Introduction

The reference to ‘Islamisation of Muslims’ exists in the Quran itself. A verse in the Quran reads:

Believers! Believe in God (4:136)

The above verse indicates that from time to time, faith shall have to be renewed and those who call themselves as ‘Muslims’ will have to be Islamised. Speaking to a few persons through a teleconference call this morning, I said that all the Muslims living in countries other than their homeland are actually “Muhajirs” (immigrants). In other words they are ‘Muslims in Diaspora’.

Diaspora in Muslim History

It is interesting to note that the phenomena of Diaspora took place twice in the Muslim history. The first such instance took place at the time of Prophet Muhammad. During his last sermon at Hajj-atul Wida, the Prophet said, while addressing his companions,

God sent me for the entire mankind, so reach out and spread the message of God to all (Ibn Hisham)

Moved by this responsibility, the Companions ventured into lands – known or unknown – to spread the message of Oneness of God. This was the first Diaspora of Muslim history.

The second Diaspora of Muslims happened in the twentieth century when the Industrial Revolution paved way for new opportunities and the Muslims migrated to foreign lands to avail them. According to a Hadith directed towards the Muhajirs, the Prophet Muhammad said

Actions depend on intentions. He who migrates for the sake of God and His Prophet shall get a reward commensurate to his act; he who migrates for worldly benefit, shall only reap a worldly harvest. (Al-Bukhari)

The Companions of the Prophet migrated to far off lands solely for the purpose of dawah work. However, present-day Muslims migrated to better utilize the available earning prospects. They will get what they aimed for – God’s grace or material benefits.

Islamizing the Second Diaspora

In order to make themselves deserving of the same reward as that of the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, the present-day Muslims will have to first Islamise their Diaspora. In other words, they will have to make dawah work their sole concern and assign secondary importance to every other issue. This is a matter of grave concern. If a person Islamises his Diaspora then his reward will be stored with God, but if he migrates only for worldly splendour, what he receives in return shall not benefit him in the hereafter.

The companions of the Prophet ventured into the world as a ‘Giver-group’ but the present-day Muslims migrated to other countries as a ‘Taker-group’’. It is a fact that a ‘Taker-group’ does not receive the same respect as a ‘Giver-group’. In order to garner respect and receive the blessings of God in the world hereafter, the Muslims must become a ‘Giver-group’ and make dawah work their sole concern. This is not applicable to the Muslims settled in the Western countries alone but to all Muslims the world over. This is so because in the present day scenario, one goes into Diaspora on a daily basis. Interaction today has become a part of life. As the world has increasingly become a global village, every person meets hordes of people everyday. Upon meeting someone, a true believer must instantly recognize his role as a dayee and must not remain entangled in conversations pertaining to the material world. As we forge ahead, we shall consider the prominent issues that face Muslims today and how their response is completely opposed to what it should be.

Believers must become a ‘Giver group’

People often raise objection to the mass distribution of the Quran saying that interaction must be the starting point and if the addressee becomes curious and asks for a copy himself, he should be provided the Quran. But such apprehensions are baseless. Remarks such as these highlight the lack of understanding of the concept of dawah work.

Let us take the example of the companions of Prophet Muhammad. Leaving behind their hearth, family, land, they ventured into territories far and wide only so as to be able to make them aware of the message of God. Such importance was ascribed to the task of dawah that even the absence of basic concerns such as food, transport and even a common language to communicate did not become a roadblock in their path. Dawah work continued unhindered.

Identity of a true believer

A Pakistani leader was quoted saying that post 9/11, the Muslims find it very difficult to find work in the United States. In wake of this issue, Pakistanis have devised a ‘solution’; they provide wrong information about themselves and call themselves “Indians” just to get a job in the States.

This incident aptly illustrates that when a person yearns for something and makes it his sole concern, every other issue becomes secondary. If the Pakistanis in the US can sacrifice their identities for the sake of getting a job; the responsibility of a dayee magnifies greatly because his concern pertains to the ultimate fate of man.

A verse in the Quran says that,

We have made you a middle nation, so that you may act as witnesses for mankind (2:143)

The only identity of a true Muslim is that he is a dayee. Losing this identity amounts to losing everything. Being a dayee is a huge responsibility and begins with the discovery that the fellow human beings are our ‘madu’ and any form of vengeance or violence directed against the madu – whether overt or otherwise shall therefore be totally unacceptable before God.

It is important to bear in mind that dawah work cannot tolerate adulteration. Dawah work should be done purely for the sake of dawah or else it will not be acceptable before God. Mixing it with acts such as community work renders it futile.

The model of the Companions of the Prophet is the final one, in this regard. They were so inspired by the spirit of doing dawah work that they moved to hitherto unknown lands – devoid of means of communication and even transport – only so that the message of God can reach the farthest human settlements. Today this work has become so much easier.

Self-styled criterion of Muslims

I received a call from a person who said that he was a regular reader of my writings and that he was ninety percent in agreement with the ideology that I present. The ten percent disagreement was on certain issues where he perceived my approach as being imbalanced. When I asked him for an example, he said that in situations that involved controversy between the Muslims and other communities, I unilaterally advised only the Muslims and remained silent about the acts of other communities. This to him was not a balanced approach.

To my mind, this was an invalid argument. Take for instance, the Quran. It does not follow a ‘balanced’ approach. If the Muslims believe that the Quran rightfully provides guidance on all issues, they must look for answers in the Quran itself. Such a study will confirm to them the approach that the Quran adopts. To illustrate my point further, I present three examples from the Quran.

