To the Muslims of the Twenty-First Century: by Dr. Rafey Habib

To the Muslims of the Twenty-First Century: by Dr. Rafey Habib

Do not follow us:
We are the old generation, tired, disabled corrupt.
Find your own path.

All we had to do
Was follow the Book. But we
Did not even read it. We recited it
Without knowing what it meant.
We were commanded to read:
But we cannot read.

We were blessed with oil, but we
Bled it into a curse:
We could have created Colleges, filled with the
Light of the worlds highest scholars;
Libraries, centres of the highest learning,
Schools to bring our people forward, returning to
Our glittering past; educating and
Enlightening:
Financing the learned traditions of Islam
Traditions of Islam throughout the East.

But we have not built even one,
Not one renowned college:
All the great scholars are in the West:
Where are our scholars?
Who comes to us to learn
Any science or art? Our colleges are
Beautiful on the outside only; inside
They are prisons of
Dullness, and decay of intellect.
We have no great philosophers, not one:
No great thinkers; our few novelists
And poets speak with a
Lonely voice

We could have forged alliances
In all spheres, culture, economics, religion:
Alliances with the great powers; we could have fostered science and art;
We could have built our own cars, our own
Satellites, our own space ships;
We could have renewed our great traditions of medicine;
We could have spread Islams ideal of charity
Through Asia and Africa; we could have
Shown the world a different path,
A path of light.

But instead, we plunged into the worlds
Darkness; we traded the poetry of our desert heart
For the urban prose of circumstance; we fostered
Ignorance and backwardness and
Utter dependence. We built
Luxury hotels and playgrounds for
The playboys of the West,
While our own playboys played in Europe

But instead, we tried to be like them
Driving German luxury cars, wearing
Their clothes, watching their films, listening
To their music, pretending all the time
To the strictest forms of faith, veiling
Our populations in night, in the stubborn
Gloom of a feudal past.

We cared nothing for our peoples voices;
Or for the Prophetic past which taught
Consensus and community. Our politics are
Mired in fogs of self-interest, blind to
Any broad picture of the world : we cannot
See ourselves, cannot think for ourselves:
Our ignorance mires us in blind imitation.

We financed the narrowest Islam in many nations,
We financed activists, whose actions for half a century
Have achieved nothing; less than nothing: we are worse
Than before.
And we have done nothing for
The Palestinians: they suffer
Even more oppression,
Even more cruelty
Than before.

Do not follow us.
We cannot tell you which path to take:
We do not know.
But do not follow us.

Seek your own path;
Seek the true light of Islam, which
We did not find.

And seek the true Light of the One God.

Filmed by: Chris Barrett
Special Thanks: Elizabeth Licorish

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[theHRA2f]

This is truly a lovely and inspiring poem!

[GODandPEACE]

This guy says; Follow the book (the Quran), we recited it without knowing what it says;

He wouldn’t recommend to young people to follow the Quran if he knew what it really says, unless he wants them to be extremists and terrorists.

[seekingatrialogue]

so sad and beautiful... thank you very much

[ifittakesforever]

That is so very "Lovely" Dr. Habib. Thank you. Thank you. :)

[CraigDirty]

Very nice.