There must be an element of truth in what more than one billion people believe.
For instance, more than a billion Muslims believe that, despite its unprecedented military and economic power, the US-Israel-Allies alliance will eventually fail - fail to stop their religion from becoming the major socio-political force all over the world! (1) They strongly believe that no matter how oppressed or powerless people in Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other Muslim countries may be, Khilafah on the pattern of Prophethood will be established on a global scale.(2)
The fear of marginalisation in the “mainstream” media scares almost all political analysts away from analyzing international affairs in the context of Islam. However a study of the Qur’an and the Ahadith can help unravel the mystery for those, who are still, at a loss to understand United States’ motives in trying to overthrow Saddam or to occupy Iraq.
According to predictions of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the ultimate World War (Al-Malhama) of human history will be fought primarily in the Middle East. Judeo-Christian forces will succeed in occupying almost all countries in the region except Makka and Madina - this would help the Alliance deny till end that it’s a war on Islam. The groundwork for that catastrophic event was laid down at the start of 20th century, which also, marked the second phase of decline of the Muslim world.
Qur’an had predicted two phases of rise and fall for both the Jews and the Muslims. The Muslim Decline started with segmentation of the Great Ottoman Empire. It then progressed to enslavement of the Muslim world by the forces of Colonialism, and reached its lowest ebb with the ignominious defeat of 1967 when sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque was violated for the second time. With this, the Qur’anic prediction was fulfilled once again. (3)
Jews underwent Divine punishment in the form of the Holocaust. But they also went through the process of revival, as exemplified by the establishment of the state of Israel. The fall of Soviet Union, the Gulf War, the subsequent ploy of “peace process,” the bloody September 11 drama, occupation of Afghanistan and now the recent Bush-Blair alliance for the occupation of Iraq …these machinations by the Jews are bringing them closer to their ultimate dream of a Greater Israel and World Dominance.
We are now in the unfolding of the third and final stage of Jewish and Islamic histories. That Israel is the aggressor, occupier and human rights violator for more than half a century, is an uncontested fact. Yet 50 years of Israeli Barbarism continues. The UN has been able to resolve far complex issues in other parts of the world, but in the case of Palestine, UN resolutions are ineffectual. Verbal assurances of an independent Palestinians state by the “world leaders” at the time of the Gulf and Afghanistan Wars have turned out to be empty promises. What does all of this suggest? Is the world not fulfilling the prophecies of the World War?
We only need to open our eyes and look at contemporary events in the light of Qur’an and Ahadith. Afghanistan is the first, but Iraq is not the last in the sequence of targeted Muslim states. The war will definitely spill over and the long predicted Al-Malhama seems not far away. Alongside this, the process of Muslim re-awakening is also going to continue, culminating not only in the renaissance of Islam as a moral and spiritual ideal, but also in the establishment of the Islamic system of social justice over the entire globe.
Thus, we can put to test every related Qur’anic verse and saying of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and find thousands of references from the contemporary world affairs to prove these valid. For instance, Allah says: “neither Jews nor Christians will be happy with you until you follow their religion” (2:111). Let some one come up with a single Muslim leader whom Jews and Christians are happy with. Saddam served the US for years. He was used to punish Iran. He was provided with chemical and biological weapons. The US and its Allies were silent when he was using these weapons against his own people and Iran. Despite his great services, he is now on top of the US hit list. Saudis were America’s great friends. They were then, democratic as well as human rights defenders. Now, suddenly they are the enemies of United States.
Hence, many Saddams served Christians and Jews but it is only people like Salman Rushdie and Tasleema Nasreen, who earn the pleasure of the West. This serves to show that they will be pleased only when we demonise Islam and follow their faith. They are pleased when we make efforts to become just as morally bankrupt as they are. They are pleased when we adopt homosexual and omni-sexual lifestyles or allow such deviance in the name of human rights. They are investing billions of dollars solely to change our life style and ways of thinking. The theme of a recent PTV play funded by the British Department for Overseas Development (DFID), was that providing education to our girls is not the end of their rights; they should also be free to get engaged in pre-marital relations with anyone whom they may like. Sex, albeit pre-marital is their basic right!
Following their anti-Islam ways of life is nothing short of following their religion. When we call ourselves “secular bulwarks”, draw a line between worldly and religious affairs, wholeheartedly accept an interest based economy, reinterpret Qur’anic verses to suite our “liberalism,” (4) and join hands with them to kill our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, we do just that ----follow their religion!
But, we must not forget that just as Allah (SWT) destroyed other nations who rejected His verses, the present Muslim Ummah is at peril. The fall of Baghdad in 1258 was not the last of Divine punishments for Muslims. There is still more to come after the US attack on Baghdad! The following Qur’anic words would once more come true with the destruction of Baghdad for the second time at the hands of Bush and company: “If you turn away, then Allah will bring other people in your place, who will not be like you” (47:38).
Lesson for Muslims:
Admittedly, it is beyond our present power to control the US. A 900-pound gorilla will sit wherever he pleases! We may not have the power to ignore its “with us or against us” threat. Yet, we are under no compulsion to start worshipping the 900-pound gorilla either!
Removing Jihad-related Qur’anic verses from school curricula, harassing religious institutions, calling oneself moderate and telling the world through Newsweek, “I might have a different approach to praying five times a day” is nothing short of worshipping the monster! Allah has grave warnings for such people. (5)
We are bound to have a flawed understanding of issues if we analyse them out of the Qur’anic context. We will always be the losers if we make our foreign policies against the teachings of Islam. We need to study international affairs in the context of Qur’anic injunctions and sayings of Muhammad (SAW), and have faith in them. (6) Everything that is happening around us in the arena of international relations has already been foretold. We may not be able to change the overall situation, but looking at it from the right perspective will at least give us the good sense to stay on the right path, and to avoid supporting the evil.
Lesson for Non-Muslims: Islam is not just a set of rituals. Islam is a complete code for Humanity, meaning it has everything for every aspect of life. In Islam, politics, international relations, culture, economics, law, and other aspects of individual and community living are not distinct from Religion. They are an integral part of it.
Notes:
(1) Saying of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) narrated by Imam Muslim (RA) on the authority of Thauban (RAA).
(2) Saying of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), narrated by Iman Ahmad (RA) on the authority of Nauman bin Bashir.
(3) “When the time of the second prediction came, (we roused against you another people) to ravage your, and to enter the Temple as they had done the first time, and to destroy utterly what they conquered” (Al-Qur’an, Al-Isra 17:7)
(4) Criticising Qur’anic verses such as those equating testimony of two women to a man (2: 282), or the verse 4:34 that says: “Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has made one of them to excel the other, and because they spend (to support them) from their means..” They argue that this verse is no more valid because women can now earn and protect themselves.
(5) “Yet they take (for worship) gods other than Allah, (hoping) that they might be helped. They have not the power to help them, but they will be brought up (before Our Judgment Seat) as a troop (to be condemned,” (36:54-74).
(6) Believing every word of Qur’an and Ahadis is necessary for the simple reason that we vow to believe in Allah, his angels, his books, his prophets, the day of judgment, and that every good and bad is from Allah, and in the life after death, when we say “Amanto Billahi, wa malaikath-hi wa kutubhi, wa rasulihi, wal yaoomil A’akhre, wal qadre kherihi, a sharehi, minallahi Ta’alla, wal ba’ase ba’ad almooth.”
By:Abid Ullah Jan