'izzah of being a Muslim?

[3: 110, Ali Imran]

Allah says that Muslims are the best people or nation? Are we now?

Muslims are backward educationally, socially, and economically and in world power politically. We need to make a self-critical study: Nobel Prize winners, Olympic Gold Medal winners, number of Books published, number of Articles published, number of scientists per 100000 population. Where are we?

The Qur'an and Hadith exhort the Muslims (both men and women) to read and excel in education.

Look at the literacy rate in the Muslim Ummah. Muslim countries like, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, etc. Now Afghanistan is in a hopeless situation with civil wars. Sisters who constitute half of the population are not allowed to pursue education.

[20: 114, Ta Ha]

Knowledge is power. The U.S. is the only Super Power. Why? Because it has knowledge in every field of human endeavor. Most of the Immigrant Muslims came here for higher education. If you go to any developing country and ask a student where do you want to go for higher education, the answer invariably will be United States. US is a super power, super corrupted power, absolutely and totally corrupted! No doubt the US Foreign Policy is not even handed and commits wrong to some Muslim countries because of the lobbyists.

Then how do we as Muslims correct the situation?

We can change the situation through 'Ilm and Aml plus Sabr. We need to be organized. First we need to be united. We can learn many lessons from other communities how they correct their situations and shortcomings.

Thousand years ago, our ancestors were masters in Astronomy, Medicine, and many other knowledge under the sky. Today our knowledge of Astronomy is weak. We are no longer master in Medicine and Mathematics.

1000 years ago Muslims were in the forefront in every field of knowledge. The students from the West came to Muslim Spain, Sicily, Cairo, and Baghdad to study the sciences.

Like our ancestors Muslims should take the lead in scientific study, exploration and knowledge. INTELLECTUAL REVIVAL OF MUSLIMS is the need of the hour.

The greatest pleasure for a father or mother is when their son or daughter achieves or rather excels in education, profession, power, wealth, etc. The most important is education. If I am a middle school graduate, then it is my responsibility to make my children high-school graduates or college graduates. If I am a high school graduate, then I should make my children college graduates or postgraduates. If I am a college graduate, then I should make my children obtain doctoral degrees. May Allah (SWT) give us the Tawfeek to understand His Deen and follow His Guidance.

a fishy tale

The story below is not an Islamic teaching nor taken from the Quran or Sunnah -- it is just a simple fishy tale ...

Two fish were swimming when they saw a piece of meat dangling before them. The younger fish darted toward it with an open mouth. The older fish cried out:

"Stop! You can't see it, there is a hook inside that meat. It is connected by an invisible line to a pole outside the water. There is a man holding the pole. If you eat the meat, the hook will catch in your jaw and the man will pull you out of the water. He will cut you open with a knife, roast you on a fire and eat you. Then he will throw your remains to his cat."

The young fish stopped. The two of them swam away. But when the young fish was alone, he thought to himself:

"Let me investigate for myself how accurate these claims are."

He went back to the meat, swam around it, above and below it. He swam as far as he could in widening circles around the meat. After a long search, he said to himself:

"I've looked far and wide, and I haven't found any sign of a man, a pole, a knife, a fire or a cat. In fact, I've found no trace of anything outside this water we live in. These must just be stories."

He went back to the meat and ate it. The hook caught in his jaw, he felt himself being yanked out of the water. He saw a pole, a man and a knife, but at that point his knowledge was useless.