Habib Al Jifri interview

One of the leading scholars of today gives an interview to Yemen Times touching on many pertinant issues. The answer to this question really struck a cord in me. ( I encourage you to read the whole interview):

YT: What’s your message to all the people out there who are angered by what is happening to the Muslims?

It is difficult for people who are angry to listen to a message. Our message is for people of understanding who live amongst the angry masses. Remind people
about the root of the problem … and the root is our turning away from Allah. The enemies of truth have been allowed to overpower us because of our sins and vices. We have to remind ourselves that with the deep pain which tightens our breasts because of the suffering of our fellow Muslims, we should feel an even greater pain for those who are being sacrificed on the knife edge of sins and disobedience of the Allah's commands. We need to shed even more tears for the Muslims who go to bed drunk and those who fill the dance floors. As long as our community feels more pained by these fatalities than it does by these sins, it will lag behind and not progress. In our golden era the community feared falling into sin more than it did being killed in a conflict, for a Muslim to die when he stands for the truth is martyrdom and an honour by which he can draw near to Allah.

What is more painful to my heart? Seeing a Muslim killed inside a mosque hit by a missile causing him to fall as a martyr or seeing a Muslim male or female betray one another or their community, people who bear false witness or take or accept bribes, or cheat, or spend the night dancing in a night club and consuming alcohol. I am not trying to belittle the magnitude of the disasters we are facing but we need to look at the reasons that have put us in this position.