DELIVERED AT LYSTERFIELD FRIDAY PRAYER 31-10-08.
*TREAT THEM KINDLY*
(STUFF YOUR DEMOCRACY AND CAPITALISM!)
Bros. in Islam - May Allah be pleased with us.
I titled this khutbah - Treat Them Kindly.
I have been reading a review about a new research entitled "Marching To Hell" by an ex Central Intelligence Agency - CIA - officer, Michael Scheuer. Actually this report is just one of numerous of its kind being published since the US decided to invade Iraq in 2003.
We have been hearing ad nauseum from America, particularly George W. Bush and his advisers, how some Muslims hate the US lifestyle and electoral processes and so-called freedoms. That's why it was important for America and its like-minded allies to spread that lifestyle, those electoral processes and those freedoms, that capitalism that goes hand in glove, if necessary through war. Now we know what that sacrosanct "capitalism" has done to the poor, including in America. Privatising profits and socialising losses, as one Australian commentator puts it.
Well, the ex CIA agent Michael Scheuer, pulls no punches in his report and says all such dribbles, such excuses are nothing but studied lies - meaning, lies that have been formulated after much thought and considerations. Deliberate lies, which when exposed were quickly changed to "bringing democracy to Muslims countries and ipso facto, of course, capitalism, especially in the Middle East."
Well, let us tell Bush and his friends in no uncertain terms "keep your democracy to yourself, keep you capitalism which is based on greed to yourself - because you are more deserving of it than we ever will be!" Why?
Let me begin by quoting this snippet from history - written by Westerners, not Muslims:
When a Welsh - now part of Great Britain - resistance leader was captured and brought before the emperor in Rome, he said:
"Because you desire to conquer the world, it does not necessarily follow that the world desires to be conquered by you!" Unquote.
Actually, if this wasn't a mosque, we could ask the West "who do you think you are?" "why do you feel so superior to us?" in a more rude fashion.
Remember, the Ottoman Empire lasted for seven hundred years - the longest in history for an empire. Not only that, but during that very long period, 7 centuries, there never was once a mutiny.
That durability by Muslims to govern over such wide areas in Europe must have had some relation to their ability to rule a multi-faith empire in the Balkans, at a time when Europe was busily hanging, drawing and quartering different varieties of Christian believers.
Today Islam is said to be less, not more tolerant than the West. Really?
Is America nowadays tolerant?
Their fear of a Muslim, or someone with just a Muslim connection, no matter how tenuous, to be the next president of the USA borders on the paranoia. Many Americans are suspicious of Barack Hussein Obama because of his middle name - Hussein - which many Americans believe to be a quintessentially Muslim name.
When a Jewish Rabbi became a Muslim, the Prophet Muhammad (saw) asked whether he would like to change his name to Abdullah. The rabbi's name? Hussein.
The majority of Americans (66%) admit to having at least some prejudice against Muslims; one in five says they have "a great deal" of prejudice. Almost half do not believe American Muslims are "loyal" to the country and one in four does not want a Muslim as a neighbour.
There you have it - the so-called open-mindedness of the great WHITE, CHRISTIAN American people.
The Age newspaper columnist Anne Davies, recently lamented the fact that though there are some 6 to 7 million Muslims in America, neither Obama nor Senator McCain has visited a mosque during their campaign, though they have made multiple visits to churches.
When at a rally somebody said that Obama was an Arab and a Muslim, the Republican Party candidate in the coming US presidential election, John McCain said "No, he is a decent family man". Implying that an Arab or a Muslim could never be a "decent family man."
McCain described America as a Christian nation, explaining emphatically that the leadership must be maintained by those who believe in Christian Principles.
An American Muslim, Dr. Aslam Abdullah, begs to ask most humbly:
"What kind of Christian nation are you referring to Senator McCain? Remember, some of the Christian clergies or priests who have endorsed him as the next president, are Evangelical Christians, some of whom have condemned Jews as anti-Christ and described the Catholic church as a den of Satan, even a whore.”
Or perhaps the white supremacist Christians who regard other non white races as inferior. Or perhaps the revivalist who consider anyone outside their church as hell bound? Or the Orthodox that still believes that slavery is one of God's gifted rights to the earlier settlers? While Islam, from the very beginning, has enjoined that "freeing a slave is one of the most noble deeds a Muslim can perform' (Al Baqarah verse 177).
Bros. in Islam:
Americans are fond of quoting one of the founding fathers and subsequently 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson, who once said that:
"The most sacred of the duties of a government is to do equal and impartial justice to all of its citizens." Unquote.
