The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ gave Muslims a powerful tool to assess the state of their faith in the face of injustice. In the famous hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim, he said:

“Whoever among you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; if he cannot, then with his tongue; and if he cannot, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”

This hadith doesn’t merely describe optional responses. It sets the baseline: at the very minimum, a Muslim must have awareness of injustice. That inner disturbance — that sense that something is wrong — is the lowest level of imaan. Without it, one risks falling beneath the threshold of true belief.

And yet today, this baseline has eroded. Not only do many Muslims lack the will to act, they actively choose to remain unaware. Worse, some justify their apathy, claiming inaction is the morally superior position. They silence their conscience to avoid discomfort, not realizing they are also silencing the last flicker of their faith.

But then arises the question: what must we be aware of?

What is this injustice that so many overlook — and what ideological forces led us here?

What Muslims Must Be Aware Of

  1. Oppression of Fellow Muslims
    • From Palestine to East Turkestan, Kashmir to Sudan, Muslims are tortured, displaced, and silenced.
    • In many cases, their suffering is justified or ignored by global powers — and Muslims are unaware of this in their hearts.
  2. Internalizing Despotism as Destiny
    • Many Muslims today believe, consciously or unconsciously, that prosperity and order can only be achieved under a strong, authoritarian ruler — even if he is unjust. This belief is not rooted in Islamic tradition but is a colonial mindset inherited from European powers who ruled Muslim lands with iron fists and left behind systems that encouraged obedience over justice.
    • Over time, this ideology was absorbed and normalized. It is now common to hear Muslims defend their dictators as a ‘lesser evil,’ unaware that they are upholding a worldview designed to suppress their own dignity and agency. Overthrowing a tyrant is one matter — a complex issue with many considerations — but actively loving the tyrant, promoting loyalty to him, and claiming that this is virtuous is something else entirely. It reflects a disturbing internalization of oppression, where servitude to power is mistaken for Islamic patience. This mindset was manufactured, not inherited from prophetic teachings. unaware that they are upholding a worldview designed to suppress their own dignity and agency.
  3. Islamophobia
    • Structural and cultural Islamophobia in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies has led to a climate of fear, shame, and self-censorship among Muslims.
    • In response, many Muslims suppress their identity, abandon traditional practices, or internalize the negative portrayals of their faith.
    • Worse, most Muslims do not fully grasp what Islamophobia is or how it functions. They are unaware that there exists a highly coordinated global machine — involving media, publishing, think tanks, entertainment, and political lobbies — dedicated to dehumanizing Muslims. This narrative engineering has normalized violence against Muslims to the point where mass killings of over 100,000 Muslims can occur next door with barely a whisper of outrage.
    • Meanwhile, Muslim institutions rarely track or counteract this massive propaganda effort, leaving the ummah psychologically disarmed and socially exposed.
  4. Accepting White Supremacy
    • In many Muslim societies, whiteness or proximity to European features is viewed as superior — while darker skin, African heritage, or indigenous cultural traits are seen as inferior.
    • This internalized racism has led to caste-like hierarchies, colorism, and the marginalization of Black and brown Muslims, reflecting a deep psychological colonization of the Muslim world.
    • The modern world itself is built upon white supremacist frameworks — ones that erased indigenous populations, upheld racial slavery, and constructed global power structures around whiteness. Tragically, these frameworks have been absorbed into the mindset of many Muslim societies, particularly in the Gulf, where South Asian and Southeast Asian Muslims are often treated as subhuman laborers, while Europeans are given unearned prestige and deference.
    • What’s most painful is that early Muslims — including the Prophet’s ﷺ companions — would today be described as predominantly Black or dark-skinned. If Muslims today cannot embrace their darker-skinned brothers with the same love, honor, and respect they give to a white man, then they are still colonized. And so long as this remains true, the dignity of Allah will remain distant from them.
  5. Forgetting that Economics is Part of Islam
    • Many Muslims today operate under the false impression that national or communal economics, finance, and market regulation are secular matters with little relevance to Islam. This couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the central missions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was to establish socio-economic justice — to ensure fair trade, eliminate exploitative practices, and uphold dignity in financial dealings.
    • Yet today, there is a glaring absence of Islamic scholars addressing economic injustice. Where are the inheritors of the Prophet who analyze the flow of wealth, expose corruption, and guide the ummah toward economic ethics rooted in Qur’anic values?
    • By neglecting this domain, the Muslim world leaves itself vulnerable to systems of oppression that thrive on economic illiteracy and dependency — all while imagining that religious life is separate from financial justice.
  6. Loss of Adab: The Collapse of Social Fabric
    • A society is made by its people, and people are shaped by their morals and adab (etiquette and character). Without these, meaningful dialogue, conflict resolution, and collective vision become impossible. Today, Muslims lack awareness of how crucial adab is — and how it once held our communities together through trust, brotherhood, and mutual respect.
    • This loss is evident in how many conduct themselves in public, in families, and even in parliaments and assemblies. The refined adab that once defined the Muslim world — and inspired even European civilization — is now forgotten.
    • Yet adab cannot be taught in books alone. It must be embodied and passed down through real exemplars — teachers, elders, and leaders who reflect the Prophetic ﷺ character. When these figures are absent or ignored, the transmission of adab breaks, and with it, society unravels.
  7. Erasure of Islamic History
    • The ummah has forgotten its heroes, scholars, scientists, and poets. Generations of Muslims have grown up admiring western intellectuals, but remain unaware of their own literary titans like Attar, Hafez, and Al-Mutanabbi. They are cut off from the thinkers who once shaped civilizations.
    • Worse still, Muslims have been conditioned to believe that empires like the Ottomans did not represent Islam — a bizarre and ahistorical claim, considering their centuries-long commitment to Islamic law, art, and scholarship.
    • This systematic detachment from our intellectual legacy has left Muslims globally disoriented, dependent on foreign narratives, and unaware of the civilizational greatness Islam inspired. Until Muslims reclaim and study their own past, they will remain vulnerable to false identities crafted by others.

