Problems of the Ummah; Role of Ulama & Intellectuals

A Speech by Peer Syed Mohyuddin Mahboob Hanafi Qadri on the Current Condition of the Muslim Ummah in a Global Perspective

Problems of the Ummah; Role of Ulama & Intellectuals

 With the age of globalization at hand, advancement in technology and progress in every step of the way and in every field- right from the basics of medicine to space technology, from the betterment of the education stream to the masses involved in media- there is change and progress. But inspite of the world growing at a quantum rate- with facilities provided to man like they have never been provided before, improvement in basic health care services and in result of all this- we can see the average life span of a human increasing, the quality of style of living has increased for people above the poverty line- but inspite of all of these achievements in human life- we notice a perpetual decline in Humanity.

How do we measure the decline of Humanity? 

    By increase of loss of lives owing to terrorism in the name of religion, by unjustly not only usurping other’s land or riches but now even of countries.
    Like when Iraq violated Kuwait or Iran ?
    Like when Afghanistan was violated within its country by its so-called own people? Or like Pakistan is being terrorized perpetually by foreign countries on the pretext of eradicating terrorism?
    And what about Palestine ? - Why was it invaded and who raised their voices against it? Why is the world not raising issues of genocide against Israel ?
    What about the issues in Darfur ? Why is there no help being provided to them with the whole of the Western Nation going against them and blaming them of genocide?
    What about the killings in Afghanistan or Pakistan- why is that not called genocide?
    What about the environment issues-Global warming?-Are we as “khalifa’s” in this world doing anything to protect our natural resources?
    There has been an increase in cases of suicide because people are frustrated and can find no way out of their problems?
    There are gross violations happening of human rights- with the abuse of women and children on the rise.
    Moral Values have declined
    Social and economic values are declining
    Lifestyle if measured Just by materialistic means is definitely on the rise- but if measured in terms of core values- it has drastically fallen.
    Education is on the rise- but knowledge has diminished

So, what are the challenges being faced by the Muslim Ummah?

They are:

Difference in opinion between various sectors and  sects in Islam

 A Muslim today is more focused on going against his Muslim brother if he/she has a difference of opinion in Islam and sides with the kaafirs because they find them to be more trustworthy! Hasn’t ALLAH (SWT) warned us against becoming friend with Jews and Christians- that definitely they will go against us? But, because every Muslim today has his or her own opinion and forms their own school of thought- the core values of Islam is being lost.

Lack of a centralized body of Sharia or Fiqh

 Today-every government when appointed makes sure that the proper appointments are being held for the judicial body, for the legislature and for the economic welfare and so on. Little or no emphasis is given to the formation of an Islamic body of ruling-which applies the law of Sharia in the running of the Economy and Government at large. With the world progressing and new dangers emerging- there is no new term solution as still old thoughts are prevalent and old methods applied. But times have changed. A concept of ‘ijtihad’ and ‘ijtima’ needs to be done at a global level so as to better equip Muslim countries of the new dangers and new problems that have arisen- like in an economy –various money-lending concepts have come- where if we cannot apply Sharia to it- we simply copy whatever practices are being followed by the west- and such situations are disastrous in the long-run because being Muslims we are not following the Muslim way- as there is no ‘official body’ to guide us.

Old school teachings- Madrassahs

If we really want to play positive and meaningful role for the cause of Islam today, then we must know the problems of the day. We are trying to cure the ills of the day and, therefore, we must know today’s problems. During the last 100 years we ideologically confronted socialism, capitalism, secularism, and the ideas of Darwin and Freud and these are the issues even now. But our seminaries (Madrasas) still teach the philosophy of the Mutazilah and Asharites and other old philosophical issues. They do not teach current philosophical issues. The old issues have to be addressed alongwith the new issues raised in today’s’ world and society. Such topics should not be by themselves in the Mardasa textbooks.

The textbooks should also contain and discuss the contemporary problems, the burning philosophical questions and difficulties of the day as mentioned above. Today, a great deal of change has become apparent in the realm of politics. Parliamentary system has been introduced. The ballots are now being cast secretly. The issues like the decentralization of power, federal structure of government which shares powers with the autonomous units, the delegation of power to the local government etc. have come to the forefront. These issues and concepts are completely new which the old Fiqh books (books on law) do not discuss. The earlier Fiqh books do not contain any discussion on separation of power, as this is also a new concept. Previously the elite used to dominate politics and people had no role.

The situation has now changed. Today, the people play the most dominant role, which is reflected through the election though the elite also play a role. Likewise, a good deal of change has taken place in the economic arena.. Before concepts like Central Bank, Monetary Policy, Inflation etc. were absent. If we don’t properly realize the development in this field, we shall not be able to arrive at correct decision. In this backdrop, it is most essential to attain the knowledge of modern Economics and modern Political Science.  

Breeding of Extremism

Team-work and dialogue between the religious scholars (ulama) & the thinkers (muffakireen) of Islam- the muffakireen & the Ulamas should be brought together because the aalims know better whether certain act is permissible or forbidden and the Muffakireen, on the other hand, are advanced in the field of ideas even if they are not fully conversant with the Islamic Law (Shariah). They (Mufakkireen) think and deeply contemplate over the problems faced by the Muslim Ummah. The Alims very much need the opinion of the thinkers.

The thinkers, on the other hand, require the opinion of the Alims. This co-operation has to be there because in today’s world-what is happening is because of the lack of Proper understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah of our Beloved Prophet- People are just following the basic tenets with blinders. They do not put any thought into how and where every situation can be applied and/ or should be applied. Extremism breeds when people become preoccupied with very small matters, minor and side issues, forgetting or ignoring the core issues. These problems arise when we take no lesson from history. Such problems are created when we do not have sufficient deep knowledge and understanding of Shariah and other related essential subjects.

