Challenges before Muslim Ummah and remedial measures
Bhat Zaieem
Allah says in the Quran (Sura Al-Hadeed) that,”It is He who sends down upon His bondsman bright signs so that He may bring you forth from the darkness towards the light. And verily Allah is kind and Merciful to you.”
Means the Muslims were handed over with the gift which could enlighten the whole world. And Muslims then revolutionized the world in 6th century when there was deep rooted ignorance in the west. Muslims under the centralised leadership of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) dominated the major portions of the world and that continued till 11th century.
But what is wrong with the today’s Muslims. We are lagging in every sphere of life compared to other religious groups. There are 57 countries that have accepted the membership of “Organization of Islamic Countries” (OIC) and thereby have declared themselves as the Muslim nations. But the situation of everyone among them is not alluring. All are sailing in the same boat
It is crystal clear and doesn’t need a proof to explain that there are crisis in the Muslim world. Till now 935 nobel prizes have been awarded in different fields. But Muslims have just achieved 12 and majority of them in the field of peace. The figure speaks about the intellectual crisis of the Muslim world. The ethnic genocide of Rohingya Muslims, the stories of Afghan destruction, the death of a million Iraqis , day to day killings in Palestine and Syria, the blinding of the Kashmiris are the self-speaking facts of crises which Muslim Ummah is facing.
There are multiple elements which make a civilization to rise to excellence or result in their failure. Civilizations don’t die because of murder but because of suicides. Means, the inability of a civilization which doesn’t give timely response to challenges leads to its downfall.
It is pertinent to mention here, that there can be no rise of Muslim nations unless there is no Islam. Islam vividly mentions it that rise and fall of Muslims lies in Quran. If we leave it aside we are going to make ourselves inhuman and if we adhere to it we are going to step on the ladder of success at an earliest.
The fact is that the success of the Muslims lies in perfectly following the ordeals of Quran and Sunnah. The life story of Umer Farooq (RA) is the best practical proof of it. When he said that he was taming camels in deserts of Arabia before accepting Islam, but it is Islam which made him the Caliph of the world.
Even Ghandiji once said,”I cannot give you the reference of Ram Chandar or Krishna, because they were not historical figures. I cannot help it but to present to you the names of (Hazrat) Abu Bakar (RA) and (Hazrat) Umar Farooq (RA). They were leaders of a vast Empire, yet they lived a life of austerity.”But we have been caged by Western culture. We are caught and are not able to get out from it.
Muslims are often tagged with the words of extremism and terrorism. But does it really exist. Out of around 41,000 terrorist-related deaths in India during last 25 years, Muslim outfits are accused only in attacks killing around 1400. Rest 39, 000 have all been caused by people recognized as Hindus in Census, including Naxalites, ULFA terrorists, Bodos, Sikhs etc.
The most unfortunate thing is that Muslim intellectuals have lost the ability to analyze the world situation and have become apologetic and defensive. We always defend the attacks by other analysts, and we do not question them about what they are doing. We have been petted with the division policies. And we have been trapped in intra religious sects.
We are at par in the field of education compared to global level. Knowledge was the heredity of Muslims once, but today it has been taken away from our hands. Even not one university of any Islamic nation is among top 100 universities in world rankings. According to a report not more than 2.5 percent of Muslims in India reach to university level. Even in our state, the literacy rate is at bottom end of the list. We have 30th rank among 36 states and union territories.
The most prominent step is that we need to revisit our past history and culture. One more step for the development of Muslim world is to make revivalism about their strategies. The policies should not be limited to territorial and ethnic level but to world level. It would be better if the Muslim nations re-frame their policies and think globally.
The first and foremost thing is that Muslims should first get a united stand. That can be achieved only when we recognize the larger aim of Islam, which is meant for true peace of the whole mankind. The need of the hour is to apply Islamic principles in all the fields including law, health, economics and sociology.
The day it is done, the world will see eternal peace of mind. There will be no need to spend much of the national income on making the borders much rigid, instead all may intrude to wherever they wish without any obligation. Sciences and Technology will then signal a truly peaceful world, and this is what we all should work for. And we would not be having any puerile discriminations either based on race, customs or nationality, rather a unique pattern of equality would prevail all over the world.
(The writer is a Teacher at department of school education. He can be reached at [email protected])
KV Network
