Muslims Wake Up!

Muslims Wake Up!

Shariffa Carlo

I have noticed a disheartening trend among our teachers of Islam. Too many are trying to "make the deen easier" by watering it down. This can range from the "sheikh" who, when I became Muslim, told me it was halal to take a loan with interest because my education was a necessity to the "teacher" who uses the weak narration:

"We have returned from the lesser jihad to embark on the greater jihad." They said: "What is the greater jihad?" He said: "The jihad of the heart, or the jihad against one's ego." to the "Imams" who stood by silently while mujahideen in Afghanistan were making tawaf at the graves.

In all these cases, if they have done even the most rudimentary research in these areas, they would have to know that they were stating incorrect information about Islam, which amounts to lying against Allah and His messenger. Yet, they felt, for whatever reason, that by minimizing the importance of the concepts, the questioner would not hate Islam and would be a better Muslim. This puzzles me. How can one be a better Muslim when one is committing haram acts and considering them halal?

For the first, we know that necessity in Islam is defined as life and death - and only as much as is necessary to sustain life. For instance. I am in jail. I am given pork to eat and alcohol to drink. I am starving and if I do not eat or drink I will die. In this case, it becomes halal for me to eat and drink what will sustain me -- keep me from death.

This becomes not only halal but fard upon me. Now, let's analyze: I would not have died if I had not gone to school that semester. It would not have been life-threatening for me to wait until I had saved enough money. Yet, the "sheikh", probably under the fear that telling me it was haram would have taken away from Islam, tried to "ease" me into Islam by telling me it was O.K. The danger here was greater. He did not realize that what he did was indeed more dangerous. He taught me that the rules in Islam are very flexible, like the Christianity I had just left. I now believed that I could interpret them to suit my needs.

Under this understanding, anyone can use interest for anything he/she "thinks" is necessary. So, when I thought it was necessary to own a car - or I could not get to work, I took a loan. It also made me understand that all the credit cards I had were O.K. cause I needed them. The reality was that I did not need the car, I could have taken a bus; I did not need the cards, I could have been patient, I did not need anything because my life was never in danger, but I had been taught that necessity in Islam was defined by what I considered necessary. This led me to inadvertently commit many sins that put me "at war" with Allah.

Allah says:

O you who believe! Be careful of (your duty to) Allah and relinquish what remains (due) from usury, if you are believers. But if you do (it) not, then be apprised of war from Allah and His Messenger; and if you repent, then you shall have your capital; neither shall you make (the debtor) suffer loss, nor shall you be made to suffer loss. 2:278-79

How did this help me be a better Muslim?

The second issue, is an apology for the Islamic concept of Jihad. This has successfully served to "keep us in place." The Muslim who is only concerned about Jihad of the self, sits idly by while Muslims are being exterminated, calling his congressman or holding protests, thinking he is accomplishing something instead of getting his lazy rear off his chair, going out to the lands of jihad, and risking his life and property for the sake of Allah. Allah says,

Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,- 4:95

Also, the Prophet said

"When you deal with interest, and hold fast to the tail of the cow, and become contented with agriculture, and you leave Jihad in the Way of Allaah, Allaah will permit your humiliation and will not lift it from you until you return to your deen." (Sahih: Taken from a speech by Al Albaani: www.ucl.ac.uk/~uczxisl/jihad.htm)

This so-called hadith about jihad of the self being the greater jihad can be easily exposed. Sheikh Al Albaani declared it weak as did Al Hafiz ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in the Tasdid al-Qaws. Al Hafiz Al Iraqi said in the Takhrij Ahadith al-Ahya': 'Al Bayhaqi transmitted it with a weak chain of narrators on the authority of Jabir, and Al Khatib transmitted it in his history on the authority of Jabir.'"

Anyone who is even an elementary student of Islam, must know this or can find it. No one who seriously cares about his deen will narrate something unless he knows it is sahih. Because even the ordinary Muslim on the street knows that narrating against the Prophet what he did not say will gain him a seat in the hellfire. The Prophet said: "...And whoever tells a lie on me intentionally, will surely take his place in the (Hell) Fire." Sahih Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 56, Number 667.

So why would someone teach such a concept? It waters down our deen and makes us like the Prophet warned that we would be as the Prophet warned:

"The nations summon each other upon you as you call guests to eat from a plate of food", they said , "will we be few in number on that day O Messenger of Allaah?" He said, "no rather you will be many on that day, but you will be like the foam on the ocean. And Allaah will remove the fear in the hearts of your enemies and place in your hearts al-wahn". They said, "what is al-wahn O Messenger of Allaah?" He said, "love of this world and hatred of death."' (Sahih: Taken from a speech by Al AlBaani: www.ucl.ac.uk/~uczxisl/jihad.htm).

So, how does lessening the importance of Jihad make us better Muslims? It seems to me, it makes us weak and vulnerable.

The last example are the "Imams" who stood by silently while the mujahideen were making tawaf at the graves. When questioned about this, they said that they did say anything because the people were ignorant, and teching them this would cause fitnah and remove them from Islam. This floored me. I mean -- HELLO-- IS ANYONE HOME UP THERE???? Isn't this shirk??? Does not this act take them from Islam??? Where are our priorities? Here are our mujahids, the fighters for the sake of Allah, making tawaf to graves. What is left?

On a lesser level, our "scholars" are constantly trying to make things easier on us, telling us its ok to wear a headpiece with pants and call it hijab, saying it is O.K. to shave or trim the beard, saying it is acceptable to go to that social gathering at work even though alcohol is being served because we will lose our jobs if we don't, saying it is O.K. to sell alcohol or pork as long as we do not touch it or consume it, saying it is O.K. to take a house loan because we need to establish a base in this country, saying it is O.K to have a credit card cause we need it in case we want to rent a car or in the case of an emergency...the list is endless.

As Muslims we have to stop expecting out teachers, scholars, Imams etc... to spoon feed us what we want to hear. We have to make them tell us the truth. There are so many true scholars available to us. We still have the Quraan, the authentic hadiths, the understandings of the companions and our greatest scholars.

Why do we ignore this great body of evidence and insist on following the unsupported opinions of those who would have Islam be little more than a poor imitation of Christianity -- a religion of amilu without amilu. A religion of belief without action. Pick up the Quraan. How often do you see the word aminu - belief, without amilu beside it? Why is it that anytime someone calls to the truth -- showing the evidences, we call him a wahabi, a salafi, an extremist??? They are quoting the words of Allah and the words of His beloved prophet, and we are saying, "I think..."," I feel...", "But our deen is not hard...." What would we say to the Prophet himself? What horrible names would we call him because his words do not match our desires or our warped perceptions of right and wrong?

Lets WAKE UP!

Brothers and sisters, it is time to wake up. Allah did not put us here to get that illusive degree, that classy car, that great house, that beautiful wife, that perfect husband, those great kids. These are all distraction from the true goal. "O ye who believe! Let not your wealth nor your children distract you from remembrance of Allah. Those who do so, they are the losers." (63:9) We are here to worship Allah. This life is not supposed to be easy or perfect. This life is our prison, if we are true believers.

We are supposed to be building an escape tunnel with our deeds and our faith. Instead we are asleep in front of the TV, smelling of nachos and fear while scenes of our brothers' and sisters' extermination flash across the screen.

Islam is not easy. It is not hard. It is a religion that takes effort, commitment and belief. We have a great reward but also we have a great responsibility. What will we say to Allah when He questions us about our life in this world? What will we say to Allah when He questions us about our brothers and sisters in Kosovo, Somalia, Sudan, Kashmir, Palestine, Bosnia, Algeria, Ethiopia, Lebanon, India etc..... What will we say when He questions us about our credit cards, our school loans our houses and even masjids built from riba? What will we say when He questions us about the ignorant among us that we failed to teach because we thought it would make him/her hate Islam or think it was too hard? What will we say when Allah asks us about the deeds that supported our beliefs? What will we say????

I leave you with the following hadith which emphasizes the obstacles Allah placed in our way:

Narrated Abu Hurayrah: The Apostle of Allah (peace_be_upon_him) said: When Allah created Paradise, He said to Gabriel: Go and look at it. He went and looked at it, then came and said: O my Lord! By Thy might, no one who hears of it will fail to enter it. He then surrounded it with disagreeable things, and said: Go and look at it, Gabriel. He went and looked at it, then came and said: O my Lord! By Thy might, I am afraid that no one will enter it. When Allah created Hell, He said: Go and look at it, Gabriel.

