Auspices From The Actual Time

 

If we leave history and the auspices it conveys concerning the self-given power of Islam, and the power hidden in the entity of this nation, which shows up at time of adversity; when there exists those who can spur it, and we contemplate the status quo of the nation during this era, we will find many other auspices, which made this nation withstand the hurricanes, and does not, as designed for it, dissolve in another just as salt dissolves in water. But it earnestly strove and fought till it freed itself from its occupiers, regained its selfhood, and discovered its self anew, despite all the fetters that shackled it, and the iron or golden cages that were made to imprison it within.

 

The Diseases of the Actual Time and its Blights:

 

I cannot turn a blind eye to the mental, religious and ethical diseases and blights with which our present nation surges, and from which the preachers, the tutors and the reformers have complained and still are complaining.

 

Religion has grown weak betwixt an extremist and a deserter, as stated by Imam Hassan Al-Basry, or betwixt (a rigorist and a denier), as stated by the prince of rhetoric Shakîb Ârsalân, where the first (the rigorist) turns people away from Islam by his relentlessness and the other deludes them by denying it.

 

True monotheism – which is the essence of Islam and the soul of the whole Islamic being – has grown weak betwixt the superstitions of the fortunetellers and the falsehood of charlatans. Betwixt the polytheism of the seculars who have gone as far as worshipping the graves, and the polytheism of the elites who have gone as far as worshipping the palaces of the living!

 

Furthermore, the spiritual side of Muslim life has grown weak when some Muslims have given up offering Prayers and have followed lusts, though the Noble Qur’an tells us:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

قَدْ أَفْلَحَ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ {1} الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ {2} وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَنِ اللَّغْوِ مُعْرِضُونَ {3} وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِلزَّكَاةِ فَاعِلُونَ {4} وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِفُرُوجِهِمْ حَافِظُونَ {5} إِلَّا عَلَى أَزْوَاجِهِمْ أوْ مَا مَلَكَتْ أَيْمَانُهُمْ فَإِنَّهُمْ غَيْرُ مَلُومِينَ {6} فَمَنِ ابْتَغَى وَرَاء ذَلِكَ فَأُوْلَئِكَ هُمُ الْعَادُونَ {7} وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ لِأَمَانَاتِهِمْ وَعَهْدِهِمْ رَاعُونَ {8} وَالَّذِينَ هُمْ عَلَى صَلَوَاتِهِمْ يُحَافِظُونَ {9} (المؤمنون: 1-9)

 

Almighty Allah says in His Noble Book what means:

 

“Successful indeed are the believers. Those who offer their Salât (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness. And those who turn away from Al-Laghw (dirty, false, evil vain talk, falsehood, and all that Allah has forbidden). And those who pay the Zakât. And those who guard their chastity (i.e. private parts, from illegal sexual acts) except from their wives or (the captives and slaves) that their right hands possess, for then, they are free from blame; but whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors; those who are faithfully true to their Amanât (all the duties which Allah has ordained, honesty, moral responsibility and trusts etc.) and to their covenants; and those who strictly guard their (five compulsory congregational) Salawât (prayers) (at their fixed stated hours).” (Al-Mu’minûn, 23: 1-9)

 

Devious Sufism and ostentatious Sufism have also appeared, whereas true Sufism [defined as: honesty together with truth, and nobility of manners together with form][1], that is expressive of the spirituality of Islam and its moderation has receded. The rituals of Sufism prevailed over its realities, becoming mere Dhikr (remembering Allah) with the tongue, more akin to the kind that Râbi‘ah described as repentance that itself needs a repentance, not to mention the fabricated supplications, and feigned moves, that neither soften the heart, nor remind of Allah or the Hereafter.

 

The intrinsic proprieties and conventions of Islam has grown weak in our social life, and many adhered to two forms of traditions that disagree with the realities of Islam: (a) traditions inherited from the accumulation of the eras of stringency, blind imitation and backwardness, that have been wrongly attributed to Islam and do not belong to it in the least, (b) and other intrusive traditions that were imported from the invading occidental civilization, which are steeped in materialistic thinking, secular tendencies, and utilitarian behavior. All this had its effect on spreading disintegration, and ingraining individualism and selfishness.

 

The issue of women is what we most sensibly touch in this regard, where on the one hand we find some women hiding their faces till nothing is seen of them, and they may allow – or be allowed – to expose both or one of their eyes. And on the other hand, other women go out with bare arms, legs and shoulders (as the hadith describes women dressed in revealing gowns in this world, seen as the inhabitants of hellfire in the Hereafter, saying), (Those who are dressed yet bare, those who walk while swaying their shoulders and swaggering alluringly). We have also witnessed some people forbid a fiancé from seeing his fiancée – though bidden to see her based on the Islamic law – until their wedding night and the same applies to her. Whereas others give her free rein, thus they hold hands and she accompanies him wherever he likes, whether in the theaters, the cinemas, the parks or secluded places!

