“Islam must dominate,” said Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, “and not be dominated.” Yet many people, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have noticed that Islam has failed in its quest to dominate the world, but few have been willing to admit this failure. Instead, the formulation of excuses for this failure has become a venerable tradition in Islam, and a veritable cottage industry in our own day. And when Islam fails, as The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses explains in detail, the foremost remedy for this failure is fraught with dangers for unbelievers.
The Muslim question-and-answer site IslamWeb.net asserts that “anyone who wants to be happy in this worldly life and the Hereafter should stick firmly to the Quran and the Sunnah and abide by what is in them, performing the orders and avoiding the prohibited matters.… So, anybody who embodies the attributes mentioned in these verses will be successful in this worldly life and the Hereafter. He will live honorably and die honorably.”
The success of the Muslims in this world depends upon their adherence to Sharia principles: “When the Muslims were applying the religion in all the fields of life, Allah gave them victory over all other people and made them a cause for the guidance of many people. All people on the earth recognized the rule of Muslims and their enemies testified to their justice and good behavior.”=
The author of this fatwa is sure that the ills of the global Muslim community in the present day stem from its laxity in obeying all the commands of Allah: “Now the state of the Muslim Ummah will not change to the best unless it applies what the good processors applied. In fact, the present life of this Ummah [global Muslim community] will not be good except by what made it good in its past. To do otherwise, the Ummah can only expect a humiliation that Allah will not lift until it returns to His Religion.”
The remedy for the ills of the Islamic world, in this view, couldn’t possibly be simpler: return to Islam. Obey Allah, and you will prosper. Disobey Allah, and you will suffer. This is a vastly different spiritual landscape from that of the Judeo-Christian tradition, which is frequently preoccupied with the question of why the unrighteous so often do so well in this life. Job complains, “Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?” (Job 21:7). The psalmist admits: “For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Psalm 73:3). “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?,” asks the prophet Jeremiah. “Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jeremiah 12:1).
Such questions are rare in the Islamic tradition. Allah does what he wills. One should not be too inquisitive about such matters, for “a people before you asked, and then became unbelievers.” (Qur’an 5:102) Allah promises that those who obey him will find success both in this world and the next, and that’s the end of the matter. If someone encounters difficulty in life, it is because he is unrighteous, and his sins have displeased Allah. The idea of righteous Job, suffering unjustly despite the cleanness of his heart, is alien to Islam.
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This view of the world creates breeding grounds for violent fanaticism in many Muslim countries. This is because of the central role of jihad in Islamic thought. A hadith depicts Muhammad being asked, “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” He answers: “I do not find such a deed.” In another hadith, Muhammad says that “a single endeavor (of fighting) in Allah’s Cause in the forenoon or in the afternoon is better than the world and whatever is in it.” There is nothing better that one can do than wage jihad.
If there is no deed that surpasses jihad in reward, and fighting in Allah’s cause is greater than everything else in the world, then the failure in Islamic societies will breed jihadis. Islamic societies will seek to turn away Allah’s wrath from their people by encouraging them to undertake the greatest deed of all in Islam: warfare against unbelievers. When nations suffer natural disasters or fall into poverty, Islamic preachers seize the disaster as an opportunity to call people back to the pure and wholehearted service of Allah, who will then prosper their works both in this world and in the next. Since jihad is the deed that Allah rewards most lavishly, it is also the most likely remedy for a downturn in fortunes. Western non-Muslims should keep this in mind and be watchful as ever more Muslims make America and Europe their home.
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