He went and looked at it, then came and said: O my Lord! By Thy might, no one who hears of it will enter it. He then surrounded it with desirable things and said: Go and look at it, Gabriel. He went, looked at it, then came and said: O my Lord! By Thy might and power, I am afraid that no one will remain who does not enter it. Sunan Abu Dawud: Book 40, Number 4726.

Ya Allah! Wake up the Muslims! Ya Allah! Wake up the Muslims! Ya Allah! Wake up the Muslims! Ameen.

Source: http://www.islamicawakening.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=317&

The Fiqh us-Seerah Epilogue

The Fiqh us-Seerah Epilogue


Shaykh Muhammad al-GhazaliFiqh us-Seerah (Understanding the Life of the Prophet, sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam) © IIPH 1997

A few days had not passed since the prophet's (sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam) death when Islam became entangled in a fierce struggle with paganism, which suddenly came back to life, and Christianity, which controlled the north of the peninsula, prevented anyone from entering Islam and stopped its spread by force. The desert had not seen the like of these violent battles during the lifetime of the prophet himself. The battlefields were wielder, the costs more and the losses greater.

But the men whom the prophet had brought up with knowledge of the Truth and sacrifice for it were sincere in their actions to Allah and bore the heavy burdens that were thrust upon their shoulders as gallant heroes.

They broke the backbone of paganism in the peninsula, squeezed out its lifeblood and destroyed it forever. They routed the Romans at the borders where the latter had spread their arrogance. Then they returned to Medina not to relax but to spread out in the then populated world in a systematic order and by inspiration from a foolproof law. Within a few years Islam had filled land and sea, ear and eye.

Now after fourteen centuries have elapsed since that glorious era. Islam is no more ruling its Ummah, not to speak of steering the world to a land worth mentioning or to goodness worthy of thanks. The other religions are living on the brink of death, the existing civilizations do not allow religion to take hold of their reins. Paganism in India and the Far East as well as other places still has a great sway over the major part of the lives and behaviour of the masses.

Judaism is segregating its flock from the world in order to implant in their hearts hatred for mankind and to sweep away the greatest benefits for Israel by playing upon the split within the rants of the Muslim ranks. Christianity is like a creeping vine in the equator: it depends for its survival on the adoption of the prevalent philosophies and support of the ruling regimes in order to guarantee life (and what a life!) for its primary tenets of Trinity and vicarious sacrifice.

The Muslims have been stained with the pollutions of deviations and adherence to shells and rituals. The vices of weakness and ignorance have relegated them to a condition similar to what the Jews and Christians had been in during the era of prophethood and the rightly guided caliphs. Only an insignificant minority of them remains up to today fighting Jahiliyah and holding fast to the Truth.

If there is hope in the fact that Islam has remained preserved from the theoretical point of view in its two major sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah, then this preserved knowledge can never make action superfluous. Nevertheless, it is to be noted that those who do correct work for Islam are encountering severe opposition from various other fronts and I mean the fronts which have opposed its spread since the time of its inception fourteen centuries ago and have never cooled off for one day in their enmity towards it.

Someone may ask whether the world today is in need of Islam. Our answer to that is if the world is in need of knowing Allah and preparation to meet Him and give an account for what was done in this earthly life them it must have Islam. Material advancement cannot substitute one bit for adherence of these great realities. One may say: but there are people who do not believe in any god or in the Hereafter and there are others who believe in these things but different to what Islam teaches so let the people follow their own beliefs.

Our answer to this is: let the people believe what they will but the blind do not have the right to dig out the eye of the one who sees or strangle him because he sees what they do not! They must leave him to walk with the guidance of his eyes and they must leave him also to describe what he sees or expects on his way. Whoever whishes to follow him without being forced has the right to go with him otherwise he should leave him alone and not put obstacles in his path. This is all that Islam asks for.

The mischief-makers hate Islam because it is the Truth with a voice which defends itself and proclaims whatever it contains and refuses to hide or keep silent. This characteristic of Islam, the characteristic of enforcing the Truth and decrying falsehood, has annoyed its adversaries and made them fabricate accusations against it. Thus, if it refuses to compromise it is the attacker and if it refuses to die under the plots of its enemies it is being spread by force!

This is the secret of the tale which is told that Islam was spread by the sword, though Islam only unsheathed the sword in order to save itself from the danger of the mob and the brigands. Had it been left without intrigues, it would never have lifted a knife and would have contended itself with the use of the tongue in place of the sword.

Yes, in this respect it is very firm. What else could be expected of it when it has to confront enemies who are spurred on by the haughtiness and prejudice of long centuries as well as erring ways which hide behind thick jungles of men and arms? Had it not been for this firmness, Islam's moral and scientific principles would not have remained intact to this day. Those religions before it which had weakened were dragged by their enemies in a hideous manner from their roots and have never been able to return safely to them. As for Islam, today you find it, if not in its adherents, then at least in its book.

You may think that you have studied the life of Muhammad by following his history from birth to death but this is a grave mistake. You will never really understand the Sirah unless you study the noble Qur'an and the purified Sunnah. The amount that you derive from these will tell the strength of your connection with the prophet of Islam, sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam.
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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=422

How Do We Confront the Efforts of the Enemies of Islaam

How Do We Confront the Efforts of the Enemies of Islaam

Shaykh `Abdul `Aziz ibn Baz

Words of Advice regarding Da`wah © 1998 al-Hidaayah

The leaders and the scholars should exert efforts to enlighten and direct the population of Muslims and combat the efforts of the enemies of Islaam, by retaliating with their own efforts.

The Muslim Ummah is an Ummah that has been entrusted with this religion and has the responsibility of conveying it. If we are careful to arm our boys and girls in Islamic societies, with knowledge, understanding and comprehension of Islamic Jurisprudence and accustom them to apply these things from a small age, then we will not fear, by the permission of Allaah, the Most High, as long as they continue to holding onto the deen of Allaah, glorifying it, following its laws, and fighting that which contradicts it. And indeed their enemies will fear them.

Allaah, the Most High, says in the Qur’aan,

O you who believe! If you help Allaah, He will help you and make your foothold firm. [47:7]

If you remain patient and become al-Muttaqoon (pious) not the least harm will their cunning to do you. Surely Allah surrounds all that they do. [3:120]

There are many verses in the Qur’aan which convey this message. The most important factor for us in fighting against the efforts of our enemies is raising and preparing a generation that knows the reality of Islaam. This can be achieved through guidance, taking care of the house and family, the method of educating them, the media and improvement of the society.

In addition to this is the role of steering and guiding which needs to be taken by the Muslim leadership, persevering in beneficial work and continually reminding the people that which will benefit them and make the belief within them grow and flourish.

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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=286

How Can We Confront Intellectual Attack

How Can We Confront Intellectual Attack

Shaykh `Abdul `Aziz ibn Baz

Words of Advice Regarding Da`wah © 1998 Al-Hidaayah

We must confront the intellectual onslaught represented in the radio, books, newspapers, magazines and writings which the Muslim communities in our present time have been afflicted with. The Muslim male and female spend most of their time with such, despite the fact that they contain deadly poison and misleading propagation most of the time. Therefore confronting this is a very important issue if we want to protect Islaam and the Islamic culture from its conspiracies and evil.

The da`ees and the defenders of Islaam must devote their time in writing beneficial researches, articles, periodicals and give da`wah. They should respond to different types of cultural attack and expose its defects and clarify its falseness. The enemies have gathered now and are preparing all their efforts and abilities to establish different organizations and various ways to scheme and plot against the Muslims and deceive them.

Therefore we must counter attack these enemies. We must refute and disapprove of their networks, expose them, and present Islaam as a faith, belief, legal system and a social and moral system. This should be done in a way that will make the people learn it, through good methods suitable for the age, and with wisdom and good admonition, arguing in a way that is best. We should use all the methods of the media, according to the resources available and our ability.

The deen of Islaam is a complete deen, which contains all good. It is the source of happiness for all mankind, and helps us in achieving righteous prosperity, sound progression, security, tranquillity and a noble life and victory in this life and in the Hereafter.
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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=288

Priorities of Islamic Activities in the West

Priorities of Islamic Activities in the West

Shaykh `Abdul Rahman `Abdul Khaliq

Priorities of Islamic Activities in the West © Dar Ihyaa at-Turath

Muslim minorities in the West need urgent help to preserve their identity, religion and their very existence. To achieve this, Muslims must:

1 -- Re-establish unity in this nation all over the world. Muslims must be loyal to other Muslims and disloyal to all Kuffar. This unity must be implemented by deed and not only by tongue.