 

The Islamic mentality has suffered feebleness, for it no longer thinks, originates, introduces novelties to civilizations or rethink the old. Rather, it has become dependent on the other, whether this other is (the hallowed in patrimony) or (the hallowed in the west). Rigidity and stagnation have predominated in the aspects of life, so there no longer existed Ijtihâd [Term designating the intellectual effort of Muslim scholars to employ reason and analysis of the authoritative sources (Qur’an and Sunnah) for the purpose of finding legal solutions to new and challenging situations or issues] in Islamic jurisprudence, excellence in literature or creativity in industry. Furthermore, two grave bywords have prevailed that influenced the vitality of the Islamic mentality. The first says: ‘The first left nothing to the last!’ While the second says: ‘It is impossible to excel the creativity of what is already done!’ 

 

The call to debar the domain of Ijtihâd spread! And no one knows who debarred it? Or who has the power to debar a way opened by Allah, The Most Exalted, and His Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)?

 

Thence, the Islamic nation lagged behind, though it remained the foremost for around a thousand years and it became the rearmost in the caravan after being in the forefront. For all its countries are among the so-called (Developing Countries) or (the Third World), and if there were a Fourth World, some of them would be ascribed to it because of the utmost backwardness, poverty, sickness, ignorance and illiteracy from which they suffer from.

 

The true virtues of Islam were undermined by the absence of the Branches of Faith clarified for us by the honorable Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to be [Some seventy branches, the highest (amongst them): is (saying) lâ illâh ilâ allâh (there is no god but Allah), and the humblest (amongst them): is the removal of whatever is injurious off the road and Al-Hayâ’ (a sublime moral behavior involving a mixed emotion of modesty, virtue, bashfulness, chastity, humility, purity, piety, courtesy… and is marked by deep reverence, respect, dread and awe shown to Allah and reluctance to commit whatever is forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace), is a branch of faith]. Hypocrisy has prevailed in our community, thereon we have witnessed he who (when he speaks he tells lies, and when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he is trusted he betrays, and when he makes a covenant he proves to be treacherous and when he quarrels he curses and swears). Destructive affluence spread in an idle class living in the lap of luxury, whereas bleak misery spread in the laboring classes that toil and drudge but sweat for nothing. Islamic social values were upset by the emergence of those who have money without effort and the emergence of the kings of petrol and the thieves of open economy. The caricature drawn for the Muslim became an Arab in a tent, beside him an oil well and a beauty!

 

Injustice prevailed in the Islamic world: injustice of rulers towards their subjects, injustice of the rich towards the poor and injustice of men towards women. And indeed, injustice could never be the foundation of a state or its means of thriving.

 

Mutual consultation weakened – and perhaps completely disappeared – in the political life of Muslims. People were ruled by Fir‘aun (Pharaoh), Hâmân and Qârûn (Korah), by iron and fire at times and by deceit and forgery at other times. The rulers of Muslims were no longer the best among them, (whom you love and who love you, upon whom you invoke the Blessings of Allah and who invoke His Blessings upon you). But they became conceited hardhearted tyrants, with sealed hearts, thus they neither fear Allah nor are merciful to people. Some have their minds sealed as well, so they know nothing about religion nor show sound judgment in worldly affairs. In spite of that, when votes are cast in elections the leader gets (99.999%) thus provoking the mockery of the whole world. Hence, the ruler in Arab countries is not to be dethroned except by death or assassination or revolt against him.

 

The Sick Current State Can Never Persist           

 

But the undeniable present state of affairs was not given free rein to influence the Muslims without resistance, because it is inconsistent with the nature of the Islamic life, as well as the nature of the Islamic message and the Islamic nation that can never altogether be led astray. There will always be in it a group firmly adhering to the Laws and Commands of Allah, who lead people with truth and establish justice therewith. And Allah will always send in it, or for its sake, from century to century those who revive its religion, as proven by the legible history and the surveyed actualities.

 

Yesterday Versus Today

 

Anyone who compares the state of the nation a century ago and its state nowadays, or has read about its state fifty or thirty years ago and has contemplated its state during these two decades will find that its circumstances have changed – considerably – to that which is better and more ideal. It is a fact noticed and affirmed by every vigilant observer keeping abreast of current events in all aspects of life, all domains and on all levels: the intellectual, the moral and the behavioral.

 

In this regard, I will only quote the testimony of a western intellect who embraced Islam insightfully and believed in it based on clear proofs, Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann, the author of (Islam: The Alternative). I chose to quote his testimony because he is a man of broad knowledge, who masters German  – his mother tongue – English and French. He was the ambassador of his country – Germany – to Algeria and Morocco. He is distinguished by his realistic viewpoint and his critical tendency to the extent that he described his own realism saying, ‘It is the cruel realism.’ He also said about his criticism, ‘I had to be a severe critic to both the Occident and the Islamic world.’

 

Dr. Hofmann says in his book (Islam 2000) and under the chapter entitled (A Bit of Optimism):         

 

It may be more fruitful to look at the world as it is now than to base predictions on Muslim futurologist doctrine. And what do we see if we rub our eyes a little? Is Islam really advancing? Or is it perhaps, appearances aside, in decline? Or are the Muslims perhaps just muddling along, on the fringes of history, as they have being doing for several centuries, easy prey for physical and mental colonization? But this time, let us hear the optimist view first.

