The Present Day Islamic Movements
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Over the last century, countless Islamic movements have sprung up in various parts of the 
Islamic world.  The large majority of these movements have represented a reaction against 
colonialism and western (economic) domination.  They have been political in nature.  The 
fundamental message of Islam, which should provide the basis of any true Islamic movement 
has been obscured beneath superficial and mundane issues.          

These movements have won extraordinary support amongst Muslim populations of the 
world.  They have captured the Muslim imagination and spurred the masses to expend all 
their energies in opposing what they saw as tyranny and oppression.  Yet despite the wide 
popular support they enjoyed, the achievements of these movements have been negligible.  
This is in sharp contrast to the mission of the holy Prophet, on whom be peace and God's 
blessings.  In 2 A.H. when the Battle of Badr was fought, he had under his command 313 
dedicated and committed companions.  Within twenty years of his death Islam had spread 
throughout the whole of North Africa and had made considerable inroads into Persia.  Not 
only were these lands conquered, but the language, attitudes and intellectual framework of 
their inhabitants were also radically altered.  Why is it that the Prophet's Islamic movement 
was so immensely successful, while those that present-day Muslims initiate fail to establish 
the theoretical and practical ascendancy of Islam in even a small portion of the globe?  There 
is no doubt that the reason for this is that modern Islamic movements have been denied the 
divine succor which is essential for success. There is also no doubt that God has withheld 
His assistance because these movements have failed to accord to God's design which He has 
made manifest on earth by means of multiple signs.          

God desires that the emphasis of any Islamic movement be laid on the importance of 
preparation for the hereafter.  He has spread countless signs throughout the universe which 
attest to the insignificance of this world in relation to eternity; He has sent prophets who had 
constantly urged man to use his time on earth in cultivating his eternal crop and made this 
the basis of their mission.  Yet modern Islamic movements have focused their attention on 
worldly issues and have distracted people's attention from the very issue which Islam is 
supposed to emphasize: that of eternity, an issue of fundamental and crucial importance to 
all mankind.          

God desires that truth should be conveyed to man on an intellectual plane.  The Quran stated 
emphatically that proofs of monotheism would soon be displayed to man in the cosmos  and 
in his own being.  Islam opened the way for scientific progress which has established 
emphatically man's limitations, and the existence in the cosmos of one all-pervading order 
according to which all things function.  These conclusions are direct evidence in support of 
the two basic tenets of Islam: the need for prophetic revelation and the oneness and 
omnipotence of god.  There is no need for us to force the issue now; the weaponry of 
knowledge is fully at our command.  Yet modern Islamic movements have not made use of 
this weapon.  They have not operated on an intellectual level.  They have insisted on 
pressing their demands in the infertile arena of political confrontation.          

God has decreed that His religion shall spread by virtue of compassion and forgiveness 
towards one's fellow-man.  He sent a Prophet whose actions were an epitome of the divinely-
endowed title, "Mercy for the world"; who spared his most dire enemies when he had them 
at mercy.  Yet modern Islamic movements have forsaken this prophetic pattern and dealt 
brutally and inhumanely with their opponents.          

All this shows that Muslims' are concentrating their efforts on the wrong objective.  They 
have failed to enact their fundamental responsibility: communication of the prophetic 
message in a way that will leave no doubt in the minds of those they are addressing as to its 
validity.  Their relationship with non-Muslims has been founded on the rocks of political, 
social and nationalistic confrontation and has never been established on solid, fertile, 
spiritual ground.  It is God's will that His religion should be supreme on earth.  He has 
created the conditions necessary for this to be achieved, and has assigned to the followers of 
the final Prophet the task of spreading the Faith.  But Faith can only reign supreme when 
those who seek to propagate its work in accordance with God's design.          

The three hundred and thirteen companions who took the field at Badr had aligned 
themselves with God's scheme.  That is why the Holy Prophet prayed for their survival in 
such passionate terms.  "If", he cried out to God, "they perish, then You will be worshipped 
no more on earth."  They survived and by virtue of their efforts the world saw a revolution 
the like of which has not been seen on earth.  Not only did they conquer people's territories; 
they won people's minds with the Quran and their hearts with their own actions.  They 
established the intellectual dominance of monotheism, thus paving the way for scientific 
research into natural phenomena which had until then been considered as inviolable objects 
of worship.          

If a group of people emerge in this day and age who are as attuned to the divine will as they 
were, and work in compliance with the conditions which God has prepared for the 
establishment of His religion on earth, then there is no doubt that results can be achieved as 
they were in the early days of Islam.