Don’t ask “What”? Ask “Why? (Part Two of Two)
By
Maulana Khalid Dhorat
Why is this happening?
If the invasion of Libya was like a match thrown in an oil can, the invasion of Syria will be like a bomb thrown in nuclear plant. At the moment, Syria is the only place in the world where people sleep at night on earth, and wake up in the morning in heaven!
Although Syria is not rich in any natural resources like Zimbabwe, it is a strategic place for the triumph of Islam at the end of times. Our Master Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) blessed Syria (called Sham, which incorporates Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine too) as well as Yemen and said that a “the wing of an angel is above it.” This is the land where majority of the previous prophets are buried, but is also the land where the most amount of struggle between truth and falsehood took place, the place where powerful nations like ‘Ad and Thamud were utterly destroyed. Syria is place that decides the fate of the world.
The present Syrian war is nothing but a continuation of the divine exercise in separating the disbelievers and the hypocrites from the true believers: separating the filth from the pure. The position of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Yemen have become clear as daylight on Syria. The sell-outs and hypocrites of this ummah have shown themselves. The haughty superpowers and the European nations – nothing more than huge ammunition stores, - have revealed who have bought their nefarious service of murder and mayhem. The upholders of truth have seen their true enemies, and although they may not have any superpower on their side, they have the Almighty.
But there is also a downside to this horrible war. Many innocent men, women and children have been mercilessly butchered for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For such people, death is a mercy for them as they have tasted martyrdom in their own home, rather than on faraway battlefields. The Almighty knew that they could not have handled more humility and difficulty, so He granted them martyrdom as a mercy. The sheer amount of martyrs may even attract the mercy of the Almighty to grant the Muslims eventual victory. Although the huge piles of mutilated bodies stacked up like sheep carcasses and the sight of innocent babies with gaping holes in their bodies may sicken us, but for them, they are already in a better world. This sorry state of affairs is meant to jolt me and you, the people left on the world, to decide: will we side with the hypocritical regimes to whom the flames of unrest will definitely reach and for which we may attain some comfort in this world, or will we be on the side of truth and be able to bear the hardship in upholding Islam?
As we are deciding which side to take, let us see what does QSC (Qur’ an and Sunnah Channel) say about why people are dying like flies today, locally and abroad:
1. It must be remembered that in this world, no benefit or harm befalls a person, except that the Almighty willed it to happen - millions of years ago already. This is called faith in predestination (qada wal-qadr). A person may be earning a million dollars a day, or 20 000 people may be killed in a hour through chemical weapons - all of this happens only through the permission of the Almighty. You are thus never alone in your prosperity, and nor are you alone in your adversity. Because we haven’t understood this basic concept, people are killing and harming others simply because their own feeling of insecurity forces them to think that they will be killed or harmed if they do not do so first. To prevent harm, we don’t have to commit harm. Rather seek protection from harm from the One who prevents harm. Don’t take matters in to your hands, leave it in the hands of the All-Compassionate.
2. Sometimes, the Almighty intentionally reduces an entire nation to refugees through war or an entire country to ashes through natural causes. This is called “forced mercy cleansing” and we have to be grateful for it. Chances are, if the Almighty left us in our state of heedlessness, corruption and sin, we would’ve died on disbelief and would’ve been eternally denied the pleasures of the hereafter. Generally, people in trouble and difficulty remember their Lord, not people in comfort and wealth. The prayers of the oppressed are normally accepted as their hearts are torn in a million places. The supplication of the distressed is more beloved than the burp of the satiated. And sometimes, the Almighty prolongs our problems simply to keep on hearing our begging and anguished cries.
3. Calamities, also called “rude shocks” or “silent sticks,” teach us vital lessons in order to perfect our faith. It is part and parcel of our life-experience designed to increase our faith and patience (sabr). The Egyptians revolted in Egypt under Morsi due to shortage of food. How can a nation who cannot withstand hunger be able to rule in the name of the Almighty? Khilafat or Islamic ruling requires many noble qualities, and these wars are the tuning grounds to attain that spiritual perfection, leading up to the eventual victory under Imam Mahdi.
4. The Egyptian military coup taught us that we cannot attain our goals using western systems and western technology. Democracy and technology are there for Muslims to become westernised, not Islamised. As soon as the usage of western systems and technology produce results not suitable to the west, they will snatch it away from us. This is the reason why western education, technology and democracy may be beneficial to a certain degree, but we automatically inherit its secular outlook and shameless morals.
5. The ummah is a whole, with its many members scattered all over the globe, is one entity. Although the heartland of Islam is the Middle-East, Muslims are to be found in every country of the world today. And just as the stock exchange in New York and the dollar rate affects every individual in the world, the actions of every Muslim affect every Muslim in the world. However, its major effects become more manifest in the populous areas. So if Muslims are being killed in the Middle-East, every Muslim has contributed to this situation and every Muslim has a twofold duty to eradicate this problem by: 1) Contributing financially to alleviate the plight of those suffering in the refugee camps and of those defending their lives and properties, and more importantly, 2) Reform ourselves so that our actions do not affect the innocent across the globe.
6. All our actions – good or bad - have an effect on society and the Almighty punishes us in this world already for SOME of the sins we commit here. Just like non-payment of zakaat generally leads to droughts and famine, there are two specific sins that lead to either our enemies killing us like flies, or we killing ourselves like cockroaches. These are 1) Love of the world to the degree that we forget death; and 2) Creating such an environment for ourselves that we not only stop commanding towards the good, but we start regarding good as evil. Muslims have been so much corrupted by wealth that we now have evidence that many so called “terrorists” were killed simply because someone misled them with false information. Our sister Aafiya Siddiqui, the only female languishing in an American prison with males, was simply a barter for big money. If Muslims can put a price on human lives and their dignity, why should the Almighty care for us?
7. At the moment, according to a hadith, we have entered the time of absolute dictatorship, which will only worsen by the day, after which the glorious era of Imam Mahdi will arrive for a short while, to be again followed by evil and strife. Our Master Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) has said that in this era, you will find such rulers that if you obey them, they will lead you to disbelief. If you disobey them, you will be killed. You will be given a cruel choice – choose to be an oppressor and be spared, or choose to be the oppressed and be killed: “A time will come that a person will be made to choose between being helpless or committing evil. Whoever of you reaches that time, choose helplessness over transgression.” said our Master (peace be upon him). (Mustadrak Haakim, no. 38458).
8. At such a time, we have been guided not to be involved in politics. We have been asked to destroy our weapons as people will kill or be killed for no apparent reason according to a hadith in Sahih Muslim, no: 8728. “There will be much strife and killing before the last day. It will not be with the disbelievers, but the killing of my nation amongst themselves. It will be that one person from my nation will meet another and will simply kill him. The intelligence of the people of that age will be snatched away and only the wretched will rule over you. They will think that they are doing the right thing, whereas it will not be so,” said our Master (peace be upon him) (Kanzul Ummal, vol. 11, page 130). We should become like the son of Prophet Adam, Habil, who told his brother Qabil, who wanted to kill him: “You can kill me if you wish, but I will not even lift my hand towards you. I wish that every killing after this be attributed to you, but I do not want to have any part in it.” It may sound absurd not to defend oneself, but doing so will only lead to further bloodshed.
Finally, we take comfort in the fact that the Almighty does not impose a burden on mankind more than he can bear. For us, we cannot be passive spectators in these world-altering events. We need to play our part in order to once again usher in the glorious age of Islam.