 

One has to read the depressing reports on life and mores in Makkah Al-Mukaramah and in Al-Madinah during the last century in order to appreciate the moral and physical progress made ever since. We have reliable descriptions given in great detail by western Makkan pilgrims like the Swiss Muslim Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. He lived in Makkah and Al-Madinah for six months in 1814-15.[2]

 

His observations were corroborated both by the wavering British Muslim Sir Richard Burton, who visited Makkah and Al-Madinah in 1853,[3] and the German non-Muslim, Heinrich von Maltzan, who stayed in Makkah in 1860.[4]

 

All three authors confirmed that the holy places of Islam at that time were in decay, filthy, insecure, and full of superstitions. Believe it or not, alcohol and prostitutes were offered right in front of the haram and occasionally even inside, and prayer was loosely observed, even by pilgrims. In those days, their number, decreasing year by year, was only 70,000 in 1814 (Burkchardt’s estimate) and already down to 30, 000 in 1860 (von Maltzan’s estimate).

 

Indeed, even after Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the successive breaking apart of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, politicians and orientalists alike foresaw the complete disappearance of Islam within their lifetimes. They studied Islam as a cultural phenomenon that one should record for posterity before it vanished entirely. In this spirit, the French colonizers for instance could appreciate ‘Abd al Qâdir, the great Algerian hero, statesman, and Sufi, only as a quaint folkloristic figure with some nuisance value.[5] Personalities who even at that time sympathized with Islam like, for instance, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (d. 1832) only liked its unmitigated monotheism but not Islam as lived in the Muslim world.[6]

 

Against this depressing background, when one performs hajj or ‘Umrah today, it is startling to realize how much has been achieved.

 

The Makkan haram and the Prophet’s Mosque in Al-Madinah have been beautifully enlarged to hold between 480,000 and 650,000 pilgrims, and yet they are too small for the ever-increasing number of believers who want to perform their obligatory pilgrimage. The number has to be limited through national quotas for visa. Alcohol has been banished, theft is barely known, single ladies are not admitted, and prayer is universally observed.

 

A reversal of orientalist attitudes toward Islam, observable since the early twentieth century, was a harbinger of further positive change. Rather than studying Islam like the infamous Lawrence of Arabia in the interest of British imperialism, there was now an elite group of European academics who embraced Islam wholeheartedly.

 

Among them were René Guénon, Martin Lings, Titus Burckhardt, and of course Leopold Weiss, Alia, Muhammad Asad. And among the orientalists who refrained from formally converting to Islam, there were personalities – like Jacques Berque, Louis Massignon, Denise Masson, and Annemarie Schimmel – who were seen to be on the brink of pronouncing the shahâdah.

 

Many of their orientalist colleagues, at any rate, no longer studied their subject – Islam – with disgust and barely disguised hatred but with sympathy and empathy.

 

Simultaneously, since the 1930s, grassroots Muslim revival movements put Islam onto the political agenda of almost every country within the dâr al Islâm region. Their common prototype remains the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, founded by Hassan Al-Bannâ (d. 1949),[7] and their preachers, i.e., in addition to other authorities like the father of Muslim liberation theology, Sayed Qutb (d. 1966), as well as Abûl A‘lâ al Mawdûdî (d. 1979), Shaykh Kishk, and Muhammad al Ghazzâlî.

 

But revival did not only come from below. Both the Wahhâbî and Sanûsî movements, and to some extent also the Salafiyah à la Muhammad ‘Abduh, brought about a Muslim revival from the top, greatly expanded by the possibilities of petro-dollar financing. As it so happens, the richest persons in the world today – the Sultan of Brunei, King Fahd, and Amir Zayed of the United Arab Emirates – are all Muslims, giving important impulses to Islamic da‘wah worldwide. Just think of the many millions of copies of the Qur’an being distributed for free, also in model English and French translations, from the King Fahd Printing Center in Al-Madinah.

 

In sum, this development, perceived as a “fundamentalist” threat both inside the Muslim region and by the world at large, turned Islam into the most topical media subject of the last quarter of this century.

 

Islam is no longer expected to disappear but rather to expand and even to explode. NATO generals, when making operational plans, are advised to take into account that the most likely military confrontation of the future will not be an East-West but a North-South conflict, Islam being the new expansive and aggressive potential enemy.

 

This fear is brought home by emigrant and local Muslims, whose number is visibly increasing almost everywhere. Some two million Muslims now live each in the United States and Germany. The Muslim population of Great Britain is around one million and 2.5 million in France. The total number of Muslims in 1991 was given by the western sources as 990,547,000 – (conservative) numbers causing fear and trepidation.[8]

 

Thus mosques are now springing up all around the world, from Los Angeles and Moscow to Rome and Zagreb. In Cordoba, former seat of the Umayyad Khilâfah, Spanish Muslims in 1994 founded the international Islamic University “Averröes” of Al-Andalus. Not far from the fantastic old mosque of Cordoba, a mu’adhdhin is again calling for prayer. What a provocation, this happening five centuries after the last Muslim had been expelled form Spanish soil!

