The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ warned of a time when his community would be numerous yet weightless—“like foam on the sea.” The cause, he said, would be al-wahn: love of the world and fear of death.
For Muslims living in the West, this warning deserves more than nostalgic reflection. It demands civilizational self-examination.
Because the Qur’an does not define us merely as believers who survive history. It defines humanity—and by extension the Ummah—as khalifah (Qur’an 2:30): entrusted stewards, morally responsible agents within the architecture of creation.
Foam drifts.
A khalifah directs.
The question is no longer whether Western Muslims are succeeding. The question is whether we are stewarding.
From Stewardship to Survival
Western Muslim communities have achieved something remarkable. We have built institutions, mosques, schools, advocacy groups. We have entered elite universities and influential professions. We are visible in medicine, law, technology, academia, and public discourse.
But visibility is not the same as vocation.
Khalifah is not about demographic presence. It is about moral gravity.
A steward does not merely adapt to prevailing norms; a steward evaluates them. A steward does not dissolve into dominant paradigms; a steward interrogates them through revelation.
When success becomes our highest metric, we subtly exchange stewardship for survival.
Al-wahn in the Western context rarely looks like decadence. It looks like professional polish. It looks like seamless integration. It looks like upward mobility.
Yet the inner shift is profound: the dunya moves from instrument to identity.
The Khalifah Paradigm
The Qur’anic vision of khalifah carries three interlocking responsibilities:
- Moral Responsibility – to uphold justice (‘adl) even against ourselves (4:135).
- Intellectual Responsibility – to reflect, discern, and resist epistemic dependency.
- Existential Responsibility – to live conscious of accountability before God.
Al-wahn disrupts all three.
When love of worldly success overrides moral clarity, justice becomes negotiable.
When fear of reputational loss overrides intellectual courage, we internalize dominant frameworks uncritically—whether secular materialism, hyper-individualism, or identity absolutism.
When fear of death morphs into fear of losing comfort, accountability fades into abstraction.
A community that forgets death cannot sustain stewardship.
It can only sustain momentum.
Foam moves quickly.
Stewardship requires depth.
Integration Without Dissolution
The West offers freedoms and opportunities unknown to many Muslim-majority societies. These are not threats; they are tests.
The khalifah framework does not demand withdrawal. It demands rooted engagement.
To participate in modern institutions without absolutizing them.
To master contemporary knowledge without surrendering metaphysical grounding.
To contribute to pluralistic societies without diluting theological distinctiveness.
This requires inner sovereignty.
Al-wahn erodes that sovereignty by relocating our fear—from God to society, from accountability to acceptance.
When losing status frightens us more than losing integrity, we have already surrendered the mandate of stewardship.
Reviving the Weight of the Ummah
The Prophet ﷺ did not describe a small, persecuted minority. He described a large community stripped of weight.
Weight comes from orientation.
The Qur’an swears by the nafs al-lawwamah—the self-reproaching soul (75:2). That inner moral friction is not weakness. It is evidence of life. It is what prevents assimilation into injustice.
If Western Muslims are to recover civilizational weight, the revival must begin there:
- Professionals who see career as amanah, not self-construction.
- Scholars who critique dominant paradigms without intellectual insecurity.
- Institutions that form moral courage, not just communal comfort.
- Families that raise children to be contributors to humanity, not merely consumers of opportunity.
Khalifah is not triumphalism.
It is responsibility before God.
The Real Question
The West does not need more Muslims who are merely successful. It needs Muslims who are centered.
Centered enough to pursue excellence without worshiping achievement.
Confident enough to engage pluralism without dissolving belief.
Calm enough about death to act with integrity in life.
Al-wahn makes a community numerous but light.
Tawḥīd makes it steady and heavy.
So the reckoning is personal before it is political:
Are we drifting within structures we never questioned—
or are we inhabiting them as conscious stewards?
The Qur’anic vision of khalifah is not a slogan of power.
It is a summons to responsibility.
And responsibility begins where fear ends. Note: A more extensive and in-depth description can be found in Khalifah sebagai Sintesis Kosmis: Fusi Hikmah Mulla Sadra dan Tanggung Jawab Global (Uzair Suhaimi, in Bahasa, forthcoming). A PDF version of this article can be accessed through this [link].
Jejak Pemikiran dan Refleksi 