Muslim Youth Today: Challenges Ahead
A Talk by Arshad Gamiet, at the
Muslim Association of Britain (Youth}
Annual Personal Development Course
Nottingham, Saturday 12th August 2006
“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem.
Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Allah, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”
All Praise is due to Allah, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Allah, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.”
O You who believe, - Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.
Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a’maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.”
O You who believe, - Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory…
My dear and respected brothers and sisters,
You have done me a great honour, through Amal Saffour, to ask me to speak to you tonight. It’s an honour because I see you all as quite exceptional young people. Just imagine, here on a lovely summer evening, when others are enjoying the good life, hayaat-ad-dunya, you are gathered together, working hard to improve yourselves, and to better understand your Faith. You could have been doing what other young people do on a Saturday night: go to the movies, hang out with friends, spend time with your email or join chat rooms on the internet. But no, you’ve decided to put all that aside for something much more important. You prefer to turn away from life’s many distractions in order to learn how to become a better Muslim, how to become a more effective human being.
You are also very special in the sight of Allah, because you can see that there are problems our community, there are problems in our country and in the wide world around us, and you are determined to make a change. You have wisely begun that process of change from within yourselves, through tarbiyah, or moral training. And, you are doing this because you know that Allah has promised us, in His Holy Book that He will not improve the conditions of a people until they change what is within themselves. So, my dear brothers and sisters, let us ask Allah, swt, to bless this gathering, and to bring us, and our families, and the big world beyond us, the peace and justice and dignity that all human beings deserve.
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I will try this evening, to share with you some of my reflections on the problems we Muslims face in Britain, and how I think we should deal with them. Allah has blessed me with the opportunity to spend my first 32 years growing up in South Africa under Apartheid, and my last 28 years in Britain. So you see, I’ve spent all of my life, 60 years, in Muslim minorities!
Let me say from the outset that although we are a numerical minority in Britain, we shouldn’t adopt a victim culture. We should never feel sorry for ourselves. Self-pity gets us nowhere. I know that much of the media attention we get is negative, but that is just another test from Allah. We must accept that test with courage and faith in Allah, and we must learn to use the media as a positive instrument. We should not become defensive like some do, and try to withdraw ourselves from mainstream society. We cannot find comfort in some kind of ‘voluntary Apartheid’. We must not separate ourselves from our neighbours Islam has never been a religion of the ghetto and Prophet Muhammad did not come to lead a small ‘ethnic minority.’
“Wamaa arsal naaka illaa Rahmatal lil-‘aalameen!” says the Holy Quran.
“And We have not sent you [O Muhammad] but as a Mercy unto all the nations!” ….. Please note, aalameen refers not just to Arabs or Pakistanis but to all the nations, all of humanity….
This is the global mission of our beloved Prophet, and we are his heirs, we are his inheritors. We must have the same global perspective. But to solve global problems, we must have solid foundations. And these foundations are embedded in the calibre of individual human beings. We have the answer right within our selves. There is an inseparable link between global problems, and the people, the communities and individuals who project their insecurities and weaknesses on others. We who claim to follow the footsteps of ‘Rahmatal lil-‘aalameen,’ should understand this. Before we can bring mercy to all the nations, we must at least get some practice, in being a mercy to our own country and to our local neighbourhood. We must first become a mercy to our family, to our wife, our husband, brother, sister, father, mother, son or daughter. We can start by being a mercy to ourselves. This means, not abusing our bodies and our minds, and not sinning against our own soul. It all starts with the individual, and what constitutes the individual.
Our personality is made up of a body, a mind and soul. We know more about the body and mind than we know about the soul. That soul is the timeless, space-less entity that Allah breathed into our bodies before we were born. It will travel along with our physical body for 60, 70, 80, 90 years before the body returns to the earth whence it came, and the soul returns to its Maker, to the timeless space-less realm whence it came. During our relatively short lives, we must keep body, mind and soul balanced and focussed. Each element of our personality makes different demands, and we must keep the balance, in order to become the well adjusted individuals who comprise the ummatan wasatan, the balanced people that the Holy Quran speaks of.
