Reflection On Current Events

Allah ('azza wa jal) has told us...given us a formula, 1400 years ago, speaking about time - the importance of time - giving us a concept of reflection and projection. Allah ('azza wa jal) has revealed at the end of the Suratul Hashr

Allah has revealed to us, 'O you who believe, have the consciousness of Allah and let every soul look to what it put forward for tomorrow. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is well aware of all that you do. And be not as those who forgot Allah and so he made them forget themselves. Surely, they are the disobedient ones.' And so, in this ayah we see the divine formula telling us to have taqwa first (the consciousness of the creator) and that every soul, (male, female, young, old) everybody should look toward the future. That's the projection. And fear Allah, have the consciousness of Allah. Because surely Allah ('azza wa jal) is...is aware of everything that we do. And the gem of wisdom that we need to reflect on, Allah tells us, '...do not be as those who forgot Allah. He will make them forget themselves. Surely they are the disobedient ones.' And so in this time of great change, we need to reflect and to project. People are marching in the streets. The occupy movement is spreading around the globe. And people, especially young people - under 25 who actually make up the majority of the earth's population - young people want change, and they are taking to the streets. Frustration is being expressed...and there's a reason for that frustration. Recently a study was done and the study showed that half of the earth's population is living with less than $2.50 per day. Although there are people who are billionaires and millionaires, with so much wealth, they don't have time to spend it. The majority of human beings can hardly provide for themselves. And so this inequality, this injustice has reached a climax point. And this not only in the non-Muslim countries, this is in the Muslim countries. And you will hear the Muslims in streets and they are saying... 

You will hear this rhythmically being said. 'The people want the nidhaam (the system) to come down.' They want the relationships between leaders and followers, rich and poor to change. And this is being echoed throughout the Muslim world. And many people would say, 'well, how can this be? We are Muslims.' We need to reflect upon ourselves; recently a hujjaaj (pilgrims) came back, from Makkah - Alhamdulillah. And they reported an amazing hajj that the numbers were larger than anything they had ever witnessed before. But they also recognized positive changes that went on. There were high levels of technology. They are talking about 30,000 buses. They're even talking about the hajj metro, that you can take the train that will take you from 'Arafah to Muzdalifah, air-conditioned tents, they are talking about improvements in technology and we have to say Alhamdulillah. But at the same time, a study was done to show the rebuilding of the ka'aba itself, and they found that the door of the ka'aba weighs about 280 kilos. It is 280 kilos (616 pounds) of solid gold. That's the door of the ka'aba. The kiswah (cloth that covers the ka'ba) itself is made of hundreds of pounds of gold and silver. Yet and still, 5 of the poorest countries on earth are Muslim countries. This is a contradiction. It's a contradiction that Muslims have to come to a realization of. Our leaders have to understand what is going on. There is a difference between modernization and modernism. Yes we want to modernize ourselves, we want the high technology. But we don't want a situation of the 1% and the 99%. And so, there is a difference between the two and when we understand this, we can understand more about what is happening in our Muslim world.

By Sheikh Abdullah Hakim Quick