OIC CONFERENCE OF THE MINISTERS OF ENDOWMENTS AND ISLAMIC AFFAIRS

7/5/2002 ISTANA HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR

 

I would like to welcome all the delegates to this

OIC Conference of the Ministers of Endowments and

Islamic Affairs being held here in Kuala Lumpur.

 

2. Alhamdullillah we are grateful to Allah the

Almighty for allowing Ministers from Muslim countries

to again meet each other at this conference. This

conference is only held once every three years, and I

am sure there are many issues on the development and

welfare of the ummah which must be discussed and shared

among OIC member countries, so we may better serve the

well-being of our people.

 

3. I am sure you have come here to discuss the religious,

economic and social problems of the ummah with open minds

and concerned about adhering to and implementing the true

teachings of our religion. I believe that we all have to

face the reality of the world of today, a world which has

become smaller because of jet travel and real time

communication of information, a world in which we the

Muslims can no longer isolate and insulate ourselves from

each other or the wider world of non-Muslim countries.

Whether we like it or not we have to make adjustments to

our way of life so as to maintain our faith intact, so as

to give meaning to our belief that Islam is for all times

and not just for the 1st century of the Hijrah or the

7th century of the Christian era only.

 

4. For 13 centuries the Islamic civilisation thrived.

Muslims were supreme in every field; in the

administration and development of their land, in the

arts and the sciences, in industry and in trade. The

world looked up to the Muslims and respected their

military prowess and submitted to their rule. It was

an empire that seemed destined to last forever.

 

5. But we know that it did not. In 1492 the last

Muslim ruler of Granada was forced to surrender his

country to the Spaniards and retreat to North Africa.

In the 1920's the Turkish Muslim empire collapsed due

to attacks by Anglo-French forces. Practically the

whole of Asia Minor or Turkey as we know it today came

under Greek occupation. If it had not been for Mustafa

Kamal, the leader many Muslims love to condemn, there

would not be any Turkey, secular or otherwise today.

 

6. Many Muslims accept the demise of the Muslim

Empire as "takdir", as Allah's will. Muslims never

really studied the role that they themselves played

which brought about their downfall. They never blame

themselves. In insisting that it was Allah's will,

Muslims are indirectly blaming Allah for their

misfortunes. Yet the Al-Quran clearly states that the

bad things that happens to us is due to ourselves, the

good is from Allah. So how could Allah bring us

misfortune? How could Allah be blamed? Surely the

people to be blamed for the collapse of the Muslim

Empire and the sad plight of the Muslims today are the

Muslims themselves. They have done little to save

their empire and civilisation, to save themselves from

oppression, their religion from being dishonoured.

 

7. If it is all the will of Allah why do Muslims

struggle at all? Why do they explode bombs on their

bodies and why do they crash aircrafts against the

World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing themselves

and many innocent people, some of whom are not even

their declared enemy. If they believe that this world

is for the infidels then they should suffer oppression,

indignities and killings even and not struggle against

oppression. They should say it is Allah's will and as

Muslims they cannot fight what is ordained by Allah.

 

8. To be very crude the fate of the Muslims today is

of their own making. It is not ordained but it is

basically because they ignore the true teachings of

Islam, the injunctions of the Al-Quran and the guidance

of the true Hadith. They quote the Quran often enough

but only to explain away their wrong deeds. They can

even explain why they as Muslims deny that all Muslims

are their brothers as taught by Islam. And having

declared certain Muslims are apostates they then kill

these Muslims in the name of Islam. The result is that

more Muslims are killed by brother Muslims than by the

infidel enemies of Islam. The result is that Muslims

and Muslim countries are weak and incapable of

protecting themselves and their countries. The result

is that Muslims live in poverty and misery. The result

is Jenin.

 

9. Islam enjoins upon the Muslims to read, "Iqraq".

You cannot read without learning and acquiring

knowledge. In the early years of Islam the Muslims

applied themselves diligently to reading. They did not

read just the Quran and the Hadith but they read the

works of the Greek and other ancient scholars and

philosophers and elaborated and extended the knowledge

that they acquired. The whole scholastic world in

those days had to study Arabic in order to learn the

teachings of the Greeks and other great scholars of

history. Arabic became the language of mathematics,

the sciences, philosophy, navigation etc.

 

10. Then came those Muslim scholars who condemn

knowledge that was not about the religion of Islam.

