Dilly Hussain – State of the Ummah University of Manchester
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Dear brothers, sisters and friends.
I want to begin by thanking Manchester University
ISOC for inviting me today,
to address a very important topic.
One which, you know, there's never been a
more important time to discuss it, and that
is the state of the Ummah.
And the sister asked a question
in light of the walls and the oppression
and the destabilization
which has ravaged the Muslim world,
what has actually changed
in the perceived glory
of the Ummah's past?
Now that's a very interesting wording of the
question, and I'm glad the sister worded it
as such.
Perceived glory.
Now as Muslims, when you look over to
our history,
sometimes
we can
look at it from a very nostalgic point
of view,
in a very romanticized point of view.
And sometimes,
some speakers,
some movements,
some individuals,
they start painting Islamic history as a utopian
society.
And we have to be very mindful of
this because Islamic history and our past was
not a utopian society.
There were many issues.
However,
we should not fall into the other opposite.
And that is excessive cynicism
when understanding our history. Yes. There were many
issues in our past. Yes. There were issues
of tyranny,
oppression,
corruption, internal wars. Yes. All this happened.
However, we need to be very mindful
not to start adopting orientalist
narratives
with regards to how we understand
our past,
the achievements
of our pious predecessors,
and the different dynasties and policies.
You know what? Forget what Diri Hussein's gonna
say to you today. We just need to
immediately look at
the testimonies and the works of
non Muslim historians who talk about successive Islamic
civilization.
Whether it be Umayyad, Damascus,
or Abbasid Baghdad,
or Muslim Spain or Ottoman Istanbul
or Mughal India.
They themselves have testified that
Islamic civilization for the best part of a
1000 years
led humanity
in advancement in all different areas.
But to understand
what's changed since then,
we need to actually understand
the world that we live in today, brothers
and sisters.
And the world that we live in today
has changed
drastically.
We no longer live in an era of
empires,
not at least in the classical sense.
Yes. We have
neocolonial, neo imperialism, stuff like this, but whereby
a handful of nations control large swathes of
the world, this no longer exists.
Instead, we have a 195
nation states,
and it's a new phenomenon.
The vast majority of these countries and these
flags that you see today are barely a
100 years old.
And these 109
95 countries, they are all members
of different international bodies,
like the United Nations, like NATO,
or Regional or Continental Confederation, like the EU
or African Union
or the Organization of Islamic Conference and Arab
League, and there's others.
And being a part of these international bodies,
they essentially
have created a new world order.
New norms,
new values,
and if anyone breaches these laws and values,
then there'll be sanctions.
So as a result of this new world
order, which we are currently seeing in the
world that we live in today,
warfare has changed.
One country cannot merely wage a war in
another to to another country.
One country cannot merely militarily
intervene in the in the affairs of another
state because they may have,
a a religious affinity
or racial affinity or whatever affinity they may
have or reasons to intervene in somewhere else.
You simply cannot do that. Unless, of course,
you are America, Britain, France, China, Russia,
who are permanent UN securities,
members with veto power. Unless you're those 5
countries or being directly backed by them, you
simply just cannot do what you want.
Warfare has changed.
There is no longer there's no need to
have 1,000 and thousands of soldiers
marching across
land spans to meet an opposing army in
battlefield. There's no need for it no more.
You've got F 16 fighter jets and drones
and nuclear submarines that can decimate entire towns
and cities in the click of a finger.
You've got nuclear weapons, which can literally,
if they were to be activated and used,
this whole world will explode.
That's the kind of era and world that
we're living in. This all changed after World
War 1. World War 1, they say, was
the last war where horses were used and
cavalrymen were used.
And as a result of warfare changing in
the age of technological advancement,
geopolitics has changed.
There's no need to have 1,000 upon 1,000
of soldiers
occupying
another country.
Not saying that that doesn't exist, but it
doesn't exist the way it used to 100
to 150 years ago.
You can now just set up military bases
in different parts of the countries, in different
parts of the world where you have certain
interests.
