BETWEEN THE REASONS OF HOPE

AND THE FACTORS OF DESPAIR

Returning to Islam, between the hopeful and the despaired

My friend said : "I do not deny that advocating true Islam and returning to its commands, and its morality, as well as clinging to its faith and laws, is a call to something truly good and exhilarating. But it is beautiful and exhilarating only in  a world of  ideals and poetic imagination and transcendence. As to the world of truth and reality, it is a call without hope, it is also a call for a system without future, and  whose application is hopeless. So why exert ourselves for something that is vain? Why sow, tend, water and labour without any hope of fruit or crop?  Is it not better for us, if we are practical, to face reality and to adopt one of the more recent ideologies, and import one of the ready-made and current systems. We then build our life upon it and ride the advanced train of life and make our life and that of the others easier?"

I said : "Take it easy, my friend. If we are aspiring to a superficial and easily reachable rest, then the fastest way is looking for charity and asking the others.  Such situation is led to in the case of  weakness of determination, and of the self. The result of this is disapproval from Allah and from the people. So then what happens when we run out of the principles and methods that we begged from others as you are suggesting?

If we do that we incur the wrath of God, and waste our religion, deny our history, lose our authenticity and personality. We also become tags to others, we follow them but nobody follows us, we are led by others and lead nobody.  In spite of all this, these imported principles will not be able to solve our problems, or achieve the balance that we aspire to, and the happiness we hope for our society. The reason is that such principles have not been able to secure happiness for the people who developed them, so how can they secure happiness for others. Whoever has lost something cannot give it.

Even if we accept that such principles have made their people happy, they will be incapable of achieving such happiness for our people, because they are like a garment that was manufactured for a body other than ours. It is a medicine that was mixed for ills other than ours, as a pain killer that only relieves momentarily but is followed by strong pains and chronic ills. So, how can we expect decisive cure from such medicine, when we have medicine that has made its proof, and provided definite cures. We even have a life and soul elixir, we have Islam!!"

My friend said, "I am not denying all the truth, virtue and goodness that Islam contains, but I see that in our age it is a hopeless matter as I said earlier.     I see that it is a call without hope. To be frank, we the younger generations look for some ideology that would fill our hearts with hope, hope in victory, in the near future. And, hope is life, and despair is death. We as humans and young people fear death and love life".

I said to my friend, "What is it that has made Islam become without future, and return to it a hopeless matter? Taking such a decision in such a serious matter with such haste and such ease is a great negligence on the part of Muslims.  It is also a hastiness in judgement which is acceptable by neither logic nor science, and is backed by neither reality nor history."

My friend said, "Logic, science, reality and history all back what I say, and I have proofs and evidence."  I said, "Say what you have to say".

He said, "If we look at reality, we find in front of us several hurdles on the path of return to Islam. Some of these hurdles, are mental, others are practical, others local and yet others are external.  I will discuss them one after the other.

The first hurdle : We are in an age when the whole world has freed itself from religion, a world which has given itself up to experimental and materialistic science. It has separated religion from state and from life, which has led it to achieving happiness and progress and realising miracles or near miracles. So, are we going to stand alone in the world, preach for religion and cling to it  and receive from all sides continuous accusations of backwardness and stagnation? Or can we persuade modern man who has shattered the atom and conquered space to give up the acquisitions and victories which he has achieved under the banner of science, and let his boat be guided once more by religion, a religion which has stood before in the way of science and scholars?"

I said : "Have you finished your comments about this hurdle?" He said : "Yes". I said : "Do you mind if I replied to each hurdle directly as you finish your comments, so that we do not confuse them?" He said : "No". I said : "Before I explain my point of view, I would like to ask you the following question : Do you want to reach the truth? Or do you want your opinion to win and achieve victory?" He said : "I hope that reaching the truth is the goal of all of us, otherwise, there would be no good in our search". I said : "So listen and consider all that I say." He said : "I am all ears, mind and heart with you."

I said : "What you said about the world freeing itself completely from religion and accepting the materialistic civilisation is not correct. How can this be correct, when the origin of religion is an inherent instinct in the human soul? How can this be correct, when the need of the human soul to religion is like the need of the human body of food, water and air?

Materialistic civilisation has not fulfilled all the needs of the human soul, or satisfy its hopes and aspirations. It has not explained the essence of its life and the secret of its existence, nor has it quenched its thirst for eternity. All this does not constitute the function of materialistic civilisation nor that of materialistic philosophy, but it is the function of religion.

The reality is that people feel that their need for religion grows daily, and that their grudge towards the materialism of civilisation, its instruments and extremism grows at the same rate. So, they complain about the emptiness, boredom, futility and aimlessness of their hectic and tumultuous life!

Science has provided them with the means of life, but did not provide them with its aims. It embellished its superficial appearances, but did not take them to its depths and secrets.  It has provided them with pleasure, but did not make them achieve tranquillity, which is the key to happiness. The most eloquent expression of that is what one of the Hindu thinkers said to a European thinker : "You have been able to fly in the air like birds, and to ride in the oceans like fish, but have not been able as yet to walk on earth like a human being!!"  Tagore and Iqbal have expressed this idea in their poetry upon many occasions.

My friend said, "It may be said that these are oriental thinkers whose judgement upon a western civilisation cannot be accepted, since it may not suit  their oriental taste and their Sufi spirit.

I said : "I will give you a judgement of one of theirs. Read the comments of the Austrian westerner Leopold Weiss, who became Muslim and called himself Mohammed Assad, in his book Islam in the cross-roads, and read the comments of the French philosopher René Genou, who also became Muslim and named himself Abdul Wahid Yahia, in his book The crisis of the modern world and its need of the message of Islam.

My friend said : "In spite of the fact that this opinion has come from Europeans, it is weakened by the fact that they have become part and parcel of the Muslim world". 

