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Lecture at Mahallat al Zahrawi on 15th February 2005 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr.
INTRODUCTION
The Ummah has both internal and external challenges. We talk about external challenges and lack courage to address internal causes of weakness.
1.0 INTERNAL CHALLENGES
1.1 General background factors: Low Islamic education and understanding, corruption, injustice, immorality, ethnocentricity, and innovations eventually leading to catastrophe[1].
1.2 Confusions in matters of qadar: The qadriyyat falsely believed that human makes their actions independent of the will of Allah. The jabriyyat falsely believed that humans have no free will at all, Confusions between qadha and qadar as well as between tawakkul and tawaakul have paralyzed the Muslim’s will to work and be productive in society.
1.3 Confusion In Matters Of Asma, Sifaat, and Essence Of Allah: The correct position of ahl al sunnat wa al jama’at is that the names and attributes of Allah are beyond human comprehension and it is useless to debate them. Five deviations have resulted from discussing sifaat with limited human intellect: denial, nafyu, resemblance, tashbiih; interpretation, ta awiil, explanation of mechanisms, takyiif, and corporatizing, tajsiim. Useless arguments and deviations have confused and divided Muslims.
1.4 Confusion About Imaamat: The beginning of the Sunni-shia dischotomy was determination of leadership, imaamat, for the community. The sunni believe in election while the shia believe in heredity. The shia divide into 2 the zaidiyyat and the rafidhat (shia imaamiyat). The latter have many groups: the Twelvers, ithaashaeri, the seveners, also called Ismailis; and groups that have a mixture of Islamic and non-Islamic origins like the Nusairis, and the Druze.
1.5 Sectarianism: Sectarian differences arose due to deviations from correct ‘aqidat. The khawarij rejected organized government and believed that the Qur’an was created. Some extremist sufi philosophers hold ideas contrary to tauhid but many are engaged in ibadat and renouncing materialism, zuhd. groups The mutakalimun deviated because of Greek philosophy. The marji’at believed that sins do not hurt if a person has iman and separated actions from iman.
2.0 EXTERNAL CHALLENGES
2.1 Atheists: Freemasonry is an atheistic movement not related to the original religion that Moses taught. For the past 2000 years it has camouflaged itself to hide its true identity. It controls political, social, and economic trends in the world today. Secularism is an offshoot of freemasonry that has encouraged nationalism to displace international brotherhood in the ummah. Extentialist ideas propagated by Jean-Paul Sartre and his girl friend Simone de Beavoir promote the sexual appetite, free mixing of the genders, and sexual corruption. Marxism was developed by Karl Marx who hated the European bourgeois society because of his personal poverty, He turned this hatred into a political philosophy based on class struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat, and atheism.
2.2 Polytheists: Polytheism in ancient Arabia, Greece, Rome, Persia, India, and China involving worshipping of idols has given way to a modern polytheism in which materialism and hedonism are the objects of mass worship instead of Allah the creator.
2.3 Crusaders
The Muslim world has been attached by crusaders motivated by material gain and not religion because they no longer follow the teachings of Isa (PBUH). Byzantine crusaders challenged the Muslims for 700 years until defeated by Imaam Muhammad al Fatih in 1453 M. Iberian crusaders completed genocide of Muslims in Spain in 1492 M and carried the fight to Muslims in Mombasa, Muscat, Malacca, Java, Sulu, Mindanao, and Manila. Abyssinian crusaders continuw threatening Muslim communities in the horn of Africa. European medieval crusaders of were defeated by Sultan Salahuddin al Ayyubi in 1167 M after centuries of trying to occupy Jerusalem. Modern crusaders come in the guise of a cultural and ideological invasion. Present-day crusaders are no longer believing Christians motivated by religious zeal. They are materialists motivated by imperialistic motives but find some Christian doctrines convenient cover for their real objectives. The Italians took Libya and the French took the test of North Africa.
2.4 Colonial invaders
The primary objective of colonial invasion was to get access to the rich resources of Muslim lands. The Mongol invasion caused much devastation until the invaders accepted and became defenders of Islam. West European invaders with the advantages of superior technology and organization, strong sense of racial solidarity, and Muslim divisions overrun all Muslim lands (with the exception of Hejaz and Yamani mountains). They adopted 3 strategies to overcome Muslim resistance to colonial rule: spreading Christianity and European culture would make colonialism more acceptable, marginalizing Muslim scholars and Muslim education, and confining Islam to personal law, rites, and individual worship away from public affairs. European colonial rule would have continued longer but Europeans were weakened by the Second World War and gave most territories their nominal independence retaining neo-colonial control using economic and other tools.
2.5 post colonial nation states
Most post-colonial nation-states were largely artificial entities created by the departing colonial rulers in order to divide the ummat. They were set up as secular entities ruled by an elite that belongs to the ummah biologically but its ideology, culture, and values are alien to Islam. The nation-states continued serving the interests of the former colonial masters in a more efficient way than before because they were an instrument of indirect rules. Indirect rule throughout history has proved a cheaper way of controlling a large potentially hostile population. The nation-states continued the secularization and Europeanization of the Muslim society. With the exception of very few, the new nation-states put the natural resources of the ummah at the disposal of the former colonial masters. This was done in a very indirect way unseen by most people because economic exploitation was carried out by multi-national companies that are not associated openly with any one former colonial power.
[1] The prophet warned that catastrophe will befall the ummah when the following 15 things occur: al ghina dawla, al amanat maghnaman, al zakat maghraman, husband obeying wives, ‘aqqa ummuhu, barra sadiiquhu, jaafa abaahu, irta’at al aswaat fi al masajid, saada al qabilat faasiquhum, wa kaana za’iim al qawm ardhalihim, ikraam al rajul makhafat sharuhu, shuribat al khumuur, labs al hariir, ittukhidhat al al qayiat wa al ma’azif, la’ana aakhir al ummat awaluhum” al durar al suniyyat fi al ajwibat al najdiyyat Volume 7 page 252.