You can now appoint or support through clandestine
means,
rulers
who will look after your affairs for you.
They'll grant you your independence,
and they'll put one of their men or
women in power,
and they will look after their interests
in the region.
And I guess this all falls as part
of the very globalized world that we live
in. The way news
travels instantaneously.
The way information is so easily accessible to
us. The click of a finger.
You could be in France, something's happened in
Australia,
and the person in Sydney will know exactly
what's happening at the same time as the
person in Paris.
We've become a very globalized community,
whereby it doesn't take days months for news
to travel.
And I guess in light of all of
this,
wherever you look,
wherever you wherever industry you look out, or
whatever aspect of life, both private and public
you look at, you see the dominance the
dominance of a particular way of life.
And that is what is understood as the
western ideological framework or philosophy or economics, whatever
however you wanna word it, however you wanna
frame it. We see the prevalence of secular
liberalism as being the prevalent ideology to define
statehood.
We see neoliberalism
and capitalism as being the only option
in where states
trade with one another.
A USV based system which has enslaved the
vast majority of the world
through foreign aid and foreign loans and IMF
loans and World Bank.
This, brothers and sisters, is the world that
we live in today. This is what's changed.
And naturally,
these major changes and by the way, these
changes will continue to happen.
It's affected the Muslim majority world
naturally.
And sadly, it's not
had a positive implication
on the Ummah.
One is to merely look at
Kashmir and Palestine and see that they are
occupied
and have been for decades.
We need to merely look at Myanmar
and Xinjiang
and
Central African Republic, just to name a few
countries where there is
horrific levels of religious persecution against Muslims
for merely believing Allah, ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasoolallah.
And then of course, we've had wars.
Just to cite some of the most recent
ones.
Afghanistan,
Iraq, where a million
have died.
Syria, Yemen.
And then there's
political turmoil
wherever you wherever you look towards the Muslim
world.
From as far
west as Morocco
to as east as Indonesia
to as north as the caucus, Dagestan, and
Chechnya and the south of Tanzania.
There's simply far too many countries
to analyze and start citing examples
of wealth disparity,
of corruption levels, of nepotism.
The World Policy Index
recently
published a list of most corrupt countries in
the world.
From the top 20, 9 of them were
Muslim majority countries.
Now the criteria that's used to define
how a country is corrupt,
and the absence of context is obviously very
important, but it still stands that
nearly half of the top 20,
most crop countries in the world happen to
be Muslim majority countries.
And then there's the whole issue of socioeconomic
regression wherever we wherever we find ourselves.
For those of you who are from the
Indian subcontinent, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
India,
for those of you who may be from
North Africa,
Egypt,
and there's other country, of course. Egypt is
the first one that came to mind. Or
they're from Hashem or they're from parts of
Africa.
You know that these countries,
Saudi, are undergoing major problems.
And
it's not because
the Ummah doesn't have talent.
It's not
because the lands in which the Muslims reside
in high numbers
are not short of resources. No. Alhamdulillah, Allah
has blessed the lands of the Muslims with
much resources.
And there is a lot of talent in
the Umla.
However, the issue here is the mismanagement of
resources.
How these resources, whether it be natural gas,
whether it be, precious stones, whether it be
fertile agricultural land,
oil, whatever it is.
These resources are not being used for the
benefit of the Ummah.
It's not even being used for the benefit
of those respective countries, let alone anyone beyond
those borders.
And as for the issue of talent, the
Ummah has much talent. But then we have
this issue of the brain drain, where
Muslim engineers and architects
and doctors,
some of the most brightest people in the
world,
do their studies and then they seek a
career in the west.
But can we really blame them?
Because they'll just say, look, what is it
for us in our countries?
It's corrupt.
The way you're selected for certain jobs is
very politicized. More it's more it's more to
do with who you know as opposed to
what you know.
How can we provide for our families in
this in in in the situation that our
countries are currently in? So we're gonna go
seek
a career in a life where there are
opportunities.
