaving the old culture and running after the new, to whatever country you may go. It is not a case of being a minority. They are doing the same things on a stupendous scale in Turkey, Iran and in the Arab Middle East.
If you go there you will find that they are more westernised than the western people. There are people who condemn them - fortunately or unfortunately. I don't condemn them because after I recently read some philosophy there are certain Laws of the historical process called in the philosophy of history — the principle of historical compulsion. And this principle claims that however much a community may try to behave in a certain manner, the historical forces that are around it, compel it to do as they want it to do.
You can make yourself immune to outside influences only when it is definitely superior and more virile than those other communities that are there in the environment. But if the community is docile, if the community has no
law to govern its life, if it is bankrupt in respect of its character and its ideals, then it is, as the saying goes: "The devil occupies the vacant home." A community which has no positive idealism and is not struggling to achieve
the goal of that idealism, is a passive community. And the nature of God's Law is (the Sociological Law ) that all human beings are moving ahead like a caravan. This caravan of humanity is moving all the time and whatever portion of the caravan becomes stagnant or stationary, or those who do not want to move, the law is that they will he thrown back. They wilt not be allowed to be stationary but will be trampled. This is the law.
What we have been doing is that we have left the mission of Islam long ago. We were not inspired by the Islamic Idealism anymore. Our plans were not what the Holy Prophet (P.b.u.h.) gave us. We were indulging in all sorts of
unIslamic activities even before these Western powers came to wrest away our sovereignty in Africa and Asia.
After they came they tried their best to de-islamise us. It was a duty to themselves that their potential enemies should be crushed. They did just that, and we cannot complain.
In the meantime, another tragedy has happened. Islam, like every other religion or system, comprises certain components. The first being he values of Islam, from which emerge the norms, and then the laws. Then follows the
rules and regulations such as etiquette — personal, religious and social. What do we find in the Muslim world of today? The concept of values and norms have been forgotten. We stand by the Law. Our ‘ulama’ also study only
the Law, the fiqh. This Law is given to the people and when that Law degenerates among the people, then only etiquette is left. How far have we gone in this?