2 -- Affirm the basic belief that Muslims are members of the best nation ever that was introduced to humanity. Affirm the correct Islamic beliefs that will make Muslims feel pride in their religion and feel the sweetness of Iman in their hearts.

This can be accomplished by teaching the correct belief end knowing the ways of the Kuffar, to avoid them. Muslims must feel the great bounty of Allah that He guided them to the correct religion. Religion must be understood and believed in. Muslims must study Christian beliefs. The struggle between Islam and Christianity will last till the end of time. Muslims must also preserve the Islamic code of dress, Islamic foods and marry Muslim women and, if they wish, only pure and good Christian women.

3 -- Arabic must be the first language for all Muslims again. Learning Arabic during childhood and giving it its due place in the religion is a must. Arabic is a necessity of Islam that must be preserved.

4 -- Muslims must Perform Da'wah (propagate Islam) wherever they me be, (Let there arise out of you a group of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining righteousness and forbidding evil. And it is those who are the successful.) [3: 104].Religion must be held to be the reason behind our existence,

(And I (Allah) created not the Jinn and mankind except they should worship Me (Alone).) [51:56].

5 -- Ahlu As-Sunnah Wa Al-Jama'ah and the way and understanding of the companions are what Muslims should call for. Muslims should warn of all misguided groups and define the one righteous group. To fight against misguided groups and off-shoot sects is a necessity. This means that Muslims will fight against all five major misguided groups who have corrupt beliefs: Al-Khawarij, Shiites, Al-Jahmiyah, Al-Qadariyah and Al-Murji'ah.

6 -- Muslims of the West must be united in every matter. They must call to Islam and preserve their loyalty to Muslims and be disloyal to the disbelievers. Arabic must be their first language. Muslims should seek to socialize with, marry from and meet other Muslims in lectures, mosques, universities, picnics and general activities. Muslims must not be isolated from other Muslims.

7 -- Muslims must be concerned with Islamic education for their children from primary to secondary education.Muslims must establish Islamic schools that will preserve and teach Islam to their children in their first years. The first years of life are what will shape the beliefs and ways of later years.

8 -- Muslims must seek to preserve Muslim presence in Eastern Europe and strengthen this presence. Muslims in Albania and Bosnia must be provided with material help so they can defend themselves. Muslims must also help Muslims of Eastern Europe using all means possible. Also, Muslims everywhere must seek to protect the religious, educational and social rights of Muslim minorities in the West. Muslims of the West must not be prevented from practicing and propagating Islam, the true religion.

9 -- A higher authority for the benefit of Muslim immigrants must be established to protect the rights of Muslim minorities. This authority will coordinate between all Islamic organizations that operate in the West. Coordination will benefit and organize the activities of Islamic organizations and will provide them with vital and firsthand information about needs and the situation of Muslim minorities.

10 -- Establish committees composed of Muslim scholars that will teach the religion to Muslim immigrants and solve their problems according to the Qur’an and the Sunnah. These committees will have firsthand knowledge of the situation of Muslims and provide answers to their problems. These solutions will seek to preserve the religion, identity and existence of Muslim immigrants.

11 -- Establish a sound economic system that will benefit Muslim immigrants in the West. This economic system will provide an honorable life and financial independence for Muslims. This is better than the way that many Muslims of the West live, by seeking the help of the Kafir government or engaging in usury, prostitution, gambling or dishonorable acts.

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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=188

Islamic Revival Closing the Century

Islamic Revival Closing the Century

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick

From a Khutbah Reproduced In The Message Magazine [Audio lecture available in our audio section]

According to a report issued by The International Center for Population Studies, an affiliate of Al-Azhar University of Cairo, Egypt: Muslims are 23 per cent of the earth's population. Contrary to popular belief, there are over 170 million Muslims in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country.

There are over 70 million Muslims in China and over 54 million in the former Soviet States. The majority of Muslims, the study said are youth and children. Children below five years old represent 43 per cent of the Muslim world! By the year 2020 CE, our population will be expected to reach 2.5 billion, Insha Allah. In Canada, startling statistical data has been released. One in three children born in Canadian hospitals today is from a Muslim family! What does this mean to us?

The future is bright for Muslims if we make the right choices today. We are blessed with amazing riches in the Muslim world. Over 40 per cent of the mineral wealth of the planet lies under Muslim countries. We have thousands of doctors, engineers, scientists and intellectuals. We spend billions in technology, especially for the military.

But we still are humiliated and destroyed. We cannot wake up in the morning and forget Kashmir, Palestine, Bosnia, Chechnya, Algeria, Sudan, Kurdistan, Somalia and other parts of our Ummah. Almighty Allah has revealed at the end of Surah al-Hashr: O you who believe, have the consciousness of Allah and let every soul look to what it has put forward for tomorrow and fear Allah. Surely Allah is well aware of all that you do. And be not as those who forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. Surely they are wrongdoers.

Nisayn (forgetfulness) is a state of mind. When the person forgets Allah, they are in a dangerous position. The path of Islam is clear, but who will take hold of Islam? Who will stand up and be true, sincere Muslims? Allah has also revealed in Surah Al-Balad: Did I not make for Man two eyes, a tongue and two lips? And did I not guide him to two Paths?

Tribalism will lead us to destruction. Divisions based on color, organization, schools of Islamic jurisprudence, will decimate our ranks. We need a new Islamic World order. People who put the Qur'an and the Sunnah above all things. We need people who do not see color or focus on language, do not scandalize other believers and struggle with each other for power, who are part of our society, but not controlled by un-Islamic culture, who do not resort to Unbelievers to judge between them in their courts, people who are not afraid to speak openly but do not attack individuals without just cause.

If we do not change our ways and return to the path of Islam, Allah has made a promise: In Surah al-Ma`idah, verse 54, He says: O you who believe. If any from among you turn back from his religion, soon Allah will produce a people whom He will love and they will love Him.

They will be humble with the Believers and mighty against the Unbelievers. They will struggle in the path of Allah and not be afraid of the blame of those who find fault. That is grace of Allah which He gives to whom He pleases and Allah encompasses all and has knowledge of all things.
I say this and I ask Allah to forgive me and you and all of the Muslims from every sin. Turn to Allah in repentance for surely He isthe Oft Forgiving and the Most Merciful.

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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=113

Changing the present and dreaming the future

Changing the present and dreaming the future

Tuesday 31 October 2006, by Tariq Ramadan

I want to share with you some ideas about the future.

I will start with some introductory remarks. It is my perception that we have continued the process of interfaith dialogue among ourselves without taking into account the reality of our present world. Our world has changed tremendously, especially during the last 10 years. We are going from one crisis to another; social crises, civilization crises and cultural crises and we have to deal with all these crises.

In the present time we are perceived as naïve, simplistic, far from the world. This is my perception and of others around me. I think that it is our responsibility, if we are true before God, true before our conscience, to come to a realistic and true commitment.

As we represent the faiths of the people, we have to deal with this reality and we have to face up to our responsibilities when we are dealing with these crises. If we are speaking about hopes we have to start by being realistic and face up to the responsibility. If we want something to happen, we should try and change not only the way we are dealing with each other but also the way we are dealing with the world we are living in.

When we speak about hopes and dreams, there is the Prophet’s peace upon all of them, who are dreaming the future and transforming the present. It should not be the other way around. By dreaming the present you are not helping me to deal with my problems. Therefore, dream the future, change the present and this is the way we have to deal with our values, with our teachings.

If I as a Muslim man, try to share my views with fellow citizens of Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or indigenous spiritual traditions, I and others like me are very often perceived as naïve people, dreamers, far from reality. Is this true? If many perceive us like that, elementary psychology is telling us that we have to ask ourselves if there is any truth in this perception. I think there is.

Our discourse is sometimes far removed from the reality of people’s lives. We speak about love but as soon as we seek to promote love in this world, it becomes difficult. To love is difficult. We speak about peace, but to get peace, inner peace and collective peace, that is difficult. We speak about the importance of family. But people want concrete answers on how to build a family in this world today, within this reality of social crises and psychological crises. We are living in a world where we need to give answers.

