Friday 26 February 2016

The State of our Affairs - Lessons From History



The State of our Affairs

We believe — on the basis of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad  (SAW)  and  also  because  of  the  fact  that  the revivalist efforts of the last four hundred years have largely been concentrated in the Indian subcontinent — that the process of the global Islamic Revolution is going to start from our part of the world. Despite these high hopes and optimism, however, one must  admit  that  the  conditions  are  extremely depressing and almost totally hopeless at the moment.

As far as our own homeland is concerned, the history of the last half a century is clear proof of the truth that we have done everything in this country except what we were supposed to do in order to promote and substantiate its Islamic ideological character. We have followed every ideology except the one we should have. We have utterly and completely failed to live up to the claims and promises made during the struggle for independence in the 1940’s.

During the years just prior to independence, we openly made solemn promises with Allah (SWT) that Pakistan will represent   a   true   Islamic   State.   This   meant   that   we   had recognized Islam not just as a system of beliefs and individual morality alone, but also as the only sources and criterion for our social,   legal,   cultural,   economic,   and   political   systems.

The sense of a separate identity that became the basis of the idea of Muslim Nationhood was neither racial or linguistic in origin, nor based upon a common homeland, but it was founded upon our unique ideology, viz., our deep affiliation with and commitment to Islam.

The most crucial purpose behind the idea and struggle for Pakistan was Islamic renaissance and revival. As the ideologue of Pakistan Allama Muhammad Iqbal explained in his famous presidential address at Allahbad, a Muslim state was meant to be “for Islam an opportunity to rid itself of the stamp that Arabian imperialism was forced to give it, to mobilize its law,  its  education,  its  culture,  and  to  bring them into closer contact with its own original spirit and with the spirit of modern times.”

This means that today we are living in a paradox. Although our country owes its existence to the Islamic ideology, we have so far failed to make any meaningful progress towards the implementation of that ideology. This also means that by refusing to honor our pledge with Almighty Allah (SWT), we are ourselves responsible for inviting His anger and His retribution. The pathetic state of our affairs is, therefore, nothing but a manifestation of Divine punishment.

At an ideological level, our intelligentsia is almost completely in the favor of liberalism and permissiveness, a point of view based upon the materialistic and atheistic frame of mind which has been imported from the West. Thus, immodesty and licentiousness is being promoted in the name of entertainment and culture as the ideal standards of behavior for our young men and women. Morally, we are probably the worst group of people on the face of the earth. What to speak of Islamic ethics, we are even devoid of basic human values, as lying, cheating, and hypocrisy have become integral parts of our national character.

As for Islam itself, the majority of our uneducated and semi-educated population tend to treat their faith as only a set of dogmas which has nothing to do with a person’s value structure. Among the educated classes, most are suffering from various degrees of atheism, skepticism, and agnosticism. A big chunk of our religious community is busy running after wealth and power, and the menace of sectarianism, which is continuously being fueled by them, has added another ominous dimension to the already worsening national chaos. And those who should help stop this madness — our political leaders — are themselves busy competing for their domination. The dangerously irresponsible and often illogical rhetoric that appears regularly in our national press is ample evidence that most of them don’t care about anything but power. They make lovely promises of prosperity for the common man, but that poor fellow is often the last person on their list of beneficiaries.





Friday 19 February 2016

From Dishonor to Exaltation - Lessons From History



From Dishonor to Exaltation

We had started our discussion with the assertion that the Muslim Ummah of today is a pathetic, miserable, and extremely humiliated group of people. The cause of this unfortunate state of affairs, as we have seen, is our own wrongdoing, our own sinful behavior, our own deviations from the straight path. It follows  that  the  only way to  escape  from continuing Divine punishment and to regain our lost glory is to repent with the true spirit of repentance and to rectify our corrupted ways.

We the Muslims are the custodians of the last message of Allah (SWT), representatives of the God-given system of life (Deen al-Haq), and intermediaries between Prophet Muhammad (SAW)  and  the  entire  humanity.  This  means  that  it  is  our primary duty to struggle for the establishment of the perfect way of life, viz., Islam and its system of Social Justice, initially in a specific   territory   and   then   throughout   the   entire   globe. According to the Holy Qur'an:

You are the best of community that has been raised up for the (guidance of) humanity; you (are therefore supposed to) enjoin the good, forbid the evil, and keep your own faith firm in God. (Aal-e-Imran 3:110)

Strive in the way of God with an endeavor worthy of Him. He has chosen you...in order that the Prophet be a witness against you, and you be witnesses against mankind. (Al-Hajj 22:78)

Thus We have appointed you a middle people (between the Prophet on one hand and the humanity on the other), so that you be witnesses against mankind, and the Messenger be a witness against you. (Al-Baqarah 2:143)

Although this formidable but sacred duty of delivering the message of Islam to the entire mankind is the collective responsibility of the whole Muslim Ummah, God the Almighty does not burden any soul beyond its capacity, and therefore it is primarily the obligation of Arab Muslims, as the Holy Qur'an was revealed in their own language.

