From Decline to Revival: A Call for Islamic Renaissance

الحمدلله الذي جعل كلمةَ الحقّ علياء،والصلاة والسلام على سيّدالأنبياء،وعلى آله وأصحابه النّجباء.أمابعد
All praise is due to Almighty God, who exalted the Word of Truth to lofty heights, and may peace and benedictions descend upon the Prince of the Prophets—Muhammad, upon his noble family and his righteous, elect companions.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
This gathering—under the banner “This Age Seeks Its Abraham”—is not merely an assembly of bodies, but a convocation of souls. It is a summons of conscience, a reckoning of spirit, and above all, a collective introspection. Today, as we convene to deliberate upon the decline of the Muslim Ummah, we do not assemble as mourners around a bier of history, but rather as seekers of its cure, custodians of its conscience, and heralds of its renewal.

This convocation is not an echo chamber of lamentation, nor a ceremonial recitation of woes long known. It is, in its essence, a solemn response to history’s unrelenting inquiry, a mirror held before the tear-streaked visage of our collective past, and a voice lent to the sighs of a civilisation in peril. Our speech today is not mere rhetoric—it is the very pulse of a wounded heart. This is not an academic colloquy, but a covenant renewed. We must speak, we must listen, we must weep—and then we must rise, lest our children inherit only the ashes of our inaction.

Esteemed audience,
As we turn the pages of history, we see the dawn of Islam rise over a benighted world like the first light that rends the veil of night. The darkness of ignorance dispersed before its radiance, and the deserts of Arabia bore witness to a revolution unmatched in moral scope or intellectual consequence. Yet when we turn those pages further, yearning for the whispers of spring in the withered branches of a forgotten past, a melancholy truth emerges: our collective soul aches under the burden of its present, and reason demands to know—what malign forces hurled this caravan of light into the abyss of darkness?

Recall, if you will, the days when a cry of Tawheed from the barren sands of Arabia made the thrones of Caesar and Chosroes tremble; when the tyrants of Rome and Persia bowed before the force of divine unity; when the sacred stones of Jerusalem heard the measured tread of Islam’s torchbearers; when the air of Granada reverberated with the sonorous melodies of wisdom and learning; when the ink of Baghdad’s scribes commanded greater reverence than the sword of any sovereign.
Recall those fabled lines:
؏ اُٹھ کہ اب بزمِ جہاں کااورہی اندازہے
مشرق ومغرب میں تیرے دورکاآغازہے
“Rise! For the very cadence of the world is changing;
A new age, your age, dawns across East and West.”
And remember, too:
؏ ایک ہی صف میں کھڑے ہوگئے محمودوایاز
نہ کوئی بندہ رہانہ کوئی بندہ نواز
“Maqbool and his slave stood equal in the same row;
No master, no servant—only fraternity prevailed.”

Recall the Ka‘bah, bearing silent testimony to the unity of the believers. Recall the adhaan, not merely a call to prayer, but the voice of a civilisation. And now? That very people—once the vanguard of faith and freedom—
؏ دربدرٹھوکرکھارہی ہے،وہی جوکل کی امام تھی
چمن کوجن کے خون سے ملی تھی بادِبہار
“Wander exiled and forgotten—those who once led the world;
Whose sacrifice had summoned the winds of spring to the garden.”

That voice, once born of Medina’s narrow alleys, shook the pillars of empire. That message which shattered chains, overturned tyranny, kindled learning in darkened lands, and turned idol-worshippers into seekers of divine unity—from Andalusia to Baghdad, from Cairo to Bukhara—the Ummah offered the world an unparalleled synthesis of knowledge, justice, spirituality, and culture.
And now?

That same Ummah—once hailed as the “Best of Nations”—has plunged headlong into decline. The same people who rose from Mecca’s dust to humble empires now find themselves broken: their leadership inert, their societies fragmented, their culture diluted by the West, and their faith reduced to hollow ritual.

We are a people divided—splintered into sects, shackled by self-interest, bereft of vision, devoid of unity. On the grand chessboard of global politics, we have become pawns—our fate dictated not in Medina, nor Cairo, but in the sterile chambers of Washington, London, and Paris.

So when we speak of the Ummah’s plight today, let us not merely shed tears; let us hear the anguished cry of our collective soul. Let us testify—truthfully and fearlessly—before the tribunal of history. For this collapse is no sudden cataclysm. It is the fruit of centuries of slumber, intellectual inertia, moral decay, and spiritual numbness.

