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Views on the News - 04/09/2009

Young Muslims in Britain feel demonized
A sweeping majority of young British Muslims feel demonized and under attack by the police and media, while they face a dilemma to cling to their Muslim identity in a growingly suspicious society, a London-based think tank said in a report on Tuesday, September 1. “They see one Asian person's mistakes and the rest of the community ... has to pay for it," one unnamed young Muslim said in the "Seen and Not Heard: Voices of Young British Muslims" report. The report, conducted by the Islamic think tank Policy Research Center, warns that since July 7, 2005 attacks on London, media outlets are portraying the Muslim community as a national threat. Britain is home nearly 2 million Muslims, most of them are of south Asian origins. A recent UK government-commissioned study has also found that a torrent of negative and imbalance stories in the British media demonize Muslims and their faith by portraying them as the enemy within. British Muslims have also taken full brunt of anti-terror laws since the 7/7 attacks. They have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim. A Financial Times opinion poll also showed that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.

American institution to train Saudi leaders
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced it has been awarded a prime contract by the U.S. Military Training Mission (USMTM) to support the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces (SAAF) by establishing a Saudi War College (SWC) that meets educational and administrative standards of US War Colleges. The contract has a one year base period of performance, three one-year options and a contract value of more than $11 million if all options are exercised. Work will be performed primarily in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.The USMTM to Saudi Arabia is a joint training mission and functional component command under the military command of the U.S. Central Command. The USMTM advises and assists the SAAF through security assistance efforts by developing, training and sustaining capable deterrent and self-defense forces for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to facilitate regional security. Under the contract, SAIC will help establish an SWC to assist in preparing and educating Saudi leaders to face domestic and global challenges. SAIC will help establish a state-of-the-art educational institution, and develop and implement a flexible curriculum that will enable the SWC to adapt to future Saudi mission requirements. SAIC will also recruit, hire, and retain fully qualified Saudi instructors, develop and implement a quality assurance plan, and establish a career and mentoring program for SWC instructors. "SAIC is honored to support the SAAF by helping establish a world-class SWC. We believe that SAAF, teamed with SAIC, has the prerequisites for creating a prestigious military institution for the education of strategic leaders," said Charles Zang, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager.

Kyrgystan’s oppressive policies against Muslims is backfiring
Kyrgyzstan's clampdown on banned Muslim groups may increase the number of their followers, especially among the Central Asian state's women, the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank said on Thursday. Any instability in the impoverished former Soviet republic is a worry for the United States which runs a military air base there to support its operations in Afghanistan."Kyrgyzstan's increasingly authoritarian government is adopting a counter-productive approach to the country's growing radicalisation," ICG said in a report."Instead of tackling the root causes of a phenomenon that has seen increasing numbers, including many women, joining groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), it is resorting to heavy-handed police methods that risk pushing yet more Kyrgyz towards radicalism." ICG urged Kyrgyzstan and its Central Asian neighbours who face similar problems to focus on the root causes of radicalism by improving living standards and fighting corruption.ICG also said the government should not clamp down on some traditional attributes of Islam such as women's headscarves -- which were been banned from Kyrgyz schools this year. It called on the West to prevent further repressive measures by the Kyrgyz government. "As Central Asia becomes a major supply route for NATO's expanded war in Afghanistan, Western powers with an increased interest in the region's stability should caution against repressive policies."

Another new strategy for fighting Islam in Afghanistan
General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, Monday called for a new military policy in the country, saying that "serious" change was needed to achieve victory. In a report sent to the Pentagon and Nato headquarters, McChrystal acknowledged that the last eight years had been disastrous, and said that the focus should be upon winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan population, not direct engagement with militants. McChrystal said: "The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort." The report is expected to pave the way for McChrystal to request more troops, in addition to the 108,000 international troops already there.

The call for a new strategy comes after the failed strategies of Bush and the recently much coveted AfPak strategy of the Obama administration. It is becoming increasingly evident that US after having spent billions of dollars and suffering huge causalities is nowhere to ending this war; rather the prospect of a humiliating defeat grows ever closer.

