Radical Change: A Vision from the Light of Revelation
[إِنَّا لَا نُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُصْلِحِينَ]
“Indeed, We will not allow to be lost the reward of the reformers.” [Surat Al-A’raf:170]
(Translated)

In the previous article we said that radical change is a system of collective work disciplined by revelation, and that those working with insight possess a Qur’anic compass for the idea and the method, and they do not get lost in the rush of the world and its adornment. And when empowerment and succession are granted to them, they worship Allah (swt) without fear and without alteration.

But discussions about change and serious collective work for change always revolve around the Ummah within which the actions of intellectual struggle and political struggle take place. Change is not merely a show that occurs in a day and a night, nor is it a film that we watch in a cinema hall, after which the curtain closes and the matter ends. Rather, it is jihad, struggle, and the giving of blood, sacrifice of time, wealth, and lives for the elevation of the religion and the honor of the Ummah.

This Ummah upon which trials descend, and among whose sons the testing takes place so that Allah (swt) may make clear the truthfulness of the truthful, is the Ummah that must enter this battle with endurance and steadfastness, paying the price of change with patience and seeking reward, so that it may avoid paying the price of humiliation whose cost it will bear if it refuses to sacrifice in the path of Allah (swt). For the way of Allah (swt) in His creation has required that there is no empowerment without trial, and that trials vary between good deeds and sins.

Surah Al-A‘raf presents the history of the struggle between truth and falsehood and establishes a golden principle in the matter of change: that honor and empowerment are the result of piety and following. There is no victory without piety, and no empowerment with compromise.

Allah, the Exalted, states with complete clarity that piety is a condition for victory, and that the promises of Satan of economic prosperity linked to abandoning the Sharia are merely an illusion:

[الشَّيْطَانُ يَعِدُكُمُ الْفَقْرَ وَيَأْمُرُكُم بِالْفَحْشَاءِ وَاللَّهُ يَعِدُكُم مَّغْفِرَةً مِّنْهُ وَفَضْلًا وَاللَّهُ وَاسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ]

“Satan threatens you with poverty and orders you to immorality, while Allah promises you forgiveness from Him and bounty. And Allah is All-Encompassing and Knowing” [Surat Al-Baqarah:268]. The certainty carried by the Ummah that Allah (swt) is the Provider, the Possessor of strength, the Firm, certainly protects it from being dragged behind the mirage of economic empowerment. Thus an Ummah firmly established upon the saying of Allah, the Exalted:

[وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْقُرَىٰ آمَنُوا وَاتَّقَوْا لَفَتَحْنَا عَلَيْهِم بَرَكَاتٍ مِّنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَلَٰكِن كَذَّبُوا فَأَخَذْنَاهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ]

“And if only the people of the cities had believed and feared Allah, We would have opened upon them blessings from the heaven and the earth. But they denied, so We seized them for what they were earning” [Surat Al-A’raf:96], will have as the driving force in its demonstrations and revolutions the implementation of the law of Allah (swt) and adherence to His method, not merely economic empowerment or prosperity promised to it by its enemies.

In the battle of change, and in Allah’s presentation of the story of Iblis and Adam, and the previous nations with their prophets—especially the Bani Israeel, and how the context of speech about them shifted from:

[وَأَوْرَثْنَا الْقَوْمَ الَّذِينَ كَانُوا يُسْتَضْعَفُونَ مَشَارِقَ الْأَرْضِ وَمَغَارِبَهَا الَّتِي بَارَكْنَا فِيهَا وَتَمَّتْ كَلِمَتُ رَبِّكَ الْحُسْنَىٰ عَلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ بِمَا صَبَرُوا وَدَمَّرْنَا مَا كَانَ يَصْنَعُ فِرْعَوْنُ وَقَوْمُهُ وَمَا كَانُوا يَعْرِشُونَ]

“And We caused the people who had been oppressed to inherit the eastern regions of the land and the western ones, which We had blessed. And the good word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because they were patient, and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people were producing and what they had been building” [Surat Al-A’raf:137], to His saying about them:

[فَخَلَفَ مِن بَعْدِهِمْ خَلْفٌ وَرِثُوا الْكِتَابَ يَأْخُذُونَ عَرَضَ هَٰذَا الْأَدْنَىٰ وَيَقُولُونَ سَيُغْفَرُ لَنَا وَإِن يَأْتِهِمْ عَرَضٌ مِّثْلُهُ يَأْخُذُوهُ أَلَمْ يُؤْخَذْ عَلَيْهِم مِّيثَاقُ الْكِتَابِ أَن لَّا يَقُولُوا عَلَى اللَّهِ إِلَّا الْحَقَّ وَدَرَسُوا مَا فِيهِ وَالدَّارُ الْآخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ]