O People of Insight!
This decline did not descend from the heavens, nor did it rise from the dust of accident. It is the inevitable price of our neglect—our heedlessness, our self-betrayal. The same Ummah that once rose at the call of Iqra is now estranged from the very book it was commanded to read.
As Iqbal, the poet-philosopher, so hauntingly put it:
؏وجودِزن سے ہے تصویرِکائنات میں رنگ
اسی کے سازسے ہے زندگی کاسوزِ دروں
“It is woman who lends colour to the tapestry of creation;
From her heart’s melody flows life’s deepest music.”

Distinguished guests,
Let us speak with brutal honesty: our decline is rooted within. The hand that weakens us lies not in foreign plots, but in our own failure of vision. We turned the Qur’an into a charm; the Prophet’s life into a mere festival; we closed the gates of ijtihad and enthroned a lifeless mimicry as the soul of our faith.

؏جمودِفکرونظرہے فسادکی جڑ
یہی ہے امتِ مسلمہ کی فکری مَذلت
Stillness of thought and view is the root of discord.
This is the intellectual disgrace of the Muslim Ummah.

Consider well the wages of our stagnation. Intellectual sterility is now our heritage. We built factories of fatwas yet boarded up the doors of thought. To question is blasphemy. To reflect is impiety. We denied our daughters education and amputated ourselves from our civilisational roots.

And our children? At birth, their names are entered not into the register of virtue or knowledge, but into the waiting lists of Western-modelled schools—so that when they reach schooling age, their minds may be shaped not by faith, but by fashion.
؏جمودِفکروعمل،موت ہے زندگی کیلئے
چراغ بجھنے لگے توہواسے شکوہ نہ کر
“Intellectual stagnation and inaction are but slow poisons to the living spirit.
Blame not the wind when the lamp flickers—it is the oil that has thinned.”
We live in a time when knowledge abounds, but guidance is scarce; diplomas multiply, yet wisdom wanes. We have institutions of training, yes—but with no higher telos, no sacred purpose. Our centres of learning, once cradles of character and civilisation, have become conveyor belts of credentials. Madrasahs echo with the thunder of transmitted texts, yet thirst for the cool reason of the rational. Our universities trumpet modern science, but the soul remains eerily silent.

Education has been reduced to a means of employment, not enlightenment. What we desperately need are institutions that birth not mere employees, but heirs to the legacy of Ghazali, Ibn Khaldun, and Iqbal.

Syllabi exist in our universities, but the spirit of thought has evaporated. There is data—but no discernment. Western philosophies are taught in our schools, yet our own civilisation is treated as alien. Our seminaries produce memorizers and reciters, but the Ummah thirsts for jurists, thinkers, and leaders.

Let us remember:
؏علم وہ جوروشنی بخشے دلوں کو
ورنہ ہرجاہل،کتابوں کابھی حافظ ہوگیا
“Ilm woh jo roshni bakshe dilon ko,
Warna har jaahil, kitaabon ka bhi haafiz ho gaya.”
“True knowledge is that which illuminates the soul;
Else, even the ignorant may memorise books in vain.”

And what of leadership? It is like scattered leaves in the wind—buffeted this way and that by gusts of convenience and compulsion. In some lands, despotism masquerades as monarchy; in others, democracy wears the garb of dictatorship. The cry of “Caliphate” is raised, yet tyranny is practised.
As for unity—it has become a relic of dreams. The halls of the OIC echo with well-worded resolutions, yet action is a rare guest. Gaza, Palestine, Kashmir, Myanmar, Sudan—each bleeds, while the global Muslim body sits as a silent witness to its own wounding.
Let us not forget:
؏علم اگرتجھ کونہ دے اپنے عمل کی دولت
توفقیرکیلئےزہرہے،سلطان کیلئےبھی
“Ilm agar tujh ko na de apne amal ki daulat,
To faqeer ke liye zehr hai, Sultan ke liye bhi.”
“If knowledge yields not the wealth of righteous action,
It is poison both to beggar and to king.”

