[music]
Never ever has a group come from within
our tradition performing acts of
terrorism. killing innocent people,
wanting violence, and then they have
brought about everlasting peace and good
from this movement. Do you really think
at the age of 19 you will carry the wave
of jihad forward and your people triple
your age? Don't know what they're doing.
Jihad is a legitimate term. It's a noble
term. We shouldn't be ashamed of it. But
those groups that misuse and abuse THE
TERM JIHAD, WE should be brave enough to
stand up for the sake of Allah and
criticize them because they're harming
the real jihad much more than any
non-Muslim can ever harm it. May Allah
subhanana wa ta'ala allow us to be
people of the true jihad and not the
false jihad. May Allah subhana wa tala
allow us to do jihad as he is pleased
with and not a jihad that is that is
false and that will lead us astray. May
Allahel return is and glory to this
religion. May Allah subhanana wa ta'ala
bring peace to this earth. May Allah
subhanana wa ta'ala cause us to live as
Muslims to die as shahid and to be
resurrected amongst the
[cheering]
Alhamdulillah.
The topic of jihad in the current
climate is a very very very difficult
one. It is a topic that no matter what
you say or how you say it or who you say
it to, you will
bring a lot of attention. You will bring
a lot of criticism and you're not going
to satisfy everybody.
So today's topic, my goal is not to
please anyone other than Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala and to discuss the reality of
some of the quote unquote jihadist
movements of the 20th century, i.e. the
last 100 years or so. And this topic is
especially relevant and especially
emotionally charged in light of all of
the transgressions that are taking place
in the Muslim world. We see so many
governments. We see so many powers
attacking Muslim lands. We see so much
oppression and injustice and someone
seems to stand up and fight against that
injustice. And therefore it is natural
that our sympathies with are sometimes
with those who are fighting against
oppression. Our sympathies are sometimes
with those who are fighting against
injustice. But the fact of the matter is
that it is possible. It is possible to
fall into injustice even as you fight
against injustice. And the wise person
is the one who can point out the
problems, the inconsistencies of both
methodologies while remaining firm to
the truth. In our religion, just because
you're a Muslim doesn't mean everything
you do becomes legitimate and right. In
our religion, just because you
sayahillahillah,
it doesn't justify everything that
you're doing. And if someone points out
some mistakes of Muslims, this does not
mean that they're siding with those who
are opposing Allah and his messenger.
This does not mean that they are siding
with unjust regimes, with tyrannical
governments, with foreign policies that
have suffocated Muslim lands. Not at
all. Rather we are pointing out that if
you want to fight against oppression,
you want to fight against injustice,
then the best way to do it is the most
effective and the most Islamically
legitimate. Both things have to be taken
into account. What is Islamically
allowed and what is not allowed. And I
also want to make a very important
disclaimer here that this talk has
nothing to do with our brothers and
sisters who are fighting against
oppression directly. This talk is not
aimed to let's say Syria and our
brothers in Syria that are fighting
against the regime. I'm not talking
about them. I'm talking about people
who, and my criticisms in today's talk,
are going to about people who are
targeting those who have nothing to do
with injustice. They're targeting those
who are, we would call them in modern
language, civilians or non-combatants.
They were the the talk here is for those
Muslims who are sympathetic to
organizations, sympathetic to people,
sympathetic to trends that are
indiscriminately killing everybody.
Obviously, whether you're Muslim or not,
if your if your land is attacked, your
country is attacked, your home is
attacked, you have the right to defend.
and our brothers and sisters in Syria
for example when the regime is doing
what it is doing where I'm not talking
about them in particular no I'm talking
generically especially for those of us
living in the west who might some of us
might be sympathetic to trends to
movements that we assume are battling
these evils but sometimes they fall into
evils sometimes they fall into greater
evils and I'm gonna try to be as generic
as possible and I want the maxim him I
want us to learn and to memorize is
those who ignore history are doomed to
repeat it. Very simple. Those who ignore
history are doomed to repeat it. Do you
think this is the first time that the
ummah is facing injustices in the world?
Do you think that this is the first time
that there's been a crisis? Do you think
this is the first time that the banner
of jihad has been raised? Do you think
this is the first time oppression is
being challenged? Of course not. So why
don't we look back and see at other
movements 50 years ago, 100 years ago,
30 years ago that also attempted to
challenge injustice and we can now
analyze their mistakes and make sure
that we don't fall into the same
mistakes as we battle against injustice.
Brothers and sisters, to be explicit and
crystal clear, we all know that the root
cause of quote unquote Islamic
terrorism, the root cause of Islamic
terrorism is the legitimate political
grievances that these people have. We're
all angry at the Palestinian crisis. All
of us are bleeding for what is happening
in Palestine. We're in fume, we're
infuriated at how so many countries are
treating our Muslim brothers and
sisters. So the question is not whether
the west is doing an injustice in
Palestine. The question is not whether
you know the Israeli conflict is this
and that or the question is not whether
the the the foreign policy of
Afghanistan, the drone attacks. We are
all opposed to the false invasion of
Iraq. We're all opposed to the
indiscriminate killing of of our
brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. The
question is what do you do here in
Norway? What do I do in America? What is
our response to that violence to that
vul to that injustice? Should we follow
the path of those clerics and those
people who preach, oh, we have to wage
jihad against everybody in the world?
