As Related by a Muslim Prisoner
The following is the story which was told to us by a youth, a trustworthy veteran of the Afghan war, who was incarcerated at Ar-Ruwais Prison in Jeddah and whom Allah saved.
Kabul fell, and the fires of fitna and disagreement alit between the various Mujahideen factions.
We held our hands back from participating in such a diatribe and dark fitna. I went back to the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) seeking safety and tranquility. I looked for treatment for the amputated leg which I lost during the Afghan Jihad. I stayed in Jeddah. I lived close to the hospital in a small apartment caring about nothing except treating my leg and healing my wounds.
After the Riyadh bombing (of a U.S. training facility November 1996), I was awakened by strong knocking on my door. I stood on my canes running to open it only to see it knocked down. The knockers burst into the apartment. I thought they were thieves. I yelled at them: "Who are you? What do you want from me?" They were eleven, members of the Mabaheth (Saudi Security). They overcame me, searched my apartment and turned it upside down after they had hand-cuffed me for about two hours. All that time they were searching, they did not leave anything or anywhere but searched, including the pipes in the bathroom. Then, they took whatever they willed of books and tapes and took me with them, tied. The trip took eight months of misery and agony.
I never thought anyone could find such a treatment of humiliation in the land of the two holy shrines. The car stopped in front of a large building. I knew it was ar-Ruwais Prison where the central Mabaheth of Jeddah is located. We passed a large gate and the car made a tour of the compound as if they wanted to give me a tourist flavor of the courtyard of this complex, which was expanded as of late to be able to service the victims of increasing and continuous security raids.
Inside the compound, I was hosted by prison guards who did the routine "check-in" procedures from changing clothes to holding my personal belongings. I was taken to a small cell not exceeding 1.5 m in length by 1.0 m of width. I stayed there for 3 months. I was not there for long after my arrival when I was taken to Office No. 1. There I met the interrogator, "Abu Nayef" and who was recently promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. He was promoted, I believe, for his commitment to humiliating the servants of God and his creative methods in their torture. I discovered later, that the "Abu Nayef" stop was a first-stop, a low-ranking interrogation, but he is committed to doing this 'routine' himself. He then gives the case to a subordinate, following the case himself, or seeking the advice and directives of his boss, the prison director, Zagzoug.
I stood in front of him, hand-cuffed. Two subordinates were standing next to him. Their faces had no expressions except those of fear and enmity. He asked me: "Were you the one who set up the Riyadh Bomb?" I denied any connection to the bombing. It was the truth - I knew nothing of the bombing except what I read and heard in the media.
They started beating me savagely. No place in my body but must have received its share of beating and ache during the session. My clothes were all torn. All this and my hands still handcuffed. I was half-naked. Their appetite for torture was opened. Seeing the state I was in, now using whips and tools I have never seen in my life. Hours of beating later they were asking the same question again and again: "Why did you bomb Riyadh?" I could do nothing but deny the charges. I did not do it. I was dizzy and eventually passed out for what they served me. Every time I passed out, they would throw water at me to wake me. I could no longer stand, I fell on the floor. Had it not been the case that they were bored and exhausted of torturing this soul they would have finished me that day. They ordered guards to take me to the cell. Two guards threw me there. I was like a dead corpse. I could no longer move.
They took me the next day again for interrogation. They asked me the same question again and again. Each time I denied, they whipped me. They improved their torture methods this time. I was tied by the arms to the back hanging from a metal bar like a feast's beast ready for roasting. The interrogation is now a special torture scene. They hit me with whips and sticks all over. Sometimes they did it all as one group. Sometimes they took turns. They were making Jihad in the way of Sultan and competing as to who will skin me first. It was all licit in their eyes. I could not stand to any of their plots. I was hanging in the air. My head was in suspension too. Earth was turning. My soul was about to come out seeking the help of its Creator against these beasts.
I was in a better shape than other prisoners. Some had no clothing left during the torture or "roasting" feasts. They were fondling with his private parts and inserting in his rectum whatever they willed.
All of this and they were laughing as if they were feasting on a camp fire.
The second day I was taken to my cell. I was in a worst state than during the party of the previous day. The feasts and parties continued later on until the "Abu Nayef" was tired. He took me to his boss Zagzoug. He had a worse tongue, and a Kufri speech. He cursed Shariah, Deen and its people. He cursed the Scholars and the righteous ones. I remember how he dealt with Deen and how he described Shar` (Islamic law), with the worst of words, which, by Allah, hurt me more than what came upon me in my physique of torture. I felt helpless to champion God in a time he likes my championship. He was, with all this, threatening to rape me.
After the interrogators felt that I was a helpless case, for I had no connection to the Riyadh bombing, they started to force me to confess that I was of the people of Takfir, those who not only say that our leaders are disbelievers, but thwho go to the point of claiming that Ulema and society as a whole is in a state of disbelief. They wanted to force me to confess to having targeted with armed action some specific civilian targets.
I knew later when I was taken to the collective cell that all the youth that were under incarceration were forced to confess to Takfir and armed action. This is with respect to Saudi citizens. As to non-Saudis they were asked to confess to one of two things: either they worked for the intelligence services of their home countries or supporting armed struggle back home. Anyone who thought that either option would save him of torture was fooled.
I realised after having been moved to the collective cell that the number of prisoners of conscience was overwhelming. It is as if any youth who displayed some degree of religiosity was incarcerated at ar-Ruwais prison. I discovered that for some youth, their wives were also incarcerated. They were being interrogated by savage beasts. I was filled with rage and helplessness. These interrogators have no moral or ethical standards to entice them not to target these ladies. I could only seek God's help to protect and save them. Some prisoners told me they were threatened to bring their womenfolk to rape if they did not confess. I discovered also that several prisoners were gathered in one room, naked, all tortured as the others watched to further humiliate and degrade them. I also came to know that the Gehenna to which I was exposed was nothing compared to what others have seen.
There were those who saw their toe and finger nails removed. There were those who were deprived of sleep for consecutive days. I still remember the sight of a prisoner who was forbidden sleep for 9 days. They whipped him everytime he sat or tried to sleep. His torturers were taking roles to make sure he does not sleep. They were on a "Jihadist" crusade to forbid him from sleeping lest the country will be lost!! The poor man lost his nerve and started to hysteric cry he still suffers from.
In the collective cell, I saw and heard what no one could ever believe. In the concentration camp I saw a group of Mujahideen; those no one in Arabia could point at except by way of honour and respect for their dedication and courage in the way of God. I saw the famed Hassan al-Srihi (of the 'Lion's Den' Operation in Afghanistan) who was brought from Pakistan and delivered to the Regime. He was exposed to the worst of torture by the Sultan's Servants to confess to the Riyadh Bombing. Despite the fact that no connection has been established as to his association with the bombing, whether close or far, he is still in prison. No one championed him in the outside world, nor did the authorities do justice to him.
I knew from my stay there that Palestinian Professor Muhammad Yusuf Abbas who was Shaikh Abdallah Azzam's caliph at Maktab Khadamat al-Mujahideen was there.
Abu Abdelaziz 'Barbaros', the man who was at the forefront of Jihad in Bosnia, who is now almost fifty years old, who sacrificed much in performing the duty of Jihad in Allah's sake, was also there.
I knew from my stay that there was a special cell called: "The Trouble-Makers' Cell" prepared especially for those who do not cooperate with the interrogators. The cell is situated outside the main building at Ar-Ruwais Complex in the burning sun. It had a bath which did not have an exit. Therefore all excrements remained on the spot bringing in insects and the worst of odors. This is for those that pass by it, what about those who live in it? This reminds me of another problem from which we all suffer. That of bathrooms. The ratio of restrooms to prisoners is small. We had to stand in line to relieve ourselves. We got accustomed to relieving ourselves at the collective cell.
This is what I heard of eye witnesses and what I saw of physical and emotional scars in me that still haunt me. Even after having been moved to the collective cell. I was not spared the torture scenes. Each of us was taken twice a week at least to the "roasting" feasts. During each torture session the interrogators create new stories, new allegations, from running a weapons' smuggling ring, to armed operations to connections with 'x' or 'y' to Takfir.
Despite all this, the plots of torturers and servants of the Sultan and their hopes are doomed to failure. It is through trial and through sufferance that God's victory comes about and His Powers are displayed. It is in these times that the sublime Sakinah and tranquility despite adversity comes. It is through this that we get assurance that God's Promise will be fulfilled and His Will shall come to pass as decreed. I never heard anyone regret one day he spent in Jihad, or consider Jihad as being the source of the hurt they were subject to at the hands of those who do not fear Allah. Some have displayed the best of examples of resistance and strength. Hassan al-Srihi was the talk of everyone: how under torture he kept on reading Qur'an and making Zikr. He stayed in such a state until the torture ended.
I felt reassured after I saw him. After all that I saw, the confessions people saw on T.V, or those that were publicised in the printed media were nothing but coerced confessions and the work of interrogators who force their victims to sign whatever they write. If you see those subject to such dehumanising conditions there is no way one can believe what the authorities claim.
I ask The Almighty, in all His Powers, to remove this adversity imposed on the people of the land of the Haramayn, for it is now a prison for any one seeking reform, or supporting the law of Shar`, when once, this land was a place of refuge for those oppressed. I ask him to give victory to Muslims in general, and the people of the Peninsula in particular, to give them victory over those who wronged them and to consider what we have been subject to, me and my brethren, as bounties in our favor on the day we meet Him. Amen.
Make Duas
your bro: Abu Al Muhand
Thursday, 12 May 2011
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Ruling by KUFR is KUFR! – Ibn Taymiyyah
Sheikh Al-Islam, Ahmad Ibn Taymiyyah, Rahimahullah
Majmoo’ al Fatawa, 28/524:
“And it is known by necessity from the deen of the Muslims, and the agreement of all the Muslims, that whoever permits the following of a deen other than Islam or following a Shari’ah other than the Shari’ah of Muhammad (SALLAAHU ‘alahi wa sallam), then he is a kafir, and it is like the kufr of one who believes in part of the Book and disbelieves in part of the Book, as ALLAAH said (the meaning of which is):
«Indeed those who disbelieve in Allaah and His Messengers, and wish to distinguish between Allaah and His Messengers, and say we believe in some and disbelieve in some, and wish to take a way between that, all those are the kafiroon in truth, and WE have prepared for the kafireen a humiliating punishment. » An-Nisa’ 150-151 “
Majmoo’ al Fatawa : 28/544-545-546:
“Fighting the Tartars, those who came to the land of Shaam is wajib according to the Book and the Sunnah, for indeed ALLAAH said in the Qur’an (the meaning of which is) :
«And fight them until fitnah is no more, and the deen becomes all for ALLAAH» Al-Anfal:39.
And the deen means obedience, so if some of the deen belongs to ALLAAH and some to other than ALLAAH, fighting becomes wajib, until the deen becomes all for ALLAAH, and thus ALLAAH said (the meaning of which is):
«O You who believe, fear ALLAAH, and leave off what remains of riba (usury) if you are believers; if you do not do so, then take note of war from ALLAAH and HIS Messenger. » Al-Baqarah 278-279.
And this ayah was sent down concerning the people of Taa’if when they entered into Islam, and adhered to salah, siyam, but they refused to leave off riba, so ALLAAH declared that they are warriors against ALLAAH and HIS Messenger.
Then if it was wajib to make jihad against all these warriors against ALLAAH and HIS Messenger, what then of one who leaves many of the laws of Islam or most of them, like the Tartars ? And the ‘ulema of the Muslims have agreed that when a refusing faction (Taa’ifah Mumtani’ah) refuses some of the obligations of Islam openly without any doubt, then it is wajib to fight it; if they profess the Shahadatayn and refuse salah, or zakah, or siyam in the month of RamaDaan, or Hajj to the ancient house, or judging between them with the Book and the Sunnah, or prohibiting indecencies, or drinking, or marriage with close relatives (maHaarim), or make lives and wealth permissible without justice or riba (usury) or gambling, or jihad against the kuffaar, or imposing jizyah on the people of the book, and similar to that from the laws of Islam, then they are to be fought for that until the deen becomes all for ALLAAH.
And it is established in the two Saheehs when Omar debated with Abu Bakr about those who refused zakah, Abu Bakr said to him: ‘How can I not fight one who leaves the rights which ALLAAH and His Messenger have made obligatory, like zakah, even if they have accepted Islam ‘ And he said to him: ‘Indeed zakah is from its rights; by ALLAAH if they refuse me an inaq (rope for tying a camel) which they used give to the Messenger of ALLAAH (SALLAAHU ‘alaihi wa sallam) I will fight them for witholding it.’
Omar said: ‘Then there was none other except that I saw ALLAAH had expanded the breast of Abu Bakr to fight, and I knew that it was the truth.’
And it is established in the SaHeeH from more than one source that the Prophet (SALLAAHU ‘alaihi wa sallam) mentioned the khawarij, and said about them: ‘One of you would look down at his salah compared to their salah, and his siyam with their siyam, and his recitation with their recitation; they will recite the Qur’an but it will not travel beyond their throats, they will pass through Islam as an arrow passes through the game; wherever you find them, fight them, for indeed in their killing will be a reward from the ALLAAH for whoever kills them, on the day of Judgement. If I were to catch them, I would kill them like the killing of ‘Aad.’
And the salaf and Imams are in agreement upon the fighting of all these, and the first of those who fought them was ‘Ali bin Abi Taalib (Radi ALLAAHU ‘anhu), nor did the Muslims cease fighting them in the early period of the khilafah of Bani Umayyah and Bani ‘Abbas, even though with oppressive amirs- Hajjaj and his type were amongst those who fought them- thus all the Imams of the Muslims have ordered fighting them. And the Tartars and those similar to them, are greater in their departure from the Shari’ah of Islam than those who refused zakah, and the khawarij from the people of Taa’if, those who refused to leave off riba.
So whoever doubts in fighting them, then he is the most ignorant of people about the deen of Islam, and whenever it becomes wajib to fight them, fight them, even if they have with them those who have been forced, in accordance with the Muslims.”
Majmoo’ al Fatawa, 28/524:
“And it is known by necessity from the deen of the Muslims, and the agreement of all the Muslims, that whoever permits the following of a deen other than Islam or following a Shari’ah other than the Shari’ah of Muhammad (SALLAAHU ‘alahi wa sallam), then he is a kafir, and it is like the kufr of one who believes in part of the Book and disbelieves in part of the Book, as ALLAAH said (the meaning of which is):
«Indeed those who disbelieve in Allaah and His Messengers, and wish to distinguish between Allaah and His Messengers, and say we believe in some and disbelieve in some, and wish to take a way between that, all those are the kafiroon in truth, and WE have prepared for the kafireen a humiliating punishment. » An-Nisa’ 150-151 “
Majmoo’ al Fatawa : 28/544-545-546:
“Fighting the Tartars, those who came to the land of Shaam is wajib according to the Book and the Sunnah, for indeed ALLAAH said in the Qur’an (the meaning of which is) :
«And fight them until fitnah is no more, and the deen becomes all for ALLAAH» Al-Anfal:39.
And the deen means obedience, so if some of the deen belongs to ALLAAH and some to other than ALLAAH, fighting becomes wajib, until the deen becomes all for ALLAAH, and thus ALLAAH said (the meaning of which is):
«O You who believe, fear ALLAAH, and leave off what remains of riba (usury) if you are believers; if you do not do so, then take note of war from ALLAAH and HIS Messenger. » Al-Baqarah 278-279.
And this ayah was sent down concerning the people of Taa’if when they entered into Islam, and adhered to salah, siyam, but they refused to leave off riba, so ALLAAH declared that they are warriors against ALLAAH and HIS Messenger.
Then if it was wajib to make jihad against all these warriors against ALLAAH and HIS Messenger, what then of one who leaves many of the laws of Islam or most of them, like the Tartars ? And the ‘ulema of the Muslims have agreed that when a refusing faction (Taa’ifah Mumtani’ah) refuses some of the obligations of Islam openly without any doubt, then it is wajib to fight it; if they profess the Shahadatayn and refuse salah, or zakah, or siyam in the month of RamaDaan, or Hajj to the ancient house, or judging between them with the Book and the Sunnah, or prohibiting indecencies, or drinking, or marriage with close relatives (maHaarim), or make lives and wealth permissible without justice or riba (usury) or gambling, or jihad against the kuffaar, or imposing jizyah on the people of the book, and similar to that from the laws of Islam, then they are to be fought for that until the deen becomes all for ALLAAH.