Once, the Islamic political order was founded upon consultation, justice, equality, and accountability. And now? Each state is lost in its own national self-interest; nations entangled in domestic obsessions have wept away the very idea of a global Ummah. The Muslim world is politically atomised, ideologically fragmented.
؏نہ کوئی سعدبن معاذ،نہ کوئی عمرباقی
ہے قیادت کی جگہ،دولتِ بے کارفقط
“Na koi Saad bin Mu’adh, na koi Umar baaqi,
Hai qiyaadat ki jagah, daulat-e-bekaar faqat.”
“No Sa’d remains, no Umar; where leadership should rise,
Only idle riches dwell.”

Moral decay and spiritual desensitisation have drained the Ummah of its soul. Our markets reek with falsehood, our courts have forgotten justice, and our societies are submerged in vulgarity and materialism. From head to toe, we are soaked in intellectual decline—yet we surrender our dignity at the altar of power without shame.
؏نہ دیانت نہ شرافت،نہ محبت باقی
یہی ہے امتِ مسلمہ کی سب سے بڑی محرومی
“Na dyaanat, na sharaafat, na mohabbat baaqi—
Yehi hai Ummat-e-Muslimah ki sab se badi mehroomi.”
“Honesty is lost, honour is gone, love has fled—
This is the Ummah’s gravest deprivation.”

This Ummah drowns in the fragmentation of leadership. There is no Umar, no Ali, no Mu‘awiyah, no Hassan. Every nation is locked within its own flag, its own tongue, its own tribe. Its leaders are either entangled in corruption or enslaved to Western agendas.
؏ہم سمجھتے تھے کہ لائے گی فراغت تعلیم
کیاخبرتھی کہ چلاآئے گاالحادبھی ساتھ
“Hum samajhte the ke laaye gi faraaghat taleem,
Kya khabar thi ke chala aaye ga ilhaad bhi saath.”
“We thought knowledge would bring freedom and repose,
Little did we know it would usher disbelief as well.”

Whether it is the OIC or the Arab League, these are but ceremonial relics. Photos are taken, statements issued—yet nothing moves. No heart stirs. The fracture of unity is no longer a problem; it is a curse. Every oppressed Muslim now stands alone. Palestine burns, Kashmir simmers, Syria lies in ruins—while we continue to pass resolutions with perfect grammar and no soul.
؏اقبال بھی رویاتھااس حالِ زبوں پر
امت ہے کہ خوابِ غفلت میں ہے مدہوش ابھی تک
“Iqbal bhi roya tha is haal-e-zaboon par,
Ummat hai ke khaab-e-ghaflat mein hai madhosh abhi tak.”
“Even Iqbal wept at this wretched state;
And still the Ummah lies in its slumbering haze.”

So now, we must ask: What is the remedy? What is the path of salvation?
The cure lies in a radical reattachment to the Qur’an—not as a recited relic, but a lived constitution. The life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) must become our paradigm in every domain. Knowledge must become a sacred purpose, not a professional stepping-stone. Our character must carry a prophetic nobility. The idea of the Ummah must rise above parochial nationalism. Our hearts must turn once more towards the Lord. Prayer must become our breath, the Qur’an our compass, the Seerah our standard.

I recall the words of a saintly scholar: “When a nation loses its identity, Allah SWT humbles it, so that in the dust of disgrace it may rediscover its soul.”

Our curriculum must strike a harmony between Qur’an and Sunnah, modern science, history, and culture. We must produce heirs to both Ghazali and Newton. Our universities must sculpt personalities, not merely distribute degrees. Our seminaries must embrace scientific awareness, and our universities must cultivate spiritual depth.

We must shatter the prison of intellectual timidity. We must read the Qur’an in the language of the times. We must welcome disagreement as a mercy and restore ijtihad as the noblest form of learning. We must grasp the rope of faith anew, with firm hearts and clean hands. Each individual must become truthful, trustworthy, generous, and righteous.

The home must birth the society; the society, a nation. Let patience, humility, generosity, justice become our identity once more.
“Kirdaar ke ghaazi banen, na ke guftaar ke baadshah.”کردارکے غازی بنیں،نہ کہ گفتارکے بادشاہ
“Let us become warriors of action, not monarchs of mere speech.”

Let us remember—it is only those nations who walk the twin path of knowledge and action that survive. Those who place their hand on the pulse of time, who learn from their past, and build their present with wisdom and resolve. Nations die not when their borders are breached, but when their hearts cease to yearn, when their minds refuse to think, and when their souls surrender to inertia.

And yet—those who dare look death in the eye, learn to live with dignity. This life, entrusted to us by death itself, becomes beautiful only in defiance.

