Imam Hussain's (as) Opposition
Even though the events of the past few weeks have not shown any respite concerning the deliberate pre-meditated antagonism of Muslim public opinion in the world, we will continue to develop the ideas that we are attempting to develop pertaining to the early generations of Muslims so that we may, in a sense, fulfill Allahs words when He says
So that the course of the criminals becomes clear. (Surah Al-An'aam verse 55)
We have been exercising our minds in the past months on some of our trials and errors in our early history, at some of our attempts at doing what is right and some of our failures at doing what is right. We have a sense that early on in the unfolding 1st chapters of our history, those who were responsible for that political authority tried to carry their responsibilities in the general direction that they understood from Allahs Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam). Then, we realized that a break from that model occurred when the Muslims experienced the 1st political deviation represented by the kingdom of Umayyah or the dynasty of Bani Umayyah. We tried to reconstruct the political flavor of the time. We spoke about individuals who were legitimate political Islamic dissidents; we spoke about Islamic movements and trends that constituted an Islamic opposition to the monarchy that imposed itself on the Muslim public. Now, we will speak, about something that is lost on almost all Muslims- in the climate of Islamic legitimate political opposition- an issue that somehow during the course of time has been smothered- these words have to gel together in our collective mind... Very few Muslims surface nowadays with a robust understanding that Muslims had within their experience, history and background legitimate Islamic political opposition. If we understand it correctly, this is a contribution to Islamic opposition that we have in our time, in our world today, there is Islamic opposition. We can solidify this opposition if we try to enhance our understanding of it. We go back to the climate of the time when this legitimate Islamic political opposition took place and when it was represented by individuals, parties and movements and within the variety of this opposition, we pick up in this khutbah on the moment or trend of opposition that was represented by Al-Imam Al-Husein (radi Allahu anhu). Speaking about this issue runs the risk of being classified one way or the other. There has been, built into Islamic traditions and cultures a stereotypical approach to this whole issue. There has been some type of cultural polarization that has been working its way for so long, that if a person wants to look at this issue, inevitably this type of frigid mind will try to classify that person one way or another. Rest assured- we don't come from that type of cultural polarization or classification, so our attempt to deal with this issue may not fit comfortably with those who have inherited centuries of stereotypical accusations.
We know that Husein has made a political imprint in Islamic history, and it should be in the course of human struggle, by belonging to the clear vision that his father (radi Allahu anhu) and his grandfather had- which means that in the climate of the time, within the Umawi kingdom, his opposition was principled, moral and without extremes. Of course, we can't develop a bibliographic type of coverage of his lifetime in a khutbah, but we can encounter him carrying the mantle of Islamic opposition when there were trends of people and underground activity against the Umawi dynastic kingdom. Remember, we spoke about those who were called Al-Khawarij or Al-Haruriyyah or Al-Qurrah or Al-Muhakeemah- all of these words refer to internal Islamic dynamics that gave freedom to an opposition to political deviation represented by Muawiya and those who were to become kings after him. If you can recall, Ali had given the Muslims enough freedom of conscience, expression and movement that his freedom made it possible for his opponents to eventually succeed in assassinating him and fail to succeed in assassinating his two rivals, ie. Muawiya and Amr ibn Al-Aas.
