Summary
This article reflects on humanity’s moral decline by contrasting past civilizations, present crises, and future consequences. It argues that human corruption and heedlessness invite divine accountability and calls Muslims to revive faith, repentance, and adherence to divine guidance.
I OFTEN WONDER how future Muslims will view us Muslims of America and our times.
The thought always makes me flash back to my elementary school days, in seventh grade on Chicago’s Southwest side. I had a history teacher, Mr. McGrath, who started introducing us to the unbelievable things people said, right out in public, about others during the various great tribulations of the world.
Those “others” were usually groups getting absolutely terrorized and hammered by people who were basically saying: We need to terrorize and hammer these people because they are among us but not of us. Their traitorous hearts will undo us if given half a chance. They are inherently evil, by creed violent. They plot to hurt us, kill us even. We better maim and massacre them first.
The appalling things they did to these others always struck me as incredibly outrageous, unbelievable: Where they made them live. How they made them live. How they relentlessly threatened, dogged, and marked them for scorn and ill treatment.
But what astonished me most was the reaction of these others, the hounded, pounded, persecuted. Or should I say, how they didn’t react, at least not as the 11-year-old me expected. Why didn’t they get out? Why didn’t they confront? Why were they so compliant in their serial humiliation, then destruction?
Of course, as a Muslim born in America, whose age-old Muslim family has lived here for more than a century now—great-grandparents, grandparents, right on down the line—my old history lessons have come round to teach me personally the answer to all my natural youthful bewilderments on this denatured subject. I live it and see it now every day.
I also realize that the people of those times, those “others”—they too probably thought they were responding, organizing, working to turn back the senseless tide of such reckless hate.
No doubt, they perceived themselves as seeking to better institutionalize with and within society; considered themselves law-abiding; strove hard to burnish their patriotic profile; worked tirelessly to combat propaganda with their true-blue (or appropriate-colored) hearts.
I’m sure they too publicly styled themselves as fully cooperative—we-have-nothing-to-hide—citizens, countrymen, lieges; and raised up their clarion voices with the Orwellian crowds calling down—no, commanding—that God bless the righteous homeland and its right honorable, “real” people.
How anxious they must have been to endorse, emit, act-out the ever-shifting bona fides of their fill-in-the-blank identities so that “their” country could “understandably” feel safe with them freely about.
They too must have come to see “their problem” as the result of their own social failure:
– Failure to sufficiently pervert their souls to participate without pang of conscience in the utter corruption of party politics…
– Failure to plunge headlong into the mainstream media sewer and barter their beliefs for “strategic” special-interest support in a fracturing society…
– Failure to prove themselves beyond all doubt rabidly nationalistic first (all things sacred second) against the highest loyalty tests:
Validation of abject, lawless jailing and government-sanctioned murder of any man, woman, or child of their “other” heritage. Check.
Public affirmation of the globe-threatening evil of the next super-villain “of their ilk” conjured by society’s disinformation weapon of mass distraction. Check.
Ratification of the right of the affluent to dispense with due process and to create categories of inherent guiltiness without proving individual guilt. Check.
We Muslims in America seem overjoyed with our new, native accents, our made-up media faces, our more-liberal-than-thou social live-and-let-live identity defenses on the one hand, and our hysterical endorsement of jingo, neo-conservative exceptionalist global fascism when it serves on the other. It’s enough to make the heart break like once gardenous Sheba’s Aram dam and cry whither Islam? Whither Islam?Frequently Asked Question
Answering the most relevant questions to help you better understand the article.
The article compares lessons from past civilizations, present human conditions, and future consequences awaiting humanity if it persists in moral and spiritual corruption.
The article describes humanity as suffering from widespread moral deterioration, spiritual confusion, and destructive behavior affecting individuals, societies, and the natural world.
The article identifies human rebellion against Allah and disregard for divine guidance as fundamental causes of contemporary crises.
The article discusses earlier nations to remind readers that past peoples who rejected divine guidance ultimately faced destruction and became lessons for later generations.
The article presents natural disasters as reminders of human vulnerability and signs that should prompt reflection, repentance, and return to Allah.
The article states that human corruption and misuse of creation have contributed to widespread environmental degradation and imbalance.
The article emphasizes that corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, serving as a warning and reminder.
The article urges readers to remember their final return to Allah and the certainty of standing before Him for judgment.
The article states that Muslims must uphold the Quran, follow the example of the Prophet ﷺ, and call humanity back to Allah’s guidance.
The article encourages believers to engage in sincere repentance, strengthen their faith, and reform their lives in accordance with divine guidance.
