| by Rifai Naleemi
( October 13, 2012, London, Sri
Lanka Guardian) A wake – up call for the Muslims is one of the best articles I
read in Srilankan Guardian this month. This article was published on 7/10/12 in
Srilankan Guardian by Ali Sukhanver. This short article drew my attention and
provoked my thought. Indeed, it compelled me to write this article to clarify
some of the points the writer made in his article and to elaborate more on this
subject of Muslim dilemmas today. Ali’s article is short in scale and yet
describes challenges and dilemma of Muslims today. Ali Sukanver precisely summarises the dilemma
of Muslims in the world today: I totally
agree with brother Ali: that Muslim ummah is going through one of its most difficult
times in its history of 1400 hundred years and yet, we should be optimistic
about the future of Muslims in the world. Islamic history tells us that after
every historical disaster Muslims people by the grace of Almighty Allah managed
to overcome them in the past. Islamic awaking in recent times may justify this
to some extent: it is true that Muslim people live in pathetic conditions and
are humiliated today than ever before and yet they could overcome them by the
grace of Almighty Allah.
I agree with brother Ali that Muslim world
should put its house in order before it blames outside world: The writer has touched three main issues in
this article: Backwardness of Muslim
community in modern world, disunity among Muslim people today and antagonism
and resentment of some elements of Non-Muslim people towards Muslims all over
the world: If I have rightly read his
short article I could summarise the core theme of this article in this way:
yet, I could say that there are some other main factors that contribute to
these pathetic conditions of Muslim today: some Islamic scholars argue that
Islamic world is going through four
major predicaments and crises. Intellectual crisis, Leadership crisis, economic
crisis and religious crisis are some of the challenges Muslim ummah faces
today:
Much has been said and written about the
decline of Muslim world in modern times and yet, I think that Muslim world
seems to have not yet evolved any concrete mechanism to overcome its challenges.
Rather than pointing fingers on others Muslim Ummah should evaluate its
position in modern world and contrive some plans to over come its challenges in
gradual steps. So that at least our next generation of Muslim ummah could come
out of these pathetic conditions in Muslim world. I agree that unifying Muslim
ummah is paramount important matter today than any time in Muslim history but
is it viable today given the fragmented nature of Muslim on different dogmatic
sectarian lines based on different interpretation of Islamic dogmas. Each group
have got their own interpretation of Quran and Hadith. Nothing wrong with
primary sources of Islam but wrongness lies in people’s minds who interpret
Islamic texts on their own ways.
Religious challenges in Muslim world today:
It is true that Muslim people all over the
world pray to One God (Allah), follow one prophet and have one Holy book and
yet, Muslims are disunited in the name of same religion that signifies unity
more than any other religion. One group’s understanding of Islamic text is
different from other group’s grasp of meaning: It is understandable that Islam
appreciates different of opinions and yet, some extreme radical can not
tolerance different of opinions even in minor juristic matters of Islamic law and
how could we expect unity and tolerance from
these people? Unfortunately, there is no
unity and uniformity among some Islamic scholars today in many Islamic issues
and how could expect Muslim ummah to be untied under one religious leadership?
I totally agree with that we should maintain the unity for the sake of greater
interest as the writer rightly noted “For the peaceful nourishment of our society we need to
keep a vigilant eye on the elements which are giving air to the baseless and
trivial differences among Muslim sects” yet how is this viable today with radical extremism spreads like virus
among Muslim groups?
Today any one could speak for Islam:
educated and uneducated. Those who have comprehensives knowledge of Islam and
those who have minimal Islamic knowledge, and those who are in grade one in
term of Islamic knowledge and those who are expertises in Islamic sciences. One
Islamic scholar puts this disparity in understanding Islam very lucidly:
“Shari’a is on the one hand, the sum total of technical legal methodologies,
precedents and decisions; it is also, on the other hands, a powerful symbol of
the Islamic identity, for the trained jurist, Shari’a is a legal system full of
complex processes and technical jargons but for the average Muslim, Shari’a is
a symbol for Islamic authenticity and legitimacy” thus, there is a huge
disparity in understanding Islam according to level of education one has in
Islamic sciences: Islamic sciences are so complex and complicated: We could rarely find people who have mastered
all branches of Islamic sciences: Someone may be an expert in the arts of
Hadith science and yet , would not have thorough knowledge in science of Quran
or Islamic jurisprudences. Someone may
be an expert in Islamic jurisprudence yet may not be an expert in Islamic
History or in the arts of Hadith. Thus, a compressive understanding of Islamic
teaching demands a life time journey of Islamic learning.
