[Translator's Note: The Sheikh (may Allah reward him) has written this document in the light of the events surrounding September 11, however it is important to note that the war in Afghanistan had not yet begun.]
All praise is to Allah Who chose to have the exclusive right to create and left mankind without the slightest of hopes in having any role or part in this creation. And may the blessings and peace be on His Messenger, the bearer of glad tidings, the Warner and the illuminating lamp, and also on his family and all the Companions.
I have been led to write this piece in order to absolve myself of the responsibility, as well as an insistence by the Ummah, and also given the enormity of the events of which this is only the beginning. We pray that the conclusion is beneficial for the Ummah.
I have written this hoping that Allah benefits with it the Ummah and I pray to Him, Who is the Glorious, that He suffices the Muslims from all of this with something better than it.
Herein are a few facts, points to note and questions that point to what is beyond. There is not enough time for all details, or the case is that the mind hasn't yet been able to perceive and solve them yet.
Actually, I wanted to make this a complete study but the restlessness and the hastening that the Ummah is struck with - especially the youth in the circles of Dawah - has led me to race to bring this out briefly in paragraphs and sections. Perhaps this may suffice me from repeating this topic daily with groups of them. If a need arises to elaborate on any of it or to review it, then that will come in its own time with Allah's permission.
I have tried to follow the way of the Quran in bypassing the minor details of events and instead opted to bring to light the lessons, and remind what needs to be reminded.
ONE
The first of the facts that ought to be realized and reminded of is that nothing occurs in this Universe, no matter how small or big, whether the people receive it with joy or sorrow or divide amongst themselves over it, except that it has been pre-decreed. The Pen had written it on the Preserved Tablet before the creation of the Heavens and the Earth by fifty thousand years while the Throne of the Most Merciful was over water. All this it wrote in accordance with the knowledge of the All Knowledgeable, the All Wise, from Whom not the smallest particle in the heaven or the earth can hide.
So not a lip whispers nor a drop of rain falls nor an ant moves or resides except in accordance with that - whoever knew this [the nature of this universe] did know, whoever was ignorant of it did remain so and some may be pleased while others rage from it! Thus the knowledgeable ones withheld their tongues from questioning and objecting. Their hearts humbled to the rulings of pre-destination and found solace. Bearing trials and hardships with patience became easy on them and they were able to show gratitude in times of ease. Having had Faith (Eman) that He the Exalted {is not asked about what He does but they are questioned}, they further entrusted the affair to Him and sought from Him forgiveness and mercy, {It is only Your Trial by which You lead astray whom You will, and keep guided whom You will. You are our Protector, so forgive us and have mercy on us for You are the best of those who forgive.} [A'raf 155]
TWO
The second of such facts, and this follows from the first one, is that not a single society nor a circumstance is left out of the natural ways of Allah (sunnatillahi qauneeyah) no matter how advanced it may be in time and age, regardless of the tyranny, the haughtiness on earth and the insolence towards the commands of Allah.
So, after all, what are the various successive civilizations, they are nothing but settlements and ages that are subjected to the Sunnah (way) of Allah that is neither exchanged nor removed [even if those civilizations dislike it]? And what is America except a town amongst the many which brought it [calamity] upon itself with sins, such as the Aad, the Thamud and the many generations that passed by during that.
Thereby Allah unleashed on them His wrath and punishment and truly how easy it is to Allah to deal with this Creation if it disobeys Him and exposes itself to His vengeance! {So We punished each (of them) for his sins; of them were some on whom We sent Hasib ( a violent wind with shower of stones), and of them were some who were overtaken by as-Saihah (torment - awful cry), and of them were some whom We caused the earth to swallow, and of them were some whom We drowned.} And Allah left their dwellings effaced and wiped out, their wells dried and their palaces and castles still standing! {Flee not, but return to that wherein you lived a luxurious life, and to your homes}, but how far [how remote was this possibility] it was for them! Allah turned it into heaps of ruins such that they may regret over it in this life before the Hereafter.
The tolerance being shown by Allah for this tyrannical nation (i.e. America) is most amazing. They combine the despotism/haughtiness of the Aad, the transgression of the Thamud, the arrogance of Pharaoh, the foulness of the people of Lot and the fraudulence and niggardliness of the people of Madyan. To this they added the cunning plots of the Jews, their ardent desire for life, playing with words and claims of self-righteousness elevating themselves above all others besides them. So what can be awaited for them except that Allah brings on them the Ways with which He dealt with those who have passed and such days from Allah come upon them incessantly? It is not strange at all that their High Priest declared, "This is only the beginning!"
As for me I say that if Allah doesn't wipe them out totally it is for a high wisdom known to Allah. Perhaps there may emerge from them those who worship Allah without associating partners to Him. Doing this is not at all a burden on Allah!
At the same time, there is neither restriction on the divine punishment nor a limit on the different shapes it can take. {And none can know the hosts of your Lord but He.}
An example of this is the attack of the early Americans on the Red Indians in their lands. They waged a war on them to eradicate them to an extent that it eternally remains a black spot in the history of America. But now the Red Indians are killing 300,000 Americans every year!! How is this? Will Durant wrote in his book, the story of Civilisation, 'The European Colonialists learnt from the native Indians the consumption of the foul plant, the cigarette, and thus were able to avenge their enemy perpetually in a way their spears could not.' This suffering is besides the AIDS, Anxiety, Depression and poor social relations in that society!!