They formulated Islamic jurisprudence which tolerated

no opposition. Islam was all about sins and

punishment. All the rest that is enjoined upon Muslims

in the Quran and Hadith that was not about sins and

punishment were ignored. With the advent of these

Muslim jurists and their insistence that the only

knowledge that Muslim should acquire was about Islam,

the study of science, mathematics, philosophy and other

so-called worldly knowledge were ignored. Muslims

became more and more ignorant about the world in which

they live, about engineering and development, about the

advances in industry and the production of goods and

services. The weapons of war that they used did not

improve and they resorted to buying weapons from

others, many of whom were their enemies.

 

11. They missed the Industrial Revolution completely.

And they became client states of the non-Muslims. And

now they are going to miss the Information Age, the

revolution in communication and knowledge-based

economy. They are likely to say that it is the will of

Allah that they become even more backward and weak.

Yet if they participate actively in the development and

application of the new technologies they can become as

strong as their detractors. And if that happens surely

it will also be the will of Allah. Allah asks us to

change ourselves before He will grant us success.

 

12. It is an important part of the teachings of Islam

that we practise charity, that we give alms to the

poor, that we endow a part or the whole of our wealth

to Islam and the Muslim community. It is obvious that

charity requires ownership of wealth in the first

place. It is equally obvious that the more wealth and

property that we acquire the more we can endow. On the

other hand if we are poor there is not much or nothing

that we can give as endowment.

 

13. Yet there is a belief among many Muslims that

being rich is sinful. This belief is held despite the

Islamic teaching that being poor is close to being

kufur, being unIslamic.

 

14. There is jealousy and hate even of the rich, that

somehow they are not good Muslims. Yet Allah has

promised that He will raise some above others. In

other words we can be either rich, or poor, elevated in

stature and power above others without affecting our

equality before Allah. We are only better in

accordance to our submission or takwa before Allah,

whether we are high or low, rich or poor. The rich who

give to charity because he submits to Allah is as good

as anyone else who submits to Allah, who obeys the

injunctions of Allah.

15. If we can imagine all members of the Muslim ummah

as being uniformly poor, then charity would not be

possible and the poor cannot benefit from the

generosity that is enjoined by Islam upon Muslims.

They would have nothing to give away. That is why it

is important for Muslims to work hard to increase their

wealth. We must work hard not just as labourers but in

everything that we do which will contribute to our

wealth. We must work hard to acquire the knowledge and

the skills to rise to the highest level in our

occupation, in our business and in our industries. And

all the time as our income increases we must pay our

zakat, practise sedekah, build schools and mosques and

other facilities for the Muslim ummah and endow a part

of our accumulated wealth to Muslims while we are alive

or upon our death.

 

16. We must do all these systematically and without

self-interest in this world if possible. Our motive

must be charity and not so as to be hailed by the

beneficiaries or the public as practitioners of the

teachings of Islam. Allah will know that we have given

and given with sincerity and we will, insyaallah get

our rewards in the akhirat.

 

17. Rather than personally donating directly to the

beneficiaries we can just pay zakat to the officials

appointed to collect the zakat. The Governments have

provided the Office of Muslim Affairs which is tasked

with collecting the zakat and administering it. We

know to whom zakat is due and the proportion to be

spent on each. It is the duty of the officers to

ensure that each will get the correct allocation. Thus

the poverty and the needs of the Muslim ummah will be

overcome. But the zakat is not meant for the able-

bodied who are too lazy to work. There is no merit in

receiving, only merit in giving. That is the teaching

of Islam. And so everyone must try not to depend on

charity but to work and earn their own upkeep when

possible and then they too can donate and endow and

receive merit for themselves in the afterlife.

 

18. It is sinful for a Muslim society not to strive to

develop itself. Allah has showered us with all kinds

of resources, not least of which is human resources.

We are endowed with a strong body and a brain that can

think and solve the problems affecting us. Some of us

will depend on our hands and legs to perform numerous

tasks and as we employ our limbs Allah will gradually

increase our strength and our skills. We can become

the finest craftsmen producing delicate works of art

like the Moroccans and the Uzbeks. Somehow these

skills will be inherited by our children through the

generations.

 

19. It is the same with the brain, the acquisition of

knowledge and reasoning skills. With repetition we

will acquire great thinking, deductive and reasoning

skills. Through the generations we will become

cleverer.

 

20. With these skills we can enrich ourselves and

enrich our society. We can produce things and invent

things, trade and manufacture. Muslims are great

craftsmen and thinkers but for a long time they have

stopped improving their production or their thinking.

And so they keep on laboriously producing things by

hand one by one. But the Muslim population and others

has increased tremendously. Producing one by one by

hand cannot supply the needs of the six billion plus

people in the world. Because we do not know how to

mass produce good products to meet the demand of a mass

market, we have become poor. And because we are poor

we are not as able as we should be to give alms and to

endow towards the Muslim community.

