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.

Religious Freedom in Islam

 There is No Compulsion in Religion

Allah SWT says in the Qur’an a;-Hakim:

Al-Baqara 2:256

There is no compulsion
In religion: Truth stands out
Clear from Error: whoever
Rejects Evil and believes
In God hath grasped
The most trustworthy
Hand-hold, that never breaks.
And God heareth
And knoweth all things.

This Deen of Islam is built on three qawa’id, three fundamental principles:  Freedom, Equal Dignity and Justice.

And the first of these is Freedom.  What is Freedom?  How do we have freedom, when Allah SWT is all powerful, all knowing, when Allah SWT has Qadaa wa Qadar?  Some feel that because Allah has the ultimate dominion and control over the universe, that we as humans, have no real freedom.  They hold that Allah’s Qadaa and Qadar means that we have no free will and that our entire lives are determined and cannot be changed. 

One must then ask how is this position any different from that of atheists and materialists.  According to the scientific view of causation, everything is determined by the events proceeding.  Nothing is random, but is caused by something else.  Even in Chaos Theory, where it is recognized that conditions at any given moment are so complex as to make it impossible to predict the outcome of events with any certainty, physicist still hold that every minute event is caused – the classic Butterfly Effect, where a butterfly fluttering its wings in India causes weather in North America. 

 Islam and Causation

Certainly, Islam does not deny causation.  Allah SWT is the ultimate cause of everything.  According to the law of finitude, qanun an-nihaaya, there cannot be an infinite regression of causes.  There must be a first cause.  This first cause is Allah.  All things require a cause, except that first cause.  Allah SWT confirms this:

Allahu Samad

Allah is the self sufficient upon which all depends. 

Sayed Muhammad Baqir al Sadr writes;

“So, since every part of it requires a cause, the chain as a whole requires a cause.  The question “Why does it exist?” extends as far as the parts of the chain extend.  No decisive answer to this question is possible, as long as the succession in the chain does not lead to a part that is self-sufficient and not requiring a cause, so that this part can put an end to the succession and give the chain it s first eternal beginning.”   (Falsafatuna p. 235).

“Put differently, if the chain of causes involves a cause not subject to the principle of causality and not in need of a cause, this would be the first cause which constitutes the beginning of the chain, since this cause does not proceed from another cause prior to it.  If every existent in the chain, with no exception, requires a cause in accordance with the principle of causality, then all existents would require a cause.  But the question remains as to why this is so.  This necessary question is concerned with existence in general.  We cannot rid ourselves of it except by supposing a first cause free from the principle of causality.”  Id.

So, this first cause is Allah and must be Allah, for only He is not subject to the law of causation.  And He is the cause of everything, including our actions.  However, one must ask, if our actions are caused, then how can we be responsible for them?  Allah SWT makes it clear in the Qur’an that we are not responsible for the actions of others.

2:286. On no soul doth God
Place a burden greater
Than it can bear.
It gets every good that it earns,
And it suffers every ill that if earns.
(Pray:) "Our Lord!
Condemn us not
If we forget or fall
Into error; our Lord!
Lay not on us a burden
Like that which Thou
Didst lay on those before us;
Our Lord! lay not on us
A burden greater than we
Have strength to bear.
Blot out our sins,
And grant us forgiveness,
Have mercy on us.
Thou art our Protector;
Help us against those
Who stand against Faith"

35:18. Nor can a bearer of burdens
Bear another's burden.
If one heavily laden should
Call another to (bear) his load,
Not the least portion of it
Can be carried (by the other),
Even though he be nearly
Related. Thou canst but
Admonish such as fear
Their Lord unseen
And establish regular Prayer.
And whoever purifies himself
Does so for the benefit
Of his own soul; and
The destination (of all)
Is to God.

---

74: 38. Every soul will be (held)
In pledge for its deeds.

