Open Letter to Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah

 بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

How Can We, the Heirs of Hussein (RAA), Support Yazid?

Dearest Sayyed Hassan Nasrullah,

Allahuma Salla llahu ala Muhammad wa Ahlihi.  May Allah SWT guide all of us in this time of fitnah.  

During the month of Muharram, we remember the sacrifices of Imam Hussein (RAA) and the family of Ali ibn Abi Talib (KW).  Many feel great remorse over the actions of some in abandoning the Imam and leaving him to be slaughtered by the forces of Yazid, the tyrant of his time. 

Just a few months ago, in April, we remembered the sacrifice of one of the sons of Hussein (RAA), Shaheed Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (QS).  Our Shaheed al-Khamis was brutally murdered at the hands of a tyrant of our time, Saddam Hussein. 

Let us review a little bit of the life of this great scholar, philosopher and shaheed. He grew up in an Iraq, ruled by a monarchy imposed by colonial powers.  In his youth, he strove tirelessly to ensure that the people would have a government in accordance with the teachings of Islam - Wilayat al-Ummah.  His vision of an Islamic Democracy has yet to come to fruition.  Instead, across the Middle East, we still have rule by tyrants.  

Finally the people of the Middle East have begun to speak out against this oppression.  The Arab Spring has brought hope to a whole generation of shabaab who are tired of all the "old" thinking.  They want a life without fear and fitnah. They have more in common with other youth around the globe, than with their elders, who are too bogged down in tribal thinking, sectarian boundaries, and egotistical maneuvers.  Our youth don't care about Sunni or Shia, Arab or non-Arab, thisy or thaty.  They are tired of the nonsense and immature, childish behavior.

Sayyed Al Sadr was one of the first voices in Islam to call for the use of aql or reason, and of rational, critical thinking about the issues of the day.  In Iqtisaduna, he also states that any solutions to current problems have to arise naturally from the soil of the Middle East, from the people themselves.  

In both Falsafatuna and Iqtisaduna, he embarks on the most vigorous and effective critique of the dogma and philosophy of socialism and communism.  His logical arguments against dialectic materialism and proofs of Islamic positions are unparalleled and no one has successfully countered them.

We should not need to point out to one who studied with Shaheed al-Sadr, that the Baath party of both Iraq and Syria adheres to socialist/communist dogma and dialectic materialism.  The party of Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashaar, is a socialist party.  

Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union supported the Baath party in Syria, and Russia still supports al-Assad.  President Putin is now in talks with President Obama, and has expressed his continued support of al-Assad.

Need I remind you what fellow Baath party member, Saddam Hussein did to the founders of religious parties, especially the Da'wah party.  How many were killed?  What happened to Abdul Sahib Dekhail?  The Baath party killed him by slowly immersing his in acid.

And Shaheeduna?  And his beloved sister, Amina?  You knew them Sayyed Hassan...

Now this Yazid of our time is butchering his fellow Syrians.  He may have been a supporter of Hezbullah in the past, but that is not a reason to support one who is committing hiraba and evil against Muslims now.  He kills anyone, Sunni, Shia, non-religious people.  And now he is subjecting his own people to chemical weapons.

The people of Syria deserve to be able to participate in a free Islamic-compliant society.  Shaheed al Sadr put forth the concepts of Wilayat al-Ummah, with an independant judiciary of the scholars and fuqaha', and the ever-watchful witness of the Ahl al Bayt wa shi'atum.We have an opportunity to rebuild both Iraq and Syria upon this foundation.

We who have taken on the great weight of being a witness unto mankind, the mantle we put on when we accept Islam as our Deen, must speak out against any form of oppression and dhulm.  

No human is completely evil.  We are human.  The test is when we become aware that another path is preferable, what do we do?  Do we stubbornly refuse to change, and hence lose all guidance, or do we seek to be guided, show our submission to Allah SWT and turn toward the path to which he is guiding us?

How many Abdul Sahib Dekhails died today?  How many Shaheed al-Sadrs?  How many Amina bint al Hudas?  How many did you kill?

May Allah SWT guide us all.

M Ali Sadiqi

The Plight of Ethiopian Muslims

The First Hijrah in Islam

Over fourteen hundred years ago, a just king took in a group of poor immigrants seeking asylum in his country.  They came seeking religious freedom.  And that just king, the Negasi, granted them a place of peace. 

Our beloved Prophet SAW prayed the janaza prayer, salat al-ghayb, over this just king.  We fondly remember that king and his people, who took in some of the greatest Sahabi -  Uthman, Jaafar, even the Prophet's daughter, Ruqayyah (RAA).  We remember the accusation of Amr ibn al-As regarding the poor asylum seekers.  He claimed they were the ones creating fitnah in society.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  They wanted nothing more than to freely worship the One God - Allah, and when that became impossible, instead of causing fitnah or tumult, they sought to reside somewhere else, where they could be free.  