My prayer and my hope are for us to be humble, more realistic and more committed to giving answers on how to get peace. Let us not only talk about peace but also tell people how to get there. Let us speak with people how to move closer towards the realm of love, with dreams of the future, as one family of humankind. As Muslims we regard man and woman to be brothers and sisters. Yet, it is difficult to be sisters and brothers. It is difficult for me to be your brother. It will be difficult, if you would dare asking me to forgive you. To understand why you are doing what you are doing today is difficult.

Let us hope that we are committed and that we are trying to change the world.

But while we are promoting this interfaith dialogue let us take into account that our world has changed. We are dealing with ignorance, with people not knowing each other, and today we are dealing with something more vicious and perverse than all that: a new ideology of fear. Fear is promoted everywhere: wherever you go, to the south or the north, to Muslim, Christian or Hindu communities, everywhere you will see and feel the same the same: fear.

We are not secure and we do not feel secure. In the United States, there is a great deal of fear after 9/11. In Israel, Palestine, India and other parts in the world, everywhere is fear. It is not only a state of mind, which we are witnessing. It is also used by politicians and by religious people, people of faith. If we are true and understand the meaning of faith, we will have to deal with fear. Then we can begin to understand that we live in a world where emotions are promoted and emotions have nothing to do with spirituality, in fact they are its opposite.

Emotions are superficial reactions. Not superficial in a bad way, but the first reaction surfacing when something happens. Spirituality is something different. It is about effort, about something that you experience deep in your heart. Spirituality is the way to master your emotions, not to be or to submit yourself to your own emotions. It is of vital importance to talk about our spiritual teachings. What do they tell us of mastering emotions?

Why is it so important to go beyond our emotions? Because they put us in a position where we perceive ‘us’ versus ‘ them’ and where we have to defend our identity. That mindset is perverse, it is vicious in the world that we are living in to see each other as separate, always protecting myself from you and you protecting yourself from me. It makes dialogue quite impossible.

Today we are living with virtual wars, we are scared and we do not know how to deal with this. At the local level this ideology of fear is nurturing and is nurtured by suspicions. In which way do we trust each other? At a conference it may be easy to trust each other, but in our daily life it is different. How can we transmit this mutual trust at the local level, at the grassroots level? This is the commitment, this is the challenge, to create spaces of mutual trust, to move away from this globalized fear, to return to our own traditions and plan to contribute something concrete.

This is my hope: first to reconcile us with the complexity of the world around us and to make it clear that to have a spiritual heart and to nurture a spiritual heart, you need to build a critical mind. Spirituality has nothing to do with naivety. Spirituality has nothing to do with just dreaming. It has to do with a critical mind enabling us to make an effort, a spiritual effort to take a distance from our emotions and to try and understand the world. It means to learn to listen and it is not easy to listen when you are emotional. Very often people are speaking about Muslims saying that we do not listen. We listen suspecting you to say what we want you to say and so we do not listen to the words said.

This is happening daily, this is concrete life. We have a complex heart, living in a complex world. To learn to listen is not just dreaming about being together, it means to get to know each other more and to promote something which is very simple.

Let us be committed to reconcile us to this world with complexity and not make simplistic statements about love and peace and family. Such statements are far from the people, so people will listen to us from very far. This is when we think that we are a minority.

We are promoting majority values, majority teachings, majority feelings, but we are far, and we speak alone and as a minority. Why? It is not because people are far from the content of what we say. It is because we are far from their lives. That is a totally different thing.

If we move closer to the complexities of daily life, it is my hope that all that we are doing is a road to the civil society at the social level. Let us work together so that our ethical input becomes visible, our understanding of the ethical imparity before God to say something about social issues.

How should we promote ethics in our society? Let us take education as an example. Is it our sole ambition to add one hour on religion in our school systems? Is that all we desire? Should we not see the importance of ethics in a more global, integrated multi-disciplinary way?

I am convinced we must promote ethics in every discipline. To be satisfied with only one additional hour per week will again mean disconnecting ethics from reality. It will not convince students of our deep commitment towards creation.

To promote ethics in every discipline makes visible our deep concern about education, social justice, discrimination and gender issues. It is promoting a new, deep femininity and it is more than a struggle for rights. It is a struggle for being. We must engage in the world showing that we are committed to understand and promote majority values.

People who want to change the world are challenged by two biased feelings: that they are a minority and that they are victims. If we are true to our religious traditions we have to get rid of those feelings. We are not victims and we are not a minority.

If we are true before God, we will understand that this is a challenge. We have to be the subject of our history, subjects of our own lives and not victims of the lives of others.

Let us change this mindset and reconcile us with complexity. This is the way to connect with other people.

Let me conclude with two final remarks:

Firstly, we have to be accountable when attending international interfaith meetings. If we engage in dialogue only at conferences, then we are not living up to our spiritual commitment. We must be committed to go back to our communities and share what we have learned and put our words into actions.

Secondly, we must invest in trusting each other. Mutual trust is possible.

I was in Sarajevo a few weeks ago and there, ten years after the war, an Eastern European was asking a Western European: “Let me ask you one thing: After what happened and us being Muslims, how could I trust you?”

This question of trust is essential. How are we committed to promote this mutual trust? We must network at the local level, understanding this global strategy and ideology of fear, and we must create spaces for mutual trust.

When we do that, we are changing the present and dreaming the future.

SOURCE : Lecture given in Geneva in June 2005 during the conference organised by the World Council of Churches : "A Critical Moment in Interreligious Dialogue"
"Changing the Present, Dreaming the Future" edited by Hans Ucko
Website : http://www.wcc-coe.org/

Fear for the Muslim World

Fear for the Muslim World

Salmaan ibn Fahd al-'Awdah

Article ID: 1113 925 Reads

We find that some Muslims, especially those who are enthusiastic about their religion, exhibit excessive fear for the future of Islam and the Muslims. Their fear is extreme and debilitating, not a reasonable fear that inspires productive work, cooperation, and research, but a distorted fear that fosters listlessness and despair.

Such people typically feel that reform is hopeless and that nothing remains for them but to wait for the end of it all.This fear has caused many people to retreat into an ideological stance that we can describe as a “doctorine of waiting”. These people pin all their hopes on the emergence of the Mahdî who will come into the world or on the descent of Jesus (peace be upon him) from the heavens.

Now, we as Muslims truly believe that Jesus (peace be upon him) will indeed return to Earth, descending from the heavens. We also believe that the Mahdî will appear among the Muslims. However, Allah has not prescribed for us to await these people or anyone else for that matter. By contrast, Allah calls upon us to act – to perform righteous deeds, to call others to the truth, to enjoin what is right, to forbid what is wrong, to conduct ourselves in a proper manner, to worship Him, and to build up our community.

This is what Allah wants us to do. We are not supposed to sit around and wait, incapacitated by fear and despair.Allah has not informed us as to the day and the year in which the Mahdî or Jesus (peace be upon him) will arrive. What He has detailed to us in a clear and indisputable manner are the duties that we have mentioned above. The Qur’ân and Sunnah are both quite clear about these matters.Inordinate fear and worry make a person incapable of productive action.

However, there is another unwholesome symptom of fear that can surface in some people; it is an exaggerated sense of personal responsibility for Islam. While some people succumb to their fear and become as invalids, others are propelled by their fear into a distorted feeling of personal liability until they feel that they are personally accountable for the religion in its entirety and that its protection and preservation is their individual duty.

This feeling makes a person feel that he must act as the guardian of the faith and its followers. He feels it is his duty to carry out a personal mandate over Islamic work and Islamic workers. This is an unhealthy state of mind, causing the person to act in an unnatural manner. Such a person typically brings harm to others, because he overburdens them and deals with them in an unbalanced way.This behavior comes as a consequence of confused priorities. The person so affected loses the ability to put things into proper perspective, so he tends to become obsessive about certain issues.

There is a type of excessive fear called a phobia. It is an irrational fear that is detached from reality. A phobia is different from anxiety, since a phobia is an unbalanced fear of something that exists in the world, whereas an anxiety disorder is an irrational fear of the future.The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to seek refuge with Allah from “anxiety and affliction”. He prayed to Allah to protect him from “anxiety”, from being afflicted with an unjustifiable fear of the future.

Such anxiety makes a person afraid when he wants to get married. It makes him anxious when he is about to graduate from school, worrying about whether or not he is going to find work. It makes him afraid to travel.As for a phobia, it is connected to the present day. It is the “affliction” that the Prophet (peace be upon him) also used to seek refuge from in his supplications to Allah.A person can become afflicted and beset by irrational fear, his chest constricted by his distorted view of the world around him.

