[New World Order]    [Western Hagemony]   [ No Quick Fix]   NO QUICK FIX It is not the intention of this presentation to answer these and similar questions, for these are not questions that one presentation can hope to resolve, more so this one. This is not the first time these questions are being raised. They have been raised repeatedly in the last few years and several answers have been offered. Most of these answers however tend to be simplistic and do not carry the Ummah very far. Recently, for example, a Pakistani army general at a conference in Khartoum, suggested that we could capitalize on America's 'quick fix' approach and its mounting debt, being the most indebted nation in the world. This is clearly to ignore our own internal faults and weakness which in the first place brought us down from the Khayru Ummah we once were to the abyss we found ourselves today, scoffed at, intimidated, trampled upon, hunted and killed in the full view of television cameras and not as much as a finger has been raised! Such suggestions are in themselves 'quick fix'. Looking for easy ways or short cuts is the easiest and shortest way of delaying our recovery. We must appreciate that the battle we are engaged in is a battle of the brain. We must be prepared to use our brains guided by the guidance our lord had sent us. In other words we must go back to base and plan again. We must go back to the Qur'an, but not with the same frame of mind the we do in the Ramadan tafsir or at Qur'anic competitions ( both of which have their benefits though ), but with a frame of mind of the Sahaba ( may Allah be pleased with them ); that frame of mind which enabled them to see in the Qur'an the seeds of the transformation of human societies and to therefore imbibe that spirit of inquiry, that courage, stamina and tenacity, that discipline and vitality which transformed them from a collection of illiterate desert nomads to masters of Arts, science and technology who developed and bequeathed a civilization still unsurpassed in the history of mankind. If we may elaborate further, we need to take a fresh and hard look at the Qur'an, taking note of not only what it said but also what it did not say, for in what is not said is also a message of no less significance than what is said. If we examine the first five ayat that came down, (Q 96:1-5) one is immediately struck by the fact that there was no direct reference to Iman or obedience. Rather the focus seems to be the human mind and especially its intellectual abilities. The specific mention of the bounty of knowledge bestowed to man seem to further buttress the significance of the human intellect not only in examining the message, understanding it, and accepting it but also in implementing it. So one can immediately discern two powerful ingredients of the message of Islam, freedom in conviction and the indispensability of knowledge. Examining the Qur'an further, especially when it made reference to struggle in the establishment of the message, it consistently mentions sabr as an indispensable component of success. (see Q 2:153 and 3:200). So already we can see three vital ingredients which we need to imbibe if we are to develop and excel. These are the kind of ideas we need to explore. we must to avoid the temptation of easy and cheap solutions for they simply are no solutions. We must disengage from the dull and monotonous ideas we have formed the habit of glorifying. We must also allow our intellect full reins, feel free to re-examine established and widely accepted notions and muster the courage to criticize thoughts and ideas, for only then can we make room for new and exciting ones.