All of Norway because they have I don't
know five peace troop peacekeeping
troops or 20 somewhere in the world. All
of Norway becomes guilty. In America, we
have such people that they say, "Oh,
because of the drone attacks in in in
Afghanistan, we can bomb New York City."
And they say, "An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth." And this is their
mentality. I am criticizing this
mentality. I want to be explicit here.
Let nobody ask a ridiculous question at
the end. I am not talking about our
brothers and sisters in Afghanistan
attacking those who are attacking them.
I'm not talking about our brothers and
sisters in Falin in Kashmir fighting
against the troops that are killing
them. Of course, every human being in
the world when his family, when his
children are attacked, when they're
deprived of basic rights, of course
they're going to stand up and fight
back. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about me and you right here in
Oslo, in America, in New York, in in
Houston, where I am born and raised. Do
we just go and start killing people? The
Boston bombers. This is what I'm talking
about. The bombers IN BOSTON, THEY WERE
MUSLIM. They claimed to be Muslim. We
don't deny their Islam because of this
deed. Was that deed legitimate or not?
That is the question I'm talking about.
I am not talking once again about Avans
defending their land against troops that
have invaded. That's a separate issue,
separate topic, nothing to do with my
topic today. So I want to be very clear
here. The topic here is the
indiscriminate killing of non-combatants
of civilians of peoples in lands that by
and large are not aware and are not
involved of what is happening in foreign
places. And I began this talk by talking
about some of the uh characteristics of
the first group in Islam
that I would say exhibited extremist
tendencies. And this group is the famous
group of the Khadijites. This group is
the famous group of the Kadites. Now,
for those of you who have never heard of
this group, the Khadites were the first
splinter group in Islam and they broke
away from the Muslim community at the
time of Ali Abalib, the fourth kiff.
When Ali and Muawi were having a war
based on politics, not based on religion
and they disagreed based on politics to
save the um and not have another war.
Both Ali and Muawia agreed to a truce to
a ceasefire. The both of them are
companions. The both of them understood
this is not wise. So they agreed to a
truce. They said let's stop fighting.
Let's negotiate the way forward. These
group that were later called Khites said
that this is wrong. The fact that you've
agreed to a ceasefire is wrong because
oh Ali, if you're on the truth, you have
to kill the very last end of the other
troop and finish him all off. And if
you're not upon the truth, well then you
shouldn't have been fighting and the
other group should win over you. In
other words, they saw the world as black
and white. Remember this point. They saw
the world as black and white. You're
either with us or against us fully.
There's no in between. You're either
fully upon the truth or else you're
completely wrong and there's no middle
ground. And they broke away. And this
group known as the Karajites, our
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, he predicted of them and he
gave us some characteristics about them.
Now these characteristics, listen to me
carefully again. These characteristics
by and large are still found in many of
the quote unquote radical jihadist
groups to in our times. Groups such as
al-Qaeda, groups such as the ISIS, we
find these characteristics in them.
Listen to me and listen to your prophet
Muhammad wasallam with an open mind and
then you see for yourself. Do these
characteristics exist in these groups or
not? What did our prophetam say about
the khites? These hadith are in uh many
of the books of of of hadith. The first
one I'm going to quote you is the hadith
of Abu D that our prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said there will be
differences in my um and a group of
people
they speak this talk they have good
speech but their actions are terrible
will appear. So notice the first
characteristic. What they're calling to,
what they're saying is beautiful. What
they're doing is downright evil. This is
what our prophetam said.
They know how to talk. Their call is
great. You cannot disagree with it.
The actions they're doing are terrible.
And they shall recite the Quran, but
they will not it will not leave their
throats. Meaning they seem to be pious
but they're not acting upon the Quran.
They shall depart from this religion
like an arrow goes through its prey.
Like an when you shoot an arrow goes
through a deer like it goes through the
deer. That's how they're going to leave
this religion. They are calling to the
book of Allah but they have nothing to
do with the book of Allah. So this is
the first character the first hadith
excuse me. They're calling to the book
of Allah but they have nothing to do
with the uh book of Allah. And in the
famous hadith in Sah Bkari
the a man came to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam with a huge thick beard
a wide forehead and shaved hair and the
prophet was in the battle of he was
giving the booty and the spoils of war
to various people. This man came up and
said yahuhammed
this is how he's addressing the
prophetam he's a Muslim so supposedly
he's addressing
Fear Allah and be just in distributing
this money. Meaning I want more than
what you gave me. Fear Allah and be just
in distributing this money. Our prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam said woe to
you. Who else will fear Allah and be
just if I am not fearing Allah and being
just? If I will not fear Allah and be
just, who else on this earth is going to
fear Allah and be just? And some of the
Sahabah became so angry and incensed
they wanted to execute him. And the
prophet said, "No, let him be. Don't
don't don't execute him. But from this
man's mentality will come. From this
man's mentality will come a group of
people. You shall consider your worship
and your prayer and your recitation of
the Quran to be nothing compared to
theirs. I.e. outwardly they're
overzealous and over pious. But they
shall leave this religion like an arrow
leaves its prey. In another hadith also
in sah Muslim our prophet sallallah.aii
wasallam said there will come during the
end of times. So now this he's talking
about groups in our times towards the
end of times a group of people. Now
listen to this now memorize this
description.
