This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 5, 2024 - August 11, 2024

Ten years ago, I first addressed the World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilization (WCIT). In August 2014, at the second ever WCIT, I spoke on “The Rise and Fall of Civilisation: The Contemporary State of Muslim Affairs”, about the disproportionately high levels of humanitarian suffering in Muslim majority countries: about poverty, displacement and political instability. In particular, I highlighted the United Nations’ Human Development Report in 2014, which revealed that only one-third of member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had “high” or “very high” levels of human development. There were, at that time, more member countries with “low” human development than with “high” and “very high” combined. The numbers, certainly, threw into sharp relief the suffering and hardship experienced by so many of our fellow Muslims around the world.

On the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), I have some positive news to share. In the past decade, the number of OIC-member countries with “low” human development has decreased, while the number with “high” and “very high” development has increased: there are now 26 member countries in the highest two categories and only 20 in the lowest, meaning that the balance appears to be tipping, slowly but surely, in the right direction.

And yet, the same UN Human Development Report that reveals these recent figures also contains a dire warning. Because, while human development, as measured by the HDI, may have improved since 2014, recent years have witnessed some worrying trends. Throughout the world, human development today is following a weaker trajectory than projected pre-Covid. While one might argue that this is to be expected following a major and prolonged global shock, the real concern is that HDI recovery is proving highly unequal. The gap between countries with the lowest and the highest development levels is widening, with countries at the lower end of the index at risk of being left behind.

What’s more, the latest report shows that global hunger trends have reversed in recent years, with undernourishment reaching levels not seen for over a decade. The world has seen reductions in freedom of expression and civil liberties, especially for women — and these particular measures were declining even pre-Covid.

Forced displacement is going up at record levels, and civilian casualties as a result of war are on the rise after years of declining.

Two years ago, there was a prevailing sense of optimism. The world was emerging, albeit slowly, from the darkest days of the pandemic. We were reuniting as a species. But, less than two years later, I must confess that sense of optimism has been dampened quite considerably. It is not only that the UN HDP report findings shed light on the uneven recovery taking place around the world.

Since October 2022, two major conflicts affecting Muslim-majority populations have broken out: the Sudanese civil war and, of course, the conflict in Gaza today. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine, which began in early 2022, has continued into a third year, inflicting significant and prolonged hardship on the country’s citizens. Across these global conflicts, innocent civilians of many faiths — Muslim and non-Muslim — including thousands of women and children, are bearing the brunt of the suffering: killed, wounded, forced out of their homes, and, in many cases, now facing intensifying food shortages.

I pray for peace to prevail in all conflict-torn regions of our world, and I hope you will join me in doing the same.

In light of the HDI trends, and these terrible conflicts, it seems only fitting that our focus should once again be on humanity. With the gap between the richest and poorest countries growing, and with international conflicts on the rise, it is clear that, even as a global Muslim community, our ummah, we are not currently united in a shared experience. We are not standing together. Some of us thrive, while others, even at this very moment, are suffering dreadful hardships and deprivation.

And so, I want to reflect on how we can help some of the most vulnerable members of our international community — in particular, those living in poverty and hardship, as well as children from all backgrounds. I say this: We do not stand “together” until all of us are standing. We must not be content to leave a single member of our global community behind. Indeed, it is our duty to help; for, as the Qur’an teaches, “If anyone saves a life, it will be as if he had saved all of humanity”. The Qur’anic message here is unapologetic and universal: it is about all of humanity, regardless of faith or creed. As Muslims, we are enjoined to help everyone to stand together, and to stand together with everyone. So we must take action, and soon, to help vulnerable Muslims and non-Muslims alike, before it is too late. Now, I believe there are already success stories to be shared in this area. There is no shying away from the seriousness of the international situation, or the worrying downward trends I highlighted earlier on. But there are many reasons for hope — and these, I think, are as important to acknowledge as the warning bells that tell us we are charting the wrong course.

