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The Muslim Ummah at the present moment is beset with problems. Muslims all over the world are suffering and dying , suffering under the oppression of tyrants and despots. Their blood is being spilled and their honour despoiled. Our mothers are crying, weeping at the death of their children. And throughout the globe the leaders of Muslim countries stand by and do nothing. We have no leadership.
The Khilafah is destroyed and all that is left are kings and tyrants, each country only concerned with itself and oblivious to the plight of their brothers. What has happened to the unity of Islam? Where is the strength of our Ummah? The situation is hopeless. The odds are insurmountable and the obstacles too huge to overcome. Our enemies are too powerful and our strength too weak. What can one person do to change all of this? How can one individual hope to change the world? This is what the Shaitaan whispers to us, seeking to overwhelm us with despair. So he succeeds in this and we become inert and inactive. We become convinced that there is nothing we can do and so we simply wait: we wait for the arrival of the Mahdi and when he comes he will relieve us of all our problems. This is delusion ya akhi! And it is a deception to which many of us have seemingly fallen prey. Without a doubt, we believe in the coming of the Mahdi, but we cannot rely on him to solve our problems. Imagine if Salahudin al-Ayyubi had had that attitude: do you think al-Quds would ever have been liberated then?
There is something we can do, and this is what it is. We need to begin with our own selves. Our approach should not be to start from the top and try to solve all the world’s problems, but we should start from the bottom, with ourselves. All of us, me and you, need to start living Islam. This is all that it is. Islam should dominate our day-to-day existence and it should guide all aspects of our lives. We should not push it to the periphery and only choose to follow those injunctions which are convenient for us. We need to regain that spirit of Islam which the Companions (ra) had - that spirit of earnestness and sacrifice. We need to combat our sins and rectify our bad behaviour. We need to surrender, completely and wholly, to the will of Allah (swt). We need to follow the way of His beloved, Muhammad (saw). If we want to fix the world we must first fix ourselves. And how do we achieve this? By fixing our hearts. The Prophet (saw) said: “Alaa inna fil jasadi mudghah. Idhaa saluhat saluha jasadu kulluh, wa idhaa fasadat fasada jasadu kulluh. Alaa wa hiya al-qalb - Verily in the body there is a piece of flesh. If it is sound the entire body is sound but if it is corrupted the entire body is corrupted: behold, it is the heart!” Does this mean then that we if just exercise and eat healthily then we will have achieved this? Of course not. The heart here does not refer to the physical organ but to the spiritual heart. And we need to purify our hearts from all spiritual diseases. This is what the hadith is saying. If our heart is diseased with anger, with lust, with envy, with hatred, with greed, with all evil qualities, then our entire body will be corrupt. But if our hearts are sound then all of us will be sound. So we need to behave as Rasulullah (saw) behaved. This is how we purify our hearts and this is what it all comes down to. He (saw) said: “Innama bu’ithtu li utammima makaarima al-aklaq - I have not been sent except to perfect the standards of good character.” He was the best human being in terms of behaviour and we must follow him in this regard. This is why he was sent!
So we first begin by rectifying ourselves. And Allah (swt) says: “Innallaha laa yughayyiru maa bi qawmin hattaa yughayyiroo maa bi anfusihim - Verily Allah does not change the condition of a people until the change what is within themselves. (al-Ra’d: 11)” Thereafter we work on our families by educating and advising them, then our society by getting involved in community upliftment projects, then our country by working to establish justice and eradicate evil, and then the rest of the world. If we are sound practicing Muslims then our families should be too. If our families are sound then our communities will be sound. And if our communities are sound then the larger world will be too. All of these things need to be worked on concurrently. One cannot just focus on himself and forget about his family, saying that he will first rectify himself completely before turning to them. Because the purification of the soul is an ongoing process which will never end. And one cannot also only concern himself with just his family and forget about the rest of society. Each area needs to be dealt with but we should first start with our own selves.
So leave off sinning and return to obedience. Stop indulging in the haram and partake of the halal. Abandon the ways of West, of popstars and celebrities and follow the Sunnah of Rasulullah (saw). Command that which is good and forbid that which is evil. Seek forgiveness for your sins and turn back to Allah (swt) in repentance. Cast aside nationalism, this cancer which is destroying us as a nation, as an Ummah, and go back to the universal brotherhood of Islam. Live Islam! And fear Allah, fear your Lord Most High, for indeed He has said:
The earth belongs to Allah. He gives it as inheritance to whomever He wills of His slaves. And the successful outcome is for those who have taqwa.
(al-A’raf: 128 )
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I say this to myself first of all. And with Allah is Success.
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by the_middle_road
