Think Big Dream High- E10 – Hijrah

Performing the Hijrah

I am from the village. As someone from the village,I spent most of my free time at the mosque. At the mosque there are a lot of religious classes to increase one’s knowledge and ibadat.The Wilayah Persekutuan Mosque with its air-conditioned prayer rooms open from 10.30 am to 9 or 10 pm is normally my choice. I often wonder whether this mosque which always has its air-conditioned switched on is for mine and one or two guard’s usage? It will be good if this big and beautiful mosque could be used as a learning centre or university so that the large and roomy space could be fully utilized. This mosque is suitable for me to perform the i’tikaf whilst at the same time reading religious books, Tafser Al Quran and the Hadith. My choice of Tafser Al Quran is that written by Maulana Abdullah Yusuf Ali. My favourite Hadith book is Bahrulmazi. From my readings of the kitab books, the one thing I wish to share is the concept and philosophy behind Prophet Muhammad SAW’s hijrah from Mecca to Medina. We read and hear a lot of this historical hijrah, but most of the write ups are urging us to change.The meaning of hijrah in short is to change or to move or to migrate.

The Interpretation of Hijrah

When I analyse this findings deeply, the philosophy and the teachings behind this hijrah is not restricted to just asking us to change. It is more than that. Be it sheer coincidence or as determined by Allah SWT, most people who performed the hijrah are successful in their lives. Indians,Vietnamese,Sudanese, Chinese, Cambodians,English, Jews, Indonesians,Nigerian or Bosnian that performed the hijrah from their country of origin are very successful in building their lives in the new place. Just like me, who came from the village and performing the hijrah to the city. The bottom line is that I am relatively more successful than my friends who did not perform the hijrah. This is not the issue I want to talk about this time around.

History has proven that the priorities of Prophet Muhammad SAW when he reaches Medina was to built a mosque, secondly to construct the market and thirdly to marry off the Muhajiran people with the Ansar people. I pondered why our Prophet Muhammad SAW gave priorities to these three things. Now, if we studied and do a bit of research, and observation around us and in the Islamic countries, I felt that we can find the answers. The conclusion of these three activities are very clear to me. The mosque is the learning centre or university. The market is the centre of economic activity. Whereas the marriage between the Muhajirin and the Ansar is a reflection of the unity and sanctity amongst the Muslim world.

Knowledge, Economy and Unity

Look at the Muslims now, be it in our country, more so in other Islamic countries like Indonesia, Africa, Bangladesh, The Khmer Republic and other parts of the world. In the relative sense, the Muslims are way behind in the field of knowledge, economy and in aspects of harmonious and unity of the Ummah.

The University

Why did the first thing Prophet Muhammad SAW did was to built the mosque?. This is because Prophet SAW, placed the securing of knowledge as the climax to what the Muslims needed. To me the mosque is actually the university, the place to enable the Muslims to teach and acquire various knowledge. At the height of the Islamic glorific era and after many achievements in the field of mathematics, philosophy, religion, medicine, physics, astronomy, geography, and various knowledge relating to livelihood, bit by bit, the excellence era start to deteriorate. Now, look at what has happened to the Muslims? We are way behind in many fields of knowledge and technology. If the Nobel prize can be the yardstick in the field of knowledge, then the Jewish people win hands down. There are around 16 million Jews world over and yet 180 of them have won the Nobel prize to date. As opposed to more than 1.8 billion Muslims throughout the world, only 4 Muslims received the Nobel prize to date.

The Economy

In the field of economy, we need not comment further as comparatively, the Muslims are way behind than the rest of the world’s population. In our country, the equity ownership in the corporate sector for example is not even 20% in the hands of the Muslims. In my previous blogs, many of these issues have been elaborated and discussed. In Indonesia, the biggest Islamic country in the world with more than 250 million Muslims, not even 20% of the country’s wealth belonged to the Muslims. Why did Prophet Muhammad SAW after building the mosque or university, created the market as the Prophet SAW’s second priority? The answer is very clear as the Prophet SAW wanted the educated Muslims to also succeed in the field of economy. The Prophet SAW realized that economy, wealth and assets are important in expanding the Islamic religion. The Prophet SAW encourages the Muslims to be successful and wealthy only after they have gained adequate knowledge, taqwa and iman. The Prophet SAW wanted his Ummah to become millionaires but millionaires with adequate iman and taqwa. With these two strong belief, the Muslims will possess the strength that are feared by the people from the other faith.

The Unity

Is knowledge and wealth sufficient? No, and that is why the third issue expedited by the Prophet SAW is to marry off the Muhajirin with the Ansar. The Prophet SAW saw clearly the unity among these two groups is the pre conditioned to success and development introduced by the Prophet SAW. Only unity and sanctity can increase the strength of the Ummah. The strength of this unity is not only strengthening the resources of the Muslims to face and fight the enemies but it is also important for the Muslims to increase various aspects of their daily lives. For instance, to practice Islam as a way of life, to enhance the Islamic governing system in order to prepare and make the Islamic governing system as the leader to everybody regardless of religion. As the leader, the Muslims need to show and demonstrate excellence in various aspects of life. Now, not only do we see the Arab world fighting with each other, but the Muslims in this country are also not united. If among us, we are not united, hated each other, back stabbing and showing the others their weaknesses, what is the rationale to becoming leaders to all races or nation. Can the other nation emulate, respect and look up to us? Can the other nation look upon us as their leaders? These facts need to be studied especially by our Muslim leaders i.e. if we want the glorific era to come back. A formula to unite the Ummahs need to be derived. This formula has to be inclusive and covers every group of people and not just one or two groups only. When all Muslims are united, then it is easy to unite the other communities. When all of us are united, then other people will offer themselves to be with us. They will adjust themselves to fit with us. Same goes for the Jews, the Christians during the Prophet’s SAW era. The Prophet SAW was able to unite them by strengthening the Muslims. The Jews and the Christians had to adjust and assimilate themselves with the Muslims.

The hijrah is not only one historical episode. The philosophy, concept and what can be learned from this episode is important to follow, understand, and practiced as a sunnah for us and the future Islamic generation. InsyaAllah, based on our realisation, excellence and experience the Muslims can be recreated based on the spirit of hijrah.What we need to have is the drive to think big dream high and have a strong heart.