Bismillahir rahmanir rahim,
I’m now
halfway through my winter break and biiznillah, I travelled to Andalucia, Spain
for 8 days and went to FOSIS (Federation of Student Islamic Societies) Winter
Conference the weekend right after. This year, the conference was held at Keele
University, located near Stoke-On-Trent.
When I wanted to register for the
conference, I was hesitant, mainly because I would’ve just gotten back from
Spain the day before it starts and thought that it would be too exhausting. But
I decided to register anyway since I know my spirit was in desperate need to be
boosted. So I reminded myself of the intention of my doing all this, and then
bismillah, bought all the tickets needed to go there. When I was on my way there
– even when I was in the middle of the event – I still hadn’t had a clue of why
I was attending it. So I kept renewing my intention and making dua,
“Oh Allah, I do this just for you. I
came here only for you. I don’t know what good this will bring to me, but you
know me better than I know myself. Teach me of the great knowledge you own, ya
Allah.”
My days
in Spain taught me a lot of things. Mainly of the further understanding of the
history of the Muslim world. I never bothered to understand history before,
especially when it’s just so boringly taught in secondary schools *I had really
awesome history teachers but the whole syllabus being too factual and the
system being too exam-oriented wouldn’t catch anyone’s interest. It was only after
my trip to Turkey last spring that I realised the importance of history: that
it makes up who we are and what’s happening in the world around us, and that it
teaches us how to work our way from the present to something that we can
predict in the future. Learning history is so powerful given that you live by the
spirit of it. I regretted the days when I never truly learn by heart the
history taught at school. But, I believe it’s never too late to start anything.
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| At the archeological site of Medinat Azzahra |
So, post-Turkey, I decided to buy Steven Runciman’s The Fall of Constantinople 1453 and have a read at it. I couldn’t understand a thing. There’s just too much background to everything and I had too little knowledge of the Ottoman empire in Istanbul, let alone the background of the Muslim kingdom in general. I bought another book on Crusades, hoping it would shine some light on it but, that too came to a dead end. I didn't even know where things are in the globe. How did I expect that I could make sense of the spread of these movements? So I dropped my pursuit of understanding history and ventured into other things instead (and refocus on my studies!).
Then that trip to Spain happened.
The spirit was rekindled. I was thirsty to know of the details at every corner,
especially because the Muslim Spain empire lasted for so long that it links a lot of points in history.
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| One of the pillars in Alhambra, Granada |
It even feels so connected to today’s modern
world! It was only through the history of Andalucia that I can finally make
sense of the inheritance of Islam through these years i.e. why there were different khilafah empires at different
times, how the Muslim population nowadays are spread out as how they are, how
Europe is now so synonym to being the land of Christians, and just so much
more. I was enthused by the knowledge that I gained yet I wondered what I could do with it. As someone who finds pleasure in gathering more and more knowledge,
these questions bothered me.
Why do you really want to know this?
Is it just
for the fun of putting the pieces of the puzzle of history together?
Or is it because you want to make use of it to create a better future?
There’s this authentic hadith
that describes the 5 phases of the final ummah, with each one subsequently
leading to the other (of which you can listen to a rather nice explanation here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84mD-whEfxw)
1.
The time of the Prophethood
2.
The time of khilafah which follows upon the
prophetic methodology
3.
The time of biting kingship (monarchy, lasts for
so long)
4.
The time of tyrannical kingship (forceful,
military)
5.
The time of khilafah which again follows the
prophetic methodology
After telling of these 5 phases,
Rasulullah s.a.w was silent. As a believer that lives by the shahadah (there is
no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), it is a must for me and other Muslims to believe in this prophecy. I came across this hadith a long time ago and
amazingly, every single time I reviewed it, my understanding of the hadith
developed deeper and deeper.
What is agreed upon by scholars
is that we are currently living in the fourth phase of the hadith and nobody
knows when the fifth phase is going to come. The fact that it’s already written
in Lauh Mahfuz and there’s nothing we can do to change it (unless Allah wills
it) makes it thought-provoking. My thoughts of this hadith progressed from
“Oh okay. God knows when that fifth phase would happen.
We’ll see if it’s going to be in my lifetime or not,” to
“I wish I could see how that fifth phase would be like.
Wouldn’t that be nice,” to
“I want to be part of the fifth phase but how?” then finally
to
“For goodness sake, can’t you see Sofina? Everyone is
working towards making the fifth phase happen. You can foresee with your own
bare eyes that it is already approaching that time. Islam doesn’t need you to
make it happen. It’s going to happen anyway, with or without you. If you don’t
do anything now, then you’re definitely going to miss out!”
So
coming back to the story of Spain. Now that I’ve witnessed the history of the
third phase and learned how it links with the fourth phase that we’re in, I just
know that I need to start working so that I can be part of the people who are
the soldiers of Allah that helped implant Islam back on the face of the Earth. At
least when I’m done with this world and return to my Creator, I can say “Oh
Allah, this is what I did for your deen, may you be pleased.”
