Why Muslims Lagged Behind And Others Progressed 182534

Why Muslims Lagged Behind and Others Progressed

Nadeem M. Qureshi

Austin Macauley Publishers

Why Muslims Lagged Behind and Others Progressed

About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgement Preface Introduction Chapter One: Prince Shakib Arslan Responds

Uniformity of Weakness in Islamic Peoples Reasons for the Rise of Muslims of the Past Factors That Allowed Earlier Muslims to Progress Are No More A Comparison of the Conditions of Muslims and Europeans Today The Muslim Excuse and Its Rejection The Results of Egypt’s for the Fighters of Tripoli and Cyrenaica Betrayal by Some Muslims of Their Faith and Nation and Their Lame Excuse King Ibn Saud on the Treachery and Betrayal of Muslims Striving to Spread the Faith: A Comparison between Muslims and Christians

Chapter Two: Main Reasons for the Backwardness of Muslims

Ignorance and Deficient Knowledge Moral Corruption Especially Among Leaders and Religious Scholars Cowardice and Fear Despair and Hopelessness Befuddlement of the Ignorant and Cowardly and the Reply The Loss of Islam between Conservatives and Progressives Europeans Preserve Their Nationalism Progress of the Japanese an Example for Arabs and All Muslims Why Do We Not Call Japan and Europe Regressive Despite Their Religiosity? Misfortunes Inflicted by the Conservatives on Islam and Muslims Verses of Work Refuting the Interpretation of Fate as Predestination and Laziness Conservative Muslims Are Enticement for the Enemies of Islam and Evidence against It

Chapter Three: Islamic Civilisation

A Reply to the Contemptuous Enviers of Islamic Civilisation Greece and Rome Before and After Christianity

Backwardness of Europe in the Past and Its Rise in the Present

Chapter Four: Exhortation of the Quran to Knowledge

A Word to Those Who Demand a National Rather Than a Religious Revival

Chapter Five: Reasons for the Decline of Muslims in Recent Times

Chapter Six: When Determination Is Directed

Development of the Holy Lands

Epilogue: The Muslims Will Rise, As Others Have Glossary

About the Author

Nadeem M. Qureshi is a Pakistani businessman and politician. In the early part of his career, he was involved in setting up and running several companies in the Middle East. He is the founder and current chairman of the Pakistani political party Mustaqbil Pakistan.

He was educated at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned SB and SM degrees in civil engineering. This was followed by an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He also earned a master of arts degree in Arabic from University of Karachi.

He is a frequent contributor to the opinion pages of English newspapers in Pakistan and the Gulf.

Dedication

This work of translation is dedicated to Dr Abdullah Khalaf Al-Assaf, professor of Arabic at King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals. There are few who can teach well and fewer still who love what they teach. Dr Assaf is among these latter few. It was my immense good fortune that he agreed to be my tutor and mentor in the long journey from not knowing Arabic to earning a master’s degree in the language. I am eternally indebted to him.

َ ْ ‫ﺠﺪ‬ ِ ‫ﻋﻨﺪ َﻫﺎ‬ ِ ٍ‫ﺧﻴَﺮ ﻧﺎر‬ ِ ‫ﻣﻮﻗِﺪ‬ َ ‫ﻣﺘﻰ ﺗ َﺄﺗ ِﻪِ ﺗ َﻌﺸﻮ إ ِﻟﻰ‬ ِ َ ‫ﺿﻮِء ﻧﺎرِهِ ﺗ‬ َ ‫ﺧﻴُﺮ‬ َ

Copyright Information ©

Nadeem M. Qureshi (2021)

The right of Nadeem M. Qureshi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398412811 (Paperback) ISBN 9781398412828 (Hardback) ISBN 9781398412835 (ePub e-book)

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First Published (2021) Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd 25 Canada Square Canary Wharf London E14 5LQ

Acknowledgement

To the many publishers in the Arab world who, generation after generation, collected and preserved Shakib Arsalan’s words for those of us who are alive today. Were it not for them, for their love of the Arabic language and of the written word, for their selfless dedication to their craft and for their commitment to keep this exquisite work always in print, this translation would not have been possible.

Preface

Were Shakib Arsalan to return today, nearly a century after he wrote Why Muslims Lagged Behind and Others Progressed, he would notice two striking realities: One, everything has changed. And, two, nothing has changed. What has happened in the world and specifically the Islamic world during the last century gives credence to the adage: The more things change the more they stay the same. Prince Shakib Arsalan was an eminent Islamic thinker and reformer. He was born on Christmas day in 1896 into a Druze family in the Lebanese village of Choueifat near Beirut. The Druze have their own religion. They do not accept outsiders and no one is allowed to leave. But Shakib Arsalan followed the ways of Sunni Muslims in of prayer, fasting, the Hajj and all other rituals associated with Sunni Islam. He studied the Quran from an early age and memorised parts of it. In addition to Arabic, he was fluent in Turkish, German and French. During his life, he travelled widely and met many religious, literary and political leaders of his time. He was particularly influenced by Jamaluddeen Al-Afghani, who he mentions in his book. He lavished high praise on his friend and teacher, the American scholar, Arabist and orientalist, Cornelius van Dyck, one of the founders of the American University of Beirut. Arsalan came of age at a time when many Arab and Islamic lands were occupied by colonialists. He viewed this as being primarily a result of the weakness of Arabs, their own internecine differences and a failure to uphold the principles and values of their religion. The colonialists were not to blame. It was the Muslims who needed to change. He came to believe that Muslims had lost not just the ability but also the will to toil and to sacrifice that which was precious to them. The way for them to regain these qualities was to resurrect the principles of their religion. Their Quran made it clear that success here, and in the Hereafter, was only possible through hard work and a willingness to forfeit all that one held valuable. The valuables of this

world are in any case ephemeral. So why cling to them? His political views and activities did not endear him to the foreign occupiers of his land. The French expelled him from Lebanon and exiled him to Europe. There, he continued to write and struggle. He was to spend a good part of his later life away from home. When he finally did return, it was because Lebanon gained independence after the Second World War. The French who had prevented him from returning had gone. But his return to his beloved Lebanon was to be short lived. He died some three months after returning on 9th December, 1946. Arsalan was a prolific writer and poet. He wrote 20 books and hundreds of articles for journals and magazines. His poems sought to energise Muslims and rouse them from centuries of somnolence. His eloquence earned him the title of Ameer Al-Bayan or Prince of Eloquence. For a language that has been in existence for 1400 hundred years and has seen some of the greatest poets and writers that have ever lived, this is indeed an exceptional accolade. Those who read his prose, understand immediately that this was an exceptional writer. His words flow like poetry. They are eloquent and moving. Sentences glide into each other. Words have a music all their own. Meaning is expertly married to form. Translating Arabic to English is always challenging. The two languages have very different structures. The aesthetics of style vary widely. Arabic is characterised by long sentences. A single sentence can fill a whole paragraph. Several qualifying adjectives of similar meaning are used where one would suffice. In Arabic, these are attributes of eloquence. In English, almost the exact opposite is true: Short sentences and using fewer rather than more words to express meaning is what George Orwell considered to be good style. I have tried in this translation to stay as close to Arsalan’s text as possible. And to convey, near impossible as it may be, a flavour for the eloquence of the original in Arabic. This has meant retaining the Arabic stylistic aesthetic in English. Arsalan sprinkles his book with verses from the Quran. Translated verses appear in italics.¹ In each case, the original Arabic verse is reproduced in the footnotes. This is for the benefit of many Muslims who, while they may not understand

Arabic, have all learnt to read and recite the Quran. All Arabic verses are prefixed with the chapter and verse numbers separated by a period. The book was originally published as a series of articles in Al-Manar. This was a reformist Islamic magazine published by Mohammad Rashid Rida from 1898 to 1935. Footnotes to the articles included comments by both Arsalan and Rashid Rida. I have marked footnotes by Arsalan with (S) and footnotes by Rashid Rida with (R). Dates in the Islamic Hijri calendar are suffixed by (H).

¹ Translations are my own. In some cases, I have used language from Marmaduke Pickthall’s excellent 1930 translation, “The Meaning of the Glorious Koran”.↩

Introduction

On 26th September, 1929, Mohammad Basyuni Imran, the Imam of Java, wrote a letter to his erstwhile teacher, Muhammad Rashid Rida in Cairo. Rida, a reformist Islamic scholar, was also the publisher of the influential Islamic journal, Al-Manar, which he founded in 1898. Among the luminaries who wrote for Al-Manar, was a certain Prince, Shakib Arsalan, who was a leader of the Druze people of Lebanon. Arsalan was also a prolific writer known for his eloquence and for which he earned the sobriquet Ameer Al-Bayan, The Prince of Eloquence. Rida and Arsalan were reformists seeking to develop a political philosophy for Islam. Arsalan had written several articles for Al-Manar about the reasons for the backwardness of Muslims in respect to the western world. Many at the time laid the blame for this on Islam, claiming that the religion’s rigidity was responsible. Arsalan did not agree. He argued forcefully in his writings that the problem was not Islam. So, when Basyuni Imran wrote to Rashid Rida in 1929, he included in his letter two questions and one request. The questions were:

What are the reasons that Muslims today have fallen into weakness and backwardness in regard to both religion and worldly matters (especially us Muslims in Java and Malaya)? We have become servile and subservient with no influence or power. Yet Allah says in his book: Power and glory belong to Allah, His Prophet, and the believers.² So where is the power and glory of the believers today? Is it then right for a believer to claim that he is powerful even when he is servile and subservient and has no claim to power and glory other than that Allah has said: Power and glory belong to Allah, His Prophet, and the believers? What are the policies that have allowed the Europeans, Americans and Japanese to develop into powerful nations? And, is it possible for the Muslims to become like them if they adopt their policies while at the same time holding fast to their

religion, Islam?

Basyuni’s sole request was that Rashid Rida ask the Prince of Eloquence to respond to these two specific questions in his articles for Al-Manar. Shakib Arslan complied and what follows is his response as published in AlManar.

²63.2‫ﻦ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻤﺆ‬ ُ ‫↩وَﻟ ِﻠﻪِ اﻟ ْﻌِﺰة ُ وَﻟ َِﺮ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ِﻪِ وَﻟ ِﻠ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬

Chapter One

Prince Shakib Arslan Responds

The weakness and backwardness of the Muslims is a general phenomenon both in the West and the East. It is not limited to Java and Malaya or to any other place. Indeed, it varies in extent. In places, it is extreme and in others, moderate. In places it is very dangerous and in others, less so. In general, the condition of Muslims in the 20th century is disappointing for even those most enamoured of Islam, not to mention those who are less so.

Uniformity of Weakness in Islamic Peoples

Their condition today is not satisfactory, not in regard to religion, nor in regard to worldly matters, nor in regard to what is essential and significant. You will find that in the lands where Muslims live with people of other religions that they (the Muslims) are rarely at par with the others. And I do not know of Muslims in this age who are better materially than those of other religions except for some rare exceptions. The Muslims of Bosnia, for example, are in general materially better off than the Catholics and Orthodox Christians with whom they share this land. In fact, they are in a much better position. ³Similarly the Christians of Russia do not enjoy a higher status than Muslims. Also, it is not disputed that the Muslims of China, despite their backwardness, are in a better position than the majority of Buddhists among whom they live. Other than these lands, we see the Muslims to be relatively backward compared to their neighbours with slight variations depending on geography. It is said that the Muslims of Singapore Island are richer in of wealth than all the other people who live there, including the English in relation to their numbers. I am not aware of the truth of this assertion but even if it is correct, it does not in any way impact the general global position of Muslims around the world. There is no doubt that the Islamic world today is going through a period of intense transformation at all levels – material and spiritual. There is an impressive awakening that has caught the attention of the Europeans. Some of whom are wary of its consequences. This wariness is not hidden from their public writings. However, this awakening has not taken the Muslims to a level where they are equal to the Europeans or the Americans or the Japanese. This being established, we need now to look at the reasons behind the retreat of the Islamic world from its position of leadership which it retained for the best part of one thousand years. This was a period during which it ruled the world

and was respected and feared by all nations. But before we look at the reasons for its retreat, we need to understand the factors that lifted it, in the first place, to a position of leadership among nations.

Reasons for the Rise of Muslims of the Past

The reasons for the rise of Muslims can be attributed in general to the new Islamic faith that had appeared on the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabian tribes accepted the new religion and were transformed by it; from discord to unity, from primitivity to civilisation, from tyranny to mercy, and from the worship of idols to the worship of the One God. Their essence was remoulded and imbued with a new spirit which led them to the heights of power and invulnerability, to glory and knowledge and wealth. In half a century, they conquered half of the globe. And were it not for the dispute that engulfed them during the last days of the Caliphate of Uthman ⁴ and during the Caliphate of Ali⁵, they would have completed the conquest of the world and no one would have been able to stop them. Their conquests during the first 50 to 75 years of Islam – despite the internecine wars that broke out due to the disputes between Muawiya and Ali, and later between the Bani Umayyah⁷ and Ibn Zubair⁸ – dazzled the minds of wise men, historians and thinkers. And impressed the great conquerors of a later age such as Napoleon Bonaparte, the greatest of them all. That Napoleon stated as much is mentioned by Las Cases who accompanied him to the island of Saint Helena and by others who have written about Napoleon. Their writings establish beyond a doubt that Napoleon, during his time in Egypt, was impressed by Prophet Mohammad, Omar and many other heroes of Islam. It is also reported that his soul whispered to him about what he saw in Egypt and implored him to take up the Islamic faith. Though this reality is not disputed, no significance is given to the state of Arabs before Islam and what is related about their conquests, deep seated civilisations and high moral values. The historical record is clear: There is no doubt that they were possessors of an ancient civilisation that was perhaps the oldest of all civilisations. It is likely that writing began with them. It is assumed that the Phoenicians invented writing, but they were in fact Semitic Arabs.

The reach of Arab civilisation in the period prior to Islam, the Jahiliya as it is known – was limited to the Arabian Peninsula. And then there came a time when outsiders began to rule over the Arabs and subjugate them in their own land. These were the Persians in Yemen and Oman, the Ethiopians in parts of Yemen, the Romans on the edges of the Hijaz and the border with the Levant. In fact, the Arabs were able to become truly independent only with the arrival of Islam. That they came to be known to distant nations, subjugated the Roman and Persian empires, and came to occupy a position of prominence amongst the ranks of conquering nations is due only to Prophet Mohammad. We need to fully understand and grasp the factors behind the rise of the Arabs, their conquests and dominance and to know whether these factors remain with them today. Or whether they have lagged behind despite these factors being present, and in the process have brought down with them, other Muslim peoples. Or, whether these factors are no more, and there does not remain of belief (Emaan) but its name, and of Islam but its ruins, and of the Quran only its recitation with no regard to its commands and prohibitions? Nor does there remain the spirit of the early age of Islam and the authority of the Shariah.

Factors That Allowed Earlier Muslims to Progress Are No More

If we look deeply, we will discover that the factors that allowed the Muslims of earlier times to dominate are no more. All that remains are traces, much like a fading tattoo on the back of a hand. And had Allah promised the believers power and glory by belief alone, without effort or toil, then we would have been justified in asking: Where is the glory and power that He has promised to believers in this verse: Power and glory belong to Allah, His Prophet, and the believers.¹ ? And if Allah had said: It is incumbent upon Us to help the believers¹¹, in the sense that He would help them in the absence of any quality in them other than a declaration that they are Muslims then there could have been room for surprise at this deception after His clear declaration of . But the text of the Quran does not say this. Indeed, Allah never breaks His vows. The Quran has not changed. It is the Muslims who have changed. And Allah has warned of this in His Book: Indeed, Allah does not change what (afflicts) a nation until they (strive to) change what (afflicts) them.¹²

If the Muslims had indeed strived to change their situation then it would have been surprising if Allah had not helped them and had not replaced their ignominy and weakness with the power and glory that He promised. This would have been contrary to Divine Justice. Indeed Allah – Glory be to Him – is Justice. How could it be that Allah will a nation that does not strive and toil; and grace it with the blessings that he bestowed upon their forefathers when it has retreated from their great deeds? That would have been contrary to the Divine Wisdom. Indeed, He is Wise, Powerful. What do you say about glory without merit, harvest without sowing, victory

without effort and help without the slightest reason for that help? There is no doubt that this false expectation is what has enticed people to sloth and indolence and has come between them and the need to strive and toil. This is an expectation that is in violation of the basic law on which Allah has built the cosmos. It is as if truth and falsehood, beneficial and harmful, positive and negative are equal. Far be it for Allah to do so. Had Allah helped his creatures in the absence of effort on their part, then indeed he would have helped His prophet, Mohammad and would not have required him to do battle, or to strive and struggle, or to conform with the natural laws of the universe to achieve his objectives. Consider a nation that has 100 but only gives 5 out of the 100. Would it consider itself to have given what was due from it and expect to be rewarded by Allah as He used to reward their ancestors who would give 100 of 100, and if they were unable to give 100 would give either 80 or 90? This expectation is in violation of Allah’s promise to his messengers (peace be upon them), in violation of logic and common sense and of the wisdom of the Shariah. This is not the promise that Allah made to the believers and nor is it the ‘bargain’ in which the believers rejoice. Allah says:

Lo! Allah hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because Paradise will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain. It is a promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an. Who is it that fulfils His covenant better than Allah? Rejoice then in your bargain that you have made, for that is the supreme triumph.¹³

Where are the Muslims today in regard to this description in the Book of Allah? And where do they stand in regard to their ancestors who would fall over each other for death and martyrdom on the battlefield? Many times, they would seek death only to be disappointed that it did not seek them. And the horseman (faris) would advance in battle whispering to himself: I smell the scent of Paradise. He would continue to fight until, if he was martyred, he would say: “This is a day of joy.” And if martyrdom escaped him despite his longing for it, he would return sad and dejected to his tribe.

A Comparison of the Conditions of Muslims and Europeans Today

Today the Muslims, or at least most of them, have lost the fervour of their forefathers. Indeed, this fervour has been embraced by the enemies of Islam even though their own Book¹⁴ does not impose this on them. You will find their soldiers falling over each other to drink from the watering holes of death and to embrace the swords and spears that stand in their way. The extent of what they spent of their wealth and the number of lives they sacrificed in the General War¹⁵ is beyond human imagination. The Germans alone, lost about 2 million men; the French, a million and a half; the English, 600 thousand; the Italians, 450 thousand and the Russians, a number beyond estimate. The English spent seven billion Guineas; the French about two billion; the Germans, three billion and Italy 500 million. As for Russia, it spent to such an extent that the resulting famine triggered the Bolshevik revolution. So, let someone tell me: Which Muslim nation today has sacrificed what these Christians have sacrificed of their lives and their wealth in the interests of their people and nations? Should we wonder then why Allah has given them great power, wealth and blessings, and has given the Muslims only a small part of these? It is said that the Muslims are poor and that they don’t have the wealth to spend in this way. We say: Let us consider the proportion the Europeans have spent in regard to their per capita income. And then let us ask the Muslims to spend of their per capita income in the same proportion. Will the Islamic nations of today be generous to the extent of the European nations, some of which spent on the General War more than half of their wealth? The answer: There is no one among the Muslims today, be it nations or individuals who would do this. And indeed, it is the rare Muslim who spends what he is required to spend of the mandatory Zakat.

It could be said, that the Turkish nation, a Muslim nation, spent all that it was able to spend on its war with Greece and did not fall short of the Europeans in of sacrifice of life and wealth. Yes, there were among the Turks who spent a third of their wealth and those who spent half of their wealth. And for this, they were rewarded with victory and the blessings of Allah. They liberated themselves and achieved independence. They were lifted after they had fallen. They exchanged ignominy for glory. So if the Islamic nations are guided in their disputes by what their Book has commanded them and the ways of their forefathers, or at least by the sacrifice of their lives and wealth in the same way as the Europeans do today in defence of their lands and values, they would have reaped the fruits of sacrifice just as others have and would have won the blessings and pleasure of Allah. But the Islamic nations want to keep their independence without any sacrifice; not spending of their wealth, nor risking their lives and nor descending on the battlefield when beckoned. All the time calling on Allah for His help with no regard to the condition that He has imposed for this help:

Indeed, Allah helps one who helps Him.¹

And He says to the believers.

If you help Allah, He will help you and make you stand firm.¹⁷

It is clear that Allah does not need to help anyone. His help is intended only to aid people to comply with what He has ordained and to desist from what He has proscribed. But the Muslims have ignored all, or at least most of what He has ordained in their Book. They have sought to obtain His help only on the basis of their being Muslims and worshiping Him. They have come to believe that this act alone obviates the need for them to strive and to spend of their lives and wealth. And among them are those who have depended solely on prayers and

supplication to Allah because they find this easier than fighting and spending. If prayer alone were to obviate the need to strive and fight then indeed the Prophet and his companions and the forefathers of this nation were more worthy of their prayers being answered. And were hopes and desires to be achieved with prayer and recitation alone without work or effort, the laws of the universe would have been upended, and the Shariah rendered invalid. And Allah would not have said:

And for man is only that for which he strives.¹⁸

Nor would He have said: Say (O Mohammad).

Work; Allah, His messenger and the Believers will see what you have achieved.¹

And nor would He have said to those who excused themselves from battle:

Make no excuse, we (the Muslims) do not believe you. Allah has informed us of your news. He and his messenger will see your deeds.²

And He would not have said:

Indeed, I will not let the (reward for the) work you have done be lost.²¹

Many Muslims have come to assume that they are Muslims only because of their prayers and fasting and that nothing of sacrifice in the way of blood and wealth is expected of them. On the basis of these assumptions, they have come to expect the help of Allah. But alas! This is not the way it is. The imperatives of Islam are not limited to prayer and fasting, nor to supplication and seeking forgiveness. How can Allah accept supplication from those who have sat out conflicts and retreated when it was in their ability to rise and sacrifice?

The Muslim Excuse and Its Rejection

They say: The Muslims do not have what the Europeans do of wealth and ability to spend on works of charity and to help each other. We say to those who make this excuse: We will be pleased with them if, as we have mentioned earlier, they spend in proportion to their wealth. Will the Muslims do this? We have seen them destroy the tradition of giving and the institutions of charity that their forefathers had left behind not to mention giving of their personal wealth. They are not able to match the Europeans in regard to contributions to public projects. So how can the Muslims aspire to the position of Europeans in of power and influence when they are so far behind them in of the spirit of sacrifice? Indeed, the effort to seek power on Earth is equivalent to reaping the crops of harvest: Your gain is proportional to the effort you put in. If you are lax in effort, so too will be the fruits of your labour. The Muslims want power similar to the power of the Europeans without effort and sacrifice and without losing their pleasures and comforts. They forget that Allah says:

And surely, we shall try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives and crops; but give glad tidings to the patient.²²

And they will say: “But we have tried effort and sacrifice and have been tested by loss of wealth and lives and the fruits of our harvest and we have been patient. But all of this has been of no avail; the Europeans continue to dominate us.” I relate this saying because I have heard it said many times. And my answer: Are they able to say that what they are claiming in of effort and sacrifice is even remotely close to what the Christians and Jews do in this regard? What’s more, can they claim that our giving is even one percent of

what others give? We have a recent example in the matter of Palestine: Bloody skirmishes broke out between the Arabs and Jews. There were injured on both sides. Jews around the world, started to collect donations for their injured. At the same time, the Islamic world called for donations for their injured. Lo and behold, the contributions of the Jews amounted to one million Guineas and that of all Muslims to 13,000 Guineas – less than a fraction of one percent!²³ And they will say: But the Muslims do not have as much wealth as the Jews. So, we repeat what we have said: We will be happy if they spend of their wealth the same proportion as the Jews and Europeans do of theirs. And of course, we do not call on the poor, those who have only enough to feed their families, to do the same because Allah says:

There is no blame on those who are weak, or sick, or those who are unable to their families (if they do not strive in the way of Allah) if they are sincere to Allah and his Messenger. And there is no reproaching those who en to good.²⁴

And then He says:

Indeed, reproach is for those who seek your (Mohammad’s) permission to abstain even though they are wealthy, and choose instead to remain behind.²⁵

We also say: Even if the Jews as individuals have more wealth, the Muslims substantially outnumber them. There are 20 million Jews while the Muslims number about 400 million.² So if every Muslim were to donate a penny each, an amount that even the poorest can afford, we could gather a total of three and a half million Guineas. But let us leave out nine tenths of the Muslim population and impose this

donation on only one tenth of them who live in and around Palestine. The Muslims in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Najd, Hijaz and Yemen number some 35 million. One penny from each of them would amount to 350 thousand Guineas. And yet they only managed to donate 13,000 Guineas! This works out to three tenths of a Penny per head from one tenth of the global Muslim population. Is this what they call ‘sacrifice’? Is this how you ‘fight in the way of Allah with your lives and wealth?’²⁷ And is this the extent of your for your brothers in faith and your neighbours who safeguard, on your behalf, the Masjid Al-Aqsa, the third holy sanctuary and the first of the two Qiblas? Did Allah not say: Indeed, the believers are brothers.²⁸? Is this how brothers help brothers? They say: How has the English nation come to dominate the world? We answer: They have come to dominate the world because of their principles and high sense of nationality. A man I trust, related to me the story of an Englishmen who held an important position in the East. The Englishman would send his servant to buy the daily needs of his house from a local shop in their locality. One day, the servant came back with a monthly invoice showing he had saved 20 Guineas. When asked how he managed this, the servant replied: I stopped buying from a shop owned by an Englishman and started to buy instead from a shop owned by a local. The Englishman was not pleased and asked the servant to continue buying from the first shop. The servant, taken aback, asked: Even if that means spending 20 Guineas extra? The reply was: Even if it means spending 20 Guineas extra! I have heard that many of the English posted abroad do not purchase anything of value from the colonies. They specify whatever they need and send out for it to London so that their wealth is not spent abroad. Compare this to the ways of the Muslims: No matter how much you urge them to buy from their own nations and people, if they discover that they can save half a Penny in buying from an Englishman they will do so. Is it not things like this that led to the collapse of the Arab boycott of the Jews in Palestine? ² The Muslims denied themselves the most powerful weapon at their disposal against the Jews – prohibiting trade with them – for the sake of trifling gains. Not realising that the damage they did to themselves was a thousand times greater than the saving from these minor differences in prices.

The Results of Egypt’s for the Fighters of Tripoli³ and Cyrenaica³¹

I reproached once a high-level Egyptian official on Egypt’s neglect of fighters in Tripoli and Cyrenaica saying: If it was not incumbent upon Egypt to help in line with the Islamic imperative of helping brothers and neighbours then at least they should have considered the independence and security of Egypt. Because the presence of the English in Sudan and the Italians in Cyrenaica is a constant threat to Egypt. The response of the Egyptian official was: The Egyptians spent large amounts when the Italians attacked Tripoli. It was of no benefit. In the end, the Italians occupied Tripoli. I said to him: No doubt the Egyptian conduct in the battle for Tripoli would make not just every Muslim but every human being proud. But the amount spent by Egypt is known. It was 150 thousand Guineas. So, do the Muslims in all corners of the globe aspire to extract Tripoli from the jaws of the Italians with 150 thousand Guineas? And does this contribution compare in any way to the sacrifices of the Italians in of men and money? Bear in mind also that the Ottomans spent two million Guineas on the same war. And see what the consequences were:

First consequence: And perhaps the most important, was the preservation of Islam’s dignity and making clear to the Europeans that Islam is not dead and that the Muslims will not cede their nations to them without a fight. These are benefits that only the ignorant can refute.

Second consequence: The paucity of contributions of Muslims, relative to the attacking nations, obliged the people of Tripoli to accustom themselves to fight and resist in light of the (minimal) they received from their brothers. It was this resistance that greatly amplified Italian problems and losses to the extent that Italian politicians screamed their regret at the

invasion of Tripoli.

Third consequence: Whatever the number of casualties of the Arabs in this war, the total number of casualties of the Italians exceed by many times those suffered by the Arabs. Indeed, a separate article is needed to fully detail the horrors suffered by the Italians in this war. In just one incident, the battle of Fuwayha at the entrance of Benghazi, just 150 Arab fighters held off 3000 Italian soldiers from sunrise to sunset. Eventually, the Italians were forced to retreat after heavy losses. Later, it became clear from a telegram from Astana citing sources in Berlin and Rome that the Italians had suffered the loss of 1500 soldiers. This battle is like at least fifty similar battles. The Muslims, in the battle Fuwahya, took on a force twenty times their size and destroyed half of it which was ten times their own number. Indeed, Allah has decreed that when they are strong, they will be able to overcome a force ten times their size, and when they are weak, a force twice their size. As He has said in Surah Al-Anfal:

Oh Prophet! Exhort the believers to battle if there be among you twenty steadfast they will overcome a hundred, and if there be among you 100 steadfast they will overcome one thousand of the disbelievers.³² And He says: Now Allah has tempered (your burden) because he knows that you are weak: (Now) if there be among you 100 steadfast they will overcome 200, and if there are 1000 from you they will overcome 2000 by permission of Allah. Indeed, Allah is with the steadfast.³³

Fourth consequence: The Italian expense on the Tripoli war in the first year from 1911 to 1912 was approximately 100 million Guineas. And it is thought that over the past twenty years until today that has now reached 300 million Guineas.³⁴

All of this was because of the modest contributions of the Muslims and their limited expenditure on this war. But do the Muslims expect that Italy, a great nation with a population of 44 million and a GNP of 200 million Guineas, will be defeated by a single blow in the first year of war and if this objective is not achieved, then all hope is lost and all effort is in vain? Some of them have been afflicted by a sense of despondency that is tantamount to disbelief (kufr) by the clear declaration of the Quran:

Indeed, only those who do not believe despair of the Mercy of Allah.³⁵

Let us give a third example. And then we will desist from giving more examples because they are countless: The people of the province of Rif in the Maghrib³ stood in the face of the Spanish for years until they finally overcame them and expelled them and their armies. This was after wiping out in a single battle, a force of 26 thousand Spaniards and capturing 170 cannons. Bear in mind that the total population of the Rif is 800 thousand people and the population of Spain is 22 million. Further, most of the Rif is arid and the people who live there are poor, barely eking out a basic existence. Their achievement (in expelling Spain) astonished the whole world. If the people of Rif had been Christians, millions of Guineas would have rained down upon them from every direction either surreptitiously or overtly through the Red Cross in the way of treating their injured. So, let the Muslims tell us how many Guineas did they give to the Rif at that time? Then colluded with Spain and together they assembled a force of 300 thousand soldiers. The Rif was surrounded from all sides – land and sea. Hundreds of aircraft bombed their villages. And when French and Spanish bombers proved insufficient, they were ed by a squadron of American planes from New York. This was in the way of for Christian Spain and against the Muslims, only because they were Muslims. All this, and the Muslims of the world watched with hands folded. And their hands remained folded for a whole year. Finally, some of them rose to collect

donations for the wounded of the Rif. And to infuse fervour, the author of these lines did not limit his efforts to writing but also donated 4 Guineas to set an example. So how much was the total contribution from the Islamic world? The answer: 1500 Guineas no more! Has there ever been a betrayal greater than this betrayal among the Muslims?

