Assalaamu alaykum warahmatullaah wabarakaatuh
الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه، أما بعـد
Beloved brothers and sisters in Islam
Baarakallaahu feekum
We have been discussing the ‘Spirit of Islam’s, the various phases through which Islam passed to reach man and the Spirit of the Islamic Message. They became the founding blocks for the establishment of a society who became embodiments of the Message of Islam. We discussed that the Rasul – salallaahu alayhi wasallam – whose mission was that of Mercy, peace, justice and ethics, set off firstly to establish a school. On this school, he produced and trained a caliber of people. Once the Spirit of Islam had taken possession of the hearts of these men; the illustrious companions, they carried its banners and delivered same to their students whom they taught.
We also discussed that these illustrious companions, who then became embodiments of this pristine Message. Displaying justice, equity, ethics, morality, the love of knowledge, the development of humankind, and the propagation of the Tawhid of Allah ta’aala. And who became embodiments of same. That was how the Spirit and Message of Islam passed from generation to generation, taking concrete form in societies. The society that took form in the Madinah of Rasulullaah – salallaahi alayhi wasallam.
We mentioned that, that (society) continued until the path upon which the predecessors are upon was skidded from. People attended the Masaajid only to render Ibaadaat in physical forms alone, leaving the hearts far away in the regular businesses of the day. Generations of Muslims came, who resembled the earlier generation in nothing but names, and when this cycle had been broken, the Kufr amalgamation of the Jews and Christians in the West and East, came together to crumble the unity of Islam and Muslims.
Parents no longer spent their time in ensuring that their children had the proper Tarbiyya that was due to be had. The Muslim empire of the Ottoman Turks had spent years after years expanding its borders. Bringing new lands into the folds of Islam, and defending the Sanctuaries and Holy Lands. The Muslims reached the peak, they liberated cities in Europe and reached the gates of Austria and Vienna. It was on September the 11th, 1683, after the Muslims under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Turks had laid a 2 month siege on the city of Vienna, that the Christian armies were able to route the Muslim armies. There are many factors responsible for the failure of that day, but this is beyond the scope of this Halqah. We only aim at hinting at the onset of this decline, and we did.
That day marked the peak of Muslim expansion and liberation of new lands and cities
Our history records that our Ummah experienced a decline henceforth. Their leaders began to fight one another for the control of leadership and over meager thrones. And after centuries and years of undulations, the Judeo-Christian alliance later had their turn to crumble the Muslims, and they did so by dividing the Muslims and creating factions within the Elite Muslim leaders, until there was no land that was once Muslim unless it was under the suzerainty of Christian Europe
They came in dividing the Ummah and conquering them one after the other. When the Judeo-christian forces, spear-headed by Britain became certain that the Ummah had lost its ways, the Muslims were forced to ask themselves: why and how has it came to this?
The European colonialists understood that once three things were taken away from these ‘Mohammadans’, they would never recover from the waves of occupation;
The first, they knew was to take away Islamic governance and kill the Shari’ah in its entirety
This they did stealthily by mixing the Islamic Justice system with British common law, and then putting them both under the whims, desires and decisions of the governors that governed those areas.
The second they knew what they had to do, was to destroy the Muslim institutions. The Ulamaa among them responded: because we have abandoned the path of the forerunners and stuck to the dunya, abandoned Jihaad and refused to carry upon our shoulders the trust that the predecessors did. The history of our Schools, Institutions and Learning centers, popularly known as the Madaaris, is a talk for another day. They substituted our Madaaris with western-oriented schools and changed the perceptions and world-views of a generation of Muslims. They wanted to have a Muslim generation who answer to Muslim names and hold unto the physical symbols of Islam, but whose creed, mission and perception of life – worldview – was same with the children in Europe.
But the European Colonialists knew they had to break the cycle that produced the minds, intellects and geniuses that were the nightmares of Christendom for centuries. Where Muslim children were not only taught Tawhid and the other sciences of the Din, but were taught the Earthly Sciences such as Mathematics, Astronomy, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry, Rhetoric, Calligraphy, and Ethics The third they knew they had to do, was to impose their language upon the Muslim people. They did, and today, the Muslim populations speak English and French more than they spoke their own languages. That is because, as Imaam Ibn Khaldun observed in the ‘Ibar’, the power of a civilization lies in its language. So that once the language is preserved, its civilization and culture is not entirely destroyed, even if it loses its lands
Beloved ones!
Once they were sure that this project had been completed, they took of the first generations of the produce of the schools they founded, and made them heads of the Muslims, So that their loyalties still lie with the colonial masters
Example,
Upon the blood and honour of much of our earlier Ulamaa that built our Din in this land and ensured that our grandparents were Muslims, Lugard’s Army ruled much of the lands today called Nigeria. When Lugard and whosoever succeeded him were handing over the reigns of power, they chose of the people, those they had groomed and handed over to them the same armies they had controlled themselves when they still were in charge.
The same armies that toppled and destroyed the Muslim cities.
They handed over to them the same laws they had used to govern when they were in charge, and then, generations after generations, here the Muslims live under the same laws that had been used to substitute the Shari’ah system they met in place with a version of Islam that pleases the same masters that control us till date.
Beloved ones, how then do we rebuild and revive this spirit that we lost and which caused us these catastrophes?
One; we must return to Tawhid, study it thoroughly, understand its intricacies and perceive its deeper meanings. This is because Tawhid was the primary message of the Rasul – salallaahu alayhi wasallam –
We must then call others to it and be patient over whatever befalls us in our calling to it.
We must be sincere and open-minded in our call to it.
Two, we must set up institutions of learning, awareness and teaching. Then we must practice it ourselves and put our families to it.
Beloved ones, where do you stand in this?
These institutions must also seek to direct the commoner Muslims to the right awareness and the right sets of understandings that they must have and grow in accordance to the syllabuses along which our predecessors grew. Where our children can learn the pristinely of Islam. These institutions must also direct Ulamaa in our societies and strive to expose them to the realities of the time, and awaken them to the challenges that modernization presents. And must struggle to present thorough Islamic models and mentors with the proper mental, intellectual and psychological credentials and faculties to lead the Ummah in the faces of the challenges.
The Muslim Ummah must have armies that defend its holy lands and protect its blood, honour and property from the tramples of the belligerents across the globe. Those that don’t mind to use Muslim lands as testing grounds for their newly developed military arsenals, hardwares, theories and science. Are you going to be a building block to grow the Ummah
A cure to its disease?
May Allah guide us and make us of those that revive the Din, aameen
Are you going to be a one that will help break the siege on Islam and Muslims?
Or you choose to be of the fence-sitters, the bench-warmers, and worst, the fifth columns?
Are you going to be a solution to the Ummah’s dilemma?
Are you going to be of those that will thread the path of the predecessors?
Baarakallaahu feekum
InshaaAllaah, this will be the end of this session, and thus this topic,
بارك الله فيكم
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Jazaakumullaahu khayran
Jazaakumullaahu khayran
