The Lethargy of the Muslims in our world today by Zainol Abideen.

Bismillahirrahmannirrahim.
In the Name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful.

Assalamualaikum.

Muslims worldwide are today mostly in a state of lethargy, diminishing whatever spirit of enterprise or creative energy within them, causing them to grow dismissive and aloof to the plight of their fellow ummah in almost everywhere on this planet.

From the far ends of Canada to the tiny islands of the Pacific Oceans, Muslims are today sort of caught in a whirlpool of apathy towards the misfortune of others especially the long suffering people of Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, most African countries and in almost every other country here on Earth where the Muslim populations suffer from political, economical, social, cultural and most menacingly religious persecution from those who are in power and authority over them.

Why did this lethargy set in?

It could be due to the way that Muslims generally are oppressed and downtrodden right from the moment they begin to understand the meaning of living in a world full of ‘do as I say and not do as I do’ mentality.

Hesitation of the Muslims to advise and counsel one another when they see their fellow Muslim brother or sister doing wrong gives way to a sense of couldn’t care less’ness or apathy in the ummah resulting in a ‘mind your own business’ mentality.

Problem is that such a mentality breeds a society that won’t help one another and as a result the human caring society that we hear our nation’s misguided leaders speak of become redundant in the truest sense of the word for neither do they themselves really care or give a damn about the ills that the society in general is suffering from?

It then becomes sort of a domino effect where parents don’t care about their children, husbands don’t give a hoot about their wives, children don’t respect or listen to their parents, brothers to their sisters and vice versa.

The spirit of human love and care for one another disappears overnight and our general society becomes devoid of compassion and love for one another.

In times of disaster, such a mentality of minding one’s own business reveals the uglier side of human character when it will almost always result in a scramble or melee of the fittest will survive!

Not that many will bother to stop and help another because everyone has been slowly but surely been trained in their daily lives to only care about one person. Themselves.

As a result, the framework of a caring society as espoused in our government’s information ministry campaigns will ring hollow for the substance will simply not be there.

People seldom listen to leaders who in actuality do not practice what they preach!

When the current Malaysian Prime Minister starts to speak, one has just got to observe the reactions of those around him to know that they don’t care or on the reversal when he is seated there before the public or guests of any symposium, forum or seminar that he himself attends, chances are that he will soon doze off to lalaland.

I am not creating fitnah here but if you do a search about this online, the proof or evidence of such a happening will definitely turn up.

It all boils down to care. Do we care …anymore?

When we turn our eyes away from a maksiat that takes place before us, technically we become accomplices to that sin for we have seen it with our eyes but we chose to ignore it.

I am sure that most of you remember the hadith of the Prophet Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam telling us to stop sin if it takes place before us with our hands if we can; to speak out against it ( with wisdom) if we can’t or to hate it (in our hearts) if we can’t even do that ( speak out) and that hating the sin in our hearts will be a sign of the weakest state of faith that a Muslim can ever have which is on the brink of disbelief @ kuffur. May Allah protect us from that situation.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow Muslims.

If we want to see the Ummah get out of the rut of lethargy, metaforically speaking, then we need to seriously start doing our part.

We might be simple, ordinary citizens but if we set our hearts and minds to it, we can snowball that concern and care into a huge globe of common interest and restore some sense of dignity to our going crazy society.

Social and cultural norms which used to hold the community in check are fast being blown out of the daily life’s of so many of our world’s communities that today anyone who comes across as decent and pure are viewed upon as oddities and are often ridiculed by society!

It’s not cool to not be a fool, eh?

When decency and commonsense end up becoming something to be mocked at and joked about, that is a clear sign that the human society is fast slip sliding its way towards the murky cesspools of human degradation and the breakdown of all things and values that are accepted as good and worthy of appreciation.

This corruption of human basic courtesy and moral high grounds in time eats away at the very fabrics of our commonly celebrated human ideals and accepted standards of civilized living.

Today, every major human community is burdened with rising levels of crime in all forms and violence is fast becoming too commonplace and a nightmare for peace seeking folks.

