To me, it seems strange to have to say this. Bad People, it seems to me, are not really the problem in this world.
Everybody knows them. And deals with them as they should be dealt with: as Bad People. And Allah makes short shrift of them.
It did not take Allah long to take care of Fir'aun, did it? Even though Allah gave Fir'aun chance after chance after chance to save himself.
It is the Good People, it seems to me, that are really the challenge. And at the top of this list are people we call Good Muslims.
They all pass for Good People. They act and conduct themselves as Good People. But they so often leave you utterly frustrated and confused with the way they do or don't do certain things. And with the results in real life that they target and achieve.
Under their tutelage and leadership, and they do seem to have a penchant for hoisting themselves at every leadership petard they could find, the Muslim Ummah, and the world at large, go from bad to worse.
Nothing moves, nothing changes and nothing improves. Status Quo remains the same. Stagnation is the order of the day.
Everything and everybody in the world changes and improves and becomes better. But not the Muslims -- under the dominance and leadership of the Good Muslims. In fact, all too frequently, the condition of Muslims goes from bad to worse.
And, so often also, for them the rope of Allah seems to have no end.
One clear example of this is how, almost all over America, Canada and the Caribbean, the Jum'ah Khutbah has become an almost useless and lifeless ritual in the hands of all the Good Muslims who preside over it in one way or another.
I find it inexcusable -- and frankly surprising -- for myself to have been so lackadaisical about Jum'ah Khutbah myself. And so ineffective in whatever noises I have tried to make, and in all the steps I have tried to take, to address the Jum'ah Situation, wherever I could.
It seems Shaitan works at many levels. And often he attacks you where you would least suspect: yourself.
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