www.stand4islam.blogspot.com: Al Hajj & One Ummah

About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

7 Dec 2009

Al Hajj & One Ummah

The Ibadat of Hajj is an amazing event where millions of Muslims gather from around the world: wearing the same clothes and exerting their effort to fulfill this pillar of Islam. Contemplating upon the Hajj, our attention is drawn to one of the vital issues of this Ummah. Muslims with different backgrounds, from distant places, speaking different languages and of different colours and cultures; all come together to the same place and at the same time to perform an act of worship out of total obedience and submission to the one and only ilah: Allah (swt). As all the differences disappear, Hajj illustrates the unity that Islam naturally brings about to Muslims. Islam makes it an obligation upon all Muslims to unite not just in Ibadat, like Hajj and Fasting, but rather it seeks a true and complete unity of the Ummah in all aspects of life. We will, inshAllah in this issue, shed some light on the type of unity that Islam calls for.

Vital Issues in Islam

A study of the Quran and Sunnah reveals that Islam has identified some issues and made them vital to all Muslims. These issues require the sacrifice of wealth and resources, including the lives of the Muslims themselves. In other words, vital issues in Islam are literally “life and death” issues. Furthermore, the Shariah provides details as to how the Muslims must deal with these issues. One example is the implementation of the rules of Islam. In the following hadeeth narrated by Aisha (ra) Usama Bin Zayd (ra) approached the Prophet (saw) in order to intercede on behalf of a woman (from the elite tribe of Bani Makhzoom) who had committed theft. After Usama (ra) made his request to the Prophet (saw), the colour of the face of RasulAllah (saw) changed, and he said: “Do you intercede in one of the prescribed punishments of Allah?” He (Usama) said: 'Messenger of Allah, seek forgiveness for me.’ When it was dusk, RasulAllah (saw) stood up and gave an address. He (first) glorified Allah as He deserves, and then said: “Now to our topic. This (injustice) destroyed those before you that when any one of (high) rank committed theft among them, they spared him, and when any weak one among them committed theft, they inflicted the prescribed punishment upon him. By Him in Whose Hand is my life, even if Fatima daughter of Muhammad were to commit theft, I would have cut off her hand.” [Muslim]

RasulAllah (saw) made a clear and strong connection between being lenient in implementing the laws of Allah (swt) and the destruction of previous nations. He (saw) would make no compromise even if his own daughter, Fatima (ra), were to transgress the rules of Allah (swt).In the story of the apostates during the Khilafah of Abu Bakr (ra) when they refused to pay Zakat, Abu Bakr (ra) said to Umar (ra), “Oh by Allah, if they do not pay even a camel rope (used to tie camels) they used to pay to RasulAllah, I will fight them for it.”. This is despite the fact that most of Arabia apostatized and rebelled against the Muslims who were largely outnumbered by them. Yet, Abu Bakr (ra), with the support of all the Sahabah of RasulAllah (saw), did not accept anything less than the full implementation of the rules of Islam and, as a result, went to war against the rebels. The fact that Abu Bakr (ra) would resort to fighting demonstrates that he understood this issue as a matter of life and death – meaning he saw it necessary to put the Sahabah and the Ummah in harm’s way to end the rebellion.

The stance that RasulAllah (saw) took with Usama Bin Zayd (ra) and the stance that Abu Bakr (ra) took with those that refused to pay Zakat, illustrates that Islam has made the implementation of Shariah a vital issue. The Ummah must make it its highest priority to implement Islam comprehensively, as it is a matter of life and death.

Unity of the Muslim Ummah – A Vital Issue

Islam has also made the unity of the Muslim Ummah and the unity of the Islamic State one of the vital issues; an issue of life and death. This includes the prohibition of having more than one khalifah, the prohibition of dividing the Ummah into more than one political entity, and the prohibition of rebelling against an imam that implements Islam.

