The blessed month of Ramadhan has once again been scarred by bloodshed in Muslim lands: attacks at Istanbul airport, a cafe in Dhaka, the murder of a Qawwal in Karachi, a bomb blast in Baghdad city centre – and now an explosion in Al Madinah Al Munnawarah, as well as other places in the Arabian Peninsula.
We pray that Allah (swt) accepts our brothers and sisters killed in this blessed month as shaheed. We pray He gives sabr to their families, and gives healing to those injured.
Some will say these are acts by militant ‘Islamic’ groups. Some think they are acts of individuals inspired by these groups. Some think they are committed or provoked by external security agencies.
What is certain is that Allah will hold to account those who committed these acts.
What is also certain is that beyond the blood spilled and fear generated, such acts are used by the enemies of Islam and Muslims:
- Regimes in the Muslim world use such acts to clamp down on critics and political opposition regardless of them having nothing to do with such attacks.
- Western governments use such acts to justify domestic and foreign policies against Islam and Muslims.
- Enemies of Islam use such attacks to demonise Islam’s political ideas and call for a secularisation of Islam.
- They are used to distance the Muslim masses from calls for Islamic change in the Muslim world, just as violence in Egypt in the 1970s or Algeria in the 1990s was used to do the same.
- The violence caused by secular regimes – like that of Bashar Al Assad or Sisi; colonial and neo-colonial regimes – like the House of Saud or the sectarian regime in Iraq; western powers who use drones or direct invasion; occupying forces in Palestine and Kashmir – all of these become white washed from the narrative, because they do not support the false argument that Islam is the cause of the problem.
In fact, the cause of all types of the aforementioned violence stems from the absence of Islam. Islam is not the cause of the problem, it is its solution!
Such anarchy has been present and growing since the demise of the Ottoman Khilafah in 1924. There has been no Khaleefah to be a shepherd to the citizens in Muslim lands – whether Muslim or non-Muslim, regardless of madhhab or sect, such that they feel they are dealt with justly – not used as pawns in a divide and rule strategy by weak oppressive rulers. There has been no Imam to be a shield against external invaders or to liberate lands from occupation. There has been no legitimate leadership to pronounce with authority what is permitted and what is prohibited, as all too often Islamic institutions are tainted by being seen as a mouthpiece for the current regimes. There has been no Ameer of the Mumineen to be a voice against the horrific capitalist policies of global powers, both against Muslims and against the weaker peoples of the world.
When Muslims mourn the dead and voice their anger at such incidents, we must not lose sight of the world we live in today, the environment in which such actions occur, the far greater violence that has a hand in generating these acts of violence and the solution from Islam to prohibit fear and establish security in the world.
He (swt) says:
وَعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنكُمْ وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَيَسْتَخْلِفَنَّهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ كَمَا اسْتَخْلَفَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ وَلَيُمَكِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ دِينَهُمُ الَّذِي ارْتَضَىٰ لَهُمْ وَلَيُبَدِّلَنَّهُم مِّن بَعْدِ خَوْفِهِمْ أَمْنًا ۚ يَعْبُدُونَنِي لَا يُشْرِكُونَ بِي شَيْئًا ۚ وَمَن كَفَرَ بَعْدَ ذَٰلِكَ فَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْفَاسِقُونَ
Allah has promised those who have believed among you and do righteous deeds that He will surely grant them succession [to authority] upon the earth just as He granted it to those before them and that He will surely establish for them [therein] their religion which He has preferred for them and that He will surely substitute for them, after their fear, security, [for] they worship Me, not associating anything with Me. But whoever disbelieves after that – then those are the defiantly disobedient. [TMQ An-Nur 24:55]
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