Imam Hussain's (as) Opposition
Imam Husein AS.gif in Mecca
Now, Husein no longer has his father, Ali, who was a visionary in his opposition, but at the same time had to be held to his own constituents. This is not a person who is an angel living in heaven- this is a responsible Muslim who is struggling on earth. Husein, having the knowledge of what led to the time that he himself had to carry the mantle of this opposition. He was in Al-Medinah and he leaves Al-Medinah and goes to Makkah. We tried to fill you in on this information, if we were intellectually responsible, the 1st thing we would ask ourselves is why did Husein go from Al-Medinah to Makkah?" There were other options here. He could have gone from Al-Medinah to Al-Kufa, or to Southern Iraq, where we know that from the previous year, there is a potential for a consolidation of the opposition there. He could have gone, conceivably, to areas outside of Muslim territory. He could have gone to Yemen where there was no strong grip of the authority there. He could have gone to Al-Habasha, where Allahs Prophet sent the 1st Muslims for political respite or an air of freedom. He went to Makkah where he stayed for four months. This is our understanding of it and it invites the larger Muslim mind also to try to understand it- we know that before this, even though Allahs Prophets jihad of 23 years sought to have Makkah itself as the capital of the Muslims, but never was Makkah to be the political capital of the Muslims because of the details that we covered in the previous khutbahs. We hope that you understand why this took place because this is very important to understand why these events are happening. Husein left Al-Medinah and went to Makkah because both Al-Medinah and Makkah are in the geography of Al-Hejaz and the rival usurper of power and authority, Muawiya, was in Ash-Shaam. He had appointed his governors in these other areas and was trying to move in to finish off with Al-Hejaz after securing Al-Kufa. Husein stayed in Makkah for four months, and during this time, he was a popular figure among public opinion, but being a popular figure among public opinion is one thing and then having this public opinion carry its responsibilities is another thing. We read these four months that Husein spent in Makkah as being a period in which he was trying to take the pulse of the Islamic opposition and the remnants of the 1st generation of Muslims who may still be willing to militarily oppose the usurper of power.
In Huseins days, Muawiya had passed on and the usurper, the new king was Yazid. A lot has been said about Yazid as a degenerate figure in his own character- we're not going to cover that territory and it is a matter of consensus in all books. You can go to any type of resource that you want and this figure comes across as a degenerate from whichever angle you approach him. So, we're going to skip this area and say that after Husein stayed in Makkah for four months, he decided eventually to leave Makkah.
Now, Husein no longer has his father, Ali, who was a visionary in his opposition, but at the same time had to be held to his own constituents. This is not a person who is an angel living in heaven- this is a responsible Muslim who is struggling on earth. Husein, having the knowledge of what led to the time that he himself had to carry the mantle of this opposition. He was in Al-Medinah and he leaves Al-Medinah and goes to Makkah. We tried to fill you in on this information, if we were intellectually responsible, the 1st thing we would ask ourselves is why did Husein go from Al-Medinah to Makkah?" There were other options here. He could have gone from Al-Medinah to Al-Kufa, or to Southern Iraq, where we know that from the previous year, there is a potential for a consolidation of the opposition there. He could have gone, conceivably, to areas outside of Muslim territory. He could have gone to Yemen where there was no strong grip of the authority there. He could have gone to Al-Habasha, where Allahs Prophet sent the 1st Muslims for political respite or an air of freedom. He went to Makkah where he stayed for four months. This is our understanding of it and it invites the larger Muslim mind also to try to understand it- we know that before this, even though Allahs Prophets jihad of 23 years sought to have Makkah itself as the capital of the Muslims, but never was Makkah to be the political capital of the Muslims because of the details that we covered in the previous khutbahs. We hope that you understand why this took place because this is very important to understand why these events are happening. Husein left Al-Medinah and went to Makkah because both Al-Medinah and Makkah are in the geography of Al-Hejaz and the rival usurper of power and authority, Muawiya, was in Ash-Shaam. He had appointed his governors in these other areas and was trying to move in to finish off with Al-Hejaz after securing Al-Kufa. Husein stayed in Makkah for four months, and during this time, he was a popular figure among public opinion, but being a popular figure among public opinion is one thing and then having this public opinion carry its responsibilities is another thing. We read these four months that Husein spent in Makkah as being a period in which he was trying to take the pulse of the Islamic opposition and the remnants of the 1st generation of Muslims who may still be willing to militarily oppose the usurper of power.
In Huseins days, Muawiya had passed on and the usurper, the new king was Yazid. A lot has been said about Yazid as a degenerate figure in his own character- we're not going to cover that territory and it is a matter of consensus in all books. You can go to any type of resource that you want and this figure comes across as a degenerate from whichever angle you approach him. So, we're going to skip this area and say that after Husein stayed in Makkah for four months, he decided eventually to leave Makkah.
