The Last Word
The Ummah of the Prophet (sallalahu ta‘alah ‘alaihi wa Sallam) is in a very sorry state today. Despite the Divine command to build
power to the maximum extent possible the Ummah is weak and helpless, as weak,
helpless and vulnerable as it was in Makkah. At that time the Prophet (sallalahu ta‘alah ‘alaihi wa Sallam) led the community, with Allah’s help, to that state of power with which they succeeded in defeating
the enemy at Badr.
Today’s Ummah has a primary obligation
to restore power! There is no other subject more
important to Muslims today than the restoration of power, that power which can function as an effective deterrent
to the enemy, which can be used for responding to aggression and for liberating
the oppressed and tyrannized, and through which the Truth can be seen more clearly
by mankind to be Truth. These are the functions of power as established in various ayaah of the Qur’an. If that power is not restored then the consequence
for the world of Islam will be more Bosnias, Kashmirs, and Palestines. There
will be universal Fasad (corruption and disarray) on earth and the misery will fall
on all, not just on the guilty:
By Allah’s will they routed them;
and David slew Goliath; and Allah gave him power and wisdom and taught him
whatever (else) He willed. And had not Allah checked one set of people by means
of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief: but Allah is full of bounty
to all the worlds.
(Qur’an,
al-Baqarah, 2:251)
The Muslims, however, will face the
brunt of the suffering. To avert that fate which is already at our doorstep, we
need to restore power.
We learn from the Seerah that the foundations of power must first be established before we can
actually take the battlefield. This is the significance of the thirteen years
in Makkah, the Hijrah, and the first year in Madinah. The foundations of power are
freedom, knowledge, values, faith, unity and fraternity, leadership and
discipline. A
study of the main points made in this paper reveal that the institution of the
collective fast of Ramadhan makes a significant contribution
towards developing and sustaining all those
foundations of power,
-but most of all internal
freedom.
Our appeal to the intellectual, moral,
and spiritual guides of the contemporary Ummah is to direct urgent attention to
the following:
- Articulate the relationship between fasting and power; why else, indeed, did Allah Most High delay the promulgation of the new Shari’ah regarding fasting until just before the first Ramadhan in Madinah?
- Work for the recognition of the strategic input which the fast of Ramadhan is supposed to make in the development of power; this input being located in the development of values, in winning inner freedom, in facilitating the penetration of the transcendental foundations of knowledge, in strengthening faith, in uniting the community, in developing a life of self-discipline, etc.
- Mobilize Muslims in such a way that the fast of Ramadhan may actually result in that input for power being achieved individually and collectively which may then find concrete expression on the battlefield of Jihad as Islam responds to barbaric oppression in the Holy Land in particular. Amin!
END
Coming Soon ....One Ameer, One Jama'ah