I said : "They have adopted Islam after they have wiped their hands from the bankrupt western civilisation.  Beside this, there are the judgements of many other Europeans and Americans who have not given up their religion and have not adopted Islam. Suffice it for you to refer to what Dr. Alexis Carrel has written in his book Man, that unknown creature, and Dr. Henry Link in his book The return to faith, and Colon Wilson in his book The fall of civilisation, and Ale Ben Johnson  in his book Education for a baffled World, and Twinby in his book A search in history. It would also be sufficient to read what newspapers publish from time to time about the defects of western civilisation to see that this civilisation is withdrawing and receding. The reason behind its regress and bankruptcy is its straying from the spirit of true religion and its squandering of all characteristics of man.

So, if the West confined religion within the walls of the church, and did not allow it to express itself more than a few hours every Sunday, an expression which is no more than an inauthentic, formal and official function, man in the West has started to feel the dire need for religion and feels that he needs a religion that would give him peace of mind and uprightness in life. He also feels that such a religion should not deprive him from his achievements in science, the discoveries of civilisation, and the power of the machine. He also wants a religion which does not inhibit his mind, and frustrate his feelings, hurt his instincts, deprive him from the pleasures of life!! The enmity of the West toward religion  was an enmity toward the religion of the church, not toward the religion of Allah.

When the West separated religion from the state, as it is claimed, it separated the church and the clergy from government when they sided with the kings against the peoples, and with folklore against science. That is why the people rebelled shouting : 'choke the last of the kings with the guts of the last of the priests'. In spite of all this, the church continued to pull the strings in many aspects of politics. Many states and political organisations continued to feed colonialist preaching, at the same time, the church and its structures continued to support the preaching colonialist.  We still find in Europe nowadays political parties which are called Christian parties as in Germany, Italy, Belgium and other countries. Some of these parties ran their countries more than once. The Conservative Party in Britain states that its aim is to establish a Christian civilisation.

So, why should the Muslims be the only ones to be afraid of being accused of clinging to religion or returning to it?" This is at a time when the status of religion in our countries is not the same as theirs, the history of our religious scholars is not the same as the history of the churchmen in Europe, and the attitude of our religion towards science is not the same as theirs. In our countries, no dispute ever arose between religion and science. We did not have any inspecting courts which called for the burning of scientists, and the ripping apart of their bodies with poles and nails and for the trial of their corpses after their deaths. When we call people to our religion, we do not ask them to give up their civilisational acquisitions and scientific achievements, and thus give up electric light for the oil lamp, or the aeroplane for the camel, the boat of the desert. We do not ask him to give up the plants of experimentation and observation and follow delusive imagination.  For us, learning useful science is a must indeed, be it a science of religion or a science of worldly matters.  Some of it is a collective duty and some of it is an individual duty. Also, a Muslim should not stop seeking knowledge wherever he goes.  Muslims should not pay attention to where the science comes from, it is his aim and should acquire it wherever it is available. The only condition that Islam sets is that science be used to back truth, support virtue, oppose the spreading of injustice and evil, and the strengthening of decadent behaviour. It should also go against the destruction of man. When we invite people to adopt Islam, we do not invite them to folklore, incapacity or inertia.  We do not call for a state of clergy or government of dervishes. When we call to Islam, we call for a true scientific method, sound logical thought, and useful humanistic work, noble humanistic creativity, and virtuous social solidarity, just world peace, and idealistic humanistic civilisation. A civilisation which integrates mind and matter, accommodates between spirit and heart and establishes fairness between the individual and society, and brotherhood between man and man.  Before all this it should strengthen the link between Allah and man.

Religion in our life is neither a secondary matter, nor a matter that is on the margin of our existence. It is the first instructor of our ideas and feelings, and the first educator of our morality and traditions, and the first source of our faith and philosophy of life. It flows in us in the same way as blood flows in our veins, and flows in our life in the same way as sap flows in lively and healthy branches. Even if all nations decided to give up religion, we would never give it up because it is thanks to it that we exist and we cannot exist with anything else."

Then I turned to my friend and exclaimed, "I assume that what I have  said has sufficiently shed light upon your first hurdle", he said "Yes, this is enough!"  "So, let us move to the second hurdle", said I. My friend said "

The second hurdle : resides in 'the weakness of the Muslims today and their backwardness in many domains'. This has thrown on the shoulder of Islam itself the consequence of their real or untrue backwardness and weakness. This has put the advocates of Islam in a position that cannot be envied. Had the principle that they advocated been a source of wealth, happiness and strength, it would have been reflected on its people, but they rank at the tail of all nations. "

"You should say that not the slightest fraction of the weakness and underdevelopment of the Muslims today can be blamed on Islam at all. Islam could have been blamed if all Muslims today were clinging to their religion, following its morality, applying its laws, respecting its divine ordinance, be they governments or peoples. But there is a consensus about the opinion that Muslims are very far from true Islam. History also witnesses that when Muslims were true ones, they governed the world, conquered empires, subjugated tyrants, ate from above them and from under their feet, and they received the blessings and goods of the heavens and the earths.

Whoever follows the tides in the history of Islam will find that its high tides, victory and strength always coincide with periods when the Muslims are following the strict  rules of Islam under the guidance of a religious imam or the influence of a leader, or commander, who renovates for the nation its religion, as clearly witnessed during the days of  Omar Bin Abdulaziz, Salah Ed Din Al Ayyubi, and their likes.

This leads us to the conclusion that the drastic cure for the weaknesses, splitting and decadence that Muslims suffer from today can only consist in their return to true Islam, as was advocated by the original renovators of Islam such as Jamal Ed Din, Al Kawakibi, Mohammed Abdouh, Rashid Reda, Iqbal, Hassan Al Banna, Sadiq Arrafii, Abbas Al `Aqqad, and their likes of amongst thinkers and reform advocators.

The third hurdle : The enemies of Islam

My friend said : "I accept what you said, but I will mention to you one of the strongest and most dangerous hurdles, and I am sure that you will agree with me about it."  "I wish you'd hurry and tell me what this hurdle is," I said.