Abdullah ibn Zubair ra.gif and Abdullah ibn Abbas' ra.gif Advise to Imam Hussain AS.gif
Before he left though, he solicited the opinions of people around him. He had different opinions come his way. We will just quote for you two opinions. One of them came from Abdullah ibn Zubair (radi Allahu anhu). Remember Zubair (radi Allahu anhu), who was in the battle of Al-Jamal against Ali, his son, Abdullah, was a main political opposition figure in Makkah against the Umawi ruling clan. So, Abdullah ibn Zubair comes to Husein and he tells him that he should concentrate his effort on the Hejaz and Abdullah ibn Zubair sensed that Husein may be going to Al-Kufa and he told him if you do leave for Al-Kufa, appoint me as the governor in Makkah and Al-Hejaz. That was one of the advices that came his way. Some people, historians and scholars think of this as an opportunistic type of advice. We will, in all likelihood, in the future encounter the struggle of Abdullah ibn Zubair against the Umawi illegitimate authority, so we're not going to pass judgment like some people feel comfortable doing. Another advice comes to Husein from his cousin, Abdullah ibn Abbas (radi allahu anhu). No-one doubts that this person was giving advice from his heart. He said to Husein, "Do not go to Kufa." His words are "The people of Iraq are treacherous people. They may betray you. If you want to leave Makkah, there are other places to go to." Ibn Abbas told Husein (we're paraphrasing), "You may want to consider going to Yemen. Your father had and has followers in Yemen. If you decide (remember, this is heart to heart advice), and if you have your mind made up that you want to go to Kufa, leave your family here and go by yourself."
Before he left though, he solicited the opinions of people around him. He had different opinions come his way. We will just quote for you two opinions. One of them came from Abdullah ibn Zubair (radi Allahu anhu). Remember Zubair (radi Allahu anhu), who was in the battle of Al-Jamal against Ali, his son, Abdullah, was a main political opposition figure in Makkah against the Umawi ruling clan. So, Abdullah ibn Zubair comes to Husein and he tells him that he should concentrate his effort on the Hejaz and Abdullah ibn Zubair sensed that Husein may be going to Al-Kufa and he told him if you do leave for Al-Kufa, appoint me as the governor in Makkah and Al-Hejaz. That was one of the advices that came his way. Some people, historians and scholars think of this as an opportunistic type of advice. We will, in all likelihood, in the future encounter the struggle of Abdullah ibn Zubair against the Umawi illegitimate authority, so we're not going to pass judgment like some people feel comfortable doing. Another advice comes to Husein from his cousin, Abdullah ibn Abbas (radi allahu anhu). No-one doubts that this person was giving advice from his heart. He said to Husein, "Do not go to Kufa." His words are "The people of Iraq are treacherous people. They may betray you. If you want to leave Makkah, there are other places to go to." Ibn Abbas told Husein (we're paraphrasing), "You may want to consider going to Yemen. Your father had and has followers in Yemen. If you decide (remember, this is heart to heart advice), and if you have your mind made up that you want to go to Kufa, leave your family here and go by yourself."
The Environment In Kufa During The Time
In the meantime, Husein had sent Muslim ibn Aqueel (radi allahu anhu), who is his cousin, to Kufa to try to understand if there is going to be possible to have a base for political and military opposition in that part of the Muslim territory. The people in Al-Kufa were sending messages and writing letters to Husein telling him "to come to Kufa- we will be your supporters. We will do whatever has to be done. If, it is the military responsibility, we will be your soldiers". (Remember, we're paraphrasing the communications that was going on). When Muslim ibn Aqueel arrived in Kufa, there were 12,000 people who were demonstrating their support for Husein. This begs our attention. If people say that they are going to support a certain qualified leader- when that time comes, is that support going to materialize or is it going to vaporize?. It went from 12,000 to 18,000 to 30,000 supporters and the communication from Muslim ibn Aqueel to Husein was in progress. From all the information, it seems like that would be the best place for him to go. So, he left Makkah, and he left Makkah on the 8th of Dhil Hijjah, two days before the eid, when the Hajj was climaxing. This strikes the traditional, customary, conventional Muslim mind of today as being very odd. In the most developed time of the Hajj- he was leaving. There's a strong message for those of us who are willing to think about these issues in the way developed people were thinking about these issues at that time. In doing what he did, he was sending a very strong message to us today, who are caught up in this ritualistic type of Islam. In other words, he is saying- what does the Hajj mean if Makkah itself is under the control f an illegitimate authority?
