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No one denies the fact that Muslims are in decline. It is a shame to admit to this tragedy even for those who are non-practicing Muslims. The need to search for a way out of the miserable situation, in which Muslims have been dwelling more mindlessly than helplessly, is inevitable.
One may ponder what the root of this decline could be. Some may say it is due to poor economy; some may blame absence of powerful armed forces; others point at lack of unity among Muslims; some believe impoverished relationship and poor communication among Muslim nations is the culprit while some others shift the blame to poor education; some hold the abandonment of true Islamic character by Muslims responsible; some believe inventive integration of some practices into religion which were not originally part of Islam is culpable for this decline. Meanwhile, another group of people believe this decline is unquestionably the result of illogical belief in Allah, prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the holy book of Quran, and weak belief in the legitimacy of Islamic way of life. This merely inherited faith from forefathers is more correctly referred to as imitated belief. It is this imitated belief that is the covert cause of this decline. Now lets examine each of the proposed causes of this decline in more detail to determine which one is the most valid of all. Only by thorough assessment of each proposed cause can an accurate conclusion be reached.
First of all, the group of people who blame poor economy for decline of Muslims forget that there are Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia where the economy has flourished yet Muslims there are in a state of decline just like any other Islamic country with poor economic conditions. The rate of income and gross domestic product reports indicate a wealthy nation but there is no sustainable source of income to uphold this economy after the sources of oil are depleted. Saudi Arabia will be just like any other Islamic country: only a consumer.
The argument of some who hold absence of well-funded military power responsible for the severe decline of Muslims is baseless. An observation of the military power of countries such as Syria, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Egypt manifest sufficient military power for defense purposes. Yet these countries would still be incapable of selfdefense because of the state of Muslims in these countries. For instance, Iraq was a nation with powerful army that should have been able to withstand foreign invasion by any of the existing forces. However, the government of Iraq failed to protect its soil at the face of foreign military incursion. Had the United States of Americas foreign policy regarding the Middle East not altered as a result of having encountered unexpected strong resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan, countries such as Syria, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, and so on would have become American colonies by now. Debilitated military force thus is not the cause of the decline. Military force is merely a tool to protect Muslims when they have the type of power that is not defined by weapons.
If we revisit history, the example of the Ottoman Empire attests to this fact as well. An empire so powerful that the European land divided into feudal states were unable to resist its dominance. Yet the mighty Ottomans crumbled to nothingness removed from the map of the world despite their good economy and power.
Some Muslim groups deem lack of unity among Muslims as the cause of the decline. One of the solutions implemented to remedy this shortcoming is the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an inter-governmental organization whose purpose is to bring solidarity among Muslims in the world. Despite OICs length of operation since 1969, its objectives still remain unachieved with no positive impact in reversing the trend the unfortunate global downward trend among Muslim nations.
Those who criticize poor liaison among Muslim nations pay little attention to existence of numerous embassies of many Islamic governments in other Muslim countries capital cities. The main purpose of an embassy is to establish and strengthen political relations with the host country. Despite this potentially effective measure, it has not had any positive outcome in improving the situation of Muslims.
Some who believe poor education and illiteracy is the cause of this decline ignore the fact that the percentage of literates in Iran and Egypt are the highest among Muslim countries.
If the level of literacy were a measure for betterment of Muslims various aspects of life, then the situation of Muslims in Iran and Egypt should be better accordingly, which is not the case. Hence, improving literacy alone cannot take a nation out of decline.
Some people believe that the abandonment of true Islamic character is the sole reason for the decline of todays Islamic civilization. This problem has been targeted by many parties for at least half a century specifically by the preachers group where a number of Muslims go around to preach the true message of Islam and teach Muslims how to implement Islamic practices in their lives. Apparently, this method has failed to achieve the objective of helping rebuild the true Islamic society.
The inclusion of innovative practices into Islam after the death of Prophet Muhammad is termed beda. A group of Muslims shift the blame onto the practice of beda. They claim that if Muslims abandon beda and only resort to the original teachings of the religion that will resolve the major worldwide problems Muslims face today. A group called salafies formed to encounter the practice of beda and have been fighting against it for more than a century. Unfortunately, their efforts have not been fruitful in this regard.