And it is established in the two Saheehs when Omar debated with Abu Bakr about those who refused zakah, Abu Bakr said to him: ‘How can I not fight one who leaves the rights which ALLAAH and His Messenger have made obligatory, like zakah, even if they have accepted Islam ‘ And he said to him: ‘Indeed zakah is from its rights; by ALLAAH if they refuse me an inaq (rope for tying a camel) which they used give to the Messenger of ALLAAH (SALLAAHU ‘alaihi wa sallam) I will fight them for witholding it.’
Omar said: ‘Then there was none other except that I saw ALLAAH had expanded the breast of Abu Bakr to fight, and I knew that it was the truth.’
And it is established in the SaHeeH from more than one source that the Prophet (SALLAAHU ‘alaihi wa sallam) mentioned the khawarij, and said about them: ‘One of you would look down at his salah compared to their salah, and his siyam with their siyam, and his recitation with their recitation; they will recite the Qur’an but it will not travel beyond their throats, they will pass through Islam as an arrow passes through the game; wherever you find them, fight them, for indeed in their killing will be a reward from the ALLAAH for whoever kills them, on the day of Judgement. If I were to catch them, I would kill them like the killing of ‘Aad.’
And the salaf and Imams are in agreement upon the fighting of all these, and the first of those who fought them was ‘Ali bin Abi Taalib (Radi ALLAAHU ‘anhu), nor did the Muslims cease fighting them in the early period of the khilafah of Bani Umayyah and Bani ‘Abbas, even though with oppressive amirs- Hajjaj and his type were amongst those who fought them- thus all the Imams of the Muslims have ordered fighting them. And the Tartars and those similar to them, are greater in their departure from the Shari’ah of Islam than those who refused zakah, and the khawarij from the people of Taa’if, those who refused to leave off riba.
So whoever doubts in fighting them, then he is the most ignorant of people about the deen of Islam, and whenever it becomes wajib to fight them, fight them, even if they have with them those who have been forced, in accordance with the Muslims.”
What Negates Islam
~ Chapter 8 of the Book, entitled: 'Al Wala' wa'l Bara' Authored by: Muhammad Sa'eed Al Qahtani ~
A Summary of What the 'Ulamaa Say
The 'Ulamaa have mentioned ten actions that negate Islam. These are:
First, associating other dieties with the worship of the One God Who has no partners. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{Verily, Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners (in worship) with Him, but He forgives whom He Wills sins other than that...}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 116)
Second, relying on an intermediary between oneself and Allah (Ta'aala) when seeking intercession.
Third, refusal to condemn the kufr of those who rely on other deities instead of Allah (Ta'aala), or doubting that they are disbelievers, or approving of their religion, is itself disbelief.
Fourth, belief that there is a more perfect guidance than that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), or that there is a form of governance that is preferable to this, such as someone who prefers the rule of tyrants to that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Fifth, dislike of any part of the Revelation, even though one may act upon it, is disbelief. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{That is because they hate that which Allah has sent down (this Qur'an and Islamic Laws); so He has made their deeds fruitless.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 47: Ayah 9)
Sixth, disparaging any part of the Deen or any aspect of reward or punishment:
{Say: 'Was it at Allah and His Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons signs, Revelations, etc.) and His Messenger that you were mocking?' Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after you had Believed.}(The Noble
Qur'an, Surah 9: Ayat 65-66)
Seventh, practising magic, either black or white, is proof of disbelief:
{...but the shayateen (devils) disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels, Harut and Marut, but neither of these two (angels) taught anyone (such things) till they had said, 'We are only for trial, so disbelieve not (by learning this magic from us).'}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 2: Ayah 102)
Eighth, helping and assisting the disbelievers in overcoming the Muslims:
{And if any amongst you takes them (as Auliya' [friends, protectors, helpers]), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 51)
Ninth, belief that it is not necessary to follow the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), and that it is permitted to step outside the Law of Allah (Ta'aala), as al Khadir did when he exceeded what had been revealed to (Prophet) Musa ('alayhee salaam). This is disbelief.
Tenth, wilful neglect of Allah's Deen, neither learning it nor acting upon it. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{And who does more wrong than he who is reminded of the Ayat of his Lord, then turns aside therefrom? Verily, We shall exact retribution from the mujrimun (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 32: Ayah 22)
No distinction is made as regards these actions in terms of intention, whether a person is joking or serious or even acts out of fear. The only excuse is compulsion. These ten actions are extremely dangerous and exceedingly common. Every Muslim should beware of them and feel a real fear in his heart of even drawing near them. (1)
We will now take a closer look [Insha' Allah] at two of these matters which are particularly relevant to our discussion, because of the significance and the proximity of the danger that they represent, and because this will clarify matters regarding political legitimacy, loyalty and opposition.
The first matter is the disbelief of someone who maintains that some other guidance is preferable to that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), or that some system of governance other than that which he established is better:
Ruling by Other than What Allah has Revealed
The marginalisation of the Sharee'ah, its disappearance from the mainstream of Islamic life and its replacement by laws formulated by ignorant humans is a modern heresy that has arisen during the last few centuries of the life of our Community. This has happened despite the fact that Muslim societies had for centuries sheltered under the protection of the Sharee'ah, which provided for everyone's security, whether the governor or the governed. Although some people were disobedient, some more than others, nevertheless the guiding principle, both in public and private life alike, was provided by the Sharee'ah.
Similarly, the continuation of the Jihad, the pushing back of the frontiers of disbelief and the raising up of the Word of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) throughout the world, carried on over and above this.
Thus the charge that the Sharee'ah, that Islamic Law, is deficient, reactionary, and incompatible with progress in the modern world, is something that could not have been made until the rise of European colonialism and the resulting forgetfulness of the Muslims: they forgot Allah (Ta'aala) and so He made them forget their own souls.
We find, however, much guidance in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah that clearly speaks about the governance of the Community. This most surely constitutes a part of our Belief, and is one of the most essential elements of our 'Aqeedah.
Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are kafirun (disbelievers.)}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 44)
and:
{And whosoever does not judge by that which Allah has revealed, such are the dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 45)
and:
{And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed (then) such (people) are the fasiqun (the rebellious i.e. disobedient to Allah).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 47)
And He (Ta'aala) says:
{Do they then seek the judgment of (the days of) ignorance? And who is better in Judgement than Allah for a people who have firm Faith.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 50)
and:
{But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 65)
and:
{Or have they partners with Allah (false gods) who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not ordained?}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 42: Ayah 21)
And He (Ta'aala) says in Surat an Nur:
{ They (hypocrites) say: 'We have believed in Allah and in the
Messenger, and we obey.', then a party of them turn away thereafter,
such are not Believers. And when they are called to Allah (i.e. His Words, the Qur'an) and His Messenger, to Judge between them, lo! a party of them refuses (to come) and turns away. But if the truth is on their side, they come to him willingly with submission. Is their a disease in their hearts? Or do they doubt or fear lest Allah and His Messenger should wrong them in Judgement. Nay, it is they themselves who are the dhaalimun (polytheists, hypocrites and wrong-doers). The onlysaying of the Faithful Believers, when they are called to Allah (His Words, the Qur'an) and His Messenger, to Judge between them, is that they say: 'We hear and we obey.' And such are the successful (who will live forever in Paradise).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 24: Ayat 47-51)
And He (Ta'aala) says in Surat an Nisaa:
{And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger after the right Path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the Believers' Way, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hell - what an evil destination!}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 115)
Then Allah (Ta'aala) exposes the claims of those who say they are Believers, but who prefer to be ruled by disbelievers:
{Have you seen those (hypocrites) who claim that they believe in that which has been sent down to you, and that which was sent down beforeyou, and they wish to go for judgement (in their disputes) to the taghut (false judges) while they have been ordered to reject them. But Shaytaan wishes to lead them far astray. And when it is said to them:
'Come to what Allah has sent down and to the Messenger',you see the
hypocrites turn away from you (O Muhammad) with aversion.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayat 60-61)
One of our 'Ulamaa summed this up nicely when he compared the person who wishes to substitute secular law for the Sharee'ah to a beetle that loves the smell of urine and faeces but hates the fragrance of roses and musk. (2)
And He (Ta'aala) says:
{Those who oppose Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), they will be among the lowest (most humiliated).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 58: Ayah 20)
The worst form of dispute is to oppose Allah and His Messenger and to turn away from the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala), and the Sunnah of His Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam). The humiliation that the Muslims are today experiencing throughout the world is only a natural consequence of their having abandoned the Sharee'ah. Muslims today are numerous but they are like flotsam on a full tide. They have been seduced by the basest of nations and conquered by the most degenerate of people.
Indeed, the words of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), have come True: He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) said:
'These nations will call one another to invade you as people call one another to come and eat from one bowl.' Someone asked: 'Will it be because we are so few?' He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) replied: 'Indeed no, in these days you will be many but you will be like flotsam and jetsam on the sea, for Allah (Ta'aala) will strip fear of you from the breasts of your enemies and He will cast Al Wahn into you.' They said:'What is Al Wahn?' He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) said: 'Love of the world and a distaste for death.' (3)
A large part of the imbalance in Muslim life today is due to the handiwork of men who, disguised as scholars, have persuaded people to substitute human speculation for the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala). Surely they will carry the full burden of their actions, and also that of those whom they have led astray, until the Day of Resurrection. Islam will not be sullied by them. May Allah (Ta'aala) preserve the 'Ulamaa from among our rightly guided predecessors who guarded the gates of Islam so that none of its enemies could penetrate beyond them.
Ibn Katheer discusses the condition of the Muslim Nation in the days of the Tatars. Discussing in his tafseer the ayah: {Do they then seek the judgment of (the days of) ignorance? } (5: 50), he says,
'The Law of Allah (Ta'aala) encourages whatever is beneficial and discourages whatever is detrimental. Allah (Ta'aala) has rejected all who would depart from it, and who accept the views, opinions, and conventions determined by men without any support from the Sharee'ah.
This was done in the times of the Jahiliyyah, when people ruled by chance and blind conjecture in accordance with their own views and opinions.
So too do the Tatars rule, in accordance with their own royal policy, pronounced by their king Ghingis Khan, which they call the 'Yasaq'. This 'Yasaq' is a hotchpotch of all the rules and systems that he has come across, taken from the Jews and Christians and the Muslims, with many elements added which are based purely on his whims and fancies. This, the Tatars say, is the law of the land to which they give precedence, above the Book of Allah (Ta'aala) and the Sunnah of His Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Whoever amongst them does this is a disbeliever who must be opposed until he returns to the Rule of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) and His Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Such a person should not rule even for a day.' (4)
Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Ibraheem Al ash Shaykh outlines the ways in which a ruler may commit the greater disbelief (Kufr ul Akbar) that takes a person out of Islam:
If the ruler who rules by other than the Revelation of Allah (Ta'aala) challenges the legal obligation to rule by the Sharee'ah then he is outside Islam. This is the meaning of what has been reported by at Tabari on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas (radiallaahu 'anhu), who said that there is no disagreement among the 'Ulamaa about someone who challenges the legitimacy of the Sharee'ah; that this is a fundamental point about which everyone agrees; and that anyone who challenges a fundamental point of
Belief - or even a secondary issue that all the 'Ulamaa are agreed about - or who denies any part of the Revelation out of hand, is a disbeliever and is not a part of this Community. (5)
If such a ruler does not challenge the legitimacy of the Sharee'ah, but believes that he rules by a better system of law than that which the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) observed, a system which in his opinion is more coherent and more suited to the needs of the people in the face of their changing needs and circumstances, then there can be no doubt that he too is a disbeliever. He has formulated a rule that can never compete with that of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala). There is no issue whatsoever whose answer is not contained in the text of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, either explicitly or implicitly; whether or not a person knows this is a different matter.
If a ruler does not believe that what he has is better than the Sharee'ah, but still thinks that it is at least equal to it, then he is like the others. This is disbelief that takes him out of the Community, because it seeks to equate a creature with his Creator. This is also true if someone believes that a ruler has a right to deviate from the Sharee'ah in the way that the three types of rulers outlined above do.
It is even worse still when a person stubbornly supports his own rule in opposition to that of Allah (Ta'aala) and His Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), aggrandising it at the expense of theSharee'ah. This is what modern secular rulers do, whose recourse is to French, British and American law, or to whatever else they please to choose from non-Muslim systems.
What could be greater disbelief than this? What could be more excessive than this in contradicting the declaration of Faith, 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger'? (6)
Finally, there is the disbelief of many chieftains of the tribes and clans of the Bedouins - and others like them - who cling to the tales of their ancestors, to their habits and traditions. These form a kind of inherited common law by which they rule themselves in preference to, and in spite of, the Revealed Law of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala).
Then there is the type of disbelief that does not take one out of the Community, and which Ibn 'Abbas (radiallaahu 'anhu) termed 'a disbelief less than disbelief'. Thus someone who is overcome by his own desires in a particular situation may act contrary to the Sharee'ah, and yet still be aware that he is acting wrongly. He may later reproach himself for his error and failure to follow the guidance of Allah (Ta'aala). Even though this action does not take him out of the Community, it is still a very great sin, greater than fornication or drinking or theft. Allah (Ta'aala) has called this 'disbelief', so it is more grave than other wrong actions which have not been described in this fashion. (7)
It is because of the significance and importance of the matter that we have examined the subject of governance in detail. To ally oneself with a ruler who does not rule by what Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) has revealed, to approve of his rule and the implementation of legislation under his authority - saying this is lawful, without the Permission of Allah (Ta'aala) - is a contradiction of the declaration of Faith. Allah (Ta'aala) is the only God, to whom all devotion from the heart is due, in love, and in awe, and in obedience, and in submission.
Such behaviour is a contradiction of the statement, 'Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', since whoever truly believes this will follow what the Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) has commanded and leave what he has forbidden and what he has criticised. If people only understood this fact then tyranny could not persist, nor could it establish disbelief and push the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala) to one side.
The second matter that should be considered in this context is the helping and assisting of the disbelievers against the Muslims.
Helping the disbelievers Against the Muslims
Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) says:
{And if any amongst you takes them (the Jews and Christians, as Auliya' [friends, protectors, helpers]), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 51)
This is a major contradiction of the declaration of Faith into which many people today have fallen. They are nominally Muslims and still apparently within the fold of the Faithful. And yet, we have come to feel a certain embarrassment when it comes to calling a spade a spade, to saying to the supporters of kufr, 'You are disbelievers!'
Some people even see this as an impertinence in view of the wonder and awe, and the fear and anxiety, that they feel for the enemies of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala). And so the matter of setting the pace, of setting an example, has given way under the weight of their feebleness of faith. They are dazzled by the enemies of Allah (Ta'aala) and long to be like them, even to the point that if they entered the hole of a lizard they would follow them into it.
Footnotes
1) Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, Mu'alafat, 5/212-214.
2) Abi Hibbatu'llah Isma'il al Khateeb, Tadheer Ahl al Iman 'an al Hukm bighayri ma Anzala'r Rahman, in Rasa'il al Muniriya, 1/139.
3) Abu Dawud, Kitab al Malahim, 4/484, (4297); Mishkat al Masabih; also al Bayhaqi; al Albani classifies it as sahih.
4) Ibn Katheer, Tafseer, 3/123.
5) Tahkim al Qawanin, p.5.
6) ibid. p.7.
7) ibid. p.8.
Formatted and Edited by Abu Suhayb
Due to the inferiority of the original Qur'anic translations in this chapter - which was that of Muhammad Pickthall's - all translations of Qur'anic text have been changed to texts from the: 'The Noble Qur'an': A summarized Version of At-Tabari, Al Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih al Bukhari. Summarized in One Volume. Translation by Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Deen Al Hilali and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan.
Maktaba Dar-us- Salam: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1995
A Summary of What the 'Ulamaa Say
The 'Ulamaa have mentioned ten actions that negate Islam. These are:
First, associating other dieties with the worship of the One God Who has no partners. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{Verily, Allah forgives not (the sin of) setting up partners (in worship) with Him, but He forgives whom He Wills sins other than that...}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 116)
Second, relying on an intermediary between oneself and Allah (Ta'aala) when seeking intercession.
Third, refusal to condemn the kufr of those who rely on other deities instead of Allah (Ta'aala), or doubting that they are disbelievers, or approving of their religion, is itself disbelief.