So, he takes off and he goes to Al-Kufa with his family and he arrives there where there was a tug-of-war between the Umawi ruler, Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad on one side and the population of Kufa on the other side. Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad began to do what governments nowadays do. He began to spy on what he called Talabat Ameer Al-Mu'minin, the sympathizes, supporters and seekers of Ameer Al-Mu'minin meaning Ali and Husein; he also had spies to identify who were Al-Haruriyyah or the Khawaarij and he also had spies to identify Ahl Ar-Ri'ab, those who were suspicious, people of suspicion. Just like today, you have a city that is divided into districts, Al-Kufa also had its districts and each district had a chief, and he told the district chiefs, "You have to bring me information about the people in your own districts whose sympathies are either with who they call Ameer Al-Mu'minin, or with Al-Khawaarij or you suspect them." They used to take people whom they suspected all the way back then- it's nothing new. So, the sentiments and attraction of the population to these political positions were in a flux- this was the condition that Husein had to face. By the way, Ubaidullah ibn Ziyaad finally, in todays language, arrested Muslim ibn Aqueel and beheaded him on the day after Husein left Makkah, it was n the 9th of Dhil Hijjah. Ubaidullah ibn Ziyaad, called Husein ibn Ali, "That liar, son of a liar." All of this type of behavior and public position came from the highest corrupt office in a Muslim state. We say it's a Muslim state, not because the government is corrupt, but because on the popular level there was this Islamic popularity or populism. Imagine, he had this castle and he tells him to go up to speak to the crowd below. When he got up, ibn Aqueel had nothing but positive things to say about Husein, then ibn Ziyad gives the order, "Chop his head off." You can visualize this- standing up on the high level of the palace and decapitating this person with is head falling to the crowd. This, in and of itself, is a strong indication of the type of government that was in control of Muslim affairs that has to be opposed. No-one who has a grain of the understanding justice in him can just sit by and say that this type of government is a god-send or is ordained on the people. That doesn't come from understanding Allah and His Prophet- understanding Allah and His Prophet came in the position of Husein who opposed this. With all that has been said and is going to be said, Yazid was after two persons whom he wanted to endorse his rule- Abdullah ibn Zubair and Husein ibn Ali, this is the most important thing to remember here. The government was after them. They were not leaving them alone. They wanted them to publicly give bai'ah to Yazid. Yazid wanted these two figures to give him the bai'ah by force. The Umawi government was after him, so he was left with the choice- either he gives bai'ah to this degenerate ruler or he has to honor his principles, and he chose to honor his principles like any Muslim would do and that led to the tragedy of what is called Karbala or Aashura. In every sense of the word, you look at 70 odd individuals who were facing an army of between 4,000 and 14,000, depending on what book you're reading- whatever it was, it was no comparison between those who were standing for principle and knew that they were going to die and those who were fighting because of their opportunism. Remember, we stated to you previously, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas (radi allahu anhu), who was the 1st to call Muawiya "King Muawiya" and didn't agree with him, his son was one of the commanders of Yazid. When we come to this issue of families, we find that you will have a brother against his own brother and a son against his own father. Let's not get overly sentimental and try to drag a whole family either to heaven or to hell because of some individual that we like or dislike. The issue was more detailed than this type of generalization.
