IUMS Message to the Islamic Summit calling for real unity, solidarity
All praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His messenger Muhammad, his family and companions and those who follow his guidance;
The Islamic nation has – for more than a century – suffered fragmentation, backwardness, poverty, unemployment, and inflation in addition to social, economic and scientific problems that are secret to no one.
Today, the Islamic states summit is being held against the background of the political success of the Arab, Islamic spring and its need for economic, political and social support.
With this situation in mind, the International Union of Muslim Scholars addresses a message to the leaders of Muslim countries greeting them with the Islamic greeting, sincerely praying to Allah to grant them more success and Godspeed, and demanding the following:
First: Your highnesses, Allah has placed you in a position of responsibility before Him and your nation and He is to question you over what you’ve done as the Prophet – peace be upon him – said ""All of you are shepherds and each of you is responsible for his flock. A leader is a shepherd and he is responsible for those in his care.” [narrated by Al-Bukhari and Muslim]. A just leader will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment in the shade of Allah when there is no shade but His as narrated in the authenticated hadiths. Moreover, "The best of your leaders are those whom you love and who love you, you pray for them and they pray for you; and the worst of your leaders are those whom you hate and who hate you, and you curse and they curse you,” [narrated by Muslim].
Second: these tragedies, suffering, and problems in our Muslim world, despite the huge part played by external factors, are first and foremost our internal responsibility and the method of Islam is to hold ourselves primarily responsible as Allah said following the battle of Uhud { What! When a single disaster smites you, although you smote (your enemies) with one twice as great, do you say- "Whence is this?" Say (to them): "It is from yourselves: For Allah has power over all things.} [Quran 3:65]. For that reason, all leaders and people must fulfill their share of responsibility in the revival, advancement, attainment of justice, development, prosperity, happiness, and elevation for this nation that was a pioneer in all these aspects.
Third: Your highnesses, the leaders are well aware of the political conditions of fragmentation in the Muslim nation, and so your duty is to exert serious financial and moral efforts to achieve unity, which is a religious obligation proved by numerous texts, and a dire necessity for the strength of our nation. The nation’s conditions of poverty, unemployment and inflation are no secret to you either, as the percentage of poverty in some Muslim countries have risen to more than 50% despite the existence of many riches, and great, varied resources owned to the Ummah.
Hence, the religious duty and best interest require complementarity among the human resources available in most countries, and the vast financial resources, most of which are invested outside Muslim countries. Intra-Islamic trade is also still relatively low and remains within the limits of 13%.
For this reason, we plead to you all to achieve economic complementarity alongside social integration which would both bring welfare to everyone.
We are all anticipating historic political and economic decisions in this period, since unity entails good for everyone, and integration and solidarity achieve security and power to everyone, and indeed, what some will pay to their brothers, will return with blessings and happiness for all of them.
Fourth: The conditions in the Arab, Islamic spring countries are well known to you, and so are the injustice and corruption that they suffered for decades and that ate away most of their riches. Thus, a grand responsibility lies on your shoulders toward these countries to support them financially and morally in order for them to rise; on top of them the great Egypt that has a favor over our Arab and Muslim nation with its stances, struggle, defense and its noble Al-Azhar.
Fifth: The IUMS wishes the leaders of these participating countries in the Islamic summit to all reach reconciliation with their people, to put their hand in their people’s hands and set off forward with them to confront backwardness, confront the social system armed by the principles of freedom and dignity called for by the people, so everyone will walk in one line like a carefully-planned structure, each part supporting the other.
There is not one reasonable justification for the people and their ruler to be in two different camps except bias toward injustice which warns an adverse ending {And soon will the unjust assailants know what vicissitudes their affairs will take!} [Quran 26: 227].
Be mindful of Allah toward them, and be an aid to them, be honest, be giving, be shoulder to shoulder with them so they will rise similarly to the majority of the world’s nations that do not have the material and moral resources nor the civilizational dimension of our nation.
We are hoping that this summit will be a quantum leap for our greater nation, to leave the scope of words to work, and move from fragmentation to unity and complementarity, from backwardness to sublimity, civilization, and solidarity.
{And say: "Work (righteousness): For soon will Allah observe your work, and His Messenger, and the Believers: And soon will you be brought back to the knower of what is hidden and what is seen: then will He show you the truth of all that you did."} [Quran 9: 105]
Doha: 25 Rabea Al-Awwal, 1434 H
Dated: 6 February, 2013
Dr. Ali Al-Qaradaghi Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
IUMS Secretary General IUMS President