Ask not what Allah can do for you, ask what can you do for Allah Yahya Abdul Rahman - Eid AlFitr Editorial Montreal- November 14th, 2004 (MMN): As you read this message you will have just fulfilled one of your Islamic obligations and successfully completed the month long fast of Ramadan. I extend my heartfelt congratulations and may Allah accept your fasting and righteous deeds performed during this blessed month. I want to take this opportunity to convey some of my feelings to my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters on the occasion of Eid AlFitr. Allah, the almighty, is not in need of any of us in the least, but we are in need of Him. If all of humanity were to forsake and be disobedient to Allah [and may Allah protect us from doing so] it will in no way diminish Allah's power. Likewise, if all of humanity were to turn to Allah in complete submission and obedience it will not increase His power and majesty in the least. Allah is self-sufficient and regardless of what we do or what events unfold in the world around us, this will not have any effect on Allah. I begin with the above reminder as an introduction of what I am about to write next. Life on this earth is fleeting. The relatively short span of time we are granted life on this earth will soon vanish into insignificance in comparison to the vast expanse of eternity. Will we live a righteous life and obey Allah and His messenger, or will we follow after our own desires and forget about our obligations to the one who created us and gave us breath? No one reading these words will be around a mere 100 years from now. We will all return to Allah and He will deal with each and everyone of us according to the deeds we have done in our lifetimes. It has already been determined how, when and where we will leave this life and there is nothing we can say or do to avert this. Allah says in the Quran: "Verily the knowledge of the Hour is with Allah (alone). It is He Who sends down rain, and He Who knows what is in the wombs. Nor does any one know what it is that he will earn on the morrow: Nor does any one know in what land he is to die. Verily with Allah is full knowledge and He is acquainted (with all things)." (Surah Luqman 31:34) and
But one thing Allah has given us is a choice over how we spend the time we have on this earth, and how and where we will spend eternity. Allah says in the Quran:
The path has been laid out for us and if we follow it we will be successful. We have been promised by Allah and His messenger that if we strive in the way of Allah we will be granted everlasting bliss in Allah's presence. If we make effort in the way of Allah it will be for our own good and Allah will reward us. Some of us may experience a very difficult and challenging life, while others seemingly live a life of relative ease, but all will answer back to Allah who is compassionate and merciful. Those who live an easy life may actually be more accountable if they squander the opportunities and blessings which Allah has given them. In his 1961 inaugural address as US President, the late John F. Kennedy challenged his nation with the now famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” It was a powerfully motivating statement, and still is. With these word kept in mind, I call on my dear readers to: "Ask not what Allah can do for you, ask what can you do for Allah." It is without a doubt that our community, apart from the daily campaign of murder and destruction against Muslims in places like Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya etc, is under a vicious, mean-spirited attack on all sides. Malicious lies, distortions, fabrications, and hateful incitements are being hurled at us on a daily basis. Furthermore, there are amongst us hypocrites (munifiqeen) who are working overtime day and night to vilify our community and destroy us from within. Allah knows best who they are, but He has - in His holy book and via the sayings of His messenger - revealed some of their characteristics and we should study them and be aware. As a beginning please refer to chapter 63 of the Holy Quran entitled "The Hypocrites." They rarely utter a word of Haqq (righteousness) but instead expend their energies diverting others away from the way of Allah. When they do metnion some good it is motivated by a desire to create fitnah (division and chaos) and not any desire to bring about good. They will cynically use the Quran and the sayings of the prophet -peace be upon him - to lead people people astray. This reality is not new and the Prophet - may peace be upon him- also experienced similar calamities. We have one advantage in that we can look back and take lessons from history and learn from them if we so wish, as nothing is new under the sun. Allah has given each had every one of us talents and abilities. All of us will be asked about them when we stand before Allah, and how we utilized them. No matter who we are, what we do for a living, what language we speak, the colour of our skin or where we were born, all of us can do something for the sake of Allah. There is not one single person in our community whose talents are not needed. Each and everyone of us can make some contribution of his/her time and talents. Given this reality, each and everyone of us - including myself first and foremost - from this day forward should examine our lives and determine - no matter how seemingly small or insignificant in the eyes of the people - what we can do for the sake of Allah. If we stick to a firm determination that we will work for the sake of Allah- both individually and collectively as a community- we can and will accomplish great things. In addition, when we have proven ourselves to be fully committed to what we CAN do - instead of fretting over what we cannot do - Allah will increase our talents and abilities and will open doors of opportunity so that we will be able to accomplish things we never thought that we could possibly achieve. In my own life I have seen this happen over and over again. Allah says in the Quran:
Also, even if we fail to achieve what we originally set out to accomplish then be of glad tidings my dear fellow Muslims that Allah will richly reward us for our sincere efforts. Be reminded that the responsibility of acting lies with us, but the outcome of our efforts is determined by Allah. Let us reflect for a moment on our condition as a community. The sad reality is that we are weak and thus find our enemies trampling all over us due first and foremost to the fact that we are disobedient to Allah and fail to take heed to His commandments. But we also find ourselves in this condition - and let's be honest about it - because we are divided amongst ourselves, and have failed to make ourselves strong through effective organizing. We fail to learn from our past mistakes and continue to fall into the same errors time and again. Many of us are excellent speech makers, but few among us actually want to act upon the contents of these speeches. Additionally, everyone wants to be the leader, but few of us want to be followers. Everyone wants the work to get done, but few of us want to actually do the work themselves. Everyone wants others to give, but few of us are willing to give themselves. Everyone wants others to stick their necks out and take risks in defending Islam and Muslims, but very few want to do it themselves or to give support to those who do. We have become arrogant, lazy, complacent, take many things for granted, possess a haughty know-it-all attitude and follow after our own short-sighted whims with great gusto instead of referring our decisions back to Allah and His messenger. We call ourselves Muslims but there is no Islam. We call ourselves believers, but there is no belief. We say we have the truth, but we ourselves are not truthful to ourselves or to others around us. We say we fear Allah, but we fear men more, and this fear paralyzes us into inaction and we become more obsessed about this life instead of the hereafter. Finally, on the media / public-relations front, we have failed miserably in effectively communicating our message and concerns in the language of the people we are addressing. We do not follow the normative rules of communication and the negative way we are perceived by the general public is many times due to the inarticulate manner in which our spokespersons are addressing the public. On the otherhand, those who are working against our interests have articulate and wellspoken spokespersons who have mastered the fine art of public speaking in effective sound bites which is what the media is looking for. Furtermore, we are reactionary, have no systematic and united program in place to defend our future interests and chart out our long term goals and, in addition, have failed to properly educate ourselves regarding the real issues which are facing our community except in a haphazard manner. There are many talented individuals working alone and making limited contributions on behalf of the community, but there is no unity and coordination of efforts, thus this talent does not reach its full potential and we remain weak and their importatnt work remains disjointed at best. In addition, there is little or no support from the community to help activists carry on with their efforts to defend Islam and Muslims and after a short time they burn out as they are unable to sustain their level of activity without support. This precious talent goes completely to waste as a result. We cannot blame outside enemies for these problems, they are our own fault and we know it. Until we rectify this situation we will continue to be humiliated and defeated. Let us rise above the sorry state we find ourselves in, stop blaming others, educate ourselves and move forward without fear or favour towards any human being, but fear instead He who has the ability to throw us into the fire. Now that I have outlined some of the problems facing our community- and there are many others - let us all look within ourselves and determine - with the talents and abilities which Allah has given us - how we can work towards rectifying this tragic situation. Let us not use the knowledge of our community's problems, as hypocrites do, as a pre-text to constantly attack others but provide no concrete solutions regarding how to improve our condition. We are all fed-up with speech making, there is work to be done and every single one of us is needed in the days ahead. Here is a pledge we can all can make today before Allah:
--------------------------------------------------- Yahya Abdul has just completed his 12th Ramadan fast and is the Editor of Montreal Muslim News. He can be reached via e-mail at: montreal@montrealmuslimnews.net |