Betrayal by Some Muslims of Their Faith and Nation and Their Lame Excuse

Would that the Muslims had limited their betrayal of the people of Rif to this extent. Instead, groups of them fought against the people of Rif with more fervour than the foreigners. Many powerful tribes colluded against Mohammad ibn Abdul Kareem.³⁷ They ed the foreigners against their own sons and people and nation in order to gain favour with the French and the Spanish. Similar things have happened with us here in Syria during the revolt against , as they have happened in many other Islamic nations. Is it with this in mind that our brother Sheikh Basyuni Imran calls upon his Lord to grant to Muslims the glory that He has promised?³⁸ And if you ask these Muslims, who are allied with the enemy against their brothers: How can you do this when you know that it is against our interests and in violation of faith, honour, dignity and chivalry? They will answer: “What can we do when the foreigners have forced us to do it and if we refuse, they will kill us? We have been obliged to fight in their ranks out of fear for them.” Have they forgotten the words of Allah?

Do you fear them? Allah is more deserving that you fear Him if you were believers.³

And His words:

Do not fear them. Fear me if you are believers.⁴

The statements of Muslims such as these excusing themselves are not correct. Certainly, the foreigners have tried to recruit many Muslims to betrayal. But they refused. And the sky did not fall on them nor did the earth swallow them. Indeed, if the foreign occupiers of Muslim lands are angry with those who do not accept the call to betray their own people, it is because they have found many Muslims who offer their services to fight their own brothers with enthusiasm while offering guidance and expressing complete loyalty to them during this betrayal. Were it not for this gratuitous betrayal and the rush to help the foreigners against sons of the nation, the foreigners would not have been emboldened and would not have achieved their abominable dominance? And they would not have been able to demand that the Muslims go against the principles of their religion and their worldly interests in favour of their interests. The Muslims were obliged to die for the sake of death. Indeed, there are two types of death: One is death for the sake of life. This is the death that the Quran exhorts the believers to seek if the enemy extends his hand towards them. It is the death described by an Arab poet of the pre-Islamic period:

َ َ ‫ﺗﺄ َﺧﺮت أ َﺳﺘﺒﻘﻲ اﻟﺤﻴﺎة َ ﻓَﻠ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻣﺜ‬ ⁴¹‫ﻘﺪﻣﺎ‬ َ َ ‫ن أ َﺗ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺟﺪ ْ ﻟ ِﻨ‬ ِ ً ‫ﺣﻴ َﺎة‬ ِ ‫ﻔ‬ ِ َْ ْ ُ ْ َ ْ ‫ﻞ أ‬ َ ‫ﺴﻲ‬ َ َ ِ ‫ﻢ أ‬ ْ

This is the death that the Frenchman dies so that may live, and the German so that may live and the Englishman for the sake of Great Britain and so on. They all see this as incumbent upon them and do not bat an eyelid in offering it. The second is death so that death may continue. This is the death that Muslims die in the service of nations that have occupied their lands. They die so that they can help their enemies against their own people. So, the Maghrabi dies to help against , the Indian dies to help England against her enemies, the Tatars die for Russia to be victorious. The reality is that helping against its enemies only serves to intensify their unjust oppression of Muslims and appropriation of their properties and

usurpation of their rights. This is what happened after the General War. French ambition in the Maghrib increased to the extent that they sought to proselytise the Berber population in order to make them part of the French population. And to guarantee their hold on the Maghrib, they began to call it ‘French Africa’. In short, the Maghribi dies on the banks of the Rhine or in Syria so that more death can come to the Maghrib. Because every enemy that the French are able to defeat abroad, allows them, without doubt, to intensify their oppression and debasement of the Maghribi. Similarly, the death of an Indian for the sake of England serves only to extend their slavery. And the death of a Tatar in the service of Russia serves only to increase its oppression of the Tatars. This death for the sake of death is, as is said, on a descending line in regard to consequence. But there is another death for the sake of death, directly without an intermediary. And this is when a Maghribi dies while fighting his brother Maghribi who has risen to remove the French yoke of slavery that has all but crushed his neck. And if it has not crushed it entirely, it is only to keep him alive for a life closer to death than it is to life. And were these matters limited to the masses or the ignorant we would have excused them for their ignorance because they do not understand the Quran or the Sunnah or worldly politics. Nor do they appreciate the exigencies of the age. They are guided much like cattle to slaughter. Much more bitter is the betrayal of the elite. An example of which is the minister Mohammad Al Muqri⁴² who is more bigoted that the French themselves, in seeking to eliminate the Islamic Shariah among the Berbers.⁴³ And similar to Muqri is Al-Baghadi Pasha of Fez who had one hundred young men whipped by their own people because they gathered at the University of AlQarawiyyin and raised slogans with a prayer to their Lord: “Oh Most Beneficent, be benevolent with us as we face the vicissitudes of fate and do not separate us from our brothers, the Berbers.” Then there is the Mufti of Fez who issued a religious edict that abrogation of the Islamic Shariah among the Berbers does not put them outside Islam! And so on. Every one of these traitorous apostates, may Allah shame them, exceeded the bounds of arrogance and voraciously appropriated the wealth of the Ummah. They continue to covet closeness to and seek to prove their friendship

with her even at the expense of their faith and the Dunya, only so that they can retain their official positions and benefits during what remains of their miserable lives. And there is not even one of the likes of these traitors but that he is aware of the intentions of the French and their objectives in implementing this new system for the Berbers. And there is not among them other than who knows about the existence of an army of priests and bishops and nuns who roam their lands, build churches, stalk the weak, the poor, orphans and the infirm of faith.⁴⁴ And there is not among them other than who knows that has forbidden Islamic scholars and preachers from travelling among the Berbers so that there are no impediments to the call of the evangelists to Christianity.⁴⁵ And perhaps Al-Muqri and Al-Baghdadi are at the forefront of those who signed the order preventing Islamic scholars and bearers of the Quran from entry into Berber villages. And it is perhaps this Al-Muqri who allocated money from the treasury for the newspaper ‘Catholic Marrakesh’ which is known for its criticism of Islam and slander of the Prophet. There are many more like these two among us, who harbour similar ill will. And after this, who knows Al-Muqri may be among those who pray and fast, and with rosary in hand, sing praises to the Lord? And who knows the infamous AlBaghdadi may be among those who pray at graves and in a show of deceitful piety seek intercession from the Auliya? As for the Mufti: He is the Mufti so there is no need for him to prove that he prays the five prayers or fasts or stands in prayer at night. We in Syria have experienced something of this sort during the early stages of the colonial era. But the treachery of these turbaned sheikhs was not directly related to matters of religion. asked them to endorse a cable to the League of Nations rejecting the call of the Syria-Palestine summit for the independence of Syria and Palestine. Among the many who signed were those with elaborately wound turbans, flowing robes, thick necks and huge bellies. If I do not say now ‘May Allah shame them’ it is because I fear the censure of our brothers in the Maghrib who view me as having singled out with this prayer their great leader and their top mufti while overlooking the turbaned sheikhs of Syria. Therefore, justice demands that we say: “May Allah shame them all, shame those among them in the East, and those in the West who endorse the

recommendations of foreigners that are detrimental to the faith and the nation.”⁴ Perhaps our brother, Sheikh Basyuni Imran will say: Such people are few, so it is not appropriate to make the whole Islamic Ummah responsible for their sins and treachery. The reply to this is: It is not hidden that sin is limited to those who commit it but the consequences encom all. Also, I do not accept that these people are few and that the Ummah is not responsible. Were there an Ummah standing behind these Sheikhs who they feared they would never have dared to trade in the faith of the Ummah after first having traded in its Dunya. In fact, had the French persisted in pressuring them to endorse action damaging to their Ummah it would have behooved the Sheikhs to have left their positions and secluded themselves in their houses. In this event, the French would have sought others to do this task. And if these others had also demurred, they would have sought others still. Finally, after all had refused to comply, they would have recognised the futility of their efforts and would have desisted from their Berber conspiracy and others like it. But the French continue to pursue these efforts because of the they get from people who claim to be Muslims, and demolish Islam with pickaxes wielded by its own people. And they say: We have nothing to do with this matter.⁴⁷ Do you not see what they said about the Berber Pact: That it was issued by the Government of the Sultan?⁴⁸ Is this the Islam whose people Sheikh Basyuni Imran implores Allah to help? Allah says:

And it was not for thy Lord to destroy townships unjustly while their people ened good.⁴

There is no doubt that the ‘Muslims’ who sink to this level of ignominy while the Ummah looks away and allows them to squander away its rights deserve that Islam be purified of them. Indeed, Allah has allowed foreigners to occupy the lands of the Muslims so that they can demean them, usurp their rights, teach

them a lesson and purify them just as fire separates gold from dross. Allah Says:

Corruption has appeared on land and sea because the hands of men have earned it (and) to give them a flavour of what they have done (in the hope) that perhaps they will return (to the right path).⁵

Corruption has reached a limit where the greatest enemies of the Muslims are Muslims. Even if a Muslim wishes to serve his people or his nation, he fears revealing his intention to his brother Muslim since the latter may go to the occupying foreigners and betray his confidant, in the hope that it will bring him closer to the foreigners. A hope that is perhaps futile in any event.⁵¹

King Ibn Saud on the Treachery and Betrayal of Muslims

King Ibn Saud⁵² put it wonderfully when he said: “I don’t fear for the Muslims other than from the Muslims themselves. I don’t fear foreigners as much as I fear Muslims.”⁵³ He was exactly on the mark. Indeed, there is no victory that the foreigners have achieved in the lands of the Muslims in which the Muslims themselves did not help them to varying degrees. Some of them spied on their own people for the foreigners. Others spread propaganda. And then there were some, who wielded the sword and spilled the blood of their own people in the service of the foreigners.

So where is their Islam and their faith in regard to the words of Allah:

Indeed, the Muslims are brothers,⁵⁴ and He who takes them as friends is one of them,⁵⁵ and: Indeed, Allah has forbidden those who fight you for (the sake of) religion, and those who expel you from your homes, and those who assist, to take them as friends. Indeed, whoever befriends them then he is among the wrongdoers.⁵ and: Be aware of Allah, and make good of matters amongst you, and obey Allah and his Messenger if you be believers.⁵⁷

Is this obedience to Allah and his Messenger? Is this brotherhood in faith? Is this how faith and its followers are protected? Or is it for people such as these that Allah promised His help and glory and power on the Earth while they were betraying their people and their nation to the foreigners? Whenever someone reproaches them for their treachery, they excuse themselves by saying it was not possible for us to refuse for fear of retribution so we chose the lighter of the two evils.

But all their excuses do not rest on an iota of truth. They could have served their people with their swords and, if not with swords, with their pens and if not with their pens, with their tongues and if not with their tongues, with their hearts.⁵⁸ But they refused other than to be cronies of the foreigners against their own people. They refused other than to spearhead attacks on their own lands. They refused other than to be instruments of the foreigners against their own nations. And despite this you will see them relaxed of mind, living happily and sleeping well. All the time devouring what they have sold of Muslim heritage. People such as these have no conscience that pricks them from inside, and we do not find among the Muslims on the outside those who dare to onish them.⁵ We do not generalise what we have said on this subject to the whole Islamic world. In the Afghan nation, for example, no one can speak openly about loving foreigners and expect to stay alive. Amongst the Najdis , no one exists who dares to side with foreigners against his own people. As for the Egyptians, their political awareness has risen a lot from before; for anyone to express an inclination towards foreigners or a preference to foreign rule is tantamount to courting danger. As for the rest of the Islamic countries: Whoever desires to discard the leash and display disobedience to the enemy of his faith and his land, fears no harm, feels no disquiet and has no sleepless nights.

Is it for such as these that Allah says.

Allah has promised those who believe among you and do good deeds that He will make them rulers of the Earth just as He did of those who came before you, and He will empower their faith which He has chosen for them, and exchange their fear for calm (provided) they worship Me and do not associate in partnership to Me anything. ¹

Far be it for Allah to have intended by His words these ‘Muslims’ who betray their faith, serve enemies and foster enmity for their brothers to curry favour with foreigners for the sake of the Dunya and its ephemeral debris. How can this

be when He has conditioned faith with an imperative – the performing of virtuous deeds? They have sold their souls for a pittance. Similarly, Allah does not mean by His words those Muslims who, while they did not sell out their people or intrigue with the foreigners against their faith, they thought it suffices Islam to bow and prostrate, to recite supplications and to prolong the flow of rosary beads between their fingers. They thought this is Islam. But had this been sufficient for the Muslim and for his success in the Dunya and the Hereafter, the Quran would not have been replete with an urging to strive, to give preference to others, to be truthful and patient, to give succour to fellow believers, to do justice and good deeds and to be adorned with the best of morals and ethics. And had this been sufficient for Islam, Allah would not have said:

Say (O Mohammad) if your fathers, and your sons, and your wives and your tribe, and the wealth that you have earned, and the trade whose decline you fear, and the houses that you desire are more dear to you than Allah and His messenger, and to striving for the sake of Him, then wait until Allah delivers His command. Allah does not guide the dissolute and profligate. ²

So, is our brother, Sheikh Basyuni Imran or anyone else able to say: That the Muslims today, other than a vanishing few, prefer Allah and His messenger to their fathers and brothers and wives, and their trade and wealth and houses, or prefer the love of Allah and His messenger – Indeed love of Allah and His messenger is the essence of Islam – to even a small fraction of their wealth or trade?

Striving to Spread the Faith: A Comparison between Muslims and Christians

Let’s assume that the project to convert the Berbers to Catholicism enters a phase of success. The Pope calls on all Catholics in the world to donate generously to this cause which the French initiated to convert all Berbers from Islam to Christianity. How many millions of Guineas do you think will rain upon the missionaries and priests and nuns to build churches, schools, shelters, hospitals and dioceses and the like to complete the project to have eight million Berbers the world’s 400 million Catholics? No doubt the answer will be many millions collected in a period of a few months. And if it is said to the Protestants: Come, we have permitted you to proselytise the Berbers, donate whatever you are able to for this cause. Indeed, the millions that will flow will be twice what the Catholics collected; and this will happen in a shorter period of time. Now let’s say to the Muslims: The Berbers are on the verge of departing from Islam and the reason for their expected apostasy is ignorance. So, it is incumbent upon us to send them religious scholars and preachers so that they can understand the faith, and to build for them mosques, shelters and religious schools and other means by which we can prevent them from leaving Islam and the Muslims. So, what is the amount that you think the Muslims will, after being implored, donate for this cause? I don’t think they will donate more than one hundredth of what the Catholics and Protestants have donated. ³ So you see the ardour and enthusiasm of the Christians for their faith and that of the Muslims for theirs. There are people who ask about the reasons for the decline of the Muslims and their inability to compete with others. Were they to contemplate these differences in ardour, enthusiasm and , they would have their answer? Of the strangest of things is that, we see the Europeans, their missionaries and their students in the East, after all this, accusing the Muslims of religious bigotry

and fanaticism and labelling them as such, while at the same time arrogating to themselves forbearance and leniency. By Allah, this is the wonder of wonders! And I, while writing this with the intention to defend not transgress, as well as the esteemed publisher of Al-Manar ⁴ and Abdul Hameed Bek Saeed, President of the Muslim Youth League, and others who defend the right of Islam, and men who wish to prevent aggression against Islam, and those calling on the Muslims to beware of the danger that stares us in the face; all of us are accused of religious bigotry and labelled by this word. This is not just among non-Muslims but among ‘Geographic Muslims’ as well. By these, I mean those who boast of their ‘non-religious’ politics and proclaim that they attribute no weight to religion. For long have they sought to curry favour with the Christians by not defending Islam as Zeyd and ’Amr ⁵ defend it. This is a faction that people know. And they know themselves. Were the Christians to think about the Geographic Muslims, they would learn that they are not worth anything and do not deserve their respect. Because anyone who seeks to curry favour in this way is not worthy of trust or honour. Nothing adorns a person better than uprightness and congruence of the inside with the outside. So, the Muslim will not rid himself of the label ‘fanatic’ until, if he hears that the French are trying to convert the Berbers he es by as if he hears nothing. And until, if he hears that the Dutch have converted 100 thousand Muslims – a member of the Dutch parliament has claimed that they have converted one million Muslims in Java – he shrugs his shoulders saying: It is of no importance to me whether a Javanese is a Muslim or a Christian. Then the Muslim has become cultured and is considered civilised. He is loved and only good things are said about him! As for the European: He can spend heaps of treasure to spread Christian propaganda among the Muslims and it with guns and planes and tanks. He can come between the Muslim and his faith directly or indirectly. He can scheme all possible schemes to crush Islam in the lands of Islam and there is nothing to prohibit him from doing so. Nor does this action dispossess him of the title of ‘cultured’ or ‘urbane’ or ‘contemporary’. And stranger than this, it does not dispossess him of being described as ‘civilised’ or ‘irreligious’ or ‘tolerant’.

And these ‘Geographic Muslims’ despite many clear examples and despite what the ‘secular’ French Republic did in the matter of the Berbers to achieve Catholic religious objectives, and despite the protection Holland provided for Bible missionaries in Java, and despite the formal decision of the Belgian government to complete the Christianisation of the Congo, and despite the English forbidding the circulation of Islamic literature among Africans in Uganda, Dar As Salaam and Sudan, and despite many other matters which we are not able to explain now, continue to deceive the Muslims saying: “Europe has kicked out religion with its foot and has moved to a secular model. And because of this it has progressed and succeeded, while we will never succeed so long as we follow the Islamic model.” ⁷ The broadcast of this sophistry has been taken up by people from Turkey who have found, among its recipients, many who accept it. And you see people from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Persia who profess its because they find, in all circumstances, gullible people who believe them.

Indeed, it is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts in bosoms that are blind. ⁸

³ #### Muslims were better off materially than the Catholics and the Orthodox Christians because 80% of the land area of Bosnia was owned by Muslims. The farm labor working these lands consisted entirely of Serbs. But a few decades ago, the government in Belgrade ed a law which allowed them to confiscate these lands from the Muslims and give them to Serbian farmers with only a minimum of reparation. Today, Muslims own only 25% of the land. As a result, their economic importance has declined. But they remain culturally dominant to this date. (S)↩ ⁴ Uthman ibn ’Affan (577 – 656) Third Caliph of Islam↩ ⁵ Ali ibn Abi Talib (599 – 661) Cousin and son in law of the Prophet. Fourth Caliph of Islam↩ Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan (602 – 680) Founder and first Caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate↩

‫‪⁷ Bani Umayyah or Umayyads: Ruling family of Islamic Caliphate between 661‬‬ ‫↩‪and 750‬‬ ‫‪⁸ Abdullah ibn Al-Zubair: Leader of Caliphate based in Makkah that rivalled the‬‬ ‫↩‪Umayyads from 683 to his death in 692.‬‬ ‫↩‪ Omar ibn Al-Khattab (584 – 644) Second Caliph of Islam.‬‬ ‫ﻦ ‪¹ 63.2‬‬ ‫ﻤﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫↩وَﻟ ِﻠﻪِ اﻟ ْﻌِﺰة ُ وَﻟ َِﺮ ُ‬ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ِﻪِ وَﻟ ِﻠ ْ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ َ‬ ‫ﻦ ‪¹¹ 47.30‬‬ ‫ﻤﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫ن َ‬ ‫↩وَﻛ َﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺼُﺮ اﻟ ْ ُ‬ ‫ﺣﻘﺎ ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻨ َﺎ ﻧ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹² 13.11‬‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﺑ ِﺄ َﻧ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﺑ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻔ ِ‬ ‫ﻘﻮْم ٍ َ‬ ‫ﺴﻬِ ْ‬ ‫ﻰ ﻳ ُﻐَﻴُﺮوا َ‬ ‫ﻪ َﻻ ﻳ ُﻐَﻴُﺮ َ‬ ‫↩إ ِن اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﺣﺘ ٰ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻪ ا ْ‬ ‫ن ﻓِﻲ ‪¹³ 8.11‬‬ ‫ﺔ ﻳ ُ َ‬ ‫ﻦ أ َﻧ ُ‬ ‫ﺠﻨ َ‬ ‫ﻤﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﺷﺘ ََﺮىٰ ِ‬ ‫ﻘﺎﺗ ِﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻔ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻮَاﻟ َﻬُﻢ ﺑ ِﺄن ﻟ َﻬُ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ وَأ ْ‬ ‫ﺴﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟ ْ ُ‬ ‫إ ِن اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ َ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ‫ﻞ وَاﻟ ْ ُ‬ ‫ن وَﻳ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻞ اﻟﻠﻪِ ﻓَﻴ َ ْ‬ ‫ن وَﻋ ْﺪ ًا ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻪِ َ‬ ‫ﻘﺘ َﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻘﺘ ُﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺣﻘﺎ ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺘﻮَْراةِ وَاْﻹ ِﻧ ِ‬ ‫ن وَ َ‬ ‫ﻘْﺮآ ِ‬ ‫ﺠﻴ ِ‬ ‫ﺳﺒ ِﻴ ِ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻔﻮُْز‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟﺬ ِي ﺑ َﺎﻳ َﻌْﺘ ُﻢ ﺑ ِﻪِ وَ ٰذ َﻟ ِﻚ ﻫُﻮَ اﻟ َ‬ ‫ﺳﺘ َﺒ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻰ ﺑ ِﻌَﻬْﺪ ِهِ ِ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟﻠﻪِ ﻓﺎ ْ‬ ‫ﺸُﺮوا ﺑ ِﺒ َﻴ ْﻌِﻜ ُ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫أوْﻓ ٰ‬ ‫ﻢ‬ ‫↩اﻟ ْﻌَﻈ ِﻴ ُ‬ ‫↩‪¹⁴ The Bible‬‬ ‫↩‪¹⁵ What we now call World War I‬‬ ‫ﺼُﺮه ُ ‪¹ 22.40‬‬ ‫ﻪ َ‬ ‫ﺼَﺮن اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َﻨ ُ‬ ‫↩وَﻟ َﻴ َﻨ ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹⁷ 47.7‬‬ ‫ﻣﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺖ أﻗْﺪ َا َ‬ ‫ﻢ وَﻳ ُﺜ َﺒ ْ‬ ‫ﺼْﺮﻛ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺼُﺮوا اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻳ َﻨ ُ‬ ‫↩إ ِن ﺗ َﻨ ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻰ ‪¹⁸ 53.39‬‬ ‫ﻣﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺲ ﻟ ِْﻺ ِﻧ َ‬ ‫ن إ ِﻻ َ‬ ‫↩وَأن ﻟﻴ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺴﺎ ِ‬ ‫ﺳﻌ َ ٰ‬ ‫ن ‪¹ 9.105‬‬ ‫ﻤﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ وََر ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ﻓَ َ‬ ‫ﻪ وَاﻟ ْ ُ‬ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ُ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﺴﻴ ََﺮى اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻞ اﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫↩وَﻗُ ِ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪² 9.94‬‬ ‫ﻦ أ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ِ‬ ‫ﻻ ﺗ َﻌْﺘ َﺬ ُِروا ﻟ َﻦ ﻧﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻢ وَ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻴ ََﺮى اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﺧﺒ َﺎرِﻛ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻗَﺪ ْ ﻧ َﺒﺄﻧ َﺎ اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻦ ﻟ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻪ‬ ‫↩وََر ُ‬ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ُ ُ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻣﻨﻜﻢ ‪²¹ 3.195‬‬ ‫ﻞ ﻋ َﺎ ِ‬ ‫↩أﻧﻲ َﻻ أ ِ‬ ‫ﺿﻴﻊُ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﻣ ٍ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫وَﻟ َﻨ َﺒ ْﻠ ُﻮَﻧﻜ ُﻢ ﺑ ِ َ‬ ‫ت ‪²² 2.155‬‬ ‫ل وَاْﻷ َﻧ ُ‬ ‫ﺠﻮِع وَﻧ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻤَﺮا ِ‬ ‫ف وَاﻟ ْ ُ‬ ‫ﺨﻮْ ِ‬ ‫ﺲ وَاﻟﺜ َ‬ ‫ﻦ اْﻷ ْ‬ ‫ﻣﻮَا ِ‬ ‫ﺺ ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻲٍء ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﺸ ْ‬ ‫ﻔ ِ‬ ‫ﻘ ٍ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ‫↩ وَﺑ َﺸﺮِ اﻟﺼﺎﺑ ِﺮِﻳ َ‬ ‫‪²³ #### I refer here to events that occurred in 1929. The total amount that Arabs‬‬ ‫‪donated to Palestine was 13,000 Guineas. But these events came as a warning to‬‬

