By Iqbal Suleiman
It is all tranquil and serene in Medina. People are walking peacefully and gracefully in the precincts of your mosque, praying and reciting verses from the holy Quran. They have travelled many different paths of the world, read all of the holy books, visited the resting places of many saints but ultimately arrived and found peace at your door. Oh leader of the searches.
Allahuma Salli Alla Muhammad Wa Aali Muhammad (S.A.W). [May Allah’s peace and blessing be upon Muhammad (p.b.u.h) and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) Voices of both genders and all colours hymn together in spiritual harmony sending salaams and salutations to Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). From the deepest part of their hearts, these souls express their overflowing love for you with the salutations and salaams. Men and women, black and white, and every shade of colour you can imagine. From every corner of planet earth, from the east and the west. From, Europe, Africa and Asia, they come to the ultimate destination of their seeking soul, the Prophet of the people (p.b.u.h). It is in moments like this when heaven and earth find rhythm and harmony. This harmony is created through the spiritual energy generated by the most sacred soul of Muhammad (p.b.u.h) Inallahu wamalaikatuhu yusalluna alan nabi, yaayuhallazina amanu sallu allayhi wassalim tasleema. [Verily Allah and his Angels send salaams to the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h), oh you committed Muslims, you also send salaams to the Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h). This is the only moment inspired by you, noble Messenger (S.A.W) that a human being is invited to partake in the action of God and his Angels. The salaams and salutations from earth ascend to heaven and merge with sacred sounds of the Angels sending salaams on the beloved Prophet (p.b.u.h).
Everyone speaks about the peace in Medina and it is hard to argue with this expression as there is no doubt a quiet peaceful energy that resonates throughout Medina. Your beautiful scent flows with the soothing breeze and touches every soul that walks in the streets of Medina. Your soul has departed but your presence is felt everywhere in this place that called you and loved you. Medina is beautiful because of you, the beauty from within your soul that has become infused in this city. A poet will be inclined to cry out that even in Janna (Paradise) there is no place like Medina.
We as common folk feel queasy with a restless peace as though we are missing something, not finding the spiritual energy that others are able to access in Medina. It might be that someone as spiritually weak as we are will never be able to feel the heightened spirituality of the Sufis and the pious ones. Weak and sinning souls like us cannot comprehend the journey that the souls of the spiritual ones make across the heavens. We envy their spiritual discipline. We introspect and scan our souls. We visualize our shortcomings and our sins. Weak as we are, we love you with a love that is beyond a rational explanation. We revere you more than any other person that God has created.
We are comforted by the fact that you always had the time for the sinning and weak spiritual souls like us, the ones who have many questions and an abundance of shortcomings. The ones who have so much of sins that they are embarrassed to present themselves before your holy presence. Yet your door has always been opened to the wretched souls. You welcome the most dejected and debased souls to your door. Not only did you welcome tortured souls, you inspired them to become the greatest people to walk planet earth. Only you could do that. How could Jundab ibn Junadah, a free roaming highway robber evolve into Abuzarr Al Ghifari, an ascetic revolutionary social justice activist and an accomplished intellectual who inspires social justice activists to this day? How did someone like Malcolm Little who was a hustler and a house breaker evolve to become Malcolm X, one the most principled, pious, articulate, righteous leaders and arguably one of the greatest revolutionaries of all time after choosing your school of thought? You have inspired countless souls into making a radical transformation both in their personal and public lives.
What do us the common people who are spiritually weak and enveloped in sin do when we come to your sacred resting place in Medina? We know with certainty that we are not worthy to come right next to you and start speaking to you. At the same time we are overwhelmed with the heavenly scent of Kauthar that emanates from you and your love for the people. You have the singular power to connect with every soul on this planet and make each soul feel the power of your spiritual love. You alone were sent as a mercy to humankind. You made every one of your companions feel as there though they were the most beloved to you. No one else but you Prophet of God can do that. There is a mystic power that propels us to walk towards you but there is simultaneously a shyness born out of the reverence we have for you, Master, Prophet, leader of all people and the most beloved to God. We are in a dilemma. Do we walk away or do we come running directly to you? We find an answer that comes from you and your Lord, the Pen. Al Qalam. For us the commoners, the street Muslims, we find it more respectful to write to you through the veil and respect of the pen. A letter from weak believing souls (The People) to the Master, Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h). Just being in the proximity of your mosque and your presence brings the realization of our own individual insignificance. The “I” in our letter is not an individual “I” or “me” but rather a collective “I” and “we”, the ‘I” of An Nas (The People) that comes from the eye of the heart of the people. We the people gather around you and speak with an ink that comes from every place on planet earth and the pen of the people, in our letter to you. From the dusty informal settlements in Africa, the unknown nomadic deserts of Arabia, the bustling ghetto streets of Mumbai and Sao Paolo, the streets of Seattle where grungy searchers roam, the forsaken mountains of Kabul where lean men and women trod patiently, the magnificent mountains of Magaliesberg where farmworkers sweat in the afternoon sun, the lonely corners of universities where minds are stimulated but hearts are empty. The trendy streets of London, Manhattan and Madrid where we work and exist as wage slaves and stare at the TV screens with a void within our beings. From the dusty gravel rural roads and the finest highways in the city, from the gutters and the ghettoes, from the leafy streets of suburbia and between the middle class cold walls of villas, the seekers from all over the world are headed in one direction and that is towards you, Muhammad (p.b.u.h).
Oh Prophet of the people. The kindest and gentlest soul. The light of God. The first of all Creation. The liberator of slaves and woman. The knower of earthly and heavenly secrets. The fighter for justice and human rights. The equal distributor of wealth. The polisher of hearts. The silent devotee who soars through the skies through prayer and meditation at night. The teacher of truth and righteousness. The guider of people to God. The leader of all Prophets and the leader of all people. The one who did not own private property. The one who never hurt a woman or a child. The teacher of respect and dignity for woman. The first leader to allow women to possess and own property and participate in the economy. The one with the truthful tongue and tender touch. The one who cultured and cultivated human conduct to the most refined sensibilities. The one who outlawed violence against women and children. The comforter of the hurt. The helper of the dishonoured and dispossessed. The champion of the underclass. The promoter of peace. The one who smiled at every person he met. The one who never raised a finger against a woman or a child. The friend of the underdog. The one with a pure soul and a perfumed presence. The seal of Prophethood. The leader of Prophets in Prayer. The greatest person and at the same time the most modest person. The most God Conscious soul and the friendliest soul. Friend of the sufferers, the lost and the seekers. The leader of the searchers. The most devoted servant of God. The mercy to Humankind. The leader of all freedom lovers and justice seekers. The one whose concern was and is only “the people”.
We the people of the world, turn to you, to speak to you of our troubles, suffering, genocide and our seemingly earthly helplessness. We are in need of your guidance and inspiration. We are enveloped in darkness and are desperately seeking your light. Our world is characterized by injustice and inequality. The most vile and vicious people are in power. We the people live like humiliated wage slaves. Slaves who surrender to corrupt rulers. Slaves to our desires. Slaves to materialism. Slaves to our ego’s. Slaves to the world. Servants of Satan. A people who have turned away from our Creator, our Lord, the Ever Living Master of the day of Judgement. Our mosques, churches and synagogues are full. We pray, we fast and we go to the Haj, we recite the Shahadah but in truth we do not surrender to our lord, rather we have become slaves to the world, those with earthly power, the buck and the dollar. We pretend to be God worshippers but in essence we are money worshippers and worshippers of our ego. We are proud and arrogant, we think that because we are Muslim, we are somehow special and “chosen” by God. Our sajdah is meaningless if in our actions we bow to power instead of taking issue with power. We believe that we are superior and better than other people. We have become Iblisi Muslims. We hold tasbeehs and our tongues chant “Allah, Allah” but our hearts chant out “Dollar, Dollar”. We chant Ya Nabee, Ya Nabee in groups in meditation but our hearts and within our subconscious mind we chant I, I, Me, Me. This is how satanically selfish and individualized we have become. Slaves to the world. Running, running nonstop after the glamour. The new car, a new house, the latest clothing, the newest smartphone, a more attractive partner, a new skirt, a new flirt, a new job, a new gym, more selfies, chasing shadows, running and chasing. Bouncing between Hollywood and Bollywood. Running without thinking, chasing after the buck and dollar. Believing that we will live on planet earth forever. Forgetting our Creator. Like perpetual clowns in an everyday circus. We stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer lines next to each other but our hearts are apart. We don’t care about each other’s pain and suffering. We are not willing to help those who need our help. There is much talk about an ummah and brotherhood but there is no brotherhood, we are just a global community of selfish believers. We will not share our bread with each other let alone sacrifice our life or spill our blood for each other. We love the world and we want to live forever and at the same time profess a love for our lord but are scared of death. We aspire to accumulate material things and hoard wealth.