 

All this is symptomatic of the fact that Islam worldwide is the only growing religion.

 

In 1943 already Muhammad Asad (d. 1992 C.E./1412 A.H.) had made startling predictions about the ascension of Islam in his famous pamphlet “Islam at the Crossroads,” written in Dehli. Rather than being apologetic or imitative versus the West in the Salafiyah manner, Asad described Islam as a complete and sound alternative program for life, contrasting it plainly with the decadent materialism of the contemporary western civilization (which included the Soviet Union).

 

Asad foresaw World War II as an inevitable global struggle between the atheistic capitalist West and the equally atheistic communist East. He predicted that their antagonism would spell disaster for both of them, “leading the material self-conceit of Western civilization in such a gruesome way ad absurdum that its people will begin, once more, …to search after spiritual truth; and then a successful preaching of Islam may become possible” (my emphasis).

 

These visions of more than sixty years ago had seemed imprecise after World War II when the Occident, rather than collapsing, split into two superior camps which seemed to stabilize each other for decades to come.

 

Today, after the bankruptcy of communist ideology and system evident since 2990 and the alarming sins of a spiritual and value crisis in the West, we know that Muhammad Asad was right after all: Christianity is going through a virtual change of paradigm, and the so-called “project of modernism” is failing under our very eyes.

 

Western theologians and scientists have begun to doubt whether their basic assumptions are valid after all.[9]           

 

Continuance of the Revival and Renaissance Movement

 

Amongst the lineaments of Islam is the fact that its renaissance and rejuvenating movement, emanating from within, is permanent and will never stop till the Last Hour through the true heirs of the knowledge and teachings of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), which they present to people utterly pure without adulteration, perfect without division, clear without vagueness whereby (they negate the distortion of the extremists, the plagiarism of the fabricators and the misinterpretation of the ignorant).[10]

 

No wonder that for the sake of Islam Allah has paved the way for men who revive it, arouse its nation and bring up generations who will follow in their footsteps. Surely, their efforts are not wasted. The fruits of Islamic revival together with rebirth and rejuvenation movements are not – as some have imagined – a cry in a wasteland or a blow puffed in dead ashes. By the Grace of Allah and His Help, they have originated a big Islamic arousal in all homelands of the Arabs and Islam, even outside the Islamic territories where reside the Muslim Minorities, and inside the Islamic colonies East and West. Such an arousal has awakened the minds and hearts, stirred up the willpower, and restored to people their faith in Islam and hope for its ultimate victory after some have gone so far as to believe that its banner is half-masted, its dominion has shrunken, its nation is lagging behind the caravan and secularism has pervaded among its children.

 

Whereupon, the forces antagonistic to Islam were shaken as if by a mighty earthquake, so they started to plot against the arousal, intrigue against it, accuse it of crimes it is guiltless of and incite people to oppose it. They – regretfully – exploited the ideological or moral depravity of some members in the arousal so as to aim a blow at the whole arousal and block its way but Allah, The Most Exalted says:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللّهُ وَاللّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ {30} (الأنفال: 30)

 

The noble Qur’anic verse says what means:

 

“They were plotting and Allah too was planning, and Allah is the Best of the planners.” (Al-Anfâl, 8: 30)

 

If some are trying to underestimate the power of the Islamic movement and undervalue the significance of the Islamic arousal while puffing up the secular currents antagonistic to Islam, its law and regime for conducting life, I believe they are wrong in their estimations or they know the truth but they deliberately reject it to follow their own whims.

 

 

The Islamic Arousal and its Influence on the Life of Muslims

 

No rational fair-minded person can ever deny the influence of the Islamic arousal on our contemporary life. An arousal that has gone as far as East and West and illumined the homes of Muslims, then it smoothly glided into the dwellings of Muslims living outside the homelands of Islam; amidst the big and small minorities and colonies spread worldwide, through which Allah guides millions of young men and women.

 

Such arousal has awakened the minds by alerting them, filled the hearts with faith and vigor, and stirred up the willpower to work and be committed to fulfilling duties. It has influenced men as well as women and changed the beliefs embraced by the new generations, thus shifting them from secular thought to the Islamic, from loyalty to the West to loyalty shown to Allah and His Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and from subservience to freedom. Consequently, it has brought up a Muslim generation devotedly committed to Islam: its beliefs and Shari‘ah [Islamic Law], its convictions and manners, its message and civilization. We hope that it will be the generation of the aspired victory.

 

This arousal has manifested itself in the intellectual domain through the contemporary (Islamic Library), which comprise various studies tackling the different aspects of Islam. The Islamic books became bestsellers in bookstores, besides hundreds of theses prepared for master’s degrees and doctorates tackling the different aspects of the Islamic culture: economy, politics, law, education, history, the manifold humanities and social sciences.

 

Furthermore, the arousal has manifested itself morally, where the Masjids abounded with praying men and women, specially the youth. Also, the season for Hajj and ‘Umrah (minor Hajj) was overcrowded and the bedecked women willingly wore the Hijâb (veil).