Muslims and woke them from their slumber. The fire of trial and tribulation changed them. And in these past 10 years, they have started to follow the way Jews and Christians strive for their causes. But they are still at the beginning of the road. I have calculated the Arab donations to their brothers in Palestine during the years 1937 and 1938. They have exceeded those in past years. And they have succeeded in producing results. The resolve of the Arabs against the Jews and the English has strengthened to the extent that the English have been forced to deploy 30,000 troops who for the past two years are continuously in battle with the Arabs. The troops are ed by other powerful forces such as the police, Jews, armed fighters, and yes, also traitorous Arabs from eastern Jordan. Yet, combined, they have not been able to suppress the revolution or to make any gains. As a result, the English have relented and called for a summit in London, inviting all Arab nations to help them solve the Palestinian conundrum. They have also retreated from their original intention to give Palestine to the Jews accepting that the Jewish settlers not exceed a third of the number of Palestinians. The change in approach by the English is the product of generosity and a disdain for the Dunya by the ers of Palestine. Indeed, whoever disdains the Dunya, discovers that it seeks him out. And whoever disdains life, finds that it rushes to seek him out. This is the law Allah has established for his creatures. And there is no changing the laws of Allah. (S)↩ ²⁴ 9.91 ‫ج‬ ُ ‫ﻔ‬ َ َ‫ﺲ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ اﻟﻀﻌ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻳ ُﻨ‬ ٌ ‫ﺣَﺮ‬ َ ‫ن‬ َ ‫ﻘﻮ‬ َ ‫ﺠﺪ ُو‬ َ ‫ﻤْﺮ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻦ َﻻ ﻳ‬ َ ‫ن‬ َ ْ ‫ﻔﺎِء وََﻻ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ اﻟ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻟﻴ‬ َ ‫ﻰ وََﻻ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ٰ ‫ﺿ‬ ْ َ ‫ﻞ‬ ِ ‫ﻦ‬ ِ ‫ﺤ‬ ْ ‫ﻤ‬ ُ ‫ﺼ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻦ‬ ُ ‫ﺤﻮا ﻟ ِﻠﻪِ وََر‬ ُ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻋ َﻠﻰ اﻟ‬ َ ِ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ِﻪ‬ َ َ ‫↩إ ِذ َا ﻧ‬ ٍ ‫ﺳﺒ ِﻴ‬ َ ‫ﺴﻨ ِﻴ‬ َ ْ َ ُ‫ﻚ وﻫ‬ ُ ‫ﻤﺎ اﻟﺴﺒ ِﻴ‬ ²⁵ 9.93 َ‫ﻣﻊ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ أﻏ ْﻨ ِﻴ َﺎُء َر‬ ْ َ ‫ﻦ ﻳ‬ َ ‫ﺿﻮا ﺑ ِﺄن ﻳ َﻜ ُﻮﻧ ُﻮا‬ ْ َ َ َ ‫ﺴﺘ َﺄذ ِﻧ ُﻮﻧ‬ َ ‫إ ِﻧ‬ َ ‫ﻞ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ْ ‫ﻒ‬ َ ‫↩اﻟ‬ ِ ِ ‫ﺨﻮَاﻟ‬ ² An official census has confirmed that there are 50 million Muslims in China. So, it is now established that the total number of Muslims is about 400 million. Of these 24 million are Arabs in Asia, 17 million are Turks in Asia Minor, 16 million in Iran, 10 million in Afghanistan, 85 million in India, 56 million in Java, 25 million in Russia, 3 million in Europe, 50 million in China and 100 million in Africa. (S)↩ َ ²⁷ 61.11 ‫ﻢ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ وَأ َﻧ‬ ِ ‫ﻔ‬ َ ‫ﺠﺎﻫ ِﺪ ُو‬ َ ُ ‫↩ﺗ‬ َ ‫ن ﻓِﻲ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺴﻜ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻣﻮَاﻟ ِﻜ‬ ْ ‫ﻞ اﻟﻠﻪِ ﺑ ِﺄ‬ ِ ‫ﺳﺒ ِﻴ‬ ²⁸ 49.10 ٌ ‫ﺧﻮة‬ ْ ِ ‫ن إ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻤﺆ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﻤﺎ اﻟ‬ َ ‫↩إ ِﻧ‬ ² However, now the vast majority of them have started to spend generously of

life and wealth in defense of their homeland, Palestine, in a way that has lifted the heads of all Arabs. But had this effort been forthcoming from them right at the beginning, the calamity would not have reached this limit. (S)↩ ³ A province in Northern Libya during Italian rule. Not to be confused with the city of Tripoli which was its istrative headquarters.↩ ³¹ A province in Eastern Libya known in Arabic as Burqa.↩ َ ْ ‫ﺣﺮض اﻟ‬ ُ ‫ل إ ِن ﻳ َﻜ ُﻦ ﻣﻨﻜ‬ ْ ‫ﻋ‬ ³² 8.65 ‫ن‬ ‫ن‬ ‫ﻘﺘ َﺎ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻦ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ اﻟ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻤﺆ‬ َ ‫ﺻﺎﺑ ُِﺮو‬ َ ‫ﺸُﺮو‬ َ ‫ﻳ َﺎ أﻳﻬَﺎ اﻟﻨﺒ ِﻲ‬ ْ ُ َ ِ َ ِ َ ‫م ﻻ‬ َ َ ‫ﻦ ﻛ‬ ً ْ ‫ﺔ ﻳ َﻐْﻠ ِﺒ ُﻮا أ َﻟ‬ ٌ َ ‫ﻦ وَإ ِن ﻳ َﻜ ُﻦ ﻣﻨﻜ ُﻢ ﻣﺎﺋ‬ ِ ‫ﻳ َﻐْﻠ ِﺒ ُﻮا‬ ٌ ْ‫ﻢ ﻗَﻮ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻔُﺮوا ﺑ ِﺄﻧﻬ‬ َ ‫ﻦ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ َ ‫ﻔﺎ ﻣ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻣﺎﺋ َﺘ َﻴ‬ ‫ن‬ َ ‫ﻔ‬ ْ َ ‫↩ﻳ‬ َ ‫ﻘﻬُﻮ‬ َ ِ ‫ﻒ اﻟﻠﻪ ﻋ َﻨﻜ ُﻢ وﻋ َﻠ‬ ³³ 8.66 ‫ﺻﺎﺑ َِﺮة ٌ ﻳ َﻐْﻠ ِﺒ ُﻮا‬ ً ْ ‫ﺿﻌ‬ َ ‫ن‬ ٌ َ ‫ﻔﺎ ﻓَﺈ ِن ﻳ َﻜ ُﻦ ﻣﻨﻜ ُﻢ ﻣﺎﺋ‬ َ ‫ﺧﻔ‬ َ ‫ﻢ‬ َ ‫اْﻵ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻢ أن ﻓِﻴﻜ‬ َ ُ َ ‫ﺔ‬ َ ْ َ َ ‫ﻦ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻒ ﻳ َﻐْﻠ ِﺒ ُﻮا أﻟ‬ ٌ ْ ‫ﻢ أﻟ‬ ِ ↩ َ ‫ﻪ‬ ُ ‫ن اﻟﻠﻪِ وَاﻟﻠ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻦ وَإ ِن ﻳ َﻜ ُﻦ ﻣﻨﻜ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻦ ﺑ ِﺈ ِذ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻊَ اﻟﺼﺎﺑ ِﺮِﻳ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻔﻴ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻣﺎﺋ َﺘ َﻴ‬ ³⁴ Today there is no armed resistance to the Italians. The last person to fight them was the great martyr and fighter, Omar Al-Mukhtar (May the mercy of Allah be upon him). However, the people of Tripoli continue to resist the Italian colonialists just as the Tunisians and Moroccans continue to resist the French. It would be foolish for the colonialists to think that they can suppress national movements by force, oppression, arrests, deportations and executions. All of these acts do nothing but increase the enmity of the Muslims. (S)↩ َ ³⁵ 12.87 ‫ن‬ َ ْ ‫ﻣﻦ روِْح اﻟﻠﻪِ إ ِﻻ اﻟ‬ ِ ‫س‬ َ ‫م اﻟ ْﻜ َﺎﻓُِﺮو‬ ُ ْ‫ﻘﻮ‬ ُ ‫↩إ ِﻧ‬ ُ ‫ﻪ َﻻ ﻳ َﻴ ْﺄ‬ ³ A term applied to Arabic speaking North Africa to include what are now the countries of Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania. Also, the Arabic name of Morocco.↩ ³⁷ Prince Muhammad ibn Abdul Kareem Al-Khitabi Al-Rifi (1882 – 1963). Leader of the Rifi revolution.↩ ³⁸ Today armed groups of Arabs in eastern Jordan are fiercely fighting the Mujahideen in Palestine who are their brothers in descent and faith. What’s more, they know that these Mujahideen are defending the cradle of Arabs and of Islam and are sacrificing their lives to keep their people alive and to retain their land for the Arabs. Were it not for these Mujahideen the Jews would have appropriated the entire land of Palestine a long time ago with the armed of the English? So, while the blood of the Mujahideen flows to keep Palestine

for the Arabs the blood of Muslim armed groups in eastern Jordan flows to extricate Palestine and eastern Jordan itself from the hands of the Arabs. (S)↩ َ ‫ﺸﻮﻧﻬﻢ ﻓَﺎﻟﻠ‬ َ ‫ﺨ‬ ³ 9.13 ‫ﻦ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺣﻖ أ َن ﺗ‬ ْ َ ‫↩أ َﺗ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﺸﻮْه ُ إ ِن ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺆ‬ َ ‫ﻪ أ‬ ُ ْ َُْ َ ‫ﺨ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬ ⁴ 3.175‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴﻦ‬ َ َ‫ﻢ و‬ َ َ ‫↩ﻓََﻼ ﺗ‬ ِ ْ ‫ن إ ِن ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺆ‬ ْ ُ‫ﺨﺎﻓُﻮﻫ‬ ِ ‫ﺧﺎﻓُﻮ‬ ⁴¹ #### The poet is Al-Husain ibn Al-Humam Al-Marri d.612H. The verse in meaning: I stayed behind (the fighters in battle) hoping to hold on to life. But I did not find (the type of) life for my soul had I been in front.↩ ⁴² Muhammad ibn Abdel Salaam Al-Mugri (1860 – 1957). Senior Moroccan official, advisor and vizier to several Sultans.↩ ⁴³ It is confirmed that whenever , under pressure from the Islamic world, sought to pull back from the agreement known as Al-Zaheer Al-Barbari – ‫ – اﻟﻈﻬﻴﺮ اﻟﺒﺮﺑﺮي‬the Berber pact intended to proselytise the Berbers, Muqri stepped in to warn them of the consequences (of withdrawal), saying to them: The people of the Maghrib will view this withdrawal as a sign of weakness, following which, will not be able to strengthen its foothold in North Africa. He was one of the greatest ers of the French government in regard to its Berber strategy which sought to convert the Berbers to Christianity and make them a part of the French nation. (S)↩ ⁴⁴ Among what is happening in Maghrib is that the call to morning prayer is forbidden in those areas settled by the French because it may disturb their sleep in the morning. (S)↩ ⁴⁵ The French forbade Islamic preachers from going to the land of the Berbers during Ramadan. They would arrest anyone who violated this restriction. They closed hundreds of Quranic schools in the Maghrib and hundreds like them in Algeria. They closed the House of Hadith in Tlemcen despite the protests of Islamic scholars in Algeria. And when some men of religion insisted on teaching the Quran to the young, they were prosecuted and punished to four months in prison on the grounds of disobeying published orders. And so, it went. (S)↩ ⁴ However, the following year the French asked them to endorse similar malicious declarations. They declined arguing that their earlier endorsement had disgraced them among their people and invited their rancour. So, they do not intend to repeat the same treachery. This is proof that when the Ummah wishes

to discipline these Sheikhs, traitors and servants to the colonialists, the only way to do it is to infuse in them, fear for their own skins. (S)↩ ⁴⁷ The modus operandi of all colonizing nations ruling the Islamic world is to recruit Muslims against Muslims. The case of eastern Jordan and the traitorous Arabs of Palestine is the clearest example of this condition. (S)↩ ⁴⁸ Do you not see how they killed 34 Muslims and injured 66 in Miknasat AlZaitoon because of a peaceful demonstration by the people against the diversion of water from their orchards to the colonialists? They claimed this was by the orders of the Sultan. Have you not seen how they outlawed the Moroccan National Party, imprisoned 2500 young men for one or two years, exiled ’Alal Al-Fasi to the Equatorial region, exiled many distinguished men to the desert, and tortured tens of writers including Mohammad Al-Miqri who died from his injuries. All of this was in the name of the Sultan who has no power and is not even able to protect his own people. This privilege falls to General Nogués, the architect of the vile Berber project. (S)↩ َ َ ِ ‫ﻚ ﻟ ِﻴ ُﻬْﻠ‬ َ ‫ن َرﺑ‬ ⁴ 11.117 ‫ن‬ ُ ْ ‫ﻚ اﻟ‬ َ ‫ﺤﻮ‬ ُ ِ ‫ﺼﻠ‬ َ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻛ َﺎ‬ ُ ‫ﻘَﺮىٰ ﺑ ِﻈ ُﻠ ْﻢ ٍ وَأﻫْﻠ ُﻬَﺎ‬ َ َ‫↩و‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬ َ ⁵ 30.41 ‫ﺾ اﻟﺬ ِي‬ َ ‫س ﻟ ِﻴ ُﺬ ِﻳ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻇ َﻬََﺮ اﻟ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺴﺎد ُ ﻓِﻲ اﻟ ْﺒ َﺮ وَاﻟ ْﺒ‬ َ َ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻛ‬ َ ‫ﻔ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺴﺒ‬ َ ِ ‫ﺤﺮِ ﺑ‬ َ ْ‫ﻘﻬُﻢ ﺑ َﻌ‬ ِ ‫ﺖ أﻳ ْﺪ ِي اﻟﻨﺎ‬ ‫ن‬ ِ َ ‫↩ﻋ‬ َ ‫ﺟﻌُﻮ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ ﻳ َْﺮ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ﻟ َﻌَﻠﻬ‬ ⁵¹ No land of the Muslims is free of these traitors, who the colonial powers have used to occupy their lands. They help the occupiers with their conspiracies and guide them to the weak points of their brothers. And they are not unaware that in these deeds they betray themselves. Yet they do not perceive that they are like one who climbs onto a tree and starts to hack at it its trunk below him so that he falls of what his hands have reaped. (S)↩ ⁵² Abdul Aziz ibn Saud (1875 – 1953), founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.↩ ⁵³ He said this at a packed gathering of people from all corners of the Islamic world who had come to offer the Hajj. It was in response to a question by an Egyptian associated with Al-Azhar University, in which he asked Ibn Saud to fight the French and English aggression against the Muslims in view of their historical enmity towards us. Ibn Saud added: “The English and French can be excused for attacking us because there is nothing that connects us with them in of race, religion, language or common interest. However, the tragedy

which cannot be excused is that the Muslims have become their own enemies. By Allah! I do not fear foreigners. I only fear Muslims. Were I to fight the English they would not attack me other than with an army of Muslims?” (R)↩ ⁵⁴ 49.10 ٌ ‫ﺧﻮَة‬ ْ ِ ‫ن إ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻤﺆ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﻤﺎ اﻟ‬ َ ‫↩إ ِﻧ‬ ⁵⁵ 5.51 ‫ﻢ‬ ِ ‫ﻪ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻣﻨ ْﻬ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ ﻓَﺈ ِﻧ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َﺘ َﻮَﻟﻬُﻢ ﻣﻨﻜ‬ َ َ‫↩و‬ ⁵ 60.9 ‫ﻢ وَﻇ َﺎﻫَُﺮوا‬ ْ َ ‫ﻦ وَأ‬ ُ ‫ﺧَﺮ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺟﻮﻛ ُﻢ ﻣﻦ د ِﻳ َﺎ ُرِﻛ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻦ ﻗَﺎﺗ َﻠ ُﻮﻛ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻠ‬ ُ ُ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻳ َﻨ ْﻬَﺎﻛ‬ َ ‫إ ِﻧ‬ َ ‫ﻦ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ َﻓِﻲ اﻟﺪﻳ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻪ ﻋ‬ َ َ ِ ‫لـﺋ‬ ‫ن‬ ٰ َ ‫ﻢ ﻓَﺄو‬ ْ ِ ‫ﻰ إ‬ َ ‫ﻤﻮ‬ ِ ‫ﺧَﺮا‬ ُ ِ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻈﺎﻟ‬ ُ ُ ‫ﻚ ﻫ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َﺘ َﻮَﻟﻬ‬ َ َ‫ﻢ و‬ ْ ُ‫ﻢ أن ﺗ َﻮَﻟﻮْﻫ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺟﻜ‬ ٰ ‫↩ﻋ َﻠ‬ َ َ ⁵⁷ 8.1 ‫ﻦ‬ ُ ‫↩ﻓَﺎﺗ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻪ إ ِن ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺆ‬ ُ ِ ‫ﺻﻠ‬ ُ ‫ﻪ وََر‬ ُ َ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ‬ َ ‫ﻢ وَأﻃ ِﻴﻌُﻮا اﻟﻠ‬ ْ ُ ‫ت ﺑ َﻴ ْﻨ ِﻜ‬ َ ‫ﺤﻮا ذ َا‬ َ ‫ﻘﻮا اﻟﻠ‬ ْ ‫ﻪ وَأ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬ ⁵⁸ This is a reference to the Hadith related by Ahmed, Muslim and others, which says in translation: “If anyone of you sees wrongdoing, he should change it with his hand (by force), and if he is not able to by his hand then by his tongue, and if not able to by his tongue then by his heart, and this (the latter) is the weakest of faith.” This was said in relation to wrongdoing by Muslims. So what would be said when the matter concerns destroying Islam from its foundations? (R)↩ ⁵ But in Palestine some of the Mujahideen have finally dared to discipline these people in a befitting manner. The time has come for the traitor to his people to know that: “There is no shelter today from the command of Allah except for those He has forgiven.” {11.43 ‫م‬ ِ ‫َﻻ ﻋ َﺎ‬ َ ْ‫ﻢ اﻟ ْﻴ َﻮ‬ َ ‫ﺻ‬ َ ‫ﻢ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﻦ ر‬ ِ } (S)↩ َ ‫ﺣ‬ َ ‫ﻣﺮِ اﻟﻠﻪِ إ ِﻻ‬ ْ ‫ﻦ أ‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬ People of Najd – province in central Saudi Arabia that includes the capital Riyadh.↩ َْ ¹ 24.55 ‫ﻤﺎ‬ َ ِ ‫ﺨﻠ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺴﺘ‬ ِ ‫ﺤﺎ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻢ وَﻋ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮا‬ َ ِ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا اﻟﺼﺎﻟ‬ ْ َ ‫ت ﻟ َﻴ‬ َ َ ‫ض ﻛ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻔﻨﻬ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻣﻨﻜ‬ َ ‫ﻦ آ‬ ُ ‫وَﻋ َﺪ َ اﻟﻠ‬ َ ‫ﻪ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻲ اﻷْر‬ ْ َ ‫ﺳﺘ‬ َ َ ‫ﺨﻠ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ وَﻟ َﻴ ُﺒ َﺪﻟ َﻨﻬُﻢ ﻣﻦ ﺑ َﻌْﺪ‬ ِ ‫ﻦ‬ َ َ ‫ﻢ اﻟﺬ ِي اْرﺗ‬ ْ ‫ا‬ ْ ُ‫ﻰ ﻟ َﻬ‬ ُ ُ‫ﻢ د ِﻳﻨ َﻬ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻤﻜﻨ َﻦ ﻟ َﻬ‬ َ ُ ‫ﻢ وَﻟ َﻴ‬ ْ ِ‫ﻣﻦ ﻗَﺒ ْﻠ ِﻬ‬ َ ‫ﻒ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ٰ ‫ﻀ‬ َ َ ُ ً‫ﺷﻴ ْﺌﺎ‬ َ ‫ن ﺑ ِﻲ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻣﻨ ًﺎ ﻳ َﻌْﺒ ُﺪ ُوﻧ َﻨ ِﻲ ﻻ ﻳ‬ َ ↩ َ ‫ﺸﺮِﻛﻮ‬ ْ ‫ﻢ أ‬ ْ ِ‫ﺧﻮْﻓِﻬ‬ َ َ َ ٌ ‫ﻣﻮَا‬ ْ ُ‫ﻗ‬ ² 9.24 ‫ل‬ ْ ِ ‫ﻢ وَإ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻢ وَﻋ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ وَأْزوَا‬ َ ‫ﻞ إ ِن ﻛ َﺎ‬ ْ ‫ﻢ وَأ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺸﻴَﺮﺗ ُﻜ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺟﻜ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺧﻮَاﻧ ُﻜ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻢ وَأﺑ ْﻨ َﺎؤ ُﻛ‬ ْ ُ ‫ن آﺑ َﺎؤ ُﻛ‬ َ َ ‫ﺨ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺠﺎَرة ٌ ﺗ‬ ِ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ِﻪ‬ َ ‫ﺿﻮْﻧ َﻬَﺎ أ‬ َ ‫ﻦ ﺗ َْﺮ‬ َ ْ‫ﺸﻮ‬ َ ِ ‫ﻤﻮﻫَﺎ وَﺗ‬ ُ ‫ﻦ اﻟﻠﻪِ وََر‬ َ ‫ﻣ‬ َ َ ‫ن ﻛ‬ َ َ‫ﺴﺎد َﻫَﺎ ْو‬ ُ ُ ‫اﻗْﺘ ََﺮﻓْﺘ‬ َ ‫ﺣﺐ إ ِﻟ َﻴ ْﻜ ُﻢ ﻣ‬ ُ ِ ‫ﺴﺎﻛ‬ َ ‫ﻦ‬ َ ْ ‫م اﻟ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻪ َﻻ ﻳ َﻬْﺪ ِي اﻟ‬ ِ ‫ﺳ‬ ِ ‫ﻔﺎ‬ َ ‫ﺼﻮا‬ َ ْ‫ﻘﻮ‬ َ ‫ﺟﻬَﺎد ٍ ﻓِﻲ‬ ِ َ‫↩و‬ ُ ‫ﻣﺮِهِ وَاﻟﻠ‬ ْ ‫ﻪ ﺑ ِﺄ‬ ُ ‫ﻲ اﻟﻠ‬ ُ ‫ﺳﺒ ِﻴﻠ ِﻪِ ﻓَﺘ ََﺮﺑ‬ َ ‫ﻘﻴ‬ َ ِ ‫ﻰ ﻳ َﺄﺗ‬ ٰ ‫ﺣﺘ‬ ³ It was reported that spurned lower caste Hindus wanted to leave Hinduism and that there were those among them whose hearts Allah had opened to Islam. In response, the respected Sheikh of Al-Azhar sent a delegation of Shariah scholars

to investigate whether there is hope to guide these people, or whether it is mere speculation. All the Muslims of the world, in the West and the East, were aware of this delegation’s visit to India but not one of them contributed the weight of a feather for the sake of these spurned Hindus who number some 60 million people. This, at a time when the Christians were collecting every year an amount of 20 to 30 million Guineas for the of Christian missionaries in Asia and Africa. So, does this (Islamic) Ummah expect to match in any way that (Christian) Ummah when between them there is this great difference? (S)↩ ⁴ Mohammad Rashid Raza publisher of Al-Manar.↩ ⁵ A metaphor for saying: “As other Muslims defend it.”↩ The people of Congo number 12 million. All of them were Fetishists. When the Belgians occupied the Congo, they decided to convert them all to Christianity. Over several years, I have seen the programs of the Belgian government and amongst its key pillars is the Christianisation of the Congolese. Until now, some one and a half million Africans have converted. Whereas, Muslims had come to Congo a long time ago and as a consequence many of the locals were drawn to Islam to the extent that 150 thousand people became Muslims. Belgium, fearing the spread of Islam in its colony, started to pressure the Muslims and expel them without regard to the principle of freedom of worship and ignoring all calls to desist. (S)↩ ⁷ Perhaps they are right in the sense that we will never succeed so long as we follow a model which we mendaciously call Islamic. Indeed, we will only succeed if we stand up for the rights of Islam just as they stand up for the rights of their faith. (R)↩ َ ⁸ 22.46 ِ‫ب اﻟﺘ ِﻲ ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺼﺪ ُور‬ ُ ْ ‫ﻤﻰ اﻟ‬ ٰ َ َ‫ﺼﺎُر و‬ ُ ‫ﻘﻠ ُﻮ‬ َ ْ‫لـﻛ ِﻦ ﺗ َﻌ‬ َ ْ‫↩ﻓَﺈ ِﻧﻬَﺎ َﻻ ﺗ َﻌ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻤﻰ اْﻷﺑ‬

Chapter Two

Main Reasons for the Backwardness of Muslims

Ignorance and Deficient Knowledge

Among the main reasons for the backwardness of Muslims is ignorance that makes them unable to distinguish between wine and vinegar and so they accept sophistry as truth and are unable to defend against it. And among the main reasons for the backwardness of Muslims is deficient knowledge. This is more dangerous than simple ignorance. Because the ignorant person, If Allah designates for him a knowledgeable guide, will follow him and not philosophise. As for the owner of deficient knowledge: He does not know and is not convinced that he does not know. It is said: Your suffering a man is better than your suffering someone who is half mad. I say: Your suffering an ignoramus is better than your suffering one who only pretends to knowledge. And among the main reasons for the backwardness of Muslims is corruption of morals and ethics and the loss of qualities ened by the Quran and the loss of resolve and determination that drove the forefathers of this Ummah by which they achieved what they achieved of success. Indeed, morality and ethics are more important than knowledge. And how wonderful is Shawki when he says:

ُ ⁷ ‫ﻢ ذ َﻫَﺒ ُﻮا‬ ْ َ ‫ﺖ أ‬ ْ َ ‫ﻢ اﻷ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻣﺎ ﺑ‬ ْ ُ‫ﺧﻼﻗُﻬ‬ ْ َ ‫ﻢ ذ َﻫَﺒ‬ ُ ُ‫ﺖ ﻓَﺈ ِن ﻫ‬ ْ َ ‫ﻘﻴ‬ َ ُ‫ﺧﻼق‬ ُ ‫ﻣ‬ َ ‫ﻤﺎ اﻷ‬ َ ‫وإ ِﻧ‬

Moral Corruption Especially Among Leaders and Religious Scholars

And among the greatest reasons for the decline of Muslims is, specifically, the moral corruption of their leaders. They think, other than the few on whom Allah has been merciful, that the Ummah has been created for them to do with it as they please. And this thought has become so ingrained in them that anyone who tries to bring them back to the right path is violently assaulted as an example to the rest. And then come the religious scholars, sycophants and bootlickers to these leaders; basking in luxury, feeding from a cornucopia of delicacies. They issue a Fatwa that the poor soul who has tried to guide the leader, be executed for disobedience and from departing from the consensus of the Ummah. Islam had delegated to religious scholars the task of keeping leaders in check. They were, in the past, in Islamic nations of distinction tantamount to a parliament in this age. They would control the Ummah, correct the mistakes of the king, raise their voices against government highhandedness and frighten the khalifa and his lieutenants into remaining straight. This is how matters were kept in line. Most of these religious scholars were ascetics, God fearing and uninterested in the lure of the Dunya. It was of no consequence to them whether the powerful despotic king was angry with them or pleased. So, the khalifas and the kings would be wary of them and fear opposing them. Because they knew that the common people followed the scholars and believed in their integrity. However, with the age of time, these earlier scholars were succeeded by those who took scholarship as a profession to earn a living and used religion as a trap to gain the Dunya and justified, for debauched and tyrannical rulers, their most abominable atrocities and allowed them to violate the bounds of religion in the name of religion. All this while, the impoverished common people were duped by the grandeur of their turbans and the loftiness of their positions, believing that their Fatwas are

correct and their opinions consistent with the Shariah. Because of this great damage is done, the interests of the Ummah are sacrificed, Islam regresses and the enemy ascends. All the sin for this is around the necks of these religious scholars.

Cowardice and Fear

Cowardice and fear are among the greatest reasons for the regression of the Muslims. This is after they were famous among nations for their courage and their indifference to death. One of them would stand against ten or sometimes one hundred of the enemy. And now, except for a few tribes, they have come to fear death, knowing that Islam and fear of death can never come together in a single heart. It is strange that the invading Europeans⁷¹ do not fear death in their aggression as the Muslims do in their own defence. Strange also that Muslims, while seeing the long-term objectives that the Europeans are able to achieve by virtue of disdaining death and flocking to oblivion, are not overtaken by a sense of envy and resentment. Why do they not proclaim: We are more worthy of disdaining life than them? Allah has said:

Relent not in pursuit of the enemy. If you are suffering, indeed they suffer just as you suffer, and you hope from Allah that for which they cannot hope.⁷²

Despair and Hopelessness

In addition to cowardice and fear, the Muslims have been afflicted by despair and have lost hope in the Mercy of Allah. Among them are groups, in whose hearts has settled the conviction that the Europeans will be victorious in all circumstances and that there is no way to overcome them and any resistance is futile and any uprising is ill advised. This fear continued to grow and ferment in the hearts of Muslims to the extent that the Europeans could count on fear alone for their victories. So a few of the latter came to rule over many of the former. This was the exact opposite of the early history of the Muslims.

َ َ ْ ‫ﺣﺰم وَﺗ ِﻠ‬ ⁷³ِ ‫ﺔ اﻟﻄﺒ ِْﻊ اﻟﻠﺌ ِﻴﻢ‬ َ ‫ﻚ‬ ُ َ‫ﺧﺪ ِﻳﻌ‬ َ ‫ﻦ‬ ُ ‫ﺠﺒ َﻨ َﺎء أن اﻟ‬ ُ ‫ﻳ ََﺮى اﻟ‬ َ ْ ‫ﺠﺒ‬

The Muslims have forgotten days gone by when no more than twenty of them would travel from Barcelona to Fracsima⁷⁴ on the French coast and occupy a mountain where they would build a fort. Their numbers would increase until they reached 100 men at which point, they would establish a principality. Its influence would rock northern and Italy. Kings of the region would rush to make peace with the Muslims and to seek their favour. The principality would expand into the Alps and gain control of mountain es on the main routes between and Italy including the Great San Bernard . All European caravans would be obliged to pay a tax to the Arabs to use the . This small Arab principality would expand to the Pyrenees and beyond to reach Switzerland and Lake Constanza in the heart of Europe and annex upper Switzerland to their possessions. The Arabs stayed in control of these lands for 95 years until the Europeans banded together to expel them and continued to gnaw at them until they finally succeeded. At the time they finally perished, the group of Arabs resisting them numbered no more than 500 men.

Befuddlement of the Ignorant and Cowardly and the Reply

There are among the foolish who say: “Yes, it was so. But that was before the Europeans developed new instruments of death and before cannons and tanks and planes and before they achieved strength based on science.” This statement is the extreme of stupidity, absurdity and ignorance. For every age there is science, industry and civilisation appropriate to the time. There were in the Middle Ages sciences appropriate to the time. Just as today there are sciences, industries and civilisation appropriate to our time. All matters are relative. There were, in the age we are talking about instruments of battle, catapults, tanks, complex fireworks not well understood today. And these were at that time the equivalent of cannons, machine guns, bombs and dynamite of today. However, it is not tanks and planes and machine guns that create determination and fuel the fires of ion and zeal in the ranks of men. Instead, it is determination, zeal and courage that produce the planes, tanks and bombs. These are nothing but inanimate objects no different from stone. Matter is not able to do anything on its own. It is the soul that creates. And if the souls of men rise and are moved by ardour and determination it is then that you will find the tanks, planes, machine guns, submarines and every instrument of war to be in your reach. Then they say: “However, this requires modern science which the Muslims do not have. This is what made it possible for the Europeans to do what the Muslims cannot.” The answer: Modern science requires thought and determination. If these exist, modern science follows and so does industry. Have you not seen that Japan until 1868 was a nation just as any other eastern nation? But when they decided to catch up with the great powers, to learn European sciences, and to replicate their industries they were able to do this in the space of 50 years. Every Islamic nation that wants to advance and catch up to the powerful nations

can do so while remaining committed to its religion. Just as the Japanese learned all European sciences and competed with them as equals while at the same time continuing to hold on to their Japanese culture and religion. Has it ever been that a Muslim nation wanted modern weaponry and did not get it? The matter hinges on determination. When there is determination, there will be what we desire. The day that a Muslim nation becomes determined to arm itself, it will find modern weaponry in all its forms the next day. However, the acquisition of modern weapons requires generosity with one’s wealth. But Muslims do not want to spend, nor to be guided by the Europeans and the Japanese in this regard. They want Divine help without weapons and ammunition, or they want weapons and ammunition without giving of their wealth. And if after this, the enemy triumphs over them they say: Where are the promises that Allah promised us in His words: It is incumbent upon Us to help the believers⁷⁵? It is as if the Quran has guaranteed to the Believers Divine help without effort or expense or without striving with their wealth and lives. But only because they have proclaimed that ‘we are Muslims’ and because of their prayer and glorification of God. Even stranger than this is that they seek intercession at the tombs of the Auliya. So, Muslims today, even if they are many in numbers, in the absence of modern weapons and the knowledge to use them are not able to stand up to even a few armed Europeans. Whenever the twain meet, it is the Muslims in most cases who lose. This cycle of losing has continued for a long time until finally the Muslims have lost all self-confidence. Hopelessness has enveloped them. And dread has seeped into their consciousness. They have surrendered to the enemy and have forgotten the words of Allah.