Three characteristics. Number one,
young men. Young. They're not old.
They're not wise. They're not
experienced. They're a bunch of kids.
They have the most grandiose visions.
They're dreaming, the biggest dreams.
They are speaking the best speech that
you've ever heard of any man.
But they will leave Islam like an arrow
leaves its prey. In all of these hadith,
these groups are being described as
leaving Islam and they're being
described as speaking good, painting a
beautiful picture but doing deeds of
evil. And this is the problem that many
people when they listen to these groups,
the speech is great. It's incendiary.
It's moving. It's powerful. championing
the rights of the oppressed. But then
you see the damage that they've done,
the innocent lives that they've killed,
the blood that they have shed and it is
difficult to connect that image with
this image. And this is what our prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam is
saying that you shall consider their
prayers trivial compared your prayers
trivial compared to theirs. So these
people are reading the Quran. They're
saying the most beautiful speech.
They're calling to the book of Allah,
but there's something wrong with them.
What is wrong with them? They're causing
bloodshed, violence. Their actions,
their deeds are not supportive of the
Quran. Therefore, historically speaking,
historically speaking, the Khites of old
were the most eager to accuse other
Muslims of of hypocrisy of kufur. They
were the most eager to shed the blood of
other Muslims. They were the most eager
to fight other Muslims. My dear brothers
and sisters, the kadesites of today have
the exact same characteristics. The
first group to accuse any other Muslim,
oh because you don't support us, you're
a hypocrite, you're afraid, you're
working with the kufur against us. The
fastest people to pronounce judgments on
others is this group. They're the
fastest people to target Muslims before
the enemies that are actually killing
the Muslims. And when one of the wanted
to debate with Ali and he had some
flowery speech, what did Ali say to
this? Again a very profound statement
said this is
what he is saying is true but what he
wants to do with his saying is evil.
What he's preaching is true but his
actions that are leading to it are evil.
And if we look at the modern militant
movements within Islam, we learn that
never has a group come out performing
acts of terrorism and succeeded in the
long term to bring about peace or remove
oppression. I reiterate, listen to me
carefully and if you don't believe me,
go read history and study yourself.
Never ever has a group come from within
our tradition performing acts of
terrorism killing innocent people
wanting violence and then they have
brought about everlasting peace and good
from this movement and in today's talk I
want to just illustrate two or three of
these recent movements. So we talked
about the earlyites and in one hadith
our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said
that this group shall continue to
resurface from time to time
they'll continue to resurface until the
day of judgment. So I want to talk about
some of the groups in our recent times
in the last 30 years or so and the last
30 years I have been alive throughout
all of these incidents even though I was
a child when some of these happened.
This is during my lifetime. We're not
talking about 1800s, 1700s. We're
talking about 1970s onwards. Very recent
history. Let's look at some of these
movements and then you decide for
yourself which modern movements are the
most symbolic if you like or the most
representative of these movements that
we will mention. The first movement and
the one that I have actually spoken a
lot about in a lot of detail and wahi
one of the most scary and dangerous
movements uh in our recent history is
the movement of
from Mecca. Well, he's from Riad and
then he moved to Medina and then he did
what he did in Mecca. Many of you might
not be aware. One of the saddest
incidents in our recent Islamic history
was the hijacking
of the Kaa itself.
It's so bizarre when I first say this
story. People think I'm making it up. If
you don't know this, ask your mother and
father. Everybody knows who was alive in
1979. Everybody who was an adult in 1979
and a Muslim knows of this story. The
Kaa ITSELF WAS HIJACKED. IT WAS HELD
HOSTAGE, THE KAA, NOT BY A GROUP OF
PAGANS, NOT BY A GROUP OF IDOL
WORSHIPPERS, NOT BY A GROUP OF KUFUR, by
a group of ultra fundamentalist fanatics
that were so quote unquote righteous and
pious that many of the senior scholars
alive at the time did not know what to
make of it. Why? Because they thought
these people were good people. They
thought THESE PEOPLE WERE RIGHTEOUS
PEOPLE. And this is WHY IT'S SO SCARY
that there is a fine LINE BETWEEN
FANATICISM and between righteousness.
