Thank you for this really comprehensive and thought-provoking post Abdullah. I am in full agreement that wanting a better, more stable, well-functioning society where high-quality education, a well supplied and well-run medical system, and access to quality employment and social services are not antithetical at all to the Islamic ethos and teachings about life and civil society. I wish more people were aware and cognizant of the fact that working for and towards those things is not against or somehow opposed to faith.
I also agree that being outwardly religious and demonstrating piety are perfectly fine, but these should not come at the expense of responsible and committed statecraft, where actual practical improvements to things like infrastructure, education, quality of life and social services are neglected.
Your experiences in Jordan perfectly mirror what I’ve heard from all my Moroccan friends about their homeland. When you have to bribe a nurse to get a bed in a hospital it’s not going to incline you to want to invest your society.
If you haven’t heard of the i3 institute in Canada, I recommend you look them up or at least watch their YT channel:
Thought-provoking post. I want to remind us of the following hadith:
On an occasion, Umar Ibn al-Khattab (ra) visited the Prophet (SAW) and saw him sleeping on branches. Upon seeing this Umar (ra) bursted out in tears,
“O Messenger of Allah, how can we allow you to live like this? Look at the kings of Roman, Persia. Look at how they live. Surely O Messenger of Allah, you deserve better. “
The Prophet (saw) peace be upon him responded, “O Umar, is this why we are here for? O Umar, aren’t you happy that they have this Dunya (this life) and we have the Akhirah?”
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 4913
Now compare this hadith to the following excerpt from your article: "having a society of living Muslims who are massive sinners is still better than a society of monk-like Muslims who are slaves," This does not appear in line with the Akhirah-centric mindset that our Prophet (SAW) endorsed. Even from a literal perspective, Sahaba who were actual slaves are many degrees better than the most technologically advanced Muslims from subsequent generations.
If we reframe our priorities to be Akhirah-centric, the decision calculus shifts. The primary question, in terms of which country to live in, should be: Which location is best for my Akihrah? I agree that considering the material and bureaucratic aspects is relevant and acceptable, but it is necessarily a secondary priority.
Do we genuinely believe that living in the Western world is better for our Akhirah, especially considering that our tax money funds genocide? Or is it superior to struggle for change in an admittedly broken system in a Muslim majority country? What would the Sahaba have done? insha’Allah I am looking forward to Part 2.
I was wondering whether this was just a case of Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure", where the measure is piety.
But the clerks at point A and point B aren't that way because of piety, right? Is it just self-entrenching bureaucracy like in a lot of places?
Thanks for the interesting perspective. Let me suggest another potentially causal factor seldom addressed: consanguinity. First-cousin marriage raises recessive-disorder and cognitive-risk rates and, coupled with clan-based patronage and strong in-group religious identity, can entrench low-trust, low-innovation dynamics—yielding outcomes more like Jordan at best or Jemen at worst, unless you have extraordinary resources to be extracted.
My first learning in Istanbul, when dealing with bureaucracy, was - always get an agent, and ideally a lawyer. When I first got my Turkish tax number, actually a simple procedure, I went to the office, asked the guy there, who looked at my UK passport and informed me that as it was valid for 10 years and a few months, and not the requisite 10 years exactly, I couldn't get a tax number. My lawyer, observing whilst sipping on an office chai, at this point strode to the counter, shouted at the man in Turkish, and returned to his seat. The man shuffled angrily back to his desk, stamped my application and returned it to me with a glare, saving me at least a month of bureaucratic wrangling. This said, Turkiye actually does have a relatively efficient and highly digitalised admin system, in many ways better than the UK. Just you have to watch out for the "memuru" who love to say No.
If you are an example of what passes for a diaspora muslim elite, the Ummah is indeed in a bad state. Your handwaving of the Taliban government is pathetic, and falls far short of the care the subject has been given by Western social scientists. I recommend this piece:
The Taliban are in the process of forging a State where none existed before. The preconditions for this are safety or put another way, a monopoly of force by a single government. Personal safety, property crime and the drug trade are all improved significantly. From that foundation they can build.
“Military dominance” as a desired outcome is mentioned twice, but isn’t pursuit of that a fool’s errand and likely to keep states in MENA poor? Western nations invest in defensive capabilities to defend their interests. They don’t seek “military dominance” and with exception of Iraq war and Vietnam have undertaken reactive defensive actions since WW2
"The desire to have working roads, clean water and air, an advanced medical system, highly sophisticated defense technologies, is all part and parcel of making it through the world without losing your sanity, and on a macro level, essential to attaining any sort of sovereign recognition and dominance." seems right.
Can relate to your experience in Jordan, living in India has been radicalizing. Here, I kid you not, they have whole people (plural!) to tell you where to go in a parking lot. Instead of, say, using an electronic sign board...
Thank you for this really comprehensive and thought-provoking post Abdullah. I am in full agreement that wanting a better, more stable, well-functioning society where high-quality education, a well supplied and well-run medical system, and access to quality employment and social services are not antithetical at all to the Islamic ethos and teachings about life and civil society. I wish more people were aware and cognizant of the fact that working for and towards those things is not against or somehow opposed to faith.