Fourth, belief that there is a more perfect guidance than that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), or that there is a form of governance that is preferable to this, such as someone who prefers the rule of tyrants to that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Fifth, dislike of any part of the Revelation, even though one may act upon it, is disbelief. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{That is because they hate that which Allah has sent down (this Qur'an and Islamic Laws); so He has made their deeds fruitless.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 47: Ayah 9)
Sixth, disparaging any part of the Deen or any aspect of reward or punishment:
{Say: 'Was it at Allah and His Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons signs, Revelations, etc.) and His Messenger that you were mocking?' Make no excuse; you have disbelieved after you had Believed.}(The Noble
Qur'an, Surah 9: Ayat 65-66)
Seventh, practising magic, either black or white, is proof of disbelief:
{...but the shayateen (devils) disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels, Harut and Marut, but neither of these two (angels) taught anyone (such things) till they had said, 'We are only for trial, so disbelieve not (by learning this magic from us).'}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 2: Ayah 102)
Eighth, helping and assisting the disbelievers in overcoming the Muslims:
{And if any amongst you takes them (as Auliya' [friends, protectors, helpers]), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 51)
Ninth, belief that it is not necessary to follow the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), and that it is permitted to step outside the Law of Allah (Ta'aala), as al Khadir did when he exceeded what had been revealed to (Prophet) Musa ('alayhee salaam). This is disbelief.
Tenth, wilful neglect of Allah's Deen, neither learning it nor acting upon it. Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{And who does more wrong than he who is reminded of the Ayat of his Lord, then turns aside therefrom? Verily, We shall exact retribution from the mujrimun (criminals, disbelievers, polytheists, sinners).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 32: Ayah 22)
No distinction is made as regards these actions in terms of intention, whether a person is joking or serious or even acts out of fear. The only excuse is compulsion. These ten actions are extremely dangerous and exceedingly common. Every Muslim should beware of them and feel a real fear in his heart of even drawing near them. (1)
We will now take a closer look [Insha' Allah] at two of these matters which are particularly relevant to our discussion, because of the significance and the proximity of the danger that they represent, and because this will clarify matters regarding political legitimacy, loyalty and opposition.
The first matter is the disbelief of someone who maintains that some other guidance is preferable to that of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), or that some system of governance other than that which he established is better:
Ruling by Other than What Allah has Revealed
The marginalisation of the Sharee'ah, its disappearance from the mainstream of Islamic life and its replacement by laws formulated by ignorant humans is a modern heresy that has arisen during the last few centuries of the life of our Community. This has happened despite the fact that Muslim societies had for centuries sheltered under the protection of the Sharee'ah, which provided for everyone's security, whether the governor or the governed. Although some people were disobedient, some more than others, nevertheless the guiding principle, both in public and private life alike, was provided by the Sharee'ah.
Similarly, the continuation of the Jihad, the pushing back of the frontiers of disbelief and the raising up of the Word of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) throughout the world, carried on over and above this.
Thus the charge that the Sharee'ah, that Islamic Law, is deficient, reactionary, and incompatible with progress in the modern world, is something that could not have been made until the rise of European colonialism and the resulting forgetfulness of the Muslims: they forgot Allah (Ta'aala) and so He made them forget their own souls.
We find, however, much guidance in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah that clearly speaks about the governance of the Community. This most surely constitutes a part of our Belief, and is one of the most essential elements of our 'Aqeedah.
Allah (Ta'aala) says:
{And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed, such are kafirun (disbelievers.)}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 44)
and:
{And whosoever does not judge by that which Allah has revealed, such are the dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 45)
and:
{And whosoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed (then) such (people) are the fasiqun (the rebellious i.e. disobedient to Allah).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 47)
And He (Ta'aala) says:
{Do they then seek the judgment of (the days of) ignorance? And who is better in Judgement than Allah for a people who have firm Faith.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 50)
and:
{But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 65)
and:
{Or have they partners with Allah (false gods) who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not ordained?}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 42: Ayah 21)
And He (Ta'aala) says in Surat an Nur:
{ They (hypocrites) say: 'We have believed in Allah and in the
Messenger, and we obey.', then a party of them turn away thereafter,
such are not Believers. And when they are called to Allah (i.e. His Words, the Qur'an) and His Messenger, to Judge between them, lo! a party of them refuses (to come) and turns away. But if the truth is on their side, they come to him willingly with submission. Is their a disease in their hearts? Or do they doubt or fear lest Allah and His Messenger should wrong them in Judgement. Nay, it is they themselves who are the dhaalimun (polytheists, hypocrites and wrong-doers). The onlysaying of the Faithful Believers, when they are called to Allah (His Words, the Qur'an) and His Messenger, to Judge between them, is that they say: 'We hear and we obey.' And such are the successful (who will live forever in Paradise).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 24: Ayat 47-51)
And He (Ta'aala) says in Surat an Nisaa:
{And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger after the right Path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the Believers' Way, We shall keep him in the path he has chosen, and burn him in Hell - what an evil destination!}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayah 115)
Then Allah (Ta'aala) exposes the claims of those who say they are Believers, but who prefer to be ruled by disbelievers:
{Have you seen those (hypocrites) who claim that they believe in that which has been sent down to you, and that which was sent down beforeyou, and they wish to go for judgement (in their disputes) to the taghut (false judges) while they have been ordered to reject them. But Shaytaan wishes to lead them far astray. And when it is said to them:
'Come to what Allah has sent down and to the Messenger',you see the
hypocrites turn away from you (O Muhammad) with aversion.}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 4: Ayat 60-61)
One of our 'Ulamaa summed this up nicely when he compared the person who wishes to substitute secular law for the Sharee'ah to a beetle that loves the smell of urine and faeces but hates the fragrance of roses and musk. (2)
And He (Ta'aala) says:
{Those who oppose Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad), they will be among the lowest (most humiliated).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 58: Ayah 20)
The worst form of dispute is to oppose Allah and His Messenger and to turn away from the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala), and the Sunnah of His Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam). The humiliation that the Muslims are today experiencing throughout the world is only a natural consequence of their having abandoned the Sharee'ah. Muslims today are numerous but they are like flotsam on a full tide. They have been seduced by the basest of nations and conquered by the most degenerate of people.
Indeed, the words of the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), have come True: He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) said:
'These nations will call one another to invade you as people call one another to come and eat from one bowl.' Someone asked: 'Will it be because we are so few?' He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) replied: 'Indeed no, in these days you will be many but you will be like flotsam and jetsam on the sea, for Allah (Ta'aala) will strip fear of you from the breasts of your enemies and He will cast Al Wahn into you.' They said:'What is Al Wahn?' He (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) said: 'Love of the world and a distaste for death.' (3)
A large part of the imbalance in Muslim life today is due to the handiwork of men who, disguised as scholars, have persuaded people to substitute human speculation for the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala). Surely they will carry the full burden of their actions, and also that of those whom they have led astray, until the Day of Resurrection. Islam will not be sullied by them. May Allah (Ta'aala) preserve the 'Ulamaa from among our rightly guided predecessors who guarded the gates of Islam so that none of its enemies could penetrate beyond them.
Ibn Katheer discusses the condition of the Muslim Nation in the days of the Tatars. Discussing in his tafseer the ayah: {Do they then seek the judgment of (the days of) ignorance? } (5: 50), he says,
'The Law of Allah (Ta'aala) encourages whatever is beneficial and discourages whatever is detrimental. Allah (Ta'aala) has rejected all who would depart from it, and who accept the views, opinions, and conventions determined by men without any support from the Sharee'ah.
This was done in the times of the Jahiliyyah, when people ruled by chance and blind conjecture in accordance with their own views and opinions.
So too do the Tatars rule, in accordance with their own royal policy, pronounced by their king Ghingis Khan, which they call the 'Yasaq'. This 'Yasaq' is a hotchpotch of all the rules and systems that he has come across, taken from the Jews and Christians and the Muslims, with many elements added which are based purely on his whims and fancies. This, the Tatars say, is the law of the land to which they give precedence, above the Book of Allah (Ta'aala) and the Sunnah of His Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Whoever amongst them does this is a disbeliever who must be opposed until he returns to the Rule of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) and His Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam).
Such a person should not rule even for a day.' (4)
Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Ibraheem Al ash Shaykh outlines the ways in which a ruler may commit the greater disbelief (Kufr ul Akbar) that takes a person out of Islam:
If the ruler who rules by other than the Revelation of Allah (Ta'aala) challenges the legal obligation to rule by the Sharee'ah then he is outside Islam. This is the meaning of what has been reported by at Tabari on the authority of Ibn 'Abbas (radiallaahu 'anhu), who said that there is no disagreement among the 'Ulamaa about someone who challenges the legitimacy of the Sharee'ah; that this is a fundamental point about which everyone agrees; and that anyone who challenges a fundamental point of
Belief - or even a secondary issue that all the 'Ulamaa are agreed about - or who denies any part of the Revelation out of hand, is a disbeliever and is not a part of this Community. (5)
If such a ruler does not challenge the legitimacy of the Sharee'ah, but believes that he rules by a better system of law than that which the Prophet (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) observed, a system which in his opinion is more coherent and more suited to the needs of the people in the face of their changing needs and circumstances, then there can be no doubt that he too is a disbeliever. He has formulated a rule that can never compete with that of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala). There is no issue whatsoever whose answer is not contained in the text of the Qur'an and the Sunnah, either explicitly or implicitly; whether or not a person knows this is a different matter.
If a ruler does not believe that what he has is better than the Sharee'ah, but still thinks that it is at least equal to it, then he is like the others. This is disbelief that takes him out of the Community, because it seeks to equate a creature with his Creator. This is also true if someone believes that a ruler has a right to deviate from the Sharee'ah in the way that the three types of rulers outlined above do.
It is even worse still when a person stubbornly supports his own rule in opposition to that of Allah (Ta'aala) and His Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam), aggrandising it at the expense of theSharee'ah. This is what modern secular rulers do, whose recourse is to French, British and American law, or to whatever else they please to choose from non-Muslim systems.
What could be greater disbelief than this? What could be more excessive than this in contradicting the declaration of Faith, 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is His Messenger'? (6)
Finally, there is the disbelief of many chieftains of the tribes and clans of the Bedouins - and others like them - who cling to the tales of their ancestors, to their habits and traditions. These form a kind of inherited common law by which they rule themselves in preference to, and in spite of, the Revealed Law of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala).
Then there is the type of disbelief that does not take one out of the Community, and which Ibn 'Abbas (radiallaahu 'anhu) termed 'a disbelief less than disbelief'. Thus someone who is overcome by his own desires in a particular situation may act contrary to the Sharee'ah, and yet still be aware that he is acting wrongly. He may later reproach himself for his error and failure to follow the guidance of Allah (Ta'aala). Even though this action does not take him out of the Community, it is still a very great sin, greater than fornication or drinking or theft. Allah (Ta'aala) has called this 'disbelief', so it is more grave than other wrong actions which have not been described in this fashion. (7)
It is because of the significance and importance of the matter that we have examined the subject of governance in detail. To ally oneself with a ruler who does not rule by what Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) has revealed, to approve of his rule and the implementation of legislation under his authority - saying this is lawful, without the Permission of Allah (Ta'aala) - is a contradiction of the declaration of Faith. Allah (Ta'aala) is the only God, to whom all devotion from the heart is due, in love, and in awe, and in obedience, and in submission.
Such behaviour is a contradiction of the statement, 'Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah', since whoever truly believes this will follow what the Messenger (salallaahu 'alayhee wa sallam) has commanded and leave what he has forbidden and what he has criticised. If people only understood this fact then tyranny could not persist, nor could it establish disbelief and push the Sharee'ah of Allah (Ta'aala) to one side.
The second matter that should be considered in this context is the helping and assisting of the disbelievers against the Muslims.
Helping the disbelievers Against the Muslims
Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala) says:
{And if any amongst you takes them (the Jews and Christians, as Auliya' [friends, protectors, helpers]), then surely, he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are dhaalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust).}(The Noble Qur'an, Surah 5: Ayah 51)
This is a major contradiction of the declaration of Faith into which many people today have fallen. They are nominally Muslims and still apparently within the fold of the Faithful. And yet, we have come to feel a certain embarrassment when it comes to calling a spade a spade, to saying to the supporters of kufr, 'You are disbelievers!'
Some people even see this as an impertinence in view of the wonder and awe, and the fear and anxiety, that they feel for the enemies of Allah (Subhannah wa Ta'aala). And so the matter of setting the pace, of setting an example, has given way under the weight of their feebleness of faith. They are dazzled by the enemies of Allah (Ta'aala) and long to be like them, even to the point that if they entered the hole of a lizard they would follow them into it.
Footnotes
1) Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab, Mu'alafat, 5/212-214.
2) Abi Hibbatu'llah Isma'il al Khateeb, Tadheer Ahl al Iman 'an al Hukm bighayri ma Anzala'r Rahman, in Rasa'il al Muniriya, 1/139.
3) Abu Dawud, Kitab al Malahim, 4/484, (4297); Mishkat al Masabih; also al Bayhaqi; al Albani classifies it as sahih.
4) Ibn Katheer, Tafseer, 3/123.
5) Tahkim al Qawanin, p.5.
6) ibid. p.7.
7) ibid. p.8.
Formatted and Edited by Abu Suhayb
Due to the inferiority of the original Qur'anic translations in this chapter - which was that of Muhammad Pickthall's - all translations of Qur'anic text have been changed to texts from the: 'The Noble Qur'an': A summarized Version of At-Tabari, Al Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir with comments from Sahih al Bukhari. Summarized in One Volume. Translation by Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Deen Al Hilali and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan.
Maktaba Dar-us- Salam: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 1995
How Does The Heart Fast
How does the Heart fast?
by Aa'id 'Abdullâh al-Qarnî
‘And if anyone believes in Allah, (Allah) guides his heart (aright)’ (64:11).
The guidance of the heart is the basis of all guidance, the law of all success, the origin of every deed and head of every action. The Prophet saws said:
‘Truly there is a piece of flesh in the body which, if it be wholesome, the whole body will be healthy and which, and if it be diseased the whole body will be diseased. Truly it is the heart.’
Thus the goodness of your heart is the guarantee of your happiness in this world and in the hereafter. Likewise, its corruption is the surest way to destruction, the extent of which only Allah knows.
‘In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake - that is [everyone who] lends ear with a conscious mind’ (50:37).
Every creature has a heart. In reality though they are two hearts, a heart that is alive and pulsating with the light of faith. It is filled with intense conviction and God-consciousness. The other is a dead heart, covered and diseased with every wreckage and rubbish.Allah Almighty says concerning the hearts of the foolish folk:
‘In their hearts is disease, and so God lets their disease increase’ (2:10).
‘But they say, “Our hearts are already full of knowledge.” Nay, but God has rejected them because of their refusal to acknowledge the truth: for, few are the things in which they believe’ (2:88).
Allah also says:
‘Will they not, then, ponder over this Quran? — or are there locks upon their hearts?’ (47:24).
‘And so they say, [as it were:] “Our hearts are veiled from whatever thou callest us to, [O Muhammad,] and in our ears is deafness”’ (41:5).
From all these verses we learn that the hearts can become ill, they can be covered, locked and they die. The enemies of Allah have hearts in their bosoms but they do not perceive with these hearts. Hence the Prophet saws used to say:
‘O dispenser of hearts make my heart firm in Your religion.’
The heart of the believer fasts during Ramadan and outside of Ramadan. The fasting of the heart is done by emptying it of all corrupt material such as destructive forms of polytheism, false beliefs, evil suggestions, filthy intentions and degenerate thoughts. The heart of the believer is adorned with the love of Allah. It knows its Lord by His names and His qualities as He has described Himself. This heart explores with a discerning eye the lines of His names and qualities and the pages of Allah’s making in the universe and the books of His creations.The believer’s heart is filled with a brilliant light which does not allow any darkness to remain with it. It is the light of the eternal message, the divine teachings, and the omnipotent laws. To it is added the natural light upon which the servants of Allah were created. Thus two great lights come together
. ‘Light upon light! God guides unto His light him that wills [to be guided]; and [to this end] God propounds parables unto men, since God [alone] has full knowledge of all things’ (24:36).
The believer’s heart glows like a lamp, shines like the sun and sparkles like the morning light. It increases in faith whenever the believer listens to the verses of the Quran, it grows in conviction when it contemplates, and increases in guidance when it reflects. The believer’s heart abstains from pride because it breaks its fast. Pride does not reside in the heart of a believer because it is unlawful. The abode and dwelling place of pride is the heart. Hence, if it enters any heart, that person will become afflicted, foolish, arrogant and frivolous.Allah Almighty says in a hadith Qudsi:
‘Pride is my upper garment and grandeur is my lower one, whoever contests with me for them I will punish him.’