 

The arousal has also manifested itself in the political domain, where a huge popular coalition called for a return to Islam and the application of the Shari‘ah [Islamic Law]. A state adhering to Shiite School of Islamic Jurisprudence aroused in Iran and another adhering to Sunni School in Sudan, and a third was about to be established in Algeria had they not blocked its way and deprived it from reaping the fruits of the country’s free will.

 

The arousal has also manifested itself in the domain of fighting in the Cause of Allah, defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan[11], and the Serbian monster in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Above all, the Intifada [Palestinian heroic struggling to free the Muslim land] with its heroes and the Islamic resistance with its champions have mightily shaken Zionism: the invincible state and the unbeatable force!

 

All these phenomena have evoked the evil instincts harbored in the forces antagonistic to Islam, its nation and its arousal. So they rallied to plot against it, intrigue against it and waylay its arousal. Itshak Rabin stated in a conference held in Casablanca, “Our worldly enemies are three: fundamentalism, hunger and drugs!” Actually, he mentioned hunger and drugs just as a camouflage and to throw dust in the eyes, for he targeted fundamentalism, and if you want his actual translation for the word it will be The Islamic Arousal!

 

And if we are now living the Israeli time, the Samiri time, and Israel is the absolute master in the region and has skillfully contrived to judaize the Arab mentality and media, do not be astonished if war is waged against the Islamic arousal and the Islamic movement under many guises. All this to serve one purpose: the survival of Israel, the mastery of Israel, the expansion of Israel and the hegemony of Israel, but the Islamic arousal will surely persist by the Will of Allah.

 

The Islamic Current is Stronger and Tips the Scale

 

Indeed Zionism and its crusading ally are scheming to aim a blow at Islam and its arousal and supply the currents antagonistic to Islam by all means of power, prevalence and authority.

 

But if we thoroughly weigh the powers for and against us, we will find that the scale of the Islamic current – all praises be to Allah – outweighs and predominates.

 

(a) By the grace of Islam we possess a great fund that no other call from here and there possesses. Islam is backed by the great masses that belief in their Lord, in their Noble Qur’an and in their Prophet Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace); that long for those who lead them in the Name of Allah and help them reach out to the hand of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). They will offer possessions complacently and heartily, and sacrifice their souls willingly and peacefully. Verily, that nation is pious by instinct and by the testimony of its history. Religion is the key to its personality, the refiner of its skills, the originator of its glories and the secret of its victories. It more readily responds to Islam and gathers around it than any other call brought by a usurper, an occupier or sown by a greedy ambusher.

 

On the tenth of Ramadan 1393 A.H. (6/10/1973) we experienced it ourselves and the power of ‘Allahu Akbar’ (Allah is The Most Great) worked its miracles on the battlefield.

 

(b) We also possess the strength of the doctrine, the force of the great eternal Islamic principles we are calling to. We possess the power of Islam visible in its clarity and universality, its depth, its rationality and powerful impact. Islam is a creed that addresses the mind, a worship that purges the soul, a behavior that befits the pure instinct, a law that achieves equanimity and justice, chases away vices and brings about prosperity. It secures the right of every entitled person, for no individual should oppress the community as dictated by capitalism, nor should the community oppress the individual as dictated by Marxism. Islam offers absolute equanimity and perfection without either oppression or depreciation of others’ rights.

 

Amongst the signs of the power in Islam is the fact that it is not man-made, but it is sent down by the Lord of the Worlds. That Divine factor makes it free from extremism and imperfection, from weakness, insufficiency and inefficacy suffered in every law mankind pass for themselves.

 

Furthermore, these attribute make Islam more willingly accepted and obeyed by the multitude because Islam is man’s submission to his Lord, Who created him then fashioned him in due proportion and poured forth His Blessings and Mercy upon him. Allah is the One Whom man begs for His forgiveness and fears His Punishment, contrary to the principles of positivism, which man does not obey except when afraid or hungering for something, from whose sway he tries to escape as far as he can.

 

One of the sources of Islam’s power is the fact that the doctrine emanates from the profound depths of the nation. It is neither foreign nor alien to it, so it does not need a subjection of the nation to a physical or moral pressure in order to make it swallow it and yield to drink its cups of sorrows.

 

(c) That power treasured in the Islamic doctrine is only poised by the power hidden in the depths of the Islamic nation.

 

The day that power erupted, when Muslims were weak, disunited and deserted, it destroyed the crusaders in the Battle of Hittîn (Hittin), defeated the Tatars in the Battle of ‘Ain Jâlût (Spring of Goliath), and captivated Louis IX in (Dar Ibn Luqmân) in Mansûrah.

 

The Power the Nation Possesses

 

The power our Islamic nation possesses is neither modest nor trivial if well implemented and utilized, truly it is a mountainous enormous power.

 

1. Manpower

 

First of these powers is manpower in terms of number; as our nation currently numbers over a billion and quarter Muslims who believe in the monotheistic creed, spread over the six continents of the world.     

