News & Comment
Thinking for Change

News:

Arthur Wagner, a politician for Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which campaigns on an anti-Muslim ticket, has converted to Islam and left the party, a spokesman has confirmed.

Arthur Wagner, a leading member of the party in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, said he would not comment on his reason for leaving the party, but confirmed to a Berlin daily that he had converted to Islam and that he had renounced his party membership on 11 January. (The Guardian)

Comment:

This news is an important reminder for Muslims to understand and prove the power of the Islamic call and the influence it has in radically and comprehensively transforming the individual.

Even though the Western media, alongside Western politicians and governments, have been instrumental throughout the years in ensuring that the image of Islam and the Muslims, has become entwined with concept such as backwardness, terrorism and barbarism in the Western mind, it couldn’t stop Arthur Wagner, Arnoud van Doorn from the Netherlands and Maxence Buttey from France, all former far right politicians, from finally seeing the truth of Islam. No matter how thick the web of lies surrounds Islam, we see that even the ones who have actually had an active part in spreading these lies can radically change their way of thinking for the better, Subhanallah!

It is a reminder that all people have the potential to change even if the climate that surrounds them is an anti-Islamic climate or a climate drenched in Kufr.

Change is possible as people act and think on the basis of the concepts that they hold. Therefore if their concepts are wrong we will see that their thoughts and actions will be wrong and if their concept are correct then their actions and thoughts will turn out to be correct.  And concepts can be changed especially when the individual feels the need to change.

Individuals will feel this need to change when the basis, from which they view life, is built upon an idea which doesn’t fit the fitrah (inherent nature) of the human. This incompatibility of their life view with the human fitrah will eventually cause anguish within the person and this is what can motivate the individual to think for change.

It is actually this thinking for change which puts fear into the hearts of many world leaders knowing that Islam is the only sound basis which not only has the capability to radically change an individual, but also has the potential to change a whole society.

This is why we actually see the constant attacks on Islam through the media and politicians. Their attacks don’t have an intellectual basis because this is clearly a battle they will lose that’s why they resort to mere slander and propaganda.

This is also the reason why Muslims must continue the dawah to Islam in such a way that this feeling of anguish enters the hearts of non-Muslims in order to help them to “think for change” by contemplating about the meaning of life and helping them finding their way to their Creator. Make them understand that their current look on life where liberal values take precedent, and where pursuing one’s desire above all matters can’t ever entail the meaning of life, by explaining the effects, this view on life, has on society.

We ourselves as Muslims must take pride in carrying this dawah confidently and appreciate the jewel we have with owning Islam. We should realise that Islam is the only alternative to the ruling ideologies of the world and that only Islam has the potential to take both Muslims and non-Muslims away from the depth of darkness into the light of Islam.

﴿يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِؤُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ * هُوَ الَّذِي أَرْسَلَ رَسُولَهُ بِالْهُدَى وَدِينِ الْحَقِّ لِيُظْهِرَهُ عَلَى الدِّينِ كُلِّهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْمُشْرِكُونَ﴾

“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it. It is He who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although those who associate others with Allah dislike it.” [As-Saff: 8-9]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Yasmin Malik