We proudly claim to be the followers of your Sunnah (practice) but in reality we contradict your Sunnah (practice). Today we drive the most luxurious and expensive vehicles. You too could have used the most expensive and luxurious means of transport of your time but you consciously chose the most humble and cheapest mode of transport which was riding a donkey. You consciously resisted and rejected a system that created class division and you abhorred the lifestyle of the wealthy. You chose a simple and humble abode to reside in but today your followers reside in palatial villas whilst others among your followers are homeless and millions of Muslims are refugees. You passionately resisted Capitalism both in your personal and public life. There was no contradictions. You directed your comrades not to emulate the mannerisms of the rich. Whilst the wealthy aristocracy would wear long flowing robes, you directed your comrades to resist the clothing of the bourgeois and asked them to wear clothing that was modest and worn by the poor commoners. You proclaimed “I was born among the poor, I have lived amongst the poor and by the will of God, and I will die among the poor”. You chose your “class” and were not class neutral. You were pro poor. Your comrades wore clothing below the ankles as a form of rebellion against the arrogance and dress code of the wealthy class.
From our madrassa and universities alike emerge scholars for dollars. They adorn trendy thobes and branded suits. One outfit is the cost of a peasant’s annual salary. Right here in your beloved city of Medina and in Makka, there are shopping malls where people spend much of their time in frivolous pursuits and shopping. After shopping they feast in outlets like McDonalds, KFC and Starbucks while workers around the world are marching and throwing stones at these symbolic expressions of Capitalism. The mimbars from Makka and Medina and the rest of the Muslim world do not direct the masses of Muslims to fight for justice and truth. There is an abundance of skilled Qari’s who recite the Quran beautifully and everyone celebrates the recitations with echoes of Masha Allah. But what about the meanings of the Quran, God’s calling the people to strive for truth and establish justice on earth? God’s open warning to the Capitalists, announcing to them a severe punishment for hoarding and monopolising wealth. This message of social justice which was central to your Sunnah (practice) is marginalised. The Quran is left on the shelf in every Muslim home. Your ummah has become separated from the Quran. Yet the mother of the Believers, Ayesha (R.A) who lived with you for so many years when you were the leader of the Islamic Government in Medina, was privy to your intimate and public life, told us that your life was the actualisation of the Quran and that you were the living expression of the Quran. How strange, we all claim to love you but we hardly know you. How can we know you if we haven’t read the meanings of the Quran? And so we have to bow our heads in shame and acknowledge that today the Quran is absent in public life, in international discourse on issues of justice. We have to bow our heads in shame and acknowledge that we have privatised you and the Quran, we have failed to share your teachings with the people and the world even though we know that you are the Prophet of the People. You do not belong to us “Muslims” alone but to everyone. Every person on earth has a right to know you and to have access to the Quran. Most people of the world today have not read a verse of the Quran and even more unbelievable is that many of the Muslims do not read the meanings of the Quran or take guidance from the Quran. Most people including many Muslims have not read one book about you or learn about what you did in life. In many madrassas young Muslims are taught only how to read Arabic but not understand Arabic, thus having no knowledge about what they are reading.
Having studied the history of your life, the first questions that comes to mind is that if Medina was meant to be a place of peace and prayer only as it is today, why wasn’t it so in your time? Why wasn’t this what you aspired to? Why did you not spend day and night in prayer and supplication trying to reach nirvana and shelve the actual meanings of the Quran to implement truth and justice? There was no one closer to God than you, nor will there ever be. Sometimes you prayed a few hours through the night and sometimes the entire night. What an awe inspiring sight, long cloth covering your body which you also drape over your head and shoulders. Pure pious devotion in solitude and the silence of the night. The Lord watches with a loving amazement at your secret spiritual devotions during the darkness of the night and presents it publicly to the people in sacred verses of the Holy Quran. He gives you the name Oh cloaked one, oh you draped in a cloak. The awe inspiring visuals of planet earth’s most sacred spiritual bond, between the Creator and his most beloved Muhammad (p.b.u.h). He speaks to you directly in the most sweetly spiritual seven verses.
“Oh you who are robed in your apparel, keep yourself wide awake in devotion to us at night, except for a short period of the night. A half of it or make it a little less than that. Or add to it at your discretion; and throughout that time recite the Quran tranquilly and distinctly. Behold we shall project upon you an onerous declaration. Verily the night time initiative of reverence to the Divine is more demanding and thus carries with it a more meticulous assertion of Allah’s revealed truths. Whereas during the daytime you indeed have a long stretch of social responsibilities” [Quran. Chapter 73(Surah Al Muzammil) V1-7]
In the night time you engage is sacred spiritual prayer with your Lord but in the day time you were a man of action and activism attending to your social responsibilities as directed by God. Initially a resister, the leader of civil disobedience for almost a decade and fighter for freedom. After many years of struggle ascending to become the leader of the Islamic Government in Medina. Administering the affairs of government. Tending to the economic affairs and needs of An Nas (the people). Guiding the people to righteous conduct. Organising the military and leading combat operations against the aggressor enemies of the Islamic Government. Distributing wealth to the poor from the public treasury. Calling on the people to stand for truth and justice.
You were foremost in striving for peace and at the same time you led the military resistance against the military aggression of tyrants and led combat operations against your enemies. Yet no one loves peace more than you do. You never lifted a finger towards your wife or child or any other person. You socialized your followers into the practice of peace consciousness. The greeting you made obligatory on all your followers. May Allah’s peace, mercy and blessings be with you”. Every committed Muslim says this greeting hundreds of times a day. Whenever he meets another person he is obliged to offer peaceful greetings. When he says the word peace, he invokes the name of his lord, Allah. Thinking about God and peace simultaneously. The psychology of peace consciousness is inherent in all of your followers. Despite being schooled in peace consciousness, your Lord teaches us about fighting injustice in the holy Quran. Fighting (Revolutionary armed struggle) has been prescribed for you and we know that you detest it (Revolutionary armed struggle) but it may be that you detest something which is good for you and are inclined to that which is bad for you”. Allah teaches that there is no contradiction between being committed to peace and simultaneously fighting against injustice. Rather it is fighting injustice that will create peace. On the other hand if there is no resistance to tyranny and injustice there will never be freedom and peace and systems of oppression will be sustained by this acceptance of injustice. Our Creator (Allah) understands our inner psychology better than we do. He is the one who created us. We as humans are naturally averse to fighting and conflict. This is our natural disposition and general “human nature” but our Creator tells us that struggle is mandatory for the implementation of social justice and defending the oppressed people from violent and genocidal tyrants. Naturally as humans we shy away from fighting and conflict. You Oh! Prophet (p.b.u.h) lived in accordance with the instructions of your Lord and lived as a warrior for justice, taking to the battlefield when you had to resist military aggression and spilling your own sacred blood. You taught your comrades not to launch aggressive military operations against anyone but you also taught them to defend themselves and to resist any aggressive military operation that was waged against them.
Your mosque is the most beautiful. The upkeep of your mosque is immaculate. Even those who are critical of the government in Saudi Arabia cannot dispute this. The marble floor shines. It is cleaned every few hours. The most expensive fascinating marble Thasos is used to floor the haram precincts in Masjid Un Nabawi. During the hottest of days, the marble remains cool and believers can walk, pray and rest on the marble floors that do not absorb heat. Brown skinned men from the Indian subcontinent are cleaning the place all the time, every minute and every hour.
