I SOMETIMES HEAR Muslims criticise other Muslims, especially those in European lands such as Russia, Turkey, Albania, etc. “You wouldn’t even realise they’re Muslim.”
Some Muslims indeed have very little to do with Islam but their names. It is also true that every soul is responsible for its own actions. Every soul will stand before Allah on the Day of Judgment.
But I find myself reflecting on something else.
Think about Soviet communism. Religion brutally suppressed. Mosques closed. Scholars imprisoned, killed. Entire generations grew up cut off from their deen, forbidden even to say the shahada aloud.
Can we blame people today for knowing little when their grandparents were forbidden from teaching it?
Look at Turkey. Once the seat of the Khilafah. After Mustafa Kemal abolished it, Islam was pushed out of public life. The adhan banned in Arabic. Islamic dress prohibited. Religious education suppressed.
What can we expect of Muslims raised in that?
My father is almost 90. For most of his life, he was secular about Islam. He looks back with deep regret. “I didn’t know better,” he says. “This is how we were conditioned.”
He’s right.
The Muslim world was taught to look up to the West. Secular thinking as the ultimate achievement. The colonisers never left. They colonised our minds.
To this day, they interfere and suppress.
But here’s what gives me hope.
Despite everything, the ummah is rising.
After 9/11, they tried everything. Military invasions. Media campaigns. Intense pressure.
They failed.
Across the world, Islamic revival. Muslims questioning. Looking for an alternative. Returning to sources.
We have more to go. But we’re moving.
So instead of blaming each other, understand our situation as one ummah. Find solutions together.
The Prophet ﷺ taught us: “People are like gold and silver; those who were best in Jahiliyyah are best in Islam, if they have religious understanding” (Muslim).
Every Muslim has inherent worth. Like precious metals. But that goodness needs extracting, refining through proper understanding.
This work happens in two ways.
First, locally. Revive Islam in our lives, families, and communities. Seek authentic knowledge. Support one another with compassion.
When we see Muslims struggling, understand the forces that shaped them. The same forces that shaped our parents and grandparents.
Help extract that inherent goodness. Provide the understanding denied to previous generations. Don’t just discard a person. Help him.
Second, we need global vision.
We lost the structure that protected us. The Khilafah. Replaced by secular nation-states run by lowly men.
These systems don’t protect Islam or Muslims. They divide us along artificial borders. Weaken us as an ummah.
The revival must lead toward Islamic political unity again.
This global work needs our attention. Whether scholar, student, professional, or worker, each has a role.
Through knowledge. Dawah. Working for change.
See ourselves as part of something bigger. Not just improving our practice, but contributing to re-establishing a unified Islamic structure that protects and elevates the ummah.
The revival is happening.
How will each of us contribute?
Living For Islam 