Allah (swt) says,

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا يُنْفِقُونَ أَمْوَالَهُمْ لِيَصُدُّوا عَنْ سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَسَيُنْفِقُونَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسْرَةً ثُمَّ يُغْلَبُونَ
“Verily those who disbelieve spend their wealth to hinder (men) from the Path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend it, but in the end it will become a regret [hasrah] for them. Then they will be overcome [yughlaboon].” [TMQ: al Anfaal 8:36]

India worried about Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal
Indian Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor said on Wednesday that Pakistan was going well beyond deterrence after reports Islamabad had increased its nuclear arsenal and was working to add cruise missiles. "There were certain degrees of deterrence and the figure of 70 to 90 nuclear warheads directed against a country certainly goes beyond the concept of deterrence," Kapoor said in the western Indian city of Pune. "It is a matter of concern for us," he added. Gen. Kapoor was commenting on an article published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist about the enhanced nuclear arsenal of neighboring Pakistan. "A new nuclear-capable ballistic missile is being readied for deployment, and two nuclear-capable cruise missiles are under development. Two new plutonium production reactors and a second chemical separation facility also are under construction," said the U.S. journal.

What is the point of having a nuclear arsenal if the Pakistani leadership is not prepared to use it to defend itself from the current American-Indian onslaught. If North Korea and Iran can effectively use their nuclear arsenal and nuclear programmes to counter America then what is preventing Pakistan from doing something similar to protect its population and integrity.

4-Sep-2009

Comments

Anonymous said…
Assalamu alaikum

1. Accounting the rulers does it have to be open, if so how does one reconcile it with the below hadith

"The Messenger of Allaah Muhammad (salallaahu'alayheewasallam) said, "Whoever desires to advise the one with authority then he should not do so openly, rather he should take him by the hand and take him into seclusion (and then advise him). And if he accepts (the advice) from him then (he has achieved his objective) and if not, then he has fulfilled that which was a duty upon him." (Reported by Ahmad (3/403) and Ibn Abee 'Aasim (2/521) with a Saheeh isnaad.)

2. What is the evidence that rulers are exempt from the general evidences about Backbiting?

jk for all your much apreciated efforts.
Anonymous said…
A O A.
Hello In charge,
I visited your website and deeply impressed by your work and teachings. I found that you are doing a great work for the Islam and Islamic people in the meantime. I am a professional translator as you know that the Urdu is the language of different countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan,etc. i want that your work Should be appreciated in these countries. I want to do work with your ministry OR organization as a Urdu Translator’s. Hopes that you will consider me for this great option.
Yours Sincerely,
Zainab Naseem
Islamic Revival said…
Assalam wa alaikum

It would be very useful if you could contribute your translations of important articles. You can see one of the Urdu sites that we are linked to: www.khilafat.dk - they also require articles, translations, etc.

Please send us your email address.

Wassalam

Administrator
ws

beloved brother, The hadith you quoted concerning accounting the rulers , is incomplete and further the isnad is not intact, rather it is

broken (it is mursal) . Ahmad ibn hanbal has reported it from: Abu mugaira, on safwan, that

shuraih ibn ubaid alhadrami and others said: Iyad bin ganam became angry with Hisham bin

hakeem, and after that he apologised , then hisham said to iyaad, havent you heard the saying

of the prophet " the worse of the people in azaab are the ones who are the harshest on the

people in the dunya" so Iyaad bin ganam said : o hisham bin hakeem ! we heard the prphet say

what you heard and we saw what you saw, have you not heard the prophet say " whosoever wants

to advice the one in authority, he should do so in privacy, and if he accepts it is good and

if he does not then he has completed him respoonsibility" and you O hisham are aggressive and

if you are agressive on the sultan of allah (ameer) , dont you fear that the sultan will kill

you and hten you will be some one killed by the sultan of allah (swt).

Iyaad bin ganam was a sahabi and he was among the ones who gave the baya of ridhwan and he

died in the year 20H and hisham bin hakeem ibn hazam was a sahabi and the son of a sahabi and

he died during the reign of muawiyah.

AlMazi says in tahzeeb al kamaal that the ones who narrated this hadith are people of trust,

as for shuraih ibn ubaid al hadrami he is tabee and he is trustworthy but his narrations from

the sahaba are mursal, ans is said in tahzeed al kamaal ( muhammad inbn auf was asked taht

did shuraih ibn ubaid narrated from abu dardaaa? so he replied that no. Then he was asked

that did he hear from any of the sahaba of the prophet? so he replied that i dont think so

and that is because when shuraih reports a hadith he does not say that {i heard} and he is

trustworthy.

Hafiz ibn hajar also called Shuraih Mursal. So how could it be that Shuraih who narrates and

reports this hadith have met Abu amamah ibn ajlan (D 87H) or miqdaam ibn madi karb ( died 87

H) and if shuraih did not meet them then how could he had met hisham ibn hakeem who died

during the beginning of the reign of muawiyah or even iyaadh ibn ganam who died in 20H

(during umar ibn khatabs reign)?
what is clear here is that shuraih only narrated a story and there is no evidence that he

actually witnessed the incident or even heard any one from the ones present there, and there

fore this isnad clearly is broken.