Where do you think Jefferson may have come across such grandiose advice?
Listen to this: When the 1st Muslim US Congressman, Keith Ellison took his oath of office in January 2007, he placed his hand on a Qur'an once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Keith Ellison borrowed the Muslim holy book from the Library of Congress, in the Rare Books section.
For somebody like Thomas Jefferson, a book of any type would not have been a mere ornament to decorate his own library. He must have read it and must have come across so many of the Quranic verses regarding justice and the duty to do same.
No other religion or teaching has the ability or audacity to remind, indeed, warn its adherents to undertake justice as emphatically, uncompromisingly, and in a non negotiable manner as Islam.
*Inna Allaha ya'murukum an tuaddoo al amanati ila ahliha
Wa izta hakamtum baynan naas an tahkumuu bil 'adli.*
(Behold Allah bids you to deliver all that you have been entrusted with unto those who are entitled thereto, and WHENEVER YOU JUDGE BETWEEN PEOPLE, TO JUDGE WITH JUSTICE!) ANNISA (IV - 58).
And:
"And never let hatred of anyone lead you into the SIN of deviating from justice!" (AL MAA'IDAH - V - 8).
*Wa laa yajri mannakum syanaa-aanu
Qaumin 'alaa alla ta'dillu.*
And, of course there are many, many other similar verses. That is Islam.
So bros. in Islam: Are we then going to give up all of these peerless teachings for the so-called democracy and lies and lies and studied lies and extreme capitalism, based on greed and manipulation, which the West calls values?
The Western legal framework holds on to this obnoxious heritage, first enunciated in England, and incorporated into the Commentaries on the Laws of England in 1765.
Listen to this dribble:
"That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution." Unquote.
What! Must the king be accepted as infallible, just like the head of the Catholic Church? And by extension, so also other leaders. Never, not in Islam.
That is why a leader such as President George Bush believes he can get away with murder and torture.
You may have read about the plight of one of our Sydney Muslim brothers of Egyptian extraction Mamdouh Habib who was a victim of what the Americans called "extraordinary rendition" - meaning he was arrested elsewhere - in Mamdouh Habib's case in Pakistan in October 2001 - and then, against the wishes of the Australian government, taken to Egypt to be tortured.
I am sure some of you must have heard of some of the torture methods employed by some Egyptian police, like sodomising a detainee with a broom stick.
Mamdouh Habib was spared such treatment, but he was tortured alright, no question about it.
Briefly: the Americans did not want to take their detainees to America, where the constitution does not permit the authorities to torture prisoners. So what the Americans have been doing have been to render these detainees who have NOT been tried and found guilty, to various countries, including some Muslim countries, where torture was and is the order of the day.
Hence also Guantanamo - a piece of land leased by the US from Cuba and because Guantanamo or Gitmo as it has now been known, is not, legally and technically US soil, detainees have no right of habeas corpus and can be treated as violently and inhumanely as the powers that be wanted.
Here is a quote I found in an article published by the The New Republic:
"Latest evidence disclosed to the US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, revealed that the Bush administration officials directed the use of torture techniques on detained suspected terrorists, almost all of whom, of course, were Muslims."
There are 2 new books about the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.
A review of one of them, as published in the Weekend Australian newspaper recently, said, and I quote:
"Abu Ghraib, a former Saddam Hussein horror chamber has become a stain, or worse, on America's image. It is hard to imagine anyone with a television who hasn't seen the pictures of naked prisoners piled in a pyramid; US soldiers standing over them, grinning; a snarling dog in the face of a naked prisoner; a bag over his head, chained to the bars of a prison cell; the naked man on a box, head covered, arms outstretched, attached to wires." Unquote.
And you know what, brothers in Islam?
An American officer, Major General Anthony Taguba, who concluded in a study that numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees at Abu Ghraib, was, according to a very respected American journalist, Seymour Hersh, forced into retirement.
So these are the so-called do-gooders who try to impose upon Muslims their democracy, their Anglo-Saxon capitalism, based on what they like to proudly call the "Judeo-Christian" ethics.
Bros. in Islam - May Allah be pleased with us all.
At the beginning of this khutbah I said that I titled this sermon "Treat Them Kindly".
No, this is not a statement in the Geneva Conventions summarising the rights of POWs.
This is the Prophet Muhammad's (saw) instruction to his Companions almost 1430 years ago. Islam has set down rules for warfare, detailing when Muslims should fight, whom they should fight, and how they should fight.