He said : "You believe, as I do, that the forces opposed to Islam, and who feel enmity towards it, inside and outside the country, are groups which are large and strong in both number and means. These forces would not allow Islam to return to its original strength in the same way as its advocates cannot resist to them, they are weak in number and means and have support from neither east or west. But we see that while these forces might disagree in many  matters, they start to agree and unite when the enemy is Islam. As to the new ideologies which I suggested that we should import at the beginning of our discussion, each one has a number of countries which support it, and alliances which defend it and even feed its advocates thought and culture as well as planning and financing. They also provide them with support and apparent and latent protection.  How are the advocates of Islam prepared for this? They are fought by parties and governments, and they are also fought by left wing forces and ill-treated by right wingers. The modernists accuse them of narrow-mindedness and the narrow-minded accuse them of leniency in their interpretation of Islam.  All the groups of different colours and inclinations of world Zionism, international communism and colonialist Christianity stand in their way. And thus, you see that as soon as they emerge from one hole they fall in one that is similar or even deeper.  And they hardly dust the dirt from one catastrophe that they meet another one or one that is of greater obscurantism"

I said : "What you mentioned is 100% correct. But this should not prevent us from advocating for our religion or stop us from working for its cause. We all agree that these forces which oppose Islam and its call are vicious and unjust forces, which want no good for us, nor sovereignty for our nation. These are forces which are moved by their hatred, greed and ambition towards us and fear from our awakening and our union around Islam.

I disagree with you completely when you consider that the enmity of these forces to us is a hurdle which prevents us from action and makes us despair. I consider it as an incentive which makes us resist and endure. I also consider it as a whip which burns our backs and makes us continue and persist in fighting. The enmity of these vicious forces inside and outside the country makes us more intent and more insistent upon our call and more protecting towards it. These forces only oppose righteousness, fight goodness, and resist enlightenment. It is appropriate here to quote the Arab poet when he says :

My love for myself has increased on account of the fact

that I am hated by unavailing people.

I am miserable because of the evil ones

And that makes of me a man of noble qualities"(1)

My friend said : "I agree with you that these forces are wrong, and that their opposition to the Islamic call is strong evidence that Islam is a call for righteousness, virtue, and enlightenment. What I say though is that this righteousness has a weak sting, inadequate protection and dented weapons, so how can we hope that it will rise and fight. These hellish forces set up against it every obstacle, and closes all paths for its advocates and sows on their way pricks and mines."

I said : "The basis of this logic is unacceptable to the advocates of righteousness and message carriers. They do not measure people by height and width, nor evaluate matters on the basis of quantity and size, nor weigh strength by number and means. How many a little company hath overcome a mightly host by Allah’s leave, and how many a people overestimated their arms and their military strategy and “ thought that they were shielded from the wrath of Allah by their shields, but Allah reached them from a place whereof they recked not”.

When man believes in the righteousness that he is advocating, and faith has settled in the depths of his heart, he no longer pays attention to the forces that are opposing him and that stand in his way. Righteousness is a force in itself, even if the whole world is against it. Its fate at the end is victory  if its advocates insist upon it, and also if they resist and resist for its sake.  Falsehood is shallow, short of breath and easy to discard, "Then, as for the foam, it passeth away as scum upon the banks, while, as for that which is of use to mankind, it remaineth in the earth"(2).

Had the Messengers of Allah, and the advocates of reform paid attention to the forces opposing them, no message of righteousness or of goodness would have ever been able to claim victory. Unfortunately, the majority of humanity follow passion and are inclined to falsehood. This is what was decided by the God of humanity when He said that the majority of people knoweth naught,  ... remembereth naught, ... believeth naught...... "If though obeyedst most of those on earth they would mislead thee far from Allah's way" (3).

When Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah, started to spread his word to all people in general and to the Arabs in particular, he started to advocate a religion that was not theirs, a view that was not theirs, a system other than the one they knew, and morality that was different from theirs. Did the fact that everybody was against his message and against the minority that believed in him and followed him and the fact that the Arabs threw arrows at them all, stop him from spreading his word? Is there any message that was successful and victorious that did not have to face opposing forces and adversary alliances?  Consider how communism and other destructive ideologies were victorious, and they had only few people on their side and limited means.

So how can we demand from Islam alone in this era to appear among encouraging and supporting forces that would be patting its shoulder and applauding its advocates, and hailing its supporters with cries of : welcome, welcome?!! If  we evaluate more seriously the weight of the forces that are with us and those that are against us, we will find that the scale of Islam is superior in weight, thanks to Allah.

a - Thanks to Islam, we have secured a great asset, which is impossible to be earned by another call. Behind Islam there is the strength of its considerably large population, which believes in its God, Qur'an and Mohammed, and which is looking forward to someone who will lead it in the name of Allah and put its hand in the hand of the Messenger of Allah. Then, they will give generously with acceptance and happiness, and give their soul willingly and with tranquillity. This nation is instinctively and historically religious. Religion is the key to its personality, the polisher of its talents and the maker of its heroism and the secret behind its great victories. It responds to religion and rallies around it  more quickly than any intrusive call that is brought by a usurping colonialist, or sown by a malicious and greedy person.

b - We also master the strength of the system that we advocate, the strength of the great eternal principles of Islam. We also control the strength which lies in its clarity, comprehensiveness, depth, its balance and influence.  Islam is a faith that addresses the mind, and a worship that blesses the soul, a morality that suits our instincts. It also consists of commandments that achieve fairness and justice, fight decadence, draw benefits, and give to each his rights.

Among the most salient characteristics of the strength of Islam is that it is not the creation of man, but it is a revelation of the God of all humans. The divine aspect of Islam has cleared it from exaggeration or negligence, and from deficiency and incompleteness which usually affects every system that humans create for themselves. 