Ten years ago, I spoke of the shockingly disproportionate share of the global Muslim population who live in abject poverty: at that time, the figure, based on the 2014 UN HDP report, was around 80%. While there have been some improvements in the HDI indicators over the past decade, the story today is not much better. Well over half of the countries in the Low Human Development category of the UN’s latest report are OIC members. Muslim-majority populations are still vastly overrepresented among the world’s poorest. And, just as concerning, studies indicate that, even in countries with “very high” human development, Muslim populations are often living with deprivation.

In the UK, for example, around half of Muslims are estimated to be living in poverty, compared with only 18% of the population as a whole. It is not right that so many of our Muslim brothers and sisters around the world are living without the resources to cover their basic day-to-day needs. We cannot stand together if some of us are fighting to simply survive.

Fortunately, Islam has inbuilt mechanisms to redress these imbalances and provide for those in need. Charity, generosity, philanthropy: these are enshrined in the very foundations of our faith. There is a well-known Hadith that says, “He is not a believer whose stomach is filled while his neighbour goes hungry”. And so we have many Islamic channels through which to ensure that all of our neighbours are well fed.

Zakat, or the obligatory “tax” for Muslims to achieve social justice through the distribution of wealth, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam; and additional mechanisms — such as waqf or endowments; and sadaqah or voluntary charity — promote giving as a core principle of Islamic life. Estimates suggest that global zakat contributions alone could be worth as much as US$1 trillion each year. Think about this! That is truly an astonishing figure. So, given the size of that figure, how is it that so many of our Muslim brothers and sisters are still struggling even to subsist?

The problem is partly one of scale. Yes, Islamic social finance is worth a vast amount of money — but the scale of the poverty we seek to combat is vast as well. It has numerous complex and overlapping causes, including war, displacement, extreme weather and famine. Such crises are highly challenging to address. There is a global gap between humanitarian development need and funding, and Islamic finance is not exempt from this. Moreover, while the value of Islamic social finance globally is very large, OIC member countries together raise only a modest fraction of that sum: a little under US$200 million, or around 0.02% of the higher-end estimates for the global value of zakat.

What this means is that the countries with the greatest need have the least access to the resources they require to alleviate want and suffering. We must do more to mobilise the funds raised through Islamic social finance mechanisms, and I’m delighted that there is already momentum in this area. More and more digital and fintech platforms are enabling Muslims around the world to channel their compulsory zakat and voluntary sadaqah donations towards the causes that matter most to them, and this, I hope, will lead to an increasing redistribution of funding to support those most in need.

The vast and challenging nature of the problem, however, also calls for action from big players in the finance industry. Individuals alone can make an enormous difference; but we need large-scale, coordinated efforts if we are to truly eradicate the acute, multidimensional poverty being suffered around the world. I am proud that Malaysia has been a member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for 50 years — almost since the Bank’s foundation in 1975 — as this is a prime example of a large-scale, financial organisation with humanitarian support built into its very structure.

Such institutions can mobilise large sums of money, and partner with other high-profile organisations to grow the pool of development resources, as with the IDB’s Lives and Livelihoods Fund. This is a fund that seeks to establish sustainable routes out of poverty. It focuses on sustainable development for local communities, supporting healthcare infrastructure and agricultural projects so as to give people the tools to help themselves.

Writing on poverty, and the challenges of humanitarian development, the chairman of IDB recently quoted the Indian philosopher and economist Amartya Sen. Professor Sen states that “poverty is not just a lack of money; it is not having the capability to realise one’s full potential as a human being”. Poverty does not merely deprive people of material possessions, but eats away at optimism, at opportunity, and even at humanity itself. If we are to stand together, as a global Muslim community, the ummah, we must find ways to help our fellow Muslims around the world to stand tall and proud, raised out of want and suffering, to realise their full potential.

As Muslims, after all, we have one Kalimah, one Qiblah and one Qur’an. Our faith unites us through these core foundations, urging us all to stand together. United in this way, even the poorest and most vulnerable can become strong. So, given the sheer number of Muslims across the globe, and given the wealth and privilege that many of us do enjoy, we should be able to come together in strength and solidarity, to shape the policies that affect the Muslim world, and to make a positive impact on the whole of humanity. And yet, at the present moment, we have been unable to do anything, to help the millions of Muslims suffering in poverty, or even to help the poor people of Gaza. Going forward, we must do more to ensure that our collective wealth — our collective power — is used to support those who are less fortunate, for the good of those individuals, for the well-being and strength of the ummah, and ultimately for humanity itself. For I firmly believe that we, as Muslims, have a powerful, positive contribution to make to the global community. We must lift up our fellow Muslims, so that they, too, can help to make the world a brighter, better place for everyone in it.

