The Prophets (S) priority- Liberating Makkah Part 2

Muhammad H. al-'Asi

Muharram 21, 1433 2011-12-16

Bismillah Ar-Rahmaan Ar-Raheem. Alhumdulillah. Peace and blessings on Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa alihi wa sallam), his Noble Companions and Family. Dear Committed brothers, dear committed sisters,

We shall continue our humble compliance with Allah at this time on this day to present what has long been forgotten of the Prophets character and his deeds. Many Muslims speak about the Sunnah of Allah’s Prophet. One Sunnah is regarding what you do in the Masjid; another Sunnah is regarding what you do at home; a third Sunnah is regarding what you do in the street, etc. etc; and his lifelong Sunnah no one notices! We have been trying to reconstruct that lifelong Sunnah from this Mimbar, (so to speak), every week; that lifelong Sunnah was to liberate occupied Makkah. We reached the point where Muslims who had come to Allah’s Prophet from Yathrib pledged their fealty or their allegiance to him. This was, what is called in today’s world, the game changer. This brought about a dynamic that was never there before. Now there was a human popular power base that throughout the previous decade and more did not exist. This began as we mentioned with the second bay’ah at that particular place called Al Aqabah that many Muslims (who) even when they go to those sacred areas are oblivious to what it stands for. So now the Prophet of Allah was to embark on an effort or a strategy that pertains to Makkah itself- Makkah controlled by his enemies, Makkah the power centre that was harassing him, that was torturing his followers. Now there’s going to be a new element in the dynamics that the Prophet of Allah was teaching us. Many times Muslims think that- please brothers and sisters pay attention to this because it is brought to your attention in a very inaccurate way… Most of the times when we recall those ground breaking years when Allah’s Prophet was teaching us how we change the status quo, for some reason whether it is an enemy speaking or it is a friend that is speaking, we process the information in a way that gives us the impression that Allah’s Prophet was locked in warfare against the Mushriks of Arabia. This is not an accurate presentation of what the Prophet was doing. The Prophet of Allah simply was trying to speak to the public mind to convince the public conscious that the erroneous system around has to go. It has no legitimacy and that Allah is giving them the light, the information, the laws, the conduct to change all of this. The Prophet’s struggle continued for twenty-three years; out of those twenty-three years if we wanted to quantify what was the warfare out of those twenty-three years they’d probably be somewhere between ten and twenty percent, which is contrary to the impressions or the traditions that we have right now in us. When we take a closer look at the way our first pages of history were written, we’d find that when there was armed conflict, most of the times it was because Quraysh was launching and initiating warfare against we, the committed Muslims. (You) take a look at Uhud, you take a look at Khandaq, you even take a look at Badr, the first military encounter. It was there because of Quraysh. If Abu Sufyan did not insist that he wanted the camels and the horses and the mules and the others that were carrying the merchandise that was coming from the North on its way to Makkah back there wouldn’t have been a confrontation. So in other words, if we take a closer to at our own history we will find that even though we have to be militarily prepared we were not the ones who were launching into modes and locations of combat against the Mushriks and the out-and-out enemies that are always there. So now for the Muslims who were in all of these previous years on the defensive, persecuted, leaving Makkah to other places such as Al Habasha or At Ta’if in the case of Allah’s Prophet there is a new element here, i.e. finally Islam found its popular base. The struggle was in Makkah and even though Allah’s Prophet was responsible and heading that struggle it did not succeed in Makkah. So now there was a movement of people from Makkah to Yathrib or Al Madinah. This movement saw individuals who were committed Muslims with Allah’s Prophet now who were relocating to Al Madinah. They were leaving Makkah as individuals or as small groups of individuals and they were leaving Makkah secretly. When they were leaving the Mushriks in Makkah were not giving them the freedom to leave peacefully. They were harassing them in their movement away from Makkah. Some of them had what in today’s world we call their money generating businesses. So they were harassed being told if you leave your business is going to become ours or if you leave you’re going to have to divorce your wife or if you leave you’re going to have to leave your family behind. This part of history does not configure into the way we speak to each other or the way we define certain words. So this secrecy is an integral part of the Prophet’s Sunnah. Secrecy, (we have to repeat this because it’s not there in the public mind), is an integral part of the Prophet’s Sunnah- his conduct, his decision, his strategizing, his planning. Even the eventual liberation of Makkah came about without any fanfare, without any prior “media efforts” by the Muslims and by the Prophet saying “we are going to liberate Makkah.” No- it wasn’t done in that fashion.

