If Muslims can change their direction (i.e. the way they think and act) a big change can take place in a few decades. In this article, I just want to relay some of the points the scholars of Islam have been making for some time, but unfortunately the majority of Muslims have no intention of acting upon them.
One thing which amazes me is the careless attitude of the Muslims. You may be surprised to know that a few years ago the number of full time Christian missionaries was sixty thousand. These missionaries have devoted their whole lives in spreading Christianity all over the world. There are a lot more working part time as well.
The claim of the missionaries in the sub-continent is that they have converted more Muslims to Christianity after the independence in 1947 of Pakistan and Bangladesh, than the whole time British ruled over India. They also claim that they are now especially targeting Kashmir, and they have already converted ten thousand Muslims to Christians.
Furthermore, the Christians have translated Bible into over two thousand languages. They believe that they have only reached 80% of the world population with this effort. On the contrary, Quran has been translated in less than two hundred languages (you can imagine how much of the world population we have reached with this).
Islam is supposed to be a missionary religion, as Prophet (peace be upon him) said in a narration which, more or less, means that even if we know one verse of the Quran we must convey it to others. But the situation is opposite: we have probably less than five hundred full time missionaries who are working on an international level to spread Islam. Most of the Muslims have not even read the translation of the Quran, let alone the tafseer (exegesis). Muslims live a life which is carefree when it comes to the matters of religion. Whatever of the religion suits them, they implement it in their lives, but the rest of it (perhaps 90%) is discarded by them.
Why is all this happening? The scholars tell us that this did not happen overnight. For the last three hundred years, more or less, Muslims have gradually left Quran and the teachings of Prophet (peace be upon him), and this in turn has led to the dismal situation we are facing today. Muslims have no say in the world issues. The interest based economic system has engulfed the world. If someone wants to attack a Muslim nation, Muslims cannot do much about it.
How can we undo the damage which has been done in the last three hundred years? Well my friends there is no quick fix. Neither suicide bombings nor cursing the Jews and Christians is going to solve the issues. It will require years of planning and relentless hard work.
One of the things which we can do is that those families among us who are well off should at least make one of their children an Islamic scholar. The current situation is that majority of Muslims who study Islam are from poor families, and when they become learned they have no means to support themselves. That is why many of them are afraid to tell the truth. If a person is from a prosperous family, he will speak what is right and will not be worried that the committee of the mosque will fire him.
Moreover, the scholars we need must be the cream of the Muslims and not the other way around. The reality is that majority of those who study religion are not very bright. Most of the intelligent youth have chosen different fields for themselves: business, law, IT, Science, Medicine etc. The end result is that many who cannot even pass high school are send to study Islam. If the raw material has defects, the end product will have deficiencies. The result is in front of us to see. If we start sending the finest of Muslims to learn Islam then Abu Hanifa, Shaafi, Malik, Razi and Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on them all) will be born again. When the elite will study Islam they will understand the logics and wisdom of the religion, and they will guide the whole nation towards the right path. Muslims can regain their lost ground within a hundred years if the leaders of Islam are the best amongst us.
Another thing which needs to be done is that we need to make institutions, especially the religious ones, of international standards. Currently twenty students in a madrassah sleep in one room. So how can you expect a scholar to be born in these circumstances. We need the best of facilities in these institutions: modern libraries, computers and the latest research equipment available to each and every student.
All this will have to be achieved by the private sector. Do not for a second think that our governments will help us. It is the general public who must work on these projects.
The problem among the Muslim societies is that billions of dollars every year are spend on marriage ceremonies, funerals and other unnecessary functions. Muslims will have to adopt a simpler lifestyle, and the savings achieved (in billions) will need to be spent on the projects like schools, universities etc.
To produce scholars who, at an international level, can answer the objections raised by the critics and spread Islam among the masses, we need to make changes in our lives and spend our wealth in the path of Allah.
If we implement the above mentioned strategies, we will start to see a big change among the Islamic community. If we do not act (and repeat the mistakes of the past three hundred years) the Muslims as a whole will continue to live a life of misery.
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