Amidst all this talk about Globalization: Is the Ummah the Nation We Should Be? [Archives:2001/51/Focus]

COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
O, you(1) who believe:
Beware of Allah,
The way He Should Be Heeded,
Be sure that you are Moslems
Before you die!
Together, you should hold steadfast to Allah’s rope
You should not be divided, bearing in mind Allah’s bounty onto you,
Since, amongst yourselves, you were once enemies, and
He reconciled your hearts,
Thus by his Grace you have become brothers
Let from you be a Nation,
All calling for good to prevail,
Enjoining the duly acceptable,
Admonishing what is abominable;
These are the successful believers!
Do not be like those who differed
And became divided;
After the facts have come to them;
For these there is only great agony(2)
The Holy Quran (3:102-105)

In view of the powerful message found in the above text, and considering that this seems to be an appropriate time to underscore the fact that, indeed the Moslem nation is in a very sad state. In fact, it is regrettable to state; we are far from having the making of any nation, worth citing.
With the Holy Month of Ramadhan leaving us, one must feel regrets at not having any further time to share together with our fellow Moslems everywhere in the world, the beauty of the fast, and the recital of the Koran and the prayers at dawn in the mosque. Thank God for Ramadhan, for it draws us somewhat from the humdrum mundane concentrations, we tend to draw ourselves into, as we go about our day to day lives. In looking at the pitiful state of the Moslem World or Ummat Al-Islam, without a doubt, one finds it, extremely difficult to ascertain and confirm that we possess any of the attributes that truly attest to the Moslems’ compliance with the Quranic command, as given in these very beautiful verses from Surah Al-Imran. For sure, there is just no way that we can categorically state, that we are even trying to achieve this most important fundamental principle of Islam. It really is unfortunate that the Moslems of the world have not awakened to the reality that we are indeed in disobedience of a very powerful command of the Lord Al-Mighty, which is repeated elsewhere in the Quran, on more than one occasion, and underlies the significance of the fact that all Moslems should really be under one unified regime throughout the world. It is just inconceivable that the nation that has given all its faith to the One God, cannot get its act together to form One Nation as ordained by the Lord Al-Mighty. Notwithstanding the flagrant violation of the religious ordinances that command us to be united, our fragmentation, as we are now, has clearly caused us to be weak, helpless, relying on the breadcrumbs of others for the sustenance of our people, the periphery of the geographical domain of the Moslems of the world is slow being chopped up into tiny bits of Moslem communities here and there, that cannot defend themselves against flies, let alone advanced version B-52’s, B-1’s and other destructive weaponry.
If that was not enough, our Western friends were kind enough to even plant a menacing cancer that has brought havoc and destruction to the area and rendered millions of our brother Arabs homeless, and millions more, living in destitute and under siege, in their own land! With an ugly hatred, this cancer continues to impose its will in the region, and we, either as an Arab or a Moslem nation, seem to be without feelings, without, pride and without self respect, watch helplessly, eating our hearts out, because of the way our leaders have led us to the pitiful state, we are in! All we could do is raise our hands up high to the sky, to send our sincere prayers that the Lord guide us, as a nation out of this calamity, before the entire Ummah becomes one giant Afghanistan or hundreds of little Palestines, Cypruses, Bosnias, Chechnyas, etc. One would think that this is Ben Laden rhetoric. On the contrary, this is Islamic dogma in its genuine fundamental version. We are speaking here of dogma and not sensationalism, which is regrettably, what Bin Laden and his Taliban friends and their sponsors were pursuing, while forgetting many other principles and proper rules of conduct that Moslems should be guided by in dealing with all human beings, whether Moslems or followers of other faiths.
When reading the Quran, it would serve the Moslem’s interest, if the text is read carefully and with each word clearly embedded in our minds and in our hearts. By the way the Moslem World seems to be, we seem to be wasting our time reading. The Quran is meant to be read, understood and applied properly and judiciously.

(1) The second person is in plural form throughout these verses.
(2) Translated by the columnist himself.

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