Is today's Islam a failure or a success story? I came across a recently published article by
the British born muslim writer Surkheel Abu Aaliyah which I'd like to share with you and I think it
has some fascinating insights. And he writes as follows: One could argue that Islam despite what
we are being led to believe is actually a modern success story. Now this might sound strange to some
perhaps too many so let me explain. No doubt, media portrayals are negative, dark
and gloomy. And of course events around the world involving Muslims or at least the ones we tend to
hear about and that get most media exposure don't lend themselves to much joy or cheer.
So perhaps we as Muslims could be forgiven for feeling somewhat overwhelmed feeling like
little corks bobbing up and down in a raging sea of western liberal modernity, yet despite this if
we look at it more broadly, Islam is actually the unsung success story of modernity. How is that?
Well let's ask ourselves what religion is for. That will indicate how well or not Islam is doing. Here
there's much to give thanks for, much to admire about our current situation;
and there's much more to look forward to in the coming future too - God willing. Islam as a religion
must be judged in terms of: Does it still offer authentic practical guidance for salvation?
The answer to that is a resounding Yes! It certainly does. In fact, Islam continues
to be relevant and practical to a growing number of people and accessible to them too
and one significant reason for this is that islam is universal the prophet upon whom be peace
said 'I have been sent to the whole of humanity'. This echoes what we read in the holy Qur'an:
'Say O Muhammad: O mankind truly I am the messenger of Allah to you all' That's surah 7 verse 158.
Islam therefore has the in-built capacity to be native to any soil. And we Muslims must remember
this and not practice islam in a way which blurs this universality or makes it appear that it is an
asian or an arab thing. It ought to be remembered that one of islam's great founding stories is of
a gentile egyptian mother hagar along with her hebrew canaanite young child ishmael
and their enculturation into the native arabian landscape language and cultural life that's to say
that islam has the socio-spiritual technology to become native to any soil
another reason it's a success story has to do with numbers what the data shows is that the
number of muslims is increasing here in europe and that by 2030 there will be more muslims
than christians in britain related to this is the number of people who continue to convert to islam
despite media negativity and islamophobia and in spite of us born muslims being asleep to our
higher vocation of living and spreading the truths of tawheed islam's powerful message of tawheed
healing and hope with its universality still has a powerful appeal to people
yet another proof of its success is that its mosques are overflowing and i can say by the
way for myself whenever i've been to a mosque the problem is finding somewhere to fit in rather than
just being in an open cavernous space like i have normally been in many of the churches i visited
as a christian the writers continue part of the reason for this in fact a significant part
is because islam remains practical and livable today even in the modern west when
other religions are capitulating to the juggernaut of modernity or simply being stamped out by it
i think he the author here makes a a very uh good point only has to look at the news for the
mainstream churches in britain and america and see what they're doing and as he puts
it other religions are capitulating to the juggernaut of the zeitgeist uh powerfully so
and he concludes all in all then and all praise is for god islam as a religion is doing what it says
on the tin it is still offering practical livable ways of connecting with god and living godly lives
even in the midst of today's turbulence so i think that's a a lovely uh article very optimistic and
actually very profoundly true i think when you look at islam from the position of its status
as a religion and not just as a socio-economic phenomenon i will link to the original article
in the description below i do recommend you have another look at it until next time