Today, the current government has forgotten this legacy and is promoting a ideology of intolerance and fitnah.  A government, of a country once proudly committed to religious freedom and justice, is now compelling those it once sheltered to follow its handpicked ideology of hate and tumult.

The Ahbash movement was founded as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects in the 1930's by Ahmad al-Ajuz, in Lebanon.  "According to Gary Gambill the AICP arrived in Lebanon in the 1950s, where he says "they blended Sunni and Shi'a theology with Sufi spiritualism into a doctrinal eclecticism that preached nonviolence and political quietism".^[1] The AICP remained without a leader until the 1980s when Abdullah al-Harari became the nominal head of the organization."  (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahbash, accessed 6/11/2013).  

Although the Ahbash claim they are tolerate and preach moderation, their actions reveal that they are takfiri.  

They accuse the group of an excessive use of Takfir - the act of declaring another Muslim an unbeliever - and thereby of the provocation of inner-Islamic tensions. According to Tariq Ramadan, Al-Ahbash "adherents carry on a permanent double discourse: to Western questioners, they claim to support the emancipation of women and laicism to oppose the "fundamentalists" (all the issues they know are sensitive and useful for getting them recognized). However, within Muslim communities, they carry on an extremely intransigent and closed discourse, usually treating most of the principal Muslim ulama as kuffar *by which they mean "unbeliever,' "impious people"). They base their teachings on interpretations recognized as deviant by all other schools of thought and all other scholars of note (for example, their singular understanding of the meaning of the name of God, or their assertion that the Qur'anic Text was interpreted by the angel Gabriel, or the practice of praying to the dead). Their approach on very specific points of doctrine (such as those we have referred to) is hostile and usually violent."^{[1][21]  (Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahbash Accessed 06/11/2013).}

Allah has made it clear that to create fitnah in the Muslim community is a grave sin.  Fitnah akbar min al qatl, fitnah is worse than killing.  If Allah SWT has reserved the punishment of one who kills a Muslim to Himself because it is such a grave matter, how much more so something greater than killing.  Fitnah is worse than killing.

As Muslims, we must support our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia.  Gangs of Ahbash are going house to house, forcibly converting people to their brand of religion.  They are fighting with well-respected leaders and Ulema.  The government has rounded up those that oppose this brand of hate-mongering and subjected them to torture and prison.  The situation is quickly deteriorating.
  

Any form of takfiri dogma is in opposition to the true teachings of Islam.  To label someone a kafir just because he or she holds a different minhaj or methodology in Islam is haram.  Ikhtilaf is permissible and even a blessing in this Deen of Islam.  Fitnah or tumult is not.  It is haram and it is one of the worst forms of dhulm or oppression.  Whether it is from the Ultra-Salafi position or from the Ahbash position, this takfiri attitude is not Islamic.

Allah SWT says:

La ikraha fi Deen.   There is no Compulsion in Religion!!

This Takfiri dogma can only benefit the enemies of Islam who seek to destroy it by creating divisions amongst us.  They rejoice when they see us fighting amongst ourselves and they seek to exploit every means possible to divide us.

They are the friends of Shaytan, and they spread their hate and poison everywhere.  Any position that seeks to divide Muslims and spread hate is from Shaytan, and any position that seeks to unify us, is from Allah SWT.

So whose side are you on?  The Party of Shaytan or the Party of Allah?  

If you are on the side of Allah, then Stop the Fitnah!!! Stop supporting these takfiri elements and support those who are seeking unity and peace.

Islam is not a pacifistic path.  We are called to strive against oppression and injustice.  Let's really do so, and instead of oppressing our fellow Muslims, let us really support one another in our freedom of belief.  We may not agree in everything, but let us respect one another as fellow Muslims and treat one another in the best of manners.  

When faced with a position on anything, consider who will benefit most for such a position.  if that position comes from Shaytan, you will know, inshaa llah, because you will be able to see how only Islam's enemies will benefit from it, and how that position will, in fact, make Muslims look bad somehow.  

Think before you react!! Allah SWT gave you a brain, an aql; use it.  Anyone that says you should just blindly follow anything is an enemy of yours, or humanity, and a friend of Shaytan, because Allah SWT tells you He wants you to think, and clearly Shaytan does not want you to do so.

Let us support our Ethiopian brothers and sisters by putting pressure on International trade bodies to investigate the human rights abuses occurring today.  Ethiopia is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is seeking admission to the WTO.  Write letters to these organizations asking them to investigate the allegations of human rights abuses.  And inform your friends, Muslim and non-Muslim alike about the lack of freedom of religion in Ethiopia today.  

This image says it all.  All people of faith are under attack today.  We ask Allah SWT to guide us all and give us victory against the forces of our old enemy, Shaytan.