Question-Answer Series

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

Question-Answer Series

The Future Magazine

QUESTION-ANSWER SERIES

Q. Why is it that most trouble spot in the world today are in Muslim countries? Do we have any explanation? Why Muslim countries are still backward in scientific and technological field, despite the fact that some of them are wealthy?
It is true that many trouble spots in our world lie in Muslim areas. More*over, there are conflicts within Muslim areas. We can divide all these conflicts into external and internal ones. External conflicts are those where Muslims are fighting non-*Muslims, while the internal ones are those where the two parties to the conflict are Muslim. Examples of the first type are Chechnya, Bosnia, Palestine, Sudan, Philippines, etc., and we may cite Algeria and Afghanistan to the latter type.

There are reasons which go deep into history and affect the present status of the Muslim world, and there are contemporary reasons that re*late to the state of affairs in many trouble areas. Every conflict has its apparent reasons, as well as some indirect ones that may help it to erupt at the beginning and may try to prolong it. For example, the arms trade, which is highly profitable, cannot function without warring par*ties which deny their population their livelihood in order to buy arms to kill their opponents.

Similarly, countries with arms in*dustries need to sell their products and to test new ones. They find in wars an area which meets both needs. Thus, they have a good reason to encourage and prolong any war in which they do not get involved.

If we throw a glance back into history, we find that after the rise of the Muslim state in the seventh century, the most important external conflict that the Muslims had to fight was the Crusade campaigns which lasted over two centuries. These left lasting effects on both parties, creat*ing certain prejudices that remain in the Islamic and European cultures. This explains the instinctive resistance on the part of the European civiliza*tion, which naturally includes Amer*ica, to the rise of any truly Islamic state anywhere in the world. On the other hand, the Jews harbor an unabating grudge against Islam and the Muslims. God tells us in the Qur'an that the Jews are the most hardened foes to the Muslim commu*nity. Given the great influence the Jews exercise today in world politics, particularly in the U.S. and Russia, the Muslims are not short of enemies.

Add to all this, the fact that the Muslims have remained in a position of weakness, ever since the decline of the Ottoman state in the eighteenth century. Many Muslim areas experi*enced an imperialist rule which sought to reduce Islam to a very marginal role in the life of its community. The effects of this are still experienced today in most Muslim countries where the majority of Muslims know very little about Islam beyond how to pray and fast. Such a situation tends to perpetuate the weakness of Muslims because they do not search for their indepen*dent Islamic identity which gives them power, and they do not know that seeking God's help requires them to be true Muslims first.
All these factors tend to encou*rage other communities to try to take advantage of the weakness of the Muslims, and to seek help from other parties which are hostile to Islam in order to keep the Muslims subju*gated in many areas. The cases of Bosnia and Chechnya are stork examples of this. The passive Eur*opean attitude in both cases may be caused by the instinctive Eur*opean resistance to the rise of a Muslim state in Europe or close to it.

But we cannot put all the blame on other parties that are hostile to Islam. Muslims have also contributed a great deal to their troubles. After the victory they had achieved in Afghanistan over the Russian aggressor, the Muslim fighters continues to fight each other for years.

There are certainly external forces trying to prolong the conflict, but these external forces could not have succeeded if the Muslim parties to the conflict have not put their narrow interests first. Had they approached their conflict from a truly Islamic angle, they would not have continued to fight each other for so long. They might have been able, with a little compromise and help by their breth*ren in faith, to reconcile their differ*ences. Islam does not gain anything from a fight between two Muslim groups. Indeed both of them, their larger community and Islam itself are the losers.

Moreover, there has been a de*liberate attempt on the part of hostile forces to associate Islam with terrorism. This has been facilitated by a number of Muslim groups who have tried to pursue their goals through ill-conceived actions. There is too much rigidity on the part of groups and movements which associ*ate themselves with Islam.

When rigidity is coupled with narrow-mindedness and poor insight into Islam and its teachings and strategies, we have all the making of the bloody sort of civil strife that has been seen in several Muslim areas. Its only result is to prevent a return to Islam in those very areas. The actions of such Muslim groups have been exploited by dictatorial governments to give Islamic revivalist movements a terrorist color.

What is needed to give the right picture of Islam is a better under*standing of our faith, its principles and values, as well as its methods of dealing with situations of adversity.

Such an understanding will help us map a strategy for Islamic revival that is purged of all alien considera*tions which hamper rather than help the achievement of Islamic goals. It will help, first of all, to remove the schism between what we may call enlightened Islamic scholarship and young groups of Muslim advocates which have been badly entangled in their rigidity and narrow-minded strategy.