Be not weak or sad, you will be the victors if you believe.⁷ And: If you have been wounded, they have been wounded just as you. We alternate victory and defeat between people so that Allah may know those who believe.⁷⁷

They have forgotten that religious law and common sense do not permit for despair to reach anyone’s heart. This is especially so for the Muslim whose faith has informed him that despair is exactly tantamount to disbelief (kufr). They overlook the words of Allah in regard to their ancestors.

Those, who when people tell them that there are (many) people gathered (to fight) you so fear them, are bolstered in their faith and reply: Allah suffices us and he is the best of guarantors.⁷⁸ And: So they return unharmed with the blessing of Allah and His grace.⁷

If you urge them to help their own people in fighting a foreign power, intent on extirpating them, their first reply is: “What is the point of spending our wealth in this effort; the victory of the foreigners is inevitable?” But were they to contemplate, they would discover that surrender does nothing but increase their woes and at the same time increases the tyranny and arrogance of the enemy? Such is the law of Allah in regard to His creatures. Were they to think a little, they would see that this stinginess with their wealth for their brothers who are in the battlefield, represents no saving for them? It is in fact destitution. Because a subjugated nation does not remain free to trade and run its own economy. Instead, the conquering enemy appropriates all that remains of goodness in their land and leaves nothing for the subjugated but bones to chew on. Famines become frequent. People die of hunger. You see this happening in Algeria and India. You will see famines in India in which not a single Englishman dies of hunger. When famine intensified in Algeria, no one but Muslims died of hunger.⁸ The only reason for this is that the foreigners have captured the wealth of Muslim nations and have left nothing for them but destitution. The Muslims today excuse their ability to spend in the way of helping their brothers on the grounds that they do not possess much. This is true to some extent because in the beginning, by their stinginess in the way of Jihad, they reaped ignominy and humiliation to start with and poverty and hunger subsequently. It is the law of Allah on His Earth that ignominy is accompanied by poverty, and power by

wealth. An Arabic maxim says: To the victor go the spoils. And an Arab poet says:⁸¹

ْ َ َ ‫ﺧﺮوا اﻟﻤﺎ‬ ‫ﻣﻌﺎ‬ َ َ ‫ﻢ إ ِن ﻳ َﻈ ْﻬَُﺮوا ﻳ َﺄﺧﺬ ُوﻛﻢ وَاﻟﺘﻼد‬ ُ ُ‫ل ﻟ ِْﻸﻋ ْﺪ َاِء إ ِﻧﻬ‬ َ ُ ِ ْ ‫ﻻﺗ َﺬ‬ َ ‫ﻔﻈ ْﺘﻢ ﺑﻬﺎ إ‬ ‫ﻢ ﺟﺪﻋﺎ‬ َ ‫ﻫَﻴ ْﻬَﺎت ﻻ‬ ْ ِ َ ِ ْ ُ َ َ ‫ﺣﺘ‬ ْ ‫ل وَﻓِﻲ ﻧ ِﻌَﻢ ﻗَﺪ ِ ا‬ ْ ُ ‫ن أﻧ ْﻔﻜ‬ َ ‫ﺧﻴ َْﺮ ﻓِﻲ‬ ٍ ‫ﻣﺎ‬

And Al-Mutanabbi says:⁸²

َ ‫ﻣﺎ‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬ ُ ‫ﺠﺪ ُه‬ َ ‫ﻦ ﻗَﻞ‬ َ ِ ‫ل ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺪﻧ ْﻴ َﺎ ﻟ‬ َ ‫ﻪ وَﻻ‬ ُ ُ ‫ﻣﺎﻟ‬ َ ‫ﻦ ﻗَﻞ‬ َ ِ ‫ﺠﺪ َ ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺪﻧ ْﻴ َﺎ ﻟ‬ َ ‫ﻓَﻼ‬ ْ ‫ﻤ‬ ْ ‫ﻤ‬

So, for the Muslims, when wealth became precious to them, they lost it. And when life became precious to them, they lost it. Allah has refused other than to validate the revealed words of the Prophet where he says (to the Muslims): “Nations will fall over each other over you, just as gluttons fall over each other to reach a full platter.” Those who heard this asked: “Is this because there will be few of us (Muslims) on that day?” The Prophet replied: “No, but you will be like foam and debris on the surface of a flood, weakness will have entered your hearts and would have been removed from the hearts of your enemies because you would have started to love the Dunya and hate death.”⁸³ This Hadith was related to me by Sheikh Mohammad ibn Ja’far Al-Kinani⁸⁴ (may Allah have Mercy on his soul) the day I met him in Al-Madinah AlMunawara twenty-five years ago. Subsequently, I read it in books and used it in the introduction of my book ‘The Present State of the Muslim World’. Its words vary from rendition to rendition, but its meaning is clear: That a day will come upon the Muslims when they will be fodder and the hands of enemies will extend towards them from every direction.

This age that we are in, is that day. The fault of the Muslims will not be paucity of numbers. An abundance of people is of no use if it is not coupled with an excellence of character. Quantity does not dispense of quality. The reason for the weakness of Muslims on that day will be cowardice and miserliness. This is clear in the words of the Prophet: From your love of the Dunya and your horror of death.⁸⁵ It is known that exaggerated love for the Dunya deprives man from enjoying it and desperation in holding on to life results in increasing exposure to death.⁸ These are the laws of Allah applied to his creatures or, as they are known in this age, the laws of nature. The Quran commands the Muslim to disdain life, wealth and all that he holds dear to please Allah and to be patient and firm with whatever afflicts him. You see Him say.

With many a prophet there fought with him a multitude of devoted men but they did not weaken at what befell them in the way of Allah and did not relent or yield. Indeed, Allah loves those who are patient.⁸⁷

This is the way Allah wants the Muslims to be. And if they are not like this, in conformance with the clear text of the Quran, how can they ask for the fulfilment of His promises of help and power and happiness and security?

The Loss of Islam between Conservatives⁸⁸ and Progressives⁸

Among the biggest factors in the decline of the Muslims is their rigidity in regard to the past. Just as the bane of Islam is the group that wishes to abrogate everything of the past without considering what is useful or beneficial. Similarly, the bane of Islam is the group of conservatives that do not want to change anything of the past and are not pleased with even minor modifications to the principles of Islamic education. They think that to follow the example of the non-believers is to disbelieve and that modern education is a product of the nonbelievers. So, Islam is lost between conservative and progressive. As for the progressive: He refuses other than to ‘Europeanise’ the Muslims and all other easterners and to take them away from their fundamentals and characteristics, and compel them to deny their past and make them resemble a chemical ingredient that is introduced into another distant body and dissolves in it losing its own identity. This inclination for a person to deny his past and to it that his forefathers were inferior and that he wants to dissociate himself from them can only emanate from an abject simpleton low in self-esteem. Or from someone who, among his own people, perceives himself to be of inferior ancestry and so tries to derogate the ancestry of his entire Ummah. This is because he knows himself, in relation to his Ummah, to be ignoble with no share of that ancestry. Further, it is contrary to the natural laws of the Universe that have imposed in every nation an instinctive tendency to preserve its fundamentals and characteristics in of language, beliefs, habits, food, drink and habitat and other things, with the exception, of course, of that which is proven to be harmful.

Europeans Preserve Their Nationalism

Let us look at Europe, because today it is an exemplar. We find there that every nation refuses to meld into another. So, the English want to stay English; the French, French; the Germans, German; the Italians, Italian and the Russians, Russian and so on. And what makes this example make an even greater impression on the mind is that the Irish, for example, are a small nation close to England. The English have expended all that the mind can think of, in an effort to integrate them into their nation for more than 700 years. But the Irish have refused to become English and have held firmly to their Irish identity in their language, beliefs, tastes and habits. In , itself, the Bretons have insisted on preserving their origins. And in the South of , the Basques, a population of only a million people, have preserved their nationality in the face of Copts, Arabs, Spain and the French. They still hold on to their language and dress and habits and all other aspects of their nationhood. The Flemish refuse to make French their language and French culture their culture. They continued to raise their voices in Belgium until finally the Belgians were forced to accept their language as an official language. In Switzerland, there are three groups: The Germans who number 2.8 million, Italian speakers who number just over 200 thousand and French speakers who number 800 thousand. Each of these three peoples preserve their own language, their laws and their preferences while at the same time being united in their political interests by living in a single nation. In Denmark, the other Scandinavian countries and Holland, there are, no doubt, branches of the German tree. But not one of them wants to be merged with the Germans nor do they want to deviate from their nationalities. The Czechs remained, for hundreds of years, under German rule and remained Czechs. They regained their political independence at the end of the General War, ¹ after

having preserved their language and cultural independence for a period of five centuries. The Germans attempted to refine the Hungarians, educated them and uplifted them but they were not able to fuse them into . You will find them (the Hungarians) the most enthusiastic of people to hold onto their language, which is of Mongol origin, and their Hungarian nationality. Great Russia tried for two or three hundred years to merge Poland into the Russian identity, and to make it forget its Polish nationality on the grounds that both nations shared a Slavic root. But it failed despite its best efforts to assimilate the Poles who returned, after the General War, to become an independent nation in all respects. This was because they did not give up even a sliver of their nationality. It is not surprising that a nation of 30 million would not want to be absorbed by another. But the Estonians, who are just two million people, separated from Russia and refused to become part of it. They regained their independence and resuscitated their language, also of Mongolian origin, and developed an alphabet for it. Like them are the people of Finland who separated from Russia as well. The efforts of the Russians to absorb the Lithuanians – one of the Baltic states – also failed. They rose after the General War to resurrect an independent state of four million to reflect their independence as a people. And fewer than them in population were their neighbours, the Latvians, who despite being just two million, separated after the General War and formed their own republic just as the other Baltic republics. They were able to do this because from the beginning they remained committed to their language and nationality. The Russians on one hand, and the Germans on the other, failed to amalgamate these nations into their own national structure. Because every people, no matter the paucity of their number, do not accept the negation of their origin or the relinquishing of their independence. So, the Croatians retained their independence despite being encomed by two large nations – the Germanics and the Latins. Similarly, the Serbs maintained their independence despite centuries of Turkish rule over them. And the Arnauts are still Arnauts from time immemorial while living between two large nations: The Greeks and the Slavs.

Similarly, the Bulgarians refused other than to remain Bulgarians among the Romans, Slavs and Latins. Then came the Turks, so they learned Turkish but remained Bulgarian. I do not wish to go beyond the example of Europe because if I do the Islamic conservatives I mentioned will say: “We don’t want to be guided by examples of backward nations such as our own.” So, all the nations we have mentioned now as examples are European. All of them are educated and advanced. All of them have organised and developed cities. And all of them have universities, academies, technical institutes, armies and naval fleets etc.

Progress of the Japanese an Example for Arabs and All Muslims

But I will go beyond Europe only to Japan because the progress of Japan matches that of the Europeans. Progress in Japan happened, just as it did in Europe for the Europeans, within the context of their nationality, language, etiquette, freedom, faith, rituals and emotional states. I relate for Arab readers an excerpt from a long letter from a European correspondent travelling in Japan published in the paper Journal de Genève on 20th October, 1931. He says. The Japanese loves art before everything else and if you see him striving to earn money, it is to use it to fulfil his desire for beauty and elegance. Carved into his conscience, in addition to an affinity for beauty, is a feeling of intense nationalism. This is because he is proud that in a period of only 60 years, Japan has been transformed from a medieval feudal state to a great nation, ranked among the greatest of nations. And there is no doubt that the Japanese religion plays a great role in Japanese politics (let the reader consider). It is, in fact, a philosophy based on an acceptance of all that the ancients left for their coming generations. So, the modern Japanese is in harmony with all the requirements of modern life while retaining a constant inclination to return to his past and holding fast to his nationalism. He is unresponsive to the call to Europeanise (in actuality Occidentalism) of which he wants to take only what is necessary for him to compete successfully with other nations. There is no doubt that this example is unique in the history of the Far East.

He then says:

The Japanese would hate to travel to distant lands and forbade entry of

foreigners to their land. But this restriction was lifted after modernisation and Japan moved with surprising speed to make up for what was lost. The results are before us. But the past remains glorified and sacred for the Japanese in all classes of people. Because it is in this sacred past that the Japanese perceive their value in the present. You will see them in control of all the tools of modern civilisation without which it is difficult to live today. But they reject all ‘westernisation’ because they find themselves not in need of it. And they return with pleasure to their perception of pure nationalism on the basis of which they believe they will prevail. There are Shinto temples, Zen shrines and Buddhist temples. All of these are greatly revered and served with the highest possible religious fervour and deep faith just as they have been for centuries. The truth is that it is this deep respect that the Japanese feel for their heritage and what they worship that has stood as an impregnable buttress against the damaging ideas of populism and socialism. A few years ago, a book appeared in about Japan written by the Marquis de La Mazliére which received extensive coverage by the newspapers. A resounding article about it appeared in the paper De Bas and we urge readers who consider it important to understand how Japan progressed to read it. It is a subject of great importance in of what conclusions can be drawn in regard to other countries of the East. The book’s author cannot be accused of partiality in any way, because I have noticed that it is consistent with what Japanese scholars of history have written whose books have been translated from Japanese to French. It is necessary for me to quickly mention some paragraphs from La Mazliére’s book. He says, in the context of Japan’s modernisation and its exit from its previous isolation: Japan started to borrow from Europe and America their material civilisation, military systems, methods of education and financial strategies. The reformers tried hard to adapt from every nation the best of what they thought they possessed. This was a project to demolish, reform and rebuild. Its impact was felt in all aspects of Japanese life. He then speaks about the Japanese-Chinese war and ends with the words, which we translate literally below:

The victory of Japan over China reflects not only the superiority of scientific principles and thought that Japan acquired from the West but reflects another reality as well: That an Asian people, with will and determination, can acquire what they deem useful for themselves from western civilisation while preserving their independence, thought, literature and culture. Previously I have published in the newspapers, and what I have published is a drop from a stream, an outline of the festivities to crown the Japanese emperor two years ago and how the ceremonies, all of them religious in nature, continued for one month and how the Mikado (Emperor) is the high priest of the nation and how he is of the lineage of Sun gods and how he was purified in a holy bath preserved for a thousand years and how he ate, with the gods, the holy rice that was planted under the supervision of the priests and how there was a gathering of 600 thousand Japanese all exclaiming: “May the Mikado live a thousand years.”

Why Do We Not Call Japan and Europe Regressive Despite Their Religiosity?

And why, I wonder, when Japan advances in this surprising and rapid way and becomes a modern nation cited as an example of progress while rooted in beliefs, habits and customs that are 2000 years old and her emperor is the high priest, why is it not said of her that she is regressive or backward or retrograde? (Indeed, if Japan is backward then welcome to backwardness!). And why is the King of England and the Emperor of India, lord of 450 million people on earth, among them, white and brown and yellow and red and black, why is he the head of the Church of England? And why does his parliament in many of its sessions discuss the matter of bread and wine? Do these, by the mere prayer of a priest, transubstantiate without a doubt into the body and blood of Christ? Or is this in the way of symbolism and imagery? ² And it is not said that it is regressive, nor is it said that this great nation is backward or retrograde? So, if England, after all this, is retrograde then bravo to retrograde! The whole continent of Europe, all of it Christian, was proud of its Christianity, boasting of it at every opportunity, united in this matter despite internal schism and enmity. And still we do not deride it by calling it regressive and backward? The reality is that the religion of Europe is nineteen hundred years old. This can rightly be called old or rather very old. And these Jews – no matter what we deny of their virtues we cannot deny their ability, intelligence, work ethic and great industriousness – continue to be proud of the Torah which has been in existence for thousands of years and which is common also to the Christians. And why do we see the best of Jewish youth striving to rejuvenate Hebrew which, because of its deep historical roots has no known beginning, why do we not call them backward or regressive or retrograde? Chaim Weizmann, head of the Zionist Organisation, has recently published in Le Matin an article in which he took great pride and cited as one of the great achievements of the Jews for which humanity will them that “all of

modern Palestine now speaks in the language of the prophets”. By modern Palestine he means Jewish Palestine in which the Zionists have introduced ancient Hebrew and have compelled their new generation to speak it so that it may become the collective language of Jews. So, who has done this? The answer is: Modern Jews who are amongst the keenest of people to adapt the principles of modern science and contemporary civilisation. How many examples and analogies can I possibly count in a brief paper like this?

ُ َ ³‫ب‬ َ َ‫و‬ ِ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻳ َﺬﻛُﺮ إ ِﻻ أوﻟ ُﻮ اْﻷﻟ ْﺒ َﺎ‬

Every nation holds firm to their religion, the principles of their faith and the inherited characteristics of their people, and they do not deride anyone for these qualities. Except the Muslims! And if someone calls them to hold firm to their Quran, their beliefs, their defining characteristics, the Arabic language and its etiquette, eastern life and its ways, all hell is raised by those in whose hearts there is a sickness. They yell: Down with reactionism. And they say: How do you want progress when you hold onto worn out modes and remnants from the middle ages while we are in a new era? All of these people developed and progressed and advanced and rose up and soared in the sky: The Christian among them remained committed to his Bible and the conventions of his church, the Jew remained committed to his Torah and his Talmud, the Japanese remained committed to his idol and his sacred rice. Each group rejoiced at what they possessed. And for this poor Muslim, it is impossible for him to advance unless he throws away his Quran, his belief, his do’s and dont’s, his goals and objectives, his inclinations, his food and drink, his clothes and his bedding, his culture and his joy, and breaks away from his history. And if he does not do this, he has no share in progress and advancement. This is the damage done by the progressive who intends to harm Islam and the

East and deceive the simple minded with his words.

Misfortunes Inflicted by the Conservatives on Islam and Muslims

It remains for us to discuss the conservative Muslim, who is no less harmful than the progressive, but at least does not share his malice and ill intention and does what he does out of ignorance and bigotry. The conservative is he who has paved the way for the enemies of Islamic civilisation to battle it on the grounds that the backwardness of the Islamic world is the fruit of this civilisation. The conservative is the reason for the poverty that has afflicted the Muslims because he has made Islam a religion only of the Hereafter. But the reality is that Islam is a religion of the Dunya and the Hereafter. This is a privilege that it has over all other religions. Islam has not limited the fruits of man’s labour on earth only to the life of the Hereafter, as is the case in the religions of India and China. And it has not urged abstention in regard to wealth, power and glory of the Dunya as does the Bible. And nor has it restricted man’s efforts to this life of the Dunya as is the case of modern European civilisation. The conservative is he who has declared war on the natural sciences, mathematics and philosophy, and the arts and industry that stems from these, on the grounds that this knowledge belongs to the Infidels (Kuffar). He has banned Islam from the fruits of this knowledge and in doing so, has bequeathed the Ummah deprivation and poverty and clipped its wings. Indeed, the natural sciences seek to understand the Earth. And the Earth does not yield its treasures other than to those who seek them. If we continue, all our lives, to speak of nothing but what is useful for the Hereafter, the Earth will say to us: “Depart right away for the Hereafter. There is, of me, no share for you.” By limiting all our efforts to these religious studies and lectures on the Hereafter, we put ourselves in a weak position vis-a-vis all other nations who have focused their efforts on the Earth. They continue to rise on Earth as we continue to sink into it until such time as they gain absolute control and become able to lie to us about our own religion and to expropriate all that we own in the Dunya. And he who has no share of the Dunya has no religion. This is not what Allah wants for

us when He is the one who says:

Allah has promised those who believe among you and do good work that He will make you successors on the Earth. ⁴

And He says:

He is the One that has created for you all that is in the Earth. ⁵ And: Say (O Mohammad): Who has forbidden the beauty of Allah which He has brought forth for His worshipers, and the good things of sustenance (for them). Say: These are, on the day of Resurrection, exclusively for those who believed during the life of the Dunya.

And in what He has related and confirmed: Do not forget your share of the Dunya. ⁷ And He taught us to say: Our Lord give us in the Dunya what is good and in the Hereafter what is good. ⁸

The conservative Muslim does not know that in this way he works towards the destruction of his faith, and is not aware of the catastrophe that afflicts his people by their forsaking universal scientific knowledge. They fall into the extreme indigence which they are in now and become dependent on their enemies who regard not pact nor honour in your regard. And when he (the conservative) views this condition, he explains it, to begin with, as fate and destiny. All indolent people in the Dunya attribute what befalls them to fate. This characteristic has made slothfulness attractive to many Muslims and there has arisen in them a group called the Daraweesh who have no occupation or work and who in reality are nothing but paralysed limbs of Islamic society. It is only this characteristic that has made the Europeans proclaim: Islam is fate and destiny. It does not urge to effort, because what will be will be, whether one

works or not.

Verses of Work Refuting the Interpretation of Fate as Predestination and Laziness

There is no clearer proof of the error of this European claim than the Quran itself which is replete with exhortation to work, rousing the spirit, confronting danger and relating reward and punishment, success and failure to the effort of the believer: Consider the following verses from His book:

And say (O Mohammad to the believers): Work, and Allah will behold your actions and (so will) his Messenger If they do not believe you (O Mohammad) say: For me are my deeds and for you are your deeds¹ And Allah will behold your deeds¹ ¹ For us are our deeds and for you your deeds¹ ² O you who believe, obey Allah and obey his Messenger, and do not invalidate your deeds¹ ³ And Allah is with you, and He will not hold back (the reward of) your deeds¹ ⁴ And if you obey Allah and his Messenger He will not withhold (the reward of) any of your deeds¹ ⁵ Whoever wishes the life of the Dunya and its vanities, we shall repay them their deeds in it, and in it they will not be short changed¹ Indeed, to all, without exception, your Lord will requite them for their deeds¹ ⁷ And He will repay their deeds in full and they will not be wronged¹ ⁸ Indeed I (Allah) will not lose the work (deeds) of any worker among you¹

How wonderful is the reward of the workers!¹¹ It is for the likes of this (reward) let workers work¹¹¹ To Him do good words ascend, and good deeds does he exalt¹¹² And every soul will be rewarded for (what) it did¹¹³ Whoever performs good work, man or woman, and he is a believer, we will make him live a good life, and grant them their reward for the best of what they used to do¹¹⁴ The day when every soul will find what it has done of good and evil presented (to it), it will wish that there were between it and that (the evil) a vast distance.¹¹⁵ And every soul is rewarded in full for what it did, and He is the best knower of what they do.¹¹ So they are afflicted by the evil that they did.¹¹⁷ And they find whatever they did (in the Dunya) to be present.¹¹⁸ To make them taste some of what they have done.¹¹ Except those who believe and do good work, for them there is a double reward for what they have done.¹² For everyone there will be a category for what they have done, He will requite them for their deeds and they will not be wronged.¹²¹ So who does an atom of good will see it.¹²² And who does an atom of evil will see it.¹²³ They will be rewarded (for) what they do.¹²⁴ In reward for what they used to do.¹²⁵ And He will say: Taste of that what you used to do.¹² And verses other than these that can scarcely be counted with which the Quran is replete. Among these is what is at the heart of our problem such as Allah’s

words: No calamity will strike you other than what your hands have earned.¹²⁷ And His words: And when disaster struck you (from the enemy), while you had struck them twice as hard before, you said: How is this? Say (O Mohammad) it is from yourselves¹²⁸ Indeed, the owner of the question¹² knows, what the majority of Muslims do not know, that Allah in this verse is addressing the best of this Ummah in regard to their belief and Islam. They are the companions of the Messenger of Allah who were truly bewildered by the victory of the infidels over them in the battle of Uhud.¹³ Allah replies to them with the reason: Their violation of the Prophet’s orders to the archers, who were protecting the backs of fighters, not to leave their positions whether or not the Muslims were victorious. But when the infidels were in retreat, they (the archers) violated the orders to stay put and instead left their positions to the fighters for the spoils of battle. So the infidels regrouped and attacked and in the process the Prophet himself suffered a head injury. All these verses declare that Islam is a religion of work not a religion of sloth. Nor is it a religion of relying on an unknown fate for men as claimed by the indolent Daraweesh who say: “Allah will provide for us whether we work or not.” Nor is it, as some European authors make it out to be, a religion of rigidity, ivity and submission, and that the backwardness of Muslims is due to this. Were there in this claim even an atom of truth the companions of the Prophet, the most knowledgeable of people about Islam, would not have risen to conquer half of the globe in just fifty years. But the ‘submission’ that they speak of, and misrepresent what they do not know, is linked to effort, hard work and striving. Else it would not have been called ‘submission’ but rather stagnation and would have been considered indolence which is incompatible with the Quran and Sunnah. However, if the submission to Allah is linked with endeavour then it is more beneficial in the Dunya and the Hereafter, because an excess of self-reliance on oneself can lead to arrogance in the event of success, and to grief in failure. What Islam wants is the use of intellect and then trust in Allah. And that one plan for oneself on the basis of one’s intellect, which Allah has made a guide, while at the same time know that all matters are not in one’s hand. Indeed, there

are of the fates that which are not perceived by thought. When the Prophet mentioned fate, one of his companions asked him: Shall we not depend on Allah? He replied: Work. For everyone is facilitated to what he was created for.¹³¹ And amongst the strangest of strange is that these Europeans, who do not cease to characterise Islam with predestination – which was the belief of a small group of Muslims – and attribute to it Muslim backwardness, seem to forget what is in the Bible of verses about fate and predestination that are not only similar to what is in the Quran but go even further: Such as: “Not a hair falls from your heads other than with the permission of your Father in the Sky.” And many other similar verses which, were I to list them here, this article would become very long. We do not find in the Europeans who are obsessed with work and chase after profit and who deny absolutely predestination and fate anyone who does not read the Noble Bible and glorify it and marvel at its exalted principles just as we Muslims do. So how is it that they forget in it verses of fate and destiny? And how is it that they do not describe the words of Christ (May the Prayers of Allah be upon him) as predestination?

¹³²‫ﻣﺎ‬ ِ ُ‫ﻳ‬ َ ُ ‫ﻣﺎ وَﻳ‬ ً ‫ﻪ ﻋ َﺎ‬ ُ َ ‫ﻣﻮﻧ‬ ُ ‫ﺤﺮ‬ ً ‫ﻪ ﻋ َﺎ‬ ُ َ ‫ﺤﻠﻮﻧ‬

And the reality is that all that has come in the Bible and all that has come in the Quran of verses regarding fate and destiny is only intended to indicate that Allah’s knowledge predates all that will happen. It is not intended to deny freedom of choice or imply distaste for earning a living. The Parable of the Talents and other sermons in the Bible point to what the Quran attributes to the books of Abraham and Moses and other messengers of Allah:

That no soul will bear the burden of another * And for man is only that which he has worked for * And his efforts will be seen * Then he will be given a full

reward¹³³

Conservative Muslims Are Enticement for the Enemies of Islam and Evidence against It

We return to the conservative Muslim and say: It is he who has paved the way for the enemies of Islam against Islam and created for them a path to defame it to the extent of saying: “It is a religion that is not consistent with modern development and that it is a religion that stands in the way of civilisation.” The reality is that these conservatives are the ones whose beliefs are not consistent with civilisation. Islam is innocent of their rigidity. Indeed Islam, from its origin, is a revolt against ancient decadence, an annulment of an ugly past and a severing of all links with all that is not factual. So how can Islam be a religion of rigidity and inflexibility? It is the Quran that relates the story of Abraham: When he said to his father and his people: What are these statues to which you cling? They said: We found our forefathers worshipping them. * He said: Indeed, you and your forefathers were clearly in error.¹³⁴ And it (the Quran) says: We worship idols and we will remain devoted to them. * He said: Do they hear you when you call them? * Or benefit you or harm (you)? * Still, we found our forefathers doing the same. * He said: Do you see what you have been worshipping? * You and your forefathers of old * They are enemies to me other than the Lord of the Worlds.¹³⁵ And: Indeed, we found our forefathers following a religion, and indeed we are following in their footsteps. * He said: Even though I bring to you better guidance than what you found your forefathers (worshipping)?¹³ And: And when it is said to them: Follow what Allah has revealed. They say: Instead we follow what we found our fathers following, even though their fathers did not understand and were not guided (to the right path).¹³⁷ And: And the foolish among the people will say: What has turned them from

their Qibla which they previously followed? Say (O Mohammad), To Allah belong the East and the West, He guides whom He wills to the straight path.¹³⁸ And verses other than these calling to rebellion against the old if it is not right and not suitable. Indeed, those who understand Islam properly welcome all that is new provided that it does not contradict faith and no harm is feared from it. I do not believe that anything which benefits Islamic society can be contrary to a religion that is based on making its worshippers happy. Do you not see the religious scholars of Najd¹³ who are the furthest of Muslims from Europeans and Europeanisation and the furthest from the centres of modern inventions, what their answer was when King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud sought their opinion on the wireless, telephone and electric cars? They answered him: These developments are beneficial and useful and there is nothing in the book of Allah or the Sunnah of the Prophet, implied or explicit that forbids them. Is it not closer to the interest of a nation that the state be able to know of an incident as soon as it happens in order to address it? Is it not more beneficial for the Muslims that a Hajji be able, in just a few hours, to make a journey that used to take days and nights? I had asked Sheikh Mohammad ibn Ali-ibn-Turki, one of the religious scholars of Najd based in Makkah regarding his opinion about the telephone and wireless. He said: This matter is decided. The issue of it being allowed via-a-vis the Shariah is so clear that it does not even merit any discussion. And the matter of opposing all that is new is not a characteristic limited to Islamic conservatives. The Christian Church opposed any new work or opinion. But later took it up again and allowed it. So, when Galileo¹⁴ held that the Earth revolves around the Sun it declared him to be an infidel. There still exist even today Christian bishops who declare as an infidel anyone who opposes what has been said in the Torah about the formation of the Universe. Two years ago, a teacher was tried in the courts of an American state for ing Darwin’s theory and banned from teaching. But all this does not prevent the progress of science. The Christians have conservatives just as we have them. The Muslim conservative fights all knowledge other than conventional religious knowledge

which he is familiar with to the extent that he will fight even those of his faith who do not adhere exclusively to the Quran and Sunnah. He forgets that the natural sciences, mathematics, engineering, gravitation, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, tectonics and all other knowledge that benefits human society is religious knowledge, if not directly then in regards to its consequences. How considerable was the teaching of these sciences at the universities of AlAzhar, Zaitouna, Qarawain, Cordoba, Baghdad, Samarkand and others at the time when there were for Islam great nations and great men? And how abundant in Islam was the production of great men who fused wisdom with the Shariah and harmonised the Hadith with mathematics. Indeed, the greatest Arab philosopher known in Europe, the Judge ibn Rushd,¹⁴¹ was also among the greatest of religious scholars.