In the meantime, Husein had sent Muslim ibn Aqueel (radi allahu anhu), who is his cousin, to Kufa to try to understand if there is going to be possible to have a base for political and military opposition in that part of the Muslim territory. The people in Al-Kufa were sending messages and writing letters to Husein telling him "to come to Kufa- we will be your supporters. We will do whatever has to be done. If, it is the military responsibility, we will be your soldiers". (Remember, we're paraphrasing the communications that was going on). When Muslim ibn Aqueel arrived in Kufa, there were 12,000 people who were demonstrating their support for Husein. This begs our attention. If people say that they are going to support a certain qualified leader- when that time comes, is that support going to materialize or is it going to vaporize?. It went from 12,000 to 18,000 to 30,000 supporters and the communication from Muslim ibn Aqueel to Husein was in progress. From all the information, it seems like that would be the best place for him to go. So, he left Makkah, and he left Makkah on the 8th of Dhil Hijjah, two days before the eid, when the Hajj was climaxing. This strikes the traditional, customary, conventional Muslim mind of today as being very odd. In the most developed time of the Hajj- he was leaving. There's a strong message for those of us who are willing to think about these issues in the way developed people were thinking about these issues at that time. In doing what he did, he was sending a very strong message to us today, who are caught up in this ritualistic type of Islam. In other words, he is saying- what does the Hajj mean if Makkah itself is under the control f an illegitimate authority?
So, he takes off and he goes to Al-Kufa with his family and he arrives there where there was a tug-of-war between the Umawi ruler, Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad on one side and the population of Kufa on the other side. Ubaidullah ibn Ziyad began to do what governments nowadays do. He began to spy on what he called Talabat Ameer Al-Mu'minin, the sympathizes, supporters and seekers of Ameer Al-Mu'minin meaning Ali and Husein; he also had spies to identify who were Al-Haruriyyah or the Khawaarij and he also had spies to identify Ahl Ar-Ri'ab, those who were suspicious, people of suspicion. Just like today, you have a city that is divided into districts, Al-Kufa also had its districts and each district had a chief, and he told the district chiefs, "You have to bring me information about the people in your own districts whose sympathies are either with who they call Ameer Al-Mu'minin, or with Al-Khawaarij or you suspect them." They used to take people whom they suspected all the way back then- it's nothing new. So, the sentiments and attraction of the population to these political positions were in a flux- this was the condition that Husein had to face. By the way, Ubaidullah ibn Ziyaad finally, in todays language, arrested Muslim ibn Aqueel and beheaded him on the day after Husein left Makkah, it was n the 9th of Dhil Hijjah. Ubaidullah ibn Ziyaad, called Husein ibn Ali, "That liar, son of a liar." All of this type of behavior and public position came from the highest corrupt office in a Muslim state. We say it's a Muslim state, not because the government is corrupt, but because on the popular level there was this Islamic popularity or populism. Imagine, he had this castle and he tells him to go up to speak to the crowd below. When he got up, ibn Aqueel had nothing but positive things to say about Husein, then ibn Ziyad gives the order, "Chop his head off." You can visualize this- standing up on the high level of the palace and decapitating this person with is head falling to the crowd. This, in and of itself, is a strong indication of the type of government that was in control of Muslim affairs that has to be opposed. No-one who has a grain of the understanding justice in him can just sit by and say that this type of government is a god-send or is ordained on the people. That doesn't come from understanding Allah and His Prophet- understanding Allah and His Prophet came in the position of Husein who opposed this. With all that has been said and is going to be said, Yazid was after two persons whom he wanted to endorse his rule- Abdullah ibn Zubair and Husein ibn Ali, this is the most important thing to remember here. The government was after them. They were not leaving them alone. They wanted them to publicly give bai'ah to Yazid. Yazid wanted these two figures to give him the bai'ah by force. The Umawi government was after him, so he was left with the choice- either he gives bai'ah to this degenerate ruler or he has to honor his principles, and he chose to honor his principles like any Muslim would do and that led to the tragedy of what is called Karbala or Aashura. In every sense of the word, you look at 70 odd individuals who were facing an army of between 4,000 and 14,000, depending on what book you're reading- whatever it was, it was no comparison between those who were standing for principle and knew that they were going to die and those who were fighting because of their opportunism. Remember, we stated to you previously, Saad ibn Abi Waqqas (radi allahu anhu), who was the 1st to call Muawiya "King Muawiya" and didn't agree with him, his son was one of the commanders of Yazid. When we come to this issue of families, we find that you will have a brother against his own brother and a son against his own father. Let's not get overly sentimental and try to drag a whole family either to heaven or to hell because of some individual that we like or dislike. The issue was more detailed than this type of generalization.
