In our book we are constantly told that the believers are the successful ones.
Most commentators will say that this is in reference to our eventual outcome, since many a time we are also reminded of the great reward that awaits us in Jannah.
However when we consider the revelation within the context of it's prior manifestations then it's clear that God here is willing for us to be successful, and for us not to be scared to put into action HIs will. For one reading of the Umm ul-Kitab; al-Fathihah, the Opener, the bringer of success; is that it is in response to the ask of Nabi Isa ( Jesus (as)) when he asked- "thy will be done, thy kingdom come, on Earth as it is Heaven."
That whilst in al-Maedah, Allah t'ala informs us that there are monks from amongst that Nation that love God, and when they hear the Quran then their eyes well with tears recognising something of it's truth.*1
That they love Him so much that they have forsaken life, and dedicated themselves to Him even as Maryam (as) herself was so dedicated.
But for us, that path is forbidden to us by the words and way of our Messenger (saw). *2
Because we as a Nation were sent with a most sacred mission to put into action the will of God, to answer the ask of Nabi Isa (as). And how can we put it into action if we are weak and powerless, rather we are the successful ones when we act to surrender to His will and act to free people from the oppression that is their everyday mead.
Indeed the ways of God are simple. For Imam Al-Ghazali (rm) when he examined the variety of Muslim thought, even then there were many schools, he developed a methodology which was both painstaking and laborious in trying to differentiate correctly between them.*3
And yet the most powerful way expulsed by God is easy- discount those with contradictions.
Indeed the ways of God are powerful and simple.
Our mission, so many times we are told, is to remove oppression from the people and to not worry about belief, that is for God to guide whom He will.
The tiller of the soil simply cleans and turns to freshen the soil. He does not cause the crop to grow, but simply sows.
MashaAllah look at us. Islam has made of us an international people who see their relevance everywhere.
The defining wars of the prior century saw the rise of Fascism within Europe. And when we look to define the essential characteristics of those movements within Germany, Spain and Italy we would see them as the rise to full exposition the Nation State. *4
That Fascist Germany was the expression of the German Nation State at it fullest expression, that for their people what simply mattered was the German Nation, and they had no regard for our common human story.
No regard for other peoples' rights and needs, and no regard for a common obligation to neither help them, others, nor even to treat them as equal.
The route to facism does not need a singular start, for it doesn't matter if it comes from a social democractic perspective, or a communist perspective or even a socially conservative perspective- it is an end in itself from whereever it began.
It is a narrowing of a view, where no one else matters.
At the defining moment of the long confict between Fascist Germany and England, Winston Churchill on the brink of failure stood before the House of Commons and gave a fighting speech at the last he said that when England laid waste and starving that beyond the seas "the new world, with all it's power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old".
That England was not fascist, then.
That the United Kingdom was not fascist, then.
That we, Muslims, being necesarilly Internationalists are the New World.
For when the United Kingdom supports Fascist Israel, it becomes a Fascist country in its own right.
For Israelis do not see a common bond between all people, do not see an obligation to treat with equanamity and justice.
They take what they want of lives and land.
They are the heirs to Fascist Germany.
And when Great Britain support them, and when we allow this our Great Britain to support them- then we too become what this Nation once fought and stood against.
The Swastika even now rises on the House of Parliament, even as Churchill warned it would- but now it is replaced by the redolent Israeli banner.
And when our Government uses all of it's legal apparatus, and judicial processes to put to trial a man who simply happened to be put at the head of a boat of refugees bound for our Isles and when some of these perished at sea.
When our Government seeks to label him as a criminal and gulity of manslaughter, then that Government is a fascist Government. *5
And our legal apparatus and our Police forces are instruments of a fascists Government.
For they do not care for our common human story.
But they care to deter others by branding one such unlucky fellow as criminal- seeking to destroy his very soul.
And yet each of our souls is precious, and all of them too.
Then needs us, the New World, to come to the resuce of the Old.
That Islam is relevant, and we will free the People from that ugly threat that they once fought tooth and nail against- only for it to now appear in their support of Israeli policy, and in the Government of the now.
Knowledge is sought through action.
Deliberating is an action that occurs within you. So think well.
NOTES
*1 v82 Al-Maedah.
Which ends with “We do believe, make us one then with those who bear witness” The Shuhadah all of the Muslims recognise to be the Martyrs who bear ultimate witness to the truth with their lives.
*2 Muhammed (saw) expressly forbade us to become Monks and Nuns.
*3 Al-Ghazali, “Deliverance from Error”.
*4 off course the dictionary definition paints a different picture of centralised government or one party but does no justice to the origins of such movements. Hitler was himself a socialist democrat.
*5 the ongoing criminal case against Ibrahima Bah. The first case the jury could not bring themselves to convict, when he was as much a victim of circumstance.
And so the Government and the CPS are currently trying him a second time.