This distinction allows the general public to access it and be compliant with it more easily, because it is a guidance for a man by a God who has created and straightened him. He also provided him with his blessings, and covered him with His compassion. Man also aspires to His requital and fears his punishment. This is the opposite of the conventional principles which man obeys only out of fear or greed and from whose imposition he tries to escape as far as he can.

Among the reasons for the strength of Islam is that it is a system which flows from the depths of the nation. It is neither an intrusion nor an imposition upon it which would need financial or moral pressure in order to understand or accept to swallow its message.

c - The strength which the principles of Islam contain is equalled only with the strengths which are inherent in  the heart of the Muslim nation. Such strength is the one which erupted the day Muslims were weak, dispersed and disappointed. It is thus that it destroyed the crusaders in Hittin, and defeated the Tatars in Ain Jalout and imprisoned Louis IX in Dar Ben Loqman in Mansoura.

Allow me to mention to you a contemporary example about the inherent strength of Islam. The example is that of Turkey, which Ataturk and his party wanted to disrobe from the cloth of  Islam, its morality, traditions, legislation, language and all that is related to it. He banned the head cover, and even the writing. He made the European hat a compulsory head cover, and imposed the Latin alphabet as the one to be used in writing. He forbid talk about religion even in private, he allowed the Muslim woman to marry the Jew or the Christian and even gave equal inheritance rights to man and woman. He made all the laws totally European, even the laws concerning personal statute.  Islamic and Arabic cultures were banished, their people were fought, and even murdered. So people thought that the Sun of Islam had set for ever on Turkey, and that the shade of Islam over it had shrunk for good. After that scores of stagnant years went by, and they could have killed the feeling of Islam in peoples' hearts, and let rampant  despair fill its place.

But, we still read and hear about the strength of the spread of Islam there, and the decrease of atheism and permissiveness and the diminution of their call day after day, in spite of the material and moral possibilities that they have, and the amount of internal and external help that its advocates receive.

The religious rebellion that was recently witnessed in Turkey has led to the downfall of the Kamal Party and the rise of the Justice Party, which has a clear Islamic inclination. 

The greatest characteristic of this religion and its influence on its nation is that it becomes strongest, most powerful and becomes the most established and most prominent when catastrophes hit it, dangers surround it, dejection overcomes its people, its paths narrow, and help and support become scarce.

It is then that Islam realises its miracles and life emerges from lying bodies.  It is then that the blood of strength flows in the veins of its people, and the soldiers of truth erupt like a jinn from the bottle. Then, the sleeping ones awaken, and the drunks sober up, and the weaklings are encouraged, and the dispersed gather up. Then, the continuous and consequent drops from here and there turn into an overwhelming flow, which is stopped by neither hurdle nor dam.  All this appeared clearly on the day of the apostasy at the dawn of Islam, after the death of the Prophet (PBUH), and the appearance of the liar and the impostor prophets, such as Musaylimah, Sajaah, Al Aswad, Tulayha, and their followers out of tribal feeling and not conviction.  One of them even said, "By Allah, a liar from Rabiah is to us preferable to a truth teller from Mudar."

After the apostasy of these appeared another group of Arabs, who believe in the prophecy of Mohammed and the prayers but does not recognise almsgiving either as a worship or as an obligation to anyone after Mohammed.  It is thus that Abu Bakr, the tearful, gentle and humble man , had to stand as a towering mountain and insist on fighting everybody  until they returned to the true religion of Allah,  at a time when most of the disciples were telling him, "O, successor of the Messenger of Allah, stay in your house, worship your god, until you receive certainty. We are unable to face war with all the Arabs."  Among these there was  Omar Farouk, in whose face Assiddiq roared as if he were a lion : "Does the giant of the pre-Islamic period become a weakling under Islam, Omar?", "How can you come with defeat, at a time when I am expecting your victory?? "

"By Allah, if they refuse to give in charity a cord that they used to give during the time of the Messenger of Allah I would fight them over it, and would not leave the sword in your hand."

And then there was what Assiddiq ordered when the militia of Allah went out to punish  the rebels, and bring back the stray ones. They had to relinquish to the poor their  right through the use of the sword from those who refuse to give such rights.

Apostasy was defeated, and so were its impostor Prophets.  Enlightenment was victorious over obscurantism, and then the rebels returned to the house of Islam, and faith was even stronger, and their enthusiasm was tougher. They wanted to repent for their ill-doing, and they joined the conquering army, fighting the two toughest empires on land: the Persian and the Roman. Thus they ended up being the most courageous soldiers in the conquest battles, and the fastest to resist and respond.

You can say the same thing about when the Tatars conquered the lands of Islam, and their impressive crowds and savage styles entered such lands in the same way as a sterile wind blows, destroying anything it passes over. They destroyed cities, destroyed constructions, caused blood to flow like rivers, and caused the collapse of the Abbassid Dynasty in Baghdad. They also threw books in the Euphrates until  its water turned black, from the amount of ink that ran from these books that were written by Muslim scholars. The civilisation of Islam, and by extension that of humanity as a whole, became threatened by such savage conquest,  which harms anyone.  What we are reminded of here is what we read in the description of Ajouj and Majouj - they may be part of them - and people thought that the banner of Islam was half-cast  and would not fly anymore. They also thought that the people of conquest and victory has deserved defeat,  and that it was far from returning to the limelight again.

Not many years passed until the miracle of Islam came true, and the tyrants who had attacked Islam were assaulted by Islam. Thus the shining sword of the conqueror falls under the influence of the unarmed Muslim faith and the victorious had to adopt the religion of the defeated!! All this in opposition to what usually occurs, but this is what Ibn Khaldun predicts. The defeated is always the one that endeavours to imitate the glorious and victorious.

d - Before all, we have faith in the backing of Allah to us, and trust in his support of us, and certainty in His Tradition to uphold righteousness, and to thwart falsehood, even if the criminals disapprove, and trust in the promise that He has made to the practising Muslims, "that He will surely make them to succeed (the present rulers) in the earth even as He caused those who were before them to succeed (others); and that He will surely establish for them their religion which he hath approved for them, and will give them in exchange safety after their fear"(4), "It is a promise of Allah. Allah faileth not his promise"(5), "To help believers is ever incumbent upon us"(6), "Lo! Allah defendeth those who are true"(7).