We enter the salaam gate and tip toe our way to you. Trying to savour every minute, but also awkwardly shy and reluctant to have our sinning soul in your presence. We walk slowly and look down at the beautiful designs on the carpet. We admire the golden calligraphy on the walls and the ceiling. It’s as though nothing can get more serene and soulful than this experience. We tread and tip toe slowly towards your magnificent resting space. Suddenly as we approach your magnificent resting place, we see truth all around. The veils disappear. We hear the voices of tens of thousands children crying Our lord rescue us from this regime whose rulers are oppressors. There are bodies being burnt to death beneath tents, the raw flesh touches the tent material. The pain is excruciating. There’s a mother whose half body clings to the window as she tried to reach out to her four year old son and the rest of her body lies strewn across the rubble a few metres away. There is a two month old baby who has a head with a huge hole and blood splattered all over the face. There’s an old man with a long grey beard and traditional qurta extending his hand out to the fingers of a little dead girl crying out. His cry echoes across the skies and the Angels cry out in unison. I see the soul of my soul. We see an infant baby suckling on her mother, the mother has no head and the redness of her blood flows into the white milk as the baby sucks on it. We see the rubble of roofs crushing the heads of families. We hear the pangs of hunger merge with the pangs of death as red blood mixes with white flour. We hear the last cries of the hungry massacred. We hear screams of pain, the kind of screams we have never heard before. These are the screams of a genocide in motion. We hear the haunting death cries of twenty thousand babies all at once. It is a multitude of voices crying out, tens of thousands of voices crying and screaming out. As we walk we feel the carpet wet, we look down, and it is soaked with tears and blood. The green carpet is turning red. Redder and redder. The blood of innocent babies, children, women, grandfathers, grandmothers, men, cats and dogs. The carpets become wetter as the tears run down the wall as though flowing from a waterfall, gushing forth strongly. We can hear the voices of soldiers laughing as they drop bombs on the heads of innocents and the terrified cries of woman running from one place to another. Assalamualaikum ya Rasulullah, the hundreds of voices echoes in your chambers in masjid ul nabawi but you turn away from these greetings to the other voices. Your noble face is turned in the direction of the children of Gaza. The voices of teary children, softly crying out, Your ummah has abandoned us Ya Rasulullah, our oppressors are worse, crueller and more merciless than the Pharoah, Ya Rasullullah. Our numbers are more than 1.9 billion, there’s more of us now than there has ever been on this earth. We starved to death, the 1.9 billion strong could not bring us a plate of food or a bottle of water. Not a soldier from any of the Muslim Nation armies came to defend us. Our people from the low ranking ones of the resistance to the highest ranking in the leadership have bravely fought to defend us the innocent, men, women and children of Gaza and they have all sacrificed their lives. We in Gaza have the greatest of leaders who have faith in you and your Lord and we will not surrender to our enemy but the world has abandoned us and our brothers have abandoned us. Only the learned leader from an Islamic Resistance Movement from Lebanon and a leader of an Islamic Resistance Movement in Yemen have being militarily defending us. We are being killed and our deaths flash across the screens of your followers on their personal phones and T.V. screens Ya Rasooloolah. The enemy is cruel beyond belief. Their guns target specifically the heads and chest of children. They have denied us food, fuel, electricity, medicine and even water. They have bombed hospitals, schools, mosques, graveyards, tents, ambulances, shelters, anything and everything. We do not even have white cloth to bury our dead. The bodies continue bleeding after shrouded. Our shrouds are red. Our women and children are dead. We do not have equipment to remove our dead from the rubble. The voices from under the rubble screech, a haunting voice as the wind begins to become stronger and louder, in unison the women and children cry “Our Lord protect us from this Occupation and Regime whose people are Oppressors”. Suddenly we feel the presence of his Magnificence, the martyr of our generation, ash shaheed Hassan Nasrallah. He looks younger, his beard is black, and he wears a long black shirt and a black turban. The lightness of his skin glows against the backdrop of his black shirt, black turban and black beard. He seems to be 34 years old and looks magnificent. How epic an iconic life he lived and how majestic is he in death. Indeed your lord honours his committed servants. Our eyes meet, he smiles, clenches his right fist and raises it to the sky and shouts out in his familiar voice “Freedom for Al Quds in our lifetime, Peace for everyone or peace for no one”. We are overwhelmed with tears. We cannot stop sobbing but we are not sure why we are sobbing inconsolably thinking about Shaheed Sayyid Hassan (R.A). Sayyid is no longer with us. We cannot contain our tears. As we silently say his name Sayyid, tears come crushing down with the realization that this most fearless freedom fighter is from your line and lineage and he is no longer with us. From October 8th till his martyrdom he fought in solidarity with Gaza. Till the day of his martyrdom, he refused to bend or buck. The Israeli’s used 85 bunker busting bombs weighing 2000kg a bomb to kill this one man, the most amount of force ever used in the history of humankind to kill one man. Shaheed Hassan Nasrallah. He also saw his beloved son Hadi Nasrallah martyred while, in his teens in the frontlines against the Israeli enemy. Your family, the noblest blood has sacrificed more than any other family in the struggle for freedom and justice. His voice reminds us of all of his years with us on planet earth and his defiance against injustice. He was the symbol of our collective dignity, honour, defiance, courage and confidence.
Allahumma Salli Alaa Muhammad Wa Aali Muhammad, voices from different souls cry out.
We suddenly feel the presence of Ismail Haniyeh (R.A). He looks silent and peaceful. He and his children and grandchildren, martyrs are floating with the birds. They are a family with wings roaming the heavenly skies and smiling down towards Gaza. We feel the presence of ash Shaheed Yahya Sinwar (R.A), he has a half smile and his hand is still swinging. He has a frown on his forehead, he grits his teeth and clenches his fist, and wants to return to Gaza but Haniyeh and Shaykh Yaseen hold him back and remind him that his time is up, he did what he had to do. He cannot leave heaven. He tries to break free from their grasp and shouts out “Down with the settlers, down with the occupiers, Liberate Al Quds”. Shaheed Sinwar sings out your words “I would like to go back to earth to fight and be martyred and again I would like to go back to earth and fight and be martyred”. The most magnificent martyrs from the School of Muhammad (p.b.u.h), Nasrallah, Haniyeh and Sinwar. These three honourable men sit together on the banks of Kauthar.
As we look up, we see the name of your beloved comrade Umar Bin Al Khattab (R.A), your companion successor who ruled justly and lived an austere life and is resting next to you. He who would wear patched clothing and lived with meagre possessions while being the head of the Islamic Government in Medina. Such was Umar’s simplicity that foreign leaders would often mistake Umar to be the worker serving the head of state and mistaken the worker to be the head of state. The truth is that if Umar was the head of Government in Medina today, none of us would have the courage to come and visit you or come to your magnificent presence to send salutations because Umar would have taken out his whip and directed all of your followers to the frontlines of Gaza. As we reflect upon the name of Umar, in close proximity to yours, we can’t help but wonder about the cowardly killing of Umar, the knife that plunged into his back. It is as though the blood of Umar’s body now mixes with the blood of the innocents of Gaza flowing down the walls. The cries and screams get louder as the blood of the martyrs of Gaza mix with the blood of the martyred Umar. The cries are getting louder and the blood is flowing faster as it joins the blood of Umar. The blood of babies. The sounds of bullets. Bullets that target the hearts and heads of babies. Screams. Screams. Screams of little Hind Rajab. The sounds of 335 Zionist bullets fired at the little girl. The terrifying cries of little girls. The sounds of horror, the fusion of the sound of bullets with the sounds of pain, the cries of babies. It’s terrifying but now it’s getting worst. The dying screams of the babies of Gaza now fuse with the dying cries of the babies of Karbala. Ali Asghar. Ali Akbar. This is too much. The blood of your family. Your blood. Your children. The noblest blood. The purest blood. The most sacred blood. The blood of the martyrs. Red. Red. Red. The blood of the babies of Gaza mix with the blood of the babies from your family. We try to look away and then we see the serious and sombre face of your beloved Zahra, everywhere we turn, we see her face but we can’t evade her. Her hands are red as she touches the bloodied head of her beloved son Imam Hussein. The leader of all women. The purest and most pristine soul. The most loving mother. The mother of martyrs and freedom fighters. The bloodied babies of Gaza are all around her, her arms reach out and takes all of the babies into her comforting embrace. We can’t escape. The blood is getting redder and is moving so fast that our eyes can’t keep up. The blood is racing down the walls and from the calligraphy Ya Rasoolallah, the blood keeps on flowing, it is now flooding the carpets up to our ankles, getting higher and higher till it reaches our hands. Your followers look at each other. We have blood on our hands. We can’t get out of here. There is truth all around, ya rasooloolah. The veils continue to fall off. Then we think about all of those governments that plunged the knife into the backs of the resistance in the same way the cowardly knife was plunged into the back of your righteous successor Umar. Governments like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey who all verbalise support for Palestinians but in actuality collude and collaborate with Israel. Not forgetting the ruler of the United Arab Emirates who has normalized relations with the Zionist Regime. Will these rulers have the courage to be in the presence of you and Umar? Would anyone of them be fit enough to run and escape Umar’s whip?
Then we see the name of your other beloved comrade and successor who is buried next to you. Abu Bakr as Siddiq R.A. As the tears and the blood make the carpet wetter, we remember the battle of Badr that you fought in this very month of Ramadan in which Abu Bakr gave all of his wealth to the armed struggle. Not only did he give all of his wealth to finance the armed struggle, he was in the frontlines of the fight, one of the noble warriors at Badr. Today your followers Ya Rasooloolah (S.A.W), or rather those who profess to be your followers and rulers of Muslim countries Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia could not send one bullet or gun to the people of Gaza. If Abu Bakr was here today, he would have given all of his wealth to the resistance in Gaza and led your followers to liberate Al Quds. How strange, rulers claim to be the true disciples of you and Abu Bakr, they have all the power and all the wealth but they have not sent a single soldier or a bullet to defend your sons and daughters in Gaza for more than sixteen months while the innocent women and children were being deliberately slaughtered by the Israeli’s. Some of these “Muslim” rulers have “normalized” relations with the Zionist settler state, having diplomatic and economic relations with them. Others engage in secret meetings with the Zionist away from the public, sharing intelligence and plotting against the Islamic Resistance in Gaza.
