Islamic State and What Muslims Need to Be Doing

Islamic State and What Muslims Need to Be Doing

 

Now I want to talk to you about something that we cannot disconnect ourselves from, the struggle of Islam. Of course it is an, is a timeless struggle, but at the same time we are living in a context where the Muslims have gone through quite a bit of change in the last hundred years. The last one hundred and fifty years have been a very transformational time for the Ummah, we could not separate ourselves from our history. how we think how we understand Islam where we are today is a product of a lot of events that have taken place and if we don't understand those events and what got us here then we're not going to be able to understand how to move forward. 

so very briefly I'll just mention one thing Islamic movements over the last 100 to 150 years in 1924 the last remnant of what was an Islamic State Falls this is the Ottoman Empire of course right the earth money state it collapses in 1924. since then you have the birth of several movements all over the world India the Africa's you know in the Arab world that are trying to revive Islam they're trying to bring this on back. and writers talked about how there need to be movements and groups that need to bring back and this this rhetoric started of developing an Islamic state. so pretty much every major movement in the last 150 years talked about the revival of Khilafah. bringing back and quoting all the hadith that talk about the khulafa and looking at the sea lines saying look this is what the messenger pbuh did, this is what we need to do, in other words tying their struggle directly to the Seerah of the messengers pbuh. 

Now in one sense that's very good in the sense that we need to tie our struggle always to the struggle of the messenger . but in one sense since this is over simplification when we take lessons from the Sirah we cannot ignore the time the place and the changes that have taken place. so you cannot copy-paste lessons you have to apply them very carefully this requires a lot of detailed understanding of the time and place in which you live. and so I want to present to you something that actually one of my very dear teachers and colleagues and to me actually an intellectual role model who's a member of this community brother Bashir in Saudi wrote in Al Jazeera. he wrote an article in Al Jazeera , I thought it was fantastic really I studied it with him when I took it with me to Detroit and I thought it was just absolutely stunning this article and I hope to actually get it translated and make it available to you guys and the subject of the article was Islamists meaning Islamic movements caught between having the state and not having a state that this idea of statehood, in other words two things became equation establishment of Deen equals establishment of a state this idea was made common, if you want to establish the deen you have to have a government you have to have a state. I don't mean New Jersey I mean like a government state okay it lies in statehood. so this idea is actually what he questions and he says what are the roots of this idea and one of the problems with this idea.

First of all most of the movements that call for a state have had no experience or idea or know-how how to run a state. what does it take to run a government, sanitation, police, roadmaps, taxation, right huge bureaucracy. I mean if you work in a big company with 500 employees plus governments are the biggest kinds of organizations in existence. they're the most colossal organization with the most number of employees it is a massive massive bureaucracy. so you have a movement that says we should have an Islamic state we should have this and that and the other. but they don't have even close to the roadmap to what it takes to build a complex state. you cannot compare that to the the life in medina, medina was simple easy these people didn't need governments and a water department and a taxation department and a you know municipality and they didn't need these things. they just had simple Hut homes and they were living in tribal lives now they're a little bit more organized. It's a very preliminary form of a state that the messenger pbuh established, for that society was very advanced but compared to what we have now it's very simple. so they say we're just gonna go establish you. say if you give these movements let's say you know what we're ready to give you the state here hey take Pakistan take it take take you can have it, what are they gonna do how are they gonna run it. do they have the credentials to actually budget to finance a budget to engage and you know policing and things like that you know they don't have to wear with all. these are things that require a higher degree of expertise, and by the way let me tell you something else that was that he mentioned in the article that to me was mind blowing, a movement when Muslims are trying to say Muslims need to wake up and we need to stand up and we need to establish the Deen these are the kinds of things I can give in a khutbah and people might say takbeeer. right everybody yeah come to Dean.

 So movements can fire people up, they can they can they can invigorate people, they can inspire people, people can read the works of people like maududi rahim allah or save qutb rahim allah and to this day we moved. right and be like you know our moulana yes like i'm all of these people they can read them and say wow that's amazing stuff you know. but tell me which country in the world today looks at its government and say they are so awesome I love those guys in government. you know what comes with being in government, what naturally comes with being in government, being hated. you can't avoid it. people have a natural tendency to not be inspired, especially not be inspired by their government.. and some places in the world these groups figured it out. 

