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بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Capitalist RealIslam: Food for Thought for Diaspora Muslims

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التهم : to swallow or consume ravenously; to engulf or devour entirely, often used metaphorically for something that consumes without restraint.

In the age of capitalist realism, nothing escapes commodification, even worship. Mark Fisher describes capitalist realism as an inability to even imagine a world without capitalism. In it’s final form, it’s easier to imagine the end of the world as we know it, than the end of capitalism. It has swallowed whole every aspect of our lives, including faith.

Abu Barza Al-Aslami ra. narrated that the Messenger of Allah (S.A.W) said:

“The feet of the slave of Allah shall not move [on the Day of Judgement] until he is asked about five things: about his life and what he did with it, about his knowledge and what he did with it, about his wealth and how he earned it and where he spent it on, about his body and for what did he wear it out.”

Of these five questions, two pertain to our wealth. Where did it come from and where did it go?

As of recent, Muslim social media algorithms are flooded with advertising and sales of Umrah package deals, ‘Hijrah’ trips to Gulf countries, and opportunistic drop shippers peddling cheaply produced goods that “every Muslim needs”. It’s not unusual to hear of or see members of our communities who perform Umrah every year, spending thousands to repeat what is considered by the majority of the schools of thought, a Sunnah, not an obligation. After less than two generations living in the west, Muslim diaspora have already completely succumbed to the latent selfishness and individualism present in our host countries.

The question is: how much further would those resources go, both in this life and the next, if it was spent in more meaningful ways – for example, supporting our relatives who live in sub-optimal conditions back home?

By all means, this is not a criticism of Umrah, I encourage all, especially the Shafi’iya for who it is an obligation, to do Umrah have they the means. I, myself, have been fortunate enough to be invited before. Rather, this is a call to more carefully consider the way in which we spend our resources. Resources that we take for granted, that many of our brothers and sisters die every year trying to attain, whether by drowning in the Mediterranean Sea or being dumped into the Sahara after fruitless torture.

Abd Allah ibn Umar al-Khattab narrated that the Messenger of Allah SAW said:

“The most beloved of people to God are those who are most beneficial to others…Walking with a brother in need is more beloved to me than secluding myself in this mosque [meaning the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, which was only the Rawdah at the time] for a month”

Construction projects for our mosques are put on indefinite hold as we pray in unfinished make shift spaces, charity projects painfully halt at less than 50% of the target, but with ease we loosen the tight grips on our wallets and purses when it is time to splurge on flights, 5 star hotels, and shopping sprees. It’s clear that an annual Umrah trip followed by a parallel pilgrimage of indulgence in Dubai under the pretence of travelling to a ‘Muslim’ country only benefits ourselves, and the antithesis of the example our Prophet SAW gave us. Much can be said about these ‘Muslim’ countries who at every presented opportunity act to undermine Muslims, but not today.

This issue extends far beyond the scope of Umrah or relocating to the Gulf. We are well within the process of swapping any inner remnants of what it means to be a Muslim and exporting our deen to things that can be seen, heard, touched and ultimately, manufactured and sold for profit. How many variations of the same Islamic streetwear brand have we seen?.

How will we ever justify a Moroccan thobe that cost pennies to produce but was marked up by up to 3000%?. It isn’t enough to be Muslim, you should advertise it – not through your actions or your words, but through a hoodie with Arabic calligraphy. Be visible. Buy a prayer mat with your name stitched on it. Be loud and proud. A regular Mushaf won’t do, no, it has to be your Quran with your name printed into the cover. Identity in an individualistic society is of course, synonymous with presentation. You are what you are not because of what you believe, but what you consume and how you dress. As Ibn Khaldun stated:

The defeated imitate the victorious.

Indeed, our defeat is ubiquitous. The pursuit of monetary gain and the unrelenting itch of identity consumerism lead to the state of selective (bordering on complete) moral compromise we’re in today. A state in which we deceive ourselves into believing that a subscription based online service’s primary function is to help Muslims. Our favourite Muslim dating or Arabic study apps are products, whose primary objective is to turn a profit. Nobody is denying any other benefits that may come with them, but let’s not pull wool over our eyes to simple reasoning. In late 2020, journalists from Vice uncovered that MuslimPro, arguably the most popular mobile app used by Muslims, had been selling location data to the US military via a data broker. In classic tech company fashion, MuslimPro denied the allegations – while simultaneously terminating their business relationship with the data broker. A popular Muslim dating app was also identified to have a had a business relationship with the data broker.

There is an underlying problem with Muslim apps and tech services that has sever implications far beyond the scope of the data integrity of a few applications, or the moral integrity of the Muslims who sell them to us.

“Muslim” tech services and products are all built on a hostile underlying infrastructure. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, all of these giants that control the storage and flow of all of our data are fundamentally hostile towards us, arguably hostile towards all humans in general. All of these companies are complicit in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, as they lend their computing power and AI systems to the occupation forces. Gaza has become a playground for the training and innovation of AI systems, a lab for the occupation and tech giants alike to sharpen their tools at the expense of human lives. Don’t think for even a moment our cloud hosted prayer app or AI wrapper Quran app is safekeeping our data. In the age of capitalist realism were the individual is simultaneously both consumer and product, do not for a second believe that the parasitic nature between us and our apps changes because they’re Muslim designed or Muslim owned. For that line of wishful thinking to stand any sort of chance, we need our own data farms, our own AI infrastructure and systems.

Before my comments are flooded with accusations of hypocrisy and tu quoque rhetoric, understand that tragically, not participating in capitalism is synonymous with not living in this day, especially in the West. This isn’t a call to exit and embrace a life of eremitism on a mountain and forego your career and aspirations, not at all. I’m expressing a frustration I know many of us feel as a result of mindless participation and would rather see more meaningful ways to benefit from the systems and technology we’re fortunate enough to be in close proximity to. For too long now we’ve been embroiled in the production and consumption of products and tech that are overpriced, reactionary in nature or have been designed to solve problems that were solved long ago. I wonder if this is a contributing factor to the dissatisfaction and disconnection many Muslims feel in the West, symptoms reflecting the cognitive dissonance we feel as a result of knowing we should be more thoughtful, but participating with little to no thought at all.

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