The Way Forward – Part 3

Think long term. It is not about winning one conflict. It is about becoming influential and creating a situation where there are no more conflicts. It is about becoming influential where you can initiate and direct local and national policy. It is about being in positions where the decisions you take will positively impact people across the globe and become Sadaqa Jaariya for you. Let me mention for you just two such decisions the effects of which the world is feeling to this day. One was the Sykes–Picot Agreement, of 1916 (Nov 23, 1915 – Jan 3, 1916); a secret treaty between the United Kingdom and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, to define their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in an eventual carving up of the Ottoman Empire. The British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot drafted the agreement which was ratified by their respective governments on 9 and 16 May 1916. The second was theBalfour Declaration (1917) which was a letter from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, which was an Ottoman region with a small Jewish population.

The big lesson to learn is that what matters even more than who you are, is where you are. Environment dictates effectiveness. A fish can’t even breathe on land but in the water, it is the epitome of speed and grace. Today we have as many capable people as anyone else, but they are not in the right places. That must be our goal, right person in the right place. To change anything, you must own it first. You can’t change what you don’t own. Your country is America. Not Syria or Pakistan or Iraq or Lebanon. It is America. You are a citizen. Not a visitor waiting to go home. The truth is that this is already the case with your children. Not one of them is capable of returning to your country of origin and living there. This is critical because only when you think of America as your own country can you work to make it beneficial for the world. If you read history, you will see that in every age there has always been some empire or nation which dominated. In this post WW2 age, it is America. Given that China or Russia are the other options, I am thankful for this. The citizens of this country have the opportunity to make that a blessing for the world. Only you can do this. Not outsiders. Therefore, you have two choices: to complain about what’s happening or to change it.

Allahﷻ encourages us to become powerful and establish justice on earth.

إِنَّا لَنَنصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ يَقُومُ ٱلْأَشْهَـٰدُ

Ghafir 40: 51    We certainly help Our messengers and the believers, ˹both˺ in this worldly life and on the Day the witnesses will stand forth

وَأُخْرَىٰ تُحِبُّونَهَا نَصْرٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَفَتْحٌ قَرِيبٌ وَبَشِّرِ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ

Saff 61: 13   ˹He will also give you˺ another favor that you long for - help from Allah and imminent victory. ˹So˺ give good news ˹O Prophet˺ to the believers.

To create change we need people in four critical areas. Legislature, Judiciary, Executive, and Media. Lawmaking, interpreting the law, administration, and mind-steering. That means we need attorneys, judges, politicians, administrators, journalists and media specialists, professors of political science and sociology, and financial experts. We have enough doctors, engineers, MBAs, and Mom & Pop shops. We need ethical, moral power brokers with a sense of accountability to Allahﷻ.

Think of all those people in this community who you think are wealthy. Ask how many of them are in positions of power?