By Bilal Abdul Kareem
Twitter: @Bilalkareem
It’s no secret that Muslims, as a people, have been slipping, falling, and failing for quite some time now. We cannot pretend that having the world’s biggest Christmas tree (UAE) is progress. Does anyone out there really believe that the Uighurs are feeling the love of the Muslim nation in their struggle against Chinese oppression? Think the Rohingya are loving life in their open air prison in Cox Bazaar in Bangladesh after being run out of their homes in Myanmar? Neither do I.
It forced me to ask myself how we got to such a dismal state when our lands are on top of huge oil and natural gas deposits. In theory, Muslims should have the decisive voice in geopolitical affairs. But, as everyone knows, this is not remotely the case. So what happened? With the Quran and Sunnah of the Prophet empowering us surely our politics should be performing better than this.
The source of our failings lie in the meaning of the word “politics” itself. The well known scholar Imam An Nawawi who authored Riyadhus Saliheen and The Forty Hadith defined politics to be a “means to take care of something in a manner that maintains its well-being and serves its interests.
We as Muslims understand that our true interests lie in the hereafter. However that doesn’t mean that we neglect our worldly life. The Messenger of Allah himself used to make dua’ against poverty in the well known supplication, “O Allah I seek refuge with you from disbelief, poverty, and the punishment in the grave”. This alone is a proof that our “dunya” is also a priority.
Our politics as Muslims therefore should reflect our efforts to protect our hereafter first and foremost and our worldly life as well. This concept is like a person who has to drive a half hour to reach his home. Reaching home is the ultimate goal, however in order to reach that goal he has to be cognizant that he doesn’t run out of fuel. Driving the car is just a means to reaching the goal but it is not the goal itself. Likewise our worldly life is just a means to reach the ultimate destination in the hereafter: Jennah.
With this in mind it doesn’t seem logical to separate our religion from our politics. Why would we? That would be like separating the US government from it’s military. Why remove your greatest weapons from the equation? What’s the benefit in that? Separating the two, which are inherently one and the same, robs us of seeing worldly events through the wise lens of Islam. After all, the tricks of this worldly life, whether it be through usury in bank loans, different forms of corporate stealing, or other than that are not hidden from the One who sent this beautiful religion for us to follow. The way around the tricks and pitfalls is by following the roadmap made clear in the Quran and Sunnah.
If we would have examined realities on the ground by using the Quran and Sunnah as a backdrop then many of the so called “political mistakes” could have been prevented. It is impermissible to allow non Muslim troops to be on the ground in Saudi Arabia. How many evils could have been prevented by refusing a US troop presence in Saudi Arabia before the first Gulf War? Thus two wars to topple Saddam Hussein would not have happened. How many millions of Muslims would not have been killed? Saddam was indeed a murderer, torturer, and a tyrant, however the evil that was unleashed by allowing the US to wage it’s war against Iraq using Saudi lands was far greater than keeping Saddam in his position and using other means to weaken and do away with him.
I established OGN in 2015. I’ve had my eye on establishing a channel for many years. However, in my opinion, now is the time that it needed to happen. Muslim leaders have completely failed our populations by picking and choosing which aspects of the Quran and Sunnah should be adhered to and which should be ignored. This has led to our current dismal state. OGN’s online channel is dedicated to looking at world events through the lens of our religion. As it should be. Our channel can be accessed online at:
https://ognreports.news/live/
This is so we are not restricted by what we can and cannot say by the geographical positions of satellite TV companies main offices. May Allah make it a blessing and benefit not only for the Ummah but for millions of others as well. And now, OGN Online begins…