When you look at the world out there, it’s not hard to see the link between greedy and violent nations who fight unjust wars, and the greedy and violent individuals who lie and cheat and bully others to make their way through life. Human society is simply an extension of individual values, of what lies buried inside individual hearts, on a bigger scale. If we are to help bring an end to man-made suffering internationally, we will have to build and strengthen the human spirit in our local neighbourhoods. But to do so, we must begin with ourselves, to construct a healthy and well balanced individual from within ourselves. And here, we must begin with the heart. By the heart I don’t mean the muscle that pumps blood through the body. I mean the spiritual heart, what the Holy Quran calls the Qalb, the spiritual heart that is the seat of our emotions and desires. It is the locus of our personality. Prophet Muhammad sws said that there is a piece of flesh in the body, if it is sound then the whole body is healthy. It is the heart. Allah also warns us in His Holy Book that none shall enter His paradise except those with a sound heart. Not our good deeds alone, not our prayers and charity and fasting and Hajj, but a sound heart. That’s where we’ve got to focus our attention.
If you study the life and mission of our beloved Prophet Muhammad sws you will notice that he did things in a strict methodical order. Although Makkan society around him was full of vices and the holy Kaaba was profaned by 360 idols, he did not come charging down mountain swinging his sword and shouting "Jihad, Jihad!" He did not declare war on those who disagreed with him. His first priority was to cultivate good character, Adab, and the early Makkan suras were all connected with character building, spiritual discipline and waging what the Prophet Muhammad sws called the ‘greater jihad’ … the struggle against the ego, the lower self. We will never succeed in any other kind of jihad without first taming our ego, the nafs, that raging beast within ourselves.
When we pray, we begin by saying one of the prayers of Prophet Ibrahim:
“Innas salatee wanusukee, wamahiyaya wama ma’tee lil-laahi Rabbil ‘aalameen”
“Truly, my prayer, my sacrifice, my life and my death is for Allah, the Lord of all the Worlds.”
This is so important, to realise that we should do nothing for our own vanity and for our own ego. Every desire, every thought, word and action must be completely unselfish. It must be driven purely to seek Allah’s pleasure, otherwise it will be worthless. This is the true meaning of Islam, submission.
So, before we can even begin to tackle the great world outside, we must tackle the greater world inside ourselves. This is indeed, the greater jihad.
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Let’s take a quick look at some of the challenges we face, inside and outside of our community. Did you know that Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are at the bottom for academic achievement? Even graduates have problems. Did you know that Muslim graduates are 3 times more likely to be unemployed than other graduates? We will have to persuade the UK business community that they must do their bit to make their companies a Muslim-friendlier place. Did you know that alcohol abuse, drug abuse, wife and child abuse has also become a problem in our Muslim community? We have many problems on the inside. And beyond, on the outside, British society is facing even bigger problems. The family as we know it is in decline. More than half of all marriages, 53% end in divorce, and people don’t wait for marriage to have children. A quarter of all pregnancies end in abortion clinics. Of those pregnancies that do go full term, 41% almost half of newborn children are illegitimate. They don’t have parents who are legally married. Add to this the soaring levels of personal debt: one trillion pounds. Bankruptcy is at record levels. Glossy adverts urge us to buy things we don’t need, at a price we can’t afford, with money we don’t have. No wonder we have gambling, debt, binge drinking, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency and crime at record levels. Nobody seems to have the answer. We Muslims claim that Islam has the answer. Are we ready to show our neighbours in the wider community, that we have a better way of life? Can we be a good personal example?
Brothers and sisters, Leadership by example is a fundamental principle of Islam. The Holy Quran asks the rhetorical question: “Do you say that which you do not do? Grievously odious is it in the sight of Allah that you should say that which you do not do…” [s.61.v.03] Our holy Prophet Muhammad sws was Uswatul Hasanah, the perfect example for us to follow. He never told others to do anything that he would not do himself. He washed his own clothes and swept his own floors. Yet he was the noblest and greatest of men. He treated people on merit, and always assigned duties to the most talented of his followers, based on their competence, not just because they were family or friends. This is a principle that was followed by the great Muslim empires, for more than a thousand years, from the Umayyads to the Ottomans. Meritocracy, encouraging talent regardless of race, colour or religion, is an Islamic tradition. Jews and Christians held high positions in the lands of Islam and they were allowed to follow their own codes of personal law. Whatever the media says, don’t you believe that multi-faith and multicultural society was invented by New Labour under Tony Blair. It’s an Islamic tradition at least 1,000 years old!