We are again overcome with awe as we think of Abu Bakr. The time of the Hijrah when you and your comrades became political refugees and had to flee the administration in Makka who put out a hit out on you and marked you for assassination. Abu Bakr, your trusted comrade was with you on this life threatening journey. He put his life on the line. He gave up all his wealth and joined the Islamic Resistance that you led. He did not retreat into a luxury villa and spend his day and nights in prayer. He was with you in your struggles. And at the cave of Thur where you and Abu Bakr were hiding out and your Lord deceived your enemies by getting a spider to weave a web around the entrance of the cave making the assassins believe that no one would have entered as the spider web was intact. When in the cave, the snake bit Abu Bakr and he patiently persevered with the pain. Here was a man who could have lived a comfortable life but chose to sacrifice everything for you and the Islamic Resistance Movement that you led. The Hijrah was a time of revolutionary struggle when you and the Islamic Resistance Movement in Makka were expelled. It was a life and death moment, when you relied on your most trusted comrades Abu Bakr and Ali.
As we remember the Hijrah, we are once again overcome with awe when we think of your comrade and successor Ali (R.A) at the time of the Hijrah as well when you and your comrade Abu Bakr were underground and the enemy had planned your extra judicial killing. At this moment, your beloved comrade Ali chose to sacrifice his life for you and lie in your bed when he knew that there was a kill operation that had been authorized by administration in Makka to kill you while you were sleeping. God presented this sacrifice of Ali to the arch angels Michael and Gabriel and told them that Ali has reached a higher stage than these illustrious angels. Ali who led the Islamic Government on your teachings of social justice where everyone from the head of state to a commoner received the same wage.
Again the voices cry out in unison Allahumma Salli Ala Muhammad wa ala aali Muhammad kama salayta ala Ibrahim wa ala aali Ibrahim innaka hamdidum majid. This venerated salaam is recited aloud as the faithful come to greet you. The same salaam is recited every day in each of every person’s salah five times a day. Why does God want us to do this? Committed Muslims revere all of God’s prophets but God wants the Muslims specifically to link the family of Ebrahim (A.S) with the family of Muhammad (A.S). A believer has to reflect and ponder about this. There has to be a reason for this.
Prophet Ebrahim (A.S) was willing to lay down his own life and remained defiant as the imperial monarch Nimrod threw him into the fire to kill him for resisting the injustice of Nimrods monarchical rule. Ebrahim (A.S) had no fear of death and was prepared to die for his love for Allah and exposed himself to death in a heartbeat because of his faith in Allah. Giving your own life is the ultimate sacrifice. Can there be a greater sacrifice than sacrificing your own life? What is more difficult for Ebrahim (A.S) than to sacrifice his own life? Could there be something like this? There is. To sacrifice the life of his son Ismail was harder for Ebrahim (A.S) because Ebrahim (A.S) loved his son Ismail more than he loved his own life.
Ismail is what brought light and joy to the heart of Ebrahim and made him look forward to every day. So when God presents him with this ultimate test, Ebrahim (A.S) is shaken to the core but willingly surrenders to God and offers to sacrifice his beloved son Ismail (A.S). Ebrahim (A.S) is titled Hanif, the worshipper of the monotheistic God, one most advanced in loving and worshipping God. Ebrahim (A.S) and Ismail (A.S) both surrendered to the will of God. This is the meaning of Islam, surrendering to the will of God.
Every day, in every obligatory prayer five times a day, Muslims remember and recite the name of Ebrahim (A.S) and the family of Ebrahim (A.S) together with your name Muhammad(p.b.u.h) and the family of Muhammad (p.b.u.h).There must be a reason and purpose to this and as we are here by your resting place, sending salaams that combine your name with the name of Ebrahim (A.S) with your family and the family of Ebrahim (A.S) we begin to reflect and ponder about why our Creator wants us to do this?
Ebrahim (A.S) was willing to sacrifice his son Ismail (A.S). Every Eid, when animals are slaughtered to remember the school of sacrifice and resistance, committed Muslims picture the epic scene. A doting father Ebrahim (A.S), about to sacrifice his son in an awe inspiring expression of surrender to God [Islam].
The voices together cry out “Allahuma salli Ala Muhammad waala aali Muhammad, kame salayta Alla Ebrahima Wa Ala Aale Ebrahim innaka Hamidum Majid. And the veils fall off as the people are in your presence. As we think of Aali Muhammad, your noble family and how their pure blood flows in defence of Allah’s commands and in and defence of the oppressed peoples of the earth.
We bow our heads and sob incessantly as we think about you, oh Prophet of God and how you sacrificed the closest of your family in Allah’s cause. You sent your closest ones to face death. In each and every military fight that you led, you sent Ali to engage in the one on one duel which had to end in death for one of the two fighters. Abu Obaydah and Hamza from your family were martyred in battle. Oh noble Prophet you were not only willing to sacrifice your sons like Ebrahim A.S but in fact you did sacrifice your sons. Your family, the Ahlu Bayt have always been at the forefront in the fight for justice and the first to sacrifice their blood. After your martyrdom oh Prophet (p.b.u.h) most of the imams from your family were also martyred in the struggle for justice.
Imam Ali (R.A) who grew up with you and spent his entire life with you by your side in of all of your struggles. During the life and death moments like the battle of Uhud, as the enemy surrounded you with large number of soldiers to kill you, Ali used his body to shield you and his sword to attack the enemy soldiers. Imam Ali who was your comrade, cousin and husband of your beloved daughter Fatima was martyred during salah whilst in sajdah. No human could ever kill Ali in an open battlefield encounter, his killing could only be done in this cowardly manner.
Imam Hassan (R.A) from your Ahlul Bayt was also treacherously poisoned and martyred.
Imam Hussein (R.A.) your beloved grandson was the coolness of your eye in the same way that Ismail A.S. was the coolness to the eye of Ebrahim A.S. Hussein whom you would enthusiastically seek out every day and ask “Where is the little beauty”. Right here in your mosque in Medina, Hussein would jump on your back whilst you were in sajdah in prayer. You would remain in this sajdah prostration until Hussein had jumped off your back so that he would not fall or get hurt. Your love for Hussein was such that you could not bear any hurt to come to Hussein. You loved Hussein and Hassan more than yourself but you schooled and socialised them into the revolutionary school of Islam that made them leaders in the fight for justice and martyrs who gave their lives for freedom in the Ibrahamic and Muhammadi tradition.
It was the time of Haj but Imam Hussein does not go to Haj to slaughter sheep and camels on the day of Eid or to perform the rituals of Haj and supplicate at Arafat. He knows more than anyone else the meaning and importance of the Haj, Eid ul Adha and the school of sacrifice. He does not chose to stay in Medina and deliver sermons and pray throughout the day and night. He chooses to lead the Islamic Resistance Movement at the frontlines in Karbala to confront unjust governance.
Hussein and your noble family are the ones who were sacrificed on the fields of Karbala. Oh noble Prophet, eight sons of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib were martyred at Karbala. Imam Hussein ibn Ali. Jafar ibn Ali. Uthman ibn Ali. Abbas ibn Ali. Abu Bakr ibn Ali. Abdullah bin Ali. Muhammad Al Asghr ibn Ali and Umar ibn Ali. Two sons of Imam Hussein were martyred with their honourable father. Ali Akbar ibn Hussein and Ali Asghar ibn Hussein. Four sons of Imam Hassan were among the noble martyrs, Al Qaasim ibn Hassan. Abu Bakr ibn Hassan. Abdullah ibn Hassan. Bishr ibn Hassan. Two sons of Abbas ibn Ali, the brother of Imam Hussein were also among the noble martyrs. Qassem bin Abbas and Abu Fadhl ibn Abbas. From the descendent of Jafar ibn Abi Talib (R.A), the noble martyrs Aws ibn Abdullah ibn Jafar, Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Jafar. From the descendants of Aqil, the heroic martyrs were Jafar ibn Aqil, Abdur Rahman ibn Aqil, Abdullah ibn Aqil, Muhammad ibn Said ibn Aqil. Virtually all of your sons were martyred on the fields of Karbala, Ya Rasoolallah. As we recollect the names of the men and youth from your family martyred at Karbala, each one of them representing Ismail in his willingness to sacrifice his soul for Allah. The most pure and pristine blood was spilled on the fields of Karbala. Tyranny, injustice and hypocrisy had reached peak proportions. There were so many Muslims at the time but your Ahlu Bayt were alone, bravely resisting injustice. How could it be?