 

True, what counts is how and not how much, but the sum has also a significance and we shall see in the reports of the westerners how far they fear the multiplication of the Muslim populations, specially since they have begun to suffer an alarming decrease in their birth rate.

 

Superiority in terms of number is a blessing in itself; furthermore, it is a prerequisite for any economic or cultural excellence, therefore nations strive to compensate it by consolidating themselves into alliances in spite of difference in race, language, religion and history.

 

Therefrom, the Noble Qur’an mentioned it as a reason for thanksgiving and among bestowed blessings in the noble verse saying:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَاذْكُرُواْ إِذْ كُنتُمْ قَلِيلاً فَكَثَّرَكُمْ ْ (الأعراف: 86)

 

The noble Qur’anic verse says what means:

 

“And remember when you were but few, and He multiplied you.” (Al-A'râf, 7: 86)

 

2.Material and Economic Power

 

Second of these powers is the material and economic power, as our nation possesses what other nations do not of minerals and treasures buried deep under the earth, wealth spread out on its surface, in addition to aquatic and sea riches.

 

Moreover, we have fertile plains and valleys, hills and mountains, seas and oceans, great rivers, springs, wells and reserved groundwater. We also have the major metals that the world needs and, most importantly, a majority of the oil reserve in the entire world.

 

Our geographical location poses a great strategic and cultural value, as well. It is the junction of the continents, the wellspring of civilizations and the place of the descent of the great celestial messages: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

 

3.Spiritual Power

 

Third of these powers that our nation possesses is the spiritual power, the power of the message we believe in, invite to, live for and die adhering to; the universal and eternal message of Islam with which Allah has ended prophecy and celestial messages.

 

It is the message characterized by divinity; it is from Allah and its end is for the sake of Allah:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

قُلْ إِنَّ صَلاَتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ {162} (الأنعام: 162)

 

Almighty Allah says in His Noble Book what means:

 

“Say: truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the worlds.” (Al-An'âm, 6: 162)

 

We Muslims alone possess the sole Divine Book that embraces the Last Words of Allah addressed to mankind, secure from any distortion or alternation whatsoever: the Noble Qur’an that no falsehood can approach it from before or behind it.

 

This message is also marked by omneity:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَنَزَّلْنَا عَلَيْكَ الْكِتَابَ تِبْيَانًا لِّكُلِّ شَيْءٍ (النحل: 89)

 

Almighty Allah says in His Noble Book what means:

 

“And We have sent down to you the Book (the Qur'an) as an exposition of everything.” (An-Nahl, 16: 89) 

 

It is marked by its superior moral tendency attested by the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) who said, “Verily, I was sent to perfect noble manners.”[12]

 

It is also marked by its humane and universal tendency:

 

 يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ (الأنبياء: 107)

 

Almighty Allah says in His Noble Book what means:

 

“We have only sent you (O Muhammad) as a mercy to the worlds.” (Al-Anbiyâ', 21: 107)

 

Moreover, it is marked by its realistic perspective; thus it sanctions special rules for necessities, tolerates man’s excuses and prescribes allowances and offers alleviations.

 

It is also singularly marked by its just moderation:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا (البقرة: 143)

 

Almighty Allah says in His Noble Book what means:

 

“Thus We have made you [true Muslims - real believers of Islamic Monotheism, true followers of Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and his Sunnah (legal ways)], a Wasat (just) (and the best) nation.” (Al-Baqarah, 2: 143).

 

It is the balance stricken between body and the soul, between mind and heart, between worldly life and the Hereafter, between rights and duties, between the individual and the community without weighing more or less.

 

The world is the poorest it can be for this message to set it free from extravagant materialism, unjust utilitarianism, deadly libertinism and from the eras of fear, anxiety, sorrow and despair to the eras of security, tranquility, happiness and hope.

 

The West Warns Against the Power Treasured in Islam and its Nation

 

We Muslims may be unaware of our immanent power but the foreigners who closely examine the nature of our nation and the power reserved in our people are those who truly realize the self-given power we actually possess and they try to guard themselves against it. They are haunted by the fear of its outburst one day. Professor Jeb said in his book entitled (Islam Destination): [The Islamic movements usually progress in an amazingly tremendous speed. They explode suddenly before the observers detect from their signs what may arouse suspicion. The Islamic movements lack nothing but leadership; it lacks nothing but another Salâh Al-Dîn (Saladin)].

 

The German explorer, Paul Achmid wrote a book specifically about that subject entitled (Islam: The Force of Tomorrow) which appeared in 1936. He asserted: The elements of the force of the Islamic Orient are confined to three factors:

 

1. In the force of Islam itself (as a religion) and belief in it and its examples, and its fraternization between different races, colors and cultures.

 

2. In the abundance of the natural resources in the Islamic Orient that extends from the Atlantic Ocean on the borders of Morocco westward, to the Pacific Ocean on the borders of Indonesia eastward. And in the assimilation of these numerous resources into a powerful sound economic unity and a self-sufficiency that leaves the Muslims in absolutely no need of Europe or others if they fraternize and cooperate with each other.