THERE'S A FINE LINE BETWEEN fanaticism
and righteousness. And that line is
sometimes difficult to distinguish even
for people of great knowledge and great
stature. Who is this man Johan? To be
very brief and I've spoken about this in
a lot more uh detail and I've also
presented academic papers about this
individual and his thought. Johan lived
an average life. He joined the National
Guard as a young man and he became more
and more religious uh as uh as he became
older he eventually uh quit the national
[clears throat] guard and he's living at
a time in the 60s and 70s
when Saudi Arabia is for the first time
experiencing money materialism and he
sees in front of him all of the wealth
pouring in and he sees the changes in
lifestyles. He sees people now living
the life, building big mansions. He sees
non-Muslims coming in, engineers,
doctors, and their lifestyles also now
being imported. And there was a time in
Arabia when alcohol could be uh
available. It wasn't as strict as it is
now that you could purchase alcohol. Uh
music and television is now being
introduced for the first time. Now, this
is a very bedawin, very closed culture.
Perhaps it still is in many ways. It's a
very closed culture. And now in the 70s
for the first time television or
television was the 60s excuse me but for
the first time there are women without
hijab on television there's music coming
on television and this is enraging him
it's insensed him he quits his job and
he moves to the holy city of Medina and
he begins a grass move grassroots
movement which was called the movement
of accountability
the movement of accountability and the
movement was popular amongst the masses
and it would go preaching and teaching
doortodoor masid to masid and it would
also try to enforce law on people. So a
number of times when he would come
across a music store in Medina, there
were music stores in Medina. May I shock
you and say there are still music stores
in Medina but there were music stores in
Medina and uh he would find these stores
and he would break the glass and take
the stuff and destroy it and then move
on. Now technically
whatever you believe about music, it's
not your job as an average Muslim to go
break into a store and destroy the
property. It's not your job. But he took
it on himself that this is my job now to
go and destroy uh music and other things
of this nature as well. And he started
criticizing the Saudi government, the
royal family for what he perceived to be
the excesses of the government, for the
lifestyle of the the princes and the
playboys and whatnot. And what is
happening to our society? Our religion
is becoming bad and whatnot. And uh
eventually in 1976
uh Johan decided to start a smaller
private secret movement. And this
movement he called it thewan. Nothing to
do with Egypt. This is nothing like
that. This is just a smaller cult type
of of movement. And he moved to a small
village outside of Medina. and he began
training in military expeditions in he
in in in warfare uh in in training
people how to use firearms and this was
outside the city of Medina and obviously
the city of Medina has the very famous
university that I'm very very proud and
humbled to be a graduate of the Islamic
University of Medina I studied there for
10 years a bachelor's and a masters and
some of my own teachers some of my own
teachers were alive and contemporaneous
to this movement of Juan and I heard
many many stories. Uh for some reason I
always had an interest in the story and
so as long back as I can remember I'm
always asking my teachers about stories.
So I I know a lot of the internal
stories that you're not going to find in
the newspapers and whatnot uh from the
story and some of my own teachers uh
knew people that were a part of Johan's
movement. One of one of my teachers was
a friend of Johan actually was in his
house a few days before the Makkan
attack and he didn't know what Juan was
going to do. In any case, Jiman started
preaching a new theology that was very
top secret. What is that top secret? The
theology was we now have the Mai in our
midst. His brother-in-law became the
Mai. We have the Mai in our midst and
this Mai shall overtake the haram shall
destroy the forces that are sent against
him and we shall establish peace on this
earth. We shall eliminate the evil of
the Saudi royal family. We shall
eliminate the evil of Saudi Arabia and
there will be peace on earth. What is
the means for this achievement? We need
to go straight to thea and take control
of thea. Why? Because there's a hadith
in Abu D. In fact, it's not just also
Bkari and others that our prophet
sallall alaihi wasallam said that a man
the mai shall flee from the oppression
and seek refuge in the
armies will be sent to destroy or to
kill him but Allah will cause the earth
to swallow those armies up.
Now this is the hadith. What did Juan
do? He wanted to make a real life movie
out of the hadith.
He wanted to make a script out of the
hadith. And he decided why don't I play
the actor of the madi or my
brother-in-law play the actor of the mi
and Allah will then execute the script
on my behalf. And this is not allowed in
Islam. You don't execute the hadith of
the prophet upon yourself as if he meant
you. And in fact many of the a hadith
don't apply to him because the mai shall
flee not take the hostage. the Mai won't
have an army. He had 600 people of armed
armed guards taking the ga hostage. The
Mai will not kill any innocent people
and Jim killed at least 100 people. So
the point being that he thought he's
implementing the hadith. So what did he
do on the 20th of November in 1979 which
corresponds to the 1st of Muharam 1400.
