Friday Talk on Crises

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Q) Can Wifaqul Ula­ma advise as to how the Jumu’ah con­gre­ga­tion should be addressed on the issue of Syr­ia and what should be some of the salient points of the Fri­day bayan?

It is crit­i­cal to recog­nise the unique and spe­cial cir­cum­stances of your con­gre­ga­tion and the require­ment to address the Syr­i­an cri­sis can be ful­filled in mul­ti­ple ways, e.g.:

1. Put some­thing on the Mosque notice­board high­light­ing the cri­sis and ways to help
2. Dis­play mes­sages on Mosque (elec­tron­ic) dis­plays to remind Mus­lims about Syr­ia, some­thing as sim­ple as “Pray for Syr­ia” is con­cise and effective
3. Pro­pose solu­tions as to how Mus­lims can help in the situation

The Syr­i­an cri­sis can be addressed in mul­ti­ple ways over sev­er­al Fri­days as follows:

Allah Ta’ala is in control:

You should begin by reit­er­at­ing and empha­sis­ing our belief (Eemaan) that it is Allah Ta’ala who is in con­trol of the affairs of this Earth, and not a leaf falls with­out the explic­it will and per­mis­sion of Allah Ta’ala.

‘And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there with­in the dark­ness of the earth and no moist or dry [thing] but that it is [writ­ten] in a clear record.’ (Surah Al-An’am, 6:59)

The sov­er­eign­ty of Allah Ta’ala is supreme and undisputed.

‘And to Allah belongs the sov­er­eign­ty of the heav­ens and the earth, and to Allah is the return (of all)’ (Surah An-Nur 24:42)

The Calamity of Sins:

Mus­lims should be remind­ed that it is our sins which (some­times) cause calami­ties to befall us. The first solu­tion to any calami­ty should be turn to Allah Ta’ala in sin­cere repen­tance and to seek forgiveness.

What comes to you of good is from Allah , but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from your­self. And We have sent you, [O Muham­mad], to the peo­ple as a mes­sen­ger, and suf­fi­cient is Allah as Wit­ness. (Surah An-Nisa 4:79)

And what­ev­er strikes you of dis­as­ter — it is for what your hands have earned; but He par­dons much. (Surah Ash-Shu­ra 42:30)

Justice and fairness:

Mus­lims should be remind­ed as Islam com­mands us to uphold jus­tice and fair­ness in all con­di­tions. We (as Mus­lims) are meant to be equal­ly dis­turbed on all vio­la­tions of human rights, take the side of (all) oppressed and stand up to (all) oppres­sors. We are not sup­posed to mere­ly stand up for Mus­lims (only), although it is nat­ur­al that it affects us more due to our rela­tion­ship with Mus­lims on account of our faith.

We should con­tin­u­ous­ly stand for and try to assist the oppressed regard­less of their faith or ethnicity.

O you who believe, be per­sis­tent­ly stand­ing firm in jus­tice as wit­ness­es for Allah, even if it be against your­selves or par­ents and rel­a­tives. Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is more wor­thy of both. Fol­low not your desires, lest you not be just. If you dis­tort your tes­ti­mo­ny or refuse to give it, then Allah is aware of what you do. (Surat An-Nisa 4:135)

Ver­i­ly, Allah orders jus­tice and good con­duct and giv­ing to rel­a­tives and He for­bids immoral­i­ty and bad con­duct and oppres­sion. He admon­ish­es you that per­haps you will be remind­ed. (Surat An-Nahl 16:90)

Importance of making Dua

Our first recourse of action after seek­ing for­give­ness from our sins and trans­gres­sions is to make Dua to Allah Ta’ala. It is a com­mand­ments of Allah Ta’ala and act of wor­ship to make Dua.

And your Lord says, “Call upon Me; I will respond to you.” Indeed, those who dis­dain My wor­ship will enter Hell [ren­dered] contemptible.(Surat Ghafir 40:60)

And when My ser­vants ask you, [O Muham­mad], con­cern­ing Me — indeed I am near. I respond to the invo­ca­tion of the sup­pli­cant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obe­di­ence] and believe in Me that they may be [right­ly] guid­ed. (Surat Al-Baqara 2:186)

Nar­rat­ed An-Nu’man ibn Basheer (RA) that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: “Dua is wor­ship.” (Tir­mid­hi)

Syria: The Blessed Land

Mus­lims need to be remind­ed that Syr­ia is blessed land as artic­u­lat­ed in the Qur’aan and the Sun­nah thus more impor­tance needs to be attached to cri­sis asso­ci­at­ed with Ash-Shaam.

