THE STATE OF HEALTH / HEALTH STATUS OF THE UMMAH

Everyone has their own occupations. However, all our affairs can be divided into two categories: material and spiritual.

It is perfectly normal to give priority or more time to certain things than others to the extent that they are considered more important.

For a student, for example, it's often a promenade/stroll or TV versus homework, while for an inveterate alcoholic - a drunkard - alcohol takes precedence over everything, even over the needs of his family.

Deprive an alcoholic of his drug and he is like a fish out of water, uncomfortable and even irritated! Continue to deprive him of it and he will be in despair, even ceasing to work because he is suffering, due to having lost what he believes to be his reason for existence.

The same is true of worldly and spiritual occupations.

While the carefree student prefers to rush with his homework to watch TV and the alcoholic prefers to be absent from work to indulge in drinking, the good Muslim tries to get rid of his worldly work as quickly as possible to devote himself to his spiritual duties.

Thus, the Mu'min gives priority to the Aakhirah and prepares for it through his spiritual occupations - his Ibaadaat, such as Salah, Zikrullah, Tilaawat-e-Qur'an, study or teaching of Deen and Da'wah. If he is deprived of it, he suffers just as the drug addict suffers in a state of withdrawal.

Unfortunately, the Muslim today is not as faithful to his spiritual duties as the alcoholic is to his drink.

He rushes his Salah in order to go about with his worldly activities: TV, video or club among others. A long Salah irritates him because he want to chat after the Salah. He feels annoyance because he is missing out on his worldly pleasures.

Everyone tends to get rid of their secondary occupations to devote themselves totally to their pleasures. And, as is often the case, his pleasures even become primordial occupations.

In our country, this can be seen on Thursdays and Saturdays, when we get rid of domestic work or other things to watch TV - "Indian film" obliges! And then we even forget the Salah...

But for the good Muslim, it's quite the opposite.

Let us go back to the time of the Sahabah (Radiyallahu anhum). Let's try to visit them. If someone visited a Sahaabi (Radiyallahu anhu) while he had gone to the mosque, the visitor was told that he did not know when the Sahaabi (Radiyallahu anhu) would return, whereas if the Sahaabi (Radiyallahu anhu) had gone to the market, the visitor was asked to wait for him because he would return at any moment.

The hearts of Sahabah (Radiyallahu anhum) were thus attached to the mosque and the Aakhirah and not to the Dunya. On the other hand, the contemporary 'Muslim' is quite the opposite of the Sahabah (Radiyallahu anhum). If he has gone to the mosque, if he even goes, someone who has come to see him should be told to wait for him; for usually he does not delay in the mosque. Indeed, he goes to the mosque at the last minute. Often he misses the first takbir and sometimes even the Jama'ah. And he returns as quickly as possible. But if he has been to the market, the shop, etc., the visitor will be advised to come later or come back another day, because we don't know when exactly he will come back. And yet, what Muslim worthy of the name does not know that the Prophet Hadhrat Muhammad (Sallallaahu A'laihi Wasallam), the one whom he is supposed to follow, said that the place that Allah Ta'ala loves the most is the mosque and that which He hates the most is the market?

Which Muslim does not know that the Prophet (Sallallaahu A'laihi Wasallam) said that whoever sits in the mosque waiting for Salah will be rewarded just as if he was performing Salah? Which Muslim does not know the importance of the first Takbir?

Which Muslim does not know that the Sahabah (Radiyallahu anhum) have sacrificed their time, their families and even their lives to propagate Islam, for the sake of the laws of Allah Ta'ala and the teachings of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu A'laihi Wasallam)? What a difference between the Sahabah (Radiyallahu anhum) and the Muslims of today!

The difference is clear.

The contemporary Muslim seems to be more attached to the 'Dunya' than to the 'Deen'. Do we consider 'the Deen' and the Ibaadaat that bring us closer to the Creator as secondary? If not, why then do we give priority to TV, video and other worldly occupations?

If this is the state of spiritual health of the Namaazis, then we can get an idea of the state of health of the non-Namaazis and of the Ummat in general... Let us look no further for the real cause of our present misery. We are humiliated, but are we not the first to blame for our own humiliation?

But it is not too late to change this state of affairs. Let us resolutely turn to the Supreme Being and cling to His Qur'an and the Sunnah of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu A'laihi Wasallam).

[English version of "L’état de santé de l’oummat" – Al Haadi – Vol. 1 No. 4]