 

3. Finally he pointed out the last factor, that is: The fecundity of the Muslim populations, which makes their numerical force a transcending one.[13]

 

Then he added, “If these three forces united and Muslims fraternized with one another based on the unity of the Islamic doctrine, and the oneness of Allah, and their natural resources covered the needs of their increase, Islam would be a real danger announcing the end of Europe and universal sovereignty in a region which is the center of the entire world.”

 

After detailing these three factors based on official statistics and the knowledge Paul Achmid has about the essence of the Islamic doctrine embodied in the history of Muslims and the history of their coherence and their onward march to repel the attackers, he suggested, “That the Christian Occident unite together, people and governments, and repeat the Crusades but in another image that befits the epoch, yet executed in a more effective and conclusive manner.”[14] 

 

Robert Ben said in the prelude of his book entitled (The Sacred Sword): “We have to deeply study the Arab and delve into their thoughts for they ruled the world in the past and perhaps they may rule it once again. The torch Muhammad has lighted is still burning vehemently and there exists what evokes the conviction that it will never be extinguished. Therefore, I have written this book so that the reader may perceive the origin of the Arab and I have named it after the two-edged sword that Muhammad gained in the Battle of Badr as a memorial of his victory, because that sword became an emblem of his imperialistic demands.”[15]

 

Regardless of the prejudice conveyed through these words and the envy they steam with, they do clarify for us the extent of the power the Muslims possess from the viewpoint of the outsiders. Today they call Islam (the green danger) after (the red danger) ended with the downfall of the Soviet Union and after they approached (the yellow danger) embodied in China. But Islam is no danger except to atheism, corruption, depravity and slavery.

 

Allow me to give a contemporary example of the innate power of Islam; that example is Turkey. Turkey which Kemal Ataturk and his party wanted to disrobe of Islam and Islamic morals, customs, rules, language and everything related to it, even annulling the Hijâb (women’s veil) and writing in Arabic letters! He (Kemal Ataturk) dictated that the head cover should compulsorily be the hat and writing should be in Latin. He forbade speaking in Arabic even in announcing the Azân [the Muslims summons to prayers called by the muezzin from a minaret of a Masjid five times a day]! He allowed Muslim women to marry Jewish or Christian men, and made men and women equal in the rights of inheritance. He applied all the western code of laws, in their flesh and blood, even the laws known as the personal law. The Islamic and Arabic culture was chased away, and its people were fought against and killed. People believed that the sun of Islam had declined in Turkey forever and the shade of Islam had shrunk away from it sans return. Tens of dreary years have passed capable of deadening Islam in the bosoms and allow the hands of despair, along them, to crawl into the hearts.

 

But Islam sheltered in the hearts of the Turkish people never died. You could say that it stagnated or slumbered until it was given the opportunity and it manifested itself as an influential power. We still read and hear about the spread of piety and devotion there and the withdrawal of atheism and libertinism, and the abatement of their voice one day after the other in spite of the financial and psychological support they enjoy and the assistance their advocators receive internally and externally. Thousands of schools teaching the Noble Qur’an have appeared, Masjids were rebuilt, Islamic books were published and the Islamic teachings and instructions have emerged strongly influencing life.

 

At last, the religious Intifada (uprising) in Turkey led to the success of the Islamic Al-Rafâh party in winning the relative majority in the Turkish parliament in spite of the hurdles that were planted in its way.

 

Indeed, the most miraculous among the signs of this religion and its effect on its nation is what we have aforementioned: that it becomes the most powerful, the most steadfast and the loftiest it can ever be when hardships befall it, when it is beset by dangers, when adversities grow severer on its people and there remains no way out for them and it stands deserted by all supporters and helpers.

 

At that time, Islam works its miracles, whereupon life is breathed into the still body, the vigorous blood flows into the veins of the nation and the soldiers of truth rush forward like a giant released from its dungeon. The asleep awake, the coward summons courage, the weak becomes strong, the runaway returns, and those dispersed get together. And behold! Those successive incessant droplets from hither and thither fashion a vehement flood, which no barrier or impediment can stand in its way.[16]

 

The Hardships of the Preachers

 

There are those who deplore the state of the callers to Islam for the hard adversities that batter them and the severe blows that are aimed at them from all sides, and believe that there is no hope that these persecuted, dispersed and tortured people will ever stand on their own feet, or raise aloft their flag, or have the regime they call for or the message they have faith in embraced by the people when everyday they lay their lives between the anvil and the hammer.

 

To those protestors or mistrustful people we say:

 

The hardships you are mentioning are not signs betokening the weakness or death of Islamic preachers, but they serve as proofs of vitality, action and force, because what is dead and motionless is not fought, rather what is fought and victimized is that which is true, alive, dynamic and resistant.

 

The call whose champions are neither persecuted, nor its preachers are wronged, is a trivial or a dead one, or its preachers – at least – are trivial dead people.

 

Moreover, such adversities and persecutions are evidence for the vitality of the doctrine itself; the Islamic doctrine which perpetually sacrifices martyrs in the battlefield, who water its tree with their blood and erect the edifice of its glory by their martyred bodies.

