Psychology is an interesting domain, which is quite often sidelined. In today’s world, through systemic institutions, the dominant ideological positions are instilled through state machineries, and it not only instills the ideology’s dominance, but also the inferiority complex of the other ideology (the not in power ideology).
SubhanAllah! The air we breathe in such a heavy loaded atmosphere leaves its impact even on us, even though if we think we are completely devoid of the external influences.
The few common examples to cite –
You will find “influential speakers, even some imams of the masaajid” who will always manipulate the mindset with small, petty issues. To instill the inferiority complexes, they will highlight that “you can’t even wear off your shoes properly in the masaajid on the rack, you can’t even park well in the masaajid parking, you can’t even make it to Fajr in masaajid, and you think you can bring a revival on the global level???”
Yes. There are elements in the society who don’t park well, or wear off their shoes in the right order on the shoe rack or don’t even pray Fajr in the masaajid, but it doesn’t mean that we generalize the whole blessed ummah with same general brush and give them the dull colour of an inferiority mindset that they don’t have the capability do anything.
Today, on collective level, by and large many are suffering from inferiority complexities to such an extent that they have internalized the notion that they cannot do anything, when it comes to bringing a collective change.
They are made to feel so inferior that they don’t even think or even dream even in their thoughts, let alone in actions. And those who dream are mockingly termed as “day dreamers” by their own community.
Well! What is wrong to dream about something whose prophecy as a glad-tiding is given to us by the blessed Prophet (ﷺ)?
I sometimes wonder how these people would have responded to the Prophet (ﷺ) when he was in the Battle of the Trench, and there was so much of real and apparent fear and no possibility of conquering anything. They didn’t even know whether they would exist the next day or not, since after the loss at the Battle of Uhud, the whole NATO of Arabia was coming at that time to wipe out the Muslims in Madinah once in for all. In other words, the “reality/pragmatism/hikmah/maslehat all pointed out that the conquest of these lands wasn’t possible. But then too the Prophet (ﷺ) gave the glad tidings of three place with each striking of the rock – Ash Shaam, Yemen, Persia (two of them being the superpowers of that time).
SubhanAllah! They didn’t even have an established history of Islam as a complete system, but they then too believed and worked for the glad tidings. Today, we have a complete history of more than a millennium of implementation of the systems of Islam (around 1300 years, with some glitches too, and we can expect that as we are humans), then too we don’t believe in the glad tidings of the Islam to be again re-established? We say that a system which worked for around a 1300 years, till just a little more than a 100 years ago till 1900s, it isn’t practical and applicable today, in spite of the present system just emerging 300 years ago (and in Muslim lands, just around 100 years ago)?
Why?
Because we are indoctrinated not only through the persistent prevailing dominant psychology of the present world order, but also through some of our own imaams and motivational speakers who have become the tools to instill it even if it is on a subconscious level.
Sometimes, I think we as believers have the lens of the aakhirah as well. Even if we will not be successful “apparently” in this world, then too we will have ٱلْفَوْزُ ٱلْكَبِيرُ (the greatest triumph) in the hereafter as mentioned by Allah Al-Azeem in Surah Al Buruj for the believers who were put on fire in the trenches. But what is beyond my comprehension is the fact that how disbelievers and atheists like Karl Marx and his followers worked so hard for an ideology which had no basis in history, which had no lens of aakhirah, did not have the belief that if not here then in the hereafter they will be rewarded for their efforts, all they had was this dunya, and then too they worked so relentlessly. For them, the dunya was Jannah and Jahannam, while for us the Jannah and Jahannam are in the next world and this world is temporary, but then too we found them working for their ideology zealously, and some of us abandoning ours stating hopelessness?
And here we are, witnessing all the atrocities of Capitalism (man made laws) and economic disparity where a huge concentration of global corporate and monopoly power is exacerbating inequality worldwide. Injustices around the world to the level where a whole genocide is unfolding right in front of our own eyes, and is being justified on so many levels. Then too we are not working for the system sent by our Allah Al-‘Adl, to re- establish justice.
He is رَّبُّ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ
Rabb of the skies and the earth, but we have confined Him to Rabb of skies only, as we don’t follow His commands on collective level. On individual levels, yes, we do observe, but on collective level we have not established it from the past 100 years (3rd March 2024 being the 100th year according to Gregorian calendar).
SubhanAllah! Another intriguing example often witnessed in people’s conversation is the distorted understanding of Treaty of Hudaiybiyyah, which due to persistent inferiority psychological paradigm has been showcased as some sort of a “compromise.”
Astaghfirullah!
If we study the Seerah, we will witness the Prophet (ﷺ) was the best statesman, and he (ﷺ) knew well the political tactics.
What he ﷺ truly wanted was to isolate his combat with the enemies at Khaybar, from his combat with Quraysh and to remove all the obstacles that stood between him and the Arabs which hindered his Da’wah and conveyance of the message of Islam. This very treaty in the years to follow, allowed the Muslims to go on and remove the enemy of Khaibar who had been planning to join forces with the Quraysh of Makkah against the Muslims prior to the treaty. It was a wise political strategic tactic, which sadly is seen by many muslims as a “compromise” due to the inferiority complex installed in the mindset of the masses through the indoctrination of pessimistic views.
May Allah Al-Haadi make things easy for us to understand, and enable us to come out from the pessimistic approaches. Ameen!