Now that the Muslims had left Makkah, at least the known Muslims or overt Muslims, there may have been Muslims who in public did not profess their Islam but those who were known to have been Muslims left. Notice that the leader of the Muslims, Allah’s Prophet, was the last to leave. He wasn’t the first one, he was the last one. So who remained with Allah’s Prophet until those final moments? The two individuals who remained with him were Abu Bakr and Ali (radi Allahu anhuma). How did he leave? This is one of the details that doesn’t serve today’s status quo to bring it up. How did he leave? This i.e. him being forced out of Makkah is yet another meaning of the ayah

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

… they plot and plan and Allah does His planning and Allah is the best in this regards. (Surah Al Anfal verse 30)

What happened? Why did the Prophet of Allah leave the way he left? Are we speaking about a social system that will permit a person who disagrees with it to move about in freedom or is this type of social system have aggressive and hostile and bloody thoughts on its mind? It is the latter because the leaders of the Makkan social classes, the tribal make-up of Makkah met in Dar An Nadwa and they were discussing what are they going to do with this Muhammad? He’s a trouble maker, he’s a subversive, he’s a revolutionary. These types of meanings, even though the exact words may not have been used but the ideas that were in the mind of these leaders were entertaining the current definitions of these words. What are we going to do with this person? One option was we’ll lock him up.

لِيُثْبِتُوكَ أَوْ يَقْتُلُوكَ

… are they going to confine him or kill him or expel him … (Surah Al Anfal verse 30)

The ayah itself tells us what they were discussing- so what do we do with this person? They presented themselves with the options. One option is that they lock him up but then they thought to themselves well we have a small problem (and) if we lock him up then this is going to exacerbate the problem so locking him up is not an option. What do we do? What’s the other option? Expel him. Kick him out of Makkah. But then they said if we do that then he’s obviously going to go to his power base in Yathrib. We don’t want him to do that because now his power is going to increase. So what’s left? What are we going to do? Here is where they decided among themselves the only option left to us is to kill him. Now think of today’s Muslims- are today’s active, (some call them) Islamists, (some call them) members of the Islamic Movement willing to put themselves in that position? This is a very serious question because they all say “we follow Allah’s Prophet.” But if you mean what you say, are they willing to be put in the same position that he was put? We find them scurrying around and running away from exactly being put in that position. Brothers and sisters- we don’t have to break from this Khutbah and remind you of what’s happening in the real world. We leave that to you. Do we have to tell you what’s been in the news in the past couple of days and weeks as far as what Establishment and the Government and the system and the Regime and Senators and Congressmen and decision makers and lawmakers and all the rest have been doing and saying and trying to pass as laws? Come on! Have a little fertilization of the meanings of what Allah is telling you and what the Prophet demonstrated with his character and his resolve. So they decided the best thing we can do here is to select from everyone of us a robust young person, a muscular person and once they arrive at his place all of them at one time strike him so that, (in their words), his blood, meaning the blood that was going to be shed in killing him will be scattered around all of the tribes in Makkah and in that way no one can blame one particular tribe of having killed Muhammad. No one! In this fashion they will also overcome the objections of Bani Hashim. What’s Bani Hashim going to do when Bani Hashim who was protecting the Prophet all of this time when they know that all of Makkah had conspired, had participated in the assassination of this Prophet? It happened that as Allah had things calculated the Prophet of Allah left Makkah. Here’s another part of the Seerah of Allah’s Prophet that is not spoken about and that is when he left Makkah he utilised the experience and the expertise of a non- Muslim. A pathfinder, Abdullah ibn Arit, who was not a Muslim at the time. The Prophet, (in today’s language), contracted this person to show him the best escape route out of Makkah Northward on to Yathrib/Al Madinah. This wasn’t a Muslim. A very serious question here presents itself. This is a life-and-death issue; this is a critical time. Its not like someone’s trying to contract the expertise or the knowledge or a scientist in affluent times, this is a life-and-death timeframe and the Prophet of Allah relies on a non- Muslim for his life?! Right now, you can begin to understand why many Muslims don’t want to breach this issue, they don’t want anyone to think and that is what has become prohibited. It has become haram to think! Why? What’s wrong? If you are sure and you have confidence in the person that you are going to rely upon, so what’s wrong with that? The Prophet is teaching us that there’s nothing wrong with that if that is going to mean your survival. Once again, should we break from this Khutbah and remind you of some of the political realities in today’s world? Brothers and sisters- because there’s a lot of information pollution that comes with this, mind you that in what Prophet did, he did not damage or negotiate or relinquish or barter or exchange any principal or value of Islam from Allah whatsoever. The difference between that what the Prophet is teaching us and what some contemporary Muslims are doing. We’re not talking about the average pedestrian Muslims; we’re talking about those who are in positions to make decisions and this is happening the world over if we only open up our eyes (and) if we only open up our eyes to what he did, his choices, his options and what these current, (let’s say), Islamic leaders are doing.