The question that remains unanswered is what the underlying cause of this decline could be. It is crystal clear that the root cause of this decline is the lack of intellectual beliefs among the Muslims. Majority of Muslims have imitated beliefs unaware of the fact that it is strictly prohibited in Islam. This kind of belief begets lack of trust on Islamic system of government among Muslims leading towards decline. Many Muslims fall into the trap of misunderstanding true Islamic concepts. They lack or have meager intellectual belief on Allah Almighty, Holy Quraan, Sunnah or the way of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the Islamic system of government. At the same time most Muslims do not even know anything about the religious instinct; that is to know that the Lord Almighty wants to interfere in our daily lives to provide practical guidance for us unlike what is in Hindu philosophy, which is followed by Christians and Jews as well. Alien philosophies such as those from Greek, Hinduism, and Persian entered into Islam in the second century in the Islamic calendar and continued until Islamic countries colonialism by the West. Those who became engrossed in such alien philosophies tried to intertwine Islam with these systems of thoughts. Since Islamic philosophy was perplexing to most of the Muslims, they were unable to differentiate between alien and Islamic philosophies.
Some people who actually hated Islam, hypocritically entered among Muslims to introduced these alien philosophies to Muslims and integrate them as part of Islam, which were, in fact, totally against Islam. Since the majority of the Muslims were imitators, they were receptive to these philosophies and accepted them thinking they were Islamic teachings. They were unaware that these philosophies were meant to deviate them, instead.
Muslims had lost the clear picture of the Islamic methodology. At first they knew that, their lives were to be dedicated for Islam and that they were obliged to broaden the Islamic teachings to other parts of the world. They believed that the Islamic government had the duty to implement Islam and uphold Islamic law at all times. However, the mentality changed and Muslims started prioritizing wealth to religious practices such as attending religious sermons by Islamic scholars. Islamic governments were no longer fulfilling their duty to implement Islamic rules or to disseminate the message of Islam to the rest of the world. Afterwards, when Islamic governments no longer existed for many countries, they started building mosques, publishing Islamic books, and providing training on Islamic practices thus putting an effort to return to original philosophy of Islam. They lived under the sovereignty, leadership and colonization of the non-Muslims peacefully for years.
Meanwhile Muslims started relating Islamic philosophy to Islamic methodology in a way that they had not bothered themselves before to learn about the nature of Islamic rules, to describe the rules, and to find better solutions for their problems. Therefore the assessment and research of the rules got separated from its implementation. The focus turned only to praying, fasting, marriage contract, and divorce. The research on commandments such as justice, leadership, Jihad, which means endeavor in the cause of Allah, and so on were separated from correct implementation of these values. Thus the possibility of correct implementation of these philosophies was next to naught consequent upon the separation of philosophies from methodology.
Moreover, the closure of the Baab e Ijtihad in the fourth century of Islamic calendar hindered the progress of Muslims pushing Islamic society deeper into the darkness of declines. For example, when printing machine was invented, no Muslim stepped forward to print the holy book of Quran because some scholars had called it bed'a. It was not until after three hundred and fifty years that one Muslim brother in India, which was under the British rule at the time, produced copies of Quran using a printing machine. Later other Muslims followed suit. Similarly, when telegraph came into use Muslims refrained from utilizing it for almost thirty years to avoid so-called practice of beda. This begot frustration among Muslims and distrust on the Islamic system and the decisions of Islamic scholars announced regarding methodology.
These problems were followed by an even direr problem pushing Muslims to the dungeon of decline and shame they face today. That is the separation of Arabic language from the preaching of Islam to people. This happened during the Ottomans Caliphate when this separation was enforced. Thus the gap in understanding Islamic jurisprudence by non-Arab Muslims increased substantially resulting in imitated belief.
In the thirteenth century of Islamic calendar, the Islamic society has been highly influenced by cultural and political ideologies of the West. This marks the decline of Islamic society where all aspects of life are robbed of their original Islamic setup.
Nowadays every value is reflective of the Western philosophy including legislative issues. All the judicial laws are based on international laws rather than the Islamic jurisprudence.
Each issue mentioned above is major in its nature and responsible for the decline of Muslims. This is the time about which Muhammad (PBUH) had informed us stating that "the time will come when Islam will be like a fireball, which if you hold, your hands will burn and if you throw away, you will be out of Islam". The hardships those who practice Islam face today are very much like holding fire with bare hands. There is pressure from some non-Muslim countries to conform to Western norms and to adopt the Western values system. Some non-Muslim countries have been colonizing Muslims lands viciously as the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had predicted that non-Muslims would attack Muslims the way starving people run towards a dining table. Muslims stand helpless at the face of these calamities that they could have effectively handled.
The solution now rests with Muslims to improve their condition by following the three steps of preaching according to the prophets (PBUH) way, which is an obligation for all Muslims. Only then will Muslims flourish and establish a true Islamic governing system.
This is the only solution that can help recover the once prosperous and exemplary Islamic civilization. And I challenge and welcome those who refute this argument. Henceforth, the culprits that should be targeted are imitated beliefs, misconceptions regarding Islam, and absence of a governmental system that provides for the basic needs of the public.
Once these issues are attended to everything else will fall into place.
Authored by: Muhammad Mustafa Mustaan
For further details contact: www.mustaan.org |