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What about the so-called War on Terror? What should we do while our government pursues unjust foreign policies and some of our young people believe that it’s fair game to blow up planes and trains to make their point? What would our beloved Prophet Muhammad sws have done? Did he ever approve of indiscriminate violence against anyone? The answer is quite clearly, No. Islam has never condoned indiscriminate violence. Indeed, Muslims were probably the first to set out Rules of Warfare. Caliph Abu Bakr set out a code, ordering his armies never to kill civilians, never to cut down trees or burn crops or poison water supplies. He ordered them not to harm women, children, the old, the sick, the monks, priests and rabbis who and never to violate places of worship. This was more than 1000 years before the Geneva Conventions or the Declaration of Human Rights.
Today, we Muslims face big challenges, but with hard work and trust in Allah, we can make a big difference. We should never give in to feelings of despair and desperation, however difficult life might become. Acts of terror are acts of despair and desperation. A true Believer is never desperate. He knows that Allah will never abandon his Believers. Allah is All-Aware, always firmly in control of His creation, all of it. The last verse of Sura Yasin tells us,
Soobhaanal lathee biyadihee malakootu kulli shay in wa ilayhi tur ja oon.
“Glory to Allah, in whose hand is the Dominion of everything, and to Him we will all return.”
We should never give up hope. History is always in good hands. Every hardship we face is only a test from Allah. The first verse of Sura Mulk declares:
“Tabaarakall lathee biyadihil Mulk, wahuwa ‘alaa kulli shay-in Qadeer! Al-lathee khalaqal mawta wal hayaata liyab’luwakum ay-yukum ahsanu ‘amalaa. Wa huwal ‘azeezul ghafoor.”
“Blessed is He in Whose hand is Dominion; And He has power over all things. He Who created Death and Life and death, so that He may test which of you is best in deed, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Oft-Forgiving.”
In the past, our noble and illustrious predecessors faced even greater hardships with dignity and serenity, trusting in Allah. When the Crusaders entered Jerusalem centuries ago, their horses waded knee deep in blood. They spared no-one, including Jews and Christians who lived peacefully under Muslim rule. History tells of no atrocities, of no wild, indiscriminate killings by our noble ancestors. They sought Allah’s help, and with patience, perseverance and prayer, He answered them with a Salahuddin [Saladin]. That is our example. We do not return evil with evil. Returning terror with terror is not Islam. War criminals cannot be our role models.
Insh-Allah, when we Muslims emerge from this period of fitna, of trial and turmoil, we shall be stronger in faith and better equipped to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Allah want us only to do our very best, what is humanly possible, to serve Him with our lives and property until the end of our days. The reward we seek is His good pleasure and His Garden in the next life.
In the early years of Islam, Muslims were severely persecuted. Prophet Muhammad sent a delegation to Ethiopia where a just Christian king welcomed them. They were the first Muslim asylum seekers. In a sense, we are also asylum seekers: we British Muslims enjoy a greater degree of personal and political freedom than in most Muslim countries. We often forget that. Our duty is to make Britain safe for everyone, not just for ourselves. In a well known Hadith, Prophet Muhammad sws said that “A Muslim is he from whose tongue and hands, other Muslims are safe. A Mu’min, [a True, Believer], is one in whom all of mankind has an asylum, a sanctuary, for its life and property.”
We who aspire to be True Believers have an awesome responsibility. All of humankind should feel safe in our hands, with their lives and their possessions. Are we really up to it?
In these dangerous times, we have to keep cool heads and steady nerves. We must uphold justice and the rule of law. Even under severe provocation, we must conduct ourselves with dignity and good manners. We must personify Islam. This does not mean that we must be meek and cowardly, afraid to speak openly and honestly. In one Hadith our beloved Prophet said that the greatest Jihad is to speak a word of truth in the court of an unjust ruler. Just as Moses spoke to Pharaoh, we must speak to our rulers with courtesy and honesty. Wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa, “and speak a straightforward word,” says the Holy Quran. We must join with others in the wider community, in all kinds of good works, helping to reduce crime, keep families together, improve the quality of life for everyone. We must help in any effort to improve physical, social and political environment in Britain. Always this must be done peacefully and within the law.