As for Ibn Asims report which is found in "assunnah" , he says

Amru ibn uthman narrated, from baqiya, from safwan ibn amru, from Shuraih ibn ubaid that he

said that iyaad ibn ganam said to hisham ibn hakeem that have not heard the saying of the

prophet where he said " whosoever wants to give naseeha to some one in authority he should do

so in privacy, and if he acccepts (then he has achieved his objective) and if he doesnt then

he has fulfilled his duty"

all the narrators here are people of trust but there is no evidence that shuraih narrated

from iyaad and hisham directly (i.e that he heard either of them). This is waht haithami says

in "almajma"

Note taht shuraih ibn ubaid is narrating an incident and there is no evidence that he was

present there or that he heard from any who were present there, therefore the isnad is broken

and is weaker than earlier.

These are the two evidences to show that the hadith is Mursal and the isnad actually is

broken.

But even if we consider it to be correct (sahieeh) and we assume that the prophet said that

"if you want to advice the sultan then do so in privacy....." the hadith. There is no notion

in this hadith which gives us an indication of Wujub (obligation/ fardiya) rather it only

indicates that it is only a permission (rukhsa). THe daleel (evidences) for that are :

1- the prophet said " and if he does not accept then you have completed your duty" which

could lead the addressed ones in this hadith to understand the obligation of advice (naseeha)

which would lead them to face the one in authority, and the prophet here clarified that the

issue is to fulfill the obligation of naseeha and not facing the one in authority in public.

This clearly shows that the naseeha is onligatory I.e amar bil maruk wannahi anil munkar but

the style adopted could be private or public.
2.the saying od iyaad bin ganam " and you o hisam you are agressice and if you face the

sultan dont you fear that he may kill you and then you will be the one killed by the sultan

of allah (swt)" this is evidence that iyaad warned his companion hisham ibn hakeem from the

dangers of naseeha in public which may lead to the anger of the sultan (authority) and even

his killing , Note that he does not warn him against the anger of allah and his messenger,

and this is evidence that he sees teh obligation of naseeha with a permission (rukhsa) for a

lighter or easier style than the original which is advicing in public , there is not evidence

to show that the privacy is obligatory and neither does he indicated the the public and

aggressive style is haraam. and there should be nothing to wonder here since the prophet said

" the leader of martyrs is hamza and the man who stands to a opressive rulers and then he

does amr bil maruf wannahi anil munkar and for that he is killed" and this has been reported

by mulsim and bukhari both. Teh question in front of us is that " will some one who stands to

an imam in seclusion and then advices him, will the zalim kill him? the answer is offcourse

not" the killing came as a result of the public advice i.e nahi anil munkar in public which

may lead the one in authority to kill the man in revence.

3- the saheeh hadith which has been accepted and is narrated by ubadah ibn samit in the

hadith of baya where he says " and we will say the haq whereever we are and we would not fear

nything accept allah" , and the similar ones which has been reported by jabir ibn abadallah ,

these ahadith are general i.e aaam without any restriction about privacy or publicity, infact

the higher matter is that of public advice and not secrecy.

4- the hadith of the prophet where was asked about the best jihad and he said that " the word

of truth in front of a tyrant ruler"
These 4 points are after we are simply assuming a weak hadith which is mursal and with a

broken chain to be correct.

It is very clear that the correct way of naseeha to the ones in authority is publically. the

evidences along with the opinion of the ulema are

Tariq ibn Shihab all narrated that the Messenger (saw) said : “The best of Jihad is a word of

truth in the face of a tyrant ruler

Abu Dawud, “The master of martyrs is Hamza and any man who stands in front of a tyrant ruler

and orders him (with good i.e. the implementation of the Deen) and prohibits him (from the

evil of other than the Deen) and is slain by him”. (Authenticated by Ibn Hajr al-Hathami in

Majmoo’ al-Zaaid)

“There will be leaders over you, (who will do things) you recognise (as part of the Deen),

and things you don’t recognise. Whoever recognised he would be relieved (of sin), and whoever

denied (the wrong), he would be safe”.

Hadith, Abdullah ibn Amr “If you see my Ummah afraid of telling the oppressor: You are an

oppressor, it is farewell to the Ummah” (Suyooti)

Ibn Hajr in his Fateh al-Bari also states that if he becomes a Kafir, or changes the Shari’ah

he should be fought and removed. This view is also mentioned in Nayl al-Awtar and supported

by Imam Shawkani. That is, if the ruler rules by other than the Shari’ah he is fought until

he either repents or is removed.

