Winning Our Children Back to Islam by Dr. Jeffrey Lang
Is Islam really the fastest growing religion? If so, then where are the Muslims and why are our Mosques sitting empty on a daily basis (besides the role call, obligated Jum’uah crowd)? There is a phenomenon happening in the Western Muslim communities and beyond that we are either ignorant to or just plain ignoring. We are standing on the edge of a very serious crisis and this is a crisis of Faith. We are losing people from Islam faster than we are able to sustain them and the truth is being masked by this dangerous rhetoric being doled out by Shayukh and the general Muslim population alike. Yet, this is not a discussion on where to put blame, this is a discussion on how much we have contributed to this breakdown on a very personal level. This lecture is a passionate plea for us to turn our attention to the matter at hand. We are too busy creating cliques at the Masajid, making it a club for our own Nationalistic interests and creating a demeaning class system that goes against everything that is elevated in Islam. Converts, Muslims coming back to Islam and our children are not welcome presences in these spaces. They are less than an afterthought or more than a nuisance. These people are ignored. While we sit in our little groups, these “others” are left to their own vices, their voices drowned out by our laughter, clinking potluck spoons and shady politicking. Our children wander around these spaces without any connection to Allah or His Messenger, observe our thoughtless behavior, and gain or learn nothing of importance, leading them just a little bit further away from the fold of Islam. All while we pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. In the majority, their questions, their needs and their pleas fall on deaf ears, perhaps, not always in an evident way as you would imagine, but definitely in the sense of complacency, indifference, rejection and overall discourteousness. Say, [O Muhammad], "Shall we inform you of the greatest losers as to [their] deeds? [They are] those whose effort is lost in worldly life, while they think that they are doing well in work." Those are the ones who disbelieve in the verses of their Lord and in [their] meeting Him, so their deeds have become worthless; and We will not assign to them on the Day of Resurrection any importance. (The Noble Quran 18:103-105) If we do not wake up and realize that we have a serious crisis on our hands, we will lose this struggle and we will all be responsible. The beginning of this lecture is grounding and heartbreaking. Dr. Lang puts us in the shoes of a Convert or Muslim child living in the West walking into a Mosque using vivid and sometimes quite crude language. It’s shocking, it’s something we already knew and discounted. This is the exact affect he wanted and those, who have any softness left in their hearts or have any real sense of right and wrong, will feel the cut of this double edge sword. This is not a lecture to coddle anyone; this is a lecture to wake us up. The passion exhibited by the good Doctor can speak for itself, Alhamdulillah. If we care an iota for the reality of future of Islam in our countries and the world at large if we continue down this road of obliviousness and can put aside our egos long enough to really see the reality of what our children are facing and becoming, then this is the talk that can propel us into recovering not only the lost, but the majority of the closet Atheists who live among us, some in our own homes without our knowledge, Insha’Allah. We shouldn’t pray for things like Hidayah (guidance and knowledge of Islam), righteous offspring and to join the rightly guided people of Allah SWT in Jannah, if we cannot understand what those things mean, why we ask for them or how they will manifest. Allah grants all these in the opportunities we are granted to change and better ourselves everyday, but if we do not avail these opportunities and we do not under...