Today too there are so many Muslims but only the muttaqi Muslims in the Islamic Resistance in Gaza, in Lebanon and in Yemen are alone resisting the most vile and vicious oppressors on planet earth. How can this be? Like on the fields of Karbala, on the battlefields in Gaza and Lebanon, the most pious, pure and pristine blood is being spilled. The children of Gaza and the leaders of the Islamic Resistance were martyred. Ismail Haniyeh, Yayha Sinwar, Saleh Al Arouri, Hassan Nasrallah, Hashiem Safieddinne, Ali Kariki, Hassan Mahdavi. There is thus a direct link between Karbala and Haj, between Ebrahim A.S. and Muhammad (p.b.u.h), between Ismail and Hussein between Karbala and Gaza.
There is something that you said about Hussein which you have not said about any other person. “I am of Hussein and Hussein is of me”. As we are here by the noble grandfather of Imam Hussein, we think and reflect on this. Hussein has a unique place in history as your words make clear. Hussein says no to injustice and hereditary monarchy, no to capitalism, no to tyranny. At a time when the people are afraid to rise up and resist because resistance means death. When no one is prepared to speak truth to power because power is brutal and ruthless.
The same reality is faced by your followers today. Power in the form of Imperialism and Zionism is merciless and ruthless. The genocide in Gaza demonstrates the extent of the barbarism. The Israeli Regime is considered to be the 4th or 5th most powerful military in the world, financed and supported by the only superpower and wealthiest country in the world America. It is also supported militarily and financially by most of the other wealthy and powerful European countries in the world like Germany and the United Kingdom who supply military weapons, intelligence as well as diplomatic and political support and cover for the Israeli regime. All the governments of the world are afraid of Israel. The world’s richest and powerful governments support Israel while only one country (Iran) provides weapons to the freedom fighters in Gaza. This is clearly a battle between David (Palestine) and Goliath (Israel). All of the Arab and Muslim governments are afraid to engage in a military fight with the Genocidal Zionist government in Tel Aviv. The Islamic Resistance in Gaza with hardly any weapons, no air force, no tanks and meagre arms bravely and fearlessly resist the powerful Israeli military. Outside of Gaza, the noble leaders from your Ahlu Bayt, Hassan Nasrallah and Abdul Malik al Houthi, who are not even leaders of a government but rather leaders of Islamic Resistance movements Hezbollah and Ansarallah fearlessly join the military fight against Israel. In this most trying and defining moment of Genocide when everyone is so afraid of the overwhelming military superiority of the enemy, it is the leadership from the Ahlu Bayt who have led the way in solidarity with Gaza in fighting injustice and oppression. Your words I am of Hussein and Hussein is of me. If it were not for Imam Hussein and the resistance he led in Karbala, there would be no Islamic Resistance in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. These heroic disciples of yours have led the way in the resistance to genocide and the struggle for self-determination.
Now here we are in the mosque, your mosque, where you led the prayers and the beautiful little son of Fathima was a little kid always playing around you, even during the prayers, the little beautiful would hop on your back. And your overwhelming and tender love for the little beauty, would see you extending the sajdah and surrender to your Lord, with the little beauty on your back and your pious supplication to your Creator. We are obliged reflect on the martyrdom of your beloved grandson Hussein as we are here in your mosque.
Hussein has approximately 72 comrades. The enemy six thousand soldiers. There is no chance of a military victory. There is only one outcome, death and martyrdom. Earthly logic says run away, build your movement and fight when you are stronger and have a chance of victory. This is what other people are thinking. But not Hussein. Hussein sees things differently. Hussein is your ideological disciple and successor. He remembers oh Messenger of God (S.A.W) when your enemies had offered all of the wealth to make you the richest person and anything you wanted from the world but your response to them was that even if they were to put the sun in your right hand and the moon in your left hand, you will not surrender to them. Hussein, your grandson also cannot surrender to earthly tyrants. He knows that there will not be an immediate military victory but that his martyrdom and resistance is a catalyst for the Islamic revolutionary victory and freedom for all the people. He knows with certainty that his defiance and resistance means death and there is no possibility of coming out alive. Hussein choses death and martyrdom.
After Hussein, it was the son of Imam Zaynul Abedeen (R.A), Imam Zayd, the grandson of Imam Hussein from your Ahlu Bayt who like Imam Hussein chose martyrdom when he resisted the Ummayed monarchy led by Hisham. Like his grandfather Imam Hussein, Zayd led a small army against the powerful monarchy. There was no chance of a military victory as there was no military parity and the enemy had overwhelming military superiority. But Zayd was courageously defiant and remained steadfast in his pursuit of justice till he was martyred. Abdul Malik Al Houthi is a direct disciple of Imam Zayd. The spirit of Imam Zayd’s defiance lives within the hearts of Abdul Malik Al Houthi and the freedom fighters of Ansarallah. Now in the holy month of Ramadan, the richest country in the world America is bombing the poorest country in the Muslim world Yemen only because the Ansarallah of Yemen are standing in solidarity with the people of Gaza and threatened to stop commercial ships in the sea who have links with Israel.
As the people send salutations and salaams, the link between Ebrahim, Ismail, Hajar, Muhammad (S.A.W) and the family of Muhammad (S.A.W) becomes clearer and clearer.
The spiritual effort in the days of Haj, culminating in the day of Arafat and Eid is a prelude to the purpose of life which is to pursue truth and justice. In the first ten days of Muharram Imam Hussein goes to battle with the unjust occupation. On the tenth day of Muharram, the day of Ashura, the great Imam is martyred. Haj takes place in the month before Muharram and is the spiritual training for the activist struggle that is required for the New Year in the month of Muharram. The evolutionary process of Haj results in revolution. Walk in the footsteps of Ebrahim (A.S) and then in your most noble footsteps Ya Rasooloolah and then in the footsteps of Hussein and now in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The journey from earthly life to eternal life. From the month of Zil Hijja to the month of Muharram and to truth in eternity? How can we go to Haj and thereafter not take a stand against injustice, Capitalism and Genocide?
“Indeed Safa and Marwa are among the symbols of Allah”.Quran 2:158.
When Hagar saw her infant child Ismail (A.S) thirsty and there was no water, she pleads with her Creator and runs between the pillars of Safa and Marwa in desperation whereupon God instructs Gabriel to use his wing to clip the ground and water from the well of Zamzam flowed and flows to this day. God commands the believers to remember Hagar and emulate her running between Safa and Marwa to imagine the struggles of migration and the plight of the refugees and stand in solidarity with them.
As millions of Muslims performing the Haj and Umra re-enact the actions of Hagar with the Sa’ee, the veils fall of. We see the thousands of Palestinian women running from one end of Gaza to the other end of Gaza over and over again with bombs dropping on them and between them and then we picture Hajar running between Safa and Marwa. Like Hajar the women of Gaza turn to Allah and depend on Allah alone. We see your daughters in Gaza for the last sixteen months beating their heads and chests in desperation and crying out to the world to provide their malnourished and dehydrated babies with water and food and to immediately stop the genocide. The heart wrenching wails of a mother sitting beside her dead baby in the rubble of Gaza and she cries out “Where is the world today, where are the Arabs today, where are the Muslims today”. The inconsolable screams of a wife when she finds the mutilated body of her husband amid the ruins of a mosque. The donkey cart carrying the injured women to some malfunctioning hospital which was bombed by Israel, the bleeding woman from the donkey cart crying out Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah, Ya Allah. The old woman in her seventies, exhausted, starved, dehydrated, panting with sweat mixing with tears on her wrinkled face as she is running for miles from one end of Gaza to the other. From one ‘shelter” to another. From one tent to another. The little girl with tears in her eyes and dust on her face, walking alone, motherless and fatherless.
The dehydrated women in Gaza desperately using their bare hands to dig up the ground in search of water. We see Hajar in each and every woman in Gaza. We see Ismail and Ali Asghar in each and every child of Gaza. We hear the starving cries of death of the 12 year old child Mustafa Hijazi who died of dehydration and malnutrition.
The veils continue to fall off as we are in your close proximity and we see the hate that Israelis have for your sons and daughters in Gaza. We see the hate that they have towards you, Prophet of God. They take to the streets of Israel in large numbers and start screaming and shouting Muhammad is dead. Muhammad is dead. Muhammad is dead. They chant over and over, over and over. This is the deep hatred they harbour towards you. The words of our Lord explains the psychology of our enemy. What they harbour in their hearts is far worse than what they express with their tongues.