So he wanted to be at the beginning of
the Islamic new year. Why? Another
hadith. What is that hadith? at the
beginning of every 100 years Allah will
send a re a renewer a mujad. So he
thought let me use the of and the of
let's put them all together on the first
1400 I will attack thea or take thea
hostage. So what he did was beforeat
he entered the haram and he entered the
haram with armed sorry with beers the
funeral p the the funeral processions of
the coffins but instead of dead people
those coffins actually had machine guns
in them and in those days there was no
checking at the haram door. All of this
checking in Saudi Arabia began after
1979. In those days there were no armed
guards in front of the haram. Who could
ever imagine somebody would attack the
haram? In those days, Saudi Arabia was a
very different place. So, Jim enters
with dozens of these funerals, fake
funerals at different in different areas
and his followers congregate. There was
a basement in the haram and after
positions himself behind the im. As soon
as the im finishes, it was actually
is still alive right now as we speak.
Very elderly man. It was leading. As
soon as the sheh finished, Johan's man
pulled out his gun and uh took the
microphone by force and Jim began
telling all of the people in the haram
that lo and behold, the day of judgment
is close. The al is the worst government
in the world. The Saudis are losing
their religion and we have the mai. So
come forth and give your oath of
allegiance to the mai. And of course the
people are totally confused. Many of
them don't understand Arabic, right?
Most of them are Pakistani, Indonesian,
Malay. They have no idea what's going
on. But he locked the doors down and
shut off all the exits and thus began a
long siege which I don't have time to
get into. It's been documented in other
places for almost 2 weeks. For almost
two weeks, the people were held hostage.
Thea itself was held hostage.
Ceased to be performed. The five daily
salawat were not set. And when the Saudi
forces who no doubt there's a lot to
blame in terms of their military
maneuvers, it's not my point here to
point out which side did more of the
mistakes. My point is to point out
Johann's fanaticism. I'm not defending
the ineptitude of the Saudi government
and how it responded. That's a whole
different issue. But I'm saying the
fanaticism of Jim, that's what I'm
concerned about in this lecture. The
Saudis didn't know how to react. They
sent a few troops in and Johann's forces
had snipers on. You know the minates,
the same minates that you see all the
way on the top. They shot down these
snipers. Blood was shed in the haram,
the holiest place on earth. Blood was
shed and the Saudis did not know what to
do. Turned into a siege. Eventually
after 2 weeks and over 100 people dead,
the Saudis just stormed into the haram
with tanks. You know the staircases you
walk up, tanks went up. The doors you
see, tanks pulled open those doors.
Grenades were thrown. There was a
shootout in the shadow of the Kaa. It is
estimated, nobody knows the truth, that
around 500 to 600 people died in front
of the Kaa and Johan and his followers
were eventually caught. The Mai was shot
in the in the attack. Some rumor that
Johan himself shot him and Johan was
captured alive and he was executed in
front of the people in public after the
trial and whatnot. And there is video,
there is pictures, you can see Juiman on
YouTube. Google it or YouTube it. Juan
Makkah take over 1979. You will see
videos of Jim being captured and wall
you see him and I swear by Allah I don't
care what anybody says you see the
characteristics of the khalites right in
his eyes the fanaticism this is a man he
thinks he's going to bring about peace
by holding thea hostage this is a man he
thinks he's going to change the corrupt
ways of the by doing even more corrupt
things killing people in the kaa but you
know what's scary and wall this is scary
and you know when I say this some of the
brothers some of the mash They get
irritated. Yasid, why do you talk about
these things? You know why I talk about
them? Because these are lessons to be
learned. We see the same thing now. What
is scary about Johan? Senior scholars
were duped by Jim. Senior scholars
believe Jiman to be righteous. Senior
scholars were hesitant. What do we do?
We know this person, [laughter] the a
person that I love dearly,
this was his student. And when Johan was
imprisoned before for for for uh the the
music stuff and the television stuff,
she bin Baz himself wrote letters of
Shaf to get him out of jail. Oh, he's
just an overzealous kid. It's all right.
He's not that bad. He himself wrote
letters to get him out. Obviously, she
binbas did not approve of the haram
takeover. But what does that show you?
It shows you that fanaticism exists in
people that might otherwise appear to be
righteous. Even to our scholars, many of
my teachers when I spoke to them about
Jiman, I swear by Allah, some of them
would begin to cry. Why? Because they
remembered their close friends who were
killed in that incident. They remembered
people that were a part of Johann's
movement. One of my teachers, he said,
most of the people, listen to me
carefully, most of the people who join
join Jim's movement were of the book of
Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
Think about that. They were GENUINELY
RELIGIOUS. THEY THOUGHT they're doing
something good. I know another famous
person that you also know him that he
was a young student in Medina at the
time. And believe it or not, there was
one American in Johann's group. One
American in Johann's group. And this
American brother, he knew that other
American. He knew that other American.