The land of Ash-Shaam is includ­ed in the def­i­n­i­tion of “sur­round­ings” of Masjid Al-Aqsa and this def­i­n­i­tion goes beyond the present polit­i­cal bound­aries of the coun­try (present­ly known as) Syr­ia. In fact, Ash-Shaam refers to The Lev­ant, which today con­sists of Cyprus, Lebanon, Syr­ia, (pre-1947) Pales­tine, Jor­dan, part of south­ern Turkey, and the Alep­po Vilayet.

Exalt­ed is He who took His Ser­vant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al- Aqsa, whose sur­round­ings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs. Indeed, He is the Hear­ing, the See­ing. (Surat Al-Isra 17:01)

Nar­rat­ed Ibn ‘Umar that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: “O Allah bless us in our Sham! O Allah bless us in our Yemen.” They said: “And in our Najd” He said: “O Allah bless us in our Sham! O Allah bless us in our Yemen.” They said: “And in our Najd” He said: “Earth­quakes are there, and tribu­la­tions are there.” Or he said: “The horn of Shai­tan comes from there.” (Tir­mid­hi)

Sahaabi Zayd ibn Thaabit (RA) nar­rat­ed that we were with the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him), col­lect­ing the Qur’aan from pieces of vel­lum, and the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: “Blessed is (Greater) Syr­ia.” We said: Why is that, O Mes­sen­ger of Allah? He said: “Because the angels of the Most Mer­ci­ful spread their wings over it.” (Tir­mid­hi)

Nar­rat­ed Ibn ‘Umar (RA) that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: ” There shall be con­stant emi­gra­tions (in the near future). The best of the peo­ple will be those who hold fast to the place of emi­gra­tion of Ibrahim (peace be upon him) (i.e. Shām). The worst of the earth’s peo­ple will remain, cast out by their lands, abhorred by Allāh and the fire will gath­er them with the apes and swines.” (Tir­mid­hi)

Nar­rat­ed Ibn ‘Umar (RA) that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: ” Such a fire will emerge from Hadhra­maut (a place in Yemen) before Qiyāmah which will gath­er the peo­ple.’ The peo­ple asked, ‘O Allah‘s Mes­sen­ger (peace and salu­ta­tions be upon him), What do you advise us to do (if we are faced with it)?’ He replied, ‘Take refuge in Shām. ” (Tir­mid­hi)

Nar­rat­ed Ibn Hawālah al-Azdī (RA) that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said, “The mat­ter will run their course until you become three armies: an army in Sham, an army in Yemen, and an army in Iraq”. Ibn Hawālah al-Azdī (RA) said, “Choose for me, O Allah‘s Mes­sen­ger (Peace be upon Him) , in case I live to see that “. He (Peace be upon Him) respond­ed, “Go to Shām, for it is the best of lands of Allah, and the best of His slaves will be drawn there. And if you refuse, then go to Yemen and drink from its wells. For Allah has guar­an­teed me that He will look after Sham and its peo­ple.” (Ahmad)

Importance of Sadaqah (Charity)

You should encour­age mem­bers of your com­mu­ni­ty to give Sadaqah (char­i­ty) and to aid the Mus­lims of Syr­ia to a Mus­lim char­i­ty of your choice. This should be done with sin­cer­i­ty and to please Allah Ta’ala. It is an act which brings the plea­sure of Allah Ta’ala besides being mate­ri­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial and des­per­ate­ly need­ed by those in dire circumstances.

O you who have believed, spend from that which We have pro­vid­ed for you before there comes a Day in which there is no exchange and no friend­ship and no inter­ces­sion. And the dis­be­liev­ers — they are the wrong­do­ers. (Surat Al-Baqara 2:254)

The exam­ple of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like a seed [of grain] which grows sev­en spikes; in each spike is a hun­dred grains. And Allah mul­ti­plies [His reward] for whom He wills. And Allah is all-Encom­pass­ing and Know­ing. (Surat Al-Baqara 2:261)

Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah and then do not fol­low up what they have spent with reminders [of it] or [oth­er] injury will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear con­cern­ing them, nor will they grieve. (Surat Al-Baqara 2:262)

Nar­rat­ed Abu Hurayrah (RA) that that the Mes­sen­ger of Allah (Peace be upon Him) said: ” Allaah said: ‘Spend, O son of Adam, and I shall spend on you.. ” (Bukhari)

Political Action

Wifaqul Ula­ma believes that it is crit­i­cal for Mus­lims to engage with the politi­cians to put pres­sure on their Gov­ern­ments to ensure an imme­di­ate end to the hos­til­i­ties in Syr­ia. We have put togeth­er sam­ple text and names of key politi­cians in Britain to engage on the sub­ject. You should encour­age your local com­mu­ni­ty to engage with your local MP and ensure that the issue is raised in the par­lia­ment. Promi­nent mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty should meet your local MP in per­son and then fol­low it up with emails etc.

To take action on a Nation­al and Inter­na­tion­al lev­el, see these two articles:

1. Alep­po Burning!
2. Chil­dren of Idlib