Our Society, Our History part 3- the rise of the Munafiq

Our Society, Our History- part 3, the rise of the Munafiq.

When our Scholars misuse their authority, and misrepresent the words of our Messenger (saw) taking them out of the social context in which they were said and transpose them into the power dynamics present within our society, then inevitably our people would forget the very real checks and balances that defined our true society.

That Abu Bakr as Siddique (as) in his inaugral speech urged the Ansaar to correct him if he erred. And in so doing made that a duty bound upon them. And by extenson bound upon us.

The false ideas, that have negated those very first real instructions on what our society should look like following on from the Messenger of God leaving us, has permeated our mindset so much so that our people believe that they are being moral, and upholding a Sunnah, when they allow the Munafiq to hold stations above us. 

They believe that they are our brothers, and no word let alone action can be made against them by virtue of their being Muslims, but how can they be our brothers when God calls them in His speech "My enemies"?

For so often God says there to His Messenger; "My enemies and your enemies"; as if to instruct us that here there are two different sets of people. And this is only further brought home to us when we deliberate upon the parable in Surah Tahreem.

For the brotherhood of Islam is a brotherhood of believers, of those that believe in God to such an extent that their morality is never in question. When a trial touches them they only say, "This is what has been promised", and it doesn't affect them but only makes them more true, and more just, more honest, and more generous. These are the ones that truly believe, these are the ones who are brothers of one another.

But those for whom this World is the end and be all, who have not within them the surety of the hour or of our evenutal destination. For them this World is something to hold and have, even when they give, it is as for a reason and that reason is not God's good pleasure. For them this World is the glitter of their eyes, so much so that it affects the morality of their soul, which only becomes deformed by their vain desires. That they lie, and hide their lies, and justify their lies. These are the enemies of God, for they hold no true principles, dear. 

Like unto the disbelievers they think they are moral, and know the right course of action, and would perform innumerable false acts, lies and further lies in support of the action that they believed justified and true.

This is not principle.

This is bigotry of the first order.

And the finest of hypocrisies.

But for the real believers, they know that God asks of them to stay true to the end, to stay honourable and generous to the end, to be just without regard for themselves. 

For them the glitter is in the trial, that it is there for them to prove their truth, and their true worth before God. That they hold the Most Merciful to be the greatest principle of all, and because of that they will remain principled to the very depths of their ends.

And those ends they know belong with the Most Merciful, and we believe that He is the real actor, and to Him is due all and every submission.

So therefore this idea that we are not allowed to call out someone who performs a public duty, because we should not talk about him/her behind their backs, or that we should not concern ourselves with other peoples affairs, or the myriad other evidences that our Scholars bring to shore up their own authority,,, is simply wrong and has no basis except and unless you take the words of our Messenger out of their social context.

In which he advised how we should behave with one another on a social and individual level.

The real issue may be that it is hard to find examples of the Messenger urging the believers to hold him in check, because of his undipsuted authority... but that is simply not true, because our Scholars choose not to emphasize those real occurences when they did occur. 

Nor to deliberate upon them, but instead to fully ignore them, and then to not put them into action.

Thinking that the religion confers upon them authority in all regards.

They choose to forget the conversation at wells of Badr, when the Messenger advised the Ansar not to manually and artificially pollinate the Date crop, when he (saw) consulted in regards to Uhud on the right course of action. When he had a dispute with Aisha (ra), and called Abu Bakr (as) to mediate between them. And so many many more.

And then it is Abu Bakr as Sadiq (ra) who best understood Islamic principles of governance after the Messenger (saw), and with whom the Messenger (saw) gave every indication of supporting his succession, without once again overstepping his authority and determining it for the people.

Then do you wonder that Asad so long held sway amongst the Syrians, and so many other despots.

Because even in the small things, we allow the Munafiq to hold sway, thinking that for those who love this World, that the true religion has no regard for it and therefore that Islam allows them that authority.

But God promises that if you are true believers that He will cause you to inherit this Earth, which is simply a means of Him instructing us that whilst we do not love neither it's pomp nor it's glitter, but even them to us belongs the true authority. 

But, instead you let the Munafiq inherit it, and think that you are holy. 

By no means, that merely reflects on us all, and the sorry state of the Muslim Ummah this day.