In this way, many Westerners fear Islam. This fear can frequently be found manifested in the Western media and in what is taught in Western educational institutions. It is referred to as “Islamophobia”.Islam is indeed the true religion. As a faith, it is strong, robust, and able to stand up for itself. However, the reality of the Muslim world gives the West no occasion to fear it so crazily. The fear the West has for Islam is indeed a phobia, a sick and misplaced fear.

The cultivation of this fear may be the result of deliberate efforts from some sectors seeking to create an “enemy” for the West to further their own agendas, in the same way that Communism used to be the enemy.We can often describe the Muslim fear of the West as a phobia as well. Islam, as we have said, is a strong, enduring, and robust religion.

Allah ensures us that He shall protect it. He says: “Indeed, it is We who have sent down the reminder and surely it is We who shall be its protectors.” [Sûrah al-Hijr: 9]

Allah has not bequeathed the responsibility of preserving the faith upon any of His creatures. Allah speaks about the death of His Prophet (peace be upon him) and addresses the Prophet’s Companions, saying: “Muhammad is naught but a Messenger. Many were the Messengers who passed away before him. So if he were to die or be slain, would you turn on your heels? Whoever turns on his heels will not harm Allah in the least And Allah shall reward those who are grateful.” [Sûrah آl `Imrân: 144]

The religion of Islam is protected by Allah. The Muslim community shall exist until the arrival of the Hour. The Law of Islam shall endure with Allah’s permission. Allah says: “He is the one who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to make it manifest over all religions, though the polytheists may detest it.” [Sûrah al-Tawbah: 33]

Allah also says: “Sufficient is Allah as a witness.” [Sûrah al-Fath: 28]Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) has informed us about the last days of the Muslim community and the goodness and the blessings that they will possess, and how Allah will establish them on Earth with His help at the hands of their valiant people, their leaders, and their scholars.Yes, the West does cause us harm, but Allah assures us: “They do you no harm save a trifling annoyance.” [Sûrah آl `Imrân: 111]

If we have fear of the West, we should keep that fear within reasonable limits. Our fear should not be so feeble as to make us lose vigilance and become easy prey to those who wish to do us harm. At the same time, we should not become victims of our fear, unable to distinguish what harms us from what benefits us. We should not sink into a sense of helplessness and despair.As I have mentioned, anxiety can be a deadly form of fear.

Our anxieties have a tendency to perpetuate themselves, giving us no rest from worry. We can preoccupy our minds with them every moment of the day without ever arriving at any solutions to our problems. In this way, we tax ourselves to no avail.Some of the tribe of Banû Umayyah were asked: “Where were you on the day your kinsman `Uthmân was murdered?”They replied: “Our anger at his murder kept us too busy to mourn.”This is something we should reflect upon.

We should say to ourselves and our brethren in faith: “Our concern for what is happening to Islam and the Muslims is keeping us too busy to mourn.” If we succumb to lamentation and tears, this will not help us in the least. What will help us is for us to engage in positive and productive work, if only to a small extent. To light the smallest of lights is far better than cursing the darkness a thousand times

Courtesy www.islamtoday.net/english

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Source: http://www.as-sahwah.com/viewarticle.php?articleID=1113&

Hot Times in North America

Hot Times in North America

Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick

The Message - Canada June/July 1997

All praises to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. Surely the best reward is for those who have taqwa and surely there is no animosity except for the oppressor. I bear witness that Allah is one and has no partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad ibn Abdullah is his servant and Last Messenger.

May Allah send blessings and peace to Muhammad, his Family, his Companions and all those who call to his way and establish the Sunnah until the Day of Judgment. As to what follows:

Oh you who believe, Allah Almighty has revealed the Qur'an to humanity through His chosen Apostle Muhammad. It was a clear message that spoke directly to the needs of the Muslims fourteen hundred years ago and will remain relevant until the final Hour. Allah has said, "Oh you who believe, fear Allah in the way He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims and hold fast to the Rope of Allah and be not divided." (3:102)

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the living expression of the Qur'an, for not only was he blessed with the ability to express profound meaning in a few words, but he was guided to embody the Divine law in his life. His words still exactly describe our condition. The Prophet (pbuh) was reported to have said, "The main reasons why people will enter Paradise are the Consciousness of Allah (Taqwa-Allah) and good character, and the main reasons why people will enter the Hell Fire are the mouth and the private parts." (Tirmidhi)

Oh you who believe, the summer heat has finally come to the whole of North America. In the Northern countries, summer has historically brought increased activity, heightened emotions and extreme behavior. Most of the wars, revolutions and major riots in North America took place in the warm weather. In cities where winter forces people to cover their bodies, the summer brings out a perverted sense of freedom (freedom to do wrong). In Ontario, laws are being passed to allow women to walk the streets "topless." Already, bizarre displays of nakedness have appeared throughout the society.

Summer in Toronto, and many big cities of the West, has also exposed a new level of Christian propaganda and assault. I was shocked when I returned from East Africa in May to find Muslim families in a desperate struggle to save their children from leaving their homes and their faith! In Kenya, the Pope and the forces of Christianity vowed last year to change Africa into a Christian continent by the year 2000 CE.

Crosses with red fluorescent lighting are being raised on the skyline of Mombasa, Kenya and other traditionally Islamic cities. In Mirti (Northeastern Kenya), Muslim youth are being called to a Christian worship center called "Makkah Center," which is shaped like a masjid, five times a day. In Mauritania and Somalia, teenagers are given visas and scholarships to America while families are being introduced to the West through free satellite dishes and promises of a paradise on earth.

Unemployment, lack of opportunity, drugs, and confusion in the Muslim community over minor issues are driving generations of Islam to a state of despair and rebellion. But now the attack is coming openly in the West, the lands of so-called democracy and freedom of religion. Muslim children are being taught to question and rebel against all forms of authority and morality. Homosexuality and sexual promiscuity is sadly increasing among Muslims.

The traditions concerning homosexuality are frightening. The Prophet (pbuh) said,"Verily, I fear for my Ummah, more than anything else, the deeds of the people of Lut (pbuh), homosexuality." (Abu Dawood, Al-Tirmithi: Sahih). He also said, "If homosexuality abounds, Allah will raise His hand from the Creation. He (Allah) will not care about where they will be destroyed." (At-Tabarani)

So, we need to be aware of the actions that Allah curses and how to avoid them. The Sahabah would always look to themselves in time of calamity. They would try to find out which "Sunnah" they had abandoned or which error they had not corrected. Allah says, "Surely Allah will not change the condition of a people till they change that which is within themselues."(13:11) Muslims should recognize the blessings they have just by being exposed to Qur'an and Sunnah in these times. We need to stop blaming others and start taking responsibility for our present state.

The enemies of Islam are studying hard and trying to understand what makes an Islamic society and civilization develop. The secular world is in crisis for their godless science and morality has resulted in massive pollution and the advent of new seemingly incurable virusues.

Allah tells us, "Verily we have sent amongst every people a Messenger with the command to worship Allah and avoid evil and false gods. Of the people were some whom Allah guided and some who were inevitably lost so travel in the earth and see what was the end of those who denied truth." (16: 36) Islam is not a new way of life. It is the essence of the early religion of the First Nations people of America and the earliest inhabitants of Africa. It is the very law of the Creator that all creation submit to.

The Sun and Moon in their orbits, the ants and bees in their nests; all follow the natural way of Allah.

Let us never forget that Shaitan has promised Allah to tempt us till the Day of Judgment. His call is open but his tricks are deceiving. Allah says, "Verily that is the Shaitan who puts fear into the hearts of his friends and helpers, so fear him not but fear Me, if you are truly Believers," (3:175)

Allah also reminds us, "The Shaitan threatens you with poverty and commands you to sexual immorality, but Allah promises you forgiveness and bounties. And Allah is all encompassing and has knowledge of all affairs. (2:268) Take these few moments and the life that Allah has given you and forgive your fellow Muslim. Join ranks with all of the People of the "Qiblah" and take Islam as a complete way of live.

Let us spend time with out children and provide alternative recreation and sports. Islamic education has become a must, not an added blessing. The Islamic state has to be first established at home before we can take it to the world.

