Negativity eventually results in a loss of confidence and losing the trust of community leaders and causing greater harm
Faisal Ahmed Khan siyasat.net
Nowadays, the Muslim intellectual class seriously engage in retrospections of the current situation of the community and identifying the grass-root reasons for the cumulative downfall as an Ummah. The intellectuals often adopt a strong critical posture which undermines the achievement and progress made over the last several decades. Although the intentions of criticism might be good it often causes an enormous amount of negativity among the masses.
This negativity eventually results in a loss of confidence and losing the trust of community leaders and causing greater harm than benefit. Muslims are considered backward in the field of Education, Finance, Politics, and many other spheres of life.
Further more, the intellectuals often tend to either bask in the glory of the past or accuse and blame the mistakes of earlier generations and ancestors for the present-day situation. Unintentionally, by constantly exaggerating and over-emphasizing the failures they are serving disappointments, hopelessness, and discouragement to the community.
This results in many youngsters not realizing the strengths and beauty of their deen often fall prey to the deviations and even disbanding the religion altogether. Another facet of the problem is the differences among the various ideologies within Muslims which create an atmosphere of utter confusion and chaos. Each ideological group considering itself to be on the correct path and imposing its viewpoint of others causing greater rift and displeasure.
As a way forward and a solution for Muslim intellectuals, community leaders, and the masses in general, the understanding of the PERMA Model will be useful. Human Psychologist, Saligman’s (2011) PERMA Theory is widely applied in building resilience and developing wellbeing for the people in crisis. What are the five key elements of PERMA? Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. In this article, an attempt has been made to apply the PERMA Model for the Muslim Community.
Positive Emotions: Quran and teaching of the Prophet (PBUH) always encouraged us to have positive emotions such as love, affection, mercy, compassion, sympathy, hope, enthusiasm, determination, etc. Muslims have been advised to demonstrate these positive emotions, in-home, private and public life and in maintaining relationships with the rest of the world. These positive emotions need to be reflected by the community leaders when they write, speak, address the public and groups. At the same time, negative emotions such as anger, abuse, jealousy, envy, frustration, sadness, etc. need to effectively handle with patience. Quran on numerous occasion refer to the patience and its benefits to Muslim. For effectively playing the role of community leader, teachers, and preachers ‘patience is a prerequisite’. Furthermore, Allah SWT has repeated mentions in Quran not to be sad, disappoint and frustrate as He is always with us.
Engagement: A positive engagement plays an important role for community leaders, intellectuals, and masses. One has to identify the task at disposal as an individual or as a group and engage by immersing into it. For example, learning the Quran for its understanding alone or as a group, studying Seerah of Prophet(PBUH), exercising, playing, and other group activities will improve an identified weakness. A wide variety of the tasks can be identified and addressed for achieving the SMART Objectives in a step-by-step manner. Prophet(PBUH) and Companions (RA) always used to engage in crafting strategies, brainstorming on a problem, dialogues, and negotiations with other tribes. The team approach for engagements on various matters results in a better understanding of each other, resolving differences, and marching ahead towards an absolute common objective.
Relationships: Positive relations play a pivotal role in the personal and public life of an individual. Human beings need positive relationships to exist and survive in the form of connection, intimacy, and contacts. On the other hand, destructive and draining relationships will make you weak and isolated. Prophet (PBUH) has always emphasized maintaining good relations with neighbors and other tribes. His second important task after migrating to Madinah was to establish a unique brotherhood between migrants and helpers which laid down the strong foundation for Islam. Before that, the patch-up between the tribes of Aws and Khazraj by removing their mutual hostilities was one of the greatest achievements of the Prophet (PBUH). Today, the same approach of relationship building will be needed in sorting out the acrid differences on various grounds and joining hands together like what Aws and Khazraj did perfectly.
Meaning: Identifying the meaning and purpose of doing things is of utmost importance. One must know why this activity is conducted. For us as Muslims, fortunately, the meaning and purpose of everything are crystal clear which is ’to seek the pleasure of Allah SWT’’. To elaborate further what is the purpose of life? the answer is ‘‘ to obey Allah’’. What is the purpose of education? ‘’ to identify the creator.” It is the duty and responsibility of the community leader to educate the masses on the real purpose of life and various activities and efforts in a simplified manner considering different levels of understanding of individuals.
Accomplishment: The final element of the PERMA Model is ‘Sense of Accomplishment’. It is required for an individual, group, and community to flourish and to become successful. The present-day Muslim leadership often forget to convey the achievement made by them in the distant and recent past by emphasizing failures. Numerous groups, individuals, and Jamats have played a significant role in building the cognizant and conscious of the community in the past hundred years. The achievements of each other need to be identified, admired and celebrated which will enable the building, consolidation, and reinforcement of efforts with positivity.
Finally, Muslims in general and community leaders, in particular, need to remember that we should set the right objectives for the community. We need not chase others in fulfilling materialistic desires. We are the people who believe in the Life Hereafter, hence giving due importance to this fact in deciding our priorities is very important. I will recommend Muslim leaders embrace positivity and shed the negativity as it has caused a huge loss to the community. Let’s hope and pray for a positive frame of mind within the community.
(The author is from Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. He is Former Associate at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad)
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