OIC members' dismal existence

Pitiful. The Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) member states fixated on past, often blame external actors for their troubles, have lost self-esteem and look apologetic when dealing with West. The fact is that OIC member states have failed to provide a decent life and future for most their citizens. This is not Islam's fault; the faults lie within themselves.

Ironically, Ibn-Khaldun (1377) was the first critical thinker who articulated a cyclical framework of rise and fall of empire drawn from his observation of demise of North African and Arab dynasties: social solidarity builds empire, indulgence in power and luxury corrupts, leading to decline and collapse. The Ottomans, Safavis and Mughals met same fate. Later, this foundational framework was evolved into creating universal rise-and-fall methodologies to ascertain reasons for failure for over 25 civilisations, such as external causation, internal causation and structural collapse. (O Spengler, A Toynbee, W Durant, P Kennedy, J Tainter, P Turchin – to explore further)

Why then? The orientalist rarely draws the parallel with natural-civilisation decline cycle and laces their analysis by blaming Islamic teachings. Because they blatantly reject their belief and values system, and atheist and materialist world views. Likewise, Muslim intellectuals themselves remain reluctant in applying the universal cyclical framework, fearing orthodoxy backlash and political cost. Few have applied conventional views to analyse the decline of Muslim civilization. (M Bennabi, M Chapra, SH Raja 2024 – to explore further)

Such parallels would undo the conventional outlook, as they would challenge the mainstream narrative: that Islam is uniquely incompatible with modernity and that burden of colonisation is the root cause. It unequivocally places responsibility on what leaders, clergy and institutions chose to do during the decline phase and its continued stagnation.

Tragedy is that Muslim thought remains constrained and has not moved beyond collapse of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires into reality of the contemporary Muslim nation-state world. Quran does not sanction such paralysis, and decline is self-inflicted. "Indeed, Allah would not change a favor He had bestowed upon a people until they change what is within themselves" (Quran, 13:11), and "every nation has its appointed term" (Quran, 7:34).

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) sought Allah's reprieve for his Ummah. Survival from annihilation by disasters and external enemies was granted, but no refuge from internal conflict and bloodshed (Sahih Muslim 2889, 2890). We supplicate for betterment of our Ummah, perhaps expect that this alone will turn misrule into Islamic utopia, forgetting that Allah had already decreed: "Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves" (Quran, 13:11).

Both Orientalist and Muslim apologists portray pitiful picture of Islamic world arguing Muslims are incapable of living in the modern world, citing techno-religious reasons for its downfall marked by the Ottoman collapse: internal stagnation and conservatism, military and technological lag, economic challenges, political fragmentation and weak leadership, external threats and geopolitical overreach. Most of these legacy faults persist, reflected in global indexes including the OICStat Database (online source of 1,500+ socio-economic indicators on member states).

Islamic world's understanding of an ever-changing world rooted in Europe's Renaissance and Scientific Revolution remains limited. We have failed to achieve the level of competence that enables viable existence for the Muslim nation-state. Both Muslim intellectuals and Orientalists framed this as irreconcilable clash between Islam and modernity (Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington), which sadly resonate across Western academia and Muslim apologetic literature alike. It is convenient framing. And it is false.

This false binary absolves rulers of accountability, excuses dysfunctional institutions and redirects anger of over two billion Muslims away from flawed governance toward an abstraction underwritten by religious dogmas. Religious leaders, oblivious to scale of outside change, when faced with this Western tsunami, rushed to safeguard Muslim's faith. Overzealous religious outfits declared everything unislamic, notably prohibiting the printing press in Ottoman period, loudspeaker use in colonial India and Western education broadly, with similar edicts on internet continuing today.

Paradoxically, knowledge and tools exist in the world then and now, rooted in infidel competence, freely used by the very outfits who declared it un-Islamic, perhaps ignoring the absolute source of all creation. Clergy remain engaged in saving Muslims from hellfire, rightly so, by reinforcing faith and its practices, but leaving faithful clueless to deal with day-to-day realities of life, immersed in world built entirely on that same un-Islamic knowledge. Paradox not to be solved.

OIC is the second-largest intergovernmental organisation after UN, representing over two billion Muslims across 57 member states. It emerged in 1969 in response to arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque, to safeguard Muslims' wellbeing. Its SDG-aligned goals deviate where human rights are subordinated to religious authority, intra-OIC redistribution is omitted, and women's equality is tied to family values. Five decades on, member states are not structurally built to deliver them.

Collectively OIC has produced over 1,500 resolutions on member states' issues without making any tangible impact. Islamic Development Bank, only functioning institution, disbursed above $180 billion since 1975 (compared to World Bank $60-80 billion annual disbursements) on projects which local governments should undertake: roads, bridges, water plants and trade finance. It has not filled gaps in knowledge, institutions or governance entrenched in members' states. Words without amal (action) are precisely what Iqbal warned against.

No doubt OIC is burdened by historical inequality and Western intrigue, client rulers worsen by the leaders, whose playbook of state capture is universal: power grab or legacy retention, undermining state organs, paralysing institution, exploiting resources and serving themselves, while obliging external interests. Pity.

As Iqbal wrote: By action life may become both paradise and hell. This creature of dust in its nature is neither of light (Angelic) nor of fire (Satanic).

Amal se zindagi banti hai jannat bhi jahannam bhi

Yeh khaki apni fitrat mein na noori hai na naari hai

OIC's failure reflects outcome of its own amal, while its members' amal have failed to create viable states, leaving citizens in dismal existence. Its silence on the ongoing Israel-US aggression against Iran spilling into neighbouring Islamic countries has left one speechless. If past is any guide, the future will be the same. Yet the choice is ours alone.