And what about internal change and interpersonal relations. I leave you with a rarely discussed authentic tradition of our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). All ibn Abi Talib (ra) was reported to have said, "When I took possession of the weapons of Allah's Messenger, I found in the hilt of his sword a parchment saying, Keep relations with those who cut you off, do good to those who treat you badly and speak the truth-even if it is against yourself." (Jami' al-Jawami)

May Allah send His choicest blessings and peace to our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family and all of his Companions. And May He not lead us astray after He has guided us aright. Surely Allah is Oft-forgiving and Most Merciful.
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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=190

The Future Is For Islam

The Future Is For Islam

Shaykh Muhammad Qutb

From "Cultural Crisis", an English summary of the author's book "Hal Nahnu Muslimun" done by Umm Muhammad © 1995 Abul Qasim Publishing House

The Islamic community had been left in ruins. It had been weakened and divided into small nations. The seeds of internal conflict had been planed and nurtured. Every effort had been made to draw society far away from the essence of religion, keeping people in ignorance and luring them with worldly incentives. Attempts to reform within an Islamic framework are still being suppressed. Religious practicing Muslims have become outcasts in their own society.

And yet it was the will of Allah, the Almighty, that this religion would survive - not only survive, but make a comeback. For at the same time that Islam is no longer "fashionable" in Muslim countries, people in the West itself are beginning to discover the truths of Islam which Muslims have neglected. And those who have not yet discovered Islam have at least noticed the great spiritual famine that has taken hold of western culture. They are now seeing before them the failure of the new freedom to bring satisfaction to the human soul.

Mankind, in general, is in a state of worry, anxiety and despair. Before him is the failure of present political, social and economic systems to realize justice or to bring peace of mind to the human race. Man longs to believe in a purpose behind existence. He is finally beginning to understand the real need for a belief in God, for nothing else can take place - not a belief of mere words and rituals or of spiritual disciplines that neglect human needs, but a religion which includes every aspect of humanity: the mind, the body and the soul. And there is only one religion on earth that includes and satisfies all of these... Islam.

In spite of the obvious difficulties which appear to us now, the obstacles will lessen as more and more people seek an improvement and turn back to reason and to God. And this time, when men awaken and search, they will find Islam.

How long will this take? It is not important. The reward for those who work towards that end is guaranteed by Him who created the heavens and the earth, and the result is in His hands. By the will Allah, Islam has survived its darkest hour. And by His will, it can again spread its light to every corner of the earth.

"And Allah will give victory to those who support Him. Certainly is Allah exalted in strength and in power." [Surah al-Hajj 22:30]
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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=317

State of the Ummah

State of the Ummah

Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali

From "A Thematic Commentary of the Qur'an", Vol 1. (Surahs 1-9) - Verse 4:45 © 1997 IIIT

In this surah (an-Nisaa'), Muslims are given a pledge that Allah will be on their side in this confrontation and will favor them with victory.

It states: "Sufficient is Allah as an ally and sufficient is Allah to bring victory" (4:45). However, this divine intervention and support are not granted to those who sit and wait, nor are they ever won by those who neglect the duty of preparing their own defenses and making the plans necessary to achieve victory. We read in Shaikh Rashid Rida's commentary on the Qur'an, al Manar:

Allah Almighty does not alter the established laws of social change in favor of Muslims, Jews or Christians. These laws apply equally even to those select few, the Prophets. At the battle of Uhud, Muhammad (sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam) himself suffered physical injuries to the head, had a tooth broken and fell into a ditch, owing to negligence by his troops and shortcomings in preparing for war.

How long, then, could Muslims continue arrogantly claiming identification with Islam, while discarding its teachings and refusing to abide by its laws or heed its warnings? Can Muslims not see how the tables have been turned against them? As other nations have armed themselves with science and hard work, and come to sweep over most of the Muslim lands and dominate their people...

Muslims are in need of turning back to the Book of Allah, the Qur'an, and fully appreciating the laws of civilization and social change which He has laid down. They must cast aside all calls to abandon Islam or do away with the guidance that Allah has placed in their hands. They must break away from all superstitions and wake up to Allah's eternal justicy, and realize that their glory and dignity have been undermined only aas a result of their own negligence and deviation.

Although today new and far more threatening social and moral diseases have infilitrated the fabric and body of the Muslim Ummah, the Shaikh's diagnosis remains basically valid.

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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=315

The Future of Islam in the U.S.A

The Future of Islam in the U.S.A.




Dr. Ja`far Sheikh Idris

The collapse of Communism has automatically created a new world order in which the USA has emerged as the sole super power, and in which all concerned, including the USA are trying to find their appropriate place and suitable role.
One of the big challenges that this new order has posed for both the West, and especially the US on one side, and the Muslim world and Muslims living in the West on the other side, is the future relationship between Islam and the West.

This future depends of course on how each of these parties views itself and views the other party in relation to itself.

One such view characterizes the West as being essentially Judaeo-Christian, secular, capitalist and democratic; it cannot therefore coexist with a people whose way of life is Islamic, whose government is thus theocratic and hence undemocratic, and whose economic system is certainly not capitalist, a people who aim at nothing less than the destruction of Western civilization and the re-establishment of the Islamic Empire.

But this, goes the argument, is what Muslim fundamentalists are, and since their fundamentalist movement is on the rise, we have to consider Islam to be the new villain, the new enemy, and thus brace ourselves up to curb its onward advance, before it sweeps the Muslim world and exploit its resources to destroy Western civilization. Promoters of this view call for intolerance even regarding those Muslims living in the West.

The call for a return to Islam as a complete way of life continues to gain momentum, and garner adherents, while the advocates of secularism are clearly fighting a losing battle.

And so, if that picture of Islam and the West is a true one, there would be legitimate cause for alarm on the part of the West. But fortunately, it is not.

A good understanding of Islam and of the West is bound, in my opinion, to foster good relations between the two. It is the task of those Muslims and non-Muslims who have this good understanding, to cooperate in disseminating it among people in the West as well as in the Muslim world, so that it becomes part of public opinion in these two parts of the globe, and so that it may influence policy makers, and leaders in those regions.

There is no denying the fact that differences, even on matters of principle and vital issues, do exist between adherents of Islam, and adherents of other ideologies in the West. But Islam is not a religion of the East, nor are those ideologies endemic to the West.

If Islam originated in the so-called East, so did Christianity and Judaism. If the West found no difficulty in accepting the latter two, it should find no problem with accepting Islam, especially in view of the fact that Christianity and Judaism were originally meant to be local religions, while Islam was, from the start declared to be a universal religion.

What is it in Christianity or Judaism that makes them more Western? Why should the West accept a religion which says that Jesus is the son of God, and shun one which says that he is a prophet of God? Why should the West feel comfortable with a religion which claims to be for a special people, and shun the one which says that it is for mankind at large? Is there anything in the West which necessitates this choice? No! And that is why increasing numbers of Westerners are coming to the fold of Islam without losing their Western identity, whether it be American, British, French or any other.

And if there are Christians and Jews in the East, why can't there be Muslims in the West?

And why should the West be identified with secularism? This identification is, in my opinion, unfair to the West, whether it comes from Muslims or from the Westerners themselves. This is because secularism in its extreme form, the form which it took in the former communist countries, was rejected by people in Western Europe and the U.S., and is now universally condemned.

The secularism that is prevailing in the West is, to varying degrees, a somewhat moderate one, in which there is place for religion. But not everyone in the West, and specially the U.S., is happy even with this moderate form. There are many who feel that secularism, instead of being a state of neutrality among religions, is itself increasingly becoming a religion in its own right, and an intolerant one at that. They attribute many of the signs of moral decline to this dwindling role of religion.

The equation of the secular with the Western, is also unfair because there is much in the West that is far more important, and of universal value than secularism.

Now we come to the question of democracy. Western states are no doubt democratic. But is Islam really undemocratic? This depends on what one takes to be the most important characteristics of a democratic state.

If by democracy is meant rule of law, human rights, choice of rulers, then these are inseparably part of the religion of Islam. No ideology, secular or religious, lays greater emphasis on the importance of the principle of the rule of law than Islam. Justice, the Qur'an tells us, is to be administered irrespective of our feelings towards people, "Be just, even if it is against your next of kin.", and "Let not your hatred of some people induce you to be unjust. Be just. That is nearer to piety."

The same applies to human rights, the rights of life, of ownership, of expression, of movement, etc., within the Islamic Law.

Choice of heads of state is explicitly stated by Umar, the second Caliph after the Prophet, to be a right of the people.

So, if these principles are what we mean when we talk about democracy, then Islam advocates democracy. But if by democracy is meant all the democratic institutions that happen to be in place now in the West, or if it is meant that the legal system of any state which claims to be democratic must be a copy of the American or British, or French legal system, then Islam is surely not democratic.