41:46. Whoever works righteousness
Benefits his own soul;
Whoever works evil, it is
Against his own soul:
Nor is thy Lord ever
Unjust (in the least)
To His servants.

As these last ayaat tells us, we are, however, held responsible for our own deeds.  A person can only be held responsible for actions he does of his own free will.  No one can be held accountable for things he is forced to do.  So if Allah SWT is the cause of all, how can we be responsible for our actions?  Allah SWT is clearly telling us we are held to account, and that He is never unjust.  However, we can only be held accountable for something that we ourselves caused, for how can a being be responsible unless he is the cause. 

The Greek philosopher Aristotle identified four types of causes:  the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient or moving cause and the final cause.  For example, a chair’s material cause is the wood it is made of; its formal cause is the basic design of a chair, its efficient cause is the carpenter that made it, and the final cause is the aim or purpose served by the chair, ie to serve as a seat.

These are the causes of things, but causes also have effects. 

In the case of human action, we are the efficient cause of our own actions, but Allah SWT is the one who controls the effect.  So, we can commit evil, but Allah SWT controls the effects, and can turn anything we do to good.

25:70. Unless he repents, believes,
And works righteous deeds,
For God will change
The evil of such persons
Into good, and God is
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful,

 Freedom of Intention

Thus we see that Allah SWT has given mankind freedom of intention.  We may not have freedom of action, but we do have freedom of intention.  Imam Bukhaari records as his first hadith:

On the authority of the Commander of the Faithful Abu Hafs Umar ibn al-Khattaab who said: I heard the Messanger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) saying,“Surely, all actions are but driven by intentions and, verily, every man shall have but that which he intended. Thus, he whose migration was for Allah and His Messanger, then his migration was for Allah and His Messanger; and he whose migration was to achieve some wordly benefit or to take a woman in marriage, his migration was for that which he migrated.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

May Allah SWT grant us forgiveness for our wrong intentions and guide us to the best of actions.

O believers, have taqwa of Allah and always speak the truth.  He will direct you to do righteous deeds and will forgive you your sins.  And whosoever obeys Allah and His messenger has indeed achieved a great achievement. 

As human beings, we have freedom of intention and we are personally responsible for our actions.  This freedom is essential.  Allah SWT did not give us this freedom so we could hang ourselves.  He gave it to us as a great blessing.  He gave it to us so we could freely, of our own free will, turn to Him in surrender, in Islam.  And so even if the results of our intentions, our actions, are under the dominion of Allah, our freedom of intention remains inviolate.  And this freedom of intention necessarily implies that we have complete freedom of belief.  Religious freedom is essential in an Islamic society.  All human beings have the right to turn to Allah out of their own free will, and all have the right to hear the message of truth brought by Allah’s prophets. 
Freedom of thought and belief are guaranteed in Islam.  They are inviolate.  All must be able to hear the truth, and this also means they have the right to hear the lies as well.  We have the freedom to chose to surrender to Allah, and the freedom not to do so.  The Prophet SAW did not restrict or restrain the speech of any person of other faiths in Medina.  The Dustur of Medina was among all the peoples there, regardless of religion.  What was guaranteed in Medina was the freedom to preach the truth and to follow it.  

Freedom of Belief and Freedom of Speech

One might ask then about freedom of speech.  People do have the right to speak the truth or not to do so.  But there are limits where the speech becomes so disruptive to human society and causes tumult and oppression, then it must be restrained.  To allow people to slander one another, to speak in hateful and demeaning ways to one other, to incite to violence and hatred, to create fitnah in society is not tolerable.  Fitnah akbar min al qatl – fitnah is worse than killing for it kills whole societies.  

If we think of some of the “speech” that has been passed off as art in America that has slandered and denigrated prophets, especially Isa AS, we should be appalled.  First, Isa AS is our prophet too. Secondly, why do we accept slander of a person who is not here to defend himself, just because he was a public person and so is used as a symbol of a religion.  If you do not like a religion, say so and say why, but why is necessary to slander and denigrate a person to do so.  It is not art or speech, it is merely nonsense and disrespect of another human being.  Freedom includes freedom from such disrespect, ridicule and denigration.   







