For the Ummah

Why we need to be enthusiastic about issues like the Palestine, anything related to the ummah. Why should we care about them? As we have our own life to take care of! Well, in a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said,
"Barangsiapa yang tidak mengambil berat urusan ummat Islam maka ia bukan dari golongan ummat Islam."
In another hadith,
"Perumpamaan orang-orang beriman dalam kasih sayang mereka , hubungan naluri mereka dan persaudaraan mereka seperti satu jasad . Apabila satu anggota terasa sakit, maka seluruh anggota turut berjaga dan terasa sakit (demam)."

As we don't have the capability to go there to fight for Islam against the enemy, caring and updating about the latest news happening to the Ummah is one of least ways that we can do besides praying that Allah will grant us strength and a near victory. Other than that, we can actually contribute financially through lots of organisations that provides help to our brothers and sisters there.

Talking about victory, there are lots of verses in the Quran which tells that victory is Islam's but only when Muslims turn to the real Islam. As we see nowadays people adopt to lots of ideology but none of those can be better than Islam. Notice that we talk about Islam as an ideology instead of religion. Why? Simply because nowadays when we say 'religion', we tend to think of it as a belief and as a ritual or ibadah only. Religion is seen by many as a separate aspect of life, in which is termed as secularism. Secularism is indeed an ideology. Other examples of ideologies includes communisme, sosialisme, nationalism etc. We look at Islam as an ideology in this case as that's how it should be treated. Like communisme who controls every aspects of life in the country who practice it, the same way does Islam deserve the same kind of treatment. Islam is indeed everything. 24/7 of your life should be influenced and accorded by Islam. Islam controls how we lead our life, not we suiting Islam according to our own needs. Example, the HAMAS leader, The Syahid Dr Abd Aziz Al-Rantissi is known by many for his tendency to postpone any interviews or events whenever the time of solat arrives. One example for you to ponder about.
Well, we don't have to wait for the goverment to imply 'shariah law' in the rulings of the country or wait for a change of the government in order for us to practice Islam as our way of life. We should start within our individual self first. Ask yourself, how much you know about the history of Islam? The way you eat, the way you communicate, the way you sleep and all. are they islam? All these are one stepping stones towards the victory of Islam that we are always dreamt of.

One interesting about Islam is, your never lead your life for the sake of your own self. We see the typical life of every human, 'study a good course-get a job-get married-have kids-become an elderly-death'. Muslims arenn't meant to live his or her own life for the sake of fulfilling those typical criteria of living a life as defined by the mainstream. We live life that way, but along the way, we hold a mission, which is to contribute as much as we can to the ummah. As Islam urges is followers to work collectively according to your own speciality, and it must be directed towards the aim of developing the ummah. Arya Hissin, the one who claimed herself as a Muslim atheist, said that one principle of Islam in which she cannot tolerate and accept is,

"The overarching argument in The Caged Virgin is that there is insufficient freedom for the individual in Islam. This, Hirsi Ali argues, is because one of the fundamental tenets of the religion is the submission of the individual to God, which creates a strict hierarchy of allegiances. At the top of this hierarchy is God, then His Prophet, then the umma, then the clan or tribe and finally the family. The individual,she insists, is simply not valued. Whatever one thinks of this hierarchy, however, it is hardly unique to Islam; one can make the same argument about other monotheistic religions." (it's an excerpt from an article in 'The Nation' posted in someone's blog).

This is in fact a unique thing about Islam in which it avoids individualism from spreading. Like some of the countries that practice capitalisme that oppresses the minority and the weak ones, Islam never allows people to put himself above others. A Muslim life is never about himself as Islam puts a requirement to put all those things first, as the main priorities. It is indeed a beautiful relationship, among the servants of Allah,which is the Muslims and the love is based on one source of everything, which is Allah. And the hearts is tied up to something and it is one amazing thing. In fact, have we ever wonder who instill such strong love and affection among the believers?

"Indeed those who have believed and done righteous deed, the Most Merciful will appoint for them affection" (19:96).

It is a positive thing that is perceived negatively by Hirsin Ali. Not a very concrete argument though. As there are just too many examples of nations who practice this sort of individualism belief in their life, and we can see the increasing rate of people committing suicide in such countries. Islam never says that one cannot love him/herself, the principle is, every human is a brick contributing to the development of a building. A building can never be developed if the bricks aren't put together. It will remain a brick, having no usage at all if it is not put into the building organizaton no matter how good the quality of the brick is. Meaning that no matter how accomplishes the person is, he is nothing if he does not contribute to the development of the building, the Umma. And the affection among themselves is like a cement that hold the bricks.

So, it is important for us to start being someone who love others for His sake as it is one sign of the sweetness of iman. Let us strive hard towards the path of Allah.

Say no! to individualism. Live for the ummah for His blessings.