#### Ahmed Shawqi (1868 – 1932). Nicknamed the Prince of Poets was one of the greatest Arabic poets’ laureates, an Egyptian poet and dramatist who pioneered the modern Egyptian literary movement, most notably introducing the genre of poetic epics to the Arabic literary tradition (Source Wikipedia).↩ ⁷ The verse in meaning: Indeed, nations are but morals and ethics so long as these remain. When morals and ethics depart so do nations.↩ ⁷¹ The Arabic word used by Arsalan is “Ifranj” or “Ifranji” for the singular. This is an Arabisation of the word Frank and refers to all Europeans.↩ ْ ْ ْ ⁷² ‫ن‬ َ ْ ‫وََﻻ ﺗ َﻬِﻨ ُﻮا ﻓِﻲ اﺑ ْﺘ ِﻐَﺎِء اﻟ‬ َ ‫ﺟﻮ‬ ُ ‫ن وَﺗ َْﺮ‬ َ ‫ﻤﻮ‬ َ ‫ﻤﻮ‬ َ ‫ﻤﻮ‬ ُ َ ‫ﻤﺎ ﺗ َﺄﻟ‬ َ َ ‫ن ﻛ‬ ُ َ ‫ﻢ ﻳ َﺄﻟ‬ ْ ُ‫ن ﻓَﺈ ِﻧﻬ‬ ُ َ ‫ﻘﻮْم ِ إ ِن ﺗ َﻜ ُﻮﻧ ُﻮا ﺗ َﺄﻟ‬ 4.104‫ﺟﻮن‬ ِ َ↩ ُ ‫ﻣﺎ َﻻ ﻳ َْﺮ‬ َ ِ‫ﻦ اﻟﻠﻪ‬ َ ‫ﻣ‬ ⁷³ This verse is attributed to Abu Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi d. 965, widely thought to be the greatest of Arabic poets. In meaning: Cowards believe that weakness is glory – A deception of the vile soul.↩ ⁷⁴ Transliteration from Arabic. Not clear which town is intended.↩ ⁷⁵ 30.47 ‫ﻦ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻤﺆ‬ َ ‫ن‬ َ ‫↩وَﻛ َﺎ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﺼُﺮ اﻟ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺣﻘﺎ ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻨ َﺎ ﻧ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬ َ ⁷ 3.139 ‫ﻦ‬ ِ ْ ‫ن إ ِن ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺆ‬ َ ْ‫ﻢ اْﻷ َﻋ ْﻠ َﻮ‬ ْ َ ‫↩وََﻻ ﺗ َﻬِﻨ ُﻮا وََﻻ ﺗ‬ ُ ُ ‫ﺤَﺰﻧ ُﻮا وَأﻧﺘ‬ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ِﻴ‬

َ َ ْ ‫ح ﻣﺜ ْﻠ ُﻪ وﺗ ِﻠ‬ ⁷⁷ 3.140 ‫ﻦ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻣﺲ اﻟ‬ َ َ‫ح ﻓ‬ ٌ ‫م ﻗَْﺮ‬ ٌ ‫ﻢ ﻗَْﺮ‬ ُ ‫ﻚ اْﻷﻳﺎ‬ َ ْ‫ﻘﻮ‬ ْ ‫ﺴ‬ َ ‫ﻤ‬ ُ َ ْ ‫ﻘﺪ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﺴﻜ‬ ْ َ ‫إ ِن ﻳ‬ َ ْ ‫م ﻧ ُﺪ َاوِﻟ ُﻬَﺎ ﺑ َﻴ‬ َ َ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮا‬ َ ‫ﻦ آ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻠ‬ َ ‫س وَﻟ ِﻴ َﻌْﻠ‬ َ ‫ﻪ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ِ ‫↩اﻟﻨﺎ‬ َ ‫ﻦ ﻗَﺎ‬ َ ‫ﺧ‬ ⁷⁸ 3.173 ‫ﻤﺎﻧ ًﺎ‬ ْ ‫ﻢ ﻓَﺎ‬ َ ْ ‫س ﻗَﺪ‬ َ ‫ﻢ إ ِﻳ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻢ ﻓََﺰاد َﻫ‬ ْ ُ‫ﺸﻮْﻫ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻤﻌُﻮا ﻟ َﻜ‬ َ ‫ﺟ‬ ُ ُ‫ل ﻟ َﻬ‬ َ ‫س إ ِن اﻟﻨﺎ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻨﺎ‬ َ ‫اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ْ ُ َ ُ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻮَﻛ ِﻴ‬ ‫ﻞ‬ َ ‫↩وَﻗﺎﻟﻮا‬ ْ ‫ﺣ‬ َ ْ‫ﻪ وَﻧ ِﻌ‬ ُ ‫ﺴﺒ ُﻨ َﺎ اﻟﻠ‬ ⁷ 3.174 ‫ﺳﻮٌء‬ َ ‫↩ﻓَﺎﻧ‬ ْ َ‫ﻦ اﻟﻠﻪِ وَﻓ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ‬ ْ ‫ﺴ‬ َ ‫ﻤ‬ ْ ُ‫ﺴﻬ‬ ْ َ ‫ﻢ ﻳ‬ ْ ‫ﻞ ﻟ‬ َ ْ‫ﻘﻠ َﺒ ُﻮا ﺑ ِﻨ ِﻌ‬ ٍ ‫ﻀ‬ َ ‫ﻤﺔٍ ﻣ‬ ⁸ The stinginess of the Muslims with their wealth for matters of common importance is what paralysed their political movements and fragmented their nationalism to the extent that the conquering nations took no of them. Had they taken the Muslims into , the French would not have appropriated 75% of the assets of Muslims, nor would a third of the land of Tunisia become the property of 50 thousand French citizens, while its people numbering some two and a half million were left with only two thirds of the land, nor would have appropriated from the people of the Maghrib 800 thousand hectares and given it to French settlers, nor would have spent three fourths of the Maghrib’s budget on 190 thousand French citizens while leaving the remaining quarter for the seven million Muslims of the Maghrib. Keep in mind that 80% of the budget was collected from Muslims. This, we have established from the official newspaper Jarida Al-Himaya which the French cannot deny. Further, this is the budget for many years not just one year. We have taken these numbers from Jarida Al-Himaya published in Rabat and also published them in our magazine La Nation Arabe. We invite people to contemplate this atrocious injustice meted out to Muslims in which one Frenchman gets of the budget what sixty Muslims are allocated. Even stranger than this is that the Jews of the Maghrib benefit just as the French: One Jew gets the equivalent of what 40 Muslims get. And even stranger than this is that, while four fifths of this budget comes from the pockets of Muslims, missionaries, priests and other propagators of Christianity get hundreds of thousands of Francs to spread Christianity among the Berbers and Muslims. The same pattern is seen in Egyptian Sudan, where Christian missionaries are ed from the pockets of Muslims. Were it not for the submissiveness of Muslim nations to the colonial powers and the fact that they give no weight to the Muslims they would not have debased them to this extreme limit. Nor would the French have considered forty Muslims to be the equivalent of one Jew, nor sixty Muslims the equivalent of one Frenchman. We have challenged them (the Muslims) to respond to us about this atrocious injustice. But they do not reply

other than by accusing us of enmity to the French. It is as if one cannot be a friend of other than by throwing away all the rights of one’s people. This is stranger than strange. And were they to contemplate only a little they would know that our counsel to them is in their benefit and that the enemy does not seek to win the hearts of Muslims but to wage a never-ending war against them. (S)↩ ⁸¹ The poet is Laqeet ibn Y'amur of the Pre-Islamic period. The verses say in meaning: 'Do not keep your wealth with the enemy. If they win, they will take you and your wealth. There is no benefit of wealth and abundance if you are disgraced and humiliated (literally, your nose is cut off).'↩ ⁸² Abu Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi. The verse says in meaning: 'There is no glory in the Dunya for he who has little wealth. And there is no wealth in the Dunya for he who has little glory.'↩ ⁸³ Yes, the Muslims fear the colonising nations and so obey them even over their parents, children, their most precious ones and the matters that are most important to them such as their faith, land, nationality, and culture. And if you ask them about the reasons for this blind obedience they say: “If we don’t obey them, they will destroy us and we have no ability to resist them.” They forget that when the colonial nations bombard them during war, they will meet death that will not be greater than the death they meet when they resist them: Say (O Mohammad) that the death you flee from will certainly find you. (Quran 62.8) Indeed, the explanation of the spiritual state of Muslims who have submitted to the colonising European states, escapes the best of social scientists. It is impossible to conceive of two types of death: One bitter in taste which the soul is not strong enough to face – the death in resisting a foreign invader. And the other, acceptable in taste, easy to take on – the death in fighting the enemy of that invader. There is no doubt that this spiritual state is an aberration not subject to explanation or justification other than as a sickness and as an imbalance of mood. The continuing dread that the invading foreigners have foisted in the hearts of Muslims has ultimately led to create in their minds this strange condition for which I find no equivalent in history. Other than, perhaps, the time when the Mongolian Tatars advanced into the lands of Islam and decimated the flowering civilisations which were in in Turkistan, Iran and Iraq. And

slaughtered, in the way that sheep are slaughtered, millions of inhabitants of these lands and destroyed Baghdad, the seat of the Caliphate, and killed AlMu’tasim the Abbasid Caliph by throwing him under the feet of an elephant and made towering mounds of the skulls of the dead. Fear and dread entered the hearts of the Muslims to the extent that a single Mongol would enter upon a hundred Muslims and kill them all while they had their weapons in their hands. The thought of resisting did not even enter their minds. This cannot be described in any way as a loss of morale, rather it goes well beyond that. Because loss of morale does not dispossess one of all ability to resist. It can only be characterised as a sickness that decentres human character or as dementia that robs minds of the ability to comprehend. A historian has mentioned a strange story related by a man who witnessed these events. This is what he related: "I fled from the Tatars and fate led me to a house in which 18 men had taken refuge in the hope that they could escape death. While we were seated there, a single Tatar entered upon us. He saw the grime of death on our faces. But he had no weapon with him with which to kill us. So, he said to us: ‘Stay here until I get my knife to kill you’ and then left to get it. When he left, I said to the group: ‘What are you waiting for?’ They replied: ‘We are waiting for nothing except death.’ So, I asked them: ‘How can we wait for death at the hands of a single man while we are a group of 19 men?’ They asked: ‘What do you want us to do?’ I said: ‘We will kill him.’ They replied: ‘Our hands will not extend to him because we are fearful.’ I said: ‘What are you afraid of? If you are afraid of death then he will kill you in all events.’ I kept encouraging them until two of them were convinced by my words. And when the Mongol returned with his knife with the intent to kill us, the three of us disarmed and killed him, saving ourselves." And so the Muslims remained in dread and fear of the Tatars until the Egyptian army, in the time of King Qutoz, advanced towards them. The two armies met at ’Ayn Jalut in Palestine. The Tatars suffered a stinging defeat. Thereafter, the determination of the Muslims against them solidified and they began to slay

them. They started to view the Tatars as they viewed other people. And had the Tatars not entered Islam, the Muslims would have annihilated them. To sum up: Whenever the Muslims preferred security, they encountered more death. And whenever they disdained life, they encountered more life. It is to this that Allah refers in his Noble Book when He says: O you who believe what ails you that when it is said unto you mobilise in the way of Allah you cling to the Earth? Have you preferred the life of the Dunya to the life of the Hereafter? The enjoyment of the Dunya is small compared to the Hereafter (9.38). And: If you do not mobilise, He will afflict you with a painful doom and replace you with others. And you cannot harm Him in any way. Indeed, Allah reigns over all things. (9.39) (S)↩ ⁸⁴ Historian, scholar of Hadith and prolific writer d. 1927↩ ⁸⁵ ‫↩ﻣﻦ ﺣﺒﻜﻢ اﻟﺪﻧﻴﺎ وﻛﺮاﻫﻴﺘﻜﻢ اﻟﻤﻮت‬ ⁸ Allah says: Spend in the way of Allah and do not with your (own) hands fling yourself into annihilation (2.195) (S)↩ َ َ ِ ‫ﻞ ﻣﻌﻪ رﺑﻴﻮن ﻛ َﺜ ِﻴﺮ ﻓَﻤﺎ وﻫَﻨﻮا ﻟ‬ ⁸⁷ 3.146 ‫ﻣﺎ‬ ُ َ َ ٌ َ َ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻲ‬ َ َ‫ﻞ اﻟﻠﻪِ و‬ ْ ُ‫ﺻﺎﺑ َﻬ‬ َ َ ‫ﻤﺎ أ‬ ِ ‫ﺳﺒ ِﻴ‬ ِ ُ َ َ َ َ ‫وَﻛ َﺄﻳﻦ ﻣﻦ ﻧﺒ ِﻲ ﻗَﺎﺗ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ُ ُ ‫ﺿﻌ‬ ِ ُ ‫ﻪ ﻳ‬ َ ↩ ْ ‫ﻣﺎ ا‬ ُ ‫ﺳﺘ َﻜ َﺎﻧ ُﻮا وَاﻟﻠ‬ َ َ‫ﻔﻮا و‬ َ ‫ﺤﺐ اﻟﺼﺎﺑ ِﺮِﻳ‬ ⁸⁸ The word used by Arsalan here is ‘jamideen’ which translates literally to those who are frozen. By this he means frozen in their old beliefs. And so, the word ‘conservative’ as used here, denotes the extreme right.↩ ⁸ Similarly, the word used by Arsalan here is ‘jahideen’ which translates literally to those who deny. That is those who deny all that is old. So, the word ‘progressive’, again as used here, denotes the extreme left.↩ Austen Chamberlain, a past Foreign Secretary of England, says: We English are a traditional people who hold onto our past. We do not like to change anything about the way we are unless it becomes necessary and there remains no alternative to change. (S)↩ ¹ Arsalan is writing in the period between the two great wars. World War II had yet to occur. What we now call World War I was, at the time, known as the General War.↩

² History does not relate an issue in England’s internal matters that acquired a greater significance than the issue of transubstantiation. It is the issue of the metamorphosis of blood and wine into the body of Christ. The origin of this belief is related in the Bible when Christ – may peace be upon him – before his ascent to Heaven dined with his students and bade them farewell. And while he was at the table, he ate a piece of bread and said: “Eat, this is my body.” He then took a sip of wine and said: “Drink, this is my blood.” From these words there formed in Christianity a belief that bread and wine metamorphosise literally, not symbolically, into the body of the lord. And since the priest, to them, is the successor of Christ it is necessary for him every day at mass in the Church to have a piece of bread and sip a bit of wine while at the same time reciting the same words that Christ – may peace be upon him – recited during his supper with his apostles. And when he (the priest) does this, the bread and wine are transformed, literally not figuratively, to the body of the lord. This bread, which they call the sacrament, is put into a precious jar that is then placed on the altar and to which they prostrate themselves because it is considered to be god himself. They call the presence of god in it ‘real presence’ in French (presence reelle). It is, to them, one of the greatest of sacred secrets. So, if a patient is on the verge of death, the priest will come, accept from him a confession of his sins and hand him the sacrament. It is then said that he will go to the Hereafter provisioned with divine secrets. This was the belief of all Christians and remains the belief of most of them until today. However, when the Protestant Reformation happened, this belief amongst its followers, in regard to ‘real presence’ and of the literal not figurative transformation of bread and wine, by the consecration of the priest, to the body and blood of the lord, changed. The Protestants said: “This is figurative, not literal, and that it is only symbolic and a remembrance.” They moved away from placing the sacrament on the altar and prostrating to it. Instead, at Protestant churches they would place the sacrament in a special cavity in a wall. But the Anglican Church – the highest church in England was not able to agree on a position in regard to the sacrament. So, the party of the right remained committed to the original idea that bread and wine are transformed by a prayer of the priest to the body and blood of the lord, literally, not figuratively. The middle group and the group on the left would say: “These words of the Messiah were only symbolic, and it is not possible for bread and wine by the prayer of a

priest to change into the body and blood of the lord.” They adduced, in their rejection of the Catholic belief, the Book of Prayer, which is the constitution of the Anglican Church and which was compiled by English Protestants when they separated from the Roman Church. When this issue became controversial among the followers of the Anglican Church and each group started to act in accordance with its own view and it was feared that a schism may occur, the British government ordered the formation of an Assembly of Bishops, under the leadership of their leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Its mandate was to study this problem and resolve it in one direction or the other. So, the commission met, and this was forty years ago, but could not agree on a solution that would satisfy both sides. Finally, the government pressured the bishops to settle the matter, if not by consensus then by a majority view. The majority decided, with the dissent of six bishops, that bread and wine by the prayer of a priest do literally transform into the body and blood of Christ, and therefore it is mandatory to worship them, to prostrate to them and to place them on the top of the altar and not in a cavity in the wall. In short, most of the bishops reverted to the Papal belief. And since the basic law of Great Britain, as required by the Book of Prayer, gave the final word on all religious issues to the House of Lords and the House of Commons (Parliament). The decision of the bishops was sent to the House of Lords. Discussions were held over many sessions. These captured the attention of the common people in a way that no other discussions had done before. It is said that some of the Lords, who were very old, had to be carried into the chamber on stretchers in order that they do not miss out on these discussions. Finally, the House of Lords ed the majority decision of the Assembly of Bishops. But this by itself was not sufficient since it had to be ratified by the House of Commons. When the matter reached the House of Commons, most of its were inclined towards the Protestant view, at the forefront of whom was the Home Secretary. They annulled the decision of the House of Lords and the decision of the Assembly of Bishops and ruled that bread and wine clearly are not transformed into the body of Christ – may peace be upon him. They adduced, for this decision, the Book of Prayer, which is the sole constitution of the Anglican

Church, and did not agree with the Assembly of Bishops except for a prayer that was added for the King of England. Following this decision by the House of Commons the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned from his post. We have only mentioned this matter, which is not our direct subject, to prove two points: First, the adherence of the English nation to its religious principles and the intensity of its concern for these matters despite indisputably being the most advanced of nations. And second: To say to those who claim that Europe discarded its religion and those who say that Europe separated religion from politics and that it is this separation that was the reason for its success and that it is behooves Muslims to take the same path if they want to advance as the Europeans have advanced and to dominate the Earth as they dominate: “Where is the separation of religion from politics here?” Further it is the Book of Prayer on what the House of Commons relied on to annul the decision of the House of Lords. Where, again, is the separation of religion from politics when you see that a purely religious matter is put to the House of Lords and the House of Commons for their decision. If this is not a religious matter what is? And if the Houses of Commons and the Lords are not concerned with politics then which assembly other than them is concerned with politics? Let the impartial reader consider the extent to which the Geographical Muslims have misguided their people either out of ignorance, or of blindness for the truth, or in the service of European colonialism which has no greater objective than to destroy Islam from its foundations. (S)↩ ³ Quran 2.269: And none except those of understanding↩ َْ ⁴ 24.55 ‫ض‬ َ ِ ‫ﺨﻠ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺴﺘ‬ ِ ‫ﺤﺎ‬ ِ َ ‫ﻢ وَﻋ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮا‬ َ ِ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا اﻟﺼﺎﻟ‬ ْ َ ‫ت ﻟ َﻴ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻔﻨﻬ‬ ْ ُ ‫ﻣﻨﻜ‬ َ ‫ﻦ آ‬ ُ ‫↩وَﻋ َﺪ َ اﻟﻠ‬ َ ‫ﻪ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬ ِ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻲ اﻷْر‬ َْ ُ َ َ َ ‫↩ﻫُﻮَ اﻟﺬ ِي‬ ⁵ 2.29 ‫ﻤﻴﻌًﺎ‬ ِ ‫ﺟ‬ َ ‫ض‬ ِ ‫ﺧﻠﻖَ ﻟﻜﻢ ﻣﺎ ﻓِﻲ اﻷْر‬ ْ ُ‫ق ﻗ‬ ْ ُ‫ﻗ‬ 7.32 ‫ﻦ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺔ اﻟﻠﻪِ اﻟﺘ ِﻲ أ‬ َ َ ‫م زِﻳﻨ‬ ِ ‫ت‬ ِ ‫ج ﻟ ِﻌِﺒ َﺎد ِهِ وَاﻟﻄﻴﺒ َﺎ‬ َ ‫ﺧَﺮ‬ َ ‫ﻦ‬ َ ‫ﺣﺮ‬ َ ‫ﻞ‬ َ ‫ﻲ ﻟ ِﻠﺬ ِﻳ‬ َ ِ ‫ﻞ ﻫ‬ َ ‫ﻣ‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬ ِ ‫ﻦ اﻟﺮْز‬ َ ‫ﺤﻴ َﺎةِ اﻟﺪﻧ ْﻴ َﺎ‬ ً ‫ﺼ‬ ِ‫ﻣﺔ‬ ِ ْ ‫م اﻟ‬ َ ْ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮا ﻓِﻲ اﻟ‬ َ ْ‫ﺔ ﻳ َﻮ‬ َ ‫ﻘﻴ َﺎ‬ َ ‫↩آ‬ َ ِ ‫ﺧﺎﻟ‬ َ َ ‫ﺼﻴﺒ‬ ⁷ 28.77 ‫ﻦ اﻟﺪﻧ ْﻴ َﺎ‬ ِ ‫ﻚ‬ ِ َ ‫ﺲ ﻧ‬ َ ‫↩وََﻻ ﺗ َﻨ‬ َ ‫ﻣ‬ ⁸ 2.201 ‫ﺔ‬ ِ ‫ﺔ وَﻓِﻲ اْﻵ‬ ً َ ‫ﺴﻨ‬ ً َ ‫ﺴﻨ‬ َ ِ‫ﺧَﺮة‬ َ ‫↩َرﺑﻨ َﺎ آﺗ ِﻨ َﺎ ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺪﻧ ْﻴ َﺎ‬ َ ‫ﺣ‬ َ ‫ﺣ‬

‫ﻪ ‪ 9.105‬‬ ‫ﻢ وََر ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ﻓَ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻮﻟ ُ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﺴﻴ ََﺮى اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻞ اﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫↩وَﻗُ ِ‬ ‫↩وَإ ِن ﻛ َﺬﺑ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ 10.41‬‬ ‫ك ﻓَ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ِﻲ وَﻟ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻘﻞ ﻟﻲ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ ¹ 9.94‬‬ ‫↩وَ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻴ ََﺮى اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫↩ﻟ َﻨﺎ أ َﻋ ْﻤﺎﻟ ُﻨﺎ وﻟ َﻜ ُ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ ² 2.139‬‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ ُﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫َ َ َ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺳﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ ³ 47.33‬‬ ‫ﻪ وَأﻃ ِﻴﻌُﻮا اﻟﺮ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ل وََﻻ ﺗ ُﺒ ْﻄ ِﻠ ُﻮا أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻨ ُﻮا أﻃ ِﻴﻌُﻮا اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻦ آ َ‬ ‫↩ﻳ َﺎ أﻳﻬَﺎ اﻟﺬ ِﻳ َ‬ ‫↩واﻟﻠﻪ ﻣﻌﻜ ُﻢ وﻟ َﻦ ﻳﺘ ِﺮﻛ ُ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ ⁴ 47.35‬‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫َ َ ْ‬ ‫َ ُ َ َ ْ َ‬ ‫↩وإن ﺗﻄﻴﻌﻮا اﻟﻠﻪ ورﺳﻮﻟ َﻪ َﻻ ﻳﻠ ِﺘﻜ ُﻢ ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻢ َ‬ ‫ﺷﻴ ْﺌ ًﺎ ‪¹ ⁵ 49.14‬‬ ‫َ ََ ُ ُ َ ْ‬ ‫َِ ُ ِ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ ِﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻛ َﺎن ﻳﺮﻳﺪ اﻟ ْﺤﻴﺎة َ اﻟﺪﻧﻴﺎ وزﻳﻨﺘﻬﺎ ﻧﻮف إﻟ َﻴﻬ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻴﻬَﺎ َﻻ ‪¹ 11.15‬‬ ‫َ ُ ِ ُ َ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻴﻬَﺎ وَﻫُ ْ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫ِ ِْ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َْ َ ِ َََ ُ َ‬ ‫ﺴﻮن‬ ‫ﺨ‬ ‫ﺒ‬ ‫ﻳ‬ ‫↩‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫↩وإن ﻛ ُﻼ ﻟﻤﺎ ﻟ َﻴﻮﻓﻴﻨﻬﻢ رﺑ َ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹ ⁷ 11.111‬‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻚ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫ُ َ َ ُ ْ َ‬ ‫َِ‬ ‫↩وﻟ ِﻴﻮﻓﻴﻬ َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹ ⁸ 46.19‬‬ ‫ﻤﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ َﻻ ﻳ ُﻈ ْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ وَﻫُ ْ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫َ ُ َ َُ ْ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻣﻨﻜ ُﻢ ‪¹ 3.195‬‬ ‫ﻞ ﻋ َﺎ ِ‬ ‫↩أﻧﻲ َﻻ أ ِ‬ ‫ﺿﻴﻊُ ﻋ َ َ‬ ‫ﻣ ٍ‬ ‫↩ﻓَﻨ ِﻌ َ‬ ‫ﻦ ‪¹¹ 39.74‬‬ ‫ﺟُﺮ اﻟ ْﻌَﺎ ِ‬ ‫ﻢ أ ْ‬ ‫ْ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻠ ِﻴ َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹¹¹ 37.61‬‬ ‫ﻞ اﻟ ْﻌَﺎ ِ‬ ‫↩ﻟ ِ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫هـذ َا ﻓَﻠ ْﻴ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ٰ َ‬ ‫ﻤ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﺜ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻤ ُ‬ ‫ﻪ ‪¹¹² 35,10‬‬ ‫ﻞ اﻟﺼﺎﻟ ِ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻄﻴ ُ‬ ‫ﺢ ﻳ َْﺮﻓَﻌُ ُ‬ ‫ﺐ وَاﻟ ْﻌَ َ‬ ‫ﺼﻌَﺪ ُ اﻟ ْﻜ َﻠ ِ ُ‬ ‫↩إ ِﻟ َﻴ ْﻪِ ﻳ َ ْ‬ ‫ﺖ ‪¹¹³ 16.111‬‬ ‫ﻰ ﻛ ُﻞ ﻧ َ ْ‬ ‫ﺲ ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻔ ٍ‬ ‫↩وَﺗ ُﻮَﻓ ٰ‬ ‫ﺤﺎ ﻣﻦ ذ َﻛ َﺮٍ أ َوْ أ ُﻧﺜ َ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹¹⁴ 16.97‬‬ ‫ﺤﻴ ِﻴ َﻨ‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫ﻰ وَﻫُﻮَ ‬ ‫ﺣﻴ َﺎة ً ﻃ َﻴﺒ َ ً‬ ‫ﻣﺆ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻦ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﺔ وَﻟ َﻨ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ َ‬ ‫ﻦ ﻓَﻠ َﻨ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺻﺎﻟ ِ ً‬ ‫ﺠﺰِﻳ َﻨﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻞ َ‬ ‫ٌ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ٰ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ن‬ ‫ﻌ‬ ‫ﻳ‬ ‫ ‬ ‫ا‬ ‫ﻮ‬ ‫ﻧ‬ ‫ﺎ‬ ‫ﻛ‬ ‫ ‬ ‫ﺎ‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫ ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ‫ﺴ‬ ‫ﺣ‬ ‫ﺄ‬ ‫ﺑ‬ ‫ ‬ ‫ﻢ‬ ‫ﻫ‬ ‫ﺮ‬ ‫ﺟ‬ ‫أ‬ ‫↩‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠﻮ َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ ِ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺳﻮٍء ﺗ َﻮَد ﻟ َﻮْ أ َن ‪¹¹⁵ 3.30‬‬ ‫ﺠﺪ ُ ﻛ ُﻞ ﻧ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ َ‬ ‫ﺖ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﺖ ِ‬ ‫ﺲ ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﺤ َ‬ ‫ﺧﻴ ْﺮٍ ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ﻳ َﻮْ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ُ‬ ‫م ﺗ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻀًﺮا وَ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ﻔ ٍ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻣﺪ ًا ﺑ َﻌِﻴﺪ ًا‪116‬‬ ‫ﻪ أ َ‬ ‫↩ﺑ َﻴ ْﻨ َﻬَﺎ وَﺑ َﻴ ْﻨ َ ُ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ن ‪39.70‬‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻳ َ ْ‬ ‫ﺖ ﻛ ُﻞ ﻧ َ ْ‬ ‫ﺲ ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻔﻌَﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﺑ ِ َ‬ ‫ﺖ وَﻫُﻮَ أﻋ ْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ َ ْ‬ ‫↩وَوُﻓﻴ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻔ ٍ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ‪¹¹⁷ 16.34‬‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻢ َ‬ ‫ت َ‬ ‫ﺳﻴﺌ َﺎ ُ‬ ‫ﺻﺎﺑ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫↩ﻓَﺄ َ‬