The promise of Great Britain to the Jews, through its Foreign Minister Balfour, to create a national entity for them on the land of Palestine has encouraged them to resolve and act quickly, and multiply their efforts in order to achieve their ancient hopes. They have done this despite about one hundred million Muslims whereas the number of Jews in the world is no more than a few millions. Is not the promise of Allah to us in terms of company, victory, defence, support, provision, and representation in the land liable to strengthen our ambition, sharpen our determination and fill our hearts with faith in the future. This is faith that it is our turn to be victorious this time, that history is with us not with our enemy, and the followers of Allah are going to defeat the enemy.

Faith in victory is one of the greatest factors of strength. There is no doubt in the value of such factor. The human soul has underestimated faith, and has refused to recognise its right.  Even the past and recent men of war have that the moral attitude has its tangible influence in the realisation of success and victory over the enemy even if he has more provisions and more people.

We achieve this victory thanks to our strong faith that Allah Almighty is capable to glorify his followers, the soldiers of His Religion, the advocates of His Book, and the followers of His Messenger. This happens through all the means He Wills, those that we are aware of and those that we are not, "Allah is not such that aught in the heavens or in the earth escapeth Him"(8).

The book of Allah relates to us the stories of the messengers with their peoples, which fills us with trust that righteousness will certainly win, and that wrong-doing will certainly break. The one who follows righteousness cannot remain weak for ever, and the tyrant cannot always remain strong.  Life is made up of ups and downs and war is a contest but the happy ending favours those who obey Allah.  Haven't you read in the story of Moses : "Lo! Pharaoh exalted himself in the earth and made its people castes. A tribe among them he oppressed, killing their sons and sparing their women. Lo! He was of those who work corruption. And We desired to show favour unto those who were oppressed in the earth, and to make them examples and to make them the inheritors. And to establish them in the earth, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts that which they feared from them"(9).

In execution of the divine will to liberate  the defeated people, Allah sent the saviour of the oppressed, and thus collapsed the throne of Pharaoh, who had said to the people : "I am your supreme God".

 Allah also Willed that such saviour be raised as an infant in the household of the tyrant himself, who had picked him up so that he becomes his enemy and grief. So the matter went on like that, and the Pharaoh's precautions failed, and Allah's Will was executed, "And the fair word of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because of their endurance, and we annihilated (all) that Pharaoh and his folk had done and that they had contrived"(10).

The minority group was victorious over the majority, and the weak vanquished the strong, and Moses defeated Pharaoh, because Moses was not alone in the battle, he was with Allah, so Allah was with him. When Pharaoh and his army had followed him, in order to annihilate him and his army, and Moses and those who had believed with him looked, there was but the ocean in front of them and the enemy behind them. The attitude of Moses was as it is stated in the Qur'an : "And when the two hosts saw each other, those with Moses said : Lo! We are indeed caught. He said : nay verily! For lo! My Lord is with me. He will guide me"(11).

"For lo! My Lord is with me. He will guide me" (12) is an utterance of the believers, it was uttered by Moses, son of Imran.  It resembles the words uttered  by his brother the Prophet Mohammed Ben Abdallah (PBUH) when he was in a cave, and the idolators at its door, and his friend and companion Abu Bakr says in pity : "By Allah! If anybody had looked under his feet he would have seen us", and the Prophet says calmly: "Abu Bakr, What do you think of two whose companion is Allah, grieve not, Allah is with us". 

And the company of Allah to Moses became clearer, so He saved him from the enemy of Allah and his enemy with means that he could not guess, and neither did his enemy : "Then We inspired Moses, saying : Smite the sea with thy staff. And it parted, and each part was as a mountain vast. Then brought We near the others to that place. And We saved Moses and those with Him, every one. And we drowned the others"(13).

As the company of Allah to Mohammed in the cave became clearer, as he moved away from him the bad intention of the idolaters with one of his weakest armies, the eggs of pigeons and the web of a spider : "And lo! The frailest of all houses is the spider's house, if they but knew"(14). Allah is Right when He Says, "If ye help him not, still Allah helped him when those who disbelieve drove him forth, the second of two; when they two were in the cave, when he said unto  his comrade : Grieve not. Lo! Allah is with us. Then Allah caused His peace of reassurance to descend upon him and supported him with hosts ye cannot see, and made the word of those who disbelieved the nethermost, while Allah's Word it was that became the uppermost. Allah is Mighty, Wise" (15).

The believer never experiences despair or loses hope even if he is overwhelmed by disasters and overcome by the powers of evil. He is confident in his God, in himself, in his future and in God's promise to him. The best evidence of that is the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) who went through the darkest crises but always believed in victory as if he could see it with his own eyes.

Al Bukhari quoted Khabab Ben Al Irt saying : I saw the Prophet (PBUH) lying over a coat in the shade of the Kaabah, and attacks of the idolators had intensified, so I said, "Don't you invoke Allah?". He sat down and as his face had become red he said, "There were people in the past who had metal scratching their bodies, whose bones were covered by neither meat nor nerve, but that did not separate them from their religion. They could even have a saw put to their neck which started to cut into two, and that would not separate them from their religion, and Allah would care for this matter, until the rider goes from Sanaa to Hadramaut and would only fear Allah and the wolf for his sheep"(16).

d - The thread of hope never left the heart of the Messenger of Allah (PBUH), and he was not infiltrated by the slightest amount of despair in the future of his message or its victory.  He also had no doubt in the defeat of his enemies while he even was weak and weakened, and while his companions were tortured and chased, or as Allah described them "few and reckoned feeble in the land, and were in fear lest men should extirpate you"(17). Thus how can we weaken, or disunite, or give in to despair, when we are in possession of reasons of strength that our enemies do not have, and will never have.