All of these symptoms point to a deeper root. And unless we confront that root, we will forever be treating surface wounds.

The Root Cause: A Colonial Ideology in Islamic Clothing

While Western colonialism physically occupied Muslim lands, it also planted ideological seeds — such as secularism, individualism, nationalism, and the separation of religion from public life — which were foreign to classical Islamic thought. These ideas challenged the holistic nature of Islam as both a spiritual and civilizational force, and over time, infiltrated Muslim societies through education, governance, and culture. — ideas that continue to enslave minds today. These ideas weren’t only imposed from outside. They were internalized and spread by Muslims themselves — particularly through state-funded religious institutions that adopted colonial logic, such as the Saudi-Wahhabi establishment under British support in the early 20th century, or through educational reforms in post-colonial Muslim nations that mirrored French and British models, stripping Islam from public life. Over time, these internalized ideologies were framed as ‘authentic Islam,’ despite contradicting centuries of Islamic intellectual tradition. under the illusion of religious purity.

At the heart of this transformation is the Salafi-Wahhabi framework. Presented as a return to “pure” Islam, it in fact aligned perfectly with secular colonial goals:

  1. Stripping Islam of Ethics and Philosophy
    • Islamic traditions of ihsan, adab, political ethics, and spirituality were dismissed as bid’ah.
    • Islam was reduced to surface-level ritual and hollow creeds — such as a fixation on external appearance, legalism divorced from ethics, and a rigid emphasis on minor jurisprudential details while ignoring the broader moral and spiritual aims of the religion.
  2. Dismantling the Independence of the Scholarly Class
    • In classical Islamic civilization, scholars were independent of the state and funded by endowments or awqaf, allowing them to speak truth to power without fear. But colonial interventions dismantled this model, replacing it with state-controlled religion. Today, many Muslim governments tightly control their religious institutions, effectively muting scholars and transforming Islam into a tool of state legitimacy.
    • This shift has created an unprecedented alignment between religious authority and autocratic power. The modern Saudi model exemplifies this trend, where scholars issue rulings in line with state interests, not prophetic justice. As Karl Marx once described religion as the “opium of the masses,” so too has this version of Islam been weaponized to pacify the ummah.
    • The blame does not lie solely with states. Wealthy Muslims have failed to uphold their responsibility of sponsoring scholars independently through awqaf, leaving worthy voices without support and the ummah without moral guidance. When scholars no longer serve Allah directly, but answer to rulers, the very capacity of Islam to uphold justice is stripped away.
  3. Distorting Ijtihad (Critical Reasoning)
    • While claiming to revive independent reasoning, the Salafi-Wahhabi trend narrowed the scope of ijtihad to a rigid textualism, often divorced from historical context, ethical reasoning, and maqāṣid (higher objectives of Sharia).
    • This selective application produced rulings that upheld political quietism and social rigidity, rather than justice, wisdom, and the public good that classical scholars once prioritized.
    • Worse still, many of these rulings are issued without accountability. Scholars issue fatwas without regard for the societal consequences, absolving themselves by claiming they are simply applying the textual evidences. They ignore centuries of scholarly precedent with no real due diligence, choosing instead to uphold only a narrow selection of voices that suit their framework.
    • This has led to rulings that tear apart communities, justify repression, and erode morality — all under the guise of orthodoxy. But Allah is Just and Beautiful, and what is truly from Him must bring harmony, not disorder. Salafi jurisprudence however at many instances produced cruelty and decay, which is a direct contradiction with Allah’s attributes. So naturally, the interpretation cannot represent the divine will of Allah— no matter how confidently it is delivered.
  4. Enforcing a False Binary
    • Anything not explicitly Islamic was condemned.
    • Truth from other civilizations (which Islam historically embraced) was labeled as corrupt.
  5. Creating Ritualistic Materialism
    • Islam became about appearances, not consciousness.
    • Faith was measured by outward symbols, not inner light. The length of a beard, the cut of one’s clothing, or superficial adherence to rituals are seen as more important than inner light, God-consciousness, sincerity, humility, and the transformative awareness of divine presence in one’s actions. The outer form in many societies have taken precedence.
    • This shallow religiosity has normalized contradictions — like scholars flaunting luxury cars and lavish lifestyles, while fellow Muslims struggle to afford a meal. Such behavior is now defended as permissible, yet it betrays the prophetic mission of economic justice and compassion.
    • Moreover, Islam has been reframed as a private practice limited to prayer and fasting, detached from its public role as a complete way of life that encompasses law, economics, ethics, and governance. In doing so, it has been reduced to a personal salvation mechanism — mimicking the decline of Christianity in the West — rather than a divine system meant to elevate society through justice and mercy.

This ideological framework left Muslims intellectually paralyzed and spiritually numb — perfectly primed for submission to both tyrants and global capitalism.

The Path Forward

To reclaim our dignity and faith, we must:

  • Recognize that awareness is the beginning of iman.
  • Rebuild Islamic ethical, spiritual, and intellectual traditions.
  • Call out ideologies that were crafted to pacify the ummah.
  • Understand that silence in the face of injustice is not neutrality — it is betrayal.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us to speak truth, even when it’s bitter. Today, the bitter truth is this: many Muslims are aiding their own downfall by clinging to a theology that was designed to weaken them.

But the revival begins when even one heart refuses to stay asleep.

And that awareness… is the first spark of real faith.