‫ﺿًﺮا ‪¹¹⁸ 18.49‬‬ ‫ﺣﺎ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا َ‬ ‫↩وَوَ َ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ ُوا َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ‪¹¹ 30.41‬‬ ‫↩ﻟ ِﻴ ُﺬ ِﻳ َ‬ ‫ﺾ اﻟﺬ ِي ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻘﻬُﻢ ﺑ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫لـﺋ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮا ‪¹² 34.37‬‬ ‫ﺤﺎ ﻓَﺄ ُو َ ٰ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻦ وَﻋ َ ِ‬ ‫ﺟَﺰاُء اﻟﻀﻌْ ِ‬ ‫ﻢ َ‬ ‫ﺻﺎﻟ ِ ً‬ ‫ﻒ ﺑ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻚ ﻟ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ آ َ‬ ‫↩إ ِﻻ َ‬ ‫ﻞ َ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫↩وﻟ ِﻜ ُﻞ درﺟﺎت ﻣﻤﺎ ﻋ َﻤﻠ ُﻮا وﻟ ِﻴﻮﻓﻴﻬ َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹²¹ 46.19‬‬ ‫ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ َﻻ ﻳ ُﻈ ْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ وَﻫُ ْ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﻟ َﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻋ ْ َ‬ ‫َ ُ َ َُ ْ‬ ‫ََ َ ٌ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻘﺎ َ‬ ‫ﻤ ْ‬ ‫ﺧﻴ ًْﺮا ﻳ ََﺮه ُ ‪¹²² 99.7‬‬ ‫ﻣﺜ ْ َ‬ ‫ل ذ َرةٍ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻦ ﻳ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫↩ﻓَ َ‬ ‫ﻘﺎ َ‬ ‫ﻤ ْ‬ ‫ل ذ َرةٍ َ‬ ‫ﺷﺮا ﻳ ََﺮه ُ ‪¹²³ 99.8‬‬ ‫ﻣﺜ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫↩وَ َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹²⁴ 7.180‬‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﺠَﺰوْ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻴ ُ ْ‬ ‫↩ َ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻛ َﺎﻧ ُﻮا ﻳ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫ن َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹²⁵ 56.24‬‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫↩ َ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻛ َﺎﻧ ُﻮا ﻳ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫ﺟَﺰاًء ﺑ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻘﻮ ُ‬ ‫ن ‪¹² 29.55‬‬ ‫↩وَﻳ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﺗ َﻌْ َ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫ل ذ ُوﻗُﻮا َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫↩و َ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹²⁷ 42.30‬‬ ‫ﺻﺎﺑ َﻜ ُﻢ ﻣﻦ ﻣ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻛ َ َ‬ ‫ﺖ أﻳ ْﺪ ِﻳﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺴﺒ َ ْ‬ ‫ﺼﻴﺒ َﺔٍ ﻓَﺒ ِ َ‬ ‫َ َ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ أ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫هـذ َا ﻗُ ْ‬ ‫ﻋﻨﺪ ِ ‪¹²⁸ 3.165‬‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫ﻢ أ َﻧ‬ ‫ﻦ ِ‬ ‫ﺼﻴﺒ َ ٌ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻫُﻮَ ِ‬ ‫ﺻﺎﺑ َﺘ ْﻜ ُﻢ ﻣ ِ‬ ‫ﻰ ٰ َ‬ ‫ﺻﺒ ْﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺜ ْﻠ َﻴ ْﻬَﺎ ﻗُﻠ ْﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺔ ﻗَﺪ ْ أ َ‬ ‫أوَﻟ َﻤﺎ أ َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ٰ‬ ‫ﻢ‬ ‫↩أ َﻧ ُ‬ ‫ﻔ ِ‬ ‫ﺴﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫↩‪¹ ⁸ Sheikh Basyuni Imran.‬‬ ‫‪¹³ Battle between the early Muslims and their enemies in Makkah. It took place‬‬ ‫↩‪in a valley by Mount Uhud in the Hijaz in the year 3H.‬‬ ‫↩‪¹³¹ Bukhari 4949, Muslim 2647‬‬ ‫↩‪¹³² Quran 9.37 They allow it one year and forbid it in another.‬‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻪ ‪¹³³ 53.38 – 41‬‬ ‫أ َﻻ ﺗ َﺰُِر وَازَِرة ٌ وِْزَر أ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺳﻌ َ‬ ‫ﻰ * وَأن َ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺲ ﻟ ِْﻺ ِﻧ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻌْﻴ َ ُ‬ ‫ن إ ِﻻ َ‬ ‫ﺧَﺮىٰ * وَأن ﻟﻴ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺴﺎ ِ‬ ‫ٰ‬ ‫َْ‬ ‫ﻰ‬ ‫ﺳﻮْ َ‬ ‫ﺠَﺰاه ُ اﻟ ْ َ‬ ‫ف ﻳ َُﺮىٰ * ﺛ ُﻢ ﻳ ُ ْ‬ ‫↩ َ‬ ‫ﺠَﺰاَء اﻷوْﻓَ ٰ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤﺎﺛ ِﻴ ُ‬ ‫إ ِذ ْ ﻗَﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ ْﻧ َﺎ ‪¹³⁴ 21.52 – 54‬‬ ‫ﻢ ﻟ َﻬَﺎ ﻋ َﺎﻛ ِ ُ‬ ‫ل ِﻷ َﺑ ِﻴﻪِ وَﻗَﻮْ ِ‬ ‫ن * ﻗَﺎﻟ ُﻮا وَ َ‬ ‫ﻔﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻞ اﻟﺘ ِﻲ أﻧﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫هـذ ِهِ اﻟﺘ َ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ٰ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻪِ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻦ ﻗَﺎ َ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ‫ل ﻟ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻲ َ‬ ‫ﻢ وَآﺑ َﺎؤ ُﻛ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ أﻧﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﻘﺪ ْ ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺿﻼ ٍ‬ ‫↩آﺑ َﺎَءﻧ َﺎ ﻟﻬَﺎ ﻋ َﺎﺑ ِﺪ ِﻳ َ‬ ‫ل ﻣﺒ ِﻴ ٍ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ل ﻫ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ * ﻗَﺎ َ‬ ‫ن * ‪¹³⁵ 26.71 – 77‬‬ ‫ﻔﻴ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻓَﻨ َﻈ َﻞ ﻟ َﻬَﺎ ﻋ َﺎﻛ ِ ِ‬ ‫ﻢ إ ِذ ْ ﺗ َﺪ ْﻋ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻳ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻤﻌُﻮﻧ َﻜ ُ ْ‬ ‫ﺴ َ‬ ‫ﺻﻨ َﺎ ً‬ ‫ﻗَﺎﻟ ُﻮا ﻧ َﻌْﺒ ُﺪ ُ أ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻔﻌﻠ ُﻮن * ﻗَﺎ َ َ َ‬ ‫ﻔﻌﻮﻧﻜ ُ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ ْﻧ َﺎ آﺑ َﺎَءﻧ َﺎ ﻛ َﺬ ٰ َﻟ ِ َ‬ ‫ن * ﻗَﺎﻟ ُﻮا ﺑ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻚ ﻳ َ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻞ وَ َ‬ ‫ﻀﺮو َ‬ ‫ﻢ أوْ ﻳ َ ُ‬ ‫ل أﻓََﺮأﻳ ْﺘ ُﻢ ﻣﺎ ﻛ ُﻨﺘ ُ ْ‬ ‫أوْ ﻳ َﻨ َ ُ َ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻤﻴﻦ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻋ َﺪ ُو ﻟﻲ إ ِﻻ َرب اﻟ ْﻌَﺎﻟ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﻮ َ‬ ‫↩ﺗ َﻌْﺒ ُﺪ ُو َ‬ ‫ن * ﻓَﺈ ِﻧﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ اْﻷﻗْﺪ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ وَآﺑ َﺎؤ ُﻛ ُ ُ‬ ‫ن * أﻧﺘ ُ ْ‬

‫ﻘﺘﺪون * ﻗَﺎ َ َ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ ْﻧ َﺎ آﺑ َﺎَءﻧ َﺎ ﻋ َﻠ َﻰ أ ُﻣﺔٍ وَإ ِﻧﺎ ﻋ َﻠ َ‬ ‫ﺟﺌ ْﺘ ُﻜ ُﻢ ‪¹³ 43.23,24‬‬ ‫ﻰ آﺛ َﺎرِﻫ ِﻢ ﻣ ْ َ ُ َ‬ ‫إ ِﻧﺎ وَ َ‬ ‫ل أوَﻟ َﻮْ ِ‬ ‫ٰ‬ ‫ٰ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ﻢ‬ ‫↩ﺑ ِﺄﻫْﺪ َىٰ ِ‬ ‫ﻣﻤﺎ وَ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻋ َﻠﻴ ْﻪِ آﺑ َﺎَءﻛ ْ‬ ‫ﺟﺪﺗ ْ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻗَﺎﻟ ُﻮا ﺑ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ أ َﻧَﺰ َ‬ ‫وَإ ِذ َا ﻗِﻴ َ‬ ‫ن ‪¹³⁷ 2.170‬‬ ‫ﻣﺎ أ َﻟ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻔﻴ ْﻨ َﺎ ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻪِ آﺑ َﺎَءﻧ َﺎ أوَﻟ َﻮْ ﻛ َﺎ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻧ َﺘﺒ ِﻊُ َ‬ ‫ل اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ اﺗﺒ ِﻌُﻮا َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻟ َﻬُ ُ‬ ‫ن َ‬ ‫ن‬ ‫ﻢ َﻻ ﻳ َﻌْ ِ‬ ‫ﺷﻴ ْﺌ ًﺎ وََﻻ ﻳ َﻬْﺘ َﺪ ُو َ‬ ‫ﻘﻠ ُﻮ َ‬ ‫↩آﺑ َﺎؤ ُﻫُ ْ‬ ‫ﻘﻮ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟﺘ ِﻲ ﻛ َﺎﻧ ُﻮا ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻬَﺎ ﻗُﻞ ﻟﻠﻪِ ‪¹³⁸ 2.142‬‬ ‫ل اﻟﺴ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻴ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻔﻬَﺎُء ِ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻋ َﻦ ﻗِﺒ ْﻠ َﺘ ِﻬِ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ وَﻻﻫُ ْ‬ ‫س َ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟﻨﺎ ِ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َ َ‬ ‫ﻤ ْ‬ ‫ﺴﺘ َ ِ‬ ‫ﺻَﺮا ٍ‬ ‫ﻰ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﻐْﺮِ ُ‬ ‫ط ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ب ﻳ َﻬْﺪ ِي َ‬ ‫ﺸﺮِقُ وَاﻟ َ‬ ‫↩اﻟ َ‬ ‫ﻘﻴﻢ ٍ‬ ‫ﺸﺎُء إ ِﻟ ٰ‬ ‫↩‪¹³ Region now in central Arabia, never subjected to colonial rule.‬‬ ‫‪¹⁴ Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) Italian astronomer and physicist who proved the‬‬ ‫↩‪Copernican view of heliocentricity.‬‬ ‫– ‪¹⁴¹ Mohammad ibn Ahmed of Cordoba, known as Ibn Rushd Al-Hafeed (1126‬‬ ‫↩‪1198).‬‬

Chapter Three

Islamic Civilisation

As for the claim, of those who claim, that Islam was not able to establish a civilisation special to it and then use this claim as the basis to justify its present condition, we say to them: This is a myth by which some enemies of Islam from the outside, and some of its deniers from the inside, have used to distort and mislead. As for the first category: With the intention to colour Muslims with European characteristics. And as for the second: To plant in the Islamic world the seeds of apostasy. We do not deny the influence of religion on civilisation. But we do accept it as correct that there is a measure for this influence. This is because many times the influence of religion on nations weakens, and they escape its bounds. Their morals decay and their conditions deteriorate. And so moral decay, not religion, is responsible for their collapse. Many times, unexpected external factors appear. They overcome what religions have established in civilisations, shake their foundations and sometimes destroy them from their base. The fault is not in the religions themselves. And so the backwardness of Muslims in recent centuries is not due to the Shariah but rather due to ignorance of the Shariah or the failure to implement its directions as required. Indeed, when the Shariah was implemented truly, Islam was exalted and honourable. And what greatness, for example, can be greater than what Islam was during the days of Omar ibn Al-Khattab?¹⁴² Islamic civilisation is not a matter subject to dispute. There is no European nation whether it be the Germans, French, English, Italians etc. which has not produced countless books on Islamic civilisation. Had there not been for Islam a true, exalted and advanced civilisation shaped by its values, and based on its Book and the Sunnah, the scholars of Europe, even those who were known for their prejudice against Islam, would not have copiously mentioned in their writings Islamic civilisation and narrated its history and juxtaposed it with other civilisations to shed light on aspects special to it. Indeed, Islamic civilisation ranks among eminent civilisations that adorn the

history of the world. Its everlasting record is full of extraordinary achievements. Baghdad was, in the era of Al-Mansoor¹⁴³ and Al-Rasheed¹⁴⁴ and Al-Mamoon¹⁴⁵, replete with architecture, immersed in culture, brimming with affluence and wealth, in a way that had not been matched by any civilisation before or after, even to this day. Baghdad’s citizens numbered two and a half million while Basra, the second largest city, had a population of half a million. Similarly, Damascus, Cairo, Samarkand and Isfahan, and many capital cities of other Islamic lands were paradigms of civilisation, architecture, prosperity for their citizens, knowledge, learning and the arts. Kairouan, Fez, Tlemcen and Marrakesh in the West were unmatched by any other European city until these recent centuries. Cordoba was unparalleled among the cities of Europe. It had a population of one and a half million. There were seven hundred large mosques not including the Great Mosque. When I visited the Great Mosque this summer, I was told, by the engineer from the Spanish state who accompanied me, that it could accommodate 50 thousand worshipers inside and 30 thousand outside in the esplanade. And when we visited the ruins of the Palace of Al-Zahara,¹⁴ we saw the ruins of a city, not the ruins of a single palace. It is spread over an area that is 900 meters by 800 meters. The Spanish today call it: Medina Azahara.¹⁴⁷ I was told by the archaeologists responsible for its excavation that they hoped to expose it completely within five years. Suffice you to know that Cordoba, the capital, was also a small kingdom in the last years of the Muslim presence in Al-Andalus.¹⁴⁸ There was in fifteenth century Europe no city like it or even close to it. Its population when it fell at the hands of the Spaniards was half a million people. At the time there was no city among the capital cities of Europe which had even half this population. And the Palace of Zahara remains unique in history to this day. This is a brief of the achievements of Islamic civilisation in its glory days. If we were to list all the marvellous and impressive achievements of the Muslims it would require many reams of paper piled one over the other. European historians have written countless and valuable books under the title “Islamic civilisation” and have compiled many albums of illustrations that captivate the eye. The most prejudiced of European writers against Islam do not go beyond belittling its civilisation and denying its originality. The objective of

this group is to deny that the Muslims made any original contributions to knowledge or developed any theories of their own. Their goal is to say: The Muslims never went beyond transferring and spreading knowledge and acted only as a bridge between the East and the West. This claim is rejected by researchers who have recognised the original contributions made by Muslims to the sciences, phenomena that they discovered and theories they pioneered. This is in addition to what they added and completed and disseminated and transferred of work done by others. Whoever builds on knowledge commands it and hence has a right to it. We do not know of a single civilisation of the civilisations of Earth that is other than an exudation of earlier civilisations and a product of knowledge developed over generations and the cumulative output of minds of varying origin and the harvest of fruits of intellects of varying descent.

A Reply to the Contemptuous Enviers of Islamic Civilisation

Have the contemptuous enviers of the merit of Islam, those who claim that it copied, transmitted and imitated others, forgotten that the West had triumphed over the East and that eastern civilisation, by the time that Islam appeared, had all but disappeared and that it was Islam which renewed it, rejuvenated its achievements and lifted it out of oblivion? And that after it had faded and had been confined to the ages, it was Islam that liberated it from its conch, burnished it and spread it to the horizons of the East and the West. And, like the sky at daybreak, made it visible for all who had eyes to see? Islam clothed civilisation with its own special raiment and adorned it with the beauty of the Quran which never left it, not in the East and not in the West, and not on the plains or on the hills until finally European scholars, those who were not blinded by prejudice and had not wavered in their research from the path of guidance, were obliged to accept that Islamic civilisation was not copied or transmitted but that it flowed from the Quran and was embellished with the principle of Tawheed.¹⁴ As for the books that were translated by Islamic civilisation or the sciences that it acquired from others or the beneficial systems and processes it got from its conquests: None of this takes away from its Islamic originality and its Arabic hue. This is the way of human civilisations: They take from each other while complementing each other. True acumen is reflected in the Hadith of the Prophet: “Wisdom is like a lost camel for the believer, he will seek it out even if the search takes him to China.”¹⁵ In any case, no denier can deny that Islam had a considerable role in the world in its spiritual, intellectual and material conquests and that these conquests accrued to it in a period not exceeding 80 years. This has no precedent in human history. Napoleon the First, because of his iration of Islamic history, is reported to have said while he was on the Island of Saint Helena: “The Arabs conquered the world in no more than half a century.” Consider, dear reader that this is Bonaparte who was not impressed by conquests no matter how great they may

be. These are the words of Al-Mutannabi:¹⁵¹

‫ﻢ‬ ِ ِ‫ﻦ اﻟﺼﻐِﻴﺮ‬ ُ ِ ‫ﻦ اﻟﻌَﻈ ِﻴ ْﻢ ِ اﻟﻌَﻈ َﺎﺋ‬ ُ َ ‫ﺗ َﻌْﻈ‬ ْ َ ‫ﺻﻐَﺎُرﻫَﺎ وَﺗ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﺼﻐَُﺮ ﻓِﻲ ﻋ َﻴ‬ ِ ْ ‫ﻢ ﻓِﻲ ﻋ َﻴ‬

This very great man (Napoleon) considered the achievements of the Arabs to be remarkable and unmatched in history. They remained dominant during their time and continued to rule the Earth for three or four centuries during which no other people could overcome or even parallel them. Then they started to decline. Their shadows gradually receded from the lands they ruled because their resolve weakened and corruption crept into their morals, they discarded the great principles of their faith and yielded to the lusts of their souls. But their severest test and loss was due to the competition among themselves for territory and control especially between the people of Qays and Yemen¹⁵². Had this not been the case the whole of the continent of Europe would have succumbed to them and would have been Arabic just as the Maghrib (North Africa) is today. The problems that befell Muslims were of their own making because of their deviation from the straight path that the Quran had made clear for them. So long as they worked in accordance with its verses they ascended and dominated, attained power and ruled nations. But when their conformance to the Quran weakened and they started to only read it without action and yielded to the cravings of their souls they lost the wind in their sails. The great power they held left them, and their enemies started to gnaw at the edges of their lands until they targeted their heartland. These enemies continued their conquests in the lands of Islam until, finally, 300 million Muslims came under foreign rule. There remain in the world today no other than 70 or 80 million Muslims who can claim that they rule themselves. Let us now, for the purpose of comparison, give examples of some other nations, since it is by comparison of opposites that matters become clear.

Greece and Rome Before and After Christianity

The Greeks before Christianity were the most advanced nation on Earth or at least among the most advanced nations on Earth. They laid the foundations of philosophy and were bearers of literature and knowledge. And from among them emerged those who remain the torch bearers of humanity in science and philosophy to this day. Alexander of Macedonia¹⁵³ was the greatest conqueror known to history, or among the greatest conquerors known to history, who carried and spread Greek literature and culture among the nations he conquered. The Ptolemaic state¹⁵⁴ that shone in Alexandria with its knowledge and philosophy was no more than the remnants of Alexander’s conquests. Things remained like this until Greece became Christian shortly after the appearance of the Christian faith. From the time that this nation adopted the new religion it started to regress and decline and lost its past excellence. It continued to weaken, century after century, and sink generation after generation until the land of Greece became a province of the Ottoman Empire. It did not return to any kind of progress and development until the last century. Despite this, where is Greece now compared to where it was prior to Christianity? Is it then necessary for us to say that: Christianity was responsible for the fall of Greece? For those who say that Islam was the reason for the fall of nations that adopted it as a religion there is no escape from saying also that Christianity led to the fall of Greece, which before it, had been the pinnacle of advancement. And then there was Rome¹⁵⁵ which in its time was a great nation along which no other nation could be mentioned and no other power could compare. It stayed this way, dominating the world until it adopted Christianity in the time of Constantine.¹⁵ From then onwards it started to decline materially and spiritually until it disintegrated, first from the West and then from the East. Rome did not regain, after the fall of the Roman Empire, anything of its former position and stayed in this way for fifteen centuries until slowly it started to reclaim some of its past glory. It has not, until this time, reached the status it held in the days of

its Heathenism. So, shall we make the acceptance of Christianity by the Romans a factor in the regression of Rome and its fall from the high peak of glory? Many scholars have professed this just as others have said the same about Islam. Both groups are far from the truth. Indeed, for the fall of the Romans after the spread of Christianity and before them, the fall of the Greeks after they accepted the invitation of Paul to Christianity, there were many influences and factors. Among them was the corruption of morality, a decline of zeal and ardour, the spread of vulgarity, debauchery, apostasy, and depravity. And also, internal factors related to the aging of nations that are mentioned by Ibn Khaldun.¹⁵⁷ Working in conjunction with all these were the attacks by the Barbarians from outside. These were compelling factors that led to an inevitable decline. And even if Christianity had not arrived at that time the Romans and Greeks could not have escaped the aftermath of these factors and their consequences would not have overstepped them. Hence the claim of some European historians that the spread of Christianity in Greece and Rome destroyed their greatness and did away with their civilisation has no truth in it other than that new circumstances replaced the old – the law of Allah in his creation¹⁵⁸ and that in the midst of this transformation there is no escape from disorder and disruption and the spread of anarchy. And if not this, then no one is able to claim that Heathenism is better for civilisation than Christianity. This claim is similar to the claim of the enemies of Islam who maintain that the East was resplendent in the prosperity of its civilisation. Then came Islam and erased these ancient eastern civilisations. No matter that the truth is, as we have stated, that all eastern civilisations had declined or perished much before the appearance of Islam. And it is Islam, alone, that renewed decayed eastern civilisation and restored its battered and lost power. And built these vast and teeming metropolises such as Baghdad and Basra and Samarkand and Bukhara and Damascus and Cairo and Kairouan and Cordoba and so on. And if there did remain in the East traces of eastern civilisations, it is Islam which underpinned their foundations and embellished their outer works. And it is Islam that carried, with sword in one hand and pen in the other, civilisation further than the mind can imagine to lands on which no easterner had set foot.

And if the European crusaders from the West and the Mongols, those voracious locusts from the East, destroyed what Islam had built in these lands and smashed the dwellings of these metropolises, and if the vying of Islamic rulers between themselves for carnal desires and their immersion in debauchery and their deviation from the straight path of the Quran and their loss of what it had planted in their hearts of morality destroyed in the heartland what the enemy from abroad could not, then the fault for this decline is not Islam nor is the responsibility for this upheaval attributable to the Quran. Indeed, the fault is the savagery of the European crusaders and the atrocity of those marauding locusts, the Mongols, and the actions of Muslims (other than a very few of them) who disdained the directives of their Book and sold its verses for a song.

Backwardness of Europe in the Past and Its Rise in the Present

European nations adopted Christianity during the third, fourth, fifth and sixth centuries after the birth of Christ. And there remained some nations of Eastern Europe that did not become Christian until the tenth century. The renaissance that led to Europe’s gradual progress until it reached its present dominance and power based on science and craft did not begin until about four hundred years ago or some fifteen hundred years after it embraced the Bible. This was the period known in history as the middle ages. We do not say that the Europeans were in this period floundering in layers of darkness one over the other. But we do say that the Arabs were much more advanced in of civilisation than them by the ission of their own historians despite Louis Bertrand¹⁵ and his ilk. Some recently published books testify to this. These include ‘A General History’ by the English writer and philosopher Wills, and ‘History of Eastern Civilisations’ by Grose, the French author specialised in eastern history. Historical reality in this regard is unanimously accepted. There has never appeared nor will there ever appear a contrary view to this reality which is that the Arabs in the middle ages were educators to the Europeans, and whenever one of them travelled to Arab lands he would boast about this to his people on his return. Shall we then attribute the backwardness in the middle ages of the Europeans for a thousand years to Christianity? The Protestant nations among them blame the Catholic Church, not Christianity per se, and claim that the European renaissance did not begin until Luther¹ and Calvin¹ ¹ announced their rebellion against the Roman Church. As for Voltaire¹ ² and the leaders of apostasy in his group, they do not discriminate between the Catholics and the Protestants. They hold that all these beliefs are the same, and that they are impediments to work and progress. And this is why when Luther and Calvin were mentioned to Voltaire he said: “Both of

them do not merit being a sandal of Mohammad.”¹ ³ He (Voltaire) believed that Mohammad achieved a level of reform that these two (Luther and Calvin) could not even approach despite the belief of many that their reformation was the dawn of light in Europe. The truth, in which there is no doubt, is that Christianity per se bears no responsibility for the ignorance of Europeans for a thousand years in the Middle Ages. Indeed, it is to Christianity that goes the credit of civilising the Barbarians of Europe. And these Japanese: They are mostly pagans. Some are followers of the religion of Buddha. Some are called Taoists. And many of them follow the Chinese sage, Confucius. For two thousand years they did not have this marvellous civilisation, strength and position among great nations. Then some sixty years ago they rose and advanced and grew prominent, powerful and respected. They became what they became while never letting go of their Paganism. So, Paganism was not the reason for their backwardness in the past, nor is it the reason for their progress in the present. Japan and Russia quarrelled and went to war. Japan was victorious even though the Japanese in number were half that of the Russians. But there is no doubt that the Japanese are more advanced than the Russians. The reality is that Russia is deeply rooted in Christianity and Japan in Paganism. Shall we then say, on the basis of this example, that the Bible led to the backwardness of Russia, and that the worship of gods, progeny of the Sun, pulled Japan ahead of Russia? So, let some people make of the religions a measure for backwardness or progress. Indeed, for these events there are accumulated reasons and factors with numerous roots. If these factors assemble around either good or evil, they overcome the influence of religions and beliefs. The merits of people of religion are powerless in the face of such evil. Just as the faults of the most foolish of them make no dent in the good. We are not here to discuss the reasons for the rapid progress of Japan, nor to make clear that the common Japanese belief in the existence of a sacred stallion ridden by so-and-so god did not stand in the way of their progress based on the zeal ingrained in their nature, their intelligence and what they inherited from their ancient feudal system in of competing for glory and power.

We have many scarcely countable examples in this regard of which we have chosen just a few to mention. And we would not even have mentioned these were it not for the attacks on Islam by missionary priests and many Europeans. And their claim that Islam is the embodiment of backwardness and a symbol of rigidity, and their presentation of these views in clubs and gatherings, and their publication of these lies in magazines and newspapers, and their declaration that “the tree is known by its fruit” and that the present state of the Islamic world is due to the inflexibility of Islam and the immutability of the Quran.

َ ‫ﺨﺮج ﻣ‬ ¹ ⁴ ‫ن إ ِﻻ ﻛ َﺬ ِﺑ ًﺎ‬ ُ َ ‫ﻢ إ ِن ﻳ‬ ً ‫ﻤ‬ َ ‫ﻘﻮﻟ ُﻮ‬ ْ ِ‫ﻦ أﻓْﻮَاﻫ ِﻬ‬ َ ِ ‫ت ﻛ َﻠ‬ ْ ‫ﻛ َﺒ َُﺮ‬ ْ ِ ُ ُ ْ َ ‫ﺔ ﺗ‬

Suffice it to say that Monsieur Son,¹ ⁵ the High Representative of in Morocco, has published in a recent issue of the French magazine Majallat AlIhya¹ an article in which he speaks about the awakening of the Maghrib after the ‘night of Islam’. We ask how long was the night of Christianity when Christian Europe remained for a thousand years in a state of barbarism or close to barbarism? Introducing religion into this arena and making it the sole criterion for progress or backwardness has nothing of justice in it. As for Islam: There is no dispute that it was the reason for the awakening of the Arabs and their astonishing conquests. On this, historians of the East and the West agree. But it was not the reason for their subsequent fall as claimed by some biased observers who have no other objective but to spread European culture among the Muslims in place of Islamic culture and to extend the sovereignty of Europe over their lands. Indeed, the reason for the decline of the Muslims was that, in the end, Islam sufficed them only in name. Whereas, in reality, Islam is name and action.