There is one other vulnerable group I wish to highlight, and the future of global humanity quite literally depends on them. I am talking, of course, about children. Children of all faiths and backgrounds are disproportionately affected by poverty: while they comprise only a third of the global population, they represent half of those subsisting on less than the bare minimum.

At the present moment, children are also suffering disproportionately in humanitarian crises and conflict situations. There are currently four million children in Sudan facing acute malnutrition. In Ukraine, the UN estimates that 3.5 million children are living under severe to catastrophic levels of need, and in Gaza, half of the 1.7 million people displaced from their homes are children.

These children are losing their families, their homes, their loved ones and, all too often, tragically, their lives. Even those who survive through conflict and famine are at risk of losing their futures. Because all too often, children living through these situations do not have access to an education. Almost all children in Sudan are now out of school; and in Gaza, the latest UN estimates suggest that at least 80% of schools have been destroyed in the war.

Indeed, the scale of the destruction is such that scholars worldwide have now coined a shameful new word in our human lexicon: “scholasticide”.

In the world as a whole today, nearly 250 million children are out of school — a staggering figure — and due to the correlation between poverty and poor school provision, many of those millions are in the Muslim world.

Despite global progress on achieving gender parity, there are still a disproportionate number of young girls missing out on education in regions in crisis, with female students 2½ times more likely to be out of school in countries experiencing conflict.

In my first ever speech to WCIT a decade ago, I spoke about the vital importance of education, and the shortfalls in this area across OIC countries. If, 10 years later, I sound like a broken record, it is because we as a global community have a broken record of providing a solid educational foundation for all of our young people. But we can make progress in this area — and I know that, because we have already made progress. A sustained focus on female education here in Malaysia, for instance, has resulted in a significant increase in the percentage of women enrolled in tertiary education — from only 10% in the 1950s to around 50% now. World Bank projects in Egypt and Nigeria have increased teacher training and retention, and improved educational attainment in these countries. Across the Islamic world, literacy rates have improved dramatically over the past 30 years or so, with 25 Muslim-majority countries achieving literacy rates of over 90% — well above the global average — as of 2018.

Many of the problems facing our world, the global community and the Muslim ummah, are complicated, deep-rooted and difficult to solve. They stem from a complex web of political, environmental and financial causes, and they require more than funding if a solution is to be found. But the educational success stories I have just cited indicate that, in this sphere at least, investment does yield returns. And we must invest in opportunities for children around the world, because they are the problem solvers of tomorrow. We must stand up for every child’s right to an education, even in conflict and crisis situations, and we must remember that this is about ensuring a brighter future for humanity.

There is no shying away from the fact that the world feels more troubled, not less, than it did two years ago. We are at risk of moving in the wrong direction, away from progress, and when that happens, it is the vulnerable who suffer disproportionately: those already lacking in the basic resources for day-to-day survival, and the children deprived of the opportunity to make their mark on the world.

The Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wassalam, said “the Muslim ummah is like one body; when any part is in pain, the whole body is in pain”. Across the globe, whether in Gaza or Sudan, our Muslim brothers and sisters are in pain, and we must feel that pain together with them. And we must recognise the pain of non-Muslims too, in conflict situations like Ukraine, but also everywhere in the world, as we strive for a truly global understanding of humanity. May this motivate us to reach out our hands and help others to their feet, so that we can, at last, all stand together on the brink of a brighter future.

Countering the evils of poverty and conflict is no easy task; but I hope that you, like me, can see there are reasons for optimism. There are success stories amid the challenges: we have made progress before, and we will make progress again. Particularly in the sphere of education, if we invest, then we will see results, enabling our global community to stand together not only for today, but for all our tomorrows as well. As a well-known song goes, “I believe that children are our future. Teach them well, and let them lead the way!”

This is an excerpt of the address by the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, at the 7th World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilization on July 29 in Ipoh

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