The Dire Consequences of Holding Muslims in War-Torn Countries to a Standard That Has Never Existed

 

Part 1 of 4 (see below for other parts)

 

One of the reasons that we may feel disconnected from the stories that are presented in our khutbahs and lectures is because, typically, they are relatively short and therefore the imams and ustadhs focus on the truly heroic and inspirational parts. However, if we invest our time in listening to or reading lengthy seerah series or lengthy biographies then we will come across all the different aspects of the lives of the sahaba: the heroic elements as well as the dire mistakes. There is no need to worry about the idea of exposing the mistakes as Muslims with knowledge are well aware of the mistakes that should be highlighted for the purpose of learning from them. In the lengthy seerah series and biographies, these are mentioned in context among all the different aspects of their lives.

 

It's a shame that many Muslims are willing to put in hours to watch a drama series that is 40 episodes long but can't work their way through a seerah series of similar length.

 

What I find even more worrying, and I've mentioned this before, is not the idea of being disconnected by these heroic stories but by the fact that many Muslims today then have an unrealistic picture of how political events should unfold. They hold Muslims in war-torn countries to a standard that has never existed.

 

Conflicts today are just as chaotic and confusing as they were during the time of our beloved prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and of the Rightly Guided Khalifs. I've mentioned before the mistakes of Khalid Ibn Waleed (ra) that resulted in a tremendous amount of suffering. During the incident of Bani Judhaimah there is even a very little told story of the man who was not part of this tribe (many of who Khalid (ra) had executed as he misunderstood that they did in fact want to accept Islam). This man was only there because of a woman he loved who was from that tribe. He asked to speak to her and then told her to become a Muslim before he was executed. She witnessed this, came over to his body, sighed once or twice and then fell dead next to him. It seems like she died from a broken heart! Our beloved prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was extremely upset about the whole incident: the killing of many of this Muslim tribe as well as the story about the man and the woman. Regarding the two of them he exclaimed, “Was there not a merciful man among you?” However, did Allah's messenger remove Khalid (ra) from his position, shun him or punish him? No, he didn't. His response was to order that blood money be paid to the families and to raise his hands and say,

 

"O Allah, I declare that I am innocent of what Khalid has done."

 

During the time of Abu Bakr's (ra) khilafah, when Khalid (ra) possibly made a mistake by ordering the execution of Malik Ibn Nuwairah, even Umar Ibn al-Khattab (ra) angrily advised Abu Bakr (ra) to "Change him! Because his sword is severe." Abu Bakr (ra) is the best human being after the prophets of Allah and the one with the deepest Islamic knowledge but do we have the wisdom and foresight to say what he said when similar mistakes happen in the heat of battle today? Abu Bakr's (ra) response was,

 

"I am not going to sheath a sword that was unsheathed by Allah 'Azzawajal on the mushrikeen (polytheists)."

 

Also, a sahabi mistakenly killed two men from a tribe who had treacherously massacred around 70 Qur'an reciters, even though our beloved prophet had promised the two men protection. In fact, in the chaos and confusion of conflict, sahaba killed sahaba!

 

Instead, we would rather accuse those in chaotic, war-torn countries of being Khawarij as, apparently, they kill even more Muslims than the disbelievers do. I recently came across the first incident that caused Ali (ra) to fight the Khawarij in his time. Until then, Ali's response was to leave them alone unless they killed and robbed. During Ali's rule, some Khawarij came across Abdullah Ibn Khabbab (ra) (the son of the great companion Khabbab Ibn al-Aratt (ra) who Umar (ra) overheard reciting Surah Ta-ha at his sister's house during the Makkah stage). They killed Abdullah and his pregnant wife and then proceeded to open her stomach and take out the fetus. They then came across some belongings of a Jew or Christian. Do you know what one of them said? He said, “No, you have to return it because these are Ahl-Dhimmah (those living under Muslim rule and enjoying the protection of the Muslim state but who were not Muslim).”

 

These people had just killed the Muslim son of a great sahabi as well as his wife and unborn child but what PAINED them more was the idea of going against covenants, agreements or trusts that the Muslims had with the disbelievers, by taking their belongings. This is the first case that lead to Ali (ra) fighting the Khawarij and it explains really well their description

'they kill the Muslims and they leave the disbelievers'. Does this mentality sound familiar to anyone? It should sound familiar to those of you who rejoice when you hear that certain Muslims have been killed but God forbid that we should go against a covenant that we have with the disbelievers!

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In essence, what some Muslims do is paint a false picture of our distant and near history and of how Muslims in the past dealt with conflicts between each other and disbelievers. Even Western nations use 'collateral damage' and 'they were being used as human shields' to justify the mass killing of civilians, and they have 'friendly fire' when mistakenly killing their own.

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Part 2 (https://protectyourthaghr.wixsite.com/home/being-merciful-when-you-are-still-weak)

Part 3 (https://protectyourthaghr.wixsite.com/home/what-does-the-help-of-allah-look-like)

Part 4 (https://protectyourthaghr.wixsite.com/home/passivity-revolts-and-muslims-dehumanising-muslims)

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​Wal-hamdu lillahi rabbil 'alamin (February 2023)

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Umm Hafab

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