In the time of the Prophet Muhammad, the Muslims set an unprecedented standard for the ethics of dealing with captured enemies. They treated prisoners of war in a manner that has yet to be imitated in history.
Islam set the basic rule that the captive is protected by his captivity and the wounded by his injury. Islam instructs Muslims either to free captives who cannot offer ransom (in the form of money or an equivalent number of Muslim captives) or to ransom prisoners of war.
Prisoners of war are not to be humiliated or degraded in any way, like what the Americans did in Abu Ghraib. They have the right to their human dignity and the right to be protected from sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.
Sufficient health care should be provided for prisoners who need it. Proper food and clothing should also be provided, as well as sanitary facilities.
The Prophet also instructed his Companions to shelter their prisoners from the summer sun and to provide them with water to drink. Captives are invited to learn about Islam, but they are under no pressure whatsoever to convert.
[There is no compulsion in religion] (Al-Baqarah 2:256) means that sincerity is an essential requirement of one's faith, so, therefore, no one can be coerced to become a Muslim nor should anyone convert to seek some worldly benefit.
The Quran describes the righteous thus:
*Wa yutd'imuunatd tda'aama 'ala hubbihi miskiinaan wayatiimaan wa asiira(an).
(And they, though they hold it dear, give sustenance to the indigent, the orphan and the captive. (Saying) we feed you for the sake of God alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.) (Al-Insan 76:8-9)
Relating how the Companions complied strictly with the Prophets instructions on treating POWs, one of the prisoners of the Battle of Badr, Huzayr ibn Humayr, said: "I was with one of the Ansari families, after being taken as captive. Whenever they had lunch or dinner, they used to give me preference by providing me with bread while they eat only dates, in compliance with the Prophets order to treat prisoners well."
Another, Thamama ibn Athal, was taken prisoner and brought to the Prophet, who said, be good to him in his captivity.
When the Prophet went home, he asked that any food in his house be collected and sent to Thamama.
Each human being has inherent value and distinction as the creation of Allah.
Later, the Prophet approached him respectfully and inquired whether Thamama could ransom himself: “What have you, Thamama?” He replied, “Actually I have a lot going for me. If you kill me, you kill a man whose blood will surely be avenged. If you are generous, then you are generous to a man who knows how to be grateful. If you are after money, then ask of me whatever amount you like.”
The Prophet left him and on the second day when he approached him, Thamama said basically the same thing.
On the third day, the Prophet said, "Let Thamama go." They unbound him and let him go. He went on his way, quickly took a bath and returned, declaring, ”I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah.”
“O Muhammad! I swear to Allah that there was no man on the face of the Earth whom I hated more than you. Now you have become to me the dearest of men. And I swear by Allah that there was no religion on earth more loathsome to me than your religion, but now it is the most beloved to me of all religions. There was no country on earth more despised by me than your country, yet now I love it more than any other country in the world.”
The Islamic ethics of treating prisoners of war is part of the whole system of Islamic ethics, which places utmost importance on the preservation of human dignity and rights. This principle extends from the rights of the unborn child to the rights of women, the elderly, non-Muslims living in a Muslim country, to even aggressive enemies captured as prisoners of war.
Subhanallah. Why would be want garbage from the West, especially America, when our religion has given us such gems, such noble teachings.
A Jewish peace activist and writer, Uri Avnery, in an article published recently describes the origin of the American people as "people without land in a land without people. These white settlers completely ignored the right of the indigenous people, whom they considered subhuman savages and murderers. These people saw the natural resistance of the local peoples as evidence of their innately murderous character which justifies even the worst atrocities. They expelled the natives and took possession of their land as the most natural thing to do, settling on every hill and under every tree, with one hand on the plough and the Bible in the other." Unquote.
Let me add, brothers in Islam, actually that article was intended by the Jewish gentleman, Uri Avnery, as applicable to the white Americans as well as the current Israeli people. Especially those who refuse to recognise the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland.
To further illustrate the West's hypocrisy listen to this news item recently:
"The US and Israel have condemned Iran after it test-fired a long range missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv with a one ton conventional warhead."
Barack Husin Obama, John McCain, The White House and sundry State Department and Pentagon officials, all condemned Iran's missile test. Each trying to outdo the other in his ferocity towards Iran.