I'll give you an example not because I condone them because we need to understand the political science of this. you have a group like Hezbollah, now there's efforts made in Lebanon to enter them into politics right they want to bring them into the political realm. but the leadership of Hezbollah says no thanks, we don't want government. you know why because when they're outside of government a lot of people love them. but if they enter government what's going to happen. they're gonna lose their credit ah they're corrupt like all these other government politicians. you see what I'm saying, so they understand that there are more powerful outside government than they even are inside government.

 

Now let's not just take a arab example let's take an american example how much does government affect your life, on a day to day basis. okay i know you pay taxes every year, I understand that. but other than that on a daily basis what influence does government have on your life. the major things that are in this country, for example the the way you think about fashion the way you think about what success and failure your mentality you know it doesn't come from the government. it all comes from the private sector it comes from the entertainment industry and the academia and the major corporations that are selling products to us and running driving the advertising and the reason and all even the medical research and you know all the research universities funded by private organizations. In other words the vast majority of things that influence you on a day to day basis don't come from government. where do they come from well what I like to call the private sector. They come from the private sector, if Muslims understood that you know what we will be worried about, if you really want to take over a society, you know what you should be taking over, the private sector open field. 

The Muslims haven't even begun to touch them. how many Muslims in media more powerful than government today is what. the media can change the course of elections the media can get a president impeached, the media can do crazy things, the media could say things like horrible terrible things like Obama's Muslim and get away with it. media is powerful. academia universities, universities shape the minds of the the the pillars of this society, how many Muslims in academia how many Muslims sociologists anthropologists political scientists historians. we're not present. we came to this country and we thought success is doctor engineer, okay fine you couldn't do doctor, engineer programmer, right you know, IIT right or okay none of those work gas station right, so this was success for us. if we make good money if we can buy a nice house if you can live in a nice neighborhood we've got success this is success for an individual maybe for a community.

Look at what I'm baffled by the Jewish community I'm amazed by them you know why. because when they first came to this country they were treated like we are treated now and you know. what they got themselves you could say all their name Riba people whatever, but you know what they what they really got themselves into, not just financial institutions, entertainment literature academics virtually any major university in the country a significant proportion of the faculty is Jewish. that's a norm that's it's normal you know. so they became the deep fabric of this country. so it's so much so that it they're untouchable. Muslims didn't we just become we became skilled labor, that's all we are even if you're a doctor even if you're an engineer in the end you're just a highly skilled worker. you're not you're not someone who influences minds or causes ripples in society you're not you know. you're just a you're just a better consumer so you buy a more expensive car, so I guess you're adding to the economy a little bit, but you're not a mover and shaker you're not an influencer of minds you understand.

 

 So Muslims we have to understand to penetrate this society we need to enter the private sector. to enter the private sector we need to be in major positions in universities all over this country we need to be actually funding. you know Islamic studies program at the University of Chicago is funded by a Jewish group. what do you think that they're gonna what kind of research they're gonna produce. which Islamic Studies program at the PhD level is being funded by Muslim organizations. there's one attempt being made in Detroit what they with you know I think in in Troy Michigan and they're asking for an endowment of a couple of million the Muslims are struggling to come up with those money. I appreciate their effort actually, if you're not entering into the this the game, you gotta enter the game.

 

 you know the messenger challenges the poets, the poets of our time are the academics you gotta enter the game you know. we're not even in it we're just we're bubbled by ourselves. so this is a very big thing that we need to enter. we need to have our Muslim youth that are creative go into Media Studies go into film production this is the language of art this is the poetry of our time you know. the thing that moved the masses in the time of the messenger was poetry. what moves us today is YouTube right. we need people that are actually qualified in film production sociologists sighted you know psychology psychology. but even like historians Muslim historians we need them we don't have them. these are things that become the fabric of a society.

 

And the other thing we need is huge massive Walmart size businesses. not just run by individuals but they're these massive massive organizations that are funding. entire like projects so for example I'll give you a secular example like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from my you know from Microsoft right, they give so many endowments to schools across the country and help out and things like that. Muslims need to have institutions like that, that don't just help Muslim institutions they help America in general. they help America at large. why should we do this because then we become a fabric of this society we become they can't talk about us like they do now. they talk about us now as though we're like these wild dogs let loose in the society, literally that's how we're talked about in the media. there's no we're not given human dignity when we're talked about. that's not that's not what we stand why not because we isolated ourselves. we did that to ourselves.

