Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, “The time will soon come when the various nations (of the disbelievers) will invite and call one another against you (i.e. to attack you and loot your property), just as people who are eating invite others to their platter (i.e. the Muslims will be like a plate of food around which the various disbelievers will gather and unite to ‘eat’ i.e. attack and loot to their fill).”

Hearing this, a Sahaabi enquired, “Will that (lamentable condition of the Muslims at that time) be on account of our numbers being few?” Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) replied, “(No!) Rather, you will be abundant in number at that time, however you will be like the foam on the flood-water (i.e. just as foam is of no benefit despite its abundance, in the same way, despite the Muslim Ummah being abundant in number, due to their lives not conforming to Deen, they will be weak and insignificant before the disbelievers). Allah Ta‘ala will certainly remove your fear from the hearts of your enemy, and He will definitely place ‘wahan’ (weakness) in your hearts.”

A Sahaabi then asked, “O Rasul of Allah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam)! What is this ‘wahan’ (weakness in the lives of the believers)?” Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) replied, “Love for the dunya (material world), and disliking death.” (Sunan Abi Dawood #4297 and Mirqaat vol. 9, pg. 233)

In this hadeeth, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) informed us that the root cause for the retrogression of the Ummah is “love for the dunya and disliking death”. When the believers’ hearts will be attached to the dunya, then their link to the Hereafter will gradually weaken. They will make the world their main objective and goal and will not carry out actions for the Hereafter. This will then lead to them neglecting their Deeni obligations due to giving preference to this world over the Hereafter, and thus they will lose the divine aid and assistance of Allah Ta‘ala.

For a believer, the true life of happiness and success is the life of the Hereafter – not the life of this world. Since most of the believers will be immersed in luxury and riches, they will forget Allah Ta‘ala and lead lives of sin. They will idealize the lifestyle of the kuffaar and emulate them in it. Therefore, on account of them forsaking Deen and the sunnah, Allah Ta‘ala will not send down His divine aid. Hence, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) mentioned that the weakness will be ‘love for the dunya’.

In essence, when the believers will live for this world, and all their effort and energy will be for the enjoyment of this world, and they will have invested nothing or very little for the Hereafter, then they will desire to remain in this world and death will be disliked to them, whereas death is the bridge to join the lover to his beloved Allah Ta‘ala. It is for this reason that Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) also mentioned the weakness as being ‘disliking death’.

Hence, the solution will be for every single person to make a concerted effort to revive the complete Deen and uphold the sunnah in his life. He should make the Hereafter his goal, strive to carry out good deeds and prepare for death.

When one views the lives of the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum), one finds that they always upheld Deen and the sunnah in their lives. This was the reason why the disbelieving superpowers of the time (the Romans and Persians) feared them, and why the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) were always victorious against them (see here and here).

Therefore, the men should ‘march’ to the masjid to perform the five daily salaah with jamaat, and everyone must ‘boycott’ every type of sin, such as the sin of zina (fornication in all its different forms), riba (i.e. the various forms of interest, including medical aid and insurance), music, movies, fashion and lifestyle of the disbelievers who are killing our brothers and sisters in Palestine, etc.

If we do this, there will be a revolution in the Ummah, and insha-Allah, we will once again acquire the help and assistance of Allah Ta‘ala against the enemies of Islam.

May Allah Ta‘ala guide us all, help us to reform our lives, and assist the Muslims around the globe, aameen.