IT IS NOT about getting to positions of power and influence that are important. It is about what you do when you get there that is important.
It is a strange system that we live under. We have seen how people had to free themselves from enslavement, struggle to get civil rights, women had to fight to get their rights etc. None of this was defined or inherent in the secular system which rather pandered to the desires of those who already had power and wealth.
Far from giving people their rights, the system makes you work for them and then celebrate it as some great achievement.
I mean examples of people of colour, women and minorities that achieve posts in government, business, society etc. We are told to be proud that this brown face has become a prime minister, mayor or MP or that an Asian woman has broken the glass ceiling etc. They are then held out as role models to people who look like them or from similar backgrounds.
Let’s not be fooled. We can be so fixated on getting people who look like us to positions of power that we forget what they are supposed to do and represent when they get there!
What is the point of having any Muslim in a position of power if they do not use that position to further the cause of Allah, the truth and goodness?
What is the point of having all of these people in government if they cannot or are unwilling to break from party policy and call for an end to oppression in Gaza? And even those that have done belatedly have done so half-heartedly with a call that doesn’t actually lead to any long-term solution.
What is the point of holding lofty positions in business, finance, education, medicine or law if we cannot leverage that for Allah’s cause when we need to?
This is not what Islam teaches. Islam isn’t about being a ‘tribal’ Muslim.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, the tribe came first. You stood with your tribe when they did right. And you stood with your tribe when they did wrong.
Islam came and changed all that. The bond of Islam rose above the tribe. It linked people to Allah and Islam and not to any other characteristic. It brought about a new justice.
It isn’t about accepting someone just because he looks like us or is one of us by birth and name. The previous nations fell into that same trap.
Allah tells us in surah Baqarah the exchange between the Jews and the Christians.
وَقَالُوا۟ لَن يَدْخُلَ ٱلْجَنَّةَ إِلَّا مَن كَانَ هُودًا أَوْ نَصَـٰرَىٰ ۗ تِلْكَ أَمَانِيُّهُمْ ۗ قُلْ هَاتُوا۟ بُرْهَـٰنَكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ صَـٰدِقِينَ
The Jews and Christians each claim that none will enter Paradise except those of their own faith. These are their desires. Reply (O Prophet): “Show (me) your proof if what you say is true.” (al Baqarah 111)
Each thought that just because they were Christians or Jews in name, they would be saved from the Fire and enter Paradise.
Muslims should have no such pretensions. Allah reminds us that belief is inseparable from good actions and it is those who have both that are successful
وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ أُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ أَصْحَـٰبُ ٱلْجَنَّةِ ۖ هُمْ فِيهَا خَـٰلِدُونَ
And those who believe and do good will be the residents of Paradise. They will be there forever. (al-Baqarah 82)
So, it isn’t about white or black or brown. It isn’t about man or woman. It isn’t about rich or poor, high position or low.
Bilal (ra) was a Black slave and was considered amongst the weakest in society. Yet his unflinching alignment to Islam defeated his master who was forced to sell him to save face.
Abdullah ibn Masud (ra) was a diminutive shepherd. People would laugh about his skinny legs. Yet the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that each of those puny legs was worth the mountain of Uhud in ajr.
Khadija (ra), a woman and successful businesswoman, isn’t remembered so much for either of those but as the unstinting emotional and financial support base for the Prophet’s ﷺ dawah. She stuck with him through the good times and then the trials that came when he proclaimed his prophethood and died shortly after the 3-year-long boycott that weakened her.
Uthman (ra) and Abdur Rahman ibn Auf (ra) were the millionaires of their time. Yet they are not remembered so much for the fact that whatever they touched turned to gold but for how they supported the cause of Allah with their millions.
Everyone has a role to play in whatever position they are in. Everyone has influence to some degree or other.
Unlike the secular system, the Islamic system starts with the premise that people have rights given to them by Allah. These are defined and inviolable. But it then sets out responsibilities. That is where the focus is. To paraphrase, ‘don’t ask what Islam can do for you, but what you can do for Islam.’
Islam brings people together and encourages us to interact. It calls us to come away from our private shells of individualism. It tells us to care and be part of our communities. It encourages people to interact and gives all of us reach so that people in the most menial of positions can have a significant effect on society. And for those of us to whom Allah has given higher positions, then the burden of responsibility is greater.
ٱنفِرُوا۟ خِفَافًا وَثِقَالًا وَجَـٰهِدُوا۟ بِأَمْوَٰلِكُمْ وَأَنفُسِكُمْ فِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ خَيْرٌ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ
(O believers!) March forth whether it is easy or difficult for you, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the cause of Allah. That is best for you, if only you knew. (at Tawbah 41)
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