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You have been born into it. The constant buzzing, humming, blaring, whirring of fans, motors, engines, and sirens. You look up at night but cannot appreciate the moonlight because it is overwhelmed by the hot pink, yellow, green, and blue neon signs encouraging you to buy clothes so you can look cool, to eat and drink until you drop, and to drive cars modeled by women who look like twigs and are dressed in nothing more than a leaf, or two at best. On a hot summer day, you are inside an air-conditioned home. Perhaps you will never experience what it feels like to be in the scorching sun, gasping for air because of the humidity, and then suddenly, briskly, momentarily, feeling a cool breeze. In winter, slumbering in your heated bedroom, scarcely will you have a chance to witness how winter's snow covers the landscape and silences the urban sounds that we have grown so accustomed to hear. Unless you own a pet or have watched the occasional bird fly by, it is unlikely you will have a chance to observe animals in their natural habitat — and the school trip to the local zoo does not count. So there we have it, the experience of how more often, young people today are coming of age in the midst of urbanization. Since nothing can be done to reverse the impact of urbanization or to even slow down its pace, it is important that we as Muslims develop some strategies on how best to live our lives as urban Muslims.
Urbanization: The Islamic Stance
Let us be clear about the stance that we as Muslims should take towards urbanization. Is urbanization bad? Is it incompatible with Islamic teachings? No and of course not. We should embrace the urban life according to one broad, guiding principle: Urbanization is welcomed as long as it facilitates for us the ability to fulfill our obligations to Allah, to our family, to society, and to all of creation. There is tremendous latitude within Islamic teachings such that in sha' Allah, no matter what urbanization looks or feels like 50, 100, or even 200 years from now, Muslims will continue to embrace the urban life.
Driven by a desire to serve Allah through service to mankind, Muslim inventors and scientists have patented inventions and made discoveries in the 20th and now 21st centuries. There have been so many developments, ma sha' Allah, in nutrition, medicine, industry and so on, that improve the quality of life for all human beings at any age. Fewer infants die at birth on the one hand, and older adults are living longer, healthier lives on the other. Even when the inventors and scientists were not Muslims, it is clear that Muslims benefited from embracing the progress and the advancements. Although as we shall see in the next section of this essay, urbanization has a downside, all in all for Muslims, Islamic teachings provide great latitude with regards to advancing society. What will be your contribution? Your invention? Think about it. What aspect of life can you research and then help to improve?
Urbanization: The Impact
Without a doubt, urbanization has had a mostly positive impact on affected societies, but one would be remiss to not give attention to the negative impact of urbanization. There is evidence that the damage to the ecosystems in almost all continents is irreversible, having rendered extinct many species and having destroyed the habitats of those species that were spared. All of creation has suffered to some degree, although clearly the negative impact of unplanned and hasty urbanization on human beings is the most unjustifiable. As we explore two of the consequences of urbanization below, we will keep a dual focus on the effect of the environment on human beings and the subsequent impact of human beings on the environment.
Loss of Community
Among the first projects Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) undertook when he reached Madinah was to build a masjid to facilitate the congregational prayer but also to serve as a focal point for the community. The community that thrived in Madinah became not only a model for Muslims of the Prophet's time, but continues to serve as a model community for people all over the world to this day. Interestingly enough, the Muhajirun (immigrants to Madinah) from Makkah, most of whom were merchants, ended up moving from an urban society to a rural, farming-based society in Madinah.
But must it always be that moving from a rural to an urban society leads to a loss of community? Not necessarily so, especially if Muslims are the ones spearheading the efforts to urbanize. With Muslims in charge, cities such as 15th century Grenada and Toledo flourished, heralding a renaissance in science, medicine, and the arts along with beautiful and aesthetically pleasing architectural designs. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few countries, Muslims are not spearheading urbanization according to Islamic teachings. On the most part, Muslims today are the victims of urbanization, especially the youth. The result is that with more people moving into urban societies, there is overcrowding, shortage of open space for parks and recreation, almost definitely an increase in high-rise apartment buildings, and worst of all, building designs in general that are dark and dreary — void of any aesthetic beauty.
