One ummah! Are we one ummah or do we just pretend on the surface to be one family, affected by nothing happening to our brothers and sisters all over the world?
It indeed feels like a sad state of affairs when only a part of the entire Muslim community identifies and acknowledges the pain and suffering of our brethren. Most of us have become so lost in our own lives that we forget to care for our very own brothers and sisters in Islam, and otherwise.
The sufferings of our ummah aren’t hidden. Imagine the plight of our own ummah, young and old, being crushed in Gaza; not just our ummah, but humanity in general. We know the state of women and young girls in Afghanistan. We know the state of our family in Egypt. We know the Yemen and Libyan unrests and how people, our own kind, are being killed and slaughtered. We know about what is happening in Bahrain. We know how massive the Japan earthquake and tsunami was. We know about the awaited nuclear disaster. We know! We know! Yet we choose to put all this in a safe locker inside our brains.
Do we not realize the gravity of these situations?
We talk about it, have heated discussions over it and the next moment go back to living our normal lives normally.
How many of us have forgotten the innocent Dr. Afia Siddiqua who is imprisoned for no fault of hers? What about Sheikh Anwar-al-awlaki who is charged with spreading terrorism when he is only doing his work of spreading a peace loving religion?
In today’s generation, we join a facebook page which says ‘free Dr. Afia and show our support to the world. We like the page which says ‘Free Gaza’ and assume our work to be done. But that’s the support shown to the world. Have we ever considered our heart’s affairs with regards to such issues inflicting our ummah?
It’s high time we shake and rake our hearts for good. It’s time we aim for a lifelong impact. The time where we aren’t affected by such happenings for only a few minutes or a few hours and show our outwardly support only.
Let us not divide ourselves based on geographical latitudes and longitudes.
Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam is reported to have said (giving an example of the Muslim unity) in a hadith: “The Muslim ummah is like one body. If the eye is in pain then the whole body is in pain and if the head is in pain then the whole body is in pain.”
We the Muslim ummah, whatever colour, nationality or gender, wherever we are, are like this body. If we hear that any part of this ummah is being oppressed, then we should feel this pain.
The messenger of Allah sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam also said,
“The believers, in their love, mutual kindness, and close ties, are like one body; when any part complains, the whole body responds to it with weakfulness and fever”. (Muslim)
We should try our best to act upon this Hadith.
What can we do?
Well, apart from liking pages and links to show our support, make efforts to include the entire ummah and the problems being faced by the ummah in our duas and prayers daily. We shouldn’t forget that we’re the ummah of the last messenger, the last prophet, the one and only Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam.
Let us join hands and pray and do our bit in whatever way we can to free our ummah, ourselves, from the pain, the suffering, and the evils being inflicted on us. Let us come out of being the most targeted group in the world. Let’s strive towards regaining the reverence for our religion, the love we had for our religion once upon a time, the way we were feared by our enemies! One body, one soul, one ummah!
