Dealing with the Muslim Cause
As a Muslim, do you often feel the endless barrage of causes weighing you down? Do you feel overwhelmed by the call to help everyone and anyone from your poor next door neighbor to a child in Palestine? And you want help. I know you want to help. You’re a good person who frequently donates time and money to various charities. You’re probably active within your local community. You want to do more to heal the broken hearts and broken lives in the Muslim world and the world in general. But each day, either through email, a khutbah or blog post, there is someone telling you that you ought to help these people, and join with this cause and save the people of this land.
Sometimes we are so bogged down with causes that many of us throw up our hands and do nothing. What’s worse is that some of us are so tired of “Muslim Inactivism” that we leave the Muslim community and/or Islam because of the perception that Muslims aren’t trying to alleviate our problems. We must not forget that as Muslims living in Western societies, we, too fall victim to the media bias which makes all Muslims out to be corrupt and uncaring of the world around them. We forget that it’s much more newsworthy to report bombings and riots rather than Muslims opening up soup kitchens and women’s shelters. I wrote about this issue in a blog post entitled Muslim Inactivism Revisited. Here’s a little section of it.
“There are many reasons why many of us do not get involved with our communities. Sometimes, I think it’s because we are “caused out.” Do ya know what I mean? We have too many causes. There’s the daily oppression of the Palestinians being funded by our tax dollars, the suffering of the Chechnyans, the plight of guest workers and servants in Muslim countries, and the famines in Niger and Mali. Don’t forget the conflict of Darfur, the crime and hopelessness among some of Europe’s Muslim youth, the torture of Muslims and Christians in Uzbekistan, the destruction of holy sites in Saudi Arabia, the constant anti-Islamic media campaign in America, psychotic wanna be mujahideen killing innocent people, the endless violation of women’s rights in Islam and the teeming masses of Muslim refugees. We also have spouses and children to take care of, jobs and bills to pay. Add to all this mountain the daily striving of changing your condition in order to change yourself. Do you have a headache yet?”
Dear sisters (and brothers, too), you can’t save the world.
Repeat this statement over and over again. Do not misunderstand it because it is not a statement of despair. It is a statement to help you realize that you can only effect that which is within your immediate reach. You can only influence that which is within your circle of influence. Also, realize that your role is not small. Not by a long shot. Once you focus on that which you can change, you will realize just how big your scope of power and influence really is. Here is another excerpt from the Muslim Inactivism Revisited post.
I haven’t begun to address all the problems because they’re too many. So in a state of helplessness, many of us choose to do nothing at all and “leave it in the hands of Allah.” Everything is in the hands of Allah, whether we do something or not. The question is whether or not you will offer yourself as a tool for creative, positive change in society rather than sitting on the sidelines and letting history and opportunity pass you by. We need to take a deep breath, sit down and seriously think about improving things that are within our reach.
The world is in Allah’s care and He has a divine plan for us all. Accept it. You can’t save the world but that doesn’t mean that you can’t help the world. As someone who has only been a Muslim and activist for a short amount of time, I can only give a little bit of advice. I would recommend that you focus only on those things which you feel most passionate about. If you are passionate about women’s rights, pursue it. If you have the energy, drive and money, go to the countries of interest and help them. But if you’re like most Muslims in the West, there’s plenty of jobs to fill right here within our communities. You can volunteer to teach classes to Muslim youth on any subject—religion, language, art—even martial arts! Just last weekend, some teenage Muslimas got together and threw a Hijabapalooza party, complete with a bazaar to sell their poetry books, artwork, desserts and of course, hijabs! That one evene taught them how to enhance their creativity and business skills. How about feeding the homeless and there are millions of homeless people, right here. Or mayeb you are heavy into political activism—try to find some liked minded people and see if you discover your political niche. Whatever you do, don’t take on too many causes because you will spread yourself too thin and eventually quit due to exhaustion and fatigue.
Remember, God will only hold you accountable for that which you can control. I know we want to save everybody from the poor child in Pakistan to the struggling single mother in New York. But maybe if everyone took responsibility for their own, there wouldn’t be a need for so many causes.
It doesn’t take much. Trust me…here’s a little story from my friend Aaminah to show you that it can be done.
Asalaamu alaikum.
I would like to give an example, if I may, of how doing something - anything - is better than nothing. Locally, a sister I had never even met recently did something quite wonderful in response to the Pakistan earthquake. She used her connections in the community, not just with Muslims, to find musicians and dance groups of several cultural backgrounds (it included Hindu, Indonesian, Polynesian, Native American, Mexican, Kurdish etc.) and talked to a local community theatre to let her use their space. She produced an event that was open to the public, promoted mainly by word of mouth, for an evening of multi-cultural entertainment. The entrance cost was $15, and that complete fee went towards the charity - the theatre didn’t charge her for the space and threw in help with the technical stuff, the dancers all volunteered, and a few local restaurants donated food. It was a beautiful event, full of people from all different backgrounds. Even some local policy makers attended. This was created by one sister, one who doesn’t even feel comfortable in the mosque, and yet outside the mosque, it was the most Muslims I’ve ever seen in one place, mingling with people from all over. And it raised a good amount of money too that all went directly to a Muslim aid group working in Pakistan. One woman, with vision and hard work, created a wonderful thing that did more than most of us do in our entire lives despite all our talk.