Significance of Karbala
We had a heroic stand of committed and principled Muslims at Karbala. Why has this epic encounter at Karbala not resonate among normal thinking people? Because it is either claimed or disclaimed by the wrong people who are either ignoring it or suffocating it in emotionalism instead of taking a calculated, enlightened and rational look at it so that we can understand Islamic opposition without the extremes and imbalances that come from Islamic opposition then and now. There's no need for that if we can only learn from our history. But, this occasion comes every year, and just like the Hajj- Al-Hajj is a shell- it's a meaningless Hajj that millions of people go to, with all the restrictions that are placed on them, and now we have the same thing. People who go to Karbala, it's like a shell that doesn't radiate with the meanings that belong to it. Why? Because people are not willing to open up this whole issue of Islamic political opposition. This is a dynamic of our history that should not go lost and that belongs to all people who are in opposition and who want truth and justice. It doesn't belong to a particular culture, sect or geographic area. But, this is where it is today, we've located it there and we've incarcerated the whole issue because of our misunderstandings or rejection to understanding. Some of you may have been around during Muharram and may have gone to some Islamic centers who come from a Shi'i background and you see the force of traditions bringing hundreds or thousands of people to these centers and then they drift away. Look at them two weeks after, where are they? No substance there. Imagine the grandson of Allahs Prophet, once Allahs Prophet was passing by and Husein was crying, he said "Don't let him cry, his crying harms me." -these are the Prophets words. If for the sake of loving Allahs Prophet, you have millions of people demonstrating around the world because we love Allahs Prophet, but we don't love a person Allahs Prophet loves?! This doesn't make sense. For how long are we going to stay hostages of our own cultures? For how long is this going to continue? This is what we have and this is what we are going to have to deal with. We have to place this issue in the context of legitimate Islamic political opposition. Husien went a step beyond the verbal opposition that we have today. You can have verbal opposition, write articles, put together a demonstration, but this political opposition went further and it said there is a time when you are gong to have armed Islamic political opposition. How are we gong t learn how to have armed Islamic political opposition if we are not going to open up these pages and learn from our own history and leaders? This is a precious lesson that is unlearned every year. We have the opportunity to put our minds together and to ask ourselves "Do we have the right to oppose those who have usurped power?" Once we answer that question, we ask ourselves further "What level of opposition should we have to express?" We have to learn that our opposition can go from passive opposition to active opposition- from a word of opposition to a bullet of opposition. We can't do that and we'll never be able to do that if our minds and hearts are not at that level.
Husein, in his principled and self-less struggle brought us a crisis. To put in it the simplest words, that crisis is between our conscience and our stomachs. We have Muslims who drift towards their stomachs. They want to feed and satisfy it and it doesn't matter if their conscience can suffer- they will kill their conscience to satisfy their stomach, but then there are those who will feed their conscience even though that means that their stomach is going to have to starve to death.