The Prophet saws himself said:
‘Whoever shows arrogance to Allah, He will humble him, and whoever is humble to Allah, He will raise him in station.’
The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from egotism. Egotism is when the individual sees himself as perfect, better than others and in possession of good qualities that are not found in anyone else. This is destruction in its most naked form. The Prophet saws said:
‘Three things which are totally destructive: a person’s self-centredness and conceit, his reluctance to obey and his following of his desires.’
The cure for this self-importance is to look at one’s own faults, one’s many shortcomings, thousands of sins and misdeeds that one has committed, wrongs that one has done and forgotten but the knowledge of which are with Allah in a book. For Allah is not led astray nor does He forget.The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from envy because it lowers righteous deeds, puts out the light of the heart and stops its progress toward Allah the Most High. Allah says in the Glorious Quran:
‘Do they, perchance, envy other people for what God has granted them out of his bounty? (4:54).
And the Prophet saws said:
‘Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another.’
The Prophet informed one of his companions three times that he would be among the people of Paradise. When he was asked about what was it that earned him a place in Paradise, the man said:
‘I do not sleep with envy, grudge or deceit in my heart for any Muslim.’
Are there any hearts that would, therefore, fast like the learned. The fast of the learned has a yearning for the Most Merciful Lord of the worlds. Their hearts fast at all times and in the early hours of morning they seek forgiveness
.
O Allah guide our hearts to the straight path and make it firm on faith, O Lord of the worlds.
Taken from the Book: Thirty Lessons for those who Fast PDF
by Aa'id 'Abdullâh al-Qarnî
‘And if anyone believes in Allah, (Allah) guides his heart (aright)’ (64:11).
The guidance of the heart is the basis of all guidance, the law of all success, the origin of every deed and head of every action. The Prophet saws said:
‘Truly there is a piece of flesh in the body which, if it be wholesome, the whole body will be healthy and which, and if it be diseased the whole body will be diseased. Truly it is the heart.’
Thus the goodness of your heart is the guarantee of your happiness in this world and in the hereafter. Likewise, its corruption is the surest way to destruction, the extent of which only Allah knows.
‘In this, behold, there is indeed a reminder for everyone whose heart is wide-awake - that is [everyone who] lends ear with a conscious mind’ (50:37).
Every creature has a heart. In reality though they are two hearts, a heart that is alive and pulsating with the light of faith. It is filled with intense conviction and God-consciousness. The other is a dead heart, covered and diseased with every wreckage and rubbish.Allah Almighty says concerning the hearts of the foolish folk:
‘In their hearts is disease, and so God lets their disease increase’ (2:10).
‘But they say, “Our hearts are already full of knowledge.” Nay, but God has rejected them because of their refusal to acknowledge the truth: for, few are the things in which they believe’ (2:88).
Allah also says:
‘Will they not, then, ponder over this Quran? — or are there locks upon their hearts?’ (47:24).
‘And so they say, [as it were:] “Our hearts are veiled from whatever thou callest us to, [O Muhammad,] and in our ears is deafness”’ (41:5).
From all these verses we learn that the hearts can become ill, they can be covered, locked and they die. The enemies of Allah have hearts in their bosoms but they do not perceive with these hearts. Hence the Prophet saws used to say:
‘O dispenser of hearts make my heart firm in Your religion.’
The heart of the believer fasts during Ramadan and outside of Ramadan. The fasting of the heart is done by emptying it of all corrupt material such as destructive forms of polytheism, false beliefs, evil suggestions, filthy intentions and degenerate thoughts. The heart of the believer is adorned with the love of Allah. It knows its Lord by His names and His qualities as He has described Himself. This heart explores with a discerning eye the lines of His names and qualities and the pages of Allah’s making in the universe and the books of His creations.The believer’s heart is filled with a brilliant light which does not allow any darkness to remain with it. It is the light of the eternal message, the divine teachings, and the omnipotent laws. To it is added the natural light upon which the servants of Allah were created. Thus two great lights come together
. ‘Light upon light! God guides unto His light him that wills [to be guided]; and [to this end] God propounds parables unto men, since God [alone] has full knowledge of all things’ (24:36).
The believer’s heart glows like a lamp, shines like the sun and sparkles like the morning light. It increases in faith whenever the believer listens to the verses of the Quran, it grows in conviction when it contemplates, and increases in guidance when it reflects. The believer’s heart abstains from pride because it breaks its fast. Pride does not reside in the heart of a believer because it is unlawful. The abode and dwelling place of pride is the heart. Hence, if it enters any heart, that person will become afflicted, foolish, arrogant and frivolous.Allah Almighty says in a hadith Qudsi:
‘Pride is my upper garment and grandeur is my lower one, whoever contests with me for them I will punish him.’
The Prophet saws himself said:
‘Whoever shows arrogance to Allah, He will humble him, and whoever is humble to Allah, He will raise him in station.’
The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from egotism. Egotism is when the individual sees himself as perfect, better than others and in possession of good qualities that are not found in anyone else. This is destruction in its most naked form. The Prophet saws said:
‘Three things which are totally destructive: a person’s self-centredness and conceit, his reluctance to obey and his following of his desires.’
The cure for this self-importance is to look at one’s own faults, one’s many shortcomings, thousands of sins and misdeeds that one has committed, wrongs that one has done and forgotten but the knowledge of which are with Allah in a book. For Allah is not led astray nor does He forget.The heart of the believer fasts and abstains from envy because it lowers righteous deeds, puts out the light of the heart and stops its progress toward Allah the Most High. Allah says in the Glorious Quran:
‘Do they, perchance, envy other people for what God has granted them out of his bounty? (4:54).
And the Prophet saws said:
‘Do not envy one another; do not inflate prices one to another; do not hate one another; do not turn away from one another; and do not undercut one another.’
The Prophet informed one of his companions three times that he would be among the people of Paradise. When he was asked about what was it that earned him a place in Paradise, the man said:
‘I do not sleep with envy, grudge or deceit in my heart for any Muslim.’
Are there any hearts that would, therefore, fast like the learned. The fast of the learned has a yearning for the Most Merciful Lord of the worlds. Their hearts fast at all times and in the early hours of morning they seek forgiveness
.
O Allah guide our hearts to the straight path and make it firm on faith, O Lord of the worlds.
Taken from the Book: Thirty Lessons for those who Fast PDF
Tuesday, 10 May 2011
Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jews
Open Letter to Shaykh Bin Baz on the Invalidity of his Fatwa on Peace with the Jewsby Osama bin Laden
Written December 29, 1994 while bin Laden was in the Sudan.
Translated by the CTC at West Point Military Academy; minor errors that resulted in poor English, at the fault of the translators themselves, have been corrected to prevent giving an unfairly skewed view of the author.
:Dear Shaykh 'Abd-al-Aziz bin Baz (May God have mercy on him):
Peace be upon you, and God's mercy and blessings. We praise God who sent down the book of clear verses, and who raises up those who bring knowledge. God who makes with them a pact to execute truth and its proof, and who warns them against using it to deceive, or concealing it. Prayers and peace be ypon our master Muhammad who said "The best Jihad is the word of truth in the presence of the unjust Sultan." (A sound Hadith which Imam Ahmad al-Tabarani, Ibn Majah and al-Bayhaqi related).
It is well known to you how God has granted to the People of Knowledge a great place and given them an honourable position.
It is no wonder that the Ulema are the heirs of the prophets and that this religion has been bequeathed to them. They kept from it the distortion of the stupid, the plagarism of the liars, the interpretation of the ignorant and the dilution of the profligate tyrants. They represent the good example and ideal model for the Ummah in taking up the burden of victory for truth and arousing it for high standards.
The true Ulema of the pious ancestors of this Ummah, and their good successors undertook this mission. What was the position of Sa'id bin Jubayr in the face of the tyranny of al-Hajjaj but to proclaim the truth? Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal challenged the tyranny of the rulers and the sultan, and he endured the discord over the creation of the Quran. Was not Ibn Taymiyah and his suffering in prison a victory for the Sunnah and a model for carrying out the duty of helping the truth and its people. These learned Imams made truth triumph and were zealous for the religion. May God have mercy on all of them.
Dear Shaykh: We want to reiterate our previous admonishments about your duty towards the religion, reminding you of your great responsibility, for remembrance benefits believers. We want to remind you at this time in which the liar struts about, and evil prattlers make noise, and the truth is buried alive, and preachers imprisoned and reformers silenced. It is strange that you do not know of this and are silent, especially since your Fatwas and positions have dealt with these matters. We remind you, dear Shaykh, of some of these Fatwas and positions to which you do not pay attention, although the Ummah has persisted for a long time in error, in order that you perceive with us even partially something of the danger of this matter and the bad effects resulting from it.
Some examples for you:
1. No one can be unaware of the extent to which tremendous corruption has spread, including all aspects of life, so that various abominations of which likewise no one can be unaware are diffused everwhere. The advisory notice that the elite Ulema and the preachers of reform presented gave details of this. The most dangerous thing they revealed was the attribution of partners to God represented in legislation and the introduction of positive laws that make forbidden things permissible. Among their most abominable acts is allowing the practice of usury, which is spreading throughout the land. This is done through state institutions and their usurious banks whose towers crowd out the Minarets of the two holy places and the length and breadth of the country swarms with them.
It must be well-known that the organizations and usury laws under which these banks and institutions conduct business are legitimsed by the ruling regime, and authorised by it. Still, all we have heard from you is that usury is haram! You end up deceiving the people by not making a distinction between rulers who merely tolerate usury and rulers who legitimise and legalise usury.
The distinction between the two is very clear. He who tolerates usury is committing one of the greatest of mortal sins. As for one who legitimises interest, he is an apostate and infidel who thereby departs from the religion, because he makes himself an equal to God and a partner with him in allowing and disallowing. We go into further detail in a future study that will be published soon, God willing.
God and his messenger have proclaimed war against the one who tolerates usury without putting an end to it. "If you do it not, take notice of war from God and his Messenger"
Yet we continue to hear your expressions of praise and commendation for this regime which is not satisfied merely with tolerating usury, but has legitimised, legalised and permitted it. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "Usury is seventy three doors the least of which is like a man marrying his mother.", sound, al-Hakim related it.
Ibn 'Abbas, may God be pleased with him, said "He who lives upon usury, and continues to do, it is the duty of the Imam of the Muslims to call him to repentance. If he ceases, do not behead him." (Related from Jarir, going back to Ibn 'Abbas). This applies to whoever tolerates interest. What can you say about someone legitimises interest and makes it halal.
The country is struggling through economic and political crises, and crimes of various sorts are incredibly widespread. This can only be a punishment from God and part of the war he, praise him, has declared upon those who will not end their tolerance of usury and similar abominations, and eliminate it, for he has ruled against interest. "God will deprive blessings for usury but will give increase for deeds of blessing."
2. When the king hung the cross upon his chest[1] and appeared with it before the world, happy and smiling, you justified his action and permitted him his abomination, and permitted him although this act is clearly infidelity. This is plain from the condition of the one who did it freely.
3. When the attacking Crusader and the Jewish Alliance - in collusion with the regime - decided in the Gulf War to occupy the country in the name of liberating Kuwait, you allowed this with an arbitrary Fatwa which justified this abominable action. This insulted the honour of the Ummah, sullied its dignity, and defiled its holy places, on the grounds of assisting the infidel in a case of necessity, disregarding the restrictions on assistance and the rules on necessity expressed in Islamic law.
4. When the ruling Saudi regime aided and supported the chiefs of Communist, Socialist apostasy in Yemen against the Muslim Yemeni people in the recent war, you kept silent. When these Communists suffered setbacks, you issued - on the recommendation of this regime - a word of advice! Summoning everyone to reconcile and shake hands, considering them all Muslims! Making people think that the Communists are Muslims means sparing their blood. When were the Communists ever Muslims? Aren't you the one who previously issued a Fatwa on their apostasy and the necessity of killing them in Afghanistan? Or is there a difference between Yemeni Communists and Afghan Communists? Are the concepts of the faith and the precepts of Tawhid lost and confused to this extent?
The ruling regime continues to lodge these infidel nations in different cities of the country. We have not heard you disapproving. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "God curses those who shelter an innovator." Muslim relates it.
5. When the regime decided to attack Shaykh Salman al-'Awdah and Shaykh Safar al-Hawali who proclaimed the truth and suffered for the sake of God, it obtained a Fatwa from you allowing all - the attacks and maltreatment to which the two Shaykhs and the preachers, Shaykhs and youth of the Ummah had been subjected. May God release them and save from them the wrong of the wrongdoers.
There are some other examples that we did not intend to omit, but it would take too much space to mention them. We have in our hands your recent Fatwa about something called slandering peace with the Jews. This is painful to Muslims, since you responded to the political wish of the regime which decided to present to the public a comedy of surrender to the Jews it had previously entered into. Therefore, you issued a Fatwa allowing peace both unrestrictedly and conditionally with the enemy. Who are the Prime Minister of the Zionist enemy and his parliamet that they can be dealt with, and praised, when the Saudi regime announced the result of its intention for further normalisation with the enemy?
It is as if you were not content to open up the land of the Two Holy Places to the Jewish and Crusader occupation forces. You added a third Holy Place[2] by giving a veneer of legitimacy to the surrender documents that the treacherous and cowardly Arab tyrants signed.
These words are a great danger, and a general calamity in that they deceive people and mislead the Ummah in a number of ways, including:
(1) The present Jewish enemy is not an enemy dwelling in his original country, warred on from outside so that peace is permitted with him. Rather he is an enemy desacrating honour and usurping sacred Muslim land which God blessed, and which the Companions irrigated with their blameless blood. They are an attacking enemy, one which corrupts religion and the world.
The words of Shaykh-al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah, may God have mercy on him, are appropriate. "The attacking enemy who corrupts the religion and the world must, in keeping with the faith, be repelled. There are no limiting conditions. Rather he must be repelled if at all possible." The Ulema, our Companions, and others have stipulated this."[3]
It is religiously required toward Palestine and our oppressed Palestinian brothers, men, women and children who are not able to escape and are not guided. It is Jihad in the way of God, and urging the Ummah to it until Palestine is liberated completely, and returns to Muslim control.
Such Fatwas that forsake Jihad and incline towards the ground dispense with Palestine. These Fatwas acknowledge the enemy's occupation of the holiest of holy places, after the two noble holy places. These Fatwas also apply a veneer of legitimacy to the occupation and forcibly support the efforts of the enemy to strike Islamic efforts that seek to liberate Palestine through Jihad. The operation of the stone-throwing heroes and the Muslim youth of Jihad in Palestine is the only useful way to confront the enemy and guarantee the liberation of Palestine, God willing.
Here we remind you of your previous Fatwas in this regard. When you were asked about the way to liberate Palestine, you said, "I think that it is not possible to solve this issue except by considering it an Islamic issue, and by Muslims standing shoulder-to-shoulder to rescue it. Jihad against the Jews is a Muslim Jihad until the land is returned to its people, and until these Jewish foreigners return to their country."[4]
(2) Assuming that this Jewish enemy is an enemy with whom peace may be made, and there are conditions for it, should the false alleged peace that tyrannical, defeatist governments and organisations make with the Jews be considered a peace which can be made with the enemy?
Everyone is aware that this is not the case. This alleged peace which broken-down rulers and tyrants have stumbled into with the Jews is nothing but a grand betrayal. This is represented in the signing of the surrender documents and the surrender of Jerusalem and all of Palestine by these governments to the Jews, and the recognition of their perpetual control over them.
(3) These apostate rulers who wage war on God and his Messenger have neither legitimacy, nor sovereignty over Muslims. This contrasts with your well-known past declarations that they are infidels. The elite Ulema and preachers have made this clear to you in their earnest appeals to you in the past to refrain from this Fatwa. We will attach a copy of this appeal to remind you and make you aware.
Your Fatwa deceived people with its disgraceful summary and misleading generalization. The Fatwa did not correctly deal with a a just peace, let alone this false peace with the Jews which is a major betrayal of Islam and Muslims. Even an ordinary Muslim would not allow this false peace, let alone a scholar like you who is supposed to be vigilant for the religion and the Ummah.