I am sure that if Islam is properly explained to people in the West, then many of them would come to its fold, and many others would be influenced by many of its teachings, even if they did not embrace it.

I therefore consider it the duty of Muslims living in this country, whether they be natives or immigrants, to do their best to present Islam to their fellow Americans, laying more emphasis on the fundamentals of the faith, and on moral values.

No book gives a more complete and perfect account of the Creator and the way He should be served than the Qur'an. Other religious and philosophical descriptions and conceptions of the Creator and of people's relations to Him, do not at all compare with the Qur'anic account. I am therefore positive that many people will recognize this Qur'anic account of the Creator as the most appropriate, once they come to know it.

It is also the duty of Muslims in the West to cooperate with non Muslims in promoting any form of good, and fighting any form of evil, especially drugs. We should remember that the goal of our religion, and indeed of all authentic Divine messages, is to increase good and diminish evil in the world.

I urge you to remember that our primary aim is to guide and reform, and not to destroy. Urging Muslims to spread the faith, the Prophet said, "By God, if through you God guides a single person, then that is better for you than the best of worldly wealth." May God help us and guide us to the right path.

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Source: http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=526

Blood on a Wheelchair - Ahmed Yassin - The Man Who Revived a Nation

Blood on a Wheelchair
Ahmed Yassin - The Man Who Revived a Nation
By Kareem M. Kame l Researcher - International Relations

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25/03/2004

“The West demands from us that we stop the resistance. Instead of asking the occupiers to leave our land, they ask us to surrender to the occupier… The peace that reinforces occupation, settlements, and the exiling of the Palestinian people, is not really peace.”1 - Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

“Yassin’s martyrdom is a new beginning for the resistance, jihad, and Intifada and will have repercussions and consequences far more dangerous than this usurper entity [Israel] has so far seen.”2 - Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah Secretary General

Sheikh Ahmed’s assassination was met with Palestinian vows of revenge.

Throughout history, wars, revolutions and peace treaties were always regarded as major harbingers of social and political change. An often overlooked force for transformation has been political assassination. In many cases where influential leaders or figureheads were assassinated, a cascade of interrelated consequences and events usually occurred, far exceeding the expectations of those who committed the assassination itself. In this respect, one must note how the 1914 assassination of the heir to the Habsburg throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by nationalist Serbs set in motion a series of unstoppable events that resulted in World War I - a tragic conflict in which millions died.

For millions of Muslims, the assassination of Hamas leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin represents a watershed event, perhaps signaling a turning point in the Arab-Israeli struggle and in the overall Western-Muslim conflict that has recently taken on global proportions with the US’ declared “war on terrorism.” It is worthy to note that even some Israeli officers referred to the event as a transformative one, equivalent in its importance to Sharon’s visit to the al-Aqsa mosque which sparked the current Intifada in September 2000.3

Perhaps the most telling account of Yassin’s martyrdom and its possible repercussions came from an editorial in the International Herald Tribune, which read: “The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a figure whose symbolic stature on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict far surpassed the actual potential of his paralyzed, feeble body, is certain to become one of those pivotal events around which passions and hatreds coalesce… Sheikh Yassin was already an icon in the Arab world, now he is a martyr.”4

Yassin seared into the Palestinian consciousness that death to harm an occupier is glorious.5

Israel’s assassination of Sheikh Yassin was met with Palestinian vows of revenge. Senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi suggested: “The battle is open and war between us and them is open. They are the killers of prophets and today they killed an Islamic symbol.” Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of the Fatah organization, called for “war, war, war on the sons of Zion. An eye for an eye. There will be a response within hours, God willing.”6 Tens of thousands of Palestinians, fist raised in anger, chanted: “By blood, by sword, we sacrifice for you!” as they mourned the death of the enigmatic Palestinian leader, killed by Israeli missiles in a predawn airstrike as he returned home from prayers in a nearby mosque.

Arab television channels replaced scheduled programs with live coverage of Yassin’s funeral. Mourners among a crowd of 200,000 reached out to touch the flag-draped coffin in the biggest turnout in Gaza since Arafat’s triumphant homecoming in 1994 after interim peace deals with Israel. A few hours later, a statement published on an Islamist website purporting to be from al-Qaeda urged retaliation against the US and its allies for Israel’s assassination of Ahmed Yassin.7 However, the swiftest military response to Israel’s crime came from Hizbullah, whose fighters fired rockets and mortar shells at Israeli military outposts in the occupied Cheb’aa Farms on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Near Tel Aviv, a Palestinian man attacked three Israelis with an axe, causing minor injuries. Other scattered outbreaks of violence left at least five Palestinians dead and caused dozens of injuries as protesters clashed with Israeli troops.

Israel’s extra-judicial killing of a frail quadriplegic as he left a mosque in the early hours of the day was no doubt the ugliest expression of state terrorism, the act of a mafia rather than a state governed by responsible leaders educated in civilized international norms. However, this was not an unexpected move by the bloodthirsty government of Ariel Sharon, given regional and international silence at Israel’s daily atrocities in the Palestinian territories. The heavy-handed US military presence in the Middle East and the mild response of Arab governments to Israeli carnage most certainly gave Sharon the “green light” to proceed with his trail of terror.

The Bush administration’s first response came from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who refused to condemn the killing, instead rationalizing it by pointing to Yassin’s “terror” connection, suggesting that the US had not set any “red lines” for Sharon’s behavior.8 After all, the US was already aware that Israel wanted to eliminate Sheikh Yassin from the simple fact that it had already tried and failed to assassinate him last year.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi now controls Hamas in Gaza.

Interestingly, the timing of the attack came just weeks after Sharon announced his intention to implement a disengagement plan in which Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. In fact, a team of top Israeli officials, including Sharon’s Chief of Staff Dov Weisglass and national security chief Giora Eiland, was headed to Washington to discuss the withdrawal plan with American officials.

The recent strike against Hamas’ leader was supposedly intended to prevent a situation where Hamas can claim that Israel is withdrawing from Gaza under pressure from the organization, just as Hizbullah had claimed after Israel’s unconditional withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000. In this regard, Yassin’s assassination can be seen as part of an Israeli “offensive” before its expected disengagement.

Following Yassin’s assassination, Israeli security sources declared that Israel will try to kill the entire leadership of Hamas, irrespective of further attacks by the militant group. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz declared Hamas a “strategic enemy of Israel,” and an Israeli ministry spokesman added that “it is very important to weaken Hamas in view of the application of the separation plan.”9

More importantly though, there was a sense of Israeli confidence that Washington would not oppose the operation since both it and Pakistan are in the midst of an extensive military campaign on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to capture al-Qaeda leaders. Sharon may have believed that if the Americans can kill, arrest and torture hundreds of Islamists and send them overseas to cages in Guantanamo Bay, they would definitely not object to the assassination of a single man in Gaza. Indeed, the assassination of Sheikh Yassin was reminiscent of the US assassination of an alleged al-Qaeda lieutenant in Yemen by a missile launched from a CIA drone in November 2002, exhibiting the same disregard for the norms of international behavior.

Yassin - The Man and the Message

Perhaps one of the most influential leaders in the history of the Palestinian resistance movement, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was an exceptional ideologue, motivator, strategist, and inspiration for thousands of Palestinians yearning for independence. The frail and ailing Yassin, although himself the picture of physical powerlessness, probably did more than any other figure to sear into the consciousness of young Palestinians the notion that death sought in order to inflict harm upon a hated occupier is glorious.10

Since his early days, the Hamas leader was the inspiration behind both the 1987 and 2000 uprisings, refusing to accept the pessimists’ objections to what they felt was a road to collective suicide. Yassin always asserted that since the Palestinians were fighting from a much weaker position, they must be prepared to accept much greater losses. In his mosque sermons and teachings, Yassin repeatedly portrayed suicide attacks as a divinely inspired means for the helplessly oppressed to strike at a powerful oppressor. The elderly sheikh insisted that Israel is a militaristic garrison state which had blurred the line between civilians and soldiers, explaining that Hamas did not exclusively target Israeli “civilians,” except in direct retaliation for the death of Palestinian civilians. He saw this as a necessary tactic to “show the Israelis they could not get away without a price for killing our people.”11

Yassin asserted that the Palestinians must be prepared to accept great losses.