Everything has a sequence or a cycle; Allah has His Own Laws-which are definite and eternal and they are free from doubt. We have to understand all these; otherwise people are likely to take aggressive stand, hard line. Is anybody keeping a check on the level of understanding of one’s ilm that an Imam has to have to be in a masjid? Who supervises their appointments into roles which will affect the Muslim youth of today? Does anybody monitor their sayings in a khutba because their talks might be able to ignite the feelings and passions of the Muslim youth either in a positive way or it might even go towards a negative way? One major way of combating extremism is to bring together the ulama and the muffakireen and to streamline their thought processes as the difference in thinking is also a major cause that gives rise to extremism. The welfare of the Ummah, therefore, lies in avoiding the extreme path. The Muslims have indeed become victims in different countries because of extremism.

Eradicating Poverty

Poverty is one of the major causes of a multiple of problems affecting our Muslim Ummah today. Some ulama are of the opinion that by just establishing the laws of Zakat- we can remove poverty altogether. But its not Only the Correct implementation of Zakat which we require but also restore endowment (Wakf), and at the same time, we must regulate our monetary policy and banking system in harmonious way and coordinated manner and make overall economic development.

Status of Women in our Society

This is a major issue that we as a Muslim Ummah are facing because in Islam –every one’s roles are identified and allocated. When one’s role is not clear because of various practices imposed by religious leaders- then a break occurs with the harmony of a family- which is the core component of a Muslim society breaks- as then the new generations that come are also mixed-up in their identity and instead of bettering themselves and spreading the love and message of Islam-they fall into new practices and found new rules that make them acceptable in their own eyes-like we had recent cases of women insisting that “imamat” must be given to them so as to put them at par with men.

Because they have been raised with t the notion that women are inferior to man and Islam ahs not given them any rights- whereas Islam is the ONLY religion today that gave women their rights and treated them with dignity and respect as our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has taught us to do so. Certain ulamas have spoken up about the rights to be given to women. They are of the thought that Muslim cannot progress by keeping half of the members of the society in dark. They have stressed the need of giving women all rights. People still debate about the rights of women to attend mosque, whereas if women can attend mosque, they shall be able to acquire much knowledge of Islam, know much about the teachings of Islam.  We should, therefore, try to understand the problems of the women and the Alims should take initiative to help women so that they can move forward.

Misinterpretation or incorrect translation of religious books on Hadith or fiqh

Misinterpretation is another big problem before us. Large numbers of translations of the Quran and Hadith compilation are available in the market. Naturally people read them and many questions arise on different issues in the minds of those who read and study translations, particularly when it is a question of interpretation. They themselves, therefore, try to give explanation to these issues, whereas the problem is that these people do not know the underlying principles and the methods of interpretation (Usul).

Those who want to judiciously interpret Quran and Hadith must, therefore, learn Usul al Fiqh. They have to read books on Usul al Fiqh that is easy understandable. High-quality authentic books on the subject need to be translated in the local language from Arabic and circulated and publicized in the society, the teachings of such books must be disseminated to all those who intend to study Islam from the original sources and acquire the capacity of interpretation. Otherwise, individual efforts to interpret will create confusion in the society, particularly by those who try to interpret by reading only the translations. The Alims need to give attention to this matter and disseminate knowledge of Usul.

Establishment of Islamic Way of life in Muslim Countries

We should bring about an end to the debate on democracy. There is no place of dictatorship and autocracy in Islam, also no place of monarchy in Islam. Almost all Islamic parties and movements in the world are struggling for democratic rights. They consider election as a legitimate instrument to change government.  They all want that they be given legal rights so that they can enjoy the fruits of civic and political rights. If any restriction is imposed on the functioning of Islamic parties, they take recourse of the law, file petition in the Court so that they are allowed to function an as legitimate and law abiding organization.

We know that the Islamic parties in different countries are trying to form government by participating in democratic elections.  The democratic way of government is for the people, by the people and of the people-whereas that thought is not accepted in Islam- whereby –human beings have been appointed as “khalifa’s” and are to lead in the way of ALLAH and in the rules prescribed by ALLAH (SWT). What is the Khilafah? Khilafah means representation. It means representing the people, representing Allah. 

We are all vicegerent (Khalifah) of Allah. And the Khilafah means the government of the people. We all must realize and understand this. In a democratic person- the concept is “one person-one vote”. So, if in a democratic form of Government- a man wants to get married to a man- he is allowed to do so as this comes under freedom of speech and action- but as per the laws of Sharia’h –this is haram and is not allowed. Hence, we cannot interchange the terms “democracy” with the “ Islamic Political system” as they both are entirely two different systems- one is ruled by the people and for the people and the other is ruled as per the laws of ALLAH (SWT) and we act only as Khalifa’s.

Conclusion

"In conclusion-my view is that we must copy our earlier generations, like the way it was done during the Khulafa-e-rashideen where they solved their problems. But this is not easy as a lot of change has taken place in the society- in politics, economics, administration and communication- and the solution of today’s changed problems can be found in the practices of the earlier generations or opinions of earlier Fuqaha if we apply them in light of the new problems and challenges. We have to find out more solutions afresh of today’s problem in the light of the Quran and Sunnah. We have to identify the problems of the Muslim Ummah and properly evaluate its nature, depth and dimension and find out solution keeping the precepts of Islam uppermost in our consideration. We must utilize our intellect and must resort to Ijtihad to arrive at the solution. This is the most appropriate and correct way. This is the Asal approach or the original approach."
 

WA SALAAM POWERSUNISAIFI

19-2-13