For any Fatwa that deals with great and serious matters, it is necessary for the Ummah to have knowledge of it in all its dimensions, including the harm and danger which might result. This knowledge is an indispensable part of the conditions for a Fatwa. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim - may God have mercy on him - says "Neither a Mufti nor a judge can reach a correct ruling without two kinds of understanding. The first is understanding of the situation and how jurisprudence relates to it, and learning the facts of what is happening, by evidence, signs, and indications until he comprehends it. The second thing is understanding of the obligation, which is understanding of God's decree by which it is ordained in his book or upon the tongue of his Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace. Then he applies one to the other". A. H.[5]
Since these conditions are necessary for a Fatwa in general, it is certainly so for a Fatwa related to Jihad and peace and the like. Imam Ibn Taymiyah - may God have mercy on him - says "Obligation is to be considered in matters of Jihad according to the opinion of upright men of religion who have experience in what people of this world do, rather than those who mainly look at a matter from the viewpoint of religion. Do not adopt their opinion - not the opinion of religious men who have no experience in the world." A.H. [6]
If the previous Fatwas were issued by someone other than you, let it be said that whoever issued it did so on false pretenses. But if it was issued by you, deficiencies due to gaps in your Sharia knowledge are not the cause of faults in it, but rather a lack of awareness of the true nature of the situation, and of the effects of such Fatwas. If the Fatwa at that time did not take into account the condition, then it was not correct to issue it. This requires the Mufti then to void the Fatwa or transfer it to specialists with knowledge of Sharia, and of the facts of the situation. It is clear that Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal did not proceed with many questions as did Imam Malik when he was asked about readings, he turned to Imam Nafi', may God have mercy on all of them.
Dear Shaykh, our great concern for the condition of the Ummah and Ulema like you is that which impels us to remind you that we consider you and those like you to be above being exploited by the ruling regime so detestably. They threw you into the face of every preacher and reformer. Your Fatwas and positions silenced every word of truth and true Dawah. Our reply was also discussed by the "Advisory", the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, and others.
Dear Shaykh, you are advanced in years and you were skilled in the service of Islam previously. Fear God and keep your distance from these tyrants and wrongdoers who have proclaimed war on God and his Messenger. Be with the speakers of truth. You have in the pious ancestors of the Ummah and their righteous successors a good example. Among the most prominent characteristics of the true Ulema was keeping distant from Sultans. Imam Abu Hanifah - may God have mercy on him - and others fled from working with the rulers of their age despite the rulers' great probity in religion when compared with the rulers of today, who do not conceal the corruption of their religion and their evil condition. In our time, when the learned Shaykh 'Abdallah bin Hamid - may God have mercy on him - perceived the danger of the path along which the ruling Saudi government was proceeding, and the danger and harm attendant upon it for anyone who participated or became mixed up in it. He immediately escaped with his religion and resigned from the Presidency of the Supreme Court. Imam al-Khatabi - may God have mercy on him - said concerning calling on these rulers, "I wish I knew who calls upon them today and does not correct their lies and who speaks of justice when he sees their councils and who gives andvice and is advised by them?"[7] An authentic hadith states "Who comes to the door of the Sultan is subject to temptation". Beware, dear Shaykh, of inclining to these people in word or deed, "And do not incline to those who are unjust, lest the fire touch you and you have no guardians besides God, then you shall not be helped."
Those who could not proclaim the truth and speak it openly, are not less than those who refrain from speaking other than the truth. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "He who believes in God and the last day, let him speak good or let him be silent". (al-Buhayri related it)
Finally we ask that you do find in yourself these words and consider them polite advice. Do not require them to be made secret and not announced.[8] The problem is that there are serious faults, some of them great,[9] for which silence is not allowed nor is disregard permitted.
What we have mentioned to you is well known to the people of knowledge. The elite Ulema and preachers of the Ummah have previously made you aware of this when they presented to you with numerous urgent appeals in this regard. This includes their appeal to you a while ago to refrain from issuing a Fatwa permitting this alleged surrender peace with the Jews, pointing out that it does not fulfill the condition required under Islamic law. They warned of the numerous religious and worldly dangers as a consequence of it. Among the signatories of this urgent appeal were the esteemed Shaykhs 'Abdallah bin 'Abd al-Rahman bin Jabrin, 'Abdallah bin Hasan al-Qu'ud, Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Tuwayjiri (may God have mercy on him), Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Shu'aybi, 'Abd al-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak, Salman al-Awdah, Ibrahim bin Salih al-Khudayri, 'Abd al-Wahha al-Nasir al-Turayir, Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Dubian, 'Abdallah bin Hamud al-Tuwayjiri, 'Abdallah al-Jalali, 'A'id al-Qarni and other great men, may God keep them all. You will find the text of their urgent appeal with this letter, God willing.
In the recent Yemen War when the previously mentioned statement was issued by you, fifteen Ulema issued a Fatwa opposing it, explaining the Shari'ah justification in this matter. Among these esteemed Ulema were: "Abdallah bin Sulayman al-Mas'ari, Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Shu'aybe, 'Abdallah al-Jalali, Salman al-Awdah, Dr. Safar al-Hawali, Dr. Nasir al-'Umar, Yahya bin 'Abd-al-Aziz al-Yahya, Dr. 'Abdallah bin Hammud alTuway jiri and other great men, may God keep them all.
In conclusion, we ask God, may he be blessed and exalted, to show us the truth as truth, and give us the grace to follow it. Show us falsehood to be falsehood, and give us the grace to avoid it. May he establish for this Ummah guidance by which people who submit to him may be honoured and the people who disobey him be debased. May the good be commanded and the bad forbidden. May deception come to an end, and may they be ruled with justice and speaking the truth openly. May the rippling flag of Jihad be raised high so that the Ummah may restore its honour and dignity. May the flag of unity be raised above all the stolen land of Islam beginning with Palestine and continuing to Andalusia, and other lands of Islam lost due to the treachery of rulers and helplessness of Muslims.
We also ask God to look over us and keep evil from us. We ask him to help us to speak correctly and to do right, and to succeed in doing what he loves and what pleases him so that we may be satisfied in life and come to a good end in death. He controls this and has the power to do it. Finally we pray, "Praise be to God, the Lord of Worlds".
Dated: 27/7/1415 AH
On their behalf,
Usamah bin Muhammad bin Ladin
[edit] Notes
↑ During an event with the British Royal Family, King Fahd was seen wearing a white decoration in the shape of a cross
↑ Jerusalem
↑ Juridical Selections, pp 209-210
↑ The Collected Fatwas of Shaykh 'Abd-al-Aziz bin Baz, 1/281
↑ Teaching of Signers, 87/1
↑ Juridical Selections, pp. 211
↑ Book of Seclusion
↑ This is a bit of Arabic wordplay, "Do not require them to be israr, and not ishhar"
↑ More Arabic wordplay, "There are khatir faults, some of them kabir".
This translation is hosted with different licensing information than from the original text. The translation status applies to this edition.
Original:
This text was published by, or on behalf of, a "designated terror organization" subject to U.S. sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA, 50 U.S.C. Chapter 35). As such, any corresponding copyright is "blocked property" in the United States.
The text is used on English-language Wikisource (hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation) as "information or an informational material" under the the provisions of 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3).
Note: If the organization responsible for this particular text is ever removed from the list of IEEPA-sanctions then its suitability for Wikisource will have to be re-examined and it may face deletion.
Translation:
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Written December 29, 1994 while bin Laden was in the Sudan.
Translated by the CTC at West Point Military Academy; minor errors that resulted in poor English, at the fault of the translators themselves, have been corrected to prevent giving an unfairly skewed view of the author.
:Dear Shaykh 'Abd-al-Aziz bin Baz (May God have mercy on him):
Peace be upon you, and God's mercy and blessings. We praise God who sent down the book of clear verses, and who raises up those who bring knowledge. God who makes with them a pact to execute truth and its proof, and who warns them against using it to deceive, or concealing it. Prayers and peace be ypon our master Muhammad who said "The best Jihad is the word of truth in the presence of the unjust Sultan." (A sound Hadith which Imam Ahmad al-Tabarani, Ibn Majah and al-Bayhaqi related).
It is well known to you how God has granted to the People of Knowledge a great place and given them an honourable position.
It is no wonder that the Ulema are the heirs of the prophets and that this religion has been bequeathed to them. They kept from it the distortion of the stupid, the plagarism of the liars, the interpretation of the ignorant and the dilution of the profligate tyrants. They represent the good example and ideal model for the Ummah in taking up the burden of victory for truth and arousing it for high standards.
The true Ulema of the pious ancestors of this Ummah, and their good successors undertook this mission. What was the position of Sa'id bin Jubayr in the face of the tyranny of al-Hajjaj but to proclaim the truth? Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal challenged the tyranny of the rulers and the sultan, and he endured the discord over the creation of the Quran. Was not Ibn Taymiyah and his suffering in prison a victory for the Sunnah and a model for carrying out the duty of helping the truth and its people. These learned Imams made truth triumph and were zealous for the religion. May God have mercy on all of them.
Dear Shaykh: We want to reiterate our previous admonishments about your duty towards the religion, reminding you of your great responsibility, for remembrance benefits believers. We want to remind you at this time in which the liar struts about, and evil prattlers make noise, and the truth is buried alive, and preachers imprisoned and reformers silenced. It is strange that you do not know of this and are silent, especially since your Fatwas and positions have dealt with these matters. We remind you, dear Shaykh, of some of these Fatwas and positions to which you do not pay attention, although the Ummah has persisted for a long time in error, in order that you perceive with us even partially something of the danger of this matter and the bad effects resulting from it.
Some examples for you:
1. No one can be unaware of the extent to which tremendous corruption has spread, including all aspects of life, so that various abominations of which likewise no one can be unaware are diffused everwhere. The advisory notice that the elite Ulema and the preachers of reform presented gave details of this. The most dangerous thing they revealed was the attribution of partners to God represented in legislation and the introduction of positive laws that make forbidden things permissible. Among their most abominable acts is allowing the practice of usury, which is spreading throughout the land. This is done through state institutions and their usurious banks whose towers crowd out the Minarets of the two holy places and the length and breadth of the country swarms with them.
It must be well-known that the organizations and usury laws under which these banks and institutions conduct business are legitimsed by the ruling regime, and authorised by it. Still, all we have heard from you is that usury is haram! You end up deceiving the people by not making a distinction between rulers who merely tolerate usury and rulers who legitimise and legalise usury.
The distinction between the two is very clear. He who tolerates usury is committing one of the greatest of mortal sins. As for one who legitimises interest, he is an apostate and infidel who thereby departs from the religion, because he makes himself an equal to God and a partner with him in allowing and disallowing. We go into further detail in a future study that will be published soon, God willing.
God and his messenger have proclaimed war against the one who tolerates usury without putting an end to it. "If you do it not, take notice of war from God and his Messenger"
Yet we continue to hear your expressions of praise and commendation for this regime which is not satisfied merely with tolerating usury, but has legitimised, legalised and permitted it. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "Usury is seventy three doors the least of which is like a man marrying his mother.", sound, al-Hakim related it.
Ibn 'Abbas, may God be pleased with him, said "He who lives upon usury, and continues to do, it is the duty of the Imam of the Muslims to call him to repentance. If he ceases, do not behead him." (Related from Jarir, going back to Ibn 'Abbas). This applies to whoever tolerates interest. What can you say about someone legitimises interest and makes it halal.
The country is struggling through economic and political crises, and crimes of various sorts are incredibly widespread. This can only be a punishment from God and part of the war he, praise him, has declared upon those who will not end their tolerance of usury and similar abominations, and eliminate it, for he has ruled against interest. "God will deprive blessings for usury but will give increase for deeds of blessing."
2. When the king hung the cross upon his chest[1] and appeared with it before the world, happy and smiling, you justified his action and permitted him his abomination, and permitted him although this act is clearly infidelity. This is plain from the condition of the one who did it freely.
3. When the attacking Crusader and the Jewish Alliance - in collusion with the regime - decided in the Gulf War to occupy the country in the name of liberating Kuwait, you allowed this with an arbitrary Fatwa which justified this abominable action. This insulted the honour of the Ummah, sullied its dignity, and defiled its holy places, on the grounds of assisting the infidel in a case of necessity, disregarding the restrictions on assistance and the rules on necessity expressed in Islamic law.
4. When the ruling Saudi regime aided and supported the chiefs of Communist, Socialist apostasy in Yemen against the Muslim Yemeni people in the recent war, you kept silent. When these Communists suffered setbacks, you issued - on the recommendation of this regime - a word of advice! Summoning everyone to reconcile and shake hands, considering them all Muslims! Making people think that the Communists are Muslims means sparing their blood. When were the Communists ever Muslims? Aren't you the one who previously issued a Fatwa on their apostasy and the necessity of killing them in Afghanistan? Or is there a difference between Yemeni Communists and Afghan Communists? Are the concepts of the faith and the precepts of Tawhid lost and confused to this extent?
The ruling regime continues to lodge these infidel nations in different cities of the country. We have not heard you disapproving. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "God curses those who shelter an innovator." Muslim relates it.
5. When the regime decided to attack Shaykh Salman al-'Awdah and Shaykh Safar al-Hawali who proclaimed the truth and suffered for the sake of God, it obtained a Fatwa from you allowing all - the attacks and maltreatment to which the two Shaykhs and the preachers, Shaykhs and youth of the Ummah had been subjected. May God release them and save from them the wrong of the wrongdoers.
There are some other examples that we did not intend to omit, but it would take too much space to mention them. We have in our hands your recent Fatwa about something called slandering peace with the Jews. This is painful to Muslims, since you responded to the political wish of the regime which decided to present to the public a comedy of surrender to the Jews it had previously entered into. Therefore, you issued a Fatwa allowing peace both unrestrictedly and conditionally with the enemy. Who are the Prime Minister of the Zionist enemy and his parliamet that they can be dealt with, and praised, when the Saudi regime announced the result of its intention for further normalisation with the enemy?
It is as if you were not content to open up the land of the Two Holy Places to the Jewish and Crusader occupation forces. You added a third Holy Place[2] by giving a veneer of legitimacy to the surrender documents that the treacherous and cowardly Arab tyrants signed.
These words are a great danger, and a general calamity in that they deceive people and mislead the Ummah in a number of ways, including:
(1) The present Jewish enemy is not an enemy dwelling in his original country, warred on from outside so that peace is permitted with him. Rather he is an enemy desacrating honour and usurping sacred Muslim land which God blessed, and which the Companions irrigated with their blameless blood. They are an attacking enemy, one which corrupts religion and the world.
The words of Shaykh-al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah, may God have mercy on him, are appropriate. "The attacking enemy who corrupts the religion and the world must, in keeping with the faith, be repelled. There are no limiting conditions. Rather he must be repelled if at all possible." The Ulema, our Companions, and others have stipulated this."[3]
It is religiously required toward Palestine and our oppressed Palestinian brothers, men, women and children who are not able to escape and are not guided. It is Jihad in the way of God, and urging the Ummah to it until Palestine is liberated completely, and returns to Muslim control.
Such Fatwas that forsake Jihad and incline towards the ground dispense with Palestine. These Fatwas acknowledge the enemy's occupation of the holiest of holy places, after the two noble holy places. These Fatwas also apply a veneer of legitimacy to the occupation and forcibly support the efforts of the enemy to strike Islamic efforts that seek to liberate Palestine through Jihad. The operation of the stone-throwing heroes and the Muslim youth of Jihad in Palestine is the only useful way to confront the enemy and guarantee the liberation of Palestine, God willing.
Here we remind you of your previous Fatwas in this regard. When you were asked about the way to liberate Palestine, you said, "I think that it is not possible to solve this issue except by considering it an Islamic issue, and by Muslims standing shoulder-to-shoulder to rescue it. Jihad against the Jews is a Muslim Jihad until the land is returned to its people, and until these Jewish foreigners return to their country."[4]
(2) Assuming that this Jewish enemy is an enemy with whom peace may be made, and there are conditions for it, should the false alleged peace that tyrannical, defeatist governments and organisations make with the Jews be considered a peace which can be made with the enemy?
Everyone is aware that this is not the case. This alleged peace which broken-down rulers and tyrants have stumbled into with the Jews is nothing but a grand betrayal. This is represented in the signing of the surrender documents and the surrender of Jerusalem and all of Palestine by these governments to the Jews, and the recognition of their perpetual control over them.
(3) These apostate rulers who wage war on God and his Messenger have neither legitimacy, nor sovereignty over Muslims. This contrasts with your well-known past declarations that they are infidels. The elite Ulema and preachers have made this clear to you in their earnest appeals to you in the past to refrain from this Fatwa. We will attach a copy of this appeal to remind you and make you aware.