Battle of Uhud saw the loss of lives of several companions. It took place on the outskirts of Medina where the Meccans had reached to launch the offensive. Despite Meccans being outrightly aggressive, the verses in Quran do not make even a mention of their being so. Unilaterally, the Companions of the Prophet were admonished as is clear from the following verse of the Quran

Then your courage failed you and you disagreed among yourselves (3:152)

This is the model we get from the Quran, which teaches introspection without highlighting the mistakes of others. The approach I follow is derived from the Quran but unfortunately the Muslims do not seek guidance from the Quran and start objecting.

Battle of Hunayn took place when Prophet was travelling from Medina to Taif with thousands of his companions. Hunayn valley lies about midway between Mecca and Taif and was the key point of enemy defense. Extremely narrow the valley made little room for an army to pass through, except in single file, nor could camels and horses be maneuvered within its narrow walls. When a major part of the Prophet’s men were still in the pass, concealing themselves under the precipitous side of the rocky valley, the tribesmen, from the heights, showered avalanches of rocks and arrows on the Muslims, and prevented all attempts by the Muslim cavalry to organize a charge.

This was a clear case of aggression yet the Quran observed:

On the day of Hunayn, when you took pride in your great numbers, they proved of no avail to you (9:25)

Unilaterally, God admonished the acts of the companions. Will this approach be termed as unbalanced? The method of Quran and Hadith is to look inwards and highlight one’s own mistake by way of introspection. Those who talk otherwise are pointing fingers at the Book of God.

Precedents of the Muslims attempting to establish a self-styled criterion are ample. For example, media often covers the news about the emotional outbursts of the Muslim community over petty issues. Such impatient behaviour is against the spirit of Islam. The guidance in the Quran clearly states that

Do not revile those whom they invoke instead of God (6:108)

Here, Muslims are asked to be proactive in showing respect towards the sentiments of others. It is notable that the Quran does not say that the others do not have a right to hurt the Muslims, on the other hand, it categorically refrains Muslims from hurting the religious sentiments of others.

The root cause of the problem is that the present-day Muslims no longer follow the teachings of the Quran. This was predicted in the Quran thus

The Messenger will say, ‘Lord my people did indeed discard the Quran’ (25:30)

The Muslims must therefore wake up to the need of the hour and relinquish their self-styled criteria so that they can view the world objectively.

Need for Islamising Muslims

The need to Islamise the Muslims assumes great importance in the present times so that a change can be instituted in their thinking, behaviour and lifestyle. So that they are able to free their hearts of hatred and malice towards their fellow human beings and are able to usher in an era that would promote world peace and harmony.

As new generations emerge, their Islamisation becomes critical owing to their tendency to suffer from decline. Historian Ibn Khaldun opines that communities degenerate just the same way as do our bodies. Islamisation seeks to revive the spirit of Islam in the present-day Muslims. Called as ‘tajdeed’, this work is referred to in the Hadith thus

In every century, God sends a mujaddid. (Abu Dawud)

Decline of a civilization or a community is a universal phenomenon. At such times, God grants exceptional wisdom to a person (mujaddid) who stands to revive the religion of God. A manifest sign of decline in the present day Muslims is that they have become so conditioned that they no longer seek guidance from the Quran but think of it as a Book of Pride.

People are often beguiled by the term ‘grass-root’. It is widely misunderstood to mean people but actually it is the mind which forms the grass-root. Therefore addressing the mind of a person assumes utmost importance.

Democracy made quantity a crucial parameter and gave rise to the term ‘grass-root’. A society always comprised of majority of commoners, whose support was essential to gain power. This gave rise to the trend of working for the upliftment of the grass-root level. It was equally important to realize that while the support of the wider community was indispensable in establishing a government, the same rule did not apply everywhere. If the very personality of persons has to change, it demands a revolution from within, which can come only if the mind of the person is fully addressed. Such transformed individuals can eventually transform an entire society.

Dawah work therefore does not aim at winning vote-banks. It aims at transforming the personalities and changing the mindsets of people. Therefore the grass-root of dawah work is the mind. The Quran focuses on addressing the mind of the individual so that through him and entire society can be transformed for its betterment.

Towards the end

I often think why man becomes insensitive to sincerity and starts concocting self-styled ideas. The answer is because he is not afraid of death. Because the concept of death is absent from the very DNA of man, he lives in the illusion of not having to die, ever. It is a fact of life that every day a number of people pass away from this world in the ordinary course of events. This fact on its own should be enough to shake people up, but it does not, for the simple reason that everyone who watches others disappear thinks that this fate is only destined for others, and not for himself. This is a strange but observable fact of human psychology. By excluding himself he fails to learn a valuable lesson. He fails to hear the message of death even when it is close at hand.

Death however, is the biggest leveler. It obliterates everything; afterwards only that which has some worth in the after-life will remain. Unfortunately man is obsessed with the world, which meets his eyes. He fails to pay attention to the call of truth. If he were to see the next life with his worldly vision, he would immediately submit to God. We would realize that if he does not submit to Him today, he will have to do so in the future world, when submission will profit no one.

Death marks a sudden eviction for man from the world he considered his own. From the comfortable pastures of his present worldly life, he is cast into the darkness of eternity. If man remains cognizant of his this fact at all times, his attitude would reflect sincerity and seriousness. The time to become sincere is now. Only a true believer will be able to partake of the blessings of God and the remaining shall be cast into eternal damnation.

May God give us the guidance so that we can rectify ourselves before the hour strikes!