Silence About The Evil (Munkar) Is Prohibited And its Removal Is An Obligation

Allah (SWT) says in the Quran, Surat Al-Maida verses 78 and 79;

“Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress.”

They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do!’ And Abu Dawood has narrated about Abdullah Ibn Masoud who reported that the Prophet (SAW) said;

‘The first time deficiency entered the sons of Israel when the man of them used to meet another man and says to him: Observe your duty to Allah, and leave what you do, because it is not allowed for you to do so. Then the next day he will meet him and yet he is not restrained to eat, drink and sit with him, and when they have done so Allah struck the hearts of some of them against the hearts of others’.

Then the Prophet (SAW) read the four verses;

‘Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress.“

They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily evil was that they used to do! They see many of them making friends with those who disbelieve. Surely ill for them is that which they themselves send on before them: that Allah will be wroth with them and in the doom they will abide.If they believe in Allah and the Prophet and that which is revealed unto him, they would not choose them for their friends. But many of them are of evil conduct.

‘The Prophet (SAW) continued to say:‘By Allah you have to enjoin good (Maroof) and forbid evil (Munkar), and hold against the hand of the unjust ruler (Zalim), and force him on the truth strongly, or you have to limit him to the truth’.

By this evidence, which is the hadith commenting on the verse, Allah (SWT) has prohibited us from remaining silent against the evil (Munkar), and He commanded us to remove it. Allah (SWT) commanded the Muslims to enjoin Maroof and deny Munkar, and made it a duty upon them to do so. Allah (SWT) said;

‘Let it be from among you a group who call to the good, enjoin Maroof and deny Munkar’. Allah (SWT) also said: ‘You have been the best nation (Ummah) brought to the people, because you enjoin Maroof and deny Munkar’.

(The two verses in Al-Imran) But Allah (SWT) does not require this alone from the Muslims, because He prohibited them to stay silent against the Munkar and He commanded them to remove it, and He made this as a duty upon them, and He made the one who remains silent against the Munkar, as those who deserve the curse of Allah. This is because Allah (SWT) has cursed the sons of Israel when they kept silent against the Munkar, and Allah (SWT) commented on this by saying; ‘Verily evil was that they used to do’. In other words, Allah (SWT) has condemned the sons of Israel on that action, in order to warn us against committing a similar action. And this indicates that this verse is a part of the Shari’ah of Islam. And the Hadith which was narrated about the Prophet (SAW) came to warn us of what the sons of Israel used to do, that is keeping silent against the Munkar and not committing themselves towards removing it. And the comment of the Prophet (SAW) after the manifestation of what they used to do was; ‘By Allah you have to enjoin Maroof and deny Munkar, and hold against the hand of the unjust ruler, and force him on the truth strongly. (Or you have to limit him to the truth)’. This indicates that this is a rule from the rules of Islam, so removing the Munkar is a duty upon Muslims, and keeping silent against the Munkar is prohibited upon every Muslim, and Allah will curse the one who neglects this duty as he cursed the sons of Israel, as was narrated in another version of this Hadith; ‘And He will then curse you, as he cursed them’.

In regards with the way of removing the Munkar, and not remaining silent when faced with it, the Shari’ah has manifested that in the Hadith which Muslim narrated about Abi Said Al-Khudari that the Prophet (SAW) said;

‘Whoever of you has seen a Munkar let him change it with his hand, if he can not then by his tongue, and if he can not then by his heart and this is the weakest Iman’.And another version says that; ‘there is not after that an atom of Imaan;’

Which means that if the Munkar is not denied in the heart then there is not an atom of Imaan in the heart of that Muslim. So if the Muslim is able to remove the Munkar by his hand, then it is a duty upon him to embark on removing it by himself, and if he cannot do that, but he can deny it by his tongue openly and attack it by his words publicly, then he must do that. If he can not do this by his tongue, then it is a duty upon him to deny the Munkar in his heart, and he can do this by saying to himself, for example; ‘O my Lord, this is truly a Munkar which doesn’t please you’. But if he does not even do this, then he will be sinful in the eyes of Allah, and such an action would lead him to disobedience, because the silence against the Munkar is one of the prohibited acts. There is no difference between keeping silent about the Munkar which the citizens do, and the Munkar which the ruler does, since both of them are acts of silence against the Munkar. But the act of silence about the Munkar which the ruler does is much more severe, and the act of denying it is much more greater, because their divine texts, which came particularly to encourage denying the Munkar of the ruler, in addition to the other general texts which demand denying the Munkar in general.

Al Hakim has reported in the Hadith narrated by Jabir that the Prophet (SAW) said;

‘The master of the martyrs is Hamza, and whoever is killed speaking truth in the court of a tyrant ruler’.