And this American told him, "My friend
and teacher, why don't you join us as
well? We're doing something big." He
didn't tell him what. Why don't you join
us? We're going to Mecca. Just, you
know, we have a big plan. And my friend
and teacher, he prayed a and he said, "I
never felt as negative about anything in
my life than I did that day." So I said,
"You guys go. I don't know what you're
doing." And alhamdulillah, it turned out
that that's what happened. Right? The
point being righteous people, other
famous scholars for whoever knows him,
righteous scholars, his son was with
Johan's movement. This is not being said
to embarrass these great scholars. It's
being said so that when we point out
these groups are not people with horns
coming out of their heads. They're not
people with with devil tales that you
can recognize them. They are of the book
of Allah. They are righteous people, BUT
THEY'VE LOST SIGHT of reality. They're
so incensed and enraged at music and
singing that they're WILLING TO SHED
BLOOD IN THE HARAM THINKING that that
will bring about Allah's peace and
religion. They have lost THE PLOT
COMPLETELY. AND FRANKLY, brothers and
sisters, we see the same fanaticism in
the modern jihadist movements. There's a
lot of going on. I too am an was angry
and angry that there was alcohol
available in that country that there's
so much. But what's the way forward to
take the haram hostage to kill at least
100 people at his hands in in the haram
by by their by their sniper rifles to
hold the haj hostage? Innocent hajj were
kept in the haram. To be fair,
eventually most of them or maybe all of
them were released after a week. But
still for one week, for 5 days, you have
innocent men, women, and children IN THE
HARAM FOR WHO HAVE NOTHING to do with
anything. Held hostage, terrified, not
wor wondering what's going to happen.
What type of fanaticism leads to this?
My dear brothers and sisters, what did
Johman's incident accomplish in Saudi
Arabia? Absolutely nothing. Quite the
contrary, after the incident of Jiman,
religiosity itself became something that
was a bit dangerous. People with beards
were monitored. People who showed up for
fa This is in Arabia, not in Tunisia and
Egypt, which already used to happen. In
Arabia, for the first time, religious
people were put under government
control. Religious people were rounded
up and sent to jail just because they
were religious, out of a fear of
religious people. And this caused a
backlash that we are seeing to this day.
And by the way, Osama bin Laden himself
mentioned
that one of the first signs of becoming
more Islamic to him was the Jiman
incident that he took inspiration from
Juan and he and he writes and I have his
writings uh I have his writings and his
lectures. He writes that no doubt Juan
what he did was wrong but still I
sympathize with much of what he did. Now
Wahi I have no sympathy for Jim. I have
no sympathy. Zero. You are going to kill
people in front of the Kaa. I don't care
what your causes are. You are a fanatic.
You are an overzealous lunatic.
Honestly, I don't mind. I don't care
what anybody says. You have lost the
plot. I don't have any sympathy for Jim.
But who had sympathy for Jim? Usama bin
Laden. And he has writing this in his a
number of his speeches that he's given.
He doesn't have memoirs. You will find
this online that Johann's incident was
one of the first incidents that really
sparked within him an interest in Islam
and religiosity because obviously he
grew up in a household that was not that
religious. It was Johann's incident and
then the Afghanistan war that made him
more uh religious. Now Johan has written
many booklets, sorry, seven booklets and
pamphlets, not many. And um I read over
all of them for a paper that I was
delivering at a conference and it's very
scary. Wall I will tell you honestly and
I am somebody who has a masters in
theology. I know my religion inshallah
inshallah to a good degree wall I was
reading his documents with a fine tooth
comb. I was waiting to jump on something
that I could say aha this shows that
he's a deviant. Aha this shows he's a
fanatic. I swear by Allah I could barely
find anything that gave me warning
signals. It seemed to be very solid,
very wellargued, very passionate. And
this terrified me. Why? Because I have
the advantage of hindsight looking back.
And I'm going through his pamphlets with
a fine tooth comb and I don't find
anything wrong. Imagine those people who
were with him. And there were many of my
teachers who knew him personally. They
all said the same thing that we really
thought he was a righteous, pious
individual. maybe a little bit fanatic
but still righteous and pious. Some of
his closest friends didn't know what he
was going to do. But this is what he
ended up doing. And Jim, it's very
interesting by the way that he always
used to say that you accuse us of being
but we're not. And he would say just
because you say we're no that doesn't
make us which means what even in his
lifetime people were saying you are you
have these tendencies and he had to
defend himself. Now the point being that
Johan's movement is really a very very
interesting movement to study and it
came from within the generally the
Salafi or the dawa tradition. Johan was
definitely within the movement. Most of
the people with him were students at the
University of Medina of his teachersh
and others. And this shows us that
fanaticism can occur no matter what your
theology is. You have fanatics in every
movement. Just because you belong to a
movement doesn't mean you're going to go
to heaven. you have fanatics in every
single movement and Johann is a good
example of that. Another good example
that we uh can benefit from is the uh
perhaps the first real jihadist radical
group and this is before jiman. So let's
go back 10 years beginning in the late
60s and uh early '7s and in the late 60s
and early 70s a group of people broke
away from the Muslim Brotherhood of
Egypt. Now we're going to Egypt. That
was Juan was in Saudi Arabia in 1979.
Let's go to Egypt in the late 60s early
'7s. And a person by the name of
Muhammad Abd
he wrote a book called
and means the hidden or the neglected
obligation. And the neglected obligation
was that of jihad. And this treatise,
this this pamphlet which is available
online is the first real jihadist tract.