Their actions demonstrate the hatred they harbour in their hearts for your sons and daughters in Gaza. There has been a two month ceasefire between Israel and Gaza and according to the terms of the agreement, the ceasefire is to continue into the second phase but the Israeli’s violate the agreement and the countries that mediated the ceasefire have no muscle to guarantee the ceasefire agreement that they facilitated. Instead they demand that the movement that the people of Gaza democratically elected should not govern Gaza and should surrender. How strange that they don’t call for the right wing genocidal government in Tel Aviv not to govern Israel?
On the 17th day of Ramadan in the year 2025, the poor of people of Gaza have broken their sleep, they come together to partake in the suhoor, the auspicious moment when your devout followers begin their fasting. And at this moment, the Israeli Zionist Regime fully aware of the holy and auspicious time, deliberately and mercilessly slaughter over four hundred men, women and children of Gaza in an instant. These actions demonstrate the deep rooted hatred that the Israeli Zionists have towards the committed Muslims of Palestine.
The hero of Haj, Hagar, the mother of Ismail (A.S) and wife of Abraham (A.S). A woman, a black person and a refugee. The representation of the most oppressed person on earth both then and now. The black female refugee. The world rejected her but God choses her. And it is from her bloodline that you oh Prophet of the people descends. Allah willed that in your blood, flows the blood of the oppressed, the blacks and refugees. Now we clearly see the Palestinian woman as the representative of Hajar.
Today we are witnessing the naked racism of the West that cannot bear to see white people killed in a war between Russia and Ukraine and all efforts are directed to secure a peace and to put an end to the war there. But when it comes to your sons and daughters in Gaza who are not white, they are not considered human and no effort is made to demand peace and an end to the genocide. Instead, the world watches and enables the genocide against them.
When Hajar is alone and helpless, hungry and a mother of a baby in the desert. Her Creator hears her call. “And when my obliging subjects ask you about Me, behold, I am near, I respond to the call of him who calls, whenever he calls upon me, let them then respond to me and commit themselves to Me, so that they might maturely follow the right way” Quran 2-185. As the descendants of Hagar and Ismail call upon their Creator while they are being persecuted by Israeli Zionists, how do we your followers sip on zam and do nothing after Israel has deprived your sons and daughters in Gaza of water?
We are here at your holy presence and our salaams bring to our mind your family and the family of Ebrahim A.S. We picture Ismail as a displaced migrant and we are forced to ponder upon the plight of children who are disproportionately persecuted as displaced migrants in our contemporary world. Children make up 30% of the world’s total population but they make up 40% of the world’s forcibly displaced people. A world that we are made to believe is today at its most civilized and progressive state allows 40% of its forcibly displaced people to be children? Today in America, the self-proclaimed champion of human rights and freedom, brown migrants from Mexico and Venezuela are forcibly expelled and treated worse than animals in the process.
According to the UNHCR report in June 2024, there are approximately 43.7 million refugees in the world. There are currently 6.4 million Palestinian refugees today as a result of the creation of the State of Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, about a third of these Palestinian refugees live in a Gaza, an open air prison where nothing, not even a pea can enter or leave without the permission or authorisation from Israel. All of Gaza has now been turned into rubble. Between October and December 2023, 1.7 million people in Gaza were internally displaced. This means 75% of the population in Gaza were displaced. The world allowed it and continues to allow it. The world would not for a single day allow 75% of the people in the rich and white world to be displaced. Imagine seven million, one hundred and twenty five thousand Zionist Jews from Israel terrorised, displaced running between bombs with no access to water, food, electricity, health care and sanitation. Imagine 75 % of the people of New York City, about six million, three hundred and seventy five thousand people displaced in the same way like the Muslim people of Gaza have been displaced, persecuted and bombed as they sleep under tents in Central Park. The powers that be will not allow this type of a genocide against white people for an hour, let alone a day but they have allowed this genocide oh Prophet of God, on your sons and daughters in the Gaza strip for more than sixteen months.
Today we see the representation of Hajar in the woman of Palestine, in Gaza. The most recent U.N. report exposes the rape and sexual violence that Israel uses as a war strategy. Women in Palestine are perpetual refugees in a state of suffering and despair. Since the 7th October 2023, they have been displaced within Gaza multiple times. Forced to move from place to place, witnessing the death of their loved ones, seeing the bodies of their babies blown to bits, hearing the cries of their children as they die, facing the barbarism of Israeli soldiers and their humiliating evacuation orders. They have been deliberately separated from the men. The men are all killed or taken to prison. The Zionist soldiers arrest all men and young boys and force the woman to walk alone. The women of Gaza are alone, in fear, without food or water and suffering. Like Hajar, their bodies and mind survive only through zikr (the continuous remembrance and faith in God). They are the most God conscious souls. As women they have been specifically targeted by the Israeli’s. Deprived of the company of their male companions and family. Deprived of water and sanitation. Deprived of their right to privacy and human dignity and forced to endure cruel and degrading treatment. The Israelis have even banned sanitary pads from entering Gaza, with the primary purpose of humiliating the Arab women of their dignity. The Israeli’s have deliberately bombed the hospital maternity wards forcing the woman to give birth in dangerous and unhygienic conditions. But these woman soldier on to give birth to freedom fighters. They refuse to capitulate. The woman in their thousands with babies walk for hundreds of miles from one end of Gaza to the other end of Gaza, in the open fields exposed to the elements of nature. Frantically in fear, they walk and they run just like Hajar, but they do not surrender, they do not bow down to the Occupation, they resist with their zikr, sabr and salaah. They depend on no one but God. Despite the genocide and suffering, they say Alhamdulillah. Their faith is indomitable. They are the purest souls, the closest to God. They saw their brothers, fathers and sons, martyred but they remain fearless and refuse to capitulate even though they are offered wealth and comfortable living outside of Palestine, they refuse to abandon Al Aqsa.
All the voices of the white West that champion woman’s rights and claim to care for the rights of women are silent on the suffering and oppression of Palestinian women. How strange, the same voices that were so loud in demanding that Muslim women have a right not to cover their heads with scarves are silent when Israeli bombs fall on the heads of Muslim women in Gaza and crushes their skulls.
These women in Gaza are your honourable daughters Ya Rasooloolah. They cannot be silenced nor can they be marginalized. They are the ones that arise and bear witness like Zaynab after Karbala. The oppression that they experience strengthens their faith and hardens their resolve. They are fearless of earthy tyrants such as Netanyahu and his band of IDF barbarians. Like the daughter of Fathima, who led the convoy of the Ahlu Bayt after Karbala and challenged Yazid on his throne, these noble woman endure and fight on. They endured starvation, dehydration and hunger like your most beloved comrade and companion Khadija did in the She’eb Abi Talib. She’eb Abi Talib, that small valley where you and the committed Muslims were under siege for three years, caged in a similar manner as the committed Muslims of Gaza and denied food, water and basic services. Khadija (R.A) stood in comradeship with you from the beginning and the most trying periods of the Islamic Resistance Movement that you led. She gave all of her wealth and time to the Islamic Movement. When you and your comrades were under siege and your enemies used starvation as a weapon of war to force you to capitulate, she was with you and stood firmly by your side resisting the enemy even though she could have left She’eb Abi Talib and went away to live in comfort because she had the financial means to do so. Instead she was steadfast and chose to be part of the Islamic Resistance with you. Khadijah was martyred as a result of the siege and the starvation which your enemy used as a weapon of war at She’eb Abi Taleb in the same way that the Israeli’s are using starvation as a weapon of war today against the Palestinians. Many of the women in Gaza have been martyred just like Khadijah (R.A). Those women who have not been martyred have experienced the most awful trauma of having watched their most beloved babies mercilessly killed with their body parts strewn apart. They will never ever hear the most beloved sounds to their ears “Mama Mama” because the Israeli Zionist military has slaughtered more than 20 000 children. And you, the noblest Messenger of God (S.A.W) always advocated for the rights of women. In your final sermon, with tears in your eyes you advocated your lifelong commitment for the rights of women and our duty to treat women well, protect their rights and honour their dignity. You got your army ready for war when one Muslim women was violated by the bourgeois in the market place.