To skip over the details that are involved here, the Prophet finally reached Al Madinah. When he reached Al Madinah he encountered what may be called the first social contract in Islam. What do we mean? We mean by that that the population of Al Madinah received him. The overwhelming population who had become Muslims received him with open arms. He was the leader that they wanted. Al Aws and Al Khazraj wanted him to become their leader. He didn’t say I am Allah’s Messenger, I am Allah’s Prophet therefore I am going to become your Imam or your leader automatically regardless of what you think! I‘m going to impose myself on you?! That wasn’t the political, social and economic chemistry. It wasn’t there. They gave him their bay’ah. Let us assume for the moment that these committed souls in Al Madinah did not give the Prophet of Allah their bay’ah. They say we acknowledge that you are Allah’s Prophet; we ourselves are Muslims but we don’t agree that you make decisions for us. This never happened! But in today’s world that’s what’s happening for those who are leaders of the Muslims. Today’s world is much more adept at camouflaging what is happening in reality so that in one instance like we just mentioned previously some Muslims have the impression that when Muslims want to present their Islam, this Islam is not going to spread if there is not any warfare or conflict. Who said that? Where did that come from? If we were to take our own history/those years with the significant grass root radical change that was brought about from jahiliyyah to Islam some of the people who countered those who died in these military encounters a battles from the Muslims and from the Mushriks… We present this to you (and) we didn’t give you any number yet, but in your mind knowing what you know and having listened to what you’ve listened to, what would you think? We’re speaking of a population here in Al Hejaz of probably tens of thousands. How many in the clash of these last ten years, (because this is when there was clashes), died from both sides? One count puts it at, (and some of you’re probably going to be surprised at this simply because of the background information that you have in your mind), one-hundred-and-forty-one individuals. That would shatter all of the perceptions that we have- some of it coming from Orientalists, some of it coming from malicious Scholars, some of it coming from ignorant Muslims that want to tell us and convince us that this Islam- and we’re not running away from our military character and our military responsibility; when people face us with aggression we will face them with counter force. We have no problems about that. The problem is to try to drill into the public mind that Islam is obsessed with blood letting. That is false. It’s a fabrication and unfortunately it has taken deep roots in many of us. Remember, in a previous Khutbah we used the words waada’ah or muwaada’ah which means something like to have non-belligerent relationships with the power centres in Arabia. The Prophet began a policy and a strategy of muwaada’ah with certain power centres to the South and to the North of Al Madinah and in the first couple of years the Prophet managed to have a non-belligerent relationship with the power centres that extended from Northern Arabia all the way down to the Makkan area and the shore of the Red Sea. This was the commercial route or the traffic route of commerce between Makkah and Ash Shaam. Now this area became friendly to Allah’s Prophet and Makkah felt this pressure. Makkah now had to change its route from that conventional one and it had to go Eastward towards Iraq and then all the way up to Ash Shaam on its yearly commercial journeys which were vital for its economy and the well being of the inhabitants of Makkah. The Prophet was actively working at Makkah- the fact that many Muslims miss throughout his lifetime. They don’t know that when he was in Makkah the struggle was the occupants of Makkah, i.e. the Mushriks of Makkah; when he left for Al Madinah his struggle continued against that same clique of people. Why have we lost sight of this? Why does it not register in our minds and in our presentations anymore? Which brings up a very serious issue and that is: is this binding on us today even if we are thousands of miles away? Does it become in the character of Allah’s Prophet our priority to liberate Makkah or we have to prioritise the geography and the local that we are in? The vital information to answer this question is absent therefore the answer to it remains absent. Our attempts have been and will continue to be to provide the necessary information so that any Muslim with a thinking mind can reach the obvious answer to this question.