We are in possession of the strength of the peoples who believe in their religion, and  who would not  accept any alternative that is imported from the east or the west.

We are in possession of the strength of the system that we advocate, that of Islam which was created by the God of humanity for humanity, and which is devoid of all exaggeration or shortcoming, such as witnessed by the systems created by humans which are devoid of divine guidance. 

This is a system for which our own dire need in particular and that of humanity in general is confirmed every day. We are also in possession of the strength of  our struggle and resistance in the Muslim nation. These are stronger than ever during the periods of crisis and catastrophes. We are in possession of faith in the support of Allah Almighty. His support and His promise which never fail. 

Are all these strengths which we possess not greater and stronger than the hurdles that you have mentioned?  Is it fair to mention the difficulties that may hinder us but forget the helping factors.  "So do you have any objections to what I have said my friend?"

I have neither objections nor arguments. In my depths there is something which I have stated earlier. That of the big crises that befall the advocates of Islam, and the hard blows that they receive from here and there. So, is there anybody who hopes that these oppressed, displaced and tortured people will ever recover, that they be victorious, that a system that they advocate or a message that they believe in be adopted by people while they are between the hammer and the anvil every day.

I told my friend that the miseries that you mention are not a sign of weakness or death of the advocates of Islam, but it is evidence of life, movement and strength. The still dead does not hit or hurt, but it takes a living and moving fighter to hit and hurt. Any idea whose advocates are neither  mistreated nor hurt is a weak or dead idea, or its advocates, at least, are uninteresting or dead. These miseries and sufferings are evidence of the liveliness of the principle itself, the principle of Islam, which always offers martyrs in its battles, who water its tree with their blood, and build its glory with their corpses.

These miseries are the most eloquent and greatest monuments of those advocates,  in their capacity as individuals whose souls improve with hardship, and whose hearts are purified with misery. There is a Hadith which states :  "The case of the Muslim who is hit by a catastrophe is the same as that of the piece of iron which we put in the fire, it loses its evil attributes and keeps its noble ones".

For this group these miseries are opportunities to distinguish the good ones from the others, a filter for cleanliness, and a test of the faith, so that Allah can distinguish the evil from the noble ones. Because in the days of wealth and peace the number of advocates increases, and those who seek their own interests and those whose hearts are sick start to crowd around calls. These miseries come to neutralise their evil from the ranks of believers, as they neutralise evil from the hearts of individuals. This is when the truth sayer is distinguished from the liar, and the faithful is distinguished from the hypocrite. "And among mankind is he who worshippeth Allah upon a narrow marge so that if good befalleth him he is content therewith, but if a trial befalleth him, he falleth away utterly.  He loseth both the world and the Hereafter. That is the sheer loss" (18).  "Of mankind is he who saith : We believe in Allah, but, if he be made to suffer for the sake of Allah, he mistaketh the persecution of mankind for Allah's punishment; and then, if victory cometh from thy Lord, will say : Lo! We were with you (all the while). Is not Allah Best Aware of what is in the bosoms of (His) creatures?"(19)

This class of people which worships Allah upon a narrow marge but which construes trials as a punishment from Allah - i.e. they fear that evil befalls them from people as they fear the flames of hellfire - is a class that is no good, and there is no interest in their being Muslims. They will only break the ranks, hold back the others and hinder those who work as Allah Said, "Had they gone forth among you they had added to you naught save trouble and had hurried to and fro among you, seeking to cause sedition among you; and among you there are some who would have listened to them.  Allah is aware of evil-doers"(20).

Among the positive effects of trials, when their fires spread, is that they burn this class, and turns it into ash until the other class matures and ripens.  These trials improve it, and remove from it all cheating or defect, that it might have contracted in the days of plenty and peace.

Among the advantages of trials is that they strengthen the link between the believing advocates of Allah's message. These trials add to them a new element which gathers them and strengthens the ties between them. Thus if faith is the original focal tie, under whose banner they unite and strengthen each other like bricks in a construction, then a crisis is a helping factor which adds strength and depth to this tie. The feeling of a single danger, confrontation with the individual enemy, and the occurrence of a single catastrophe, can remove any gap from among the ranks, and make everybody feel the wholesomeness of the unity and the completeness of the solidarity.

This is the reason why Jamal Eddin Al Afghani (God Bless his soul) said: "It is under pressure and oppression that the dispersed parts concatenate".  Shawqi said : "Catastrophes gather the afflicted". 

Allah tested the Muslims by their defeat  at the Battle of Uhud, and killed seventy of their best including Hamza ben Abdulmuttalib, Mus`ab Ben Umair, Sa`ad Ben Arrabi`, Anas Ben Annuddar, among other heroes of Islam. This catastrophe had a strong effect on the minds of the Muslims, and then Allah revealed about  eighty verses of the Surah named The Family of Imran to provide Muslims with firmness, condolence and guidance.

Ibn Al Qayyim mentions many from among the morals of this trial and its secrets of which the following is but an excerpt : "The Wisdom of Allah and His Rule in His Messengers and their followers has been that they be victorious once and that they be defeated once, but they are the ones who benefit. Had they always been victorious, they would have been joined by Muslims and non-Muslims, and thus we would not be able to distinguish between the truthful and the non-truthful. Had they always been unvictorious, then the purpose of the call and the message would be defeated. Thus the divine wisdom Decided that it would provide it with both in order to distinguish between those who follow and obey them for the sake of Allah and His Message and those who follow them especially for the sake of appearances and victory"(21).

Allah Almighty said :"It is not (the purpose) of Allah to leave you in your present state till He shall separate the wicked from the good. And it is not (the purpose) of Allah to let you know the unseen. But Allah chooseth of His messengers whom He will, (to receive knowledge thereof)"(22).

