Day 7 Kg Gajah: making the best out of it.

The lecturer today was very funny. He digressed a lot but his stories were interesting and funny. He  had a nice Kedah accent. I like Malay guys from Kedah. They are often straight forward and chilled out. He was also giving us good advice such as the need to have a purpose in life.

In fact, I was just thinking about it last night. How the Muslims today have lost their true purpose in life. We live in this world and we need to know why we are here? where we come from? who created us and why? If we look at the Capitalist, they believe that they are here to make profit, to increase their wealth. They will go all out and strive to achieve that goal. Some will do it the ethical way and some will do it the non-ethical way but whatever the case, they will strive for this wealth. For those who choose to do it the non-ethical way, you will not find them stealing RM10 or RM100; they will go all out for millions of ringgit.

However, if you look at the Muslims today. There are many who have not even sorted out the fundamental question of what is their purpose in life. They are torn between the Deen (hereafter) and this life (Dunya) and in the end, do they achieve either?

Allah swt says in surah 17: 18 - 21 "Whoever desires the quick - passing of this world. We readily grant him what We will for whom We like. Then, after wards, We have appointed for him Hell; he will burn therein in disgraced and rejected. And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it, with the necessary efforts then such are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated. On each We bestow from the Bounties of your Lord and the Bounties of your Lord can never be forbidden."

So, this amazing Qur'an explains to us the reality of this life and the desires of mankind as well as the rewards that we will achieve in accordance to our desires. For the one who desires this world, Allah will give it to him. After all, the whole universe belongs to Allah and He will give it to anyone of his slaves regardless of whether they are Muslim or not; but those who desire this world will only get this world, they will get nothing in the hereafter. As for the one who desires the hereafter...and strives in proportion for it, they will achieve that which they strive for which is the rewards of the hereafter.

To understand what is striving for the hereafter, we need a standard, a bench mark. Our standard is the Prophet (saw) and his sahabah for they are the ones promised Jannah. So, how did the sahabah strived for Jannah. Did they get torn between this world and the hereafter? or did they just went for it? Surely, we can see from history that they just went for it. They strove to fight for Allah's cause, they fought in battles, gave away their wealth and their positions and they worked to establish Islam as a complete system on this earth. So, for these people, Allah will reward them their efforts with the rewards in the hereafter.

However, in this life Allah will give His bounty to both parties and it is up to Allah to give more or less to whom He Wills.

Unfortunately, many Muslims are unaware of this and often gets confused. They often get defensive when the west accuse Islam of being 'extreme' and fundamental. However, Islam is fundamental and it is extremely DECISIVE. Decisive because you either believe in God or you don't, you either believe in the hereafter or you don't, you either obey Allah or you don't. There is no sitting on the fence and to have the slightest DOUBT in the existence of Allah or the Hereafter or any articles of faith (Rukun Iman) is a disease. This disease is called hypocrisy (nifaaq). So, the Islamic Aqeedah is decisive and when we are sure 100% that Allah is the One true God and we believe 100% that the Qur'an is from Allah, His words...then, we will witness all the truth contained in the Qur'an.

The problem with the Muslims today is that they still have doubt, the lack of confidence in some aspects of Islam. Why do I say this? It is evident by the way they doubt the implementation of the Shariah. They doubt the Islamic system, the Khilafah. They doubt that it will work, they doubt that it will solve their problems.

When people say..."The difference between the sahabah and the Muslims today is in their Iman". We need to question that statement. What does that mean? I would prefer to use a clear example, the sahabah believed that Islam will solve their problem and that the Islamic system is the best system because it comes from Allah so, they worked for it even though many surah and ayat in the Qur'an at the time has not yet been revealed. When they were in Makkah, they had no clue what the Islamic system was going to look like and yet, they believed in it. They had confidence that Islam will provide them a system that is comprehensive and will look after their issues.

Today, even with a history of the Islamic rule spanning from the time Madinah was established as an Islamic state by our Prophet (saw) and the Khilafah went through glorious periods during the Khulafa' ar Rashidin, the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Uthmani...we have written records of scientific achievements and famous scholars...we have buildings in places like Granada, Baghdad, Syria and the completed Qur'an and volumes of Hadith...we still cannot have complete confidence and belief that Islam is the best system for mankind.

We worry about how the non-Muslims would accept the Islamic system, we worry about becoming a Taliban state or like Saudi Arabia where women can't drive...all the worries in the world but if we were to study those concerns, we will realize that these problems arise because there is no Islam being implemented anywhere in the world. If the Jews in Madinah can accept the rule of Islam and the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (saw) then, I have no doubt that the non-Muslims in Muslim lands will accept the rule of Islam especially when the rights of the Dhimmah (non-Muslim citizens of the state) is read to them.

The problem is not with the non-Muslims. The problem is with us and our understanding and confidence in our own Deen, in our Aqeedah, in our belief in Allah and the belief that Islam can solve all of our problems.