Our key values must be foremost in our minds:
Prophet Muhammad sws said that “the best actions are small ones that are repeated often”. Great wisdom underpins these words. It is so much better than the grand gesture that comes occasionally. We all go through life like farmers. We sow an action, and we reap a habit. We sow a habit, and we reap a character. We sow a character, we reap a Destiny. And the Destiny we all seek is to return to Allah having earned His good pleasure.
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I remember as a schoolboy, I read a poem by John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn, which ends with the words:
“Beauty is truth, and truth is beauty.” These words were inscribed on a Greek vase, which inspired Keats’ poem. Then as an adult I learnt this Hadith: “Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty.” We Muslims have to aspire to be beautiful, in our manners and our behaviour. We should inspire our neighbours in the wider community, through our personal example. Talk is not enough. We must show in our living example that Islam is a better way of living. And we must constantly seek Allah’s help and guidance in this effort.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters, the history of Islam and Europe has a great deal of interaction, far more than is admitted in western history books. Because of this narrow Eurocentric attitude, the West is largely unaware of the long and pervasive influence of Islam on its own way of life. One leader in the corporate business world who took up this topic is Carly Fiorina, who was at the time, head of the Hewlett Packard corporation. Significantly, she made this speech just 2 weeks after the tragic events of September 11. It is entitled: “In praise of Islamic civilization” and I read only the last portion:
“There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.
It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.
One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.
And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.
Its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things.
When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.
While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.
Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians. Sufi poet-philosophers like Rumi challenged our notions of self and truth. Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership.
And perhaps we can learn a lesson from his example: It was leadership based on meritocracy, not inheritance. It was leadership that harnessed the full capabilities of a very diverse population–that included Christianity, Islamic, and Jewish traditions.
This kind of enlightened leadership — leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage — led to 800 years of invention and prosperity.
In dark and serious times like this, we must affirm our commitment to building societies and institutions that aspire to this kind of greatness. More than ever, we must focus on the importance of leadership– bold acts of leadership and decidedly personal acts of leadership.
The full text of this speech can be found at the Hewlett-Packard website at:
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/speeches/fiorina/minnesota01.htm
It was delivered on 26 September 2001 in Minneapolis, Minnesota at a conference whose theme was: "TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE: WHAT'S NEXT"
Dear Brothers and Sisters, this speech by the Chief of a big multinational corporation was urging its audience to recognise the fine qualities of leadership on merit, which underpinned the success of Muslim civilization. She urges her audience to raise their own ambitions to the noble spirit of Islamic civilisation.
May Alláh, swt, help us Muslims once again establish those same values in our own hearts. May we Muslims rediscover the successful formula that made our noble and illustrious ancestors the leaders of the most morally advanced empire in History.
Brothers and Sisters, you, the youth of today will be the adults, the leaders of tomorrow.
Remember that when your heart opens itself to Allah, it can only beautify and improve its surroundings. Iman does not enter a heart without beautifying it. In the same way, no part of God’s earth was ever ruled by Islam, without being raised in status. For the evidence, look to the history of the Arabian Peninsula, Africa, India, Spain, Turkey. What remains of those Ummayyad, Abbasid, Mughal, Seljuk and Ottoman times – twenty terrestrial empires in all – tells a simple truth. Islam’s empire of faith added great value to human societies.
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In Spain, Muslims Jews and Christians lived in harmony for 800 years and they enjoyed a period of cultural and scientific progress that was the envy of the world. But when Islam left, all hell broke loose. The Catholic Inquisition forced all Jews and Muslims to convert or die a painful death.