And according to him, jihad is an
obligation that is number six on the
five pillars of Islam. He says Islam has
six pillars, not five. And the sixth one
is jihad. The sixth pillar, that's why
he calls it the hidden pillar, the the
missing pillar. The sixth pillar is the
pillar of jihad. Now this movement or
this book it sparked an underground
movement primarily amongst middleclass
educated Egyptians. It didn't appeal to
lower class. It did it was middle class
educated Egyptians. They began reading
this book and of the people who kind of
were sympathetic or read this book were
people like who we'll come back to later
and
who to this day as we speak he is the
leader of he is as a young student he's
reading this book. This is the first
literature he comes across and also
somebody by the name of Dr. We'll get to
Dr. Fu uh in a while. Now this movement
and this movement is sometimes called
Giad or Islam. They call themselves the
group of jihad or the group that is
Islamic. Uh this movement it had an
audacious plan a grandiose plan. What
was that plan? They said that Anoir
Sadat the president of Egypt he is the
problem. Why? Because where do we even
begin? Number one he rules by other than
the law of Allah. He rules by other than
the and then they quote the verse that
the old also harped on.
Whoever does not judge by the law of
Allah he is of the and the were the
first to extra emphasize this verse. As
for the of this verse and the nuances
beyond the scope of this class, but no
doubt the understanding is an extremist
understanding. But they said the
president of Egypt is not a Muslim. Why
is he not a Muslim? He have a long list.
Number one, he doesn't judge by the
Sharia. Number two, he recognizes of
Israel. Number three, he persecutes
religious people. And the list goes on
and on and on. So they become judge,
jury, and executioner. They decide in
their basement that he's not a Muslim.
They decide he has to be executed. they
decide they will execute him. Judge,
jury, executioner in one. So, Alihad
they they began to plot and plan and it
just so happened that a senior member of
the uh of the National Guard. Now, the
National Guard is like the elite army of
Egypt. The National Guard is like the in
America we have the Marines or
something. I don't know what you guys
have know. It's the elite of the army. a
senior member of the National Guard by
the name of Khalid Al-Ilami.
He embraced this version of Islam and he
volunteered to help them in this plan
because he has access to he has access
to the leaders because he's a part of
the elite. And so what happened was they
made a very audacious plan that on uh
6th of October 1981 uh 6th of October is
a day of celebration in Egypt to this
day it is a day of military parades and
victory. Why? Because uh the war against
Israel was successful in was it 1967 or
don't quote me 71 I forgot. Uh but the
war against Israel was a success in on
the 6th of October. So the 6th of
October is a national day for Egypt.
this holiday and the military has an
annual parade. To this day it's a
national holiday and an annual parade.
So they said on the 6th of October in
1981 in 1981
Islami decided to execute a plan where
three four five people of the national
guard would
attack Alwirat in public and kill him.
And they felt that as soon as they
killed Anwar Sadat the whole world would
be in peace. They will get the Islamic
State. when they cut off the head of the
rest of the society will automatically
become Islamic and the most audacious
assassination in recent history takes
place. The video footage is crystal
clear again YouTube it find it
assassination of Anwar Sadat. You
actually see Khalidi jumping out of his
army tank and rushing up to the stadium
and there is uh there is Dr. that there
is Anarat and shooting him 21 times
point blank range shooting him
completely until he dies Mubarak the
current guy who's in jail and whatnot
and his regime is back in power but
anyway Mubarak himself was wounded and
he had to go to the hospital he got a
bullet into his hand and whatnot he was
sitting next to Anar Sadat Henry
Kissinger the foreign minister of
America was also there and wounded many
senior dignitaries were there but Anoir
Sadat was assassinated
what happened
after unwarat is assassinated they getni
mubarak
and wasniubarak any better wall anybody
who studies the two no matter what we
want to say about sat he was better than
mubarak and now what's happening is even
worse than mubarak so the point being
that this military or this type of coup
that took place this assassination that
took place what did it bring about now
some of the people involved in this
assassination fled amongst them is
abdman who is Omar Abdman he is a blind
sheh from al-har. He has a PhD from
Alzhar and he fled to America in 1990 uh
1987, excuse me. He fled to America and
in America he also begins preaching
jihad against America. What type of
jihad are you going to defend
Afghanistan from the troops? No. Jihad
against the World Trade Center by
putting in an a truck full of explosives
and blowing up the people working in the
World Trade Center. Some of you are too
young to remember this, but in 1993,
this was the first World Trade Center
attack. The second one was bin Laden
doing it in 911. In 1993, I was in
college at the time. I was a first year,
second year university. I remember this
vividly that the news spread all across
our country and and it's like what is
going on? And Muslim radicals have
attempted to blow up uh the World Trade
Center. And who is in behind it? Omar
Abdahman. And he is serving a jail
sentence to this day. What did that
accomplish? Why are you going to kill
the stock brokers of the World Trade
Center? What have they done? And the
World Trade Center has so many at least
10% of the people in that building are
Muslim. What have they done to
Afghanistan, to Israel, to Palest? What
is their fault? But no, that was his
vision. Jihad against America sounds
great. The reality was what? What did
they accomplish in this? And the 1993 uh
bombing takes place. And that is also
now history. In 1997, Alama al-I is
another attack and this one in all
likelihood was
instigated by Dr. Alawahi. It does
appear to be the case. In 1997, another
attack took place and this was done in
the uh the temple of the ancient uh
pharaohs in Luxer and it is called the
Luxer massacre and the attack was
instigated once again by Alam Islam and
it appears that bin Laden funded this
attack and Zawahi was one of their their
masterminds. Um and this was the first
time that the name of Bin Laden started
appearing in the western media. The name
of bin Laden started appearing in 1997
when this Luxer massacre takes place.