It has also been narrated that the Prophet (SAW) said;

‘The best Jihad is the word of truth to an unjust ruler’.

Therefore, it is a duty upon the Muslims not to be satisfied with just enjoining Maroof and denying Munkar, but Islam has made it compulsory upon them to remove the Munkar by any of the three methods the Hadith has explained, and it is prohibited for them to stay silent about the Munkar. Muslims should be conscious that in remaining silent about the Munkar, Allah (SWT) may send punishment and torment to prevail upon all of them, besides the torment they experience of being ruled by Kufr, and of being dominated by the agents of the imperialistic Kafireen, and by the Fasikeen (wrong doers) and the Munafiqeen (the hypocrites).

Ahmad has narrated about Adas Ibn Umayra, who said:

‘I heard the Prophet (SAW) say : Allah will not torture the public because of the bad deeds of a particular people till the public see the Munkar amongst themselves and they are able to deny it but they don’t deny it. If they do this, then Allah (SWT) will torture the particular people who have been doing wrong and the public as well’.

Islam will conquer 10 Downing St

Democracy=Terrorism

One would immediately assume that to equate democracy with terrorism would be a contradiction in terms. Terrorism is described as the unnecessary use of violence in order to achieve an aim, whereas democracy is about peaceful and collective participation in the law-making process and is therefore a diplomatic and non-violent means to achieve an aim, or so we would assume.

 

Democracy is a concept that has become a standard for the world today according to which everyone is expected to lead their lives. People are led to believe that Democracy is the modern, progressive and ‘civilised’ way to look after the affairs of society. They are made to believe that democracy will bring about progression and advancement, having seen the success western nations have achieved. It is seen as the only possible way of life that people are to live by and is promoted as being widely accepted by the masses. Failure to comply to it would render you an outcast, someone who is backward, regressive and in need of reform.

 

Democracy is the way of life of the kuffar in which they believe, live their life by and are willing to die for. The US and UK are hailed as being the champions of democracy and are the most powerful and advanced nations in the world. Thus the natural consequence of this is that they will do whatever they can to ensure that their way of life becomes dominant over all else, and that it is accepted by the world as being the norm. Hence these nations deem it necessary to convey their democratic way of life to the rest of the world so that they are able to further sustain their dominance and ensure that any threat to their civilisation is made impotent.

 

Recent events in Iraq show us the way in which the kuffar are determined to make their way of life become dominant and how they aim to make others conform to their standards and principles to the extent where they use violence to ensure that this happens. They kill, murder, bomb, destroy, rape and pillage to achieve their aims and to subjugate the people into becoming subservient to their demands.

 

The handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi’s, was gloated as being a symbol of self-determination for the Iraqi people by allowing them to determine their own affairs, when in fact the truth of it is that they are still very much dependent and subservient to the US.

 

If we were to look at the way in which this so-called democratic Iraq came about, we can see that the policy of the Western regimes is to use terrorism as a means to further their own way of life and to impose it upon others. The Iraqi people had no choice in their leadership or in the fate of their government; rather the US took it upon herself to determine the government of Iraq and its political reality. The same can be said of Afghanistan, where the US stormed the country using all its military might in order to enforce their way of life (democracy) upon the people, against the will of its inhabitants.

 

In fact, if one were to look at Afghanistan and Iraq after their ‘liberation’, it becomes clearly evident that the people of these countries have had no choice in the determination of their governments. Rather what we find is that both countries were instilled with puppet regimes, whose rulers worked in American petroleum companies and at some point, with American Intelligence agencies and remain fully subservient to the US. The claims of liberating these countries and establishing democratic regimes made by the US are now clearly understood. Their version of democracy in these countries is one that is subservient to the US with a ‘made in the USA’ label firmly attached to it.

 

It seems that the western world is determined to make their system of governance dominant over the world by forcing others to live their lives according to it. For those who reject, they are subject to facing the military might of these regimes forcing them to succumb to their demands whilst those who are subjugated to adhere to it are left to suffer in slavery under them. This is the choice they offer to the people of the world enforcing their corrupt and evil way of life upon the masses either way.

 

The reality is such that terrorism is not exclusive to the Muslims, rather terrorism is the foreign policy of the western regimes and a means that they adopt in order to further their way of life and bully the world into submission. They employ state terrorism under the guise of liberation and fighting evil (Islamic) despotic regimes to fool the people into siding with them.