I also agree that being outwardly religious and demonstrating piety are perfectly fine, but these should not come at the expense of responsible and committed statecraft, where actual practical improvements to things like infrastructure, education, quality of life and social services are neglected.
Your experiences in Jordan perfectly mirror what I’ve heard from all my Moroccan friends about their homeland. When you have to bribe a nurse to get a bed in a hospital it’s not going to incline you to want to invest your society.
If you haven’t heard of the i3 institute in Canada, I recommend you look them up or at least watch their YT channel:
https://youtube.com/@i3institute?si=fwt4khx509ANuNs7
Thought-provoking post. I want to remind us of the following hadith:
On an occasion, Umar Ibn al-Khattab (ra) visited the Prophet (SAW) and saw him sleeping on branches. Upon seeing this Umar (ra) bursted out in tears,
“O Messenger of Allah, how can we allow you to live like this? Look at the kings of Roman, Persia. Look at how they live. Surely O Messenger of Allah, you deserve better. “
The Prophet (saw) peace be upon him responded, “O Umar, is this why we are here for? O Umar, aren’t you happy that they have this Dunya (this life) and we have the Akhirah?”
Source: Sahih al-Bukhari 4913
Now compare this hadith to the following excerpt from your article: "having a society of living Muslims who are massive sinners is still better than a society of monk-like Muslims who are slaves," This does not appear in line with the Akhirah-centric mindset that our Prophet (SAW) endorsed. Even from a literal perspective, Sahaba who were actual slaves are many degrees better than the most technologically advanced Muslims from subsequent generations.
If we reframe our priorities to be Akhirah-centric, the decision calculus shifts. The primary question, in terms of which country to live in, should be: Which location is best for my Akihrah? I agree that considering the material and bureaucratic aspects is relevant and acceptable, but it is necessarily a secondary priority.
Do we genuinely believe that living in the Western world is better for our Akhirah, especially considering that our tax money funds genocide? Or is it superior to struggle for change in an admittedly broken system in a Muslim majority country? What would the Sahaba have done? insha’Allah I am looking forward to Part 2.
I was wondering whether this was just a case of Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure", where the measure is piety.
But the clerks at point A and point B aren't that way because of piety, right? Is it just self-entrenching bureaucracy like in a lot of places?
Thanks for the interesting perspective. Let me suggest another potentially causal factor seldom addressed: consanguinity. First-cousin marriage raises recessive-disorder and cognitive-risk rates and, coupled with clan-based patronage and strong in-group religious identity, can entrench low-trust, low-innovation dynamics—yielding outcomes more like Jordan at best or Jemen at worst, unless you have extraordinary resources to be extracted.
My first learning in Istanbul, when dealing with bureaucracy, was - always get an agent, and ideally a lawyer. When I first got my Turkish tax number, actually a simple procedure, I went to the office, asked the guy there, who looked at my UK passport and informed me that as it was valid for 10 years and a few months, and not the requisite 10 years exactly, I couldn't get a tax number. My lawyer, observing whilst sipping on an office chai, at this point strode to the counter, shouted at the man in Turkish, and returned to his seat. The man shuffled angrily back to his desk, stamped my application and returned it to me with a glare, saving me at least a month of bureaucratic wrangling. This said, Turkiye actually does have a relatively efficient and highly digitalised admin system, in many ways better than the UK. Just you have to watch out for the "memuru" who love to say No.
If you are an example of what passes for a diaspora muslim elite, the Ummah is indeed in a bad state. Your handwaving of the Taliban government is pathetic, and falls far short of the care the subject has been given by Western social scientists. I recommend this piece:
https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/04/15/the-taliban-were-afghanistans-real-modernizers/
The Taliban are in the process of forging a State where none existed before. The preconditions for this are safety or put another way, a monopoly of force by a single government. Personal safety, property crime and the drug trade are all improved significantly. From that foundation they can build.
“Military dominance” as a desired outcome is mentioned twice, but isn’t pursuit of that a fool’s errand and likely to keep states in MENA poor? Western nations invest in defensive capabilities to defend their interests. They don’t seek “military dominance” and with exception of Iraq war and Vietnam have undertaken reactive defensive actions since WW2
Looking forward to part 2. BTW, have you read this book? Might give you some anthropological view toward what you're writing about:
https://www.amazon.com/WEIRDest-People-World-Psychologically-Particularly/dp/1250800072
"The desire to have working roads, clean water and air, an advanced medical system, highly sophisticated defense technologies, is all part and parcel of making it through the world without losing your sanity, and on a macro level, essential to attaining any sort of sovereign recognition and dominance." seems right.
Can relate to your experience in Jordan, living in India has been radicalizing. Here, I kid you not, they have whole people (plural!) to tell you where to go in a parking lot. Instead of, say, using an electronic sign board...