¹⁴² Second Caliph of Islam.↩

¹⁴³ Abdullah ibn Mohammad ibn Ali ibn Al-Abbas Abu Jafaar Al-Mansoor (95 – 158H). Second Khalifa of the Abbasids, and the first of Arab kings to take an interest in science. Founder of the city of Baghdad.↩ ¹⁴⁴ Haroon ibn Mohammad Al-Mahdi ibn Abu Jaafar Al-Mansoor (149 – 193H). Fifth and most famous Khalifa of the Abbasids. During his time the Abbasid state reached the pinnacle of its prosperity.↩ ¹⁴⁵ Abdullah ibn Haroon Al-Rasheed, Al-Mamoon (170 –216H). Seventh Khalifa of the Abbasids. One of the greatest of Kings in his conduct, knowledge and the expanse of his kingdom.↩ ¹⁴ Located 13km from Cordoba it was built by the Umayyad Khalifa of Andalus Abdurrahman Al-Nasir during the years (936 – 940). It remained populated for 80 years until its inhabitants, mainly Cordoban soldiers, left it during the Amazigh Revolution.↩ ¹⁴⁷ Medina is Arabic for city so: City of Azahara.↩ ¹⁴⁸ Al-Andalus was the name given by Muslim sources during the Middle Ages to the territory in the Iberian Peninsula culturally and religiously linked with them. (Wikipedia)↩ ¹⁴ Belief in the absolute ‘oneness’ of God.↩ ¹⁵ ‫↩اﻟﺤﻜﻤﺔ ﺿﺎﻟﺔ اﻟﻤﺆﻣﻦ ﻳﻨﺸﺪﻫﺎ وﻟﻮ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺼﻴﻦ‬ ¹⁵¹ In meaning: Small victories appear great in the eyes of the small – And great victories appear small in the eyes of the great.↩ ¹⁵² Qays were originally tribes of Northern Arabia. Yemen were people from the South of the peninsula. As the Arab conquests expanded outward this tribal division remained intact, with each tribe frequently seeking to better the other. This is what Ibn Khaldun in his Al-Muqaddimah refers to as Al-’Asabiya.↩ ¹⁵³ 356 – 323BC↩ ¹⁵⁴ Founded by Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals and his ruler in Egypt.↩ ¹⁵⁵ Capital of the Roman Empire which fell to the Barbarians in the 5th century

AD.↩ ¹⁵ Emperor Constantine the Great (ruled from 306 to 337) founder of the Eastern Roman Empire with Byzantium as its capital which fell to the Ottomans in 1492.↩ ¹⁵⁷ Abdurrahman ibn Muhammad – Ibn Khaldun (732 – 808H) (1332 – 1406) historian, philosopher, religious scholar and social scientist, born and raised in Tunis, died in Cairo.↩ ¹⁵⁸ ‫↩ﺳﻨﺔ اﻟﻠﻪ ﻓﻲ ﺧﻠﻘﻪ‬ ¹⁵ French author and academic (1866 – 1941) known for his book entitled “Hitler”.↩ ¹ Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) German professor of Philosophy, central figure in Protestant Reformation.↩ ¹ ¹ John Calvin (1509 – 1564) French theologian and pastor.↩ ¹ ² Francois-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778) known by his nom de plume Voltaire, French historian and writer known for his criticism of Christianity.↩ ¹ ³ Voltaire made this statement in the presence of Prince Sindorf, who later became Prime Minister of Austria. Later, when Bonaparte entered Vienna, this Sindorf was the head of government there. Sindorf, in his youth, had met Voltaire in Switzerland and noted the statement in his diary which was subsequently placed in the Vienna library. It is from this diary that the newspaper “Alton” published it and it is from there that we have reproduced it here. (S)↩ ¹ ⁴ Quran (18.5) Enormous is the word that leaves their lips. They do not speak anything but a lie.↩ ¹ ⁵ Transliteration from Arabic.↩ ¹ Transliteration from Arabic.↩

Chapter Four

Exhortation of the Quran to Knowledge

It is possible for the Islamic world to rise and develop and catch up with powerful and influential nations. If the Muslims decide to do so, and brace themselves to do it, Islam will only add to their vision and determination. And they will not find for themselves a better motivator to knowledge and culture than the Quran which says:

Are those who know and those who do not know equal?¹ ⁷ And He (Allah) has increased him (King Saul) abundantly in knowledge¹ ⁸ None know its (the Quran) explanation except Allah and those who are steeped in knowledge¹ Allah bears witness that there is no god except Him, as do the angels and those who have knowledge, upholding justice¹⁷ Indeed it (the Quran) is manifest verses in the hearts of those who have been given knowledge¹⁷¹ Allah will raise those who believe and those who have knowledge (many) levels¹⁷² And he (the Prophet) will give them (the people) knowledge of the book (Quran) and wisdom.¹⁷³ He (Allah) gives wisdom to whoever He wishes. And whoever is given wisdom has been given an abundance of all that is good.¹⁷⁴ We (Allah) have given to the people of Abraham the scripture and wisdom, and we have given them great sovereignty.¹⁷⁵

And many more noble verses. Among them are those specific to the Arab nation.

He (Allah) is who sent among the illiterate (Arabs) a messenger from among them to recite to them His verses and purify them and teach them the book (Quran) and wisdom, whereas before they were manifestly astray.¹⁷

Some people have claimed, and among them is this Sigvard von Sicard in the Maghrib, who wrote a book slandering Islam, and also wrote in the magazine ‘Catholic Marrakesh’, that the word ‘knowledge’ (’ilm)¹⁷⁷ in the Quran is intended to mean religious knowledge, and that it is not intended to mean all knowledge. His intent is to use this argument to negate the importance which the Quran has placed on knowledge and the obligation to learn. Sicard has made an error in this regard that does not merit a response because it contradicts the obvious. Whoever contemplates the context of these verses related to knowledge and wisdom, and others like it which exhort to walking the Earth and looking and thinking, will see that the meaning of the word ’ilm is knowledge in all its forms and encoming all things, and that the meaning of wisdom (hikmah) here, is the wisdom of people, and not that of the revealed book and verses. This contention is ed by the well-known Hadith of the Prophet: Seek knowledge even in China.¹⁷⁸ So, if the intention of ’ilm was religious knowledge – as Sicard has claimed – the Prophet would not have urged people to seek it in China, because the Chinese are Pagans and the Prophet did not consider them to be a source of religious knowledge. In some verses there are concomitant factors related to wording and meaning that allow no interpretation of ’ilm other than knowledge of the Universe. This is because it appears in the context of verses related to formation and creation. Further, such verses appear many more times in the Quran than do verses related to practical worship such as prayer and fasting, among them is, for example:

Do you not see that Allah sends down water from the sky and produces by it fruit of varied colours¹⁷ and of people and beasts and cattle similarly of varied colours, indeed the knowledgeable among His worshippers fear Him? He is allpowerful, forgiving.¹⁸

The ‘knowledgeable’ in the verse refers to those who think about the things mentioned in the verse: Water from the sky, plants, mountains and the rest of creation in all its different shapes and colours, and what these embody of the secrets of the Universe. The ‘knowledgeable’ does not refer to those who know about prayer and fasting and supplication during the night. We had thought of this man (Sicard) that he would have some love for the truth. But when he denied Islamic civilisation, we replied to him in Al-Manar¹⁸¹ with that which was more charitable: We glorified Christian civilisation and extolled it. And we refuted the claim of some Europeans who say that Christianity was an obstacle to progress and that it was the reason for the fall of Greece and Rome, and other similar arguments. This Sicard had published a series of articles in which he defamed Islam. Had we responded to these there would have been no escape from mentioning doubts and objections related to the Christian faith. This is something we refuse to do because it has nothing of justice in it nor of decorum. And it is not in good taste that we anger our Christian brothers because of a man named Sicard or others of this group of preachers and missionaries. This is in addition to what we have seen in his words of confusion and error and arrogance such as his statement: “That the knowledge (’ilm) mentioned in the Quran is not the knowledge commonly understood to mean all knowledge, rather it refers only to religious knowledge, because the Quran is not concerned with worldly knowledge!” Arrogance such as this does not merit a response. Then we learned that this Monsieur Sicard is ’s representative responsible for Islamic affairs in Rabat, and that he and Monsieur Louis Bernoit, director of Islamic education there, and Commandant Marco, director responsible for monitoring newspapers and magazines, and Commandant Marty, advisor to the Islamic justice department, and many others played a major role in the matter of converting the Berbers to Christianity.

’s deployment of all these officers for matters related to Islam was for no reason other than to tear down, to the extent they were able, the structure of Islam in the Maghrib. And will no doubt, in due course, taste the consequences of what it has done and is doing to the religion of Islam which it had committed to respect in all of its accords. We do not wish for other than prosperity. But we counsel it to distance itself from this policy which is the exact opposite of the principles it arrogates to itself in claiming that all religions in its view are equal. If indeed all religions in the view of the Republic of are equal then why all this effort to convert the Berbers, all of them Muslims, to Christianity? And why these feverish attempts to convert the ‘Alawis, inhabitants of the mountains of Latakia, to Christianity, and to isolate them from a united Syria? For it is well known that the’Alawis are a sect of Muslims. And similarly, we advise the English to cease their missionary work in Sudan and Uganda, and the Dutch to do likewise in Indonesia.

A Word to Those Who Demand a National Rather Than a Religious Revival

Some people say: Why is it necessary for us to return to the Quran in order to revivify the ardour of Muslims to learn? Progress does not require that it be based on religion. It can be based on nationalism such as that of the people of Europe. We answer them: The objective is progress regardless of whether it is based on nationalism or religion, provided that it accustoms minds to persevere in the arena of knowledge. But we fear that if we strip progress of the call of the Quran, it will lead to apostasy, licentiousness, worship of the body, and the pursuit of lasciviousness, the harm of which exceeds the benefit. So, there is no alternative for us but to have an upbringing based on knowledge in parallel with an upbringing based on religion. Do people here in the East believe that progress in Europe happened in the absence of a religious upbringing? And did the progress of Japan happen in the absence of a religious upbringing? Did not the German Chancellor say in the Reichstag three years ago: Our culture is built on the Christian faith? This is the declaration of which is the exemplar of science and industry and of excellence in machinery and equipment. A fact that no one, not even its enemies, can dispute. Does there exist in or England, or in any one of these advanced countries a university that does not have a department of Christian Divinity? When they say in Europe ‘national progress’ or ‘national university’, they do not mean by ‘national’ soil or water or trees or rocks, nor do they mean a specific bloodline. To them the word refers to the nation in its entirety to include its geography, history, culture, crops, beliefs, religion, morals and habits all put together. This is what they strive to defend with their lives if necessary.

‫↩ﻫ َ ْ‬ ‫ن ‪¹ ⁷ 39.9‬‬ ‫ﻤﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻳ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻦ َﻻ ﻳ َﻌْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻦ ﻳ َﻌْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ن وَاﻟﺬ ِﻳ َ‬ ‫ﺴﺘ َﻮِي اﻟﺬ ِﻳ َ‬ ‫ﺔ ﻓِﻲ اﻟ ْﻌِﻠ ْﻢ ِ ‪¹ ⁸ 2.247‬‬ ‫ﺴﻄ َ ً‬ ‫↩وََزاد َه ُ ﺑ َ ْ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ن ﻓِﻲ اﻟ ْﻌِﻠ ْﻢ ِ ‪¹ 3.7‬‬ ‫ﺳ ُ‬ ‫ﻪ وَاﻟﺮا ِ‬ ‫ﺨﻮ َ‬ ‫ﻪ إ ِﻻ اﻟﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ ﺗ َﺄوِﻳﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﺎ ﻳ َﻌْﻠ َ ُ‬ ‫↩وَ َ‬ ‫لـه إﻻ ﻫُﻮ واﻟ ْﻤَﻼﺋ ِﻜ َ ُ ُ‬ ‫ﺷﻬﺪ اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻂ ‪¹⁷ 3.18‬‬ ‫ﺴ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﺑ ِﺎﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫↩ َ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻘ ْ‬ ‫ﺔ وَأوﻟ ُﻮ اﻟ ْﻌِﻠ ْﻢ ِ ﻗَﺎﺋ ِ ً‬ ‫َ َ َ‬ ‫ﻪ أﻧ ُ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ﻪ َﻻ إ ِ َ ٰ َ ِ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻫُﻮ آﻳﺎت ﺑﻴﻨﺎت ﻓﻲ ﺻﺪور اﻟﺬﻳ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹⁷¹ 29.49‬‬ ‫↩ﺑ َ ْ َ َ ٌ َ َ ٌ ِ‬ ‫ﻦ أوﺗ ُﻮا اﻟ ْﻌِﻠ ْ َ‬ ‫ُ ُ ِ ِ َ‬ ‫↩ﻳﺮﻓَﻊ اﻟﻠﻪ اﻟﺬﻳﻦ آﻣﻨﻮا ﻣﻨﻜ ُﻢ واﻟﺬﻳ ُ‬ ‫ت ‪¹⁷² 58.11‬‬ ‫ﺟﺎ ٍ‬ ‫ﻢ د ََر َ‬ ‫ﻦ أوﺗ ُﻮا اﻟ ْﻌِﻠ ْ َ‬ ‫ُ ِ َ َ ُ ِ ْ َ ِ َ‬ ‫َْ ِ‬ ‫ﺔ ‪¹⁷³ 2.129‬‬ ‫ب وَاﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟ ْﻜ ِﺘ َﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺤﻜ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻤﻬُ ُ‬ ‫↩وَﻳ ُﻌَﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﺔ ﻓَ َ ُ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ َ َ‬ ‫ﺧﻴ ًْﺮا ﻛ َﺜ ِﻴًﺮا ‪¹⁷⁴ 2.269‬‬ ‫ﻲ َ‬ ‫ت اﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫↩ﻳ ُﺆ ْﺗ ِﻲ اﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﺤﻜ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ ُﺆ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺸﺎُء وَ َ‬ ‫ﺔ َ‬ ‫ﺤﻜ ْ َ‬ ‫ﻘﺪ ْ أوﺗ ِ َ‬ ‫ﻘﺪ ْ آﺗ َﻴ ْﻨ َﺎ آ َ‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ‪¹⁷⁵ 4.54‬‬ ‫↩ﻓَ َ‬ ‫ب وَاﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻢ اﻟ ْﻜ ِﺘ َﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺔ وَآﺗ َﻴ ْﻨ َﺎﻫُﻢ ﻣﻠ ْﻜ ًﺎ ﻋ َﻈ ِﻴ ً‬ ‫ﺤﻜ ْ َ‬ ‫ل إ ِﺑ َْﺮاﻫ ِﻴ َ‬ ‫ُ‬ ‫ﻢ ‪¹⁷ 62.2‬‬ ‫ﻫُﻮَ اﻟﺬ ِي ﺑ َﻌَ َ‬ ‫ﻦ َر ُ‬ ‫ﻤﻬُ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ وَﻳ ُﻌَﻠ ُ‬ ‫ﻢ آﻳ َﺎﺗ ِﻪِ وَﻳ َُﺰﻛﻴﻬِ ْ‬ ‫ﻢ ﻳ َﺘ ْﻠ ُﻮ ﻋ َﻠ َﻴ ْﻬِ ْ‬ ‫ﺳﻮًﻻ ﻣﻨ ْﻬُ ْ‬ ‫ﺚ ﻓِﻲ اْﻷﻣﻴﻴ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ْ‬ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻗَﺒ ْ ُ‬ ‫ﻦ‬ ‫ب وَاﻟ ِ‬ ‫ﻤ َ‬ ‫ﻞ ﻟ ِ‬ ‫ﺔ وَإ ِن ﻛ َﺎﻧ ُﻮا ِ‬ ‫ﻔﻲ َ‬ ‫↩اﻟﻜ ِﺘ َﺎ َ‬ ‫ﺤﻜ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺿﻼ ٍ‬ ‫ل ﻣﺒ ِﻴ ٍ‬ ‫↩اﻟﻌﻠﻢ ‪¹⁷⁷‬‬ ‫↩اﻃﻠﺒﻮا اﻟﻌﻠﻢ وﻟﻮ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺼﻴﻦ ‪¹⁷⁸‬‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺨﺘﻠ ِ ً َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻪ أ َﻧَﺰ َ‬ ‫ﻦ ‪¹⁷ 35.27‬‬ ‫ﻣ‬ ‫ﻣﺎًء ﻓَﺄ ْ‬ ‫ﻔﺎ أﻟ ْﻮَاﻧ ُﻬَﺎ وَ ِ‬ ‫ﻤَﺮا ٍ‬ ‫ل ِ‬ ‫ت ﻣ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺧَﺮ ْ‬ ‫ﺟﻨ َﺎ ﺑ ِﻪِ ﺛ َ َ‬ ‫ﻤﺎِء َ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟﺴ َ‬ ‫ﻢ ﺗ ََﺮ أن اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫أﻟ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﺨﺘﻠ ِ ٌ َ‬ ‫ﻤٌﺮ ﻣ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺳﻮد ٌ‬ ‫ﻒ أﻟ ْﻮَاﻧ ُﻬَﺎ وَﻏ ََﺮاﺑ ِﻴ ُ‬ ‫ﺾ وَ ُ‬ ‫ل ُ‬ ‫ﺐ ُ‬ ‫↩اﻟ ْ ِ‬ ‫ﺣ ْ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ َد ٌ ﺑ ِﻴ ٌ‬ ‫ﺠﺒ َﺎ ِ‬ ‫ﺨﺘﻠ ِ ٌ َ‬ ‫َ‬ ‫ﻪ ﻛ َﺬ ٰ َﻟ ِ َ‬ ‫ﺨ َ‬ ‫ﻦ ‪¹⁸ 35.28‬‬ ‫ﻤﺎ ﻳ َ ْ‬ ‫ﻪ ِ‬ ‫وَ ِ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ َ‬ ‫ﺸﻰ اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻚ إ ِﻧ َ‬ ‫ﻒ أﻟ ْﻮَاﻧ ُ ُ‬ ‫س وَاﻟﺪوَاب وَاْﻷﻧ ْﻌَﺎم ِ ُ‬ ‫ﻣ ْ‬ ‫ﻣ َ‬ ‫ﻦ اﻟﻨﺎ ِ‬ ‫ﻔﻮٌر‬ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َﺰِﻳٌﺰ ﻏ َ ُ‬ ‫↩ ِ‬ ‫ﻤﺎُء إ ِن اﻟﻠ َ‬ ‫ﻋﺒ َﺎد ِهِ اﻟ ْﻌُﻠ َ َ‬ ‫‪¹⁸¹ Magazine published by Mohammad Rashid Reda to which Arsalan was a‬‬ ‫↩‪frequent contributor.‬‬

Chapter Five

Reasons for the Decline of Muslims in Recent Times

The greatest reason for the decline of Muslims in recent times is their loss of self-confidence. This is the most serious of societal ailments and the most pernicious of ills that afflict the spirit. When this disorder strikes a man, it inevitably leads to his demise and when it strikes a nation it, just as inevitably, leads it to destruction. How can a patient hope for recovery when afflicted by an illness which he believes, rightly or wrongly, will in the end kill him? Medical practitioners are unified in the view that at the top of the list of medicines to cure sickness of the body is spiritual strength. And that the greatest factor in recovery is the will to recover. So how can Islamic society recover when most of its people believe that they are not suitable for anything and that nothing can be fixed by their hands and that, whether they work hard or not, they will not be able to match the Europeans in anything? And how can they compete with the Europeans in any field when they are convinced that in the end the Europeans will inevitably dominate? So, the position of the Muslims vis a vis the Europeans today has become like the position of those brave fighters who the Caliph Ali slayed at the battle of Siffeen.¹⁸² It was Ali’s habit to voice the Takbeera¹⁸³ whenever he slayed an opposing fighter. And it is reported that he was heard voicing the Takbeera four hundred times at Siffeen. When he was asked about this he replied: “Whenever I attacked a horseman, I believed I would slay him. And he also believed that I would slay him. So, both me and his own soul were against him.” And so, in these recent times, Muslims have come to believe that any conflict between a Muslim and a European will end surely in the defeat of the Muslim no matter how hard he tries; a belief that has crystallised in their conscience and ferments in their minds. This is especially true of the class that claims for itself the qualities of intelligent thought, a love for facts and rejection of whimsical fantasies.

This thinking class repeats this ill-omened principle at every opportunity and holds its continuing despair and ceaseless crowing as evidence of intelligence and capacity to perceive. It considers pessimism to be of benefit to the Muslims in regard to the exigencies of knowledge and wisdom. It continues to blow the trumpet of demoralisation and spread in the general population the propaganda of impotence, until submission and ignominy have become ingrained in everyone. This among a people whose resolve and spirit, as originally created, was strong and dignified. This ‘thinking’ class has not limited itself to saying that the present condition of the Muslims is retrograde and inferior, and not comparable in any way to the Europeans, but has gone further to claim that keeping abreast with them, whether in science or industry or trade or agriculture or war or peace or any other aspect of civilisation is impossible, and that it is an enterprise in futility not suited for pursuit by the intelligent. It is as if the Muslim is moulded from one kind of clay and the European from another. And that there is no escaping the superiority of the European over the Muslim and that this has been written in the Preserved Tablet¹⁸⁴ and pens have run out of ink, and there remains nothing for the Muslims but to know that they are a lower class than the Europeans and to work in accordance with this knowledge. Many times, have I argued with these philosophers of vacuousness, people small of soul; logic does not penetrate their minds, history does not guide them, natural sciences and analysis do not convince them, deduction and analogy escape them. This is because the blight of ignominy has overcome them and the ailment of subservience has afflicted them. The Europeans have perceived this state of spiritual weakness that has afflicted the Muslims and realised that it suits their colonial interests and have started to reinforce and promote this belief among the Muslims. It is to these who caw of ruin and calamity that this verse of the Quran applies: In their hearts is a disease and Allah intensifies their disease.¹⁸⁵ Indeed the fault is not with the Europeans and their agents and enablers for spreading these wretched notions among the Muslims because these facilitate colonialism and pave the way for it, while at the same time enabling the colonialists to rely on their planes and ships, and saving them the trouble of fighting and facing resistance, hence allowing them to gain dominance without conflict and complete control without effort.

But the wonder of wonders is these Muslims, who Allah has commanded to hold firmly to honour and dignity and to be paragons of manhood: How could they yield to this deception whose upshot is slavery to foreigners? In them the words of Allah ring true:

And among you are those who listen to them. And Allah is aware of those who do wrong.¹⁸

And of the things they, the ‘thinking’ class, are fond of frequently reaffirming to people, in regard to the inability of Muslims, is that it is impossible for them to build large construction projects and work with materials and everything related to mathematics or numbers or surveying or measurement. And if you say to them: “If the Muslims were not good at these subjects, as you claim, then how were they able to leave behind these magnificent monuments that attract visitors from all over the world? And how did they fill Egypt and Syria, Iraq and the Maghrib, Iran and India, Constantinople and others with buildings and establishments that dazzle the eyes and amaze the mind? And how did they build foundries, weaving mills and varied industries of the first order?” They will answer: “That was before the Europeans advanced to their present level, and before they discovered what they discovered of the secrets of the universe.” This is not an answer to the issue at hand. It is in one valley and the matter at hand in another. This is what we wish to say: Whoever walks the path arrives. If the Muslims had learned the modern sciences, they would have been able to build what the Europeans have built. The issue here is not a difference in human ability. The condition for success is that Muslims shake from themselves the grime of indolence and abrogate the principle that has been the source of their misery for so long, which is that any major construction project in the East requires that a European company be engaged to do it otherwise it will not get done. But experience has refuted this theory completely. The Muslims have been able, in many countries, to build manufacturing and trading companies and to establish foundries, textile factories and other industries which have, by their

resounding success, put paid to the claims of this pessimistic class of Muslims. When Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II¹⁸⁷ decided to build a railway line from Damascus to Makkah and Al-Madinah his plan at the time was met with amazement. Many people ridiculed the idea and said: “We see ourselves incapable of even making a road for carts so how can we build a railway line longer than 2000 kilometres? And where will we get the capital and expertise for a great project such as this?” But stranger than the pessimism of the Muslims and their perception of their inability to execute such a project was that the senior German engineer Meissner Pasha,¹⁸⁸ who the Sultan had appointed to lead the team of engineers on the project, himself did not think that this line could be built. Meissner was my friend so I asked him once about his opinion. He told me that he hoped to be able to complete the line up to Ma’an¹⁸ which was a distance of 400 kilometres, but running the line from Ma’an to Al-Madinah was almost impossible. I asked him if this was because of a shortage of money. He replied: “On the assumption that the money is available there are natural obstacles to building the line that are almost impossible to overcome. The line requires that water be available at every station. But it is only available at a limited number. And if we build tanks to be filled with rainwater it cannot be guaranteed that heat will not dry the tanks in summer. There is another problem and that is that the line will run through areas that are entirely sand. During sandstorms this will be blown over and cover the tracks. There is no way to stop this other than to plant needle grass, reeds and tamarisk along the line. But all of this needs water and where is the water in these areas?” These were the words of the chief engineer in regard to natural obstacles. He then mentioned the danger to the line from the Bedouins of the desert. As for me, I believed in contrast to others, that there are no obstacles that cannot be surmounted and was among those critical of the pessimists and the mockers. I composed a poem about this project in which I urged the Ummah to donate to it, and to which I myself donated an amount of fifteen Guineas. In the poem I mentioned the anticipated advantages of the railway line including cultural, economic and military benefits in addition to making it easier for pilgrims to perform the Hajj – the line’s paramount objective. The opening verse of my poem was:¹

ْ َ‫أﻻ ﻳ َﺎ ﺑ َﻨﻲ اﻹﺳﻼم ِ ﻫ‬ ‫ﺟﺪ‬ ِ ‫ﺴﺎ‬ ِ ِ ‫ﻋﺪ ﻟ‬ ِ ‫ﻞ‬ َ ‫ﻔﻌْﻞ‬ َ ‫ﻣ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﺎ‬ َ ‫ﻤﺎوِيّ اﻟﻤﺜﻮﺑﺔ‬ َ ‫ﺳ‬ ُ ‫ﻦ‬ ْ ‫ﻣ‬

When this poem was published and distributed, I was lambasted by many of these ‘crows’ with tongues of steel. It is as if I had committed heresy by my praise for a project that would connect Syria with the Hijaz and reduce the time of travel for pilgrims from 40 days to four days. They mocked as much as they wished and smacked their lips as much as they wanted but their philosophy did not gain them anything. The project was completed from Damascus to Al Madina – a distance of 2400 kilometres. And had Sultan Abdul Hamid not been removed it would have been extended to Makkah. But after him zeal and fervour collapsed completely. Then the War came. And its aftermath mandated that the project be abandoned. This line, when it was built, was unique in the world. While travelling on it once I met a Muslim from India who was a member of the country’s parliament. He had an exclusively English education and had graduated from the University of Oxford. He told me that even in England there is no railway line that can match the excellence of this line and that had he not seen it with his own eyes he would not have believed it existed. In fact, many Muslims did not believe the news about it. They would send delegations to see it with their own eyes. A traveller would reach Al-Madina from Damascus in two nights. Damascus itself profited to the extent of 200 hundred thousand Guineas per year. Villages sprung up along the route of the line. Prices of land increased. Construction in Al-Madina increased many folds. Not to mention the reduction in adversity and danger faced by pilgrims, traders and travellers. As for the natural obstacles that were expected, none of them materialised, nor were there any attacks by the Bedouins. At every station on the line there was a fort housing soldiers for protection. All the stations and forts were solidly built. And since it was not allowed for non-Muslims to enter the land of Hijaz the part of the line located inside Hijaz was built entirely by Muslim engineers to the extent that even Meissner Basha limited his own supervision up to the town of Tabuk.¹ ¹

And when I travelled to Al-Madinah Al-Munnawara to visit the masjid of the Prophet in 1330H (1912), I would hear that the reason for not extending the line from Al-Madina to Makkah was that the Arab tribes from Harb and others would not permit the line to through their land. But when I investigated the matter, I discovered that most of this was fabricated nonsense. I asked the Sheikhs of the tribes about what was being said in regard to their opposition to building the line. They replied: “Had we been opposed to building the line we would have opposed it from the point it entered the Hijaz. The reality is that we have been helping the Government with this project with all of our power.” I asked them if they would agree to sign a petition asking the Government to extend the line from Al-Madinah to Makkah. Almost all of them signed it. The Government had not tasked me with this mission but I did it as a service to the nation and the faith. And were it not for the start of the General War shortly afterward work would have started on extending the line from Al-Madinah to Makkah. When the General War ended, England occupied Palestine and Syria. One of the first missions of the English and French was to cripple this railway line that linked the Levant with the Arabian Peninsula and brought Muslims closer to each other.¹ ² How much did the Muslims protest against the destruction of this railway line vital to Syria and the Hijaz! And how many times did they express and reiterate that the line was among assets entailed by the Turks on the Muslims and hence no foreign country had the right to damage it. But none of this convinced these two nations to exercise moderation and back away from their enmity. This egregious conspiracy against the entails of Muslims continues to this day. And if someone such as us stands up to remind them of this ugly enmity they take umbrage. The English plot against him in secret and the French slander him in the open and declare him to be an ‘enemy of ’ and similar epithets. The reality is that we only want to improve the condition of our countries and do not harbour ill will towards anyone. What we want to highlight here is what preceded the building of the Hijaz railroad of the pessimism, mockery and sarcasm of many Muslims, and their

certainty that it was impossible to build this project and that for it reflected a lack of intelligence. This is only one example of many, which due to their abundance, are impossible to investigate. Indeed, it is rare that you enter a country of the Muslims and they do not relate to you such stories. And just as Muslims believe that they cannot get anything right in regard to major construction projects and that it is necessary to involve a European in order to put things right in their lands and that without such involvement they do not have the ability to construct buildings or infrastructure of any significance, similarly they believe that they have no chance to set up economic institutions and that any Islamic economic project is doomed to failure unless it has European . Long have they slumbered in this false belief until there remains in their lands nothing that can be called a business other than those run by Europeans or Jews. And even if one of them (the Muslims) calls to set up a trading, industrial or agricultural company no Muslim owner of capital will participate in it unless its management is in the hands of a European or a Jew. All of them say: Our hands are not able to perform any work and we are not suitable for anything. And so, Jews and Europeans remained in control of the assets of Muslim lands for centuries with no resistance or constraint, milking every industry and profiting from everything of any consequence. If an estimate is made of what the Muslims lost due to this illusion, it would be tens of billions without exaggeration. It is if the Muslims do not exist in the world other than as manual labour working only with their hands not their minds. And for this reason, the field remained open in the lands of Islam for all shades of foreigners to exercise their genius and determination to collect enormous wealth. All this on the backs of Muslims and from their wallets. There is much talk of what the foreigners have garnered of these enormous profits which should have been for the Muslims because they were extracted from their lands. But Muslims were not catalysed to action nor moved by a sense of honour to compete in the economic arena until the rise in Egypt of Mohammad Tal’at Harb Pasha.¹ ³ He was in this regard an Ummah unto himself. His vast intelligence and penetrating vision led him to appreciate that there was nothing in this matter that exceeded the ability of Muslims nor was there an absence of tools needed for it.

