#FREE PALESTINE!

Perhaps as a bonus, each of the Umra (Lesser Hajj) pilgrims may have also witnessed Lailatul Qadr, even if not as a physical “witnessing.” Therefore, such solemn, prayerful occasion, with these millions of worshippers among Humans, Angels and Jinns, was ripe for du’a for Palestinian children, women and old people who are being massacred daily […]

Perhaps as a bonus, each of the Umra (Lesser Hajj) pilgrims may have also witnessed Lailatul Qadr, even if not as a physical “witnessing.” Therefore, such solemn, prayerful occasion, with these millions of worshippers among Humans, Angels and Jinns, was ripe for du’a for Palestinian children, women and old people who are being massacred daily by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his occupation forces.
The worshippers waited on every Qunut with baited breath – they were waiting for direct supplication for Palestine and against Netanhayu. The Qunuts came – and passed – but with only general references, not specific ones. Perhaps if these millions of humans and angels and jinns, who had all raised their hands heavenwards, had intoned AAAAMEEEN!!! against these marauding forces of Israel, just perhaps, the story may be somewhat different! Alas! King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Kings surrounding his country (including the new Egyptian Pharaoh Al Sisi) are part of the grand conspiracy to annihilate the Palestinians. Inna lilLahi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un’! (From Allah we come, and to Him shall we return!)
Nobody, therefore, should be deceived by the AP wire story from Riyadh this Friday to the effect that “Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah says the Gaza war is a ‘collective massacre’ that has spared no Palestinian living there and describes it as a ‘crime against humanity.’ This is just a case of “na hin alone waka come”, to use a famous Nigerian slang. The King should be told in no uncertain terms that the situation goes beyond simple condemnation. It is a massacre that deserves a response in equal measure. Therefore, if one blames the Israelis, one should doubly blame the Arab and Muslim rulers who are complicit, as Servants of America, in this massacre.
Five and a half years ago (around January 2009), on this same page, in a Column titled HAMAS – THE FAITH TRIUMPHANT!, we had rued and lamented the condition of the Palestinians because at that time another onslaught was being perpetrated against them by the same Israelis who have, for the past sixty years, reduced Palestine from a nation to a vast prison complete with walls and fences and barbed wires and checkpoints.
We had said, and we continue to maintain, that with each passing day of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians, with each additional death of a child or mother, Muslims all over the world are forced to become more militant, more fundamentalist, more jihadic. This is very ominous for the West, on whose behalf Israel is doing what it is doing. Samuel Huntington, who died not too long ago, had written the book Clash of Civilisations.  Now, more than ever before, this Clash is being hastened by Israel and its Western backers.
During the 2009 Israeli onslaught, we may recall that Osama bin Laden had called on Muslims to take up arms against Israel. But for the Western-propped Arab regimes encircling Gaza, many young people would have gone into the Strip to join the martyr army of Hamas. What are we left with? Muslims killing Muslims all over the Muslim world – in Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, all over. And the would-have-been and well-deserving enemy is left to do as it wills. Inna lilLahi wa inna ilaiHi raji’un’! (From Allah we come, and to Him shall we return!).
Hamas has bent over backwards to do all what the Western governments wanted her to do, through their Arab ruling agents. It has even, earlier this year, abandoned its popularly-given mandate by the elections of 2006 to relinquish all governance to the PLO, which it defeated. The subsequent government included no Hamas member, despite the movement’s immense public acceptability and popularity among Palestinians. Yet despite all this, Hamas and its people in Gaza got no reprieve. Egypt under Al Sisi continues to help Israel and America by ensuring the keys to the prison called Gaza is locked tight, shut!
And throughout this unjust Israeli war on Palestinians (one should never accept the Western term ‘conflict’; for a conflict is a clash between two equal forces, which this is not), no so-called ceasefire has helped the people of Gaza. In the latest twist, the UK’s Daily Mail this Friday had a front-page online banner headline “72-HOUR CEASEFIRE LASTS LESS THAN 72 MINUTES AS ISRAELI TANKS OPEN FIRE AND KILL FOUR PALESTINIANS!” And this is a Western newspaper!
In 2009, we had mentioned that the title of that Column five and a half years ago (HAMAS – THE FAITH TRIUMPHANT!) came from The Faith Triumphant, the title of Chapter Eleven in one of the most important books of the Islamic Movement, Ma’alim fit Tariq (Milestones), written by the Movement’s leading intellectual and Martyr, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966). He was as if talking about the Palestinians back then in the early 1960s before he was killed.
In Milestones, Qutb had written: “Allah says, ‘Do not be dejected or grieve. You shall be the uppermost if you are Believers’ (3:139). The first thought which comes to mind on reading this verse is that it relates to the form of Jihad which is actual fighting; but the spirit of this message and its application with its manifold implications, is greater and wider than this particular aspect. Indeed it describes that eternal state of mind which ought to inspire the believer’s consciousness. It describes a triumphant state which should remain fixed in the Believer’s heart in the face of everything, every condition, every standard and every person; the superiority of the Faith.
“It means to be above all the powers of the earth which have deviated from the way of the Faith, above all the values of the earth not derived from the source of faith, above all the customs of the earth not coloured with the colouring of the faith, above all the laws of the earth not sanctioned by the Faith, and above all traditions not originating in the Faith. It means to feel superior to others when weak, few and poor, as well as when strong, many and rich. It means the sense of supremacy which does not give in before any rebellious force.
“Steadfastness and strength on the battlefield are but one expression among many of the triumphant spirit which is included in this statement of Almighty God. The superiority through faith is not a mere single act of will nor a passing euphoria or a momentary passion, but is a sense of superiority based on permanent Truth centred in the very nature of existence…
“Conditions change, the Muslim loses his physical power and is conquered; yet the consciousness does not depart from him that he is most superior. If he remains a Believer, he looks upon his conqueror from a superior position. He remains certain that this is a temporary condition which will pass away and that faith will turn the tide from which there is no escape. Even if death is his potion, he will never bow his head. Death comes to all, but for him there is martyrdom. He will proceed to the garden while his conquerors go to the fire. What a difference!”
May Allah help the Palestinians. Please do that du’a in your individual Qunut tonight. Do not wait for the Imam of Mecca, for he is NOT allowed to intone #Free Palestine! And as we continue our journey through trying times, we continue reciting Hasbunal Lahu wa ni’imal Wakil!