Where are the Teachers?
"The Taliban is in many ways a reflection of the present state of the Muslim Ummah -- lots of beards and turbans, but little wisdom and guidance.... Where are all our trusted scholars, those possessors of knowledge of the way of our Prophet (SAW)?" asks American convert to Islam, Abdul-Lateef Abdullah.

The assault on Afghanistan has begun, as expected. We knew the tragic bombing of the World Trade Center last month would not be without a U.S. military response, and within ten minutes of the attacks, it seemed Ossama bin Laden and his Taliban hosts were the primary suspects. It is growing increasingly evident that whoever was diabolical, yet sophisticated enough to fly planes into the WTC and Pentagon, had the ultimate aim of provoking the U.S. into starting a war. Thanks to the predictability of the U.S. policy makers and a thorough brainwashing by the western media, we are getting it, at the expense of many more innocent people. Nevertheless, as Muslims, we must continue to take the opportunity caused by these tragic events to look deeper into ourselves and reflect on where we are as an Ummah.

With all the recent attention paid to the Taliban, as the official "hosts" of Ossama bin Laden, much focus has been on their rise to power, their brutal methods, their interpretation and application of Shari'ah, their treatment of women, the destruction of Buddhist statues and their leader "Mullah" Omar. There has also been mention of their origins in the Deobandi madrassas, their doctrine, and their connections to the CIA, Pakistan's ISI and the Saudi Arabian government. As the Taliban took control of a majority of Afghanistan in less than three years, they quickly earned the cliched labels of "fundamentalists," "purists," "extremists," by the western media. Much fear was created on account of their policies toward women and their increasingly stringent views that entailed the removal of almost every form of entertainment and vice in the country including television, movies and the Internet. This fueled the already existing stereotypes about Islam in the west, that Muslims are "backward," "zealots," "anti-freedom," "anti-woman," "anti-modern" and many other similar type images.

For the rest of the Muslim world, the Taliban's ascension to power forced us, in one way or another, to choose sides. While some quietly rooted for their uncompromising dedication to and fervor for the "Islamic ideal," many in the Muslim world cringed when they heard the name Taliban, as if they were the official representatives of the alter ego of traditional Islam.

In reality, the Taliban are nothing more than what they claim to be - students. They are not leaders, and they certainly are not scholars as they are hardly even educated in the basics of Islam. They are students, talibs, just as they say, without true Islamic teachers. Their practices attest to this, as do the public comments from their leaders and "clerics" about Islam. The fact that many of their clerics can barely read is an indicator that these are not people who should be running a country and taking on the very delicate, yet noble task of implementing Shari'ah law. They may be great warriors, but these are not the only skills required to accomplish what they set out to in Afghanistan. No one can denounce their intentions, but their methods reek of ignorance. They were raised in war via a programmed, one-dimensional, distorted version of Islam and swept through most of Afghanistan within three years. Once in power, they tried to implement Shari'ah based on the very limited knowledge they had, without the guidance or expertise of traditional Islamic scholarship.

With all their shortcomings, however, the Taliban is in many ways a reflection of the present state of the Muslim Ummah -- lots of beards and turbans, but little wisdom and guidance. With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, traditional Islamic intellectual institutions, knowledge, arts and sciences that had been passed down through the great bodies of scholarship in Islam, were stripped from the Muslim masses. Now, today's Ummah is a body without a head. Over a billion Muslims, one-fifth of the population of the planet, yet no amir or governing body. The results of which are evident in the disjointed, sectarian approach we take toward everything, and why we pay more allegiance to our geographic nation-states and business interests than to our universal community of believers.

We can safely say that the Taliban - as nothing more than a group of spirited, often defiant, students - were taught incorrectly and took on a responsibility they were not prepared, educated, or trained for. We can stop being politically correct by referring to them as having their "own interpretation of Islam." They are without Islamic knowledge, and despite their ignorance, they took over a country and grabbed the attention of the entire world.

One of the problems with the Taliban, as with many other student movements within Islam, is that they do not know; yet they act despite their ignorance. Often, when students do not have correct knowledge, they make up for it by filling the void with other things, often their own desires, frustrations, anger or political motives. This, however, is not the way of ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama'at and Islam. Islam is based on order, obedience, and actions guided by divine law.