Your Fatwa deceived people with its disgraceful summary and misleading generalization. The Fatwa did not correctly deal with a a just peace, let alone this false peace with the Jews which is a major betrayal of Islam and Muslims. Even an ordinary Muslim would not allow this false peace, let alone a scholar like you who is supposed to be vigilant for the religion and the Ummah.
For any Fatwa that deals with great and serious matters, it is necessary for the Ummah to have knowledge of it in all its dimensions, including the harm and danger which might result. This knowledge is an indispensable part of the conditions for a Fatwa. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim - may God have mercy on him - says "Neither a Mufti nor a judge can reach a correct ruling without two kinds of understanding. The first is understanding of the situation and how jurisprudence relates to it, and learning the facts of what is happening, by evidence, signs, and indications until he comprehends it. The second thing is understanding of the obligation, which is understanding of God's decree by which it is ordained in his book or upon the tongue of his Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace. Then he applies one to the other". A. H.[5]
Since these conditions are necessary for a Fatwa in general, it is certainly so for a Fatwa related to Jihad and peace and the like. Imam Ibn Taymiyah - may God have mercy on him - says "Obligation is to be considered in matters of Jihad according to the opinion of upright men of religion who have experience in what people of this world do, rather than those who mainly look at a matter from the viewpoint of religion. Do not adopt their opinion - not the opinion of religious men who have no experience in the world." A.H. [6]
If the previous Fatwas were issued by someone other than you, let it be said that whoever issued it did so on false pretenses. But if it was issued by you, deficiencies due to gaps in your Sharia knowledge are not the cause of faults in it, but rather a lack of awareness of the true nature of the situation, and of the effects of such Fatwas. If the Fatwa at that time did not take into account the condition, then it was not correct to issue it. This requires the Mufti then to void the Fatwa or transfer it to specialists with knowledge of Sharia, and of the facts of the situation. It is clear that Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal did not proceed with many questions as did Imam Malik when he was asked about readings, he turned to Imam Nafi', may God have mercy on all of them.
Dear Shaykh, our great concern for the condition of the Ummah and Ulema like you is that which impels us to remind you that we consider you and those like you to be above being exploited by the ruling regime so detestably. They threw you into the face of every preacher and reformer. Your Fatwas and positions silenced every word of truth and true Dawah. Our reply was also discussed by the "Advisory", the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights, and others.
Dear Shaykh, you are advanced in years and you were skilled in the service of Islam previously. Fear God and keep your distance from these tyrants and wrongdoers who have proclaimed war on God and his Messenger. Be with the speakers of truth. You have in the pious ancestors of the Ummah and their righteous successors a good example. Among the most prominent characteristics of the true Ulema was keeping distant from Sultans. Imam Abu Hanifah - may God have mercy on him - and others fled from working with the rulers of their age despite the rulers' great probity in religion when compared with the rulers of today, who do not conceal the corruption of their religion and their evil condition. In our time, when the learned Shaykh 'Abdallah bin Hamid - may God have mercy on him - perceived the danger of the path along which the ruling Saudi government was proceeding, and the danger and harm attendant upon it for anyone who participated or became mixed up in it. He immediately escaped with his religion and resigned from the Presidency of the Supreme Court. Imam al-Khatabi - may God have mercy on him - said concerning calling on these rulers, "I wish I knew who calls upon them today and does not correct their lies and who speaks of justice when he sees their councils and who gives andvice and is advised by them?"[7] An authentic hadith states "Who comes to the door of the Sultan is subject to temptation". Beware, dear Shaykh, of inclining to these people in word or deed, "And do not incline to those who are unjust, lest the fire touch you and you have no guardians besides God, then you shall not be helped."
Those who could not proclaim the truth and speak it openly, are not less than those who refrain from speaking other than the truth. He, may God bless him and grant him peace, said "He who believes in God and the last day, let him speak good or let him be silent". (al-Buhayri related it)
Finally we ask that you do find in yourself these words and consider them polite advice. Do not require them to be made secret and not announced.[8] The problem is that there are serious faults, some of them great,[9] for which silence is not allowed nor is disregard permitted.
What we have mentioned to you is well known to the people of knowledge. The elite Ulema and preachers of the Ummah have previously made you aware of this when they presented to you with numerous urgent appeals in this regard. This includes their appeal to you a while ago to refrain from issuing a Fatwa permitting this alleged surrender peace with the Jews, pointing out that it does not fulfill the condition required under Islamic law. They warned of the numerous religious and worldly dangers as a consequence of it. Among the signatories of this urgent appeal were the esteemed Shaykhs 'Abdallah bin 'Abd al-Rahman bin Jabrin, 'Abdallah bin Hasan al-Qu'ud, Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Tuwayjiri (may God have mercy on him), Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Shu'aybi, 'Abd al-Rahman bin Nasir al-Barrak, Salman al-Awdah, Ibrahim bin Salih al-Khudayri, 'Abd al-Wahha al-Nasir al-Turayir, Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Dubian, 'Abdallah bin Hamud al-Tuwayjiri, 'Abdallah al-Jalali, 'A'id al-Qarni and other great men, may God keep them all. You will find the text of their urgent appeal with this letter, God willing.
In the recent Yemen War when the previously mentioned statement was issued by you, fifteen Ulema issued a Fatwa opposing it, explaining the Shari'ah justification in this matter. Among these esteemed Ulema were: "Abdallah bin Sulayman al-Mas'ari, Hamud bin 'Abdallah al-Shu'aybe, 'Abdallah al-Jalali, Salman al-Awdah, Dr. Safar al-Hawali, Dr. Nasir al-'Umar, Yahya bin 'Abd-al-Aziz al-Yahya, Dr. 'Abdallah bin Hammud alTuway jiri and other great men, may God keep them all.
In conclusion, we ask God, may he be blessed and exalted, to show us the truth as truth, and give us the grace to follow it. Show us falsehood to be falsehood, and give us the grace to avoid it. May he establish for this Ummah guidance by which people who submit to him may be honoured and the people who disobey him be debased. May the good be commanded and the bad forbidden. May deception come to an end, and may they be ruled with justice and speaking the truth openly. May the rippling flag of Jihad be raised high so that the Ummah may restore its honour and dignity. May the flag of unity be raised above all the stolen land of Islam beginning with Palestine and continuing to Andalusia, and other lands of Islam lost due to the treachery of rulers and helplessness of Muslims.
We also ask God to look over us and keep evil from us. We ask him to help us to speak correctly and to do right, and to succeed in doing what he loves and what pleases him so that we may be satisfied in life and come to a good end in death. He controls this and has the power to do it. Finally we pray, "Praise be to God, the Lord of Worlds".
Dated: 27/7/1415 AH
On their behalf,
Usamah bin Muhammad bin Ladin
[edit] Notes
↑ During an event with the British Royal Family, King Fahd was seen wearing a white decoration in the shape of a cross
↑ Jerusalem
↑ Juridical Selections, pp 209-210
↑ The Collected Fatwas of Shaykh 'Abd-al-Aziz bin Baz, 1/281
↑ Teaching of Signers, 87/1
↑ Juridical Selections, pp. 211
↑ Book of Seclusion
↑ This is a bit of Arabic wordplay, "Do not require them to be israr, and not ishhar"
↑ More Arabic wordplay, "There are khatir faults, some of them kabir".
This translation is hosted with different licensing information than from the original text. The translation status applies to this edition.
Original:
This text was published by, or on behalf of, a "designated terror organization" subject to U.S. sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA, 50 U.S.C. Chapter 35). As such, any corresponding copyright is "blocked property" in the United States.
The text is used on English-language Wikisource (hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation) as "information or an informational material" under the the provisions of 50 U.S.C. § 1702(b)(3).
Note: If the organization responsible for this particular text is ever removed from the list of IEEPA-sanctions then its suitability for Wikisource will have to be re-examined and it may face deletion.
Translation:
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 U.S.C. 105).
Open Letter to Bush : Al Hawali
An Open Letter to President Bush
By Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî
15 October, 2001
Mr. President:
I am writing this letter to you in hope that it will be taken into account without regard to the faith of its writer, or the colour of his skin, and despite your new division of the children of Adam into the civilized who support all your views, and the barbarians who do not.
Perhaps this letter is strange to you, as I write to you as one of the heirs of the prophets, and the prophets, as we know, used to address the tyrants of the earth in the hope that they might repent and fear the Lord of all the worlds. Thus did Moses –peace be upon him- address Pharaoh, Haman, and Karun, and thus did Jesus –peace be upon him- address the Romans and the High Priest of the Jews, and thus did Muhammad - peace and blessings be upon him- address Abu Jahl in Makkah, as well as the Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Persian Emperor Khosraw. It is not necessary for the recipient to listen to or acknowledge the messenger, but it is merely his duty to convey the message.
I write to you as a member of an oppressed and persecuted community in a condition like that of Jesus when he was persecuted by the Jews on one side, and Romans on the other side. It is regrettable that the United States, a nation founded by immigrants fleeing persecution, has taken for itself the position of the Roman Empire which persecuted the followers of Christ –peace be upon him- and colluded– with the enemies of faith (the unbelievers of the children of Israel) to slay the prophets and messengers, and to slay their followers in all times and places. At that time the Roman Empire claimed to be the symbol of freedom and civilized values, just as you claimed referred to America in your first statement after the incidents of September 11.It was the greatest world power of its day, the heir of Greek civilization. It had a Senate and a façade of democracy. The Roman citizen had freedom of religion and personal behavior. All this made it superior to other Empires throughout the world, and yet history does not speak well of this Empire because of the repulsive crime with which it stained its reputation: the persecution of the Christians. For this reason that Great Power lost its valuable distinctions when it oppressed a group of believers in God: Who alone possesses absolute power, absolute might, and absolute justice, Who is Mighty in His punishment which He withholds for the oppressor for awhile, but Who one day takes vengeance against him.
Indeed, that is what He did. The Northern Barbarians overpowered Rome and destroyed it, They burned its cultural symbols and shattered its arrogance at the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. Two centuries later, God caused the followers of the final Prophet Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- to inherit the Holy Land in which Christ –peace be upon him- had lived. This was a tremendous victory for Christ since the Islamic Faith which conquered and liberated most of the known world from despotism and persecution, and filled it with mercy and justice, manifested for mankind the greatness of Christ –peace be upon him- and the truth of Christ’s message, as well as the merit of his disciples and their followers as was revealed in detail in the Holy Qur’an.
The Islamic community considered itself to be the final link in the long chain of followers of the prophets which began with Abraham, and included Moses and Jesus –peace be upon them- and declared to all the world that the enemies of Christ –peace be upon him- are the enemies of freedom and lofty values, especially the Jews, regardless of whether they denied Christ and incited the Romans against him, or whether they pretended to follow him so as to distort his message as did Saul who is called ‘Paul.’ The amazing thing is that the peoples who tasted the affliction of Roman tyranny and arrogance rejoiced at the destruction of Rome and wondered at the actions of the ‘Northern Barbarians” who did it, despite the fact that they did not know or like them, yet how much more so would it have been if –for example- Rome had been attacked by the oppressed Christians? Would anyone have ventured to blame the Christians if they rejoiced or sympathized with the attackers?
Mr. President, we Muslims are a nation of justice. At the same time our ethics do not allow us to rejoice over the misfortunes of the afflicted, yet we would still hope that the United States would review its stand and be more fair, so that we might once again give the benefit of the doubt to the United States for which there are precedents that encourage this hope, and which demonstrate how we used to move two steps towards them for every step of theirs, and a mile for every move of theirs. When President Wilson announced his fourteen points at the end of World War I, and especially the right of self-determination of peoples, it was greeted by the Islamic world as a just position towards European Colonialism that dominated most of its peoples. The Muslims rejoiced at a voice from among the Christian nations themselves saying that the time had come for an end to racial discrimination and crusader campaigns –such as the one led by General Allenby. Thus, the Islamic peoples hastened to place their complete trust in this neutral nation (the United States of America) and the United States profited greatly from this, since besides the moral distinctions it earned, it also achieved the greatest economic advantages in history. Their trust was not shaken even by its unjust position concerning the establishment of the Jewish state and the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, but the Islamic peoples clung to their hope that that policy was simply an error that might be rectified. Similarly, President Eisenhower’s position towards the three-party aggression against Egypt was one of the biggest factors that encouraged the continuation of the benefit of the doubt for America and the refusal to listen to the claims of the communists –which were not entirely false.
However, the trust in America and its justice was rapidly shaken and then declined to the ground because of America’s own behavior which came in the form of one proof after another which permanently refuted the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps the first of these absolute proofs was the actions of President Nixon and his Secretary of State Kissinger during and after the Ramadhan (October) War of 1973, then your father, President Bush whose duplicity of standards were obvious to everybody. Iraq violated the same or fewer international agreements then those that Israel has and continues to violate. Iraq’s excuse in doing so was similar to those used by America to incorporate Texas into its territory. As for Israel’s excuse for occupying Palestine, it is worse than the British justification for keeping America as a British colony, and more repulsive than your ancestor’s excuse for the genocide of the American Indian!
It is this contradictory position which compelled the Islamic peoples to attend demonstrations by the millions in support of a dictator whom none of them had previously liked. Then came President Clinton and his Jewish administration. He was more concerned than either yourself or your father with finding a solution for the problem but he followed the same wrong road; describing the horrible terrorist attack on the Abraham Mosque in Hebron as no more than a “crime.” You and he both know that up until now there has never been a Palestinian attack on any Jewish place of worship, and when the terrorist attack occurred in Cana he was not ashamed to describe it as “an unintentional mistake done by the Israelis in self-defense,” Yet when Israel was faced with bombings, he gathered all the World and Arab leaders at the Sharm al-Shaykh conference so that they could all condemn “terrorism” ignoring the continuous barbaric massacres and the long chain of tragedies which the Israelis have brought upon the Palestinians and Arabs, which were not described at all. This caused the Islamic peoples to dissociate from America in view of the fact that it dictated to the attendees what Israel wanted, and from their governments in view of the fact that they yielded to the American administration. They turned with all their suffering and hopes to the groups described as terrorist without any concern about that description, since the conference taught them a good lesson in understanding the terminology of the American double standard: that when America decides that someone is a terrorist or an extremist it places them in the position of legendary heroes in the eyes of the oppressed and the wretched who need some airing after their long defeat and subservience, and as Claes (former Secretary General of NATO) officially informed them that the alliance had placed Islam as the focus of its enmity in place of the former Soviet Union. There is no need for additional practical proofs after this unique title, proofs which arrive daily from everywhere from the Philippines, Timor, Kashmir, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Sudan, and many other places –except that what occurred in Palestine after the defiling of the Aqsa Mosque by the greatest terrorist criminal of this age: Sharon, outweighed all the others.
It was your misfortune after your difficult election victory to be contemporaneous with that criminal, and to continue your eternal strategic alliance with him.
We Muslims desired to see you elected and we have proof that the votes which gave you victory were our votes, and I personally advised Muslims to vote for you. Some of them hoped that you would be fairer than the Democrats although others clearly stated that the matter was no more than choosing the lesser of two evils. We did not do that out of forgetfulness of the crimes of your party and your father throughout the Muslim World, but because we are a nation of justice and reason we held back our feelings and made the choice which we felt was best for us and for America also. We hoped that you would repay good with good, but you did the complete opposite by increasing your predecessor’s material and political support of Zionist terrorism in the form which has occurred and continues to occur. Bewildered questions were repeated on the lips of everyone in the Islamic Word: Does the American administration have a conscience? Does this biased stance which has dismayed the entire world have any justification and will it ever end? Is America Greater Israel or is Israel Lesser America?
In the midst of this continuous confusion and frustration, the events of the 11th of September occurred. I will not conceal from you that a tremendous wave of joy accompanied the shock that was felt by the Muslim in the street and whoever tells you otherwise is avoiding the truth. It is my opinion that America which believes in freedom and democracy -as you repeat in your speeches- should not become upset by this one-time joy, and should not seize upon the Muslim’s spontaneous outpouring of feeling. This nation, which worships God and believes in justice more than any nation on earth, did not do that out of racist enmity or evil intent, but they were joined in this by the entire world: the world that kicked you out of the Organization for Human Rights. 3000 popular organizations mobilized against you at the Durban conference. More than forty nations suffer from your oppressive boycotts and economic penalties, let alone from your military incursions. Even the environment has identified you before the world as its greatest enemy.
People’s shock at your first speech was greater than their shock at the event itself. It totally equated America with freedom, justice and noble values, and it contained a harsh threat of vengeance rather than a promise of fair cooperation. We tried to excuse you because of the shock of the events and the need to absorb popular anger, but all of your statements as well as your actions have been of the same mode and have severed any other possibility.