First, Islam prohibited the existence of more than one khalifah for the Muslims. That is, the Muslims must only have one state. It has been narrated by Abdullah Bin Amr Bin Ul-Aas (ra) that RasulAllah (saw) said: "He who pledged his Bay’a to an Imam giving him the clasp of his hand and the fruit of his heart shall obey him as long as he can, and if another comes to dispute with him, you must strike the neck of that man." [Muslim]

Abu Said Al-Khudri narrated that RasoulaAllah (saw) said: “If a Bay’a has been taken for two Khalifahs, kill the latter of them.” [Muslim]

Hence, he (saw) made the unity of the state a vital issue when he prohibited the existence of more than one khalifah for the Muslims and ordered the killing of anyone who attempts to establish a separate rule, unless he retracts.Second, Islam prohibited the division and fragmentation of the Muslim Ummah. It has been narrated on the authority of Ajrafa (ra) who said: I heard RasulAllah (saw) say:“He who comes to you while your affair has been united under one man, intending to drive a wedge between you or fragment your group, kill him.” [Bukhari & Muslim]

Furthermore, Ziyad Ibn Alaaqah (ra) narrated that RasulAllah (saw) said: “There will be bad and evil things happening, and who wants to fragment this Ummah when it is all united, strike him by sword whoever he is.” [Muslim]

So, he (saw) made the unity of the Ummah and the unity of the Muslim state a vital issue when he prohibited the fragmentation of the Ummah and ordered the killing of anyone who attempts to divide it, unless he retracts.Third, a rebellion against the Imam of the Muslims, namely the Khalifah, is forbidden, due to the fact that rebellions lead to the disunity of the Muslims, the shedding of their blood and the squandering of their wealth. Allah (swt) revealed: “If two factions from among the believers fall into a quarrel, make peace between them; and if one of them transgresses against the other, then fight the one that transgresses until it complies with the Command of Allah.” [Surah Hujurat (49): Ayah 9]

Al-Qurtubi (ra) in his tafseer states that this is an evidence for the obligation of fighting those who transgress and rebel against the Shariah and a just imam (ruler) while refusing to repent. RasulAllah (saw) said: “He who rebels against my Ummah while they are united, strike his neck with the sword whoever he may be.” [Muslim]

Consequently, Allah (swt) prohibited the Muslims from having more than one state or one Khalifah (ruler). Allah (swt) also prohibited the Ummah from rebelling against the khalifah and causing division within the Ummah. Allah (swt) made this unity an obligation and a vital issue when He made it an issue of life and death.

Throughout the history of this Ummah, the Muslims viewed the issue of unity to be the most important and most critical of matters. They never used to be lenient on this issue towards any Muslim whoever he might have been. Ali (ra) was never lenient with Muawiyyah, nor were the Ummayyads or the Abbasids lenient with the Khawarij. Before liberating Al-Aqsa and defeating the Crusaders, Salah-ul-Deen (ra) and and his uncle Imad-ul-Deen Zinki (ra) worked tirelessly to unite the Ummah.

However, when the Khilafah became weak and the understanding of Islam declined, Muslims kept silent over the breakaway of Islamic lands from the body of the Khilafah. Thus, a wedge was driven between the Muslims and the Khilafah state fragmented into many insignificant countries. This occurred despite the fact that the breakaway of any country from the body of the Muslim state is a vital issue, which stipulates either the repentance of the rebels or the waging of war against them – regardless of the cost in lives or wealth.

Unity According to Islam

Therefore, it should be clear that the unity Islam calls for is a matter of life and death. However, this unity is not the unity of separate Muslim countries where each is ruled by an independent ruler with some form of a union. It is also not a unity based on economics or currency. It is not a unity based on agreements or treaties between separate Muslim countries. All of these are non-Shari’e forms of unity that only serve to distract Muslims from the correct form of Islamic unity.

The unity that Islam obliges upon all Muslims is the unity of all Muslim lands under one state ruled by a single Khalifah (ruler). That is “One Aqeedah, One Ummah, One State”. This is the true meaning of Muslim unity that we must adhere to and advocate amongst the global Muslim community. We must elevate the issue of uniting the Ummah from where it is today to where it was during the time of the Prophet (saw) and the generations that followed. As RasulAllah (saw) and his companions did, we must not accept anything less than the comprehensive implementation of this obligation.

[Article taken from The PAM website, December 2009]

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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”

[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]

"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"

[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]

"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."

[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]

"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."

[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]

"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."

[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]

“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”

[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]

"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."

[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]

"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."

[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]

“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”

[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]

"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"

[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]

"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."

[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]

"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."

[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']

"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"

[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']

"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.

[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]

"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"

[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]

"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"

[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]

“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”

[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]

“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”

[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]