The Malay Muslim youths known as ‘Mat Rempits’ today are fast turning out to be the worst delinquents in our nation’s history for they rampage as they please on our nation’s highways, rob, rape, assault, beat up, attack even policemen and have proved themselves to be the scourge of this misguided country that fools itself to be a model Islamic nation!

We have unprincipled corrupt leaders amongst those who claim to be our ‘Ulul `Amri when in reality they are the ones who are undermining the Muslim society by their lethargy in upholding the true tenets and governance according to the principles of Islam as commanded by Allah, God Almighty and through the Sunnah @ Example of Allah’s Final Messenger to Mankind, the Holy Blessed Prophet Muhammad ibni Abdullah, Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam.

When these corrupt, misleading irresponsible lethargic leaders of today’s Muslims from Malaysia to the the rest of this whole wide world refuse to rule by the Holy Kitab of Allah, the Holy Qur’an Al Karim, the result is a destructive facade of Islamic nation in Name Only and the emergence of watered down concepts of manmade versions of the Syariah Laws where these lethargic Muslim rulers pretend to impose Islamic laws upon their nations.

Reality proves otherwise that these traitors to the Islamic Nation have instead caused the human society to disregard the true Shariah of Islam as nothing that is constructive or contributive to the development of a society that is fair and just as what would be the end result if these treacherous leaders had followed the Laws of Allah to the letter in running their countries or states?

The Hudud Laws of Islamic Shariah are commanded upon us by Almighty Allah.

When Mankind especially these betrayers of our trust do not follow what Allah Azza Wa Jalla prescribed for us Mankind to live by, the resulting calamities and breakdown of order in our human societies gives Islam a bad name.

Frustration amongst those who have been shortchanged by the watered down Syariah Courts system here in Malaysia gives rise to a group of dissatisfied Muslims especially the womenfolk who face discrimination in our ‘Islamic legal system’ which almost always does not rule according to what the Quran says but more according to what the manmade laws dictate?

The solution to end this lethargic malady amongst Muslims is for us to return to the true Way of Allah and not break our society up into so many factions and schools of thought but to go back to the roots of Islam which is ‘La ila ha ill lall Laah ; Muhammad dar Rasulullah!’

We need to get back to what Allah the Almighty God commands us and obey the Prophet Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam’s enjoinments to the letter!

There’s no point for us to blindly or obsessively follow this imam, this syeikh, this ustaz and that maulana or maulavi if such followings only tends to draw us further away from the Rope of Allah and the Sunnah of Rasulullah!

I am not saying that you as a Muslim must not follow any of the Islamic ulamaks here but am only reminding you to what the Blessed Messenger enjoined us to be moderate in all that we do?

There’s whole world of difference between asking you not to follow anyone per se and of asking you to go it slow, take it easy, tread carefully in whatever path of Islamic study that you choose to?

Dear Muslims,

There are many out there who often take advantage of those who come seeking their leadership and have often been proved to turn deviant when power and authority gets to their head.

We have many classic examples of such deviant teachings taking place here in Malaysia with the likes of the Al Arqam Movement which was once the most dynamic movement of Malaysia’s Muslims in wanting to bring about an Islamic society that was mostly made up of Islamic academics and learned individuals who yearned for a Darul Islam only to be taken for a ride by its leader and his lieutenants.

As a result, the movement was banned by the Malaysian authorities when they got too big for their breeches and word started to come out of the Ak Arqam leadership that they could do a better job in running this country than the prevalent UMNO based BN Federal Government.

The problem of steeping on too many official toes and unbridled displays of lust for power often spells of a quick response from those officials being challenged and as a result, the movement was officially branded as a deviant movement and its leaders arrested and taken into custody.

They tried resurfacing as the Rufaqa Corporation after being released from custody and incarceration but again got their movement nipped in the bud by the relevant authorities who never closed their eyes on them and to this day keep them under surveillance.

There are many others such as the infamous Ariffin @ Ayah Pin’s Sky Kingdom, a wayward cult of hodge podge beliefs all mixed up and promising this and that to his diehard followers.

We can learn from the ulamaks, all those imams, syeikhs, ustaz’s and ustazah’s, maulana’s and maulavi’s but at the end of the day, we must obey Allah and His Messenger!