THIRD
This Ummahh of Islam is a chosen one and is shown mercy and aided (by Allah) despite the calamities that may strike it or the weakness and degradation that it faces at times.
As for its being chosen, Allah has given it the Book and the Wisdom. He made it a witness on mankind. It is sufficient to know that a sinner amongst them is within the fold of the chosen ones although he is punished for his sin and held accountable for his shortcoming. {Then We gave the Book (the Quran) as inheritance to such of Our slaves whom We chose. Then of them are some who wrong their owneselves, and of them are some who follow a middle course, and of them are some who are, by Allah's Leave, foremost in good deeds.} So all the good that is found in any nation, it is more so in the Muslims. All the bad that is there in this Ummah, it is more in other nations. The civilization of this Islamic Ummah is one of justice, mercy and forbearance. How true is a remark made by a Western Philosopher that, "History has not known a conqueror more merciful than the Muslims!"
As for its adversary, the Western civilization, it did not reach any of these values except after centuries of strife and hundreds of millions of dead and displaced. They are still fighting to this day in Ireland and East Europe! In their colonialist expansions over three centuries they have killed a hundred million as estimated by some of them, while others amongst them estimated it to be up to three hundred million people!
As for it being dealt with mercy, Allah has made its punishment (for its sins) to be in this life. This is by making its enemy overpower it, by dividing it into parties such that each of them chastises the other brutally, and by afflicting it with poverty and social decline. All this is done to purify and cleanse it or to lighten its accountability on the Day of Resurrection. And also it is to raise the rank of some amongst them to levels that they could not have achieved otherwise. In one Hadith the Prophet (saw) said, "Verily this Ummah is shown mercy, its punishment is at its own hands." In another Hadith, "The punishment of this Ummah is by the sword." In the end of the first Hadith, he said, "So, on the Day of Resurrection, a polytheist is pushed toward each of the Muslims and said, 'This is your ransom from the hell fire.'"
As for it being aided, even a comparison has been made of it in a scripture of the People of the Book with a mountain which if it falls on anything, it crushes it, (as did the early conquerors strike the empires of Chosroes and Caesar. And whoever falls on a mountain gets broken and shattered, (as it happened with the Crusaders, the Tartars and the European Colonialists). The Truthful whose truthfulness has been verified (i.e. Prophet Muhammad) has informed that a section of the Ummah will always remain aided and victorious, whoever opposes it or deserts it will not harm it, it will strive on the Truth until the command of Allah comes.
The point is that an Ummah that Allah has bestowed with all these traits, it is not permissible for it to despair under any circumstance, nor think that it has perished. The only one who would do so is one who thinks unwell of Allah or is heedless of the ways of Allah with it. Such people may think that Allah's way with it [the Ummah] is like His way with the others whereas its history records times of invasion and retreat, rise and fall, differences and unification, but one unchanging feature in all circumstances has always been the good outcome for it.
No Easterner nor Westerner would have predicted when the Crusaders invaded the Muslim Ummah that the tables would turn and the Muslims would reach the depths of Europe in their own conquests, nor did any imagine when the Tartars ravaged the Ummah that one day Russia would be conquered for Islam by the Tartars themselves and North Europe invaded alongside them!
FOUR
Everything that befalls on this Ummah in the form of weakness, humiliation, defeat or poverty, is due to its sins and is brought upon by itself. Despite this Allah is kind to the Ummah and therefore does not empower anyone above it who would exterminate it completely. Nor are the afflictions it faces a mere chastisement on it. But amongst those who face afflictions may be a chosen martyr while another may be one killed and thus pardoned and forgiven as a result of his death, or yet another may suffer and as a result his punishment in the Hereafter gets lightened.
Instead if the Ummah grasped on to the rope of Allah, repented to Him and left its sins it will have victory, might and a strong foothold in every sphere. After all, what are its enemies - the People of the Scripture, the Polytheists, its oppressive rulers, and its cunning Hypocrites who plot against it - what are these except a part of its own sins? Then, due to its sins, Allah will empower above them all someone who will afflict them with a brutal punishment - be it from within the Ummah or outside it.
Therefore, the first of the steps toward a change is repentance and humble submissiveness to Allah.
The people of Iraq set out to fight against Hajjaj. The famous scholar of the Tabi'ey, Hasan al-Basri, (May Allah show mercy to him) addressed them saying, "O people of Iraq, verily Hajjaj is a chastisement from Allah, He has empowered him above you due to your sins, so don't tackle the punishment of Allah with your hands but instead repent to Allah and He will remove His punishment from you for verily He says, {And indeed We seized them with punishment, but they humbled not themselves to their Lord, nor did they invoke (Allah) with submission to Him.}"
So if the masses repented to Allah, He will remove the oppression of the rulers on it, and included in its repentance is the enjoining of Good and forbidding of Wrong and befriending for Allah and opposing for Allah (al-Wala and al-Bara).
If the rulers repented and ruled by the Book of Allah, He will remove from them the humiliation and degradation of them by the forces of Kufr as well as the rebellion of the citizens against them, the rulers, and will also remove the situation where some of them are empowered above others amongst them.
If the Muslims who are residing in the West repented from their sins then Allah will remove from them the racial trials and afflictions and the biggest of their sins is forgetting the Wala and Baraa (being a patron of someone or disassociating from them solely for Allah) and getting lost and mixed in the society of Kufr and vice. Likewise, anyone who travels to them or resides there without a temporary need or a strong necessity is a sinner until he repents by returning and leaving the land of Kufr. An exception to this is one whose aim is to Dawah and intends to migrate.