And that their failure to compete with the foreigners in this field was only due to the vestiges of that old illusion that they cannot compete in any area of economics. Tal’at Pasha possessed, in addition to ample intelligence and sound judgement, sturdy determination and a nationalist inclination free of contamination and personal desire. And so in him there were collected all the conditions necessary for someone who wished to see an economic revival in the East which would compete, with skill and perseverance, against the foreigners. It is rare in men that precise calculation and wide imagination come together. But they exist side by side in the mind of Tal’at Pasha. The expanse of his imagination is helpful in pushing him towards projects that are intrinsically profitable. And the ‘rudder’ of his calculation is helpful to him in ensuring their success and profitability. So, briefly: Tal’at Pasha entered into a battle that was the first of its kind in eastern society. When he started to seek the necessary capital that he calculated he needed to found Banque Misr, an amount of 80 thousand Guineas, he faced huge challenges. This is because the minds of Muslims had been overcome by the belief that they were not capable of independently undertaking any economic activity and that any such activity on their part was doomed to failure. When he appealed to wealthy Egyptians to participate in this project with him, they responded to his call more out of embarrassment than a belief that their investment would yield a return. But their complete confidence remained vested in foreign banks on which they continued to rely until they saw success with their eyes. The capital of Banque Misr rose from 80 thousand Guineas to one million Guineas and deposits rose to many millions. Its assets included properties, loans and many varied companies valued also at many millions of Guineas so that total assets reached 20 million Guineas. All this happened in a period of 18 years during which Tal’at Pasha and Midhat Pasha Yakun and their partners, under the umbrella of Banque Misr, set up the Egyptian Factory for Spinning and Weaving in Al-Mahalla.¹ ⁴ It was the biggest and most integrated textile factory in the world with a workforce of 18 thousand almost all of them Egyptian. Its production fulfilled a third of the annual Egyptian demand for cotton fabric and resulted in an annual benefit to the Egyptian government of three million Guineas. This is money that would

otherwise have been transferred from the pockets of Egyptians to the pockets of foreigners. Other institutions set up by Banque Misr were the Egyptian Silk Weaving Company, and the Egyptian Theatre and Cinema Company. The products and presentations of all of these earned awards at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937. Among other subsidiaries of the Bank were the Egyptian Fisheries Company, the Egyptian Printing Company, Egyptair, and The Egyptian Tourism Company. This was in addition to the Egyptian Ocean Shipping Company which had in its fleet great ferries such as ‘Al-Zamzam’, ‘Al-Kawthar’, and ‘Al-Neel’.¹ ⁵ Hajj Pilgrims started to travel to the Hijaz in vessels that seemed like royal palaces in of comfort, opulence, luxury and spaciousness. Egyptian tourists started to travel to Europe on Egyptian flagged vessels that, if compared to European vessels, would have matched the best of them. All this after we spent ages travelling on foreign vessels paying to them of our wealth for no other reason than our lacking the will to build our own vessels on which we could travel and export our goods. This is not the place to detail the projects of Tal’at Pasha Harb – prime mover of economic revival in the East. Nor is it our intention to glorify and praise his achievements even with the truth. Our only intention in mentioning this story is as an example of the Muslims cowardice in the economic arena before this man – the founder of Banque Misr – rose and woke them from their slumber and informed them that they were men just as Europeans were men. And if they hone the blades of their resolution and sharpen the tips of their talents, they will be able to do what the Europeans do in regard to large economic enterprises.¹ And we are those who can now see that the employees and workers in Banque Misr and its subsidiary companies number some 30 thousand almost all of them, except for a very few exceptions, Egyptians. This is how Muslims started to break into the arenas of economic life in all its manifold dimensions. And there was born in them a self confidence that was hidden from them in the past. Ahmed Hilmi Pasha and Abdul Hameed Shoman from Palestine founded in Jerusalem a bank with a capital of 15 thousand Guineas. They succeeded because of their good intentions in making this bank the only Arab Bank in the Syrian territory to be counted among the few banks that had many branches and

a capital of 500 thousand Guineas. The two of them also founded an agricultural bank in whose foundation there participated some five thousand shareholders from the Arabs of Palestine and whose capital was in excess of 100 thousand Guineas. With these two banks the Arab Ummah in Palestine managed to serve its needs. And those with a sense of national pride were able to dispense with working with foreign banks. And people realised that the foreigners were not above the easterners and that the easterners were not without recourse. We have mentioned these two examples to demonstrate the monstrous damage that was done to the Muslims by their lack of self-confidence. Perhaps they have started to recover now from their deadly collective sickness.

¹⁸² Location on the banks of the Euphrates near the city of Al-Raqqah at which the great battle between the forces of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyya ibn Abi Sufyan was fought in the year 37H and which resulted in a decision to seek arbitration.↩ ¹⁸³ Voicing the words ‘Allah hu akbar’ (God is the Greatest) is referred to as Takbeer or Takbeera.↩ ¹⁸⁴ ‫↩اﻟﻠﻮح اﻟﻤﺤﻔﻮظ‬ ¹⁸⁵ 2.10 ‫ﺿﺎ‬ ً ‫ﻣَﺮ‬ َ ‫ﻪ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ اﻟﻠ‬ ُ ُ‫ض ﻓََﺰاد َﻫ‬ ٌ ‫↩ﻓِﻲ ﻗُﻠ ُﻮﺑ ِﻬِﻢ ﻣَﺮ‬ ¹⁸ 9.47 ‫ﻦ‬ ِ ِ ‫ﻢ ﺑ ِﺎﻟﻈﺎﻟ‬ َ ‫ﺳﻤﺎﻋ ُﻮ‬ َ ‫ﻢ‬ ٌ ‫ﻪ ﻋ َﻠ ِﻴ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ وَاﻟﻠ‬ ْ ُ‫ن ﻟ َﻬ‬ ْ ُ ‫↩وَﻓِﻴﻜ‬ َ ‫ﻤﻴ‬ ¹⁸⁷ Thirty fourth Sultan of the Ottomans who ruled from 1878 to 1909↩ ¹⁸⁸ Heinrich August Meissner (1862 – 1940) German engineer largely responsible for the railway network in the Ottoman Empire. He was later given the title “Pasha”.↩ ¹⁸ City in present day Jordan, 218 kilometers southwest of the capital Amman.↩ ¹ In meaning: O Children of Islam is there any helper for an act of Heavenly reward and glory?↩

¹ ¹ City in North West of present-day Saudi Arabia.↩ ¹ ² The role of the English in blowing up this line is mentioned in T.E. Lawrence’s book ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ published in 1922.↩ ¹ ³ Leading Egyptian businessman and founder of Banque Misr and its d companies (1867 – 1941).↩ ¹ ⁴ City of the Gharbia District in Egypt located in the Middle of the Nile Delta.↩ ¹ ⁵ Arabic for The Nile↩ ¹ The reference to honing blades and sharpening tips is used metaphorically to apply to swords and spears. The metaphorical use of swords and spears is common in Arabic literature.↩

Chapter Six

When Determination Is Directed

Development of the Holy Lands

Centuries and ages have ed during which the holy lands of Islam were the neediest among nations for reform, the closest to anarchy, the least safe for travellers, the least in wellbeing of citizens and the most corrupt and havoc ridden. This highly abominable condition was embarrassing for every Muslim, distressing for every believer and clear proof for foreigners against Muslims who could not deny the disorder and tumult in the Hijaz. This, despite it being the cradle of Islam and the destination of pilgrims for the annual Hajj to the House of Allah, and the holy sites and the resting place of the Messenger of Allah, to visit which, hearts burned with desire. All foreigners would use this condition to their claim that Islam was not compatible with civilisation and that it and anarchy were twins. And were it a civilised religion, there would not have been this atrocious condition at its centre nor would it have failed to establish law and order in its stronghold. The reality is that this anarchy did not result from anything other than the negligence to work in accordance with the rules of the Islamic Shariah, and from loosening the leash of some Emirs who ruled the Hijaz by taking advantage of people because of their descent from the line of the Prophet which protected the rulers of Islam from being taken to task and protected them from punishment. This was the result of misguided opinion and failure to follow the Shariah. Indeed, the Islamic Shariah does not recognise descent or relationship.

And when the horn is blown, there will, on that day, be no relationships between them nor will they ask (for) each other.¹ ⁷

Allah has deemed piety to be above all other qualities and characteristics, and has determined that whoever falls short in his actions will not be benefitted by his relationships. It is reported that the Prophet said: “Indeed some of my

household think themselves to be the worthiest of me. But it is not like that. Those who are worthy of me are the pious regardless of who they are and where they are. Indeed, I do not permit people of my household to corrupt what I have reformed.”¹ ⁸ This Hadith was related to us by the last of the great relators of the Hadith, Badr Ud Din Al-Hasni Al-Maghrabi Al-Dimashki. How faithful was he to the spirit of the Shariah! Meaning would erupt from every side of the book. Because of this the Sultans of Islam would, from time to time, warn the Emirs of the Hijaz who were unjust to people and would overstep the rule of law. The letter that one of the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt wrote to one of the Emirs of Makkah has become legend. He writes in it: Know that doing good is good in itself; and if it is from the house of the Prophet, it is better. And doing wrong is wrong in itself; and if it is from the house of the Prophet, it is worse. It has come to our attention that you have made the Sanctuary of peace a place of fear and your deeds would redden the faces of men and blacken the pages of the book. Stop now. Else we will plunge into you the sword of your Grandfather.¹ It should not be understood from this that there was not among these Emirs other than those who merited this description. No, for there existed among them just rulers but, regrettably, the condition of the Hijaz remained unstable. The Bedouins of the desert continued to attack pilgrims and there was no cure for their wretchedness. Both the Ottoman and Egyptian rulers would send columns of regular troops armed with cannons and other munitions to protect the pilgrim caravans and pay generous stipends to the leaders of the tribes. But none of this prevented the Bedouins, and those of the dissolute who did not fear Allah, from attacking the pilgrims at every opportunity that presented itself. And many times, a Hajj caravan would be forced to return after losing the opportunity to perform Hajj or to visit the holy places after travelling from faraway lands, spending of their wealth, and suffering the travails of journeying over land and sea. They would be consumed by desire for what had escaped them, burning with anguish and lamenting their loss with a flood of tears. All of them repeating the Howqala² and saying: None other than Allah can rebuff it

(the calamity),² ¹ believing that the assault of the Bedouins was an irremediable sickness not amenable to treatment or circumvention. The pilgrims were overtaken by calamity and recourse was to Allah alone. This is how ages and centuries ed by with people holding to this belief and refusing to waver from it. Until a few years ago when control of the Hijaz ed to King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Not even one year ed by for the Hijaz to be transformed from a den filled with the roar of lions every day and every hour into a cradle of peace and a land of tranquillity in which people could sleep serenely with no fear of attack from anyone. It was as if those Bedouins who terrorised the pilgrims for centuries and ages were never in the world and as if these grey wolves were transformed to sheep: No plunder, no robbing, no killing and no pummelling. Now, if a virgin girl wished to travel from Makkah to AlMadinah or from Al-Madinah to Makkah or to any other place in the Saudi Kingdom carrying with her gold and diamonds and topaz and emeralds, no one would dare to even ask her what she was carrying. Not a day would when many lost items would be taken to the police which their owners had lost on the roads. And mostly it was the Bedouins who would bring these things in the interest of overall security and to deflect any suspicion from themselves and their companions. Praise be to He who transforms hearts and circumstances! By God there does not exist in this age security greater than the security in the Hijaz; not in the East and not in the West; not in Europe and not in America. Mr Crane – a well-known friend of the Arabs – wished in one of his speeches that there would be in America the security that he had seen in the Hijaz and the Yemen.² ² All those who have lived in Europe and know the Hijaz these days agree that the security of life and property in the holy land is stronger, more complete, and more secure than it is in any of the nations of Europe or America. So where are those who used to say: That no human can control the Bedouins and that the denizens of the desert are not like the rest of nations? And here is this Ibn Saud who has collected them all in a vast single nation and erased any vestiges of the attacks and reprisals between tribes. Everyone is able to travel the deserts unarmed and enter the land of any tribe without anyone asking him where he is going and whence, he came.

Were it said to a man: That a land such as this characterised by fear, horror, bloodletting and robbery, and in which its people have perpetrated tyranny and injustice since the beginning of time would, in less than a year of the rule of Ibn Saud, be purified and filled with peace and serenity, that man would think that he was listening to fantasy and fables or would think that whoever said this was not of sound mind. But this is absolutely true and has become reality in a short time. And what has made it possible is none other than great determination, firm resolve, faith in Allah, self-confidence and the knowledge that Allah s who He s and helps who He helps, and that He exhorts to action and rewards those who work, and abhors slothfulness. He says to His worshippers: And who despairs of the Mercy of his Lord other than those who have lost their way?² ³ These glad tidings of peace in the holy lands of the Hijaz have flowed to encom all the lands of Islam and have brought happiness to the hearts of Muslims. The stain of disgrace that has long disappointed the Muslims has been lifted by the strong resolve of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud and his firm adherence to the Shariah. But this is not all. Desires remain in hearts. The Hijaz continues to lack many resources in regard to infrastructure and buildings needed for comfort and happiness which the pilgrims seek but are not able to find. It is beyond the ability of the Hijaz to build these facilities due to a lack of resources and because expenditure exceeds income. And also, because most Muslim nations have taken exclusive possession of entails dedicated to the Haramain Al-Sharifain² ⁴ and do not use them for the purpose they are entailed. It has been incumbent on the Islamic world for a long time to share in the removal of these material issues that the Hijaz alone cannot overcome, especially because the Haramain Al-Sharifain are not just for the Arabs but for all Muslims. This matter remained the subject of hopes and wishes as people waited for change. Finally, Egypt set its intention on the task. She is considered very suitable for it and to lead the way and set an example for other nations. Egypt is not called the ‘quiver of Allah on His earth’ for no reason. Indeed she is from time immemorial a refuge for the Hijaz and a source of food for the needy there. It is sufficient to mention how Egypt in the ‘Year of Ashes’² ⁵, and on the

request of the Caliph Omar to ’Amr ibn Al-’Aas² , sent succour to the Hijaz. And since that time whenever calamity struck the people of the Haramain, or famine enveloped them, Egypt would rush to provide succour to them and to lift them out of their suffering, never failing in this duty at any time. During this time, when the feeling of an obligation to develop the Hijaz grew stronger, and after the security of travellers was established, Egypt rose to extend its hand in for this task. It is as if it had been written in the Preserved Tablet that Mohammad Tal’at Pasha Harb would rise to wage a war against the defects, disorder and neglect in the development of the East. He directed a part of his ample energy towards the direction of the Al-Bayt Al-Haram² ⁷ towards which, no matter wherever we are, Allah has commanded that we turn to face it. Tal’at Pasha shone in this arena as well. He started a few years ago to establish a shipping company. He built large ships which were distinguished by their high level of comfort and organisation such as ‘Al-Zamzam’ and ‘Al-Kawthar’ and others which we have already mentioned. This resulted in great convenience for the pilgrims to Makkah. It became the talk of caravans and word spread to other nations. But this was not all that this man aspired to do in regard to the development and organisation of the Hijaz. He travelled to the holy land and studied the problems that needed solutions. He reported his findings to the Egyptian government which moved quickly to implement the necessary reforms in coordination with the Saudi Government which on its part did whatever was in its capacity to facilitate an agreement and expedite work. The Egyptian and Saudi governments would spend in this round of development to build roads, electric lighting, purification and distribution of water, and other such works in the Hijaz the sum of 240 thousand Guineas. And in this way the Egyptian state opened the way for all Islamic governments in the world to participate to the extent of their ability in ing development required in the Hijaz, a land to which Muslims from the East and the West travel by land and sea and air. It, the Hijaz, is definitely a candidate for more development and increased urban density so that it can be an illustration of beauty both in form and substance, and a favoured destination in winter and summer. Indeed, the Hijaz consists of wonderful summer resorts such as Taif and Al-Hada

and Wadi Mahram and Wadi Layyah and the mountains of Al-Shafa which rise to 3000 meters above sea level. Rarely in the world do similar sites exist in close proximity, as we have mentioned in our writings about travels to the Hijaz entitled ‘Expressions of Elegance’.² ⁸ These exquisite places lack nothing except paved roads for vehicles to shorten distances. The Banque Misr Company has published detailed and useful reports about the development work needed in the Hijaz. These were written by accomplished engineers which the bank sent to the holy lands for his purpose. For example, Mohammad Jamal Bek, Assistant General Manager of the Egyptian Spinning and Weaving Mills Company, has spoken about the general condition of the Hijaz, the suitability of its land and what it requires in of technical resources and industrial training institutes. He has also looked into water supply and concluded that it needs an elevated tank to be built below ’Ain Zubaida² which would fulfil the water requirements of Makkah. Similarly, he studied electric lighting for Makkah and the possibility of building paved roads for cars from Jeddah to the Haramain or railway lines to connect the three cities. This clear and useful report mentioned many other projects. There is nothing in it to reproach other than that its estimate of the number Muslims in the world at 250 million is incorrect. It seems to have arisen from old and misleading European statistics. Or perhaps there is a printing error and the correct number should have been 350 million. But this is also less than the actual number. We have mentioned, based on official statistics, in an article in our magazine La Nation Arabe in response to those who claim that the Muslims in the world are 260 million that, in reality, there are 260 million Muslims in Asia alone. Not included in this number are the Muslims of Africa who number 100 million and the Muslims of Europe who are between five to six million. We have taken up this subject intentionally because of what we perceive of the discomfort of Europeans with the large number of Muslims and the efforts especially of the colonial powers to understate the number of Muslims in order to mitigate their weight and influence. We have examined this issue many times because of what we discern of their intentions. Let us return to the issue of the development of the Hijaz: We say that among the many reports on this subject is the report of researcher Engineer Hasan Al-

Bahtimi which speaks about the diversion of flood waters from Makkah, improving the walkway between Safa and Marwa²¹ , improving the method of supplying water from ’Ain Zubaida to Arafat²¹¹, and electric lighting for the holy land. There is another report on these same issues by Mustafa Mahir Chief Engineer of the Giza Water Company in Egypt. He recommends that, after the repair of ’Ain Zubaida and ’Ain Hunain,²¹² out of which flows the channel known as ’Ain Za’afaran, it is necessary to bore water wells in valleys where ample water is known to exist. In this way available water will exceed the drinking requirements of Makkah and can be used for agriculture and parks. He adds: The water project will be the key to searching for buried treasures. The same Engineer talks about the well of Zamzam and says: Dissolved in its water are beneficial salts similar to the salts in water used for treatment in Europe. It is in this respect suitable to be filled in closed sterile bottles and sold abroad thereby earning a respectable income. He goes on to recommend means to maintain the well to protect it from harmful bacteria and that a bacteriologist undertake the task of analysing the water and ensuring its sterility. He also spoke in detail about the treatment of the waters of ’Ain Zubaida and the building of necessary storage, and appended explanatory drawings for the project. In his report, Mustafa Mahir also has a special section on Al-Madina, which is considered to be a heaven of the heavens on Earth. In the report he describes the qualities of its water and its lush parks. He ends his report by saying: I beseech Allah that He makes it possible for his Muslim devotees to extend a hand of to the holy lands, Qibla to the Muslims, with whatever they are able to spare to help its inhabitants and to preserve this pure land in a way that befits its glory and solemnity. The Banque Misr research, a large part of the credit for which goes to Tal’at Pasha, ends with clear and detailed reports written by these scientists: Mohammad Hasan Al-’Abd, Mustafa Mahir, Hasan Hasni Rashid – chemist at the Egyptian ministry of health, and Hasan Al-Bahtimi – technical advisor of Banque Misr. Since this group of reports and research has been published and distributed, we thought it sufficient to present a general idea of what they contain. We pray to

Allah that He makes it possible for both nations – Egypt and Saudi Arabia – to complete all the required developments. Indeed development is necessary in all places and in the Holy Lands it is a special imperative.

َ َ ‫ﻔ‬ ¹ ⁷ 23.101 ‫ن‬ ِ ُ ‫↩ﻓَﺈ ِذ َا ﻧ‬ َ ‫ﺴﺎَءﻟ ُﻮ‬ َ ‫ﺴﺎ‬ َ َ ‫ﻣﺌ ِﺬ ٍ وََﻻ ﻳ َﺘ‬ َ ‫ﺦ ﻓِﻲ اﻟﺼﻮرِ ﻓََﻼ أﻧ‬ َ ْ‫ﻢ ﻳ َﻮ‬ ْ ُ‫ب ﺑ َﻴ ْﻨ َﻬ‬ ¹ ⁸ ‫ إﻧﻤﺎ أوﻟﻴﺎﺋﻲ‬,‫أﻻ إن ﺑﻌﺾ أل ﺑﻴﺘﻲ ﻳﺮون أﻧﻔﺴﻬﻢ أوﻟﻰ اﻟﻨﺎس ﺑﻲ؛ وﻟﻴﺲ اﻷﻣﺮ ﻛﺬﻟﻚ‬ ‫ أﻻ إﻧﻲ ﻻ أﺟﻴﺰ ﻷﻫﻞ ﺑﻴﺘﻲ أن ﻳﻔﺴﺪوا ﻣﺎ أﺻﻠﺤﺖ‬,‫↩اﻟﻤﺘﻘﻮن؛ ﻣﻦ ﻛﺎﻧﻮا وﺣﻴﺚ ﻛﺎﻧﻮا‬ ¹ Sword of your Grandfather: Meaning the sword of the Prophet i.e. we will apply the dictates of the Shariah to you.↩ ² To say: La howla wa la quwata illa billah (‫ﻻ ﺣﻮل وﻻ ﻗﻮة‬ ‫)إﻻ ﺑﺎﻟﻠﻪ‬: There is no authority or power other than Allah.↩ ² ¹ 53.58 ‫ﻔﺔ‬ َ ‫ﺷ‬ ِ ‫ن اﻟﻠﻪِ ﻛ َﺎ‬ ِ ‫ﺲ ﻟ َﻬَﺎ‬ َ ْ ‫↩ﻟ َﻴ‬ ِ ‫ﻣﻦ د ُو‬ ² ² Charles Richard Crane (1858 – 1939) American businessman and Arabist instrumental in obtaining American oil concessions in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.↩ ُ َ ‫ﻘﻨ‬ ² ³ 15.56 ‫ن‬ ْ َ ‫ﻣﻦ ﻳ‬ ِ ‫ﻂ‬ َ ‫ﻤﺔِ َرﺑﻪِ إ ِﻻ اﻟﻀﺎﻟﻮ‬ ْ ‫ﻣﻦ ر‬ َ ‫ﺣ‬ َ َ‫↩و‬ ² ⁴ The two sacred mosques in Makkah and Al-Madina↩ ² ⁵ The Year of Ashes was 18H. It is called this because the earth turned dark due to an absence of rain until its colour became gray similar to that of ash. Drought in the Hijaz intensified and its people suffered from severe hunger.↩ ² Governor of Egypt at the time.↩ ² ⁷ The Kaaba in Makkah.↩ ² ⁸ ‫↩اﻻرﺗﺴﺎﻣﺎت اﻟﻠﻄﺎف ﻓﻲ ﺧﺎﻃﺮ اﻟﺤﺎج إﻟﻰ أﻗﺪس ﻣﻄﺎف‬ ² Profuse sweet water spring near the town of Taif. It is named after Zubaida

wife of the Abbasid Caliph Haroon ur Rasheed. She performed the Hajj in 186H and noticed the problems faced by Hajj pilgrims in getting water and had a canal constructed to ease these problems. Remnants of the canal bearing her name remain today.↩ ²¹ Safa and Marwa: Hilltops in the vicinity of the Kaaba in Makkah linked by a walkway and part of Hajj and Umrah rituals.↩ ²¹¹ Mountain on the outskirts of Makkah central to Hajj rituals.↩ ²¹² Sweet water spring 26 kilometers northeast of Makkah. Site of the historical battle of Hunain.↩

Epilogue

The Muslims Will Rise, As Others Have

It is incumbent on the Muslims to rise, progress, ascend the heights of glory and advance just as other nations have done. This is the Jihad²¹³ with wealth and life that Allah has decreed in his Quran many times. It is what they call today ‘sacrifice’. Success will never be possible for Muslims or for any other nation without sacrifice. Perhaps Sheikh Basyuni Imran or others who have asked our opinion on this subject had thought that I would answer that the key to progress is to read the theories of Einstein on relativity, or study Roentgen’s rays, or Pasteur’s microbes, or to rely on radio transmission on short waves rather than long, or study the inventions of Edison, or other similar matters. But the reality is that these matters are ramifications not fundamentals, consequences not principles. Sacrifice, or Jihad with wealth and life, is the highest knowledge which calls out to all other knowledge. If a nation acquires this knowledge and acts upon it, all remaining knowledge and science submit to it, and the benefits that these can yield come within its reach. It is not necessary for a person in need of something to know about it for him to know that he needs it. The sage of the East, Jamal-ud-deen Al-Afghani²¹⁴ mentioned to me once: A loving father may be amongst the most ignorant of people but if his son falls sick, he chooses for him the best of doctors. And he knows that there is something useful called knowledge although he may know nothing about it. And he also knows, driven by concern for the life of his child, that knowledge is necessary. Muhammad Ali²¹⁵ may not have been a scientist, he may even not have been literate, but he pulled Egypt out of oblivion in a short time driven by the high knowledge that is common sense and will power, and made it a great nation. It is

this high knowledge that drives its possessor to seek knowledge and to push his nation to do likewise. So, it is possible for Muslims if they resuscitate their determination and work in accordance with what their Book urges to reach the level of the Europeans and Americans and Japanese in of knowledge and advancement while remaining connected to their Islam just as these others have remained connected to their religions. They are men and we are men. The only thing we lack is work. And the only thing that hurts us is pessimism, submission and hopelessness. So, let us dust off the grime of pessimism and move forward. And let us understand that we will reach our destination only by work and perseverance and courage. And, finally, by fulfilling the conditions of faith that are in the Quran: And those who strive for Us We will guide them to Our paths. Indeed, Allah is with those who do good.²¹

Shakib Arsalan Lausanne 11th November, 1930

²¹³ Verbal noun of the verb jahada: To strive, to endeavour.↩ ²¹⁴ (1838 – 1897) Reformist Islamic scholar and leading figure in the Egyptian renaissance.↩ ²¹⁵ Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769 – 1849) Ottoman governor of Egypt from 1805 to 1848.↩ ²¹ 29.69 ‫ﻦ‬ ِ ‫ﺤ‬ ْ ‫ﻤ‬ َ ‫ﻦ‬ ُ ‫ﻢ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﻤﻊَ اﻟ‬ َ َ ‫ﻪ ﻟ‬ َ ‫ﺳﺒ ُﻠ َﻨ َﺎ وَإ ِن اﻟﻠ‬ ْ ُ‫ﺟﺎﻫَﺪ ُوا ﻓِﻴﻨ َﺎ ﻟ َﻨ َﻬْﺪ ِﻳ َﻨﻬ‬ َ ‫ﺴﻨ ِﻴ‬ َ ‫↩وَاﻟﺬ ِﻳ‬

Glossary

Al-Bayt Al-Haraam Literally ‘the sacred house’: Cubical fabric clad structure at the ce Al-Haramain Al-Sharifain The two sacred mosques of Makkah and Al-Madinah Auliya Plural of Wali – Muslim saint thought by some to be close to Alla Believers A translation of the Arabic term Muminoon, active participle of th Darwesh, plural: DaraweeshA Muslim ascetic who shuns the life of the world Dunya A reference to the life of this world as contrasted to the life of the Fatwa Edict issued by a religious scholar authorised to do so. Muslims a Hadith A saying or sayings of the Prophet as related by trusted sources Hajj Annual Muslim pilgrimage to Makkah Hajji Pilgrim performing the Hajj Ifranji, plural: Irfanj Of or belonging to the Franks. Used generally to refer to white sk Jahiliya Period before the arrival of Islam. Literally: Age of ignorance of Jihad To work and strive to the best of one’s ability. To spend of one’s w Kafir, plural: Kuffar Disbeliever, infidel Khalifa Caliph Kufr Disbelief. Literally: A covering up of the truth Maghrib Arab speaking region of northwest Africa including Tunisia, Alge Masjid Al-Aqsa Literally, the farthest mosque: The mosque in Jerusalem from wh Mufti Islamic scholar authorised to issue a Fatwa Mujahideen Plural of Mujahid: Someone who strives or fights in the way of A Qibla The direction towards which Muslims face when they pray. When Ramadan Ninth month of the Islamic calendar during which Muslims are re Shariah The body of source materials including the Quran, sayings and de Sheikh Literally an old man but applied commonly to an Islamic religiou Sultan Ruler or king. Also used to mean government or ruling authority Tawheed Belief in the absolute oneness of God Ummah The global community of Muslims Zakat Mandatory tax payable annually by Muslims calculated as two an