The current Intifada, which erupted in September 2000, represented the ultimate vindication of Yassin’s thinking. Islamist, nationalist and secular Palestinian movements scrambled to follow Hamas’ suicide bombing strategy, with every movement boasting of its martyrs and of its willingness to sacrifice its sons for the larger goal of national liberation. For mainstream Palestinians, “martyrdom” remained the ultimate goal - a concept repeatedly invoked at every Palestinian mass rally and in videotaped messages left behind by suicide bombers.12

Born in 1936 in Majdal near the coastal town of Askalan, in what was then Palestine under the British mandate, Sheikh Yassin’s political views were forged at a time of humiliation and defeat for the Palestinians.13 Father to eleven children, the elderly sheikh belongs to one of many families expelled from their homes by invading Israeli forces during the first Arab-Israeli conflict of 1948. After a childhood accident left him a quadriplegic, he devoted his early life to Islamic scholarship and studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was there that he developed the belief that Palestine is Islamic land “consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day,” and that no Arab or Muslim leader has the right to give up any part of this territory.

Back in Gaza, Yassin founded his own movement, al-Mujama al-Islami, in the 1970s and began to recruit young activists. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, the rising tide of Islamism throughout the Muslim world, and the presence of the exiled secular Fatah leadership in Tunisia allowed Yassin to set up a more radical Islamic movement - Majd al-Mujahideen.

Yassin was arrested for the first time in 1984 for the illegal possession of weapons and explosives, but released a year later, after which he worked to create Hamas, the name of which is an acronym for “the Islamic Resistance Movement.”14 In 1989, Sheikh Yassin was arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly ordering the killing of Palestinians who had collaborated with the Israeli army. He was eventually released in 1997, in exchange for two Israeli agents arrested in Jordan during an attempt to assassinate another Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal.

Hamas was able to build support by offering material help through the charitable funding of schools, clinics and hospitals that provide free services to families in distress.

New Hamas head Khaled Meshaal has already survived an Israeli assassination attempt.

Since its inception in December 1987, Hamas has carried out the majority of attacks against Israeli targets, becoming the Zionist state’s most lethal enemy. Hamas does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, and its long-term aim is to establish an Islamic state on pre-1948 borders. Sheikh Yassin was a staunch opponent of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, repeatedly declaring his movement’s opposition to all Western peace initiatives which do not restore the Palestinians’ full rights.

Despite his attempts to maintain good relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), there were several attempts by the PA to restrict his activities. In December 2001, one man died in clashes with Palestinian police after Sheikh Yassin was placed under house arrest. Shooting erupted again in June 2002 when Palestinian police surrounded his house. In September 2003, the Israeli army attempted to kill Sheikh Yassin while he was at the house of a Hamas colleague in Gaza.

The Living Martyr - Consequences & Prospects

Perhaps the most immediate consequence of Sheikh Yassin’s assassination was the outpour of anger throughout the Islamic World and the revival of street protests in many Arab and Islamic capitals. The assassination took place only a few days after international protests commemorating the first anniversary of the beginning of the US campaign against Iraq. This ultimately added more anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiment to popular rage at the continued US occupation of Iraq. Interestingly, even in Iraq, where the US is relentlessly trying to establish a pro-US government and win the hearts and minds of the public, thousands of Iraqis took to the streets deploring the US and Israel for the assassination of Sheikh Yassin.

Yassin’s assassination is likely to lead to the further radicalization of Hamas.

Iraqi outrage over Yassin’s killing was not only confined to the “Sunni Triangle” that has nurtured the insurgency against the US and its allies. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the Shi’ite spiritual leader and the single most influential person in Iraq, called on Muslims to unite against Israel, while the more militant Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr offered the Palestinians “moral and physical support.”15 In an already tense transition process, the extent to which the US is viewed as complicit in an Israeli action that has enraged Iraqis will not make the task of US soldiers and officials there any easier.

Domestically, the immediate consequence of the assassination would be the increase in the strength and influence of Hamas in the Palestinian street, and an equal increase in popular disillusionment with the PA after it appeared incapable or unwilling to protect resistance leaders despite its numerous security organizations and international connections. As a result, the PA would find it increasingly difficult to act against Hamas - actions like collecting weapons, arresting militants, or preventing the firing of Qassam rockets, will be politically dangerous for the PA.16

Another possible consequence of the assassination would be that Hamas, lacking a clear cut leadership, would gradually split into more radical factions, as happened to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt after Nasser’s execution of Sayyid Qutb. Those factions usually create their own ideologies and mode of operation that is usually more radical than, and independent of, their parent organization.

Mainstream Palestinian movements have so far avoided any public alignment with al-Qaeda. However, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi announced that Hamas had opened a special account with Israel, calling the assassination of Yassin a declaration of war on Islam.17 Al-Rantissi’s threats could materialize if several leading cadres of the Hamas movement decide to align themselves with al-Qaeda’s global objectives and strike at Israeli, Jewish, or American targets overseas.

In any case, the most certain result of Yassin’s assassination would be the radicalization of Hamas and the sidelining of moderates within the movement. One also has to remember that Israel’s assassination of Ismail Abu Shanab in Summer 2003- the most pragmatic of all Hamas leaders - severely restricted the moderate line within Hamas. The most recent manifestation of the movement’s radicalization was the choice of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi - perceived as the most radical of all Hamas leaders and one who refuses any form of compromise with Israel - as the new leader of the movement in the Gaza Strip.

Conclusions

The assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin no doubt represents a turning point in the history of the Arab-Israeli struggle and in the larger global conflict between the West and the Muslim world. The occupation of Muslim lands, the support for “friendly tyrants,” and now, the systematic cold-blooded killing of Muslim icons of resistance, will definitely fuel the cause of radicals in the Middle East and silence any possible voices of moderation.

For millions of Muslims, Sheikh Yassin was, and always will be, a symbol of resistance, piety, and self-sacrifice. Interestingly, his legacy of resistance and steadfastness had a ripple-effect throughout the Islamic world that far surpassed his frail figure. Perhaps his assassination was the wake-up call needed for many Muslims to rise from their present slumber. One only has to remember how the assassination of Sheikh Abdullah Azzam in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1989, led to the radicalization of Arab-Afghans and the establishment of al-Qaeda. Indeed, living martyrs usually come back to haunt their oppressors.

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Kareem M. Kamel is an Egyptian freelance writer based in Cairo, Egypt. He has an MA in International Relations and is specialized in security studies, decision- making, nuclear politics, Middle East politics and the politics of Islam. He is currently assistant to the Political Science Department at the American University in Cairo.

1- Faisal Bodi, “My Meeting with Sheikh Yasin,” Al-Jazeera (English) March 22, 2004
2- Hussein Dakroub, “Hezbollah Guerillas Attack Border Area,” Associated Press March 22, 2004
3- Amos Harel, “Hit May Mean ‘Low Intensity’ Conflict is Over,” Ha’aretz March 23, 2004
4- “A Death in Gaza,” International Herald Tribune March 23, 2004
5- Laura King, “Yassin Instilled the Passion for Glory of Martyrdom,” Los Angeles Times March 22, 2003
6- Andrew Roche, “Yassin Killing Provokes Muslim Fury, US Disavowal,” Reuters March 23, 2004
7- “Al-Qaeda Vows Revenge,” Al-Jazeera (English) March 22, 2004
8- Tony Karon, “How Israel’s Hamas Killing Affects the US,” Time.com March 23rd, 2004
9- “New Strike on Hamas by Israel is Expected,” International Herald Tribune March 23, 2004
10- Laura King, “Yassin Instilled the Passion for Glory of Martyrdom,” Los Angeles Times March 22, 2003
11- Faisal Bodi, “My Meeting with Sheikh Yasin,” Al-Jazeera (English) March 22, 2004
12- Laura King, “Yassin Instilled the Passion for Glory of Martyrdom,” Los Angeles Times March 22, 2003
13- “Sheikh Yassin: Spiritual Figurehead,” BBC News
14- “Frail Foe of Israel,” Al-Jazeera (English) September 6, 2003.
15- Tony Karon, “How Israel’s Hamas Killing Affects the US,” Time.com March 23rd, 2004.
16- Ze’ev Schiff, “No Withdrawal Under Fire,” Ha’aretz March 23, 2004.
17- Zvi Bar’el, “Now Hamas Could Align with al-Qaeda,” Ha’aretz March 23, 2004.

Source: http://www.islamonline.net/English/Views/2004/03/article05.shtml