The plight of the Muslim nation is that we’re heavy sleepers. And I mean we really do know how to hit the sack. No amount of terror threats, implications of war, massacre, genocide, holocaust, ethnic cleansing, racism, religious prejudices, political chaos, economic instability, famine, floods - and so on and whatever – can wake us up. We love to lie in our comfy beds and dream our rose-coloured dreams. If ever the hint of a nightmare itches our conscience we snuggle deeper into the inviting covers and slip into a doleful sleep. And our sleep is anything but peaceful.
Ever since the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the decline of the Muslim nation has been rapid and ugly. The once majestic and dutifully feared and respected people – the people who were so powerful in fact, that the Mediterranean Sea used to be called the “Muslim Pond” – are now a threat to no one, just a mockery and a jest.
With all due respect, even now, we instil fear into our enemies’ hearts. It is exactly that element of fear that has made us the target of a global war and has prevented us from sheer annihilation. It is that element of fear that will bring us back to our former glory and power. But until we can learn to let go of the world we are so deeply entangled in, all these are mere fantasies.
It’s a devastating day when our children attend demonstration in favour of Gaza and then make statements like “I thought Palestine and Israel were best friends”. How oblivious are we and how much more oblivion remains to be discarded? It’s a pathetically over-done day when a Muslim state eats missiles in the day and balls of fire at night and fellow Muslims celebrate New Years Day and birthdays and whatever it is that gets their adrenaline pumping. You know you’re desensitised when your Muslim brothers and sisters are massacred by the hundred in the other part of the world and you are busy discussing movies, celebrities, nail polish and the dandruff in your hair.
Wake up.
What do we need to give us that initial shove? Do we have to be bombed, abducted, tortured, mutilated, raped and humiliated to feel the pain that others have felt? Or are we such heavy sleepers that only a nuclear explosion – in quite the literal sense – will jolt our senses back to reality? Whatever stimulus has to be applied I hope it plays out soon. Because if the revival of the collective conscience of a Muslim nation depends on the ultimate degradation of their rights, bring it on.
I dream of a newer generation of Muslims with nerves of steel and faiths cast of iron. I will keep dreaming of this new generation until it materialises as the Hadith has so positively predicted. I believe in the ahadith and I believe in a greater tomorrow. But the burdens of today’s hibernating nation sometimes de-motivates people like me, who can do nothing but sit back and watch and give the occasional shake of disapproval and write gruelling articles that whine about how the Muslims won’t wake up no matter how hard we shake, shake, shake them. Sure, we attend protests and raise funds and give charity and trash Israel in the comfort of our living room, but how often do we limit our luxuries solely out of sacrifice and love of simplicity? Almost never.
What ever will wake us up; the buzzing alarm clock of nuclear fallout or the trumpet announcing the end of times, I don’t know, I can only be sure of one thing. We will awaken in some time frame or the other. And when we do the world will be a changed place. Our norms will be different as will our taboos. Our thoughts and words will be different and so will our weapons. Our people and children will be no longer the translucent shells of modern thought. A revolution will have begun and I can smell it on its way right now. It is heavy and jarring and ultimate. And it is very close.
We will conquer the world of which we have been sent as ambassadors and we will carry once more the flag of this beautiful religion that we have learned to conveniently ignore. We will promote love, peace, equity, unity. We will avoid violence but we will fight for justice it if we have to.
And win the fight we most certainly will.
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