Working for Revival

How can a Muslim aid the revival of the Ummah? Firstly, as an individual he or she must understand the Islamic ideology. This means to study in depth the differences between Islam and capitalism and to understand how Islam works as a system for running the affairs of life, not just as a religion of ritual and rites.

Secondly, having understood the Islamic ideology Muslims must carry dawah for it and work to correct those understandings of Islam that are incorrect. This is so that a sound awareness of Islam is created amongst the people and erroneous understandings are corrected. If the dawah to the ideology is carried in an effective manner, it is inevitable that the Islamic state will be established in society, hence reviving the Ummah.

Thirdly, collective movements are required. These collective movements need to call to the Islamic thought by constantly linking it to issues facing the Muslims. This in essence has to be political in nature. Collective movements have to be aware that the work for individual reformation, education, publishing literature and a general call to the khairaat in Islam will not lead to revival.

Political work means to address the corruption of the rulers and the problems within societies targeted for change. For example, in Pakistan, the increases in gas prices, the establishment of FBI offices, the permission to construct US military bases, the treachery over Kashmir by the Musharaff junta could all be political issues to address.

In order to aid revival the manner in which these issues must be discussed is that these problems arise due the absence of Islam as an ideology and the presence of a kufr ruling system in place of the Khilafah. The linkage to Islam as an ideology must be re-iterated continuously so that the Islamic viewpoint about life becomes the predominant thought in society.

It is important that this call be carried politically as rules and thoughts without application to life’s affairs are not effective in changing the people. This is especially true when one is addressing society. The call must influence the people to change their existing thoughts with the Islamic thoughts. This does not mean that there is no need to pay attention to culturing people on an individual basis, rather this is imperative as without the ideology being deeply embedded in individuals it would not be possible to carry it to society.

This can be seen in the work of the Prophet (saw). Where people understood and embraced His (saw) message. It became deeply embodied in them. They carried it as a dawah to others and also worked collectively to convey it to Makkan society at large.

To achieve the revival one needs to cultivate individuals with a deeply embedded understanding of the Islamic ideology and collectively address issues linked to revival. As this dawah has been going on for decades we make dua to Allah (SWT) that this will lead to the establishment of the Khilafah Rashida in the very near future and the Muslim Ummah raises its self out of the misery and turmoil that she finds herself in today.