I left Spain with the question:
how?
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| Part of Alhambra seen from Albaizin |
It’s
funny because this was the exact same question that was on my mind (of which I
bugged other people into thinking about it as well) as we had our trip to Turkey.
Over the summer, I thought I’ve resolved it but as I got back from Spain, the
question popped back again, demanding a more precise answer this time.
As I was
attending the FOSIS conference, this question kept ringing in my head to the
point that I was bugging my close friends with it. At the same time, I was attentive
of everything that was happening in the conference. The event was wonderful
mashaAllah but the one message I believe Allah wanted me to take home is:
Indeed, Islam is going to rise back up real soon. Real real soon.
If it’s
not within everyone’s knowledge, FOSIS is the overseeing body responsible of
supporting the Islamic societies (ISOCs) in universities all over Britain. In
this conference, besides giving insightful talks and beneficial workshops to
the members of isocs (or simply, Muslim youths), FOSIS also connects directly
with isocs by discussing relevant issues faced by isocs, how to help isocs
overcome their struggle, etc. And the connection doesn’t just work one way.
Isocs are also able to help improve FOSIS by putting front what they think is
lacking/slacking in the body, ask questions to clarify things, and give suggestions on things that could be improved. FOSIS
committee themselves held a session where they put everything on the table of
what they’ve done through half of the term of their holding the post for the sake of transparency and accountability. Furthermore, FOSIS is deeply involved with NUS
(National Union of Students – United Kingdom) which politically connects with the government, and FEMYSO (Forum of European
Muslim Youth and Student Organisation) which gather together Muslim youths throughout Europe. Simply put, this makes FOSIS a legit both
national and international body.
Coming
from Malaysia, I was jaw-dropped to see such professionalism in the whole organisation
of Muslim students. All this while I thought FOSIS is run by people in their 40s but no, these people are basically my age (I don’t think any of
them who runs the things directly has actually reached their 30s) and they’ve
done such phenomenal things. The fact that they can unite Muslim
students nationwide firmly is in of itself amazing but, internationally? Mind-blowing,
dude. There’s this brother who said that he’s connecting with another brother
in Istanbul and they’re planning of putting together something big. That’s like
one end of Europe to another man! As I listened to the things he said, suddenly
the whole of Muslim empire that once stretched from Spain to China is flashing
right before my eyes. If that isn’t unity, I don’t know what is.
A few
years back, often, when I hear about the issues related to the ummah, my
reaction would be the same as many other people “We’re not united. How can we
react when we’re not united?” and always there would be a tinge of hopelessness
in it as I don’t see anyone doing anything about it and I myself don’t think I can’t
do anything about it. Even until now, whilst the Muslims community in Malaysia
are fighting over trivial things, here in Britain, they just put it flat on
your face, “We’ve got bigger things to think about.” They still have trivial
issues that keep popping up and they still try to tackle them but they don’t
get bogged down solving that particular issue. They may think that they keep
falling into that trap but believe me, from the way they work, you can tell
that they see a bigger picture, and they have a set goal to achieve.
In my
eyes, what they’ve accomplished so far is a huge success. And seeing how they
work, there would be much bigger success in the future inshaAllah. I may not have stayed in
my country’s system for long to really understand its behaviour but what I
admire about these people the most is that everyone keeps reminding everyone of
the words of Allah, their priorities, and their position as the slaves of
Allah. And that even though they ask one another of each other’s ethnicity (they're really diverse!),
they never put weight onto any of that as they see each other as
brothers/sisters in Islam more. The common ground is Islam so it doesn’t matter
whether you’re black or white or brown or yellow or red or blue or green, born-Muslims or reverts, as
long as you’re a Muslim, they’ll take care of you. I also truly love it that
they really mean it when they say
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re all here for the sake of Allah,
inshaAllah”
“May Allah Azza Wajal accept from us”
“MashaAllah, we’ve accomplished…………alhamdulillah”
*although to be fair, some of them do speak Arabic but
still, some of them don’t and they still know what they’re saying
So as
I’ve witnessed such a movement after attending the event, I was really hit that
that fifth phase in the hadith mentioned is really going to happen sooner or
later. What huge loss I would be in if I choose to be just an observer from
afar and let everyone else do the work of upholding Islam. As clearly said in
the Quran,
“....So race to (all that is) good. Wherever you may be, Allah will bring
you forth (for judgement) all together. Indeed, Allah is over all things
competent.” (2:148)
Imagine
on the Day of Judgement, you see someone you know be held accountable for all
the goods that you witnessed they’d done and you could’ve had the chance to be
part of it but you didn’t, then you were left on your own, with no “complete
race” to present to your Lord. Nauzubillahi min zalik.
"It’s
either we make history, or we become history"
– Soldiers of Allah (rap group
from Los Angeles)
