A Palestinian child is buried under rubble in Gaza. A Uyghur mother has not seen her son in seven years because he is in a concentration camp in China. A Sudanese family is fleeing genocide while their village burns. And somewhere, right now, a Muslim scholar is uploading a 45-minute video refuting the Mu’tazilah.

The Mu’tazilah. A sect that ceased to have any real influence over 800 years ago.

This is the state of the Muslim Ummah today. We are living in a time of crisis, and we are talking about people who are dead and problems that no longer exist. We are writing articles refuting the Jahmiyyah, debating the Qadariyyah, and producing content about theological disputes that have been settled for centuries. Meanwhile, the issues that are killing Muslims right now are pushed to the side.

The algorithms do not care about urgency. They care about engagement. And unfortunately, controversy and division generate more engagement than awareness and unity. So the video refuting a Shia scholar gets more views than the video documenting the suffering in Sudan. The article about an obscure theological position trends higher than the report on children dying in Gaza.

This is a waste of time, a betrayal of our brothers and sisters who are suffering.

Outdated Debates Do Not Serve the Current Reality

There is a time and place for theological study. The scholars of the past did this work, and it was necessary. They were responding to threats of their time. The Mu’tazilah were powerful during the Abbasid period. The Jahmiyyah were a real danger in the second and third Islamic centuries. The debates were urgent because these groups had real influence.

Today, these groups do not exist. There is no Mu’tazili movement trying to take over the Muslim world. These are historical sects that students of knowledge study to understand Islamic theology, not active threats that require daily refutations.

The threats we face today are not the Jahmiyyah. The threats are secular nationalism, liberal interpretations that strip Islam of its political relevance, the normalization of Zionism, the genocide in Gaza, the concentration camps in East Turkestan, the ethnic cleansing in Sudan, and the complete absence of Islamic governance anywhere on earth.

Refuting the Mu’tazilah does not address any of these problems. Writing another article about the Qadariyyah does not liberate Palestine. Debating groups that died centuries ago does not stop the Uyghurs from being tortured.

We are fighting battles that were won 800 years ago while losing the battles happening right now.

Internal Disputes Create Division and Fitnah

Even worse than focusing on dead sects is the obsession with Sunni-Shia polemics and internal refutations that only create more division.

Yes, there are theological differences. But do we need 500 videos a week calling each other kafir? Do we need endless back-and-forth insults that only harden hearts and push people further apart?

Look at Palestine. Sunni and Shia are both being killed by the same bombs. In East Turkestan, the Chinese government does not care if the Uyghur in the concentration camp is Sunni or Shia. They torture them both.

And yet, online, we are at war with each other. The Sunni refutes the Shia. The Salafi refutes the Sufi. And on and on, while the Ummah burns.

Allah says: 

وَٱعْتَصِمُوا۟ بِحَبْلِ ٱللَّهِ جَمِيعًۭا وَلَا تَفَرَّقُوا۟ ۚ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ نِعْمَتَ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ إِذْ كُنتُمْ أَعْدَآءًۭ فَأَلَّفَ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ فَأَصْبَحْتُم بِنِعْمَتِهِۦٓ إِخْوَٰنًۭا وَكُنتُمْ عَلَىٰ شَفَا حُفْرَةٍۢ مِّنَ ٱلنَّارِ فَأَنقَذَكُم مِّنْهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَهْتَدُونَ

“And hold firmly together to the rope of Allah and do not be divided. Remember Allah’s favour upon you when you were enemies, then He united your hearts, so you—by His grace—became brothers. And you were at the brink of a fiery pit and He saved you from it. This is how Allah makes His revelations clear to you, so that you may be ˹rightly˺ guided.” (Surah Al-Imran, 3:103).

We are doing the opposite. We are dividing ourselves. We are making enemies out of people who should be our brothers. And the result is an Ummah that cannot unite on anything, not even the defense of Al-Aqsa.

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: 

“Do not hate one another, nor be jealous of one another; and do not desert one another, but O Allah’s worshipers! Be Brothers! And it is unlawful for a Muslim to desert his brother Muslim (and not to talk to him) for more than three nights.” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6076)

A lot of the internal disputes we see online are not about defending Islam. They are about egos. They are about building platforms. They are about getting views. And they are destroying the unity of the Ummah in the process.