That so long as we allow them to hold sway over us, we are not truely believers. 

But poor shadows of our true forbears.

Now consider the similitude mentioned in Surah At-Tahrim, again, and before that Allah commands the Messenger to strive against the Disbelivers and the Munafiqoon. (see addendum).

The question that must be asked is how did the Messenger strive against the Munafiqoon?

When we examine the Seerah, we see that he was easy with them and accepted their every excuse, so again the puzzle only heightens.

And then the Most Gracious states the similitude of the three ladies, two disbelieving and one believing by way of example and an answer to that pressing question.

But God stops short of citing Bibi Maryam (as) as an example, as if to say that it has no bearing on that pressing question, and that therefore she is mentioned as an example to those that are refrred to at the start of the Surah.

And then also to heighten the answer to that pressing question. 

I leave the nugget of truth here unanswered for you to deliberate upon and solve for yourself.

Indeed in the time of the Messenger it was easy to know who the Munafiq were.

They were the ones who shirked from fighting in God's path.

And if that yardstick were applied today, how many of our Scholars would fall short?

Indeed our time is unusual in that we have allowed the Munafiq to hold sway over us, to dominate us, and to be heirs over us and this World.

Whereas in our golden ages, they feared and were not to be feared. 

So hold them to account and do not accept their overlordship, even that is in the small things, for they are not your brothers, for they are the enemies of God.

Knowledge is sougth through studying and contemplating. 
Not by listening to lectures, nor by this above.

Alhamdoliilah, by Allah's leave I have supplicated for over thirty years that God blesses me with a Mujahid's death, and continue to this day.

And I am of those mentioned in the book, who patiently wait and by Allah's leave rejoice in the phenomenal bargain struck.

And that is not the death of a terrorist, for a true believer in God, his morality is never in doubt. And these others who claim to be the warriors of God and then do wrong thinking that they are justified, they do not believe in God and in His Ultimate goodness, they follow their vain desires and think that they are religious. How poor they are, and how deluded.

Written en route to Karachi over the steppe from Istabul, thank you Turkish Airlines.

ADDENDUM

It is as if here in S Tahreem that Allah t'ala is positing the reason for the command to fight by twining the fight against the disbelievers with that against the hypocrites.

That we are commanded to fight against the disbelievers as a means of making clear who the hypocrites are, and this is actually also the fight against them.

This explains why the Sunnah is not to do anything against them, for in making clear the truth of who they are/ in other words the falsity present within their own souls- that is sufficient of a fight against them.

And that that is why the parables-

Both Nuh (as) and Lut (as) struggled against the disbelievers and the truth of who their wifes were became evident.

And Musa (as) struggled against his foster brother, Firawn, and the truth of his foster Mother became evident- that she was a true believer.

And that Allah t'ala chooses to mention the parable with ladies at their centre, to remind us that the moral choice to believe is everyones, even that is when their individuality might be subsumed by the character of another more senior person.

This idea resonates with many other concepts that we find within the narrative of the Quran-

so many times Allah t'ala informs us that if He had wanted He could have made mankind one Ummah, with one singular belief in Him, but He chooses not to.

In another place Allah t;ala informs us that of all of the heavenly sent religions that He sent beforehand, He allowed the accursed Shaitan to mix in with them some falsehood so that the truth of who each of us is might be known.

And with the descent of the Quran, He fully protected it, but placed therein some ambiguity, so that the truth of who we each are might become clear.

This understanding that Islam is God's true religion that He sent as a boon and a mercy to all of the Nations of this World, but that He does not compel you to it, but instead leaves it free for each to accept or reject according to each their inclination as a means of showing each their truth or falsehood.

This Quranic understanding is at odds with an oft quoted Hadith of the Messenger (saw):

<< I have been commanded to fight against the people until they testify that Allah is One, and that I am His Messenger>>

Whilst this is at odds with the known Sunnah of our Messenger (saw), it further contradicts with the narrative contained within the Quran.

And further we know that the Munafiq profess belief and yet do not believe. And here this text is at odds with the verse in S Tahreem. 

May you, and us all, be guided to use our brains to discern truth from falsehood, that the Most Merciful might have an argument for us and not against us.