It is said that, ‘When a society will face decline, people would be busy in discussing its problems but no one would be ready to do something practically’. This saying applies especially to our society and in general to all the backward Muslim countries where people spend most of their time in discussing different problems and now, it has become a part of the daily routine or habit of people. The way people sit together, drink tea or water, in the same way, they start discussing the different problems. Now, it has become so much common and repeated that almost everyone has become an expert in discussing and giving his views about the issues. It is the reason why, when you sit among a gathering and the discussion starts, you soon realize how would this discussion proceed and thus leave the gathering in order to avoid the boring and repeated ideas.
The topic that surrounds these discussions are the poor conditions of Muslim countries and very unfortunate is that, in most of the cases, foreign or external factors are blamed which is an easy way of saving yourself of the guilt and accusation. After this so many reasons are given and then solutions are presented and people of 5 to 10 people sit and waste their 3 to 4 hours in discussing the issues but never think how much they have wasted the time of their own and of the nation as a whole.
Last week, I was reading a book by the title of ‘Hayatus-Sahaba’ which was originally written in Arabic and then translated into a number of the languages used in Muslim countries like Persian, Pashto, Urdu and others. The book is about the lives of companions of Holy Prophet (PBUH) that how they spent their days and nights. Two things made this book unique and distinctive from a routine religious book. First, it contained stories and most of the stories were very interesting and thus can be a great delight for all those who want to read a book even for ‘pleasure’. Secondly, it was not written with a respect and glory that is the attribute of such religious books in which often-repeated details and salutations make the reader bore and also make entire process unnecessarily lengthy.
A story especially caught my attention. A story was mentioned that a person came to a fellow of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) and asked if how they spent their time and he replied, ‘They spent their time in reflection’. Another companion was being described as having habit of sparing some time in day and passed it in reflection on his life. In the same way, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had termed this ‘reflection’ as form of worshipping.
The capacity of reflection is a gift bestowed upon an individual that enables him to transform himself and society. In fact, a meaningful process of reflection leads individuals and nations towards self and collective consciousness and helps to develop the capacity to respond to the emerging challenges creatively.
The importance of self or collective reflection is highlighted significantly in the teachings of Islam. The Holy Quran has repeatedly stressed the use of human intellect to improve society. For example, the Holy Book has clearly highlighted that God would not change the condition of people until they change themselves (13:11). This indicates that a deeper reflection is crucial for the realization of change in an individual or nation’s life.
In the formative period of Islam, Muslims were relatively more reflective and engaged themselves with the prevailing knowledge of the time. It is because of this engagement that Muslim societies of that time were able to contribute significantly to different aspects of human knowledge such as philosophy, science, theology, art, literature etc.
Today, many Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, are facing a range of challenges such as poor governance, poverty, ignorance, health issues, violence etc. However, it has been observed that at times, external forces are viewed as being responsible for our woes instead of us taking the responsibility of responding to the issues.
This kind of approach obviously hinders societies in finding realistic responses to their challenges. Historically, it is evident that with the evolution of human society new challenges emerge. Therefore, societies need to find creative responses to face the emerging challenges. Hence, Muslim societies today need to re-examine the challenges they face as well their approaches to responding to these daunting challenges.
Firstly, today, several Muslim societies are encountering challenges of governance in terms of political confrontation, social injustice and corruption. Due to the fragile political situation, people in numerous Muslim states are suffering in many ways. The situation of polarization and conflict has weakened the fabric of society to engage collectively on issues.
At present, societies are increasingly becoming complex as diverse views are emerging with the growing interaction of people around the world through information technology. Today, people are more aware about their rights and want to be engaged in the decision-making process of their respective societies.
In this situation, the demands of governance have changed. The governance system needs to have the capacity to provide the citizens with maximum opportunity to participate in the process of political and social decision-making. Space needs to be provided to the diverse voices emerging from within society. Hence, an inclusive approach is required to reduce the sense of exclusion in the society, which leads towards polarization.
A very quick glance over the Muslim world reveals that many of the countries are governed by the dictators or hereditary monarchs. Democracy has not been able to take root in a number of countries. Except for a few countries, even the democratic governments are not able to adopt an inclusive approach to accommodate diverse views. Rather, they try to implement their agenda by force.
As a result, democratic governments face resistance from their population. Democracy is not just about securing a majority and imposing the views of the majority. Rather, it is the kind of government which respects and accommodates diverse views of society.
Secondly, we are living in a world where knowledge plays a vital role in determining the position of society. Nations are judged on the basis of how they value and contribute the knowledge to the larger society. However, unfortunately, for the last couple of centuries Muslim societies have not been able to contribute significantly to human knowledge.
Universities are generally viewed as places where knowledge is produced and contributed to the larger society. However, the data shows that there very few universities from the Muslim world that have made it to the top 500 universities of the world.
Thirdly, poverty is another big issue in Muslim societies. Very recent and most acute of the problems faced by the Muslim societies is increasing violence. Thousands of innocent people are killed by different kinds of violence for no good reason.
These were some of the prime issues faced by Muslim societies; otherwise, there can be a long list of such problems.
To understand the issues and respond to the challenges effectively, Muslim societies need to be more reflective. They need to comprehend the demands of modern times and devise some creative responses to deal with emerging challenges.
They must understand that, without taking collective responsibility, responding to the considerable challenges would be very difficult.