| Bridging the Divides - A mission waiting for a generation |
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At
the beginning of the eighth century, people lived in different parts of
the world. Each area had its own characteristics, talents and skills.
They had aspirations and dreams. Every part of the world had its own
characteristics and values. However, a common feature among all of them
was the large distance from their Creator. This resulted in the spread
of injustices and lack of freedom in almost all areas. Rulers and
powerful families gave themselves the right to do what they please. The
situation was deteriorating that the values of justice, equality and
freedom were almost lost and its source was almost forgotten. The Lord
of Mercy selected a man to carry His message to all people. His message
brought a reminder of the meaning of life, equality, justice, freedom,
researching, exploring, and development. A message to guide the people
as they enter the eighth century and for those who come after.
The
gap was huge and filling it required a lot of work and was very
difficult to envision. In some instances, it required eradication of
some practices completely. For instance, killing infant girls had to
come to an end. A whole generation had to step forward to embrace the
message and move their communities and their people to follow its
guidance. It was a movement to bridge a divide carried by a generation
that was selected and that lived up to the mission.
The
transformation that had to take place was comprehensive and involved.
It required enormous trust in the leadership exemplified by the
Prophet, peace be upon him. A trust that the source of the message was
true and that the understanding and implementation was correct. It
required intense cooperation, dedication and sacrifice to bring the
guidance of the message to the hearts of the people and to make the
proper implementation to bridge the divides. Allah, High and Exalted,
praised that generation. He praised them as a group and He praised many
of them individually. He praised people that were known and He praised
others who were not known. They were coined the best generation. They
were best generation not only because of the magnitude of the challenge
they faced but also because of how they stood up to it. They fully
dedicated and committed themselves to the mission of their generation.
Their dedication was complete and comprehensive. They transformed not
only their tribes or their society, they transformed the whole world.
They introduced something different, something valuable and something
original for those who came after them.
The
world has been moving throughout time and every generation makes a
contribution. There are generations that moved the world forward and
there are generations that moved it backward. Every generation faces
some challenges. Sometimes big and sometimes small. Sometimes with
longer lasting impact and sometimes with shorter impact. There are
moments in history where a change may happen.
At
the beginning of the twenty first century, the divide and the gap our
world is experiencing is large and severe. There is an East/West
divide, racial divide, cultural divide & religious divide. There is
an economical divide; technological divide; & educational divide.
There is a gap between science and religion. There is a gap between
development and environment. There is a gap between business success
and workers success. There is a gap between downtown and uptown. There
is a gap between immigrants and indigenous. There is a gap between
young and old. There is a gap between races, gender and ethnicity.
There is incomplete justice. Freedom is not yet for all. Equality is
selective and is not yet common.
Our
world, our country and our community entered the twenty first century
with divisions and gaps in almost all walks of life and with increasing
voices that find in this divide its future and welfare. What our
community, our country and our world suffer from today is a divide in
all aspects of life.
As
the generation who lived at the beginning of the eighth century and
inherited a major divide, our generation enters the 21st century
inheriting a major divide as well. The generation in the eighth century
received a message from the Creator. A message to guide, develop and
empower. They responded fully and committed to its movement fully. They
were able to serve the world the best service ever. They brought it
together. They ended the racial divide. They ended the economical
divide. They ended most if not all the injustices. They instilled real
equality, freedom and justice. They turned the world in the right
direction and delivered to their children a better tomorrow.
Our
community, our country and our world today is on the look for a similar
generation. A generation that has what it takes. A generation that has
a message and is willing to dedicate to it fully. A generation that is
committed to the hard work that is needed. There is a need for a bridge
generation, Generation B.
Bringing
about any positive change requires a group of people to come together
with firm believe in their mission, complete dedication to their
message and full patience on doing what is needed. It requires wise and
strong leadership, committed and untied teams and hard work day and
night.
Building bridges requires a movement.
We
come together as MAS members and MAS Youth workers aspired to create a
movement that will become strong with our dedication, commitment and
hard work. With its strength, we will be able to steer our world in the
right direction. With its strength, we will be able to build all the
needed bridges and fill all existing gaps.
Building
bridges and filling gaps automatically changes the landscape.
Furthermore, the wider the divide, the more the change in the landscape
will be. Building a bridge between two lands separated by a small canal
may result in insignificant change in the landscape. However, building
a bridge over a bay area requires significant change in the landscape.
It may change the nature of the land, introduce new landscapes and
sometimes remove some. Bridging an economical divide in a community
produces a different community than the one during the divide. Bridging
a technological divide in a neighborhood results in new behaviors, new
cultures and sometimes different attitudes. If the bridge is correct
and on solid foundations and with correct guidance, the new landscape
is usually much better than the old one.
At
the beginning of any project to bridge any divide, there are always
voices that fear the change and that call for the divide to remain.
Some are benefiting from the divide and some became used and accustomed
to the divide. They do not want a change to happen. They do not believe
there could be a better way than the one they used to have.
When
a land is divided either because of an earthquake or the work of
people, you need new soil to fill the gap. If the gap is large, it may
require adding new slaps and pouring large amount of soil. As a result,
the land comes together as one piece. However, that one piece is
different but stronger than ever before.
Bridging
the divide brings something new and different but better than ever
before. The hard work of the eighth century generation changed the
landscape of Arabia. However, the new landscape was better and
stronger.
Likewise,
this generation, at the beginning of the twenty first century, need to
work very hard to address the current divides. This generation is
entering a historic moment (or may have already entered it) to close
the gaps and bridge the divides. It can capture it as the eighth
century generation did or it can miss it or leave it for someone else
to win the prize.
The
purpose of our movement is to lead our generation to fill the gaps and
bridge the divides. We come together equipped with the original message
of Islam pure from its original sources: the Qur'an and the authentic
life of the prophet, peace be upon him. We come together equipped with
rich human history filled with experiences and many lessons to learn.
We come together equipped with a deep love for our Creator and our
fellow human beings. We come together with full trust in our
leadership, full dedication to our movement and full humility and love
to one another.
We
come together as MAS members and MAS Youth workers to submit to our God
and say to Him: You created us and we are Your servants, we submit to
You, we commit to You, we humble ourselves for You, we dedicate
ourselves to You, we are ready to sacrifice our time for You, we are
ready to sacrifice our money for You, we are ready to give You all what
we have and all what we can. We believe in You, our Lord. We believe in
You. We are willing to do what it takes to chart a better course for
our community, our country and our world.
And
we are willing to take the heat for it. We know that there will be heat
from inside and outside. We are not special. It happened to all the
previous generations who did what we want to do.
And it is a competition and we are in it to win, with the will of Allah.
It
is a tough competition and it is one that requires hard work and sense
of urgency. It is a tough competition because the prize is very
valuable. It is a competition on who will understand the most, who will
sacrifice the most, who will commit the most, who will be the most
conscious of God and who will be the most patient. It is a competition
for attaining the pleasure of God. That is the prize and that is the
reward. Truly, it is the best of rewards
The pleasure of God. The best prize and the best reward. For it, let the workers work. For it, let the teams compete. For it, let the movement begin.
A
movement of a generation that will, with the will of Allah, bridge the
divides and fill the gaps. A MAS movement for Generation B*.
* B for bridg
Hazem Said, PhD
President, MAS Youth
(A division of the Muslim American Society, MAS)
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