Imran Khan
Over many decades, people of the world have been gradually desensitized to man-made crises and catastrophes in places like Palestine, Kashmir, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. More recently the power-mongers have added Yemen, Myanmar, Nigeria, Syria, Libya and a host of other countries to an ever-growing list of crises-ridden areas.
Experience testifies to the fact that in this system of globalized denial and rejection of Divine guidance (referred to as kufr in Islamic terminology), rivalry and competition with the source of Divine guidance and legislation (shirk) and the ensuing tumult, oppression and injustice (dhulm), these crises and catastrophes will continue to proliferate.
With austerity measures being talked about by governments across the world, social structures and spending is in freefall even in nation-states that are flourishing.
What follows is not easy to express…
Muslims worldwide need to adjust their tactics and resort to strategic thinking about the root causes of the global challenges and dealing with them. Should they fail to adjust, it is inescapable that they will carry this ever increasing “burden” until these tactical efforts eventually prove to be unsustainable.
The Prophet of Allah had multi-pronged strategic programs to simultaneously neutralize power-mongers and change the system from being un-Islamic/anti-Islamic to an Islamic one in which fairness and justice prevails for everyone.
It was not the Prophetic precedent (sunnah) nor is it an act of compliance with the power and authority of Allah to be eternally tending to the symptoms of these ever-growing crises and catastrophes. There must be a strategy to wrest power from the unscrupulous power-wielders. Only then will the process of transforming it into the Islamic system to establish peace, stability, justice and equality in society begin.
No reproduction of decontextualized ayaat and ahadith, no matter how voluminous, can justify these actions of eternally funding the consequences of man-made wars and genocides. The root causes must be identified.
Even the early Surah, Al Ma‘un was not revealed in a vacuum. It was revealed in the context of a “cold war” where the Prophet was engaged in an ideological struggle against abusive power, corruption and moral depravity.
The consequence of this depravity produced dislocated populations who became the homeless and destitute wandering the earth.
While it is meritorious and commendable to attend to the plight of homeless and destitute people, the larger and more critical question is whether Muslims are supposed to be the Mother Teresas of the world⁉
It has become fashionable for Muslims to be absorbed in endless relief work under the guise of humanitarianism to such an extent that even the hegemonic powers who in the old days used to drop bombs accompanied by aid have reduced the latter. Now they drop more bombs and less aid and leave the Muslims to mop up.
And non-thinking as we have become, we are obsessed with “the need of the hour” and blinded to the root causes of our problems and, therefore, unable to remedy the situation.
Zionist Israel and its Arabian yes-men who rule over Muslims have decimated the Muslim East.
Together they have rendered Gaza a wasteland. The destruction of Syria, Yemen and Lebanon has been extensive. This has gone on for years.
Billions of dollars are required to rebuild these countries while the threat of their being rendered wastelands is hanging over the heads of these populations.
The adjacent neighboring lands are not out of the woods either.
Yet we go around with the begging bowl for donations in order to rebuild these countries and to sustain the hundreds of millions of destitute people in the world whose condition is the direct result of our powerlessness.
One has to wonder how people caught up with eternally tending to the symptoms of these ever- growing crises and catastrophes would deal with a roof leak in their home which causes damage to the furniture. Would they simply replace the damaged furniture by purchasing new sofas and chairs? Or would they consider addressing the cause of that damage?
The answer to this question is a no brainer!
Yet, we must reflect on the way we have been behaving throughout the generations!
This endless reactionary so-called humanitarian work is turning out to be a false notion of doing good acts. It has also become a lucrative industry full of careerist Muslim opportunists.
In 2014, a damning article appeared in Muslim views covering Muslim charitable organizations in South Africa. Two charities had raised approximately R120 million annually.
Others were not transparent on the amounts raised and the sources of these funds.
A similar grim reality presented itself during so-called Covid where Muslims squandered millions in a few days to provide hampers during lockdown.
Imagine if they had thought of buying farmland, drilling boreholes and purchasing seeds and equipment!
Islam has the concepts of iqra/recite, jihad/strategic struggle as well as rahmah/grace and mercy that operate in tandem in order to change the condition of the oppressed peoples.
There are a number of strategic initiatives that require funding, ranging from education to physical security to food security.
Should funding for these types of activities be forthcoming that have the potential to turn the tables and transform the Muslims from being reactive to being pro-active?
The obstacle that we are facing is that Muslims want to be inferior. They want to serve those in power and (ab)use the plight of people who have been smitten by crises and catastrophes for their own personal gains rather than, firstly, use the numerous crises to expose the inherent corruptness in the un/anti-Islamic system and, secondly, extend the hand of grace and mercy in order to help people revolt against the exploitative system.
Essentially the pre-occupation of today’s humanitarianism is to expend billions in financial resources to cover up the inadequacies of the system and preserve the status quo. This ensures that the oppressed people of the world remain like hamsters on the treadmill.
They have become extensions of UNRWA servicing Palestinian refugees who after registering, are entitled to collect a sandwich, a boiled egg and a few other goodies.
Muslims can do better. We must do better!
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