Advice to British Muslims and Muslims in the West.

Bismillah

Basically an avalanche has started and it's heading our way. When it comes it will flatten us I think and completely. It's already moving and you can see it in the media. Negative stories about Muslims. Negative stories about Islam. Each one worse than the previous. Etc

Our strategies:
1- Ignore it and hope it will die out by itself somehow. So no need to do anything. This may be how we are currently behaving. Even our imams. The Friday khutbas don't seem to mention about such avalanches. So we are just living oblivious or maybe we don't want to deal with the issue. It maybe we don't really know how to deal with it also.
2- Acknowledge the issue and seek ways to address it. Maybe setup conferences, host talks on the subject etc. Then we at least stand a chance; we are doing something. And Allah helps those who help themselves.

So I think we need to be choosing path 2 and we need to stop choosing path 1. We need to change. We need to be active.  We need to be proactive. Otherwise there is a good chance we will be severely flattened. When the avalanche reaches us in our homes. When we hear knocks on the door. Too late then !

So what am I proposing as a strategy?
I think the key thing that we have and that is amazingly valuable is Islam. The message from the creator of ALL mankind. We need to understand this message well and then present it to the societies we live in. ie do like the prophets of Allah did. Call to Allah and call to His message. If we can do this correctly then the avalanche can vanish. Because we would have created a bigger avalanche that would eat the first with great ease by Allah's power.  The power of truth. Truth always wins falsehood. But there needs to be people presenting it. Otherwise the people only see falsehood and so will accept it. No one presented the truth. So they couldn't contrast it to compare it with the falsehood.

So yes I am saying we all have to be daees or callers to Allah. Talking talking and talking. Presenting presenting and presenting. 'Who is Allah. What is Allah. Why believe in Him (or It). Why It sent down messages to mankind. What does It want from mankind?  Why It created heaven and hell etc.' Yep all these questions we need to address them and present them to our societies. The societies we live in. Especially in the West. We have to put the message of Allah in their language. So that they can understand it.  This is what the prophets did. We need to follow their sunnah. Their example. And they are our role models. Look how patient prophet Noah (Nooh) was.  950 years of calling to Allah. Yes the journey is long. But success is guaranteed as long as we strive diligently like they did. And not give up as soon as some difficulties are encountered. Perseverance, patience and steadfastness are the needed qualities inshallah. Look at how our dear prophet suffered in mecca and his companions too. We are in Mecca again. But in the 21st century. Can we do like they did? Today all the world maybe Mecca. And the path of proohethood may indeed be everywhere on this planet. Even in true Mecca itself. And it should be emphasised that the path of prophethood is peaceful because it just involves calling the people to truth. And that if violence is done against us we have to be patient and not fight back. Like how the sahaba where in Mecca. This is the sunnah. Bilal did not attack those who were torturing him. Nor did Ammar bin Yasir. So those who like violence you need to stop and think again. That was not the path of prophethood. But it may well be the path of Shaytan. So beware.

Ok. So what are our biggest obstacles?
1- We don't understand our deen well.  Infact we have a corrupt understanding of it and seems to be based on hatred and love of violence. We need to see Islam as mercy not hatred. This is a big topic that needs dissecting. It would lead to the softning of our hearts and the removal of hatred that may exist in it presently. I speak from my own personal experience of this.  The process can be long and to do with a lot of self analysis and self awareness trying to remove any corrupt and negative thoughts we carry. Not easy but very vital. This is like tazkiya of the self. Purification. If we don't do this then I don't think Allah will accept us. And our work will appear rough and ugly. Because the hearts are not pure. And faces won't have smiles on them but instead serious looking frowns.  How many imams have smiles on their faces at Friday khutbas? And how many have serious angry looking faces? What does that say about the hearts?

And where do we get the correct understanding of the deen? Look for scholars who have smiles in their faces when they speak and avoid those who don't smile.  Look for those who talk about Muslim unity and avoid those who talk about keeping us divided geographically or sectarianly. Look to those that talk about what unifies us and avoid those that talk about what divides us. You may find that those who talk about what divides us have a hidden agenda to maintain the bad status quo that we are in. As this way they serves their masters who pay into their pockets. So be very wary of them. And they will be the ones who will attack those good scholars who want to unify and benefit the ummah. So you can use them to find out who the good scholars are. They will mention their names often in the hope of preventing people from listening to them. And they will very easily mark them as kafir or fasiq etc. This is actually a good sign as it means that those scholars have been effective at unifying the ummah so the bad ones have been given orders to discredit them.

And don't look at scholars from one madhab or sect but learn from all and take the best bits from all like the quran says :
'And those who if they hear a speech they follow the best of it. '
الذين اذا سمعوا قولا اتبعوا احسنه
Do not carry a sectarian mind. Truth is avaliable everywhere. Focus on being a role model Muslim who wants to unify the ummah of Muhammad. Not plant seeds of hatred in it. This is how the bad corrupt scholars keep the ummah divided. They pump it with hatred and vile.  We have to diffuse this hatred and replace it with love and mercy and forgiveness. If our imaan is real. Otherwise it is fake.

This is it brothers and sisters. May Allah taala the most loving and most beautiful help us become loving and beautiful in our hearts and rid us from the hatred that has been planted into us by the corrupt scholars. And may He open up or hearts to the beautiful understanding of His deen and make us callers to it and to Him.

The path is long and so is the journey. But we can choose to start it or not to start it. So which will it be?
Say bismillah and trust in Allah. 

Salamu Akaykum
Peace and mercy

Ali Twaij
twitter @AliTwaij
facebook AliTwaij

3 may 2014

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Further Learning:

1-
Heavy advice to Muslim converts

http://alitwaij-eng-m.blogspot.com/2013/12/heavy-advice-to-muslim-converts.html

#The_way_it_is

2-
"My message to humanity."
Amazing video poem by an Englishman (Jamie Dunmore).

http://youtu.be/z4zFwyToywQ