Reckless accusations and hasty revenge are the real tragedy for America, and the true test of its values and civilization. Your security apparatus –which had boasted that it could catch a fly passing over the Pentagon and that it would no about a riot among the Eskimos before it occurred- rushed to the nearest flight school and the nearest hotel and took down the name of every Arab or Muslim student or resident and announced that they are the terrorists!
Imagine Mr.President, if you were sitting among your family or tribe thousands of miles away and heard or saw the news that you had been part of a suicide operation on a plane? or that it was done by your brother who had died a year ago? Wouldn’t you thank God that you were not a citizen of that civilized country or a believer in their so-called values and justice? Especially when your very civilized people answered these calls of yours, your cabinet members, and your security apparatus and started to attack the barbarian invaders in every free and civilized part of your country. I and the people of my country have discovered how barbaric were are when a gang of Westerners –I will not call them terrorists since they have white skin and blue eyes- performed a series of explosions in our cities, we watched as they gave their serious confessions, and yet we made not the smallest move to attack any Western person in any place in our country, we did not kill them, or strip search them in our airports, nor did we place them in solitary confinement, let alone incite the whole world to form an alliance against them. No, we did nothing of that which your civilized people have done to our children and Muslim brothers in general.
What caused us to behave in this manner is our religion and ethics, for which gift we thank God. At this point I would like to ask you Mr. President, if the world chose you to give a prize for the people with the most advanced morals and values, and the best treatment of others, which of the two peoples would you give the prize? To your people or to ours?
Does this mean that we bear ill will toward the American people for that we are racist in our treatment of them? No. Never. We believe that the American people in general have such good attributes that they are the closest of all Western peoples to us, and the most deserving of all of them of our desire for them to achieve good in this life and in the hereafter. They are a people the majority of whom believe in the existence of God, and who donate to charitable work more than any other people in the world (and by that we do not mean the evangelization of the Muslims).
The truest proof of the goodness of the American people is that they have embraced Islam more quickly and in greater numbers than other peoples of the world, and have tried to understand it better even after you held the Muslims responsible for the disaster without evidence.
We desire all good and honor for a people like this from the bottom of our hearts, and good and honor are only achieved by any people by one of two things:
1- Embracing God’s Faith which is alone acceptable to Him, the Faith of all the prophets: Islam. By doing this Allah grants them both the good of this world and that of the next world.
2- Making peace with the Muslims, loving them, and treating them kindly. By doing this Allah rewards them security and good in this world.
This Islamic nation, the followers of Abraham and Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- is dearest to God of all nations. Whoever honors them is honored by God, and whoever despises them is despised by God, though He may grant them respite for a time. History is a witness to this.
You may say, or others may have said on your behalf, “I have apologized for using the term ‘crusade’, I have visited the Islamic Center, and I have advice the people to control themselves,” but we say, “We are used to America to inflict deep wounds and then putting a small bandage on them, but your present attack on Afghanistan has violently removed those bandages and opened a wound in the heart of every Muslim.
Mr. President, if only when you did what you did, you had avoided the racist terminology of your speeches about hostile action. It would have been enough for you to simply claim the right -with no need for justification- treat the world any way you want, and to punish whomever you want, whenever you want. But then you had to go on and leave the desire for revenge open without any end in sight when you said “ Today we will concentrate on Afghanistan, but the battle is wider than that.” Is it not enough for you to destroy a whole nation because of an unproven accusation against a single person or organization forced to live in that country? Is this hostility which exceeds all values and morals, and shakes every living conscience in the world only a drop in the sea of your vengeance?
Did Christ –peace be upon him- grant you that power? Far be it for him to do that. Even Machiavelli himself does not grant you that degree of power. Your precedent in this is Samson. Won’t you fear God –you who have made your slogan to be “God bless America?” How can God bless and protect her when Christ His Messenger taught exactly the opposite of what you do: “Whoever strikes you on your right cheek, then turn to him your left cheek. Whoever takes from you your garment, then give him also your cloak. And whoever mocks you for a mile, go with him for two miles.”
Do you not understand that when you make the desire for endless vengeance to be the attribute of the civilized nation, you make Christ –peace be upon him- to be an uncivilized barbarian? Far be it for him, but you have rejected God and Christ, and followed the behavior of the Popes of the Middle Ages who used to grant indulgences and excommunication according to their whims. You have granted an everlasting pardon to yourselves and to the Zionist State, and to every hostile tyrant, and you have issued an excommunication for anyone who hesitates to join your endless hostility by describing them as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.
You search with microscopes for so-called terrorist groups in Somalia which has been destroyed by poverty, or in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon whose humble dwellings are threatened by Zionist terrorism every day. But you forget that horrible terrorism tangibly dwells among you. It is you, and nothing but you. If you do not believe this then tell me by God, if your best friend comes to congratulate you in ten years on the victory you hope to achieve over the mysterious enemy you have fabricated, what will he be able to congratulate you about? Supposing that he says, “Mr. President, we have killed one million Afghanis, one million Iraqis, one million of this and that,” until the end of your cursed list, will that be a victory for civilization, lofty values, freedom and democracy? Certainly among your victims will be starving, naked widows and children. Will that satisfy your desire for vengeance? Shamelessly, you will use the fact that they are alive as evidence that you limited yourselves to the destruction of their mud houses and wooden huts as strategic targets of the smart bombs of your clean war that do not kill people.
At this point the world that you have made depressed and sad for as long as God wills, will finally laugh. Yes, they will be forced to laugh by the civilized joke of the miraculous intelligence of your missiles: When you hit Iraq, Iran screamed. When you aimed at Afghanistan during your first attack on that country, you hit Pakistan, and one of your smart missiles infuriated the Yellow Giant by destroying its embassy in Belgrade. I admit –in all fairness- the intelligence of at least one of your missiles: the Patriot missile which saw one of the stupid Scuds which had lost its way, so it knocked it to the right direction and invited it to dinner with the American intelligence officers in Khobar.
As for being clean, the whole world bears witness that you fought the cleanest war but with one simple observation: that although you cleaned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you unintentionally left a little pollution in its place. Perhaps you will realize your mistake in Afghanistan and its citizens, and be more generous and paint the sites with a little cheap American paint.
However, for the sake of the truth we should also say that there is little doubt about the cleanness of your war in Iraq since the witnesses against you are children, and the law does not accept the witness of children even if they number in the millions, but the witnesses for your side are adults of the level of dictators and their generals.
Mr. President, do you think that your list in which you announce the names of terrorist organizations and the countries that support terrorism will serve your interests, or will it be further proof that the world is against you? Who is the advisor who suggested publishing this list at the same time that people discovered your own house is glass and is still broken? Why do you make enemies of those who throw stones at you from Japan in the East, to Peru in the West? During the present dangerous security situation in your country wouldn’t it have been enough for you to choose one country and one organization? Or do you want to incite all of them, so that if any one of them performs a terrorist operation you can hold the Muslims alone responsible so that your Crusade against them can continue forever?
Mr. President, don’t suppose that I want to recount your few faults and forget our own (in your eyes) very many faults. No, I will mention to you a serious fault of us Muslims: we don’t forget our tragedies no matter how much time has passed. Imagine, Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it. Nor will we forget the destruction of Baghdad, or the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of your Crusader ancestors. That is, we are not (in your opinion) at the level of civilization enjoyed by the Germans and Japanese who support your hostilities and forget your past treatment of them. Moreover, the African Muslims who embraced Islam after the fall of Andalusia cry along with the Arabs, just as the Indonesians do who only heard recently heard about Andalusia. It may be a problem for us, but who will pay the price after awhile?
Mr.President, your problem with the Afghans –and the Muslims in general- is that you are stronger than necessary and they are weaker than necessary. Every time you use excessive force, or are excessive in using it, it proves to be a weakness in strength. This is a great divine mystery which reminds us of what happened to the tyrant Pharaoh at the hands of the oppressed children of Israel.
Listen to the story from God’s Holy Scripture:
Ta Seen Meem. These are the revelations of the manifest scripture. We recite to you some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth, for a people who have faith. Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into groups, oppressing one group among them: slaying their sons and sparing their women. Truly, he was one of the tyrants. We desire to bless those who are oppressed in the land, to make them rulers and to make them the heirs, and to establish them in the land. We let Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts receive from them that of which they had feared. “ (28:1-6)
Do not say, “Who am I compared to Pharaoh?” You have demanded of the Muslims what Pharaoh never demanded of Moses –peace be upon him- and the children of Israel: that they should not hate you in their hearts no matter what you do to them or how you oppress them, or else you will have revenge on them. This is an attribute exclusive to God, for God Almighty alone is the Able to wreak vengeance on all who do not love Him. We know of no dictatorial empire in ancient history which treated people according to what their hearts and consciences conceal, let alone a twenty-first century democracy.
You may say, “We intend to remove anything that will incite hate from sermons, school curricula, newspaper articles and the media.” We reply that if that is your democracy, then there is try as you like, but you should be sure that you will not succeed. We learned to hate oppression and love the truth from our religion and our Qur’an, and it is stronger than all of your means, and firmer than your mountains. If you refuse everything but the arrogance of force and the insanity of greatness, then there are no means left for you except the extermination of all the Muslims with nuclear or biological weapons, or whatever you want from hellish arsenal contains.
You may ask, “Why all of them when some of them love us?” Be sure, there is no Muslim on earth who loves you, even if they donate their blood to you, or set up intelligence gathering stations for you, or delegate to you setting the curriculum for the education of their people. Everyone on earth who claims to love you –and no Muslim is able to make that claim- they only love you like frightened prey loves a brutal predator.
You may say, “We will restore the trust of the Islamic peoples by changing their government into tolerant and democratic systems.” But we say you need only cease your evil treatment of us. You destroyed the Iraqi people as well as others by this false promise, and we do not want any freedom or democracy that comes from you and we will not accept it. The enemy of freedom cannot grant freedom.
Mr. President, I advise you and put the fear of God before you, to cease and desist from hostile action. Deal with the problem with fairness and patience, and you will find that we are with you reservation. Your hostility now, at the beginning of the way, is easier for you and better for the world. If not, easy beginnings are usually followed by extremely difficult ends. For that reason I ask you to think, Mr. President, if you destroy every country on your list of terrorists, will that be the end or only the beginning? Unless you want to be remembered by history for Armageddon, and in that case there will be no history anyway
For this reason I repeat to you: Fear God and think hard.
Peace upon him who follows God’s guidance,
Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî
By Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî
15 October, 2001
Mr. President:
I am writing this letter to you in hope that it will be taken into account without regard to the faith of its writer, or the colour of his skin, and despite your new division of the children of Adam into the civilized who support all your views, and the barbarians who do not.
Perhaps this letter is strange to you, as I write to you as one of the heirs of the prophets, and the prophets, as we know, used to address the tyrants of the earth in the hope that they might repent and fear the Lord of all the worlds. Thus did Moses –peace be upon him- address Pharaoh, Haman, and Karun, and thus did Jesus –peace be upon him- address the Romans and the High Priest of the Jews, and thus did Muhammad - peace and blessings be upon him- address Abu Jahl in Makkah, as well as the Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Persian Emperor Khosraw. It is not necessary for the recipient to listen to or acknowledge the messenger, but it is merely his duty to convey the message.
I write to you as a member of an oppressed and persecuted community in a condition like that of Jesus when he was persecuted by the Jews on one side, and Romans on the other side. It is regrettable that the United States, a nation founded by immigrants fleeing persecution, has taken for itself the position of the Roman Empire which persecuted the followers of Christ –peace be upon him- and colluded– with the enemies of faith (the unbelievers of the children of Israel) to slay the prophets and messengers, and to slay their followers in all times and places. At that time the Roman Empire claimed to be the symbol of freedom and civilized values, just as you claimed referred to America in your first statement after the incidents of September 11.It was the greatest world power of its day, the heir of Greek civilization. It had a Senate and a façade of democracy. The Roman citizen had freedom of religion and personal behavior. All this made it superior to other Empires throughout the world, and yet history does not speak well of this Empire because of the repulsive crime with which it stained its reputation: the persecution of the Christians. For this reason that Great Power lost its valuable distinctions when it oppressed a group of believers in God: Who alone possesses absolute power, absolute might, and absolute justice, Who is Mighty in His punishment which He withholds for the oppressor for awhile, but Who one day takes vengeance against him.
Indeed, that is what He did. The Northern Barbarians overpowered Rome and destroyed it, They burned its cultural symbols and shattered its arrogance at the beginning of the fifth century of the Christian era. Two centuries later, God caused the followers of the final Prophet Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- to inherit the Holy Land in which Christ –peace be upon him- had lived. This was a tremendous victory for Christ since the Islamic Faith which conquered and liberated most of the known world from despotism and persecution, and filled it with mercy and justice, manifested for mankind the greatness of Christ –peace be upon him- and the truth of Christ’s message, as well as the merit of his disciples and their followers as was revealed in detail in the Holy Qur’an.
The Islamic community considered itself to be the final link in the long chain of followers of the prophets which began with Abraham, and included Moses and Jesus –peace be upon them- and declared to all the world that the enemies of Christ –peace be upon him- are the enemies of freedom and lofty values, especially the Jews, regardless of whether they denied Christ and incited the Romans against him, or whether they pretended to follow him so as to distort his message as did Saul who is called ‘Paul.’ The amazing thing is that the peoples who tasted the affliction of Roman tyranny and arrogance rejoiced at the destruction of Rome and wondered at the actions of the ‘Northern Barbarians” who did it, despite the fact that they did not know or like them, yet how much more so would it have been if –for example- Rome had been attacked by the oppressed Christians? Would anyone have ventured to blame the Christians if they rejoiced or sympathized with the attackers?
Mr. President, we Muslims are a nation of justice. At the same time our ethics do not allow us to rejoice over the misfortunes of the afflicted, yet we would still hope that the United States would review its stand and be more fair, so that we might once again give the benefit of the doubt to the United States for which there are precedents that encourage this hope, and which demonstrate how we used to move two steps towards them for every step of theirs, and a mile for every move of theirs. When President Wilson announced his fourteen points at the end of World War I, and especially the right of self-determination of peoples, it was greeted by the Islamic world as a just position towards European Colonialism that dominated most of its peoples. The Muslims rejoiced at a voice from among the Christian nations themselves saying that the time had come for an end to racial discrimination and crusader campaigns –such as the one led by General Allenby. Thus, the Islamic peoples hastened to place their complete trust in this neutral nation (the United States of America) and the United States profited greatly from this, since besides the moral distinctions it earned, it also achieved the greatest economic advantages in history. Their trust was not shaken even by its unjust position concerning the establishment of the Jewish state and the deprivation of the Palestinian people of their right to self-determination, but the Islamic peoples clung to their hope that that policy was simply an error that might be rectified. Similarly, President Eisenhower’s position towards the three-party aggression against Egypt was one of the biggest factors that encouraged the continuation of the benefit of the doubt for America and the refusal to listen to the claims of the communists –which were not entirely false.
However, the trust in America and its justice was rapidly shaken and then declined to the ground because of America’s own behavior which came in the form of one proof after another which permanently refuted the benefit of the doubt.
Perhaps the first of these absolute proofs was the actions of President Nixon and his Secretary of State Kissinger during and after the Ramadhan (October) War of 1973, then your father, President Bush whose duplicity of standards were obvious to everybody. Iraq violated the same or fewer international agreements then those that Israel has and continues to violate. Iraq’s excuse in doing so was similar to those used by America to incorporate Texas into its territory. As for Israel’s excuse for occupying Palestine, it is worse than the British justification for keeping America as a British colony, and more repulsive than your ancestor’s excuse for the genocide of the American Indian!
It is this contradictory position which compelled the Islamic peoples to attend demonstrations by the millions in support of a dictator whom none of them had previously liked. Then came President Clinton and his Jewish administration. He was more concerned than either yourself or your father with finding a solution for the problem but he followed the same wrong road; describing the horrible terrorist attack on the Abraham Mosque in Hebron as no more than a “crime.” You and he both know that up until now there has never been a Palestinian attack on any Jewish place of worship, and when the terrorist attack occurred in Cana he was not ashamed to describe it as “an unintentional mistake done by the Israelis in self-defense,” Yet when Israel was faced with bombings, he gathered all the World and Arab leaders at the Sharm al-Shaykh conference so that they could all condemn “terrorism” ignoring the continuous barbaric massacres and the long chain of tragedies which the Israelis have brought upon the Palestinians and Arabs, which were not described at all. This caused the Islamic peoples to dissociate from America in view of the fact that it dictated to the attendees what Israel wanted, and from their governments in view of the fact that they yielded to the American administration. They turned with all their suffering and hopes to the groups described as terrorist without any concern about that description, since the conference taught them a good lesson in understanding the terminology of the American double standard: that when America decides that someone is a terrorist or an extremist it places them in the position of legendary heroes in the eyes of the oppressed and the wretched who need some airing after their long defeat and subservience, and as Claes (former Secretary General of NATO) officially informed them that the alliance had placed Islam as the focus of its enmity in place of the former Soviet Union. There is no need for additional practical proofs after this unique title, proofs which arrive daily from everywhere from the Philippines, Timor, Kashmir, the Caucasus, the Balkans, Sudan, and many other places –except that what occurred in Palestine after the defiling of the Aqsa Mosque by the greatest terrorist criminal of this age: Sharon, outweighed all the others.