And by default, strengthening
the Western civilization
and in and their industries. Now, I don't
wanna present a Munition view, brothers and sisters.
Now, Munition means the whole kind of us
and them, east and west kind of I
don't wanna present that, but we just have
to merely observe reality.
At the most leading industries
and corporations in nearly every facet of life
tend to be either European
or American,
and that is not coincidence.
That is not coincidence.
And for those of you who had it
who've
studied
or read, you know, on a from a
from a cursory point of view, a bit
about European colonialism
or the industrial revolution and and how
when the new world
was discovered by European empires,
that
the money and the looting
that was involved in helping these
respective empires advance
beyond levels
unknown to Islamic policies at the time. And
that's not to say that the Islamic empires
at the at the time
weren't having their own problems.
Look. Islamic history is 1400 years,
and there's quite frankly too much to cover.
Entire books and studies have been dedicated to
particular periods and particular dynasties and particular rulers,
so I can't do justice to 1400 years.
But what I will say is that there
were crucial turning points
in our history.
For those of you who were here last
March
or or March, I didn't see it. I
gave a lecture on the Ottomans,
and we spoke about how the Ottomans declined
and what period
historians have,
agreed that the Ottomans started declining.
And it was around 17 fifties, 17 17
fifties to 17 seventies. And it's a similar
time which other historians have said that the
the Persian Safavid Empire also
entered decline as did the Mughals.
And whilst we can all sit here and
say, well, the Europeans did this and they
did this and colonialism this, those are all
absolutely true facts.
However, introspectively, we were also having internal issues
ourselves.
In light of this,
in light of all this,
sadly, we are no longer perceived
as the greatest nation raised from amongst mankind.
But does that mean that we're not
the greatest nation raised from amongst mankind? Absolutely
not. Allah has told us in the Quran
that we are the best Ummah.
Why? Because we're enjoying what's good. We forbid
what's evil and we invite people to Allah
and we believe in Allah.
So because of that creedal belief
and with other caveats that Allah and his
messenger stipulate, we will remain, inshallah, the best
Ummah.
But from a perceptive
point of view,
do other nations
want to emulate us?
Do they want to do they look up
to us?
Do they want to be led by us?
Do they refer to us
when it comes to major decisions with regards
to their respective countries and regions?
No.
But wallahi brothers and sisters,
I'm telling you this,
for the best part of a 1000 years,
the Muslim world was exactly that.
During the period of the crusades,
crusaders used to go back dressed in what
was known as Eastern garments.
It was the thing to know Arabic Compersion.
We had Baghdad. We had Muslim Spain, centers
of human intellect and arts and philosophies and
everything else.
But in 2018,
last 100 years, can we really say that
humanity
and mankind looks towards the Ummah or Muhammad
for leadership,
for
for inspiration.
Do they want to emulate us? Do they
want to be like us?
Because let's be frank about it. One of
the indicators of a leading nation or civilization
is how much or you know others want
to emulate them.
That's one of the indicators
to dress like them, look like them, think
like them, talk like them.
Trust me, there was a time
where the Ummah, the Muslim majority world, was
perceived as such by the rest of the
world.
Now
in light of all this,
I have
come to 3 conclusions.
Three
issues which every single one of us in
this room
can contribute towards.
And these 3 are the most pressing issues
pertaining to the state of the Ummah. Number
1,
division and disunity.
On a macro global level, there are 57
Muslim countries.
They all have their defined,
national identities,
their defined cultural practices.
They differ with one another based on
whatever respective ideologies of the ruling parties or
monarchs.
Yes. Of course, in Hajj,
couple of 1,000,000 of the Muslims, we will
pray and and do this obligatory act together.
But besides the act of Hajj,
these 57 Muslim countries go about their own
business.
But that's not to say that the people
within these Muslim countries
don't have the sentiments towards unity.
And we see this whenever something happens in
Gaza,
Muslims in East and West take to the
streets
as they have done with regards to other
oppressed groups of Muslims.
But that's on a global level. Right?
On a local level, we see the same
thing.