This means that  Allah would not let believers continue to associate with hypocrites so that He distinguishes between the believers and the hypocrites in the same way as He distinguished between them through the trial of Uhud, "And it is not (the purpose) of Allah to let you know the unseen"(23) which distinguishes between these and those. They are distinguished in His Knowledge and His Absence, but He (Praised be He) Wants to distinguish them in an explicit manner.

This distinction resides in Allah’s revealing the slavery of His allies and His Party in good and bad days and in what they like and what they dislike, and in the case of their victory and in the case of the victory of their enemies. If they prove firmness in their obedience and worship both when they like and they dislike what is happening to them, so they are His true worshippers, and are not like those who worship Allah on the narrow mare of welfare, plenty and ease.

Part of the trial is that He (Praised be He) provided His believing subjects homes in the house of His Generosity, that they could not reach with their own worship, and they could not have reached save with his trial and the crisis that put them through. Thus He also provided them with enough means to reach it through his trial and test. He also made it easy for them to perform good deeds which is part of the means to reach it. 

Another part of the trial is that the soul earns from permanent welfare, victory, wealth a sense of tyranny and confidence to ease, and that is an illness which hinders its effort in its way to Allah, and the Hereafter. If its God, King and owner wants to provide it with His Generosity, He gives it difficulties and trials that bring cure to the sickness that hinders its steady march to Him. Those difficulties and trial are like the doctor who feeds the sick bitter medicine, and cuts the hurting veins in order to extract from him the sicknesses.  Had he been left alone he would have been killed by these sicknesses.

Another part of the trial is that since martyrdom is the highest rank of his allies, and martyrs are the closest of His subjects to Him, and martyrdom is the absolute next rank after truthfulness, and since He likes to have martyrs as His subjects, who pour their blood for the sake of Loving Him and the sake of His Approval and who prefer His Approval and piety over themselves, there is no way to reach this rank except through a thorough consideration of the means leading to it via an attack of the enemy.

Another part of the trial is that if He (Praised be He) wants to defeat His enemies and crush them, He provides them with the reasons to meet their defeat and their death. Among these reasons -after their unbelief - is their wickedness and tyranny, and their exaggeration in mistreating His good subjects, fighting and killing and harming them. That is the way He clears His good subjects from their sins and defects. It is also in this way that His enemies have more reason to be eradicated and killed, and Allah Almighty stated in the Qur'an, "Faint not nor grieve, for ye will overcome them if ye are (indeed) believers. If ye have received a blow, the (disbelieving) people have received a blow the like thereof. These are only the vicissitudes which We cause to follow one another for mankind, to the end that Allah may know those who believe and may choose witnesses from among you, and Allah loveth not wrong-doers.  And that Allah may prove those who believe, and may blight the disbelievers"(24).

In these verses He linked between encouraging them, strengthening their souls, resuscitating their determination and their ambition and the good consolation, and the mentioning of the outstanding wisdom which led to the victory of non-believers over them, thus He said : "If ye have received a blow, the (disbelieving) people have received a blow the like thereof". So you have been made equal in receiving blows and pain, but are distinguished by your hope and reward, as He said :"If ye are suffering, lo! They suffer even as ye suffer and ye hope from Allah that for which they cannot hope"(25). So, how can you become meek and weaken at times of sadness and pain when they experienced that for the sake of Satan  and you experienced that for My sake and the pursuit of My Approval.

And He mentioned another wisdom concerning what they experienced on that day : that is the purification of those who believe, i.e. their cleansing and ridding of their sins and the defects of their souls.

He also cleansed and rid them of the hypocrites, and thus they could be distinguished from them. Thus, they achieved two purifications, one from themselves and one from those who at  first seemed to be of them and then turned to be their enemies.

And He mentioned another wisdom: annihilating the unbelievers through their own tyranny and wickedness. He denied them the belief that they could enter paradise without fighting for His sake, and without enduring the harm of His enemies. This is prohibited since He denies it to whoever thinks it or relies upon it and thus He said : "Or deemed ye that ye would enter paradise while yet Allah knoweth not those of you who really strive, nor knoweth those (of you) who are steadfast?"(26). In other words, when that comes from you and He Knows it, and it is the case that if it happens He knows it. Thus He would recompense you with paradise, and the recompense would be based upon known facts not simply upon absolute knowledge. Allah does not recompense His subjects only on the basis of His absolute knowledge of  them without the occurrence of what He Knows.

This Nation Will Not Die

Al Ummah, the Arabic word for nation, is a word that is made definite with “ Al” al `ahdiyya (known, familiar) as the scholars of Arabic say. It refers to something that is familiar to the mind, drawn in the mind and sculpted in the heart.

It is the nation that the Muslim knows no second to, he belongs to it, is proud of it and it is for the sake of its permanence and glory that he fights. This is the nation of Islam.

It is the only nation that believes in the Same and One God, He is Allah Almighty, it believes in one Book, it is the Glorious Qur'an, it believes in one Messenger, it is Mohammed (PBUH), and five times a day it faces the same direction, that of the Kaa'bah, the Holy Mosque of Allah.

It is made up of peoples and tribes in countries and regions and in spite of that it remains one single nation, is united by faith, and linked  by Islamic law.  Its inclination and tastes are united by Islamic values and literature. It has also lived a united history in its victories and crises and has shared the same present with its pains and hopes.

Thus we cannot say 'Islamic Nations' but we can say 'Islamic Peoples' of the same nation, whom Allah Almighty addressed in the following manner, "And lo! This your religion is one religion and I am your Lord, so keep your duty unto Me"(27).

It is one nation in its purpose and direction.

It is one nation in its ideas and concepts.

It is one nation in feelings and sensitivities.

 The Prophet (PBUH) described its unity with the image of the body, which if one of its members is ailing, in response the rest of the body suffers from insomnia and fever. It is a nation which is distinguished by its values and special characteristics.  One of its characteristics is that it is a divine nation. 

