زوالِ وقت

Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “When fifteen traits appear in my Ummah, calamities will begin to descend upon it: (1) When public property is treated as personal possession. (2) When a trust is regarded as spoils of war. (3) When zakat is felt to be a fine. (4) When a husband obeys his wife. (5) And is disobedient to his mother. (6) When a man is good to his friends. (7) And oppresses his father. (8) When there is uproar in the mosques. (9) When the most contemptible man of a people becomes its leader. (10) When a man is honoured out of fear of his evil. (11) When intoxicants and liquor come into open use. (12) When men wear silk. (13) When musical instruments become common. (14) When singing girls become commonly available. (15) And when the later people of this Ummah curse and revile the earlier ones.” He said: When this happens, people should await the punishment of Allah at all times, whether it comes in the form of a red storm, or an earthquake, or in the form of faces being transformed as with the People of the Sabbath. (Tirmidhi)

The sayings of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) give a clear indication that when this Ummah turns its face away from its individual and collective responsibilities, it will be cast out of the leadership and mastery of the world into the pit of disgrace. The humiliation, disgrace and helplessness that we bewail throughout the world today — the study of the Qur'an and Sunnah shows that all of it is the punishment for our breach of covenant and faithlessness towards Allah. The heavens and the earth trembled to bear the burden of the trust; Allah placed the crown of His trust upon man, and today the Ummah of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is the bearer of this trust. But, unfortunately, the rulers of the Muslims are committing dishonesty and breach of trust.

They have treated public property as an inheritance from their fathers; obedience to the wife and disobedience to parents, under the influence of Western civilization, have become ever more common; uproar and clamour in the mosques have become the norm; the most contemptible man of the people has become its leader; the Muslim rulers and chiefs too are, more often than not, unrivalled in drinking, immorality and corruption; the disease of intoxicants, musical instruments, singing and dancing runs like a canker through our societies; today our rulers have issued permits for liquor and the goods of the outside world are imported for the elite; today music has settled cooing in our hearts, just as love of the calf had settled in the hearts of the Jews of Israel; and the disease of politics and hypocritical piety has made it a common practice to curse and revile the people of the age.

The majority of our youth, devoid of faith and the fear of God and without purpose, are lost in the trial of carnal desire and materialism, utterly heedless of the purpose of life; and jihad, in which lay hidden the secret of the Ummah's glory and honour, has become a matter of shame for us — because of which disgrace, humiliation, subjugation and slavery have become our lot. Instead of the call to religion and the teaching of Islamic morals, the resources of government and the means of mass communication are pushing towards obscenity, nakedness, shamelessness, purposelessness, materialism and blind imitation of the West; instead of goodness and virtue, we are gathering every means to spread evils, and the whole society is caught up in disbelief, disobedience and forbidden things — whereas the Being of Allah declares in clear terms: “Indeed, those who love that immorality should spread among the believers will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter.” (An-Nur 19)

The only cure for these conditions today is that we all, individually and collectively, repent and seek forgiveness, feel ashamed and regretful of our conduct and character up to now, turn to Allah and Allah alone, and in our individual and collective lives act upon the commands of Allah and His Messenger (ﷺ). May Allah grant us all the ability to act. Amin!