For those of you who come from towns
and cities with significant Muslim population, you'll have
a number of mosques.
But due to theological sectarian differences, historical differences
that have lasted,
I have been debated for 100 of years.
For those reasons,
one another will not host one another. You
will not invite
each other's scholars as students of knowledge. You
will not promote each other's events. You will
not share a platform with your brother. You're
not willing to put aside
legitimate
differences
for the sake of greater objectives. We know
this happens. It happens in my hometown of
Bedford.
It's changing and things are changing, but it's
still very prevalent.
Mosques
simply will not share platforms with others because
of these differences.
Yet we're very willing to do interface with
the people of the book
and Hindus and people of other faiths,
which in essence, there's nothing wrong with that
depending on what the end objective is. But
so we're all willing for interfaith,
but we're not willing for intrafaith.
Intramulsing
unity with our brothers and sisters. We're not
willing to put those differences aside.
This brothers and sisters, every single one of
us can influence in our locality
because we all have a local mosque.
We may have family members and friends,
relatives, or part of mosque committees.
And mere dialogue and engagement can change people's
ways of thinking.
Number 2,
there is an undeniable
leadership crisis
within the Ummah.
And by the way, I try to make
something clear. When I criticize
the state of the Muslim world
or the general apathy and spinelessness
of many of its rulers and regimes. I'm
not calling for an armed insurrection.
I'm not calling for revolution. I'm not calling
for rebellion. I'm merely giving you
an observation of reality, which you guys, I'm
confident,
have come to these conclusions yourself.
Whenever
there is a clear case of injustice
happening to your fellow Muslim brothers and sisters
in the neighboring countries,
not only do you find
the vast majority
of the Muslim rulers
not doing nothing,
they will be complicit
in these crimes.
They will be involved in these crimes.
They will host the oppressive nation to oppress
your fellow brothers. One really needs to look
at Yemen
as one such example.
Where
we
the Muslim nations are aiding the very oppressors
of this Ummah
to carry on committing their crimes.
That's the situation.
That's the leadership crisis that we have.
And I'm not, you know
yes. We don't romanticize our history. Yes. We
don't present as a utopian society, but
there have been instances
in our history
where wars have been waged for the dishonoring
of 1 Muslim woman.
And no, it's not just exclusive to the
story of Mu'tasim.
There are other stories as well.
But on a local level,
I wanna give you guys the macro and
the micro.
Because sometimes people are, oh, well, that's happening
all far away and, you know, what what
can we do here? Yeah. There's things you
can do regarding that, but there's certainly things
you can do locally.
Because some of these traits, you'll see in
some of our own leaders
here locally.
And if
the leaders of our institutions,
our charities,
our Masjid,
our Islamic societies,
if they do not emulate
that of the prophetic leadership
or they they do not aspire
or they don't do they do not refer
to the text
which which define what we seek
in leadership
then they need to be accounted.
We can all do that here in a
manner in which
is within the framework of Islam, in a
manner with good other.
But the accountability must happen.
The crisis in leadership that we see in
the Muslim world, we see in the West
today.
We see
that when there's major issues pertaining to
not just everyday Islamophobia
where Masajid are being graffitied and hijabs are
being pulled off and stuff like this, but
the institutional level of Islamophobia,
we don't wanna get involved in that. That's
too deep. That's gonna be rocking the boat
too much.
We're happy to talk about, you know, Tommy
Robinson and Britain First and, you know, the
Daily Mail. And you know what I call
that? I call that easy Islamophobia.
We can all talk out talk out talk
against this. And no one really talks about
the institutional level stuff
because that will affect
potential funding,
potential grants,
you know, being, you know, being perceived as
mainstream.
We see that
when it comes to pressing issues
abroad,
major calamities,
that there will never be a joint statement
or a condemnation. Never.
But whenever something happens here,
they correctly condemn this from the rooftops,
which is fine. All we ask for is
mere consistency.
So the leadership crisis exists in the Muslim
world, and he exists here. And we all
have an active role
in shaping
who leads us. And last but not least,
brothers and sisters, there is a crisis of
faith,
both internally and externally.
