As usual I sent reminders to my children not to forget to recite the end of the passing year and the eve of the new year supplications before and after Solat Magrib yesterday, to mark the new month of Muharram for the Islamic Year 1438.
1,438 years ago by the lunar calendar, the Prophet Muhammad saw migrated to Medina, about 300 km to the north of Mecca, to escape the persecutors, and establish a new political beginning. From a handful of close family members at the outset, the Muslim community, the ummah, is today regarded as the second largest followers of a major religion worldwide. Various numbers have been used: 1.6 billion in 2010, and 1.8 billion in 2013, of which 31.5% are Christians, 23.2% Muslims, 13.8% Hindus, 6.8% Buddhists, and so on. Islam is also said to be the fastest growing religion. It's expected to increase by 35% over the next 20 years to 2.2 billion, at twice the rate for non-Muslims. 74% of Muslims live in 49 Muslim-majority countries, 23% in non-Muslim-majority developing countries, and 3% in the developed countries of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. In short, Islam has come a long way indeed, from Mecca, to all corners of the globe.
But what have we got to show for all these numbers?
The Prophet saw had scribes in his own lifetime put into writing the revelations he received into the Quran, and his words and deeds recorded with the minutest attestetion in the sunnah, and proclaimed that the true path for the ummah is along these two. The learned jurists later added the consensus or ijma' of the ulama' as the third pillar of the Syariah, or the path of Islam.
Since the Prophet's death in 632 C.E., until the birth of one Muhammad al Wahab in 1703, who studied the teachings of Ibn Qayyim, himself a student of Ibn Taymiyyah, a scholar who followed the teachings of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, one of the 4 founders of the sunni mazhabs, many fuqaha' appeared who gave their distinct interpretations of the Quran and the sunnah. There were, of course, the Rightful Guided Caliphs, Abu Bakar, Omar, Othman and Ali, in the 29 years after the death of the Prophet. In the next 100 years the four famous Imams came - Hanafi, Malik, Shafiei and the above-mentioned Hanbal. Their appearances transcended the Ummayah Dynasty that ruled for 89 years, into the so-called Golden Islamic Age of the Abbasiah Dynasty that ruled for 580 years. In this period Sufism also rose.
Through the political expansion of Islamic rule, with Emirates formed in North and West Africa, Persia, Central Asia, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and the Malay Archipelago, there were many legal, philosophical and religious developments. The major hadis were compiled. The four Sunni mazhabs were established. The Shias were well formed. Ibnu Sinna, al Farabi and al Ghazali argued against the Schools of Thought. And today the Hanafis make up 31% of Muslims, Malikis 25%, Shafieis 16%, Hanbalis 4%, Shia Jaafaris 23% and Zaidis and Ismailis the remaining 1%. We now have the Salafis who insist that all Muslims should discard the mazhabs and abide by the teachings of the Holy Prophet, his Sahabahs, the Tabi'un and the Tabi al Tabiun - the Three Generations.
Right here in Malaysia, its umat Islam is thoroughly politically divided. In the current US Presidential race, Islam is the target of hate and ridicule. In the largest Islamic country, Indonesia, the diversity of practice reflects its geography. The largest Islamic military power, Turkey, is in the middle of its post-coup-detat anti-Gulen purge of tens of thousands of Turks believed to be involved in an elaborate, massive and far-ranging plan to overthrow the current President's obviously pro-Islamic government. Remember, for 600 years, Turkey was the world's dominant Islamic power, until 1924. In the longest civil war in an Islamic country, how many people have been killed in Afghanistan since the US invasion following 9/11/2001 ? 600,000 is said to have been killed in the first 3 years in the still continuing civil war in Iraq since the US-led coalition invasion on 23/3/2003. And all on the cooked-up excuse of the non-existent WMD. The "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia saw the ousting of the President Zainal Abidin Ali (Malay-style spelling - less confusing!) in December 2010. The demonstrations for the ouster of Mubarak in Egypt started on 25/1/2011. There have been two governments since, and the present military government not only sacked the democratically elected the al Hafiz Ikhwanal Muslimin President, but has put him behind bars under the threat of a death penalty. In Libya, the Civil War that started on 17/2/2011 eventually saw Gadaffi killed, and the poor country is still under civil war. And don't forget the "Benghazi Affair" Hillary Clinton is facing right now in the US Presidential election. Syria's civil war has the makings of another "Vietnam", with the Russians pitching in. This was supposed to be the aftermath of "the Arab Spring" of 2011, against a very unpopular President. He's still around, playing the Russians against the Rest. And don't forget Yemen. Just like the rest of the Islamic countries described above, it's Muslims against Muslims, and the Yemenis have been at each other's throats since 21/3/2015.
In my do'a, I pray for God's forgiveness for the obligations that I have left undone in the past year, and for God's blessing and protection from satan and evil-doing in the coming year. In my heart I now also pray for God's blessing for all Islamic ummah, that they find peace where there is turmoil, and love where there is hate. Amin.
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