A loss of community also occurs as a result of the struggle to share limited resources since the most common tendency is to include those of one's own background and to exclude those of "other" backgrounds. Increasingly, people feel they do not belong, and there is no sense of pride in taking care of one's community. Where Muslims are fewer in number, the impact of the loss of community is even greater because there are fewer Muslims to socialize with, most likely no vibrant masjid or Islamic center in the vicinity, and generally fewer Muslim institutions such as schools and social service agencies.
Unhealthy Lifestyles
The fast-paced schedules, the snarling traffic jams, the smog, the eating-on-the-run habits, the eating-fast-food habits, all of these are only partial indicators of the unhealthy lifestyles associated with a more urbanized society. There seems to be little or no time left to reflect, to observe, to internalize. Everything has to be done today. The cell phone rings constantly, you are reachable to others more often than even to yourself. The average to-do list is 25 items long despite there still being only 24 hours in a day.
People eat while driving, drink while walking, and talk while attempting to swallow. Constantly on the run, we are never well rested. Unable to sleep despite being exhausted beyond belief, we might resort to sleeping pills that help us sleep but leave us agitated, feeling unnaturally rested. One prayer is squeezed in just before another meeting starts and the recommended post-prayer remembrance of Allah is the first casualty. Anxiety, fear, grief, impatience, anger, and overall frustration abound.
While not everyone's life consists of all of these elements described above, regretfully, all of us are affected by at least one of the elements. Islamic teachings help us to understand that again, although not to the same degree or even magnitude, the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was proportionately as busy if not more than what we are expected to do in a day. And yet, he maintained calm, placed his trust in Allah, and managed his daily schedule without ever compromising his relationship with Allah Most High. Often the first casualty of an urban lifestyle seems to be the individual's relationship with Allah. As Muslims, we need as much as possible to handle our daily schedules in a manner that allows for time to reflect, to ponder, and most importantly to establish and strengthen our relationship with Allah. After all, if we remember that He is in charge, then no matter what stresses and strains confront us, we should be able to avoid resorting to unhealthy lifestyles brought on by urbanization. Make time to pray, make time to sit quietly in remembrance of Allah after prayer. Most of all, Muslims should abide by the principle that urbanization is to be embraced only insofar as becoming urban facilitates our ability to fulfill our obligations towards Allah, our family, society, and all of creation.
A Final Word on Urbanization: The Example of the French Muslims
Consider, for example, the challenges facing Muslim youth in France today. Parisian suburbs burned for almost two weeks nonstop because of the intense hostility that exists between a segment of the Muslim youth and a segment of French society. The Muslim youth are not considered a part of the larger French community although a majority of the youth have been born and raised in France. What led to this loss of community — this sense that I do not belong? What caused the Muslim youth to feel such disdain towards the larger French community?
Volumes of analysis are needed to answer those questions in-depth. For the purposes of this brief essay, we will explore at least two factors: integration and urbanization. We know that in the middle of the 20th century, many North African Muslims from former colonies migrated to France but never quite integrated into French society. Even worse, as France raced towards urbanization, the French Muslims lagged way behind. While other religious groups such as the Jews and Catholics went about their lives in French society, Muslims seemed to be confused, dazed about what Islam did and did not allow them to do in the process of integration.
Disregarding completely the applicability of Islamic teachings to any society at any time, the French Muslims instead kept to themselves, self-isolated on the one hand, and forcibly and discriminatorily alienated by French society on the other. Education, which is at the center of Islamic society, became less and less relevant to the French Muslims, it seems, to the extent that the youth in many cases chose not to pursue even a high school diploma, opting instead to perpetuate the cycle of ignorance and settle for membership in a club of menial, unskilled laborers. On the other hand, many youth do earn college degrees, and prepare themselves well for mainstream, urban society only to find themselves blocked out, excluded even from a chance to interview for high-prized positions simply because of their racial and religious backgrounds.
Based on their marginalized and often oppressive position, the French Muslim youth have the potential to feel resentment and little pride in being associated with the French national identity. Relegated to only being bystanders at best of the urbanization efforts, some French Muslim youth have wrongfully opted for lawlessness and delinquent behavior. Around the world, Muslim youth especially face two challenges: to establish their Islamic identities and to aspire to urbanize Muslim societies. How to do that? The youth cannot meet those challenges alone. All of us should be concerned by the French Muslim example. We need to do our share to ensure that integration into non-Muslim majority societies and adjustment to urbanization are carried out in consonance with Islamic teachings.
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