The women of Gaza are heirs to the legacy of Fathima (R.A). She who was always active in the Islamic Resistance movement. The mother of all freedom fighters. The scholar and teacher. The one who watched you and learned from you. The one whose heart burned with compassion for the poor and oppressed people of the world. The one who passionately hated injustice. The austere and ascetic one who was divorced from the world and its crass materialism. In that small and humble house in Fadak, she created the University of Revolution from which Hassan, Hussein and Zaynab would emerge. She who chose simplicity and poverty. The one in whose house there was no food for three days and on the fourth day when her worker husband Ali had received his pay and purchased some food, on that same day when a poor person in need knocked on their door, she gave all the food to the poor man. This selflessness and self-sacrifice of Fathima is emulated by the honourable women of Gaza in faith, teaching and school of thought. Today in Gaza, where 95% of all educational institutions have been completely or seriously destroyed by Israel, the women rise up to teach the children, in the rubble, picking up shredded books, under the open skies, they continue with educating the child of Gaza. Along with the education, they teach them and provide them with knowledge about you and about Allah. Their knowledge and faith is unbelievable because the children of Gaza have grown up to be the ones with the most amount of sabr (revolutionary patience) and Iman (faith). They have suffered the worst that can be suffered but despite this suffering, they remain close to Allah and to you. No amount of suffering and genocide can separate them from you.
What has become of the rest of the world’s Muslims today? 1.9 billion in number? We go taraweeh and pray twenty rakaats (cycles of prayer) every night in this holy month of Ramadan. We read the holy book throughout this month. But we are deaf to Allah’s commandments in the Holy Quran. What is this? Reading the Quran to become holy and pious? We all know the narration for Hadrath Ayesha R.A who told us that you were a walking Quran. You actualized and implemented the meanings of the Quran and established a system of just governance on the basis of the Quran. Today people are reading the Quran to become holy and pious but are not carrying out the actions that you carried out. Reading the Quran to become close to God? How can we become close to God if we ignore his commands in the holy book and do nothing to fight on behalf of the oppressed people in Gaza whose cry is echoed in Allah’s words which describe their current condition “Our Lord rescue us from this regime whose people are oppressors”
“And how could you refuse to fight in the cause of Allah and of the utterly helpless men and women and children who are crying. “O our Sustainer! Lead us forth to freedom out of this imperial civic society whose people are oppressors, and raise for us, out of your grace, a protector, and raise for us, out of your grace, one who will bring us support”. Quran 4-75.
Who on earth today are more utterly helpless than the men, women and children of Gaza who are fighting for freedom.
It was in this holy month of Ramadan that the first verses of the Quran was revealed to you oh noble Prophet (S.A.W) while you were in the cave of Hira at the age of 40.
“Read in the name of your Sustainer, who has created. Created the human being out of an adhesion, physical and emotional. Read for your Sustainer is the Most Benevolent one, who has taught the intelligent social human the use of the writing instrument (pen)” Quran 96-1 to 4.
In these first verses of revelation, God calls upon the human being to recognize his origin, his Creator and his most distinctive human trait, which is his intellect and his capacity to read and write. This intellectual responsibility is coupled with the duty to be an active free thinker in pursuit of justice inspired from the primary source of liberation which is the Quran. This is how you trained your comrades, to be thinkers and activists simultaneously.
As we walk the streets of Medina, not too far from your mosque, approximately 900 metres is masjid us Sajdah, what the people call Abuzarrs’ mosque. This small mosque is named after your great comrade about whom you mentioned that between the heaven and the earth, there is no one more honest. We walk the nine hundred meters and imagine your footsteps’ and the footsteps of your comrade Abuzarr. And after your passing, Abuzarr continued to walk in your footstep’s and continued your struggle against economic inequality and for the realization of a classless community. Here in Masjid us Sajdah where you and your close comrade Abuzarr prayed a lengthy sajdah together. Yeah this is the meaning of Islam, surrendering to Allah. This is freedom because the servant of God will never bow down to any man or earthly Government. Abuzarr was an expression of this God inspired struggle for freedom and social justice. This illustrious companion of yours who read the Quran and understood its meaning was not a property owner and left this earth as a pauper. You and Allah inspired him to the most beautiful form of activism for social justice. When class discrimination entered the Muslim society, it was Abuzarr who would clench his fist and rallied the people to protest at the palace and palatial villas reciting God’s words for social justice and resistance to capitalism.
And now as we are in the month of Ramadan we think and reflect about the words your Maker conveyed to you about this holy month. The Quranic verses from S2-183 to 188 enlighten us about Ramadan. The concluding verse 188 “And do not devour wealth among yourselves wrongfully, nor approach with it decision makers with a view to devouring sinfully and knowingly, anything that by right belongs to others” This verse goes to the root of social injustice and denounces monopoly capitalism and the concentration of wealth amongst a few (elite). The wealth which is supposed to be equally distributed among An Nas (The People) is today concentrated and “devoured’ by imperialist, capitalist and the elites that are in power. In relation to income inequality, the richest 10% earn 52% of the global income whilst the poorest half earns only 8.5% of the global income. Wealth inequality is even more polarised with the richest 10% owning 76% of wealth with the poorest half of the population owning only 2% of the world’s wealth. The Ramadan verse brings to the attention of the public mind, the collusion between political elites (governments) and capitalists. It is this collusion which sustains the economic polarisation between the wealthy minority and the poor majority and keeps intact the power of elites where governments do not act in the democratic interests of their citizens.
These Ramadan verses of the Quran expose those who are responsible for the miserable state of the world and sell out the natural wealth of the country to the “decision makers” like the IMF, the World Bank and the chiefs in Washington and Tel Aviv. The rulers within “Muslim ranks” are also exposed by the Ramadan verses. They may don the mantle and the robe but these verses strip them of their “pious garb” and reveal them to be an extension of Imperialism’s political apparatus and the enablers of the genocide in Gaza who collude with the Zionist State. These rulers have no mandate from you oh Prophet of God (S.A.W) and the Quran to sell away the natural resources (wealth) to international capitalists and to allow the armies of Imperialism and Zionism in Muslim lands or to close the borders of Gaza and deny the people of Gaza lifesaving food and medical supplies.
Marx is partially correct when he tells us that religion is the opium of the people. The majority of “religious” people are absent in the struggle for justice.
Among your followers are those who read the Quran to become holy but are blinded to the meanings of its call to act for justice. There is a genocide going on but these folks want to become holy, only engaging in prayer and crying through the night. They are deaf to the cries of the orphans in Gaza. The people of Gaza don’t need anyone’s tears because their own tears from witnessing twenty thousand of their children ruthlessly slaughtered have filled the river to the sea.
Your comrades like Abuzarr have repudiated Marx’s opinion that religion is the opiate of the people. From Abuzarr, we see that your school of thought inspires civil disobedience and stirs to action and a fight for justice rather than accepting injustice.
The people cry out in unison Allahuma Sali Ala Muhammad Wa Aali Muhammd, Kama Salayta Ala Ibrhaimi Waala Aali Ibrahim Innaka Hamidum Majid . Here in your presence, the truth flows like water from a waterfall. Our eyes can now clearly see the language of double speak and hypocrisy. When those in power with a forked tongue verbalize human rights, freedom and democracy but do everything within their power to stem the tide of freedom, democracy and self-determination in Gaza. It is the redness in the blood of Hussein that liberates the human eye to see clearly who the freedom fighter is and who the oppressor is. The killers of Hussein claimed to be “Muslim” and the “heirs” to you oh noble Prophet (S.A.W) but the blood of Hussein, your blood exposes every tyrant in this world and is the life pulse of freedom loving people. How can a person claim to love you oh Prophet (s.a.w) and do nothing when they shed the blood of your sons and daughters in Gaza for more than sixteen months? In one day in the month of Ramadan they slaughter more than four hundred people. How do we claim to be following your Sunnah when we live a life of luxury and opulence and extricate ourselves from the people? You oh noble Messenger lived a life of simplicity and frugality and always lived among the people? Some call themselves Muslim monarch but you Oh Prophet of the people said “there is no monarchy in Islam”
Your human universalism exposes oppressors. You taught your followers that all human beings are equal like the teeth of a comb and to stand in solidarity with oppressed people whether they are Muslim or not. Whether the oppressor is a Hendrik Verwoerd, Adolf Hitler, Nimrod, Yazid or Netanyahu, he must be opposed. Whether the oppressor calls himself a Muslim, Christian or Jew he must be confronted, resisted and made to fall. Thus your revolutionary refrain “I am of Hussein and Hussein is of me”. Here at your noble resting place, we come to the realization that this this is the reason your beloved Creator wants us to remember the family of Ebrahim (A.S) and your family simultaneously in every salah (prayer).