25:63 The (faithful) slaves of the Beneficent are they who walk upon the earth modestly, and when the ignorant ones address them answer: Peace;

64 And who spend the night before their Lord, prostrate and standing,

65 And who say: Our Lord! Avert from us the doom of hell; lo! the doom thereof is anguish;

True freedom comes from surrender to Allah SWT.  This would seem to be a contradiction.  We come to freedom through surrendering.  But we do.  When we freely intend to do His Will, we create a link between ourselves and Allah SWT that is unshakable.  

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "Allah said, 'I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of Mine. And the most beloved things with which My slave comes nearer to Me, is what I have enjoined upon him; and My slave keeps on coming closer to Me through performing Nawafil (praying or doing extra deeds besides what is obligatory) till I love him, so I become his sense of hearing with which he hears, and his sense of sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he grips, and his leg with which he walks; and if he asks Me, I will give him, and if he asks My protection (Refuge), I will protect him; (i.e. give him My Refuge) and I do not hesitate to do anything as I hesitate to take the soul of the believer, for he hates death, and I hate to disappoint him." (Book #76, Hadith #509) [Bukhari]

There is no god but Allah, and He can prove it! Part III

Does Allah SWT Exist?

What is it to exist?  The Arabic word, “Kawn” implies being created.  If existence depends on being within Creation, then certainly, Allah cannot be said to “exist.” 

When we say, “Allah exists,” what kind of statement are we making?  As we have mentioned, there are two forms of perception, tasawir/conceptions and tasdiq/assertions.  Tasawir are either possible or impossible.  Assertions are of two kinds as well, factual and analytical.  Although the logical positivist philosophers contend that factual statements can be verified, and hence rendered conclusively established by experience, others such as Alfred Ayer, the English logical empiricist, held that verifiability means only that a statement is rendered more probable by experience.  This is true because factual assertions are verified through induction and as we have seen in Part I, induction only renders statements probable, not necessarily actual.  “Induction is a probable inference.”  (Our Philosophy, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Trans. Shams Inati, p. 76, footnote 22).  Such probable statements have potential.  In our swan example, swans have a strong potential to be white based on the probability statistics generated by our experiential observations and use of inductive logic.

Analytic statements, on the other hand, are verified through deductive logic, and hence are proven to be either true or false.  If they are proven true, then they are necessarily actual, and if they are proven false, then they have no actuality. 

So, when we say, “Allah exists,” we are making a factual statement, subject to induction.  Unlike swans, though, there is only one Allah, so how do we make the multiple observations necessary to generate an inductive proof?  Moreover, such a proof would only generate potential, not actuality.  If Allah exists, then surely His existence must be necessary. “Allahu as-Samad.”  “Allah is the self-sufficient upon which all depends.” (Surah al-Ikhlas).  The very definition of Allah as the Being that is most primary, the First Principle, the Unmoved Mover, the Source of All, means that if anything exists, then He must.  So again, this Ontological Proof is circular.  If the definition of the tasawir, Allah, includes His existence, then of course, He must exist. 

So can we prove the existence of Allah?  Allah Himself does not attempt to do so.  First, He makes it clear that Allah – the One most Worthy of Worship – is a tasawir, and tasawir are either possible or impossible.  So is Allah a possible being?  We have explored the idea of infinity and found that infinity is impossible, but Allah is not impossible.  He is Witr – Singular – and Samad – the self-sufficient upon which all depends.  Certainly, Allah as a tasawir, as the first tasawir, the primary tasawir upon which all else is based and upon which all else depends, which is singular, without beginning nor end, which is of no duration or extent; is possible. 

Then the next question is not “Does God exist?” but “Is Allah actual?” 

Allah SWT Himself answers this in the Qur’an through inductive means. 