The ahadith on doing amar bil maruf wannahi anil munkar are many and they all are Mutlaq

(unrestricted) and they emphasise on doing it publically.
as for your second question:
Imam Nawawi says in his book "riyadh ussaleheen" - Chapter - What is allowed (mubah) from for

geebah
1. Oppression
It is allowed for the oprressed one to address the ones in authority such as the sultan, or

the qadhi about the zulm , i.e for eg; so and so oppressed me in such and such a way
2. to take help to change a munkar (evil) and change it to correct. If the intention is other

than to change the evil then it is haram
3. To take a fatwa
He can tell the mufti about the situation of oppression etc
4. to warn the muslims of the evil of certain people and this also contains the people in

authority who are incompetent and are not carrying out their responsibilties
5. some one who has come out with outward sinning (fisq) for eg. drinking wine, taking

peoples money oppressively, carrying out affairs in a wrong manner, taking tax by zulm
6. for introduction
For eg: if someone is known as blind, tall etc, it is allowed to mention his nickname for

introduction

As for clear texts discussing the matter
the prophet (saw) said (ثلاث ليس لهم حرمة في الغيبة، فاسق يعلن الفسق، والأمير الجائر، وصاحب البدعة المعلن البدعة
Geeba is not haram for 3 people, Fasiq whose fisq is known, the oppressive ruler, the one who innovates in the deen (bida) - baiyhaqi in shubal imaan

أترعون عن ذكر الفاجر أن تذكروه؟ فاذكروه يعرفه الناس!
the prophet said "do you want to screen the fajir from remembering his deeds? Discuss them so that the people can know them.

ثلاثة لا تحرك عليك أعراضهم: المجاهر بالفسق، والإمام الجائر، والمبتدع
IN another hadith he the prophet (saw) said: 3 people should not concern you about their Izza : the one who does open fisq, the oppressive ruler and the one who innovates. Abu dunya disuccses this and has graded teh hadith as hasan mursal.
sal said…
Jazakallah Khair for a really well-detailed answer.
A Question to the moderator - would it be possible to reformat the above answer as an article in its own right, since it is really useful,and people may not realise that this subject has been dealt with on the website. ws
Anonymous said…
Asa, I have some Q's related to this subject of rulers:

1. Some muslims I have been speaking to, accuse anyone who advocates removing our current fasiq rulers, of being KHAWARIJ, especially because of the 'Seeking of Nusrah'

-As far as I understand, the features of the Khawarij were:
A. Making Takfir on those who commit major sins
B. They justified killing Muslims, including Sahaba, on the basis of this takfir
C. Fighting the duly-appointed leader of the Muslims

I responded by saying that the hizb does not believe in point A or B.
Regarding point C:
-The only Shar'i leader of the Muslims is a Khaleefa (and then those that he appoints eg wali's, mu'awwins, aamil's etc), whereas these modern leaders are not Islamically valid, since they are not the Khaleefah, nor do they make claim to be. Although they are leaders in reality, but but they are not valid from Shar'i perspective, since the bay'ah is only given to a Khaleefa, hence allegience is only to a Khaleefa.
Only if they established Khilafah (very unlikely i know!) would they be owed allegience.
- Also the hizb is not trying to FIGHT the leaders, it is simply mobilizing public opinion, and working on the ahl'ul-halli wal-'Aqd (which in modern times includes the Military - ie the people of Nusrah) to convinve them to establish an Islamic Ruler, since they have the Shar'i capability (istita'a) to make this change (ideally peacefully), and hence the obligation falls upon them. So the reality of the work is not fighting, but political.
Hence this is not Kharuj, but rather Enjoining the good and forbidding the munkar.

2. He also mentioned that the House of Saud and Shaikh Abdul-wahhab never rebelled (khuruj) against the Uthmani Khilafah, since the maps show that the area of Najd was never formally within the borders of the Uthmani state (he showed me several historical maps which DID confirm this)
-I responded by saying that although they may not have come under actual rule, from a Shar'i perspective, they owed a bay'ah to the Khaleefa of the world at that time (ie the Uthmani Khaleefa).By helping the British against him, they did 2 harams:
-Firstly they helped a hostile Kafir state against a Muslim authority (which is generally haram),
-Secondly, they also rebelled against the bayah upon their necks.
-I also stated that i did not know the specifics of Sheikh Abdul-wahhab's role in all this

I would be most grateful if you have any info you have to add or clarify these issues.

Wa salaam

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