Yet, when Israel recently carried out a massive air operation exercises over the Mediterranean, which everybody agreed was a kind of a general rehearsal for an attack on Iran, everyone was agog, in awe, full of admiration at Israel's prowess. "Wow!" "Fantastic!". "Israel flexing its muscles”, and you could almost hear a thunderous applause by the West.
But if a Muslim country tries to do something to prepare itself in order to better defend itself against an attack - now that is terrible. That is provocative. That is unjustifiable. And if you say something against Israel, then you are guilty of the worst case of racism - ANTI SEMITISM!
Every Western visitor to Israel will heap mountains of fawning adulation on Israel. Not one of them has ever had a word of criticism. No word about occupation. No word about Jewish settlements. No word about Ghaza blockade. No word about daily killings. Just a wonderful, wonderful peace loving state that the bad, bad terrorists, the Palestinians, want to throw into the sea.
This really is the ultimate in hypocrisy. And in Al Qur'an. An-Nisa IV-145:
*Innal munaafiqiina fid darkil asfali minnan naar(i)
Walan tajida lahum nashiiraa(n).*
(The Hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire: no helper wilt thou find for them.)
And now from the London newspaper The Independent:
"Britain's first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik, has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the United Kingdom, saying that many feel targeted like "the Jews of Europe."
Further he adds, "Somehow there is a message out there that it's OK to target people as long as it's Muslims. And you don't have to worry about the facts and people will turn a blind eye." Unquote.
But we Muslims are supposed to just roll onto our back and like a poodle being tickled. For if we stand up to defend our honour, then, as Uri Avnery says: "it will be seen as evidence of our innately murderous character which justifies even the worst atrocities."
Muslims are not even allowed to defend themselves.
They still say we Muslims are less tolerant than the West. What a laugh!
Aqulu qaoli hazta wastaghfirullahi 'aziim.#
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"HOW ISLAM VIEWS NATURAL DISASTERS"
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Monash 14th January 2005.
Bros. in Islam:
We have just witnessed the devastating power of the tsunami that hit many areas in South and Southeast Asia.
In particular Aceh, in the northern part of Sumatra.
This particular area has great resonance with us muslims. The people of Aceh, renowned for their tenacity in the fight againts colonialism, both by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch - both Christian nations - have, with great pride, dubbed their land as "The Veranda of Mecca" - an extension of the Holy Land.
In Aceh, during the fasting month of Ramadhan, restaurants are shut during the day time. And the few that might open for business, are usually well shielded from the public's view, in deference to those who fast.
Yet it was Aceh that bore the brunt of the verocity of the unleashing of the earthquake and its attendant tsunami, which according to one report was equivalent to the devastating power of one thousand nuclear bombs.
More than one hundred thousand people have died; the carnage left by the disaster, as was said by the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was so incredible that no one could have been prepared for it.
Remember Colin Powell was not only a politician, but also a former 4-star general who saw action in Vietnam dan then oversaw the first Gulf War against Iraq, in his capacity as the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff.
How then are we, as muslims, ought to react and response to this huge calamity?
Of course, first and foremost to utter "Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiuun."
From Allah and back to Allah.
It sounds very simple. But brothers in Islam, believe me, this is the kind of preparation that our religion has provided us with.
We as muslims should always be ready for just about anything, and it helps us maintaining not only our faith, but equally important, our sanity.
There are numerous exhortations in our Holy Scripture, Al Qur'an, to ponder and ponder. To think and think.
The French philosopher, Descartes says:"Cogito ergo sum" - I think therefore I am.
Islam requires its adherents to think, not to follow blindly. Therefore it should also be said "I think, therefore I am a Muslim!"
And at this bemusing and bewildering moment, we need to think carefully and earnestly about what has just befallen our brothers and sisters in Aceh, Sri Lanka, where many Muslims also became victims and elsewhere.
Why this terrible catastrophe?
This is the time, more than any other in the recent past, for us to go back to The Qur'an.
And let us see what Allah has said to prepare us for this disaster.
In Surah or Chapter 'AL HADID" meaning Iron, verses 22 and 23, Allah swt says:
"Maa ashaa ba min mushibati fil ardhi
Wala fi anfusikoom illa fii kitaabi
Min qabli an nabra ahaa
Inna ztalika 'alallahi yasiir."
In the meaning:
No calamity can ever befall the earth, and neither your own selves*,
Unless it be (laid down) in Our decree before We bring it into being.
Verily, all this** is easy for Allah.