We had a heroic stand of committed and principled Muslims at Karbala. Why has this epic encounter at Karbala not resonate among normal thinking people? Because it is either claimed or disclaimed by the wrong people who are either ignoring it or suffocating it in emotionalism instead of taking a calculated, enlightened and rational look at it so that we can understand Islamic opposition without the extremes and imbalances that come from Islamic opposition then and now. There's no need for that if we can only learn from our history. But, this occasion comes every year, and just like the Hajj- Al-Hajj is a shell- it's a meaningless Hajj that millions of people go to, with all the restrictions that are placed on them, and now we have the same thing. People who go to Karbala, it's like a shell that doesn't radiate with the meanings that belong to it. Why? Because people are not willing to open up this whole issue of Islamic political opposition. This is a dynamic of our history that should not go lost and that belongs to all people who are in opposition and who want truth and justice. It doesn't belong to a particular culture, sect or geographic area. But, this is where it is today, we've located it there and we've incarcerated the whole issue because of our misunderstandings or rejection to understanding. Some of you may have been around during Muharram and may have gone to some Islamic centers who come from a Shi'i background and you see the force of traditions bringing hundreds or thousands of people to these centers and then they drift away. Look at them two weeks after, where are they? No substance there. Imagine the grandson of Allahs Prophet, once Allahs Prophet was passing by and Husein was crying, he said "Don't let him cry, his crying harms me." -these are the Prophets words. If for the sake of loving Allahs Prophet, you have millions of people demonstrating around the world because we love Allahs Prophet, but we don't love a person Allahs Prophet loves?! This doesn't make sense. For how long are we going to stay hostages of our own cultures? For how long is this going to continue? This is what we have and this is what we are going to have to deal with. We have to place this issue in the context of legitimate Islamic political opposition. Husien went a step beyond the verbal opposition that we have today. You can have verbal opposition, write articles, put together a demonstration, but this political opposition went further and it said there is a time when you are gong to have armed Islamic political opposition. How are we gong t learn how to have armed Islamic political opposition if we are not going to open up these pages and learn from our own history and leaders? This is a precious lesson that is unlearned every year. We have the opportunity to put our minds together and to ask ourselves "Do we have the right to oppose those who have usurped power?" Once we answer that question, we ask ourselves further "What level of opposition should we have to express?" We have to learn that our opposition can go from passive opposition to active opposition- from a word of opposition to a bullet of opposition. We can't do that and we'll never be able to do that if our minds and hearts are not at that level.
Husein, in his principled and self-less struggle brought us a crisis. To put in it the simplest words, that crisis is between our conscience and our stomachs. We have Muslims who drift towards their stomachs. They want to feed and satisfy it and it doesn't matter if their conscience can suffer- they will kill their conscience to satisfy their stomach, but then there are those who will feed their conscience even though that means that their stomach is going to have to starve to death.
Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims…
May Allah bless those Muslims who have placed themselves in positions of opposing our governments who have gone astray with a historical background and a secular vengeance. We have in todays world, Muslims who know that this type of mistake has to be corrected and correcting it is not a simple task. There's a struggle, sacrifices, bloodshed, warfronts, clashes misunderstandings, etc. -all of this describes the real world around us. These Muslims who are in these positions today, whether they know it or not, they belong to this historical opposition to dhulm by taking issue with illegitimate rulers.
What do you do today when you encounter an average Muslim who in his heart and mind doesn't think and is not aware that he is living under the rule of illegitimate kings and presidents? This is the average Muslim today. His mind and heart is not bothered with these illegitimate rulers. What do you do when Muslims begin or they are in their footsteps in the right direction, the kaafir in the world say "look, the Muslims are beginning to catch on to something in their Islamic syllabi, movements and madrassahs so what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to take this revolutionary fuse that is in the making out of these Islamic programs". The 1st people who should object to this foreign hand inside our internal affairs are the Ulema. Where are they? Some of our Ulema are busy trying to figure out how to get a visa to a certain country or how to obtain a green card in a certain country. Some of our Ulema have the sense that if they bad-mouth other Muslims, then they will be looked at favorably by these worldly powers. This culture of capitulation and compromise among some or many Muslim scholars once again shows its ugly face. We've seen that ugly face before. The Umawi monarchy had its court scholars who used to legitimize the persecution and the liquidation of Islamic political opposition and opponents of the regime at that time. But, some of us are not familiar with that. We don't know that Al-Awzaa'i was the faqhih or the scholar of the Umawi state who would rubber stamp the decisions of the state to apply capital punishment to Islamic scholars. In todays world, when Muslim feelings are uneasy about the public presentation of Islam and the Prophet, one of the scholars of our time, the head of the Azhar, to be more specific, meets with the Danish Ambassador as the news items had it- this so-called scholar meets with the Danish Ambassador and tells him "Muhammed is a man who is dead. Why pick on a dead person? He's gone, leave him alone." We ask you- brothers and sisters- in the climate of today, is this the type of statement that a Muslim scholar speaks to these types of people knowing what they have been doing to us all along? Then, when he realized that the word got out and public opinion is objecting to the way that he spoke to that official, he tries to join the publics demonstration in Cairo in front of the Azhar against the defamation of Allahs Prophet. This is only one simple sample of what we have. It's not inaccurate to generalize and say that most of them belong to this culture of capitulation and accommodation instead of being representative of a culture of opposition and struggle. That is what we need among us. As the ayah has it
So that you may see very clearly the course of the criminals. (Surah Al-An'aam verse 55)
We're not going to be able to identify the course of the criminals when most of our scholars are more concerned with their stomachs than they are with their conscience. Look for people who speak their conscience not for people who want to satisfy those who will give them the means, the resources and the status that these types of scholars are looking for.