 

The Muslims who follow and practice the belief of Ahl ul-Sunnah wal Jama’ah are not willing to accept such a reality where the kuffar are allowed to have the upper hand over us. The Muslim ummah was raised to be the best nation among mankind given the highest status of ruling and looking after the affairs of the people. Hence we hereby reject the deception and trickery of these nations and their filthy, rotten, democratic way of life for we have Islam which is the only divine unique and supreme way of life where the sovereignty is to Allah (swt) alone and all obedience is to Him and all that He has legislated. It is only Islam that will elevate and dignify the Muslims bringing advancement and prosperity in this life and the hereafter.

The truth behind the veil

There is a growing Islamic movement today, in the Muslim Community; to revive the Muslims intellectually back to Islam as their source of guidance. This is marked by the number of sisters wearing the hijaab (veil). The hijaab has been the focus of western propaganda against Islam for centuries. It was labelled as “extremist”, “fundamentalist”, and “oppressive”. However this is not the case in reality today, the veil is not usually forced on the woman she chooses to wear it herself. What comes as a shock to the western media is that so many young women are turning to Islam despite such negativity surrounding the matter. It was shown that 2 out of 3 converts to Islam are young women aged between the ages 17-21. The figure is estimated at 20-30,000 over the last few years. The sad thing is that we find many women, Muslim by birth, claiming to believe in Islam, but making numerous excuses for not wearing the hijaab in fact some sisters go as far as forcefully stopping their own daughters from wearing the veil! Some “Muslim” women even deny that it is a religious duty!!

 

The excuses number many, some say it does not matter what is on the outside, it only matters what is in the heart. Some say it is not practical for various reasons (work, education, etc.). There are other Muslims who are so affected by the western media that they themselves do the job for them by calling it extreme etc. And say that Islam promotes being moderate, in the middle, therefore the veil not necessary as it seems too radical. Some Muslim women are just worried what people in general will say about them wearing the hijaab. We as Muslims are looking for an answer to this issue. As we are Muslim and we believe in Allah, we should refer to Allah (swt) and consider what really matters to Him alone. At the end of the day, if we all had good thoughts inside our hearts to please Allah, but never actually put what is in our hearts into action, we would be of no value. In Islam you can have goodness in your heart, but if you do not put it into action then it is worthless, as actions are part of Eemaan. Goodness is not enough, what may be good to one person may not be good to another, so goodness in the heart is not only the issue, but what defines good and bad, how we rule our lives is:

 

“Those who do not rule by what Allah has revealed, they are the wrong-doers.” (EMQ 5: 45)

 

We can see that Allah is the one who decides what is best for us, as he created us and the whole universe, he knows us more than anything else, so anything he prescribes for us should be taken without question, that is why He is the Lord and we are the servants. Even if it may seem ‘extreme’ to some people, you can call Allah’s law extreme as much as you like, but He is still your creator, who should be obeyed. We have not been created to ‘think’ this is good or that is ok. Allah (swt) has set everything out for us and has given us a framework, Islam, to define all those issues for us. ‘Extreme’ is a word which has no real meaning, as what may seem extreme to one society may not be extreme to another. Therefore we should not call what Allah has revealed extreme, as He wanted us Muslims to build a society where the laws of Islam are normal and without to think Allah is asking too much of us and to exhaust utmost effort to be obedient to Allah is ‘extreme’. What is meant by “do not be extremist in Islam” is do not go over the top in one thing in Islam e.g. if you are told to pray 5 times a day, you are not asked to pray all day and ignore all other duties in life, or you do not fast 48 hours continuously, only fast or pray the recommended and compulsory amounts. “Do not be extremist” did not mean judge according to a non-Islamic society that views Islamic rules as extreme, if this was the case then if praying was seen as extreme by the society in which we live, do you stop praying? So what is the prescribed amount for covering a woman in Islam? Is a veil really considered ‘extreme’ in Islam?

 

“O prophet, tell your wives and daughters and all other believing women that they should draw their veils close round them. That is proper, so that they may be recognised (as decent women) and not be molested.” (EMQ 33: 59)

 

It is narrated by ‘Aa-ishah (ra) that Asmaa; (daughter of Abu Bakr [ra]) came to see the prophet wearing a thin dress. The prophet (saw) turned away from her and said, “O Asmaa! When a woman reaches puberty she cannot reveal any part of her body except this and this (pointing to his hands and face).” [Narrated by Abou Daawood]

 

“Tell all the believing women to turn their eyes away from temptation and to preserve their chastity; to cover their adornments (except what is normally displayed: hands and face); to draw their veil over their bosoms and not to reveal their finery except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands fathers, their sisters sons, their women servants, and their slave-girls; male attendants lacking in natural vigour, and their children who have no carnal knowledge of women.” (EMQ 24: 31)

