Auron ka hai Payaam aur, mera Payaam aur hai, / Ishq key dardmand ka tarz-e-kalaam aur hai! (Iqbal)
What now? Where do we go from here? As someone said: Pas chay baayad kard, ay aqwaam-e-sharq?
What should Muslims do to deal with this situation and with countless other disasters that have smitten them over the past several decades?
Over the past few centuries if you want to put it that way.
The answer requires time. And it will be fairly long and complex. But let me say this right here and right now: the answer is education.
And the answer is character.
Educate the Muslims and everything else will follow. At least that is the solution offered by the Qur’ān to human problems in general.
It may take time but it will happen. And if Muslims are smart, they can cut down the time significantly.
Islam has a most comprehensive approach to education. Education in Islam covers everything that human beings can and need to know about this and the other world. The Qur’ān calls it Ta’leem.
It thus includes all things that have come to us through Wahy as well as all things that are known or knowable through science and broad human inquiry. And it includes formal as well as informal education.
At the same time, education in Islam has a close corollary: character building. The Qur’an calls it Tazkiyah, which is also a most comprehensive concept. And it includes individuals as well as groups, nations and societies.
Thus, Ta’aleem and Tazkiyah are the two core Qur’ānic concepts that hold the key to not only Muslim problems but also to human problems in general. And they both are highly complex and multidimensional concepts whose details need a lot of time and effort to work out.
These two concepts together cover everything about human life: theory as well as practice; this world as well as next world.
A good and immediate beginning is for all of us to understand that this is Qur’ān’s formula for solving human problems. Our challenge now is to work out some of the details and dedicate ourselves to the task of educating the Muslims and building their character – both as individuals and as groups, nations and societies.