Nevertheless, the phenomenon of the Taliban begs the question, "where are the teachers of ahl as-Sunnah?" Where are all our trusted scholars, those possessors of knowledge of the way of our Prophet (SAW)? The students of Islam have never been more in need of their knowledge and wisdom than now. The Taliban are the poster children for the students' plight. We need our teachers to pass on their wisdom, because the world is growing more hostile and un-Islamic by the second. For us, the students of ahl as-Sunnah, the Taliban represent a call for help. We do not need more self-appointed "clerics" and "sheiks" rattling off ayats of the Qur'an or sayings of the Prophet (SAW) without any wisdom to accompany them. Many of us can already read, we do not need someone to read to us, that is not scholarship, not wisdom -- we need more. We know Islam is a dynamic religion that is applicable to any era, but we have to understand how it applies today, possibly our most challenging period ever. We are 1,400 years removed from our beloved Prophet (SAW) and we need his wisdom more than ever. The Taliban and all the other students of Islam need the wisdom of ahl as-Sunnah's teachers. This is the only chance we have.

Without this knowledge, wisdom, leadership and guidance from our teachers we will have more and more Talibans popping up all over the world with governments such as the U.S. putting them down just as fast. Struggling for the independence and liberation of Muslim lands and peoples will be meaningless because if we do not know what to do once we get control of a land, what's the point? If our people are better off under non-Muslim rulers, why bother? Our teachers must not only teach, but they must lead. They must lead by example, and show us how and why this beautiful deen is the way of the past, present and future for the entire world. They must stand up to us -- their students -- when necessary, and admonish us to stop all our foolishness, stop following our nafs and calling it Islam, and pay heed to the command of Allah and the way of the Prophet (SAW). The best thing my teacher ever did for me was to correct me when I was wrong. Upon disregarding the proper adab due to a teacher one time (of which I should have known better) he told me straight to my face that what I had done was bad adab. He made his point and I never thought of doing it again. Teachers have stopped doing this, because everything now is "us vs. them" -- the Muslims vs. the West. No more do we bring out the best in each other. No more do we expect more from each other and push one another to greater heights. Even our scholars excuse our condemnable behaviors and blame the West, blame their governments or follow what is politically popular, despite how un-Islamic it might be. How is this in the Islamic tradition? How does this help us develop as Muslims in the tradition of our Prophet (SAW)? How does this help us to reform ourselves so that we can be saved on the Day of Judgment?

Everything in life comes from Allah. As per His guidance in the Qur'an, we must learn from both our successes and our errors. As students, therefore, we have to humble ourselves, admit that we do not know, and show deference to our teachers, the learned. Then, we must call our teachers to a higher standard by making it clear to them that we need them more than ever to guide us through this very complex time. In turn, our teachers must model Islam for us through their morality, their wisdom, their humility, their munificence, their leadership, their intelligence, and their steadfastness. Until we all rededicate ourselves to the student-teacher medium of learning, ignorance will pervade in our Ummah. Thus, a rededication by both teachers and students to education must be the first step if we are to turn our communal ship around.

The student government of Afghanistan, the Taliban, needed wisdom and guidance from the learned among ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama'at and they did not receive it. If they had, their conquest of Afghanistan could have resulted in the implementation of true Shari'ah law, in the way of the Prophet (SAW). As opposed to the often barbaric-seeming brand of Islam that they have purported, Afghanistan could have been the first true modern Islamic state, the most prosperous and peace-loving nation on earth. It could have been a model country based on equality and fairness to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. There could have been taxes for the rich, and the poor could have enjoyed zakat and would not have had to starve or beg for food. The women could have been allowed to work, learn and trade, just as Khadijah (r.a.) did during the time she married our Prophet (SAW), in addition to having all the other rights due to them. These truths about Shari'ah law must be known because people everywhere, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, fear the Shari'ah when in fact it is the only law on earth that should prevail. Shari'ah law, when meted out accordingly, is the only system of government that allows for equality, peace, tolerance and prosperity for all - not just in rhetoric, but in results. However, if we, ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama'at, allow more Talibans to exist without helping them to correct their ways, Shari'ah will continue to be made to look like nothing more than stone-age martial law, and humanity will never again have the opportunity to experience the fairness, justice and peace of the true Islamic way of life.

Whatever the reasons for this not taking place and the Taliban not implementing Divine Law in the way of the Prophet (SAW), another debacle is now taking place in Afghanistan. We, as an Ummah, have again failed to execute the commands of Allah, which has resulted in others dictating the course of events for us and the entire world. Insha-Allah, we will learn from this and re-dedicate ourselves to helping one another in the true spirit and methodology of Islam.

Read other articles by Abdul-Lateef Abdullah here.

Email: abd_lateef@hotmail.com