 

21. We have not made use of what Allah has endowed us

with the brains and the brawn and it would seem that we

are ungrateful for what He has showered on us. On

every occasion we pray for Allah's help but Allah will

not help us because we have not helped ourselves.

Those who say that it is Allah's will that we are poor

have forgotten that the Quran has made it clear and I

repeat, that all the bad things that happen to us are

our own doing but all the good comes from Allah. If we

are poor and oppressed, if we can expect no charity

from Muslims who are all poor it is our fault and not

Allah's will. If we want to fulfill the Islamic

injunction that we be charitable then we must use our

brains and brawn to enrich ourselves in order to be

able to endow our wealth on the needy among us and to

provide the amenities for the performance of what is

obligatory (wajib) for us as Muslims. Mosques in

particular should be endowed by the rich after they

have paid their zakat and given alms to the poor. But

we must also endow institutions of learning, research

and development which can contribute to a better life

for us and our capacity to defend ourselves.

 

22. It is clear that the teachings of Islam if

followed by the ummah would result in an equitable and

just society and a rich and powerful one. Islam does

not preach absolute equality. The Quran is clear in

this matter for Verse 21 Surah Al-Israa' states that

Allah will elevate some people above others (in rank

and in wealth). But the Quran also requires us to be

charitable to the poor and to those below us by

distributing our wealth through the zakat, alms and

endowments. No one is prevented from acquiring wealth

and through his own labour no one needs to be poor.

But if he is poor despite his efforts to sustain

himself then the charity of Muslims will ensure that he

gets a share of the wealth earned by others. This

Islamic system of managing the inequities in human

society is far better than any ideology invented by

Man.

 

23. It is in order that Muslims can acquire halal

wealth that they must acquire knowledge and the skills

necessary to bring success to their enterprises. The

quest for knowledge is the first step towards the

fulfillment of the Muslim injunction to be charitable

and to endow the wealth earned for the well-being of

the Muslims and their need for institutions and

facilities to perform their ritual and non-ritual

obligations as Muslims. The acquisition of knowledge

that can contribute to the well-being of the ummah is

therefore a primary obligation. In addition of course

the Muslim ummah would be rich and strong and capable

of defending themselves. If today few Muslims can

practise charity and they are often so oppressed and

harassed by their enemies that they cannot even perform

the solat, it is because the Muslims are poor in

knowledge and skills, are unable to enrich their

countries and strengthen them against aggression by

their enemies. It is shameful and unIslamic that all

we Muslims can do when the Israelis massacred the

Palestinians in Jenin and elsewhere is to appeal to

others for pity and for help. Clearly the Muslims have

not been doing anything to change their own

helplessness and they do not deserve to be helped by

Allah. Remember that at Badar the small Muslim force

fought against huge odds and Allah came to their help

and gave them victory. The Muslim force did not fight

because of anger. They did not just want to kill their

enemy out of frustration. They fought as a force for

Islam and they were victorious.

 

24. Equipping ourselves with knowledge and skills and

using them to enrich ourselves and our countries is

therefore the sine qua non of fulfilling the injunction

of Islam to be charitable and to endow our wealth for

the performance and propagation of our faith. The

wealthier we are the more we can endow and the stronger

will be the ummah.

 

25. I am ashamed that many among Muslims and non-

Muslims have made fun of the OIC saying that it stands

for Oh! I see. The implication is that we just see and

we do nothing. Since its founding the OIC has not been

remarkable for the things that it does. Indeed it is

seldom that the members of the OIC can see eye to eye

and agree on anything that needs to be done. Very

often we are not even able to meet. Even the agencies

we have created have not been able to deliver.

 

26. If I may be permitted to say it, we Muslims and

our countries are not very Islamic. We cannot even

regard each other as brothers. While the enemy is at

the door we are busy trying to bring down governments

and weakening ourselves in the process. The sad thing

is that they do this in the name of Islam. Yet if in

the name of Islam we promote Muslim unity and if we act

together even our weakness can be overcome.

 

27. In the pursuit of the teachings of Islam on

charity we must at least agree to the process. There

is much we can do by ourselves and much more that we

can do together.

 

28. I hope that this Conference of Ministers of

Endowments and Islamic Affairs can bring about greater

cohesion and understanding of the aim of Islam and

Endowment and the way we can fulfill this obligation of

our religion. Islam is never wrong but the followers

often are wrong in their interpretation and practice of

Islam. Remember that the sad plight of the Muslims of

today is our own doing, is due to our not really

practising Islam