1 By the sun and his brightness,

2 And the moon when she followeth him,

3 And the day when it revealeth him,

4 And the night when it enshroudeth him,

5 And the heaven and Him Who built it,

6 And the earth and Him Who spread it,

7 And a soul and Him Who perfected it

8 And inspired it (with conscience of) what is wrong for it and (what is) right for it. (Surah Al-Shams)

Here Allah SWT swears by the things He has created that He is actual.  Because there is a sun, moon, day, night, heaven and earth, and soul, then there must exist the One who Created them.  Over and over in the Qur’an, Allah used such inductive proofs for His actuality.

1 The Beneficent

2 Hath made known the Qur'an.

3 He hath created man.

4 He hath taught him utterance.

5 The sun and the moon are made punctual.

6 The stars and the trees adore.

7 And the sky He hath uplifted; and He hath set the measure,

8 That ye exceed not the measure,

9 But observe the measure strictly, nor fall short thereof.

10 And the earth hath He appointed for (His) creatures,

11 Wherein are fruit and sheathed palm-trees,

12 Husked grain and scented herb.

13 Which is it, of the favours of your Lord, that ye deny ?  (Surah Al-Rahman)

Here again, Allah recounts all of His favours.  Which of them can we deny?  All of them are inductive evidence of His actuality.

However, as we have noted, induction only produces probability, degree of potentiality.  If Allah is actual, He must be fully actual, the most actual, with no degree of potential.  He must be completely actual.  For this, we must turn to deduction.  Only a deductive proof can bring us such a degree of necessary actuality.

Is Allah SWT Actual?

And for this, we turn to our great teacher, Shaheed Sayyed Muhammad Baqir Al Sadr.  Hidden in his book refuting dialectic materialism and socialism, is a gem.  Embedded in his discussion of Matter and God, he states a proof for the necessity of the actuality of God.  Without rehashing his entire work at this time, we start with the conclusions of modern physics regarding the substance of the universe.  Scientists agree that the original matter of the world is one substance.  All qualities of this matter (including extension and duration) are accidental to this primary matter.  For example, fluidity, vaporousness, solidity, are qualities that can be removed from the underlying substance.  If they can be removed, then they are not essential.

We also hold that matter is divisible into elements – the periodic table.  And that matter is made up of particles such as atoms.  However, even these qualities are not essential.  For example, light behaves as both a particle and as a wave.  Even the attribute of physicality is not essential. 

This last point is very important.  Unlike Descartes, who held that there are two substances, physical and mental, Materialists who hold that there is only physical substance, and Idealists, like Berkeley, who hold there is only mental substance, Baqir al Sadr held that there is only one substance and that physicality and mentality are merely attributes of one substance.  The mental or non-physical is merely a higher quality, not a distinctly different quality.  So Baqir al Sadr is not a minimal attribute dualist or dual-aspect theorist.  He says there is only one substance, and physical and mental are merely different attributes among many attributes. 

In answer to materialism, Shaheed al Sadr then states that singular matter could not be the source of multiple attributes.  In fact, materiality itself is an accident, so how could it produce other attributes?  The substance of the universe is merely clay.  Something else has to give it attributes and qualities. Something else has to mold it.

“Empirical and scientific experiments have shown that all the qualities, developments and varieties of primary matter are not essential; rather, they are accidental.”  (Our Philosophy, p. 246).  “Similarly, the variation and difference in the qualities of the common matter also reveal a cause beyond matter.  The result of this is that the efficient cause of world is other than the material cause of the world.  In other words, the cause of the world is different from its raw matter that all things share.”  (Id). 

Here, Shaheed al-Sadr has shown that the essential cause of the world must be of necessity actual.  Because we observe qualities, and we observe physical matter, and even physicality is an accident, then whatever is the essential cause must be actual, and it must be actual of necessity.  And the cause of these attributes must be something other than this one substance of the universe.  And the only thing that this could be is Allah, SWT.