 

Such adversities are the wisest tutors and the greatest masters to the champions of causes, looked upon as individuals, who by experiencing hardships, their souls only grow more serene and their hearts far purified, as states the Prophetic hadith, “The parable of the believer when he suffers illness or fever is that of an iron piece that is driven into fire, whereupon its dross is removed and its goodness remains.”[17]

 

Truly, more than enough for us is the Qur’anic verse in which Allah, all praise and glory be to Him, says:

 

يقول الله تعالى في كتابه العزيز:

 

وَلاَ تَهِنُوا وَلاَ تَحْزَنُوا وَأَنتُمُ الأَعْلَوْنَ إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ {139}إِن يَمْسَسْكُمْ قَرْحٌ فَقَدْ مَسَّ الْقَوْمَ قَرْحٌ مِّثْلُهُ وَتِلْكَ الأيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَيَتَّخِذَ مِنكُمْ شُهَدَاء وَاللّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ {140} وَلِيُمَحِّصَ اللّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَيَمْحَقَ الْكَافِرِينَ {141} (آل عمران: 139-141)

 

The noble Qur’anic verses say what means:

 

“So do not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will be superior (in victory) if you are indeed (true) believers. If a wound (and killing) has touched you, be sure a similar wound (and killing) has touched the others. And so are the days (good and not so good), We give to men by turns, that Allah may test those who believe, and that He may take martyrs from among you. And Allah likes not the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong­doers). And that Allah may test (or purify) the believers (from sins) and destroy the disbelievers.” (Âl-‘Imrân, 3: 139-141)

 

 

[1] By the Praise and Help of Allah I have started writing a book series about Upright Sufism or (Understanding Correct Behavior in the Light of the Qur’an and the Sunnah). Three parts of it have already been issued: (Spiritual Life and Knowledge), (Intention and Sincerity) and (Reliance only on Allah). And I beg Allah to help me finish them.

[2] Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, in Mekka und Medina (Berlin: 1944).

[3] Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, 2 vols. (New York: 1964).

[4] Heinrich von Maltzan, Meine Wallfahrt nach Mekka (Tübingen: 1982).

[5] Bruno Etienne, Abdelkader (Paris: 1994).

[6] Ahmad von Denffer, “Der Islam und Goethe,” 20 installments, Al-Islam, (Munich) no. 1 (1990) and no. 3 (1994).

[7] The Five Tracts of Hassan al-Bannâ (Berkeley and Los Angeles: 1978) are still basic material.

[8] See the article “Anzahl der Muslime in der Welt (Muslim Census around the Word),” DLM-Rundbrief (Hamburg), (February 1991).  Qaradâwy says: It is well known that Muslims nowadays are over a billion and quarter but the western estimations will ever try to minimize the number of Muslims for reasons never to escape the wise.

[9] End of quote [Islam 2000 by Dr. Murad Wilfried Hofmann].

[10] Reported by Al-Baihaqy and others from several weak sources and Ibn Al-Qyyiam strengthened it in Muftâh Dârul-Sa‘âdah (The Key to the Abode of Happiness). I also discussed it in my book entitled Kaif Natâ‘mal ma‘a Al-Sunnah Al-Nabawiyah (How Should We Handle the Prophetic Sunnah), p. 28, published by Al-Wafâ’ House in Egypt.

[11] Regretfully our Afghan brothers have vanquished the Soviet Union – one of the two strongest powers in the whole world – but they did not triumph over their own selves! May Allah guide them and help them settle all differences amongst them.    

[12] Reported by Imam Al-Bukhâry in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad (Superior Manners) on the authority of Abu Hurairah with the wording: (good manners) no. 274; Ahmad: 2381, Al-Hâkim: 2613 and Al-Dhahaby verified it and agreed with him while Al-Albâny mentioned it in other authentic and well-known narrations of the hadith reported through different chains of transmission, no. 45.

[13] Let all advocators of birth control in the Islamic World hear this!

[14] Translated by Dr. Muhammad Al-Bahy during one of his lectures.

[15] Page 17, from the English version of the book and I have quoted this paragraph from a report prepared by Dr. Isaac Mûsâ Al-Husainy on that book, which he represented to the general administration in Al-Azhar at the late fifties.

[16] Kindly see my book entitled Min Ajl Sahwah Râshidah (For the Sake of a Righteous Arousal) pp. 104, 107.

[17] Recorded by Al-Bazzâr in Kashf Al-Astâr [Drawing the Veils], from the hadith of ‘Abdul-Hamîd bin ‘Abdul-Rahmân bin Azhar on the authority of his father: 1362 (756). Al-Haithamy recorded it in Al-Majma‘: (2302); Al-Bazâr and At-Tabarâny also recorded it in Al-Jâmi‘ Al-Kabîr with an unknown narrator in its chain of transmission. Al-Hâkim also reported it in Al-Mustadrik and Adh-Dhahaby authenticated it and agreed on it: 173, 348. Al-Albâny retraced the hadith chain of transmission and proved that the chain of transmission of the hadith is Hassan (Good); it is authentic by virtue of other well-known and valid narrations through different chains of transmission: 4290, 291 (1714).