We have seen mushrooming groups of
self proclaimed Islamic experts and preachers in recent times. When it comes to
Islam we have different level of people with different level of knowledge in
Islam: you could classify them from grade one to expert levels. Unfortunately
today every one becomes a self proclaimed speaker of Islam. Sometimes Muslims people do not get right
messages from right people and as result of this, Muslim ummah is undergoing
intellectual crisis even in the basic teaching of their religions. Confusion,
vagueness, misinterpretation and misunderstanding are commonly prevalent among
Muslims community today than ever before even in basic teaching of Islam: Sufi
Islam is different from Salafi Islam; Tabligh Islam is different from Ikhwani
Islam and so on. How do we unite them all under one religious leadership? This
is timely needed an important question that Muslim ummah should find viable
answer through some positive mechanism.
Political challenges:
Our political leaders have done
grave mistakes and blunders in modern world: unlike Chinese/Indian political
leadership today Muslim political leadership has been totality marginalised in
today’s modern world: Some of our political leaders do not have any clue about
dramatic changes that take place around them in modern world. Some of them are
totally brain washed with western political leaders and do not represent Muslim
publics at all. Some of them are mere
dictators showing all types of nepotisms in politics. Their political opinions
have no weight at all in any international decision making process or problem
resolving in issues: Look at for instance, How many times Muslim political
leaders might have met with western leaders on the issues of Palestinian self
determination and they have got nothing from all previous talks and
discussions. There are 53 Muslim countries today and most of
our rulers are disliked by Muslim publics. So, what can we expect from
them?
Muslim politicians have had the habits of
seeking the supports of East and West for many decades but what they got from
them is nothing but illusive supports and concealment Muslim political leaders
have been used as curry leaves many times in Middle Eastern issues. All what western political leaders in East
and West world want is protection of their national interests nothing else:
they have this slogan that we do not have eternal foe or eternal friends but we
have eternal interests and yet our leaders have failed to understand the
mentality of western political leadership. Muslim political leaders have their own
interests at the expense of Muslim publics and they do not care about public as
long as they could stay on power until they die and power is inherited by their
sons. They do not care even natural
recourses of Muslim nations are sold to any country that guarantees their
power. No point in blaming others for the stupidity and greediness of our
leaders who ruled Muslims land for decades and led Muslim mass into this mess. Yes,
I agree with that Western political leadership have exploited the weakness of
Muslim ummah and yet, it is upto Muslim Ummah to reform its self and come out
its mess. Yes, in the name of war on terror thousands of Muslim innocents
people have been killed and yet, Muslim leaders have no power to speak out
against this injustice in modern world:
We live in a world of self contradictory: we have so many human rights
commissions today than ever before yet more human rights are violated today
than ever before.
Challenges in education and economies of
Muslim countries
Muslims nations are today under achievers in
education and economy. Most illiterate
and uneducated people live in Muslim lands today. Female illiteracy rate is highest
in Muslim world today. Most of Muslim
youth are unemployed in Muslim world and Muslim people are economically
deprived and live under poverty live in most parts of Muslim countries. For
instance, In Egypt alone with population of 80 millions more than 30 millions
people live under poverty line with less than 2 dollars per day and yet oil
rich Muslim countries of Middle East spend billions for weapons that they will
never use. What an economic dichotomy in our Muslim world today? Once Muslim civilization in Spain paved the
way for the European renaissance in science and education and yet today Muslim
nations are in the bottom line of table in educational achievement and
scientific inventions. For instance, a small country like Israel with only its
five millions of population produces more than 400 PhDs holders annually while
Islamic country of Pakistan with its 150 millions of people produces less than
five PhDs holders annually. What a disparity in achievement and accomplishment
between these two worlds: We could compare and contrast achievements and under
achievements of Muslim and western worlds and yet it is not my intention here to
show all statistics rather to point out this disparity for our people so that
we could encourage Muslim people to guide their children into educational
pursuit.
With all these gigantic challenges
and problems Muslim world has to prioritise its problems and plan
systematically to overcome them in order of priority. Is it an educational reform that Muslim world
needs today? Or political reformations/changes that Muslim world needs
today? Is it faith renewal that Muslim
world needs today or an economic revolution that Muslim world needs today? Or is it a combination of all these that
Muslim world needs today? Who leads
Muslim ummah today is it politicians or Islamic clerics or Muslim
intellectuals? Or do we have any leadership at all? These are some of questions that have been
puzzling Muslim minds. I’m sure that Almighty Allah will guide us
into right directs if Muslims turn to him with full conviction and firm belief
and work hard to reform Muslim world. Our strong faith in Almighty Allah is our
strongest weapon that we have and yet we have failed to acknowledge and
appreciate it. I firmly believe that this strong sense of faith could
revitalize Muslim people and actively encourage them towards success in this
world and the Next. It was this strong sense of faith that led our predecessors
into success and same faith could still lead Muslim into success. Yet, are the Muslims still ready to march
into this path of success?
 A wake – up call for the Muslims is one of the best articles I...){kind=link}