A few clarifications here. Where Allah says "wala fi anfusikoom" is intended to mean "the earth or mankind as a whole, or any of us individually" which in turn, according to many Islamic scholars, is an allusion to natural as well as man-made catastrophes, and to individual suffering through illness, moral or material deprivation, etc.
And where Allah says that "all this is easy for Him" it is because Allah has decreed an event and bringing it into being. We have to accept this if we believe in Allah and His Books and His prophets.
And then in the ayah following it, ayah 23, Allah swt, still in Al Hadid, says:
"Likaila ta'soo 'alaa maa faa takoom
Walaa tafrahu bimaa ataakoom
Wallahu la yuhibbu kulla mukhtalin fakhoor."
Shadaqallahul a'zim
In the meaning:
(Know this) so that you may not despair over whatever (good) has escaped you nor exult (unduly) over whatever (good) has come to you.*
The ayah which says - "over whatever good or not good that has happened to you" - has a special significance.
Mohamad Asad in his commentary of the Qur'an says about this particular ayah or phrase:
"Thus, the knowledge that whatever happened had to happen - and could not have not happened - because, obviously it had been willed by Allah in accordance with His unfathomable plan, ought to enable a true believer to react with conscious equanimity to whatever good or ill comes to him."
Brothers in Islam:
Lets not kid ourselves - we know only very very little about this life, this universe.
So many ayahs in Al Qur'an that have seemed cryptic to previous generations, have now, Alhamdulillah, thanks to the advances in modern sciences and knowledge, have become clear.
Let us take just as a simple example verse 30 in Surah XXI - Al Anbiya - or The Prophets:
"Awa lam yarallaztina kafaroon
Annas samaawati wal ardha
Kaanatan ratqaan, fafataqna humaa
Wa ja'alnaa minal maai kullu syai-in hayi"
The meaning of which is:
"Are, then, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and earth were (once) one single entity, which We then parted asunder"*
As an explanation of the word "asunder" - fafataqna humaa:
Almost all modern astrophysicists are of the view that this universe has originated as one entity from one single element, namely, hydrogen, which became subsequently consolidated through gravity and then separated into individual nebulae, galaxies and solar systems, with further individual parts progressively breaking away to form neww entities in the shape of the stars, planets etc.
And Dr. Alfred Kroner, who is one of the world's renowned geologists and is professor of geology and chairman of the department of geology at the institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, says:
"Thinking where Muhammad (the Prophet saw) came from .... I think it is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years, with very complicated and advanced technological methods, that this is the case."
Brothers in Islam rahimakumullah:
Thhe Prophet Muhammad saw says in a hadits - asysyahaa datu sab'un - there are seven cause of virtuous deaths:
Including "Al ghariiqu syahiidun" those who die in drowning die as syahid. "allatzi yamootoo tahtal hadmi syahiidun"
meaning "those who die under fallen debris" and so on.
A fate that befell many of our brothers and sisters in the tsunami disaster.
That is why the Indonesian Muslim Scholar Council, in a consoling edict to those who have lost relatives and friends in the disaster, said that those who perished in the calamity were all syahid.
In Al Baqarah (Chapter or Surah II, verse 154) Allah swt says:
"Wa laa taqooloo liman yaqtaloo fi sabillillahi amwaat
Bal ahyaa' wala kin laa tasy'uruun."
The meaning of which:
"And say not of those who are slain in Allah's cause, "They are dead", nay, they are alive, but you perceive it not."
The death of the Prophet's son, Ibrahim, radiAllahu wa anhu, coincided with a total eclipse of the sun.
When the people of Madinah, in their grief, attributed the eclipse to the death, by saying that even the heavens were inconsolable by such misfortune, the Prophet immediately responded by saying that the eclipse had nothing to do with his son's demise. "Eclipses are natural phenomena", explained the prophet.
Different faiths may respond and react differently to natural disasters.
In the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal, which killed some 100-thousand people, Catholic priests went on to the city streets, blaming those suspected of heresy as the cause that invited God's wrath. Many, accused of heresy, were hanged on sight.
Now in the 21st century, an American Rabbi - a leader in Judaism - Daniel Lapin, in an article in the Chicago Jewish News on the tsunami disaster, said that God deploys natural disasters to punish those who have not embraced Judeo-Christian traditions.
He said that Americans had been relatively untouched by natural disasters because they derive enormous benefit from the faith of their founders and of their heirs.
No sooner had he said this, than landslides struck La Conchita in California - more than a dozen people died. May be the learned Rabbi had spoken too soon. Wallahu a'lam.#
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