As we think of Ebrahim (A.S), we must think about the father in Gaza who has to watch his children starve and then killed while they are hungry and starving, waiting in line for food. The redness of their blood mixing with the whiteness of flour. We imagine how it was for the more than twenty thousand Palestinian children slaughtered by Israeli Zionists. The warm blood of the twenty thousand children flowing on the grey rubble that is Gaza. When we think about Hagar, we think about the Palestinian mother, who has to watch her child drink water from the sewer and then is burnt to death by Israeli Zionists. We think about the tender cries of a mother who has to watch her child slaughtered and is deprived of the dignity of a burial. When we think about Hagar’s helpless cries, tears and screams, we think about the women in Palestine who hear the starving cries of their babies and have to pick up their scattered limbs in the rubble in Gaza. When we honour Hajar, we acknowledge and honour the strength and patience of the women of Gaza. As we picture Hagar running helplessly calling out to her Creator, we think about more than two million refugees of Gaza who are forcibly displaced month after month by the Occupying Israeli regime running in fear like Hajar.
And now they have openly threated the Palestinians with ethnic cleansing and forced expulsion from Palestine. When we think about how Ebrahim (A.S) was forced to enter Nimrods fire, we think about the people in Gaza forced to die in Netanyahu’s fire when he bombs the refugee tent camps. We think about their screams as they were deliberately burnt alive by Israeli Zionists and how they suffered an atrocious death. We picture the little baby without a head, carried by the Palestinian father. We see the Nimrodic arrogance in Netanyahu. When we send salutations and salaams to you and your beloved family, we think about the spear piercing the throat of Ali Asghar and the fresh blood flowing out of the innocent child and remember the tears of the noble Fatima, the mother of Hussein. We think about the bombs blowing the bits of every little child Muhammad in Gaza and the tears of the Palestinian mother. We think about the orphaned Zaynul Abideen and what his eyes witnessed when he saw his father, brothers and uncles slaughtered in front of him. Then we think about the tens of thousands of children in Gaza, who through the innocent eyes of a child see their parents killed in front of them, limbs shattered to bits. And we remember you, Oh messenger of God who was an orphan and as a leader became the foremost protector of orphans. The children of Palestine are deliberately orphaned by the Israeli Zionists. These innocent children who have to hear the sounds of guns and bombs for twenty four hours every day and for sixteen months consecutively. We wonder in horror how can any child survive this psychological damage? We imagine the mental horror and torture that these children of Gaza are experiencing? And you oh Prophet (S.A.W) was the one who loved orphans and fought for their rights more than anyone else, how can we who claim to be your followers remain silent? How can we not act? How can we not call out the hypocrisy that we can clearly see?
As we are here by your honourable presence we remember the martyred leaders of Gaza. The leader of the resistance in Palestine was Ismail Haniyeh. Like your noble family in Karbala, his sons and grandsons are sacrificed in Gaza in one day. Like Imam Hussein, he sees them martyred but is not broken, he keeps on resisting the enemy, keeps on fighting until he himself is martyred. We wonder how is it possible for any man to see his children and grandchildren in Gaza slaughtered in one day and not surrender or lose faith in God? Instead, his faith becomes stronger and he keeps on fighting his oppressors. Three of Ismail Haniyehs sons, Hazem, Amir and Muhammad and four of his grandchildren were all killed on the 11 April 2024, the day of Eid Ul Fitr. We realize the link between Haniyeh and Hussein. Haniyeh remembered your grandson Imam Hussein who lost two sons Ali Akbar and Ali Asghar, seven brothers and six nephews at the battle of Karbala but even this pain could not stop the Imam Hussein from fighting his oppressors. Like Imam Hussein, Ismail Haniyeh sees his entire family martyred but is not broken, he keeps on resisting the enemy, keeps on fighting. Ismail Haniyeh demonstrates your Muhammadi courage after the loss of his family and says “The blood of my children is not more valuable than the blood of the Palestinian children of the Palestinian people. Ismail Haniyeh and the people of Gaza have demonstrated that they are truly your disciples. Yahya Sinwar who succeeded Ismail Haniyeh after his martyrdom also followed your path of leading the resistance in the frontlines and was martyred.
He and his comrades first exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers and three of his comrades were killed whilst Sinwar was seriously wounded, he went into a dilapidated building. The video footage shows him wearing a Palestinian Keffiyeh, bleeding profusely in the ruined building, mortally wounded and with one hand amputated. Lean and lanky, bearded, a rugged looking revolutionary. His last weapon is a stick, red, drenched in his own blood, in his last moments, he still finds the courage to pick up the stick and throw it towards the Israeli drone. Mortally wounded and experiencing excruciating physical pain, his facial expression is one of a warrior’s rage shouting out loud “Damn you Zionist settler soldiers, I will not surrender to you, I will not bend, I will not beg, I’m going out fighting”. Sinwar does not scream or cry from the pain he experiences, instead his facial expression is that of a fearless defiance as he throws the stick at the Israeli drone. The final act of defiance towards Israel.
Ebrahim (A.S) arch enemy Nimrod was a monarchical absolutist. Netanyahu like Nimrod has systematically pursued a policy of genocidal infanticide. Nimrod is reported to have pursued the same genocidal infanticide and killed seven thousand male infants in a period of 40 years. The Israeli Zionist Netanyahu has slaughtered more than twenty thousand Palestinian children in sixteen months, thus exceeding even the Nimrodic barbarism. Like Nimrod, Netanyahu believes that he and the Israeli Zionists are a superior people and a law unto themselves. Netanyahu who is blind to scripture and deaf to the words of the International Court of Justice is behaving as though he thinks he is God on earth totally oblivious to international law and eternal law (scripture). Instead of stopping the genocide after the ruling of the International Court, the Israeli Zionists went on a killing rampage to demonstrate their earthly arrogance and opposition to God, the Almighty, the Just and Majestic
There is no human being on planet earth that was blessed with such comrades like you had in Abu Bakr and Ali. Today your followers have fallen victim to the whispers of Satan and try to turn the followers of Ali and Abu Bakr against each other. Sectarian Muslims turn their weapons against each other but refuse to direct their weapons in defence of the oppressed people of Gaza and towards the genocidal Occupation. Ali and Abu Bakr were your comrades and comrades of each other. They fought in the frontlines together all the time. In your most difficult times, when your life was threatened, these are the two of your comrades you relied upon and the ones who were prepared to sacrifice themselves for you. Our Creator has in the divine writ referenced the greatness and sacrifice of Ali and Abu Bakr. Only the greatest leader on earth could produce comrades in the calibre of Abu Bakr and Ali. While we are in your holy presence, we come to the realization that the sons and daughters of Abu Bakr and Omar and the sons and daughters of Ali and Hussein are all the children of Muhammad (.S.A.W). The resistance in Gaza and Lebanon see and live this brotherhood clearly and they are the ones who have sacrificed their lives. Why do the rest of the 1.9 billion Muslims not see this reality and instead become useful idiots for Imperialism and Zionism to divide your umma to serve their interests and sustain the Occupation?
The Islamic Resistance movement has sacrificed its greatest leaders in the resistance to genocide. Hassan Nasrallah, Hashiem Saffiedinne, Ibrahim Aqil, Ali Karaki, Fouad Shukr from Lebanon and Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, Saleh Al Arouri and Muhammad Deif from Gaza are among these high ranking leaders. These leaders demonstrated the highest calibre of leadership and sacrifice. It is hard to imagine your followers today being able to surpass the calibre and character of these martyrs. These leaders from the Islamic Resistance in Gaza and Lebanon, demonstrate and actualize the spirit of a brotherhood that you have inspired, free of sectarianism and a radical defiance that will not bend or bow to tyrannical Zionists and oppressor Imperialists.
And the rest of us. We are 1.9 billion in number, making up 25% of the world’s total population. There are 56 Muslim nation states. Not one of the countries were able to send their armed forces to defend the innocent men, women and children in Gaza. Only one country Iran is hostile to the Zionist Regime and sends weapons to support the resistance in Lebanon and Gaza. Only one small country, South Africa which is not an Arab or Muslim country did what no other Muslim country had the courage to do by taking Israel to the International Court of Justice in an effort to stop the genocide.
The Muslim countries have become so weak and emasculated that they cannot even co-ordinate an economic boycott of Israel and its military financiers who have enabled and sustained the Israeli genocide for 16 months. They did not even dare to stop oil production as a means of getting the world to stop the Genocide.
And the 1.9 billion of us, we too have failed to successfully emulate your method of civil disobedience and become a disciplined civic international boycott and disobedience movement that could have stopped the genocide.
Now we all look at the letter we have written. It is red. It is wet. There is blood. The tips of our 1.9 billion fingers are stained. The fingers of 1.9 billion Muslims are Red. More than fifty thousand of your sons and daughters in Gaza are dead. We have blood on our hands. The letter is Red.
- A Letter from the People to the Prophet of the People Muhammad p.b.u.h. - April 1, 2025
- Ramadan in the Rubble for the People of Gaza - March 1, 2025
- Ode to a Martyr - February 27, 2025