It was your misfortune after your difficult election victory to be contemporaneous with that criminal, and to continue your eternal strategic alliance with him.
We Muslims desired to see you elected and we have proof that the votes which gave you victory were our votes, and I personally advised Muslims to vote for you. Some of them hoped that you would be fairer than the Democrats although others clearly stated that the matter was no more than choosing the lesser of two evils. We did not do that out of forgetfulness of the crimes of your party and your father throughout the Muslim World, but because we are a nation of justice and reason we held back our feelings and made the choice which we felt was best for us and for America also. We hoped that you would repay good with good, but you did the complete opposite by increasing your predecessor’s material and political support of Zionist terrorism in the form which has occurred and continues to occur. Bewildered questions were repeated on the lips of everyone in the Islamic Word: Does the American administration have a conscience? Does this biased stance which has dismayed the entire world have any justification and will it ever end? Is America Greater Israel or is Israel Lesser America?
In the midst of this continuous confusion and frustration, the events of the 11th of September occurred. I will not conceal from you that a tremendous wave of joy accompanied the shock that was felt by the Muslim in the street and whoever tells you otherwise is avoiding the truth. It is my opinion that America which believes in freedom and democracy -as you repeat in your speeches- should not become upset by this one-time joy, and should not seize upon the Muslim’s spontaneous outpouring of feeling. This nation, which worships God and believes in justice more than any nation on earth, did not do that out of racist enmity or evil intent, but they were joined in this by the entire world: the world that kicked you out of the Organization for Human Rights. 3000 popular organizations mobilized against you at the Durban conference. More than forty nations suffer from your oppressive boycotts and economic penalties, let alone from your military incursions. Even the environment has identified you before the world as its greatest enemy.
People’s shock at your first speech was greater than their shock at the event itself. It totally equated America with freedom, justice and noble values, and it contained a harsh threat of vengeance rather than a promise of fair cooperation. We tried to excuse you because of the shock of the events and the need to absorb popular anger, but all of your statements as well as your actions have been of the same mode and have severed any other possibility.
Reckless accusations and hasty revenge are the real tragedy for America, and the true test of its values and civilization. Your security apparatus –which had boasted that it could catch a fly passing over the Pentagon and that it would no about a riot among the Eskimos before it occurred- rushed to the nearest flight school and the nearest hotel and took down the name of every Arab or Muslim student or resident and announced that they are the terrorists!
Imagine Mr.President, if you were sitting among your family or tribe thousands of miles away and heard or saw the news that you had been part of a suicide operation on a plane? or that it was done by your brother who had died a year ago? Wouldn’t you thank God that you were not a citizen of that civilized country or a believer in their so-called values and justice? Especially when your very civilized people answered these calls of yours, your cabinet members, and your security apparatus and started to attack the barbarian invaders in every free and civilized part of your country. I and the people of my country have discovered how barbaric were are when a gang of Westerners –I will not call them terrorists since they have white skin and blue eyes- performed a series of explosions in our cities, we watched as they gave their serious confessions, and yet we made not the smallest move to attack any Western person in any place in our country, we did not kill them, or strip search them in our airports, nor did we place them in solitary confinement, let alone incite the whole world to form an alliance against them. No, we did nothing of that which your civilized people have done to our children and Muslim brothers in general.
What caused us to behave in this manner is our religion and ethics, for which gift we thank God. At this point I would like to ask you Mr. President, if the world chose you to give a prize for the people with the most advanced morals and values, and the best treatment of others, which of the two peoples would you give the prize? To your people or to ours?
Does this mean that we bear ill will toward the American people for that we are racist in our treatment of them? No. Never. We believe that the American people in general have such good attributes that they are the closest of all Western peoples to us, and the most deserving of all of them of our desire for them to achieve good in this life and in the hereafter. They are a people the majority of whom believe in the existence of God, and who donate to charitable work more than any other people in the world (and by that we do not mean the evangelization of the Muslims).
The truest proof of the goodness of the American people is that they have embraced Islam more quickly and in greater numbers than other peoples of the world, and have tried to understand it better even after you held the Muslims responsible for the disaster without evidence.
We desire all good and honor for a people like this from the bottom of our hearts, and good and honor are only achieved by any people by one of two things:
1- Embracing God’s Faith which is alone acceptable to Him, the Faith of all the prophets: Islam. By doing this Allah grants them both the good of this world and that of the next world.
2- Making peace with the Muslims, loving them, and treating them kindly. By doing this Allah rewards them security and good in this world.
This Islamic nation, the followers of Abraham and Muhammad –God’s blessing and peace be upon him- is dearest to God of all nations. Whoever honors them is honored by God, and whoever despises them is despised by God, though He may grant them respite for a time. History is a witness to this.
You may say, or others may have said on your behalf, “I have apologized for using the term ‘crusade’, I have visited the Islamic Center, and I have advice the people to control themselves,” but we say, “We are used to America to inflict deep wounds and then putting a small bandage on them, but your present attack on Afghanistan has violently removed those bandages and opened a wound in the heart of every Muslim.
Mr. President, if only when you did what you did, you had avoided the racist terminology of your speeches about hostile action. It would have been enough for you to simply claim the right -with no need for justification- treat the world any way you want, and to punish whomever you want, whenever you want. But then you had to go on and leave the desire for revenge open without any end in sight when you said “ Today we will concentrate on Afghanistan, but the battle is wider than that.” Is it not enough for you to destroy a whole nation because of an unproven accusation against a single person or organization forced to live in that country? Is this hostility which exceeds all values and morals, and shakes every living conscience in the world only a drop in the sea of your vengeance?
Did Christ –peace be upon him- grant you that power? Far be it for him to do that. Even Machiavelli himself does not grant you that degree of power. Your precedent in this is Samson. Won’t you fear God –you who have made your slogan to be “God bless America?” How can God bless and protect her when Christ His Messenger taught exactly the opposite of what you do: “Whoever strikes you on your right cheek, then turn to him your left cheek. Whoever takes from you your garment, then give him also your cloak. And whoever mocks you for a mile, go with him for two miles.”
Do you not understand that when you make the desire for endless vengeance to be the attribute of the civilized nation, you make Christ –peace be upon him- to be an uncivilized barbarian? Far be it for him, but you have rejected God and Christ, and followed the behavior of the Popes of the Middle Ages who used to grant indulgences and excommunication according to their whims. You have granted an everlasting pardon to yourselves and to the Zionist State, and to every hostile tyrant, and you have issued an excommunication for anyone who hesitates to join your endless hostility by describing them as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.
You search with microscopes for so-called terrorist groups in Somalia which has been destroyed by poverty, or in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon whose humble dwellings are threatened by Zionist terrorism every day. But you forget that horrible terrorism tangibly dwells among you. It is you, and nothing but you. If you do not believe this then tell me by God, if your best friend comes to congratulate you in ten years on the victory you hope to achieve over the mysterious enemy you have fabricated, what will he be able to congratulate you about? Supposing that he says, “Mr. President, we have killed one million Afghanis, one million Iraqis, one million of this and that,” until the end of your cursed list, will that be a victory for civilization, lofty values, freedom and democracy? Certainly among your victims will be starving, naked widows and children. Will that satisfy your desire for vengeance? Shamelessly, you will use the fact that they are alive as evidence that you limited yourselves to the destruction of their mud houses and wooden huts as strategic targets of the smart bombs of your clean war that do not kill people.
At this point the world that you have made depressed and sad for as long as God wills, will finally laugh. Yes, they will be forced to laugh by the civilized joke of the miraculous intelligence of your missiles: When you hit Iraq, Iran screamed. When you aimed at Afghanistan during your first attack on that country, you hit Pakistan, and one of your smart missiles infuriated the Yellow Giant by destroying its embassy in Belgrade. I admit –in all fairness- the intelligence of at least one of your missiles: the Patriot missile which saw one of the stupid Scuds which had lost its way, so it knocked it to the right direction and invited it to dinner with the American intelligence officers in Khobar.
As for being clean, the whole world bears witness that you fought the cleanest war but with one simple observation: that although you cleaned out Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you unintentionally left a little pollution in its place. Perhaps you will realize your mistake in Afghanistan and its citizens, and be more generous and paint the sites with a little cheap American paint.
However, for the sake of the truth we should also say that there is little doubt about the cleanness of your war in Iraq since the witnesses against you are children, and the law does not accept the witness of children even if they number in the millions, but the witnesses for your side are adults of the level of dictators and their generals.
Mr. President, do you think that your list in which you announce the names of terrorist organizations and the countries that support terrorism will serve your interests, or will it be further proof that the world is against you? Who is the advisor who suggested publishing this list at the same time that people discovered your own house is glass and is still broken? Why do you make enemies of those who throw stones at you from Japan in the East, to Peru in the West? During the present dangerous security situation in your country wouldn’t it have been enough for you to choose one country and one organization? Or do you want to incite all of them, so that if any one of them performs a terrorist operation you can hold the Muslims alone responsible so that your Crusade against them can continue forever?
Mr. President, don’t suppose that I want to recount your few faults and forget our own (in your eyes) very many faults. No, I will mention to you a serious fault of us Muslims: we don’t forget our tragedies no matter how much time has passed. Imagine, Mr. President, we still weep over Andalusia and remember what Ferdinand and Isabella did there to our religion, culture and honor! We dream of regaining it. Nor will we forget the destruction of Baghdad, or the fall of Jerusalem at the hands of your Crusader ancestors. That is, we are not (in your opinion) at the level of civilization enjoyed by the Germans and Japanese who support your hostilities and forget your past treatment of them. Moreover, the African Muslims who embraced Islam after the fall of Andalusia cry along with the Arabs, just as the Indonesians do who only heard recently heard about Andalusia. It may be a problem for us, but who will pay the price after awhile?
Mr.President, your problem with the Afghans –and the Muslims in general- is that you are stronger than necessary and they are weaker than necessary. Every time you use excessive force, or are excessive in using it, it proves to be a weakness in strength. This is a great divine mystery which reminds us of what happened to the tyrant Pharaoh at the hands of the oppressed children of Israel.
Listen to the story from God’s Holy Scripture:
Ta Seen Meem. These are the revelations of the manifest scripture. We recite to you some of the story of Moses and Pharaoh in truth, for a people who have faith. Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and divided its people into groups, oppressing one group among them: slaying their sons and sparing their women. Truly, he was one of the tyrants. We desire to bless those who are oppressed in the land, to make them rulers and to make them the heirs, and to establish them in the land. We let Pharaoh, Haman and their hosts receive from them that of which they had feared. “ (28:1-6)
Do not say, “Who am I compared to Pharaoh?” You have demanded of the Muslims what Pharaoh never demanded of Moses –peace be upon him- and the children of Israel: that they should not hate you in their hearts no matter what you do to them or how you oppress them, or else you will have revenge on them. This is an attribute exclusive to God, for God Almighty alone is the Able to wreak vengeance on all who do not love Him. We know of no dictatorial empire in ancient history which treated people according to what their hearts and consciences conceal, let alone a twenty-first century democracy.
You may say, “We intend to remove anything that will incite hate from sermons, school curricula, newspaper articles and the media.” We reply that if that is your democracy, then there is try as you like, but you should be sure that you will not succeed. We learned to hate oppression and love the truth from our religion and our Qur’an, and it is stronger than all of your means, and firmer than your mountains. If you refuse everything but the arrogance of force and the insanity of greatness, then there are no means left for you except the extermination of all the Muslims with nuclear or biological weapons, or whatever you want from hellish arsenal contains.
You may ask, “Why all of them when some of them love us?” Be sure, there is no Muslim on earth who loves you, even if they donate their blood to you, or set up intelligence gathering stations for you, or delegate to you setting the curriculum for the education of their people. Everyone on earth who claims to love you –and no Muslim is able to make that claim- they only love you like frightened prey loves a brutal predator.
You may say, “We will restore the trust of the Islamic peoples by changing their government into tolerant and democratic systems.” But we say you need only cease your evil treatment of us. You destroyed the Iraqi people as well as others by this false promise, and we do not want any freedom or democracy that comes from you and we will not accept it. The enemy of freedom cannot grant freedom.
Mr. President, I advise you and put the fear of God before you, to cease and desist from hostile action. Deal with the problem with fairness and patience, and you will find that we are with you reservation. Your hostility now, at the beginning of the way, is easier for you and better for the world. If not, easy beginnings are usually followed by extremely difficult ends. For that reason I ask you to think, Mr. President, if you destroy every country on your list of terrorists, will that be the end or only the beginning? Unless you want to be remembered by history for Armageddon, and in that case there will be no history anyway
For this reason I repeat to you: Fear God and think hard.
Peace upon him who follows God’s guidance,
Safar ibn Abdur-Rahmân al-Hawâlî
Monday, 9 May 2011
Muslim Screaming Allah Akbar Storms Cockpit on San Fran Flight
Published May 09, 2011
| Associated Press
AP
May 8: In this image captured by citizen journalist Andrew Wai, passengers, top right, subdue a man identified as Rageh Almurisi (not seen) on board an American Airlines flight headed to San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO – The passengers sat stunned as they watched a man walk quickly toward the front of American Airlines Flight 1561 as it was descending toward San Francisco. He was screaming and then began pounding on the cockpit door.
"I kept saying to myself: 'What's he doing? Does he have a bomb? Is he armed?'" passenger Angelina Marty said.
Within moments Sunday, a flight attendant tackled Rageh Almurisi. Authorities do not yet have a motive.
While authorities said that Almurisi, 28, of Vallejo, Calif., has no clear or known ties to terrorism, the incident underscored fears that extremists may try to mount attacks to retaliate for the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden last week.
Federal agents are investigating Almurisi's background. He was carrying a Yemeni passport and a California identification card, authorities said.
Yemen, a nation at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been a focus of U.S. officials because one of the most active branches of al-Qaida operates in the remote part of the country.
Almurisi went toward the cockpit door 30 minutes before the flight from Chicago was supposed to land on Sunday night, San Francisco airport police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said. Almurisi was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant.
Marty, 35, recalled that she and other passengers on the plane were stunned when they saw Almurisi walking down the aisle. She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic translated that Almurisi said "God is Great!" in Arabic.
Andrew Wai, another passenger, told KGO-TV on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling "Allahu Akbar."
"There was no question in everybody's mind that he was going to do something," Marty said.
A male flight attendant tackled Almurisi, and other crew members and passengers, including a retired Secret Service agent and a retired San Mateo police officer, helped subdue him as he banged on the door, police said. The flight attendant put plastic handcuffs on him.
"Everybody was fixated on him," Marty said. "You never think that something like that would happen in your life."
Wai also said Almurisi appeared "fidgety" in his seat when he saw him on the way to the bathroom earlier in the flight.
The Boeing 737 carrying 162 people landed safely at 9:10 p.m. Almurisi was placed into police custody, as some passengers cried.
"Flight attendants were trying to soothe different passengers," Wai said. "We were all looking at our lives flash before our eyes."
Federal authorities took Almurisi into custody Monday morning after he spent the night at the San Mateo County jail, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti. Almurisi was being held on suspicion of interfering with a flight crew, a federal offense, according to authorities.
No one else was hurt and the airport continued operating normally with security levels unchanged, the officer said.
There were two other mid-air disturbances on Sunday.
A 34-year-old man from Illinois tried to open a plane door on a Continental Airlines flight from Houston to Chicago. Investigators questioned him, but did not file charges.
There was a security scare aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Detroit to San Diego, prompting it to land in Albuquerque, N.M. Authorities did not release any more details, except to say that "no suspicious devices" were found. No one was arrested.
*Source : http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/09/suspect-flight-disturbance-calif-id/#ixzz1Ltrf7Id8
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)