Surely you will prevail if you are indeed believers. (Al-Qur'an 3:139)
1. Over a Billion People
Islam is a universal religion. Besides the Middle East, Asia and Africa, the Far East, Europe and North America have substantial populations of Muslims. It is proudly claimed that there are more than one billion Muslims in the world.
However, Muslims are facing a global crisis. The crisis consists of political, economic, social, military, and scientific setbacks. Allama Inayatullah Mashriqi, in 1940's depicted the state of the East in general,
and that of Muslims in particular, in this way:
People ask me that I traveled the East for years. What have I seen? How shall I tell what I have seen!
From this end to that end I saw towns in ruins, broken and shaken bridges, dirt clogged canals, dusty streets, abandoned highways. I saw wrinkled faces, undernourished bodies, stooping backs, empty brains, insensitive
hearts, inverted logic, aberrant reason. I saw oppression, slavery, poverty, pomp and vanity, detestable vices,clusters of disease, burnt forests, cold ovens, barren tilths, dirty attire and useless hands and feet. I saw
imams (religious leaders) without followings. I saw brothers who were foes to one another. I saw days without purpose and I saw nights which lead to no dawns.
Let's assess the situation from one more viewpoint. The great Egyptian scholar Mufti Mohammad Abduh visited Paris a hundred years ago. Upon his return to Egypt he startled the world by declaring, "In Europe I saw no Muslims, --I saw Islam! In Egypt I see Muslims, I see no Islam!"
Dear reader, although there are non-Islamic practices in the West, I can hear the echo of that declaration today. The so-called billion plus Muslims are Muslims without Islam! Their political, economic and social
conditions paint a complete picture of misery and chaos wherever they live. Apparently the tree bearing such bad fruit should be blameworthy. Isn't a tree known by the fruit it bears?
Subjugation to kings, despots, and tyrants, slavery to the mystic and the mullah, submission to blind following of dogmas and beliefs, fear, illiteracy, lootings & killings, ethnic and sectarian hatred, webs of
superstition- ------- what is all this? Rule of slavery. Slavery of mind and body.
2. Sectarianism
Let's view the situation from another angle. The tree of sectarianism among Muslims has grown to such heights, and fatwas (verdicts) of infidelity have become so popular, that there exists not a single Muslim in
the world who would be unanimously accepted as a Muslim by the Ulema (scholars or mullahs) of ALL the existing sects! The followers of Islam, which introduced the concept of international brotherhood, are
hopelessly divided among themselves.
3. Muslims by Birth
Many find consolation in the fact that they are born as a Muslim. While some rejoice, "We are born Muslims," others similarly say with pride, "Thank God! He created us among Muslims."
But the Qur'an confers no value to Islam by inheritance. It reads:
O' you who believe (and call yourself Muslims) believe in Allah and His messenger and the Book revealed unto him . . . (Qur'an 4:136)
(O' Mohammad) tell them that this is my way which is very clear and straight. My call is based on firm conviction and reason as well as that of my followers. (12:100)
The Qur'an is so particular on using our intellect and reason that it enphatically edmonishes that one should not accept even its own verses without due reflection. (25:73) Muslims should stop here and think for a moment. Have I ever tried to search reality? Did I really find the Truth? Or, am I simply imitating the ways of my forefathers? It is only after due contemplation
that Islam can be adopted. Unfortunately, today almost all the one billion plus Muslims in the world are Muslims by birth and by blind following, the kind of Islam which the Qur'an considers of no merit. It has to be a matter of choice based upon reason and understanding. Only then can a Muslim be an effective,
enlightened member of the Ummah.
4. Comparison with the Status of Christian
Let us compare the current status of the Muslims with that of the Christians. While there is an increasing bias against the Muslims, where are the Christians standing? Objectively speaking, one cannot help but marvel at their scientific and material achievements.
a. The Bias against Muslims
I know as you do that bias against Muslims has been increasing on a global scale. You may wonder why. Bosnia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Chechnya have seen the most massive genocides and atrocities since the
Holocaust. Anti-Muslim propaganda is on the rise everywhere. Some analysts are calling Iraq a laboratory for further annihilation of Muslims. And the Muslims are getting overjoyed on President Clinton's felicitation
on the Eid festival! Meanwhile, Christian missionary work has been stepped up worldwide.
Our response: Mosque upon mosque, religious school upon religious school, are opening. Yet, in these institutions, all is taught but the pristine and glorious message of the Qur'an. The magnetic Qur'an, which contains the message of global success, has been relegated to mere recitation without understanding. The Qur'an is being memorized, being sung in competition and being "finished" in so many hours. Muslim scholars and Ulema in great numbers are busy propagating the ritualistic tradition-based Islam. The bearers of the Last Word of God have confined their faith to individual salvation by means of ritualistic worship. Their resulting non-Qur'anic practices can hardly induce sympathetic or acceptable responses from scientific and rational minds of the West.
Moreover, to my knowledge, not a single book has been written in English, Arabic, Persian, Urdu or Hindi thus far that would effectively introduce a non-Muslim (or even a young Muslim) to the extraordinary and
dynamic teachings of Islam. If a non-Muslim is interested in learning about Islam, we either hand-over to him a copy of the Qur'an (which is not understandable because of wrong translations based upon a thousand
year old narratives), or we provide him with a book on Islamic jurisprudence (FIQH). These books of Fiqh talk about menial issues and petty problems such as ways of ablution, size of the beard, type of the head-cover,
rituals of worship, etc. These man-made books, unlike the Qur'an, cannot guide us to establish a workable system in the human society.
Unfortunately, the wise opponents and the foolish friends of Islam wish to maintain the status quo. Since this kind of Islam proposes no system or ways of collective life, it poses no threat to the ruling or dominant class, or to the priesthood. Rather it invigorates both!
We have respect for our Christian brothers and sisters. They are part of God's family. Messenger Mohammad, the Exalted said:
All humanity is the family of Allah so we must love them all.
But, Muslims have failed miserably in conveying the highly rational message of the Last Word of God to humanity. They have done even worse in defining the blissful objective of the Qur'an i.e. building Paradise in this life and thus achieving it in the Hereafter.
Therefore, even after the western scholars have seen a glimmer of the shining guidance in the Qur'an, all the above reasons contribute to bar them from looking any further. And noticing the abject political and
socio-economic status of the Muslims, our Christian brothers and sisters detract from Islam. How would they know that Muslims today are not lagging behind due to Islam but only because of a counterfeit man-made set of dogmas, beliefs, rituals, customs and traditions.
Who is to blame?
b. The Status of Christians
Unlike the Muslims, the Christians are performing far better at the political, social, economic, and scientific
levels. Their planning at these levels is more organized and rationally based. Why is this?
Ponder that when God commanded the angels ("forces of Nature" according to Sir Syed) to prostrate before Adam, they did. This means that Allah made forces of nature subservient to mankind. In other words, man has been endowed with the capacity to understand and master the physical laws operative within nature. This is called the "status of Adam" or "the pedestal of humanity." The West has attained this coveted status. Muslims, not yet attaining it, are scrambling through life at subhuman levels.
"Risen you have not to the human level, how can you find God
[and the purpose of life and the Universe]?" Sir Iqbal. The status of the true believer (MU'MIN), however, is even more glorious i.e. harnessing the forces of
Nature by mastering physical laws and then using these forces for the benefit of not one nation, race or color, but of all mankind as Allah commands.
Thus, the West has attained the status of Adam. The Muslims have not. So we come to the question
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