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ ۖ وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ

… they plot and plan and Allah does His planning and Allah is the best in this regards. (Surah Al Anfal verse 30)

Brothers and sisters, committed Muslims…

An ayah, and just one ayah, not to mention the many other parallel and collaborative ayaat, Allah tells us

وَلَا تَرْكَنُوا إِلَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا فَتَمَسَّكُمُ النَّارُ وَمَا لَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَوْلِيَاءَ ثُمَّ لَا تُنصَرُونَ

Do not find support in those who are dhalimin or don’t look for support among those who are dhalimin or don’t expect support from those who are dhalims or don’t find refuge in those quarters known for their oppression and their injustice… (Surah Hud verse 113)

We think this ayah should reverberate and have its echo in the Muslim mind and heart at this time because what happens in the larger context of Muslims is a very sinister and in some regards diabolic plan to win over what is called the Islamic Movements to the side of Adh Dhalimeen, in today’s world that would be those Governments and Regimes that stand for exploitation and for military occupations and raw, bloody aggression. We ask ourselves in this changing world: why is it that there are some Muslims who are in leadership positions? We’re referring to especially those who come from Arab countries who find themselves now in a cosy position with NATO forces, even with occupying forces that are occupying Muslim countries. Of all people in the world, how come we have now some of these who fall under the title of Islamists who are trying to reassure Washington- that means indirectly trying to assure Tel Aviv- that there’s nothing to fear from political Islam? This is a far cry and a serious departure from Allah’s Prophet. In this world of political tremors that we have seen in the past year, why is it that we have some countries, some regimes that are nor spoken about? How about the Saudi Arabian Regime? Is this regime known for its democracy, for its freedoms, for its human rights? For what? If there is a regime that has to be changed and the Muslims want to change for the better, who qualifies more than the birthplace of Islam, the birthplace of Allah’s Prophet, the Qiblah of the Muslims, the retreat of Makkah, the power base of Al Madinah in our history and in our character? Why is it that we come across some of these leaders who want to assure the politicians in this city, Washington DC, “we are your friends.” Who said that? Where did this come from? Which ayah is there? Which hadith is there to substantiate this attitude to caving in to these enemies of Allah, these enemies of Allah’s Prophet and these enemies of committed Muslims- past, present and future? But this is what we have. This is the danger that we are approaching, (i.e.) reconciling al haqq with al baatil, having Ash Shaytaan a comrade of Ar Rahman. How can this be? What happened? We no longer can see the facts (and) the truth? We no longer can stand up for justice? At the same time that these Islamic figures, (we use these words because these are the words that are being used in the media, not that we totally agree with this description), are expressing conciliatory and friendly statements with Administrations and Establishments that have Muslim blood on their hands, what are these same Administrations and Establishments trying to motion into law? They want Muslims and others who are seeking justice to just disappear without due process, without access to lawyers, without a day in court- none of that. Imagine the military coming somewhere, picking up a Muslim and no one knows what will happen from there on. This could happen. It could happen at the same time that some of these Islamic big-wigs are genuflecting themselves in the niche of Imperialism and Zionism. We ask these types of figures where is Allah and His Prophet in all of this. We withhold from going into further details simply because some of the listeners and some of you who are tuned into this Khutbah don’t have the information that is unpolluted and the information that hasn’t gone through the echo chambers of the Western media so sometimes when we present the truth, the truth has to be expressed at the level of thoughts that are out there. We pray and we plead with Allah that we understand Him and His Prophet in a way that the facts of life will not jar us or jam us. One of the issues that is thrown back to a person who tries to speak truth to power is that we Muslims are instructed is that we shall not rebel against authorities of injustice. Where did that come from? There is not one ayah in the Book of Allah that instructs a Muslim not to confront illegitimate authorities, oppressive Governments and outlaw Administrations! Of course, they’ll quote a few hadiths. (Number one), they don’t understand the hadiths; (number two), they take the hadiths out of context and, (number three), they don’t try to put the hadiths in the atmospherics of the Qur’an and by doing that they want us to continue to bow down to injustice and accept humiliation when it comes our way. No! That does not behove any Muslim with a fibre of iman in him or in her.