With the world seemingly always taking a turn for the worse, out of desperation and frustration you may find yourself saying: “I want to change the world! I want to make a difference!”
This is great because it means that you care about others and truly want to make the world a better place, but let’s take a step back and think; what does it really mean to be a world changer?
Read on for four points that are vital for any world changer, inspired by the Ultimate World Changer – Imam Al-Mahdi (as):
1) Your intention must be sincere
Changing the world is an action and every action needs an intention. What is your intention for changing the world? Do you truly want to do good? Or do you want to do this to make yourself feel good? Are you spending most of your time thinking about how good this will look on your resume? Good work with bad intentions can lead to arrogance and be a source for satisfying one’s ego.
It’s easy to volunteer when you receive many benefits like getting many Instagram likes, a sparkling addition to your CV and that fuzzy feeling you get when you help others. However, how many of us would voluntarily help others if it involved true sacrifice? Fatima Al-Zahra (as) is a great example of this. It is said that Fatimah only had one patched dress to wear, so on her wedding day, the Prophet (pbuh) had a new dress made for her. On the wedding night someone knocked on the door and said: “I ask the household of Prophethood to give me an old dress.”
At first, Fatima was going to give him her old dress, but then remembered the Qur’anic verse (3:92):
She then gave the poor man her new dress.
This is the ultimate test to understand your true intentions. People are happy to help if it does not cause a burden on them, however, there are very few that would volunteer if it means they have to give up that which they love. If what you’re doing feels easy and involves no sacrifice, you might want to reassess your intentions. Your intentions should be to for Allah (swt) only, just as Fatimah Al-Zahra (as) did.
Changing the world is a means not an end. Don’t think of yourself as a world changer, instead, you are a humble slave of Allah (swt) that has submitted to His will and your life is a series of actions that make you closer towards Him. This should be your only goal but indirectly, you will be changing the world; just like Imam Al-Mahdi.
2) Do your research!
So, if our intentions are pure, we need to make sure that any action we take will truly bring a positive change. It is important to take a step back and to do your research! Your actions might do more harm than good regardless of how pure your intentions are. For example, let’s say you see a baby bird on the ground. Your first impulse is to take it inside and feed it. However, if you had done your research beforehand, you would know that most baby birds left alone are actually still being looked after by their mum and for you to take it in would separate it from her, thus causing much more harm than good.
You must do background checks of the organisations you wish to work with and figure out their vested interests. There are a lot of organisations out there that claim to be about creating positive social impacts and helping the most vulnerable. However, many of these are actually quite harmful institutions and ones that Imam Al Mahdi would never align himself with.
For example, UNICEF, a world famous organisation for helping children in developing countries actually has a dark goal. They began by helping kids in poor countries and then their goal became to prevent these children from existing in the first place by supporting abortion and allegedly sterilizing populations, sometimes unknowingly.
Another example are organisations which distribute foreign aid. They usually have sparkly slogans related to humanitarian causes but the truth it, most foreign aid is about establishing Western dominance throughout the world with the veneer of ‘helping others’. As Muslims, it is our responsibility to ensure that any action we take is thoroughly thought through; we cannot be simple minded.
3) Start with yourself first!
Imam Al-Mahdi would never have been able to become the ultimate world changer if he didn’t have an exceptional character and unwavering faith in God. To be positive world changers, we need to start with ourselves first! We need to focus on understanding what it is that Allah (swt) wants from us and then work very hard to figure out how we can achieve that. Understanding even one verse of the Quran or fixing one bad habit are small actions we can take that go a long way in rectifying our character to become positive world changers.
In the Qur’an (1:44) Allah (swt) criticizes those who outwardly call for goodness but forget changing themselves:
Surah Al-Rad (11) also has a pertinent aya which emphasizes that true change cannot occur until we change that which is ourselves:
4) Small changes can be more effective than big changes
In our desperation for a better world, we often lose sight that the seemingly small actions can be the most significant. Are you neglecting your parents and but focusing on changing the world?
Supporting someone going through a hard time simply by lending a listening ear, arranging a meet up with that friend you haven’t seen in a while, being trustworthy and reliable are all effective actions you can take. Even something as simple as a smile can make someone’s day and is a small step in making the world a better place – no wonder smiling is Sunnah 🙂
To conclude, we must realise that it is imperative to take a step back to reflect. Changing the world shouldn’t be our goal. Instead, our goal should be to fulfil our responsibilities towards Allah (swt) and to spread goodness according to His will.
Take a breath and have a good, hard look at yourself. You are a part of this world just as a wave is part of the ocean; you are not a separate entity. When you change yourself you are changing the world.
This is a revised version of a speech given at LAL’s Imam Al-Mahdi: The Ultimate World-Changer workshop on Sunday 13th May 2018