The backwardness of Muslim coun*tries in technology is due to the fact that the industrialized countries try hard to monopolize their knowledge so that they maintain their super*iority. They are willing to transfer technology to Muslim and Third World countries, but they will not agree to the transfer of the know*how that produces such technology. In this way they keep the developing countries as importers of their products, never inventors. Yet this mono*poly can be broken, if there is the determination to break it.

Q. Explain the meaning of the Verses 5-7, Chapter Banu Israel?
In order to understand this, one must read from verse 4 onwards. Allah says in the Qur'an, Verses 4-7:
"And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book that twice would they do mischief on the earth and be elated with mighty arrogance and twice will they be punished. * When the first of the warnings come to pass, We sent against you our servants given to terrible warfare and they entered the very inmost parts of your homes; and it was a warning (completely) fulfilled. Then We did grant you victory over them. We gave you increase in resources and sons and made you the more numerous in manpower. * If ye did well, ye did well for yourselves; if ye did evil, (ye did it) against yourselves. So, when the second of the warnings come to pass, (We permitted your enemies) to disfigure your faces and to enter your temple as they entered it before, and to visit with destruction all that fell into their power. * It may be that your Cherisher may show mercy unto you; but if ye revert (to your sins), We shall revert (to our punishments), and We have made hell a prison for those who reject faith."

According to the interpreters of the Qur'an, Banu Israel who received the Torah via Prophets Moses and Aaron (peace be upon both) were a nation full of disbelief. They dis*played scant respect for their Pro*phets and Messengers. They defied Allah and transgressed at every opportunity. Allah then passed His decree that they would commit evil in the land twice, and, each time Allah would place His severe punishment on them.

Then the first order came to pass when they murdered Prophet Isiaiah, known to us as Sa'yaa (pbuh), and they also imprisoned Prophet Jere*mia, known to us as Armiya (pbuh). Allah sent His servant namely King Nebuchadnezzar to wipe them out. Their temple was destroyed, and the Torah was burnt. Their homes were ransacked, womenfolk were mas*sacred and dishonored and the land was taken from them.

Thereafter, Allah granted them sufficient bounty because they re*pented, and He increased them once again in numbers, and caused them to now outnumber the enemy, and so they took over the land once again. Then came Allah's second ordinance to them when they again become mischievous and they killed Prophet Zakariya (pbuh) and his son Prophet Yahya (pbuh) and they even tried to kill Prophet Jesus (pbuh).

Then Allah sent the Persians to annihilate them once again and in the same way as Nebuchadnezzar took over their temple and burnt their Torah the first time, these Persians entered their homes, mas*sacred their womenfolk and annihi*lated them. Allah promised them in the Torah that if they did good, they did good unto themselves and if they committed evil their evil will befall them.

This ordinance of Allah to the Jews will be effective until the Day of Judgment. Whenever they commit evil and violate Allah's laws, Allah will cause their destruction. Look what Hitler did to them? Allah's Word will once again come to pass, because of what they are now doing to the Palestinians. Allah has His own time when He executes His punish*ment.

Q. A book attributes to Islam certain beliefs which cannot be part of it. What do you think should be done about it?
There will always be books of such nature, asserting either the false beliefs of some deviant, or heretical sects, as in this case, or fabricating outright lies about Islam. We feel that the less the fuss is made by Muslims about such books the more likely they will remain confined to a small minority. Once you make a big issue of it, we will find support from all sorts of hostile forces who may champion the false cause of the freedom of expression, as happened in the case of Salman Rushdie, as if the only freedom of expression which must be protected is the freedom to attack Islam.

We very much doubt whether this book will be read by anyone outside the deviant sect whose beliefs it reiterates. What would this matter? This sect has been in existence for several hundred years but it has not made any significant gains among Muslims who know even the elementary principles of Islam. Should we make much fuss about the book, there will be quite a few people with influence in the world media, who will champion the cause of this sect which already enjoys much freedom in Muslim countries. We feel that the damage which that will bring is much more than what the book says. As it stands now, only a non-Muslim will give it a second look. Try to suppress it and you will give it all that it needs for a much wider circulation.

Q. May' ask whether Friday prayer is obligatory?
Friday prayer is certainly obli*gatory. They may not absent them*selves from it for any reason.
However, people who are on travel are exempt from it. Similarly, an ill person may be aggravated if he goes to the mosque, or that he may transmit his disease to other people, is exempt from it. Such people should pray Dhuhr at home. Friday prayer replaces Dhuhr although it is shorter. The speech or the sermon given by the Imam is obligatory, although the prayer is valid without it. If a person comes to the mosque late and he catches up when the prayer has started, he joins the prayer which is valid and complete in his case.