“But there came after them successors who inherited the Scripture, taking the goods of this lower life and saying, ‘It will be forgiven for us.’ And if goods similar to it come to them, they take them. Was not the covenant of the Scripture taken from them that they would not say about Allah except the truth, while they studied what was in it? And the home of the Hereafter is better for those who fear Allah—so will you not use reason?” [Surat Al-A’raf:169], we find that the Noble Qur’an alerts the Muslims that succession in authority is the result of persistent work, not merely a divine promise that descends upon peoples who carry wishes but do not act upon them. And Allah is the Self-Sufficient, the Praiseworthy. A nation to whom Allah (swt) gave inheritance of the Book, the judgment, and the prophethood became those upon whom anger fell because they broke their covenants with their Lord.

In short: “the chosen nation” and “the beloved of Allah” are concepts that Allah (swt) detests. There are no privileges granted to one who turns back on his heels. The Ummah will not attain its authority nor return to its position as the best nation except if it moves toward this great goal according to what Allah (swt) intends—by rejecting oppression, supporting the oppressed, and engaging in political work that leads to real radical change according to the method of the Messenger of Allah (saw) which the Lord of the worlds revealed. Empowerment is succession based upon righteousness; if piety disappears from the Ummah, blessing turns into gradual enticement and then punishment, as happened previously with the Children of Israel.

Therefore we find that when Allah (swt) reproached them by saying:

[يَأْخُذُونَ عَرَضَ هَٰذَا الْأَدْنَىٰ وَيَقُولُونَ سَيُغْفَرُ لَنَا] “They take the goods of this lower life and say, ‘It will be forgiven for us’” [Surat Al-A’raf:169], He immediately said in the following verse:

[وَالَّذِينَ يُمَسِّكُونَ بِالْكِتَابِ وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ إِنَّا لَا نُضِيعُ أَجْرَ الْمُصْلِحِينَ] “But those who hold fast to the Book and establish prayer—indeed, We will not allow the reward of the reformers to be lost” [Surat Al-A’raf:170].

The aware Ummah understands that the weight belongs to the truth, and that the elevation of the oppressors and the adornment of the world by which they rise, and all that they possess is as the Exalted Truth said:

[وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا أَعْمَالُهُمْ كَسَرَابٍ بِقِيعَةٍ يَحْسَبُهُ الظَّمْآنُ مَاءً حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءَهُ لَمْ يَجِدْهُ شَيْئًا وَوَجَدَ اللَّهَ عِندَهُ فَوَفَّاهُ حِسَابَهُ وَاللَّهُ سَرِيعُ الْحِسَابِ]

“But those who disbelieve—their deeds are like a mirage in a lowland which the thirsty one thinks is water, until when he comes to it he finds it to be nothing but finds Allah before him, and He will pay him in full his account. And Allah is swift in account” [Surat: An-Nur:39].

Thus the Ummah today stands at a crossroads. While it carries the truth in which there is no doubt—and which is the effective cure for all the tragedies of humanity—it can either carry it with confidence in its Lord and in His power and in the truth that it possesses, recognizing the misguidance of other ideologies and the destruction within them for cultivation and progeny, presenting itself as a civilizational origin that rescues humanity from darkness to light; or it can remain delayed while its lands continue to be a stage upon which the corrupt act with their corruption among people and misguide them from the path of Allah (swt). Let the Ummah know that in both cases it will pay a great price from the blood of its sons and its wealth. Either it will pay it seeking the pleasure of Allah (swt) and in the path of its dignity, and Allah (swt) will grant it the honor of both abodes and the price will be placed in the scales of the workers on the Day of Resurrection; or the price will be paid while humiliation continues to encircle us and our Ummah remains violated like orphans at the tables of the ignoble.

[وَضَرَبَ اللَّهُ مَثَلًا رَّجُلَيْنِ أَحَدُهُمَا أَبْكَمُ لَا يَقْدِرُ عَلَىٰ شَيْءٍ وَهُوَ كَلٌّ عَلَىٰ مَوْلَاهُ أَيْنَمَا يُوَجِّهْهُ لَا يَأْتِ بِخَيْرٍ ۖ هَلْ يَسْتَوِي هُوَ وَمَن يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَهُوَ عَلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ]

“And Allah presents an example of two men: one of them mute and unable to do anything, while he is a burden upon his master; wherever he directs him he brings no good. Is he equal to one who commands justice while he is upon a straight path?” [Surat: An-Nahl:76].

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Bayan Jamal

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