However, after the termination of Prophethood, Allah (SWT) made a special arrangement to renew and revive the Ummah and her mission. Thus, after every three or four generations, i.e., after about every hundred years or so, a pious reformer appears among the Muslims to clarify and rejuvenate the original teachings of Islam. What is most significant in this respect is the fact that, during the first millennium of Islam, all of  these  reformers  appeared  almost  exclusively  in  the  Arab world. 

After the destruction of Baghdad in 1258, the academic and  intellectual  center  of  Islam  started  to  shift  towards  the Indian subcontinent until, at the start of the second millennium, this  part  of  the  world  became  the  main  nucleus  of  Islamic reforms and revivalist movements. Thus, unusually great personalities have appeared here during the last four centuries, including Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi (11th century Hijrah), Shah Waliyullah Delhvi (12th century), Sayyid Ahmad Barelvi (13th century), and more recently, Maulana Mehmood Hassan Deobandi,  Allama  Muhammad  Iqbal,  Maulana  Muhammad Ilyas, and Maulana Abul A‘la Maududi (14th century). Now the question  arises:  Are all these sincere efforts of the last four hundred years to go in vain? We believe the answer is an emphatic NO!

It seems that the burden of Arab Muslims has largely been shifted on to the shoulders of the Muslims belonging to the Indian   subcontinent,   and,   especially   after   the   claims   and promises made during the movement for independence, the task of  reviving  Islam  as  a  living  force  has  now  become  the paramount responsibility of Pakistani Muslims. In view of the efforts undertaken during the last four centuries, this also appear to be their destiny. Especially significant in connection with the role of Pakistani Muslims are the traditions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), which allude to the fact that our part of the world is going to be the starting point for the global Islamic domination; these traditions are given below:

(1) Ibn Maja (RA) has narrated on the authority of Abdullah Ibn Harith (RAA), that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is reported to have said that during the battles before the  Doomsday: “Armies emerging from the East shall advance, and after conquering one country after another, they shall help and strengthen the authority of Mahdi.”

(2) According to another tradition narrated by Imam Tirmidhi (RA), on the authority of Abu Huraira (RAA), Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is reported to have   said:   “Black   banners   shall   emerge   from Khurasan (i.e., areas which are now included in Afghanistan and Pakistan), and no force will be able to stop them until they are inserted in Aelia (Jerusalem).”

These prophecies mean that there shall be in the future an Islamic State in the areas which today comprise Afghanistan and Pakistan (and perhaps also those which are included in Iran and Central Asia), so that during the final series of battles in the Middle East, armies from this part of the world will advance to fight against Dajjal under the leadership of Mahdi. A similar prophecy is also found in the Book of Revelation:

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the Great River, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up to prepare a way for the kings from the east (16:12)

It must be understood that now, after the subjugation of the entire Arab world at the hands of the New World Order, it is only our part of the world that has the potential for standing up against the nefarious designs of the global power-brokers, and to resist the rising tides of the Jewish/Zionist hegemony. In view of the traditions of the Prophet (SAW) given above, we are sure that the areas now included in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran (the ancient Khurasan) have a very special significance in the Divine scheme.




Friday 12 February 2016

About Prophet Isa (AS) - Lessons From History



About Prophet Isa (AS)

Although the exact nature of the ascension and reappearance of Prophet Isa (AS) is incomprehensible to us, and although these events are beyond the realm of normal human experience, they are by no means impossible. The rationalists among us tend to express serious doubts and lack of conviction about this authentic Islamic belief, but the fact is that our belief in the ascension and reappearance of Prophet Isa (AS) is based upon various indicators of the Holy Qur’an as well as explicit and unequivocal traditions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). 

The prevalence of materialistic thinking, especially under the influence of the now outdated Newtonian Physics, has caused many of our intellectuals to reject the possibility of miracles. But it must be kept in mind that a miracle, by definition, represents  a  breakdown  in  the  usual  physical  laws  of  the universe, and a special creative feat of Almighty God is manifested from out of the ruins of that broken law. All natural laws have been established by Allah (SWT), and He is able to suspend any of them for any period of time. He is Omnipotent, able to do all things.

It seems, on the basis of the predictions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), that both the Jews and the Arab Muslims will become the targets of Divine retribution in the final battles — but with a marked distinction. The condemned Children of Israel are going to be completely destroyed at the hands of their own prophet, Prophet Isa (AS), just as numerous other nations were removed from the face of the earth because they committed the crime of rejecting their respective messengers. On the other hand, the Muslims — especially the Arabs — will receive their share of punishment for turning away from the Holy Qur’an, but afterwards the survivors will be able to repent and mend their ways, paving the way for the beginning of the second phase of the domination of Islam.