But you know, history is full of interesting contradictions. Islam’s enemies often had a grudging admiration for Muslim society. While Crusader armies waged war against the Muslims, Italian artists were clothing their models with exquisite Damascus silk scarves. They painted their religious icons, pictures of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary, to decorate their churches. Even to this day, you can visit these churches and you’ll see Renaissance paintings depicting the ‘Madonna and Child’ [and I don’t mean Madonna the pop star!] If you look carefully, you’ll see that the artist has painted Jesus’ mother wearing the fine detailed gold embroidery on the scarf, clearly copying the Arabic words, ‘La ilaha il-lal-lah’ There is no God but Allah, So while Christian Europe rejected Islam and waged war on Muslims, Allah’s message of Divine Unity was quietly stated, in Arabic, on beautiful paintings hanging on in their churches. My Christian friends have a saying, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Indeed He does. Soob’haanal-laah!
Another example: If you visit Andalusia in southern Spain, you will find so many well preserved castles, forts and palaces of the Muslim era. Many have beautiful ceilings and walls decorated in geometric mosaics and Arabesque patterns. I was deeply moved on one visit, when I saw the Spanish craftsmen and cleaners working with such loving care on some Arabic calligraphy. They were quite possibly descendants of those same Inquisitors who tortured and killed Muslims for their faith. And here they were, gently and lovingly repairing a stucco moulding with an Arabic inscription which declared: ‘La Ghaleeba ilal-Laah’ ‘There is no Conqueror except Allah!. The ironies of history! Allah indeed protects His sacred Words!
We are living in difficult times, but we must never despair. Our enemies plot and plan, and Allah also plans; and Allah is the Best of Planners.
In the 12th Century, Genghis Khan terrorised and conquered much of the Muslim world. But after his death, Islam conquered the hearts of his descendants. They embraced Islam and they became the Mughal emperors who ruled India during its golden age. This was the age of the Qutb Minar, the Badshahi Mosque, Shalimar Gardens and the Taj Mahal: History’s Architectural wonders.
The same wonderful fate awaited the nomadic and warlike Turcoman tribes who accepted Islam. Allah raised them to greatness, and they became the majestic Ottoman Empire. Throughout history, those who thought they’d conquered Islam made a bad habit of breeding children and grandchildren who became exceptional Muslims.
So, my dear respected brothers and sisters, don’t be at all surprised if the descendants of George Bush and Tony Blair and their Neocon acolytes one day become champions of Islam. Islam has a long history of conquering the hearts of the conquerors. We must ask ourselves: what’s more important: a military empire or a spiritual empire? Military might comes and goes. Land is won and lost and maps are drawn and redrawn. But a spiritual empire survives the ravages of time and history. Allah is the guardian of His own Message. We, who declare ourselves to be witnesses of His Divine Unity, have a big responsibility. We must be careful that when we make jihad, we are actually on Allah’s side and not on the other side. Shaitan is a great Deceiver and the biggest deception is to think that you serving Allah when you are actually paving your way to hell.
That’s why this programme of Tarbiyah, of moral training, is so important. It’s the starting point. We begin by purifying our hearts, taming the beast within our breasts, the nafs al amara bis sow. We must cultivate the self-reproaching nafs, nafs-al-low-waama, i.e. our conscience. With a sound heart and a clear conscience, we become conscientious human beings. If we try hard enough to please Allah, He can even allow us to become His Friends. And please show me the Muslim who would not want to be a Friend, an Awliyah of Allah. Our ultimate goal must be, to become well-disciplined, Allah-aware believers. We want to refine and purify ourselves, to raise our hearts to the state of al-nafsul Mut’ma-innah, the Purified Self. When finally, our body and soul go their separate ways, we want to hear His voice inviting us from Above:
“Ya ay-yuhan-nafsul Mut’mainnah! Ir-ji-ee ila Rabbiki Raadhiyatam-mardhiyyah! Fad’ khuleefee ‘ibaadee, wad’ khulee jannatee!”
“O purified Soul, in complete rest and satisfaction! Come back to your Lord, well pleased yourself, and well pleasing to Him. Enter you among my devotees! Yes, enter you My Heaven.”
My dear friends, respected Brothers and Sisters, May Allah accept all our good works, and may He elevate our status. May He keep us patient and steadfast at all times, and grant us serenity, sakina, in our hearts. Ameen.
Thank you for listening to me so patiently.
As-Salaamu ‘alaykum.
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