It’s Not the Man. It’s the System.

LET ME OFFER an analogy to consider.

Imagine that a car crash occurs on your street, leaving a man severely injured. The residents rush out in alarm. The man needs immediate help. Among the neighbours, they know of one who is a doctor. They hurry to his house, call him out, and bring him to the scene.

The doctor arrives, examines the man, and then says quietly: “There is little I can do.”

The people are astonished. “Aren’t you a doctor?” they ask.

“Yes,” he replies, “but this man needs a neurosurgeon. His injuries are beyond my expertise.”

So the crowd rushes to another nearby street where a neurosurgeon lives. They summon him urgently.

He comes, assesses the patient, and then shakes his head. “I am indeed a neurosurgeon,” he says, “and this man does need my care. But I lack the tools and facilities to treat him here.”

This, in many ways, reflects the condition of the world today and particularly the Muslim world.

Across the Muslim lands, we have the wrong people in positions of leadership, individuals without the necessary skills, understanding or sincerity to guide their societies.

The Prophet ﷺ said, “O Ka’b ibn ‘Ujrah, I seek refuge in Allah on your behalf from the leadership of fools, for they will become rulers.” (ibn Hibban)

In other cases, we may have capable individuals, but they are deprived of the tools required to deliver real change. They operate within systems that are not rooted in Islam. Instead, they are confined within the frameworks of liberalism and capitalism, ideologies that, at their core, cannot provide true justice. These systems are structurally corrupt, designed to serve certain classes of people at the expense of others.

When I reflect on Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoral race, this analogy comes to mind.

His victory owes a lot to a world changed by the events in Gaza and the shift in public opinion against Zionism. It is good to see those who support Zionism finally finding that there is a political cost to that unwavering support.

Mamdani is intelligent, eloquent, and appears sincere. He is certainly far superior to many of his opponents, who represent the same entrenched political establishment that has long burdened ordinary New Yorkers. He represents something fresh, something hopeful for a lot of New Yorkers left behind by corporate greed.

Yet I suspect his greatest challenge will be the ‘tools’ that he has at his disposal to bring about change and the limitations of the system within which he must operate. His brand of socialism will only tinker within that system.

Ultimately, it is not the individual.

It is the system itself.

No matter who rises to power, that system remains bound by its contradictions, deficiencies, and inevitable corruption. Mamdani will inevitably confront the same barriers faced by those before him: political polarisation, structural racism, and the deep inequalities that have long characterised American society.

No matter how honest, no matter how passionate, the machinery of secular politics will grind down anyone who tries to reform it from within. Its foundations are not built to deliver true justice, only to preserve power, wealth, and privilege.

Islam, however, offers a fundamentally different foundation.

It is not a human construct, but a divine revelation, guidance from the Lord of all creation. Allah knows the needs of every individual and every society, and He is free from the biases, errors, and limitations that define human judgment.

The Islamic system is comprehensive and just. It grants rights to the individual while safeguarding the collective good. It protects religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property, ensuring that every law is coherent and serves the welfare of humanity and upholds moral balance.

To live under such a system is to breathe in justice itself, to experience balance, mercy, and purpose in every sphere of life.

To implement this divine system is to achieve the most just and harmonious way of life possible within the limits of human existence.

Mamdani once remarked that the dream of every Muslim is to be treated the same as any other New Yorker.

But that cannot be the Muslim’s dream.

We were not created to be equal participants in a broken world order; we were meant to build a just one. Our aim is not to share in the spoils of capitalism or liberalism’s vanity, but to rise above them, to establish a way of life where justice is not negotiated but guaranteed.

True dignity, true peace, true security, these are found only in the remembrance and law of Allah.

وَمَنْ أَعْرَضَ عَن ذِكْرِى فَإِنَّ لَهُۥ مَعِيشَةًۭ ضَنكًۭا وَنَحْشُرُهُۥ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَـٰمَةِ أَعْمَىٰ

But whoever turns away from My Reminder will certainly have a miserable life, then We will raise them up blind on the Day of Judgment. (Ṭā Hā 124)