May Allah bless those Muslims who have placed themselves in positions of opposing our governments who have gone astray with a historical background and a secular vengeance. We have in todays world, Muslims who know that this type of mistake has to be corrected and correcting it is not a simple task. There's a struggle, sacrifices, bloodshed, warfronts, clashes misunderstandings, etc. -all of this describes the real world around us. These Muslims who are in these positions today, whether they know it or not, they belong to this historical opposition to dhulm by taking issue with illegitimate rulers.
What do you do today when you encounter an average Muslim who in his heart and mind doesn't think and is not aware that he is living under the rule of illegitimate kings and presidents? This is the average Muslim today. His mind and heart is not bothered with these illegitimate rulers. What do you do when Muslims begin or they are in their footsteps in the right direction, the kaafir in the world say "look, the Muslims are beginning to catch on to something in their Islamic syllabi, movements and madrassahs so what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to take this revolutionary fuse that is in the making out of these Islamic programs". The 1st people who should object to this foreign hand inside our internal affairs are the Ulema. Where are they? Some of our Ulema are busy trying to figure out how to get a visa to a certain country or how to obtain a green card in a certain country. Some of our Ulema have the sense that if they bad-mouth other Muslims, then they will be looked at favorably by these worldly powers. This culture of capitulation and compromise among some or many Muslim scholars once again shows its ugly face. We've seen that ugly face before. The Umawi monarchy had its court scholars who used to legitimize the persecution and the liquidation of Islamic political opposition and opponents of the regime at that time. But, some of us are not familiar with that. We don't know that Al-Awzaa'i was the faqhih or the scholar of the Umawi state who would rubber stamp the decisions of the state to apply capital punishment to Islamic scholars. In todays world, when Muslim feelings are uneasy about the public presentation of Islam and the Prophet, one of the scholars of our time, the head of the Azhar, to be more specific, meets with the Danish Ambassador as the news items had it- this so-called scholar meets with the Danish Ambassador and tells him "Muhammed is a man who is dead. Why pick on a dead person? He's gone, leave him alone." We ask you- brothers and sisters- in the climate of today, is this the type of statement that a Muslim scholar speaks to these types of people knowing what they have been doing to us all along? Then, when he realized that the word got out and public opinion is objecting to the way that he spoke to that official, he tries to join the publics demonstration in Cairo in front of the Azhar against the defamation of Allahs Prophet. This is only one simple sample of what we have. It's not inaccurate to generalize and say that most of them belong to this culture of capitulation and accommodation instead of being representative of a culture of opposition and struggle. That is what we need among us. As the ayah has it
So that you may see very clearly the course of the criminals. (Surah Al-An'aam verse 55)
We're not going to be able to identify the course of the criminals when most of our scholars are more concerned with their stomachs than they are with their conscience. Look for people who speak their conscience not for people who want to satisfy those who will give them the means, the resources and the status that these types of scholars are looking for.