Internally,
we there is an
a major problem,
endemic,
whereby
Muslims, especially the youth,
are now looking towards different ideologies and philosophies
and ways of life to define who they
are.
It is not uncommon to to meet a
Muslim feminist,
a Muslim men's rights activist, a Muslim socialist,
a Muslim liberal.
Yeah. You meet them.
And
what's happening is that there seems to be
a crisis in reconciling
the many issues,
genuine issues
that we are facing.
The attacks
against the religion.
And there seems to be no answers
for many of these youths who are seeking
answers,
who are having issues pertaining
to same * relations,
or if sisters happen to be interested in
non Muslim men
or LGBTQ
stuff
or whether, you know, okay, theoretically, I watched
Hanzazul Ziz's video and yeah. Okay. In theory,
Allah exists, but
does he exist?
Does he actually exist?
If he exist, why is he why why
would he send me to hellfire for eternity?
These kind of very
fundamental
questions
are leading Muslim youth in their draws
to apostasy.
Is it their fault? Not always. Not at
all.
Sometimes they are seeking answers and support and
they're not getting it from our institutions and
our Masjid.
And then we have the external problem.
The external crisis of faith, whereby our deen,
things which have been agreed upon for 14
centuries,
through different periods of history where there have
been changes, where there have been,
cases of modernity and getting with the times.
There's been consensus on fundamental concepts of Islam.
These things are being questioned.
These things are being associated with terrorism,
and extremism, and radicalization.
Concepts
such as, Umma. The very fact that me
as a Muslim born in this country
have an equal, if not a bigger affinity
with my brothers and sisters elsewhere.
That's the problem now because you may be
disloyal and you're unpatriotic.
The concept of jihafi sa billillah. Yes. The
j word
is no longer a noble concept. It's become
bastardized.
It's now become conflated and misconstrued
with terrorism
and many other things.
Maybe aspects of the Sharia,
the penal code, how Muslim women engage with
one another in certain environments,
how we choose to marry and wed one
another,
the rights of the woman,
the inheritance laws, you name it. Even halal
meat
these days has been accused of funding jihad
and terrorism
according to Paul Golding and Broom First.
This
is what's changed,
brothers and sisters in the Ummah,
and this is the reality that we find
ourselves in today.
But I'm not going to conclude today's
talk or answer to the question,
on or doom and gloom. Because doom and
gloom, pessimism, and negativity
is not formed is not befitting of the
Muslims. It's not befitting of the Ummah of
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
to always think the worst. No. We think
the best of Allah,
and we think of the best result.
So I want to conclude
with 4 verses from the Quran,
where Allah tells us
that this Izzah,
this glory,
this honor,
this authority
will come back to the Muslims
based on a few
things. He
says in Surah Al Hajj verse 4,
and those who if we give them authority
in the land,
establish prayer, give Zakkah
and enjoin what is right and forbid what
is wrong.
He, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, says in Surah Muhammad
verse 7.
All you who believe,
if you help Allah,
Allah will help you and establish your fit
family.
And He Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in Surah
An Nur verse 55,
Allah has promised to those amongst you who
believe and do righteous actions that He will
grant you khilafa in the land.
And the last verse,
one which is commonly cited
in state of the Ummah lectures and events
when talking about self reformation and revival.
And sometimes it's misunderstood to just exclusively mean
individual reformation, but it doesn't.
It means both individual and collective reformation.
And that is in Surah Arad verse 11.
Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of
a people until they change what is within
themselves.
We pray to Allah
that we do not remain as mere bystanders
in this critical period of the Ummah's history.
Wallahi, I cannot stress
more that this period that we are all
living in
will go down in history books of this
Ummah in 100 and 1000 of years to
come if we survive until then.
It is a critical period of time. Let's
not remain as mere bystanders.
And let's pray to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
that if we don't live to see the
return and the promises in these verses, that
we can at least contribute
to some meaningful and positive changes inshallah.