This world changes by faith, knowledge, and struggle. But when a people abandon all three, the world does not wait—it changes them instead.

We must now raise the banner of revival. It begins with the individual. With the purification of the heart, the sincerity of intention, the steadfastness of character. Remember—the language of a nation mirrors the purity of its soul. If our speech now stinks of hatred, division, and prejudice, it is because our hearts have forgotten compassion, unity, and grace.

We now need a language that unites, a pen that dreams, and a thought that shifts the course of time.

And so, once more, I am reminded of my mentor—Iqbal…
دیارعشق میں اپنامقام پیداکر
نیازمانہ نئے صبح وشام پیداکر
میراطریق امیری نہیں فقیری ہے
خودی نہ بیچ غریبی میں نام پیداکر
Create your own place in the realm of love,
Bring forth a new era, a new dawn and dusk.
My path is not of riches but of humility—
Do not sell your soul; earn your name in simplicity.
For political awakening and the reformation of leadership, the Ummah must become a conscious voter. We must bring forth leaders who are rooted in the Qur’an, illuminated by the Sunnah, and devoted to the service of the Ummah. To awaken the spirit of unity and global Islamic consciousness, nationalism, race, language, and ethnicity must come second— the Ummah must come first. We must unite under one flag, the flag of La ilaha illallah.
“The Ummah is divided into sects, Islam is imprisoned in schools,
These mosque clerics, these spiritual masters—how long shall this go on?”
؏ شب تاریک سہی،مگرچراغ جلانالازم ہے
اب جورکے وہ خسارہ،جوبڑھے وہی مقدر
“Though the night is dark, the candle must be lit—
He who halts is the loser, and he who moves forward shapes destiny.”

Come! Let us ignite a revolution—first within hearts, then in societies, and then across the world. A revolution rooted in knowledge, justice, and character. Let us not only raise our children to be doctors and engineers but strive to make them like Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Imam Ghazali, and Ibn Taymiyyah —thirsty for knowledge, and embodiments of noble character.

Remember! The downfall of this Ummah is temporary—on one condition: that we resolve to change ourselves. As the Qur’an proclaims:
“إِنَّ اللّٰهَ لَايُغَيِّرُمَابِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوامَابِأَنفُسِهِمْ۔”
“Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (Al-Ra’d: 11)

Let us begin by changing ourselves, so that our nation may transform. Let the world once again shine with the light of Islam. We are not gathered here merely to listen to a speech, but to renew our role in history. We must become the Ibrahim who breaks the idols of falsehood, the Muhammad bin Qasim who conquers lands for the sake of truth, the Salahuddin who liberates Al-Quds.
So come, let us pledge today:
We will transform ourselves.
We will connect with the Qur’an.
We will turn knowledge into our weapon.
We will adorn ourselves with character.
We will strive to make the Ummah once again the “Best of Nations.”

Thus, we must become a nation that is bound to the Qur’an, illuminated by the Prophet’s life, enlightened by knowledge, adorned with ethics, and distinguished in character. The call of time echoes before us:
Rise! Be the Ibrahim who lights the flame of Tawheed in the halls of tyranny.
Be the Muhammad bin Qasim who raises the banner of justice on the lands of oppression.
Be the Salahuddin who liberates the first Qibla of Islam.

This era, my friends, is in search of its Ibrahim. Are we ready to light that candle? Are we ready to walk through fire? Are we prepared to forsake our comfort and carry the pain of the Ummah?
If your answer is “Yes,” then remember:
؏شبِ تاریک ہے،لیکن چراغ جلاناہوگا
لہوسے اپنے،یہ دیوارِظلم گراناہوگا
“Though the night is dark, we must light the flame—
With our blood, we must bring down this wall of oppression.”

So let each individual become a lamp. Let every heart burn with faith, every hand carry the banner of knowledge, and every step be anchored in character. Then, and only then, will the fate of the Ummah change, and a brighter tomorrow emerge.

Rather than merely lamenting the decline of the Ummah, we must now begin its revival. Let each soul light their candle. Let every mother raise a Muhammad bin Qasim, every father nurtures a Salahuddin Ayyubi, every teacher imparts the knowledge of Imam Malik , and every leader uphold the justice of Umar ibn al-Khattab.

Only then can we truly declare:
“We are that Ummah whom Allah has made the Best of Nations—
Commanding good and forbidding evil.”