The Algorithm Amplifies Distraction

Social media algorithms do not care about what is important. They care about what keeps people on the platform. Controversy. Drama. Conflict.

A calm video about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan gets a few thousand views. A heated debate between scholars calling each other misguided gets hundreds of thousands of views. A well-researched article on Israeli war crimes might be shared a few hundred times. A provocative refutation of an obscure position goes viral.

The result is that the most important issues get buried. The content that should be reaching millions, the reports on genocide, the footage of suffering, the calls to act, are hidden beneath layers of theological debates that do not matter.

We are training the algorithm to distract us. The enemies of Islam benefit when Muslims are distracted. They benefit when we are divided. They benefit when we are too busy arguing about theology to organize politically.

A video refuting the Mu’tazilah does not threaten anyone. A video calling for the re-establishment of the Khilafah does. The algorithm amplifies the former and suppresses the latter because the former keeps us busy and the latter makes us dangerous.

The Urgent Issues We Are Ignoring

While we are debating the Jahmiyyah, here is what is happening:

Palestine. Gaza has been flattened. Over 600,000 killed since October 2023. Families living in tents. Children starving. Al-Aqsa is under constant attack.

East Turkestan. Over three million Uyghurs in concentration camps. Tortured. Sterilized. Forced to abandon Islam. Children separated from families.

Sudan. Brutal civil war. Millions killed. Millions displaced. Famine spreading.

Kashmir. Occupied for over 70 years. Military curfew. Arrests. Torture. Killings.

Yemen. Years of war. Hundreds of thousands dead. Millions are facing starvation.

Rohingya. Driven from Myanmar. Living in refugee camps. Stateless. Hopeless.

These are happening right now. These are Muslims suffering right now. And we are writing articles about the Mu’tazilah.

How do we stand before Allah and explain that we had time to refute a sect that died 800 years ago but no time to raise awareness about the genocide happening in our lifetime?

This Does Not Lead to Revival

Some say, “We need to purify the Ummah first. Fix the aqeedah before we can have a revival.”

This is a misunderstanding of how Islamic revival happens. Islamic revival does not come from endlessly debating theology. It comes from action. From Muslims organizing around a common cause. From awareness leading to conviction leading to sacrifice.

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, did not spend 13 years refuting the theological errors of the Quraysh. He called them to Tawheed. He built a community. He prepared them for sacrifice. And when the time came, they migrated, they fought, they established a state.

The Ummah will not be revived by scholars refuting each other online. It will be revived by Muslims uniting around the most urgent issues, raising awareness, organizing, and working toward the re-establishment of the Islamic governance.

The Khilafah will not return because we refuted the Mu’tazilah. It will return because Muslims recognize its obligation and commit to working for it.

Palestine will not be liberated by theological debates. It will be liberated by a unified Muslim state with the power and will to act.

Focusing on outdated debates does not bring us closer to these goals. It distracts us. It divides us. It wastes our time.

What Should We Be Doing Instead?

First, educate about the urgent issues: Produce content that raises awareness about Palestine, East Turkestan, Sudan, Kashmir… Share the stories. Document the crimes.

Second, call for unity: Stop amplifying divisions. Focus on what unites us. We are all Muslims. That is enough to work together.

Third, focus on solutions: The only solution is the re-establishment of the Khilafah. Educate people about what it is, why it is obligatory, and how it is the only system that can defend Muslim land and unite the Ummah.

Fourth, stop chasing engagement: Produce content because it serves the Ummah, not because it will go viral.

Fifth, hold each other accountable: If you see a scholar wasting their platform on irrelevant debates, remind them of the priorities.

Allah says: 

إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا۟ مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ ۗ

“Indeed, Allah would never change a people’s state ˹of favour˺ until they change their own state ˹of faith˺.” (Surah Ar-Ra’d, 13:11)

The change starts with us. It starts with our priorities. It starts with choosing to focus on what matters and letting go of what does not.

When you stand before Allah, and He asks you what you did for the Ummah, what will you say? That you refuted the Mu’tazilah? Or that you worked to raise awareness, to unite the Muslims, and to bring back the system that can defend them?

Choose wisely. The Ummah does not have time to waste.

W’Allahu Alam- Allah knows Best

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