As Muslim all over the world including in Malaysia commemorating the birth of the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW, one especially Muslim do really miss the time or the era where Muslim all over the world are united under a single leadership which can lead them to the right path ordained by God. Throughout His life, the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW has gone through many challenges and obstacles in order to spread the message of Islam not only to his own community, namely the Arab but also to the whole world.
Upon His demise, Muslims which still consists small group of peoples back then were struggling to find suitable candidate not to replace the Holy Prophet but to act a leader which Muslim can come to meet, discuss and find solutions on issue which relate to the affairs of the religion, the state as well as matter affecting their daily life. This clearly show to us that having a leader is very much important in any community as its not only symbolizes power and dignity of the community which the leader belong to, but also act as a point of reference where the community can rely upon whenever there is crisis, issue, or problem effecting the community. Having a leader will also bring stability within the community as the main function of a leader is to bring unity of the community which they lead. In Islam, the leader or also known as a caliph has played very crucial role in the Islamic history for the last 1400 years.
On March 3, 1924, the first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as part of Atatürk’s Reforms, constitutionally abolished the institution of the caliphate and thus put an end to the title which has been a great symbol to the Muslim worldwide. Ever since the abolishment of the title, Muslim all over the world become disarray and starts to create their own tiny kingdom and state without having any central power when they need to seek help or guidance. As a result, Muslim becoming an easy target and even becoming political tool by the world power dominated by the West like the United States and the Soviet throughout the first half of the 20TH century.
Knowing this, efforts have been made to initiate the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 1969 which main objective is to act as the collective voice of the Muslim world and works to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world along with the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony. Though having such organisation, many Muslim all over the world still face many problems like the ongoing conflict face by the Palestinian people, endless war in Syria and Iraq, the ethnic prosecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar, poverty and illiterate in Africa as well as in some part of Asia and others.
All these problems also give rise to another problem like the threat of terrorism from groups which have misused or misinterpret the peaceful religion of Islam for their advantages like ISIS, Al – Qaeda, Abu Sayyaf and others. These problems happen because there is not unity among the ummah themselves. What more sad to see is that some Muslim willing to seek assistance from the non – Muslim for immediate help and protection. If the Muslim really want to see real change to happen within their society, then they need first to set aside all their ego and small differences. OIC which consist membership of nearly 60 Muslim nations can play an important role to achieve such unity. But OIC need to be strengthen first so that it can play such role effectively and efficiently. Once there is a unity, Muslim all over the world can become stronger, gain respect from other people, and most important having the ability to tackle all the problems face today as well as embrace all the challenges in the future.