#Seed040: From Ideology to Action

Seven initiatives that reclaim community at the eleventh hour

Pieter Bruegel the Elder- Landscape With the Fall of Icarus (c.1560)

A couple of years ago, I began farming because I realized that my activist itch was no longer being scratched. I had spent over a decade working across the country with people and communities, supporting community engagement initiatives. The greatest takeaway was the need to bring global political issues into a local and meaningful space. Ethical, moral, and spiritual groundwork begins face-to-face. Feeding people is not just activism—it is a vocation.

In my second year, this continues to ring true. Too often, community initiatives fall prey to ideologues who usurp the very work those organizations aim to achieve. Large organizations spend exorbitant amounts of resources trying to sustain their self-created behemoths. Countless fundraising efforts are made to support eroding social infrastructure, all while losing community relevance and impact—just one of many symptoms of such organizations. In Small is Beautiful, E.F. Schumacher discusses the tension between large- and small-scale organizations. He writes that the central problem of large-scale organizations—“with its bureaucracies, its remote and impersonal controls, its many abstract rules and regulations, and above all the relative incomprehensibility that stems from its very size”—is motivation.¹

The motivation factor is key. Though altruism is a profound idea in theory, in practice, it often amounts to little more than good speech. Community initiatives must bear fruit at a deeply local level for people to remain motivated to support them. Once those initiatives become barren, motivation quickly dissipates. This is why community initiatives dependent on ideologues are bound to fail—they bear no fruit. One may agree with an idea, but over time, that idea becomes a mere slogan, an empty promise. An activist may be called to an idea, but at some point, that activist needs to see something grow. We need to bring life to community.

As I spend time preparing the garden beds for this season, I reflect on the types of initiatives that bring life to community—especially in times of crisis. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Hasten to do good deeds before you are overtaken by one of the seven afflictions.” He asked, “Are you waiting for poverty that will make you unmindful of devotion, or prosperity that will make you corrupt, or disease that will disable you, or senility that will make you mentally unstable, or sudden death, or the Dajjal (the Imposter), who is the worst of expected absentees, or the Hour?—and the Hour will be most grievous and most bitter.”²

The late Hadhrami scholar and sage Habib Abu Bakr al-'Adani b. 'Ali al-Mashhur argued, in his Al-Nubdhah al-Sughra, that this teaching is “a practical guide on how we can, through this way of safety, spread optimism during times of tribulation.”³ He highlighted seven types of initiatives that alleviate these challenges. I would argue that these bring life to community.

1. Treating Poverty

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared that racism, economic exploitation, and militarism are the “three evils of society.” Initiatives that address poverty—especially the poverty that “envelops the world due to unfair economic policies”—have a profound impact on local communities. Habib Abu Bakr highlights that the solution lies “in all forms of self-sufficiency and a thriving domestic economy, which involves breeding cattle and giving attention to agriculture.”⁴ Through unfair economic policies, poverty is used as a tool to enslave humanity. He writes that it is a devilish plan “through controlling the reins of production.”⁵ Treating poverty requires both addressing the symptoms through direct support and providing meaningful education and employment opportunities.

2. Addressing Corrupting Prosperity

Initiatives that explore and provide alternative economic models must be supported. The usurious economy destroys people and the planet, while mega-corporations manipulate public perception to appear benevolent. Habib Abu Bakr suggests “raising awareness within such corporations of their duties towards their societies and using their profits to sustainably develop agriculture, livestock, and all its production processes.”⁶ Degrowth, circular economics, and local currencies are examples of initiatives that address corrupting prosperity.

3. Addressing Debilitating Diseases of All Forms

Organizations and initiatives focused on health care—especially preventative care—play a vital role in community vitality and resilience. Those specializing in health awareness, nutrition, and fitness must be supported in times of crisis. In 2024, the average cost of health care per citizen was $9,054, with costs expected to rise by 5–6% annually.⁷ Preventative health care, particularly around healthy eating habits, has the potential to reduce pressure on the health care system, ensuring that severe health issues can be treated properly and promptly.

4. Facing the Neglect of the Elderly

A society that abandons its elders loses its wisdom. Habib Abu Bakr urges community organizers to educate “society about the importance of looking after parents, strengthening family ties, and supporting all socially charitable organizations like orphanages and the like.”⁸ This can be done by encouraging intergenerational housing, advocating for local bylaws that permit coach houses and in-law suites, and investing in both long- and short-term care facilities.

5. Resisting the Military-Industrial Complex

Dr. Martin Luther King wrote, ““When a nation becomes obsessed with the guns of war, it loses its social perspective.... There is something about a war like this that makes people insensitive. It dulls the conscience. It strengthens the forces of reaction, and it brings into being bitterness and hatred and violence.”⁹ We must resist the desensitization of hearts to human suffering. Initiatives that “spread the virtue of peace and raise awareness of its value,” while “advising people in power and society at large on the importance of avoiding wars, bloodshed, and all actions that lead to fighting and enmity,”¹⁰ should be encouraged.

6. Gaining Awareness of the Post-Truth World

E.W. Lane defines dajjal as “one who conceals the truth with falsehood, a falsifier, and one who deceives, deludes, beguiles, circumvents, or outwits, much, or often.”¹¹ The Dajjal is understood to be the Antichrist in Islamic eschatology. The relevance of concealing truth with falsehood is increasing, especially in our post-truth era. Initiatives like media and tech literacy, nonviolent communication, book clubs, and in-person community town halls are just some of the ways we can resist the post-truth world.

7. Preparing for Social Collapse

When it comes to preparing for social collapse, there are two extremes: isolating ourselves and becoming preppers, or busying ourselves with good. Habib Abu Bakr invites us to the latter. With deep trust in God, he encourages us to engage in initiatives and actions that benefit those around us.

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As a community-based farmer, I count myself blessed to know that my work is tangible. The initiatives outlined by Habib Abu Bakr share that quality. They benefit people—not through mere ideas, but through action. Ideologues may wait at the gates of these projects, but the sincere will always continue their good work.

May God place us amongst them.

1. Schumacher, E.F. Writings on Issues of Scale. Schumacher Center for a New Economics, https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/writings-on-issues-of-scale-by-e-f-schumacher/. Accessed 6 May 2025.

2. Imam al-Nawawi. Riyad as-Salihin. Hadith no. 93, Sunnah.com, https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:93. Accessed 6 May 2025.

3. Al-Mashhur, Habib Abu Bakr al-‘Adani b. ‘Ali. Al-Nubdhah al-Sughra: Introductory Synopsis to the Fourth Component of the Islamic Religion & Its Minor, Major and Middle Signs. Translated by Shaykh Ahmed Saad Al-Azhari, Dar al-Turath al-Islami, 2016, p.63.

4. ibid, p.64.

5. ibid, p.64.

6. ibid.

7. National health expenditure trends, 2024 — Snapshot | CIHI. https://www.cihi.ca/en/national-health-expenditure-trends-2024-snapshot

8. ibid, p.65.

9. King, Martin Luther, Jr. The Trumpet of Conscience. Harper & Row, 1968, p. 24.

10. ibid.

11. ibid.