 

 I'll move along quickly insha'Allah Allah this is the last thing I'll share with you for today probably we'll have another session to finish this discussion and just to you know again these are I know there's a lot of different things I talked about here but again I just want food for thought. I want us to just think about these things and insha'Allah Allah.

 

Hopefully the purpose of a community is some people are good at some things others are good at other things we manage our resources and people get involved in projects that are trying to build one part of the solution others another part of the solution and it's all sinking and coming together cohesively. that's what we need that's the point we need to get.

 

 how many human resource managers in our audience today any HR managers not one, we should have human resource managers because. we one thing we need at the level of Muslim communities human resource management. this is what the scholars need to be doing, this is what the you know the the Reavers who come to Islam this is the training they need, so they become awesome Daies, this is what our kids that have finished hifz need to be doing, this is what the mothers of the community need to be doing, allocating projects to different you know groups and helping them build this community from the ground up so.

 

 here's the last thing I want to share with you for this up for today and we'll have a little bit of a QA session I want to talk to you about something I heard at the estate convention that that struck a chord with me and I thought it was it was very powerful it was presented by a professor Ingrid Madson and she talked about the difference between a cult and a community so this is the last thing

 

I'm sharing with you the difference between a cult and a community. a community is a place where everybody is welcome and diversity is appreciated. the fact that you are different is a good thing. because it adds to the texture and the depth and the richness of the community. a cult however demands that everybody be exactly the same they should talk the same. they should dress the same this should look the same they should act the same it's like this uniform thing that's a cult. now in a community when somebody makes a mistake no Muslims we make mistakes, somebody makes, you know falls into sin somebody veers off the path, what a community does is it nurtures them and says look we all make mistakes let me help you. and they can bring you back and they can support you until you're back on your feet again. in other words the community travels together and when somebody trips and falls there are others who can pick you up and take you along. in a cult when somebody makes a mistake they're kicked out well they're not there's no tolerance you got out of line you're done you're finished.

 

In a community you have this idea that when you you want to engage and how help people understand themselves better by open conversation. you want to be able to ask questions without being afraid of you know criticism. so for example one of you has the right to ask me a question that you know other people might look at how could you ask that question, how dare you say that. no actually you can ask a question you shouldn't be afraid to ask questions and to get clarifications. because the community supports the idea of open communication there should be not nothing is taboo. we should be able to ask whatever we want to ask without being without being afraid of being judged right. in a cult you're not allowed to ask questions if you ask certain questions how dare you you should be ashamed of yourself, why don't you become like everybody else or robot, right so this idea of keeping uniformity. 

And finally in a community you have the urge to want to not only understand ourselves but to understand our neighbors. so we'll go over to the church we'll go over to the fire station we'll go over to our neighbors and invite them over to us and we'll say tell us about your faith will tell you about ours you know. what I would cooperate with each other and good and good things and in taqwa you can do that. you can even even agree to certain things with them you know. so now our community would like to reach out and to be be known and to identify itself as someone who can serve others. a cult however hates outside communication they want to be isolated cut off from everybody else and what the cult does to their members it tells them don't listen to anybody else because they'll mess you up the only way you'll stay safe is if you listen to us we've got the right Authority everybody else is deviant and out you know they're dill they'll they'll put waswasa and mess up your aqaeda and this and that. so don't listen to this speaker don't go to that convention don't go to that much - don't go here don't go there don't go there don't go there because it'll all be you know you'll get lost we're trying to keep you safe right. so the cult tries to keep its members bubbled and outside the rest. and actually

 

I said finally but this is the most important one so finally a community one of its fundamental functions is to help the family come stronger. so in a community it changed you to become a better father a better husband a better wife a better son a better daughter a better neighbor it makes you develop better relationships right that's what a community does you know. what a cult does it cuts you off from your family you have conflicts in the house, you have disagreements and arguments you have the home turns into a battlefield.. why because you're trying to turn your family your family doesn't agree with your cult, so the family became the enemy. and the cult will even come and say your family is a fitna you, should you know they're there Dounia we're calling you the Deen so leave your family you know. this is a cult and the reason I make this distinction is a lot of masjids in this country in this country are cults, a lot of masjids are cults. and what we need in this country is communities. but we need we desperately need communities we need to understand this difference and we need to help our masjids come out of a cult and eventually become a community you know. and if we're and sometimes we're in between or kind of in between somewhere and we're hoping that all of our masjids are healthy functioning communities and they don't end up becoming cults. there's a very important distinction to make and a opportunity for us to move forward and at this point.