It did not emerge by accident. It was no accident that it was located in the same region, and related to a single race, as is the case of some nations. It did not arise by the simple wish of some individual, or the wish of a party, a social class, a revolutionary individual or an elected council.  It is the creation of Allah for the purpose of spreading His message in the world as He (Praised be He) said : "Thus We have appointed you a middle nation"(28).

It is Allah Who Made it in that way and for that purpose, so that it plays its role towards humanity.

Distinguished characteristics

Amongst its characteristics we find what the noble verse has referred to as 'middleness'. It is a 'middle' nation in everything, in its concepts and beliefs, in worship and piety, in its values and morals, in its acts and behaviour, in legislation and organisation, in politics and economics, in all its relations be they internal or external.  It does not neglect matter for the sake of the soul and does not neglect the soul for the sake of the matter. It does not give so much importance to the individual that he predominates over society and does not give so much importance to the society so that it predominates over the individual. It gives each party its share, and requires from it its duty without coercion or loss, as Allah Almighty Stated, "That ye exceed not the measure, but observe the measure strictly, nor fall short thereof"(29).

It is a nation with a universal message, it is not a national or regional entity, it was put by Allah in a position of a tutor to the whole humanity, and guide for all people. That is the meaning of His word (Praised be He) : "Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that ye may be witnesses against mankind"(30). and His Saying (Majesty to Him), "Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allah"(31).

This nation did not grow on its own like a parasitic plant, as it is referred to by some people. But it was planted by a Planter, and it was created by a Creator, He is Allah (Glory to His Majesty). He did not Create it so that it remains on its own or within its borders, or for special materialistic interests, but created it "for people", all people, black and  white, Arabs and non-Arabs, poor and rich. It is a nation that is sent for all world inhabitants, in the same way as its Book was revealed as a guide to all world dwellers, and its Prophet was sent as a blessing to all people. The mission of this nation is a mission of blessing and welfare not a mission of hardship and difficulty.

The Prophet (PBUH) addressed the nation saying, "You were sent to ease matters, not to make them difficult". The Companions seized this meaning, and understood that they were sent to guide the nations of the earth.  One of these companions - Rab`i Ben `Amer, in his confrontation with Rostom, the Persian Commander - expressed this notion and delimited the function of the nation very eloquently and concisely when he said : "Allah has sent us to draw people from the worship of people to the worship of Allah alone, and from the narrowness of the world to its spaciousness, and from the tyranny of religions to the justice of Islam".

An immortal nation

Among the characteristics of this nation, is that it is an immortal nation, by the immortality of its message and its Book, it will remain as long as there is night and day, it will be as eternal as there is in the world a Qur'an that is recited. If the Qur'an is preserved by the Will of Allah, then the nation of the Qur'an will remain as long as the Qur'an remains.

Allah Almighty has promised His Noble Messenger that He will not annihilate his nation as he did earlier nations through divine punishments, and universal catastrophes such as floods, sinking into the ground, transformation, and cold winds.

He also promised the Prophet that He will not send to it an enemy apart from itself, to extirpate and unroot it, and that parts of it destroy other parts, and a part of them experiences the evil of the other part. 

He also Promised the prophet that He will preserve his nation from the feeling of extirpation of its roots. He Promised him to preserve it from moral annihilation through gathering for the sake of  ill-doing. In the Hadith it is said "Allah Will not Let my nation gather around for the sake of ill-doing". 

The secret behind that is that it is the last of the nations, in the same way as its Prophet is the last Prophet, and its Book is the last Book. Thus, there is no messenger after Mohammed, and there is no book after the Qur'an, and there is no jurisprudence after Islam, and there is no other nation after the nation of Islam.

If any nation, before Islam, gathered around for the sake of ill-doing, there was no danger for humanity to result from that because these were limited nations in terms of time and space, in opposition to the nation of Islam. It is a nation which is characterised by universality and eternity, and that makes of it a nation which extends in terms of space covering the east and the west. It also extends in terms of time since it will last until Doomsday. So if it is all based on ill-doing, the whole humanity will be based on ill -doing, without any hope of change, since there is nobody in it or after it that will spread the guidance of Allah to it. 

That is the purpose of the divine solicitude, that within this nation there will remain a group who will live and die for the sake of truth(fullness). Such a group is the same as the lifeboat of the army of liberation which maintains the balance, and keeps the construction together lest it would collapse.  It is in this context that the Qur'an states, "And of those whom We created there is a nation who guide with the Truth and establish justice therewith"(32).

The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said in the same context, "A group from my nation will remain guarding the truth without being disturbed by those who contradict them, until Allah's command comes to confirm them".

This group is the light of those who travel by night, the guide of the uncertain, and the strength of the weak. They are the ones who serve as proof to Allah, and preach for Allah faithfully, and spread the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anybody but Allah.

They are the strangers, who remain sound when other people become evil, they also repair what other people have marred. They are "the safe group" within the mortals, they are the ones who find the right path when others stray from it. They are the ones who revive the values and principles of the Prophet and his Companions. Allah's Blessing for the people is that there is always among them  such a chosen group which is mandated by Allah Almighty to teach those who do not know, and guide those who err, and remind those who forget, since reminding is good for the believers, "But if these disbelieve therein, then indeed We shall entrust it to a people who will not be disbelievers therein"(33).

Allah Bless Ahmed Shawqi for saying :

He Who Created Truth and made it bitter

Did not Deny any of its generation the virtue of truth

One of the proofs of immortality for this nation is that catastrophes and crises do not annihilate it or kill it, but revive in it the spirit of resistance and challenge. So when the worst catastrophes befall it you see that it becomes at its strongest, and its twig becomes strongest, until people start to think things about it, and consider that it has become part of the dead. Then, in a short period it can overcome the factors of weakness that surround it, with the spirit of the strength that is inherent in it. As a result, those who are observing it from afar or from close up see a victory after a break down, and reunion after dispersion and a life and movement after inertia which resembles death.

1 - We have seen that at the dawn of Islam during the wa