An interesting conversation with my brother ensues. How did it start, Allahu a3lam. How did it end, with a smile from me and an inner feeling of hope, true hope in my Muslim Ummah.
'Why are we so pathetic?, I asked, referring to the sorry state of the Muslims nowadays. What a stupid question, rummage.
My brother looked at me in the way he normally does when he realises I've asked a type of question I want a comprehensive answer to. He sighed, then smiled. He wouldn't give me a satisfactory answer, but he'd try.
Don't underestimate the Muslim ummah he said, for so many have in the past.It takes time,he said. Be happy things are not like they were in the 70s where Prophet Muhammad (phuh) would openly be mocked in the journals and newspapers, of Muslim countries!
Saladin did not achieve greatness without the work of his forefathers, he also argued. He was optimistic as he said that it would take the first generation to move for change before it can come. Do not think you will live to see the chance but rather be happy you are part of it. Each and every Muslim should be.
The hypocrites will mock us in secret even if they know it to be the truth. He spoke of the time an individual attempted to hurt the Prophet while in prostration but couldn't because of the sight that had scared him as he proceeded to do so. There it was, as clear as anything , but still in denial. This certain man knew the prophet to be trustworthy but would not accept his prophethood out of pride and arrogance.
So I thought for a while. I do not need to see the change, rather be happy I am one to initiate it, inshallah. Its a stream after all, as has been described, it won't run uniformally all the time. The most important lesson I took from my brother was that if we ever expect victory, then to Allah the alliance should be. This is because, the moment our hearts our alligned with anything else, then we have already become the losers. Plain and simple as that.
So my brother pointed me towards these few ayahs in Surah Al An'am (the Cattle)
006.033 We know indeed the grief which their words do cause thee: It is not thee they reject: it is the Signs of God, which the wicked contemn.
006.034 Rejected were the Apostles before thee: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid did reach them: there is none that can alter the Words (and Decrees) of God. Already hast thou received some account of those Apostles.
006.035 If their spurning is hard on thy mind, yet if thou wert able to seek a tunnel in the ground or a ladder to the skies and bring them a sign,- (what good?). If it were God's will, He could gather them together unto true guidance: so be not thou amongst those who are swayed by ignorance (and impatience)!
And , of course, a lovely hadith on unity I found.
On the authority of Abu Hurairah(may Allah be pleased with him), who said : the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said :“Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another, but be you, O servants of Allah, brothers. A muslim is the brother of a muslim: he neither oppresses him nor does he fail him, he neither lies to him nor does he hold him in contempt . Piety is right here-and he pointed to his breast three times. It is evil enough for a man to hold his brother muslim in contempt. The whole of a muslim for another muslim is inviolable: his blood, his property, and his honor.” (Related by Muslim.)
Spread love, brothers and sisters. We are one Ummah, after all.
Salam alaykum
A couple of weeks back, I posted this. 
Allah is Most Forgiving, Al Ghafur.