Period.

By returning to live according to what Allah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim commands us to and by obeying the Messenger, Muhammad ibni Abdullah, the Seal of the Prophets, to the letter in all that we do or live by, we get to return to a common, unifying bond and in the process, overlook our differences, and forge a stronger, more vibrant, more cohesive, strong society of Muslims under one banner!

One unifying banner that stands true to the Kalima Shahadah and Ikrar ul Muslimin.

La ila ha ill lall Laah = There is no (other) god but Allah!
Muhammad Rasul Allah = Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

As Muslims, it does not mean that we are to forsake the goodness of this world and shun earthly pursuits of joys.

No. Far from it. We are in fact enjoined to work hard for the goodness of this life and prepare for the next by fulfilling our religious and social obligations, in order to make the best of this opportunity of living well, both here on Earth and in the Yaum al Akhirat.

This earthly life is one of the realms of our existence where we are given a time frame by Allah to utilize to the best of our capabilities.

Be the best Muslim that you can ever be and be a source of inspiration and strength to the ummah and our friends in the yet to be Muslims category.

Be willing to adopt and adapt to circumstances but never give up on our principles of Islamic living and do not compromise on the basic standards of our faith. Be a capable Muslim no matter what profession you choose to be in or work as?

Those capabilities must be learned and put to practice by us according to our own personal pursuits and endeavors in our lifetime of opportunity.

Learn about Islam in the truest sense of the word and put it into practice daily in our lives.

Be knowledgeable Muslims and always be in the company of positive, dynamic, energetic, proactive Muslims and learn to lead when you are ready and capable. Stop being ordinary.

Some of us excel in this grabbing all the chances and correct timings of our own individual decisions and culminates in us achieving certain successes in our own private and also public lives.

Those of us who fail to capitalize on such moments often always lay the blame on others as if being taken care of and waited upon is one’s birthright?

No sirree!

Unless one is born with a silver or golden spoon in one’s mouth figuratively speaking, since day one, our own individual’s cry of hunger often brings one’s parents or caretaker scrambling to meet our needs.

Failing which, it becomes a natural journey of survival to make it in this vast world fraught of all kinds of dangers and challenges which if not met or handled correctly will mark the end of our temporal existence here on this mortal world.

The Muslims of today need to weigh all these and consider the various choices that are laid out before them?

Lethargy of the Muslims to unite as one and make efforts to improve themselves will only see them be phased out bit by bit like the plight of the Palestinians who from being a people who once lived relatively in peace amongst themselves today have been robbed of their lands, displaced and turned into refugees in their own homelands and helplessly being massacred and slaughtered by the invading Zionist Israeli terrorist regime as a result of their own divided leaderships and often warring factions in the form of Fatah and Hamas freedom fighters.

Muslims today ought to waste no time in getting up from their seats and work industriously to add to their knowledge, return to their sense of innovative science and make inroads into the field of knowledge as did their forefathers in the era of Islamic Glory and Golden Age of Achievements which once brought even Europe from out of its gloomy Era of Depression.

Will Muslims heed this call or will they remain uninterested to change their future out of their apathy towards the plight of their fellow Muslims suffering and dying in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc as a result of the lethargy gripping the entire Muslim ummah today?

We will have to see what takes place next?

In the meantime, I invite you to watch one of the current Muslim world’s great Callers to Islam or Da`ee’s as we call them in Arabic, Syeikh Abdur Rahim Greene, an articulate, clear talking icon amongst those of us who are doing what we are ordered to by God Almighty Himself in Surah An Nahl Chapter 16 Verse 125 in the Holy Quran.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 – Final

Obey Allah and Obey the Rasul!

Period!

No but’s or if’s about it!

No excuses!

Stick to the above and we will see change taking place here amongst the Muslims.

Insya Allah!

Wabillahi Taufik Wal Hidayah.

Wassalamualaikum Warahmatulillahi Ta’ala Wabarakatuh.

Zainol Abideen.
Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.
HP: 6-016-3969881
mahaguru58@gmail.com

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