The root cause of the Muslims’ “illness”

In reality, the sickness afflicting today’s Muslims is not simply ignorance of some particular field of knowledge—although I readily admit that every science which benefits the community is obligatory in proportion to that benefit. The humiliation that has overtaken us is therefore not the result of being unfamiliar with the discipline now called Fiqh al-Wāqiʿ (the jurisprudence of current realities). Rather, as the authentic ḥadīth we just cited makes clear, the true cause is our neglect of implementing the commands of the religion contained in the Book and the Sunnah.

1. His ﷺ words, “When you enter into ʿīnah transactions,” point to a form of usury that seeks to out-maneuver the Law.
2. His ﷺ words, “and you grasp the tails of cattle,” allude to total preoccupation with worldly matters, clinging to them, and showing little concern for the Sharīʿah and its rulings.
3. The same idea is carried by his ﷺ words, “and you become content with tilling the soil.”
4. His ﷺ words, “and you abandon jihād,” are the inevitable consequence of that attachment to the dunya, just as the Almighty says:
   “O you who believe, what is the matter with you that, when you are told: ‘March forth in the path of Allah,’ you cling heavily to the earth? Are you pleased with the life of this world rather than the Hereafter? Yet the enjoyment of this worldly life, compared with the Hereafter, is but little.” ⦗Al-Tawbah: 3⦘

Finally, his ﷺ statement, “…Allah will place humiliation over you, and He will not remove it from you until you return to your religion,” is an explicit indication that the religion to which we must return is the very one Allah ﷻ affirmed in many noble verses, such as:
“Today I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favor upon you, and approved Islam for you as a religion.” ⦗Āl ʿImrān: 1⦘

Imām Mālik’s famous comment on this verse clarifies the intent: “Whatever was not religion on that day can never be religion today, and nothing will set right the latter part of this ummah except what set right its first part.”