 

It is clear that the wearing of the veil is fard (a religious obligation and a must) and Muslims should not fear anyone when it comes to their duties, even if it means losing their job or friends. What kind of boss/friend do you have if they can not accept the right to practice your belief? Only Allah should be feared, not anyone else:

 

“O you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared” (EMQ 3: 102)

 

“O you who believe! you obey those who disbelieve, they will cause you to turn back on your heals, so you shall turn about as losers.” (EMQ 3: 149)

 

“If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your tribes, the property you have acquired, the merchandise you fear may not be sold, and the homes you love, are dearer to you than Allah, His apostle and the struggle for His cause, then wait until Allah fulfils His decree. Allah does not guide the evil doers” (EMQ 9: 24)

 

The west always boasts about its ‘freedom’, and ‘equality’ but where does it go when it comes to Islam? Where does this ‘freedom’ go when a man and woman want to walk down the street topless; the man would be okay, but the woman arrested for indecent exposure (not that I am saying the woman has the right to go out topless!). Islam does not contradict itself, we know we are restricted by Islam but we know the rules come from our creator, not the limited mind of a man. If we look at anything in creation, we see that it always has something to protect it from harm or decay e.g. fruit skin, pearls, shells. Even human beings protect valuable things like diamond, away from the sight and touch of others. Is it not natural that the beauty of a woman should be protected from the gaze of foreign men? Consider the rape reported every 17 minuets in Britain. The plan of men in power is to exploit women’s beauty to sell their commercial products e.g., girl in Flake ad and super-models (on average 1/3rd under the recommended weight) are used to exploit women to help the fashion and beauty industry make money. Plastic surgery is the fastest growing branch of surgery in the world! The results are clear: Anorexia, Bulimia, suicide and constant worry about your figure etc. The veil protects women from this onslaught. If a doctor were to order a woman to cover herself from the sun she would do it, but why not when Allah gives the orders? Allah knows more about us than the doctor! If you are working for a particular company, which requires a certain dress, surely people would wear the dress for that job, why not when you are ordered by Allah?

 

“It may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows you know not” (EMQ 2: 216)

 

“It is not for true believers men or women to take a choice in their affairs, if Allah and His apostle decree otherwise.” (EMQ 33: 36)

‘Whenever His Lord Tries Him…’ (Surah al-Fajr)

By Imaam Syed Qutb

 

Fi Dhilaal al-Qur’aan

 

“As for man, whenever his Lord tries him with honor and with favors He bestows on him. he says ‘My Lord has honored me.’ But whenever He tries him by stinting his means, then he says ‘My Lord has left me humiliated.’ “ [Qur’an: 89:15-16]

 

Such is man’s thinking about the various forms of trial Allah may set for him, be it comfort or hardship, wealth or scarcity. Allah may test him with comforts, honor, wealth or position, but he does not relize the probationary nature of what he is given. Rather he considers the gesture as proof that he deserves to be honored by Allah and as evidence that He has chosen him for a special honor. It is a line of thinking which mistakes trial for reward and test for result. It imagines honor in the sight of Allah to be measured by the amount of worldly comforts given to a certain person. Allah also tries man by stinting his means, and man again mistakes trial for reward and imagines the test to be a retribution. He feels that Allah has made him poor in order to humiliate him.

 

In both situations the human concept is faulty. Wealth and poverty are two forms of a test Allah sets for His servants. A test with abundance reveals whether a man is humble and thankful to his Lord or arrogant and haughty, while a trial of the opposite kind reveals his patient acceptance or his irritability and fretfulness. A man’s reward is given according to what he proves himself to be. What he is given or denied of worldly comforts is not his reward, and a man’s standing in the sight of Allah is in no way related to his possessions, for He gives and denies worldly comforts regardless of whether a man is good or bad. A man devoid of faith cannot comprehend the wisdom behind Allah’s action of giving worldly comforts or denying them. But when his mind is enlightened with faith and truth becomes apparent to him, he realizes the triviality of worldly riches. As he disregards the hollow considerations of wealth and poverty, he feels reassured about his fate and his position in the sight of Allah.

 

At the time of its revelation, the Qur’an was addressing a kind of people, common to all Ignorant societies, who lost all their relations with a world beyond our present life. Such people adopt this mistaken view about Allah’s granting or denial of wealth, and apply a set of values which reverse all honor to money and social standing. Hence, their craving for wealth is irresistible. It makes them covetous, greedy, and stingy. The Qur’an reveals their true feelings and states that their greed and stinginess are responsible for their inability to understand the true significance of a divine trial by granting wealth or denying it.”