What is this Luxer massacre? What
happens? Well, once again you have
fanaticism Islam. What are they saying?
They are saying look at our Egyptian
society. It's all going bad and evil.
Why? Because of foreigners. What are
they doing? They're sending us their
tourists. There's women in bikinis.
There's there's shab and alcohol
available. There's all of this nightclub
and dancing. How can we have this in our
own land? What should we do? Let's go
kill them. Simple solution. So what did
they do on the morning of 17th November
1997?
They attacked a group of tourists in the
Luxer palace and palaces. Uh the sorry
the it's a whole uh it's a whole pyramid
type structure. I don't know what
they'll call it. The ancient Egyptians
had a a structure there and it's uh uh
considered to be one of the main tourist
attractions and it was not heavily
guarded. They chose it because it was
not heavily guarded. And they attacked a
group of tourists, over 62 tourists, the
bulk of whom were Japanese.
There happened to be Japanese tourists.
The bulk of whom were Japanese. Over 62
tourists were massacred, gunned down,
knifed to death. Some of them 5 10 year
old children.
And this massacre, this massacre
after it took place, of course, the
Egyptian military caught them and then
shot them and and and whatnot. Uh the
reaction to this massacre was
astounding. Rather than and what were
they hoping to accomplish? They wanted
to show the world that they have some
power, that they can challenge Mubarak,
that they will establish an Islamic
state. What happened? The Egyptian
people turned against
like never before. And the public for
the first and only time in history
rallied in support of Mubarak. Whatever
you do to these fanatics, go ahead. We
allow you. The public sympathized with
Mubarak against the massac against the
uh the fanatics. And what happened
eventually all of the big names, bin
Laden, Aean and Zawahi, all of them had
to say, "Oh, no, no, no. This isn't us.
Somebody else did it." But they're
blaming everybody else. Definitely one
of them is the one responsible but all
of them had to dissociate and say no
none of us is responsible for this
massacre. What did it accomplish again?
Shedding innocent blood is not going to
bring is and glory on this earth. And
the final point that we'll mention the
final story is probably one of the most
interesting stories
and that is the story of one of the main
leaders of Islam by the name of Im
Sharif and he's called Dr. Ful. He's
called Dr. Fu. He's kn he's popularly
known as Dr. Fod and Dr. Fu was a
classmate a colleague of Aan Zawahi in
medical school in the 1960s. You know
Aan Zawahi is a medical doctor. Dr. Fod
was a colleague of his and in the 1980s
both him and Aman Zawahi migrated to
Afghanistan and they got involved with
jihad and the bin Laden movement over
there and he remained in Afghanistan
throughout the entire Soviet occupation.
He participated in expelling the Soviets
and eventually Dr. Ful becomes the
scholar of the al movement in the 80s.
This is before 911. Dr. Ful becomes the
main intellectual spokesperson. Why?
Because he had a better education. He
has more scholarly. He had better
writing skills than Dr. Zawahi Zahi. So
he wrote a very famous book. It is it is
still available. It is called the
encyclopedia of jihad. And this book is
considered to be the main encyclopedia
of the texts of jihad, the hadith of
jihad, the Quranic verses of jihad, the
tap of jihad. It is in multiple volumes.
This is Dr. Ful, not Dr. Zawadi, Dr. F.
And eventually when the jihad in
Afghanistan finished, he then moved to
Yemen. He started practicing uh medicine
and he's just living his regular life.
Now what happens? 9/11 takes place and
Dr.
has now completely breaks away from the
jihadist movement. And two years ago, he
wrote a book that is called
Jihad,
which really means reclaiming jihad and
guiding it in the right manner. Jihad
has lost the plot. He's saying, or the
jihadist movements, I should say. The
jihadist movements have strayed. This
book is meant to bring them back to the
right path. Now, why is this book so
important? Well, because you can accuse
me and other people of not talking the
talk and walking the walk. Who are you,
oh Yasi, to criticize these jihadist
movements? What have YOU DONE? YOU ARE
sitting in your aironditioned hall
speaking to a bunch of people that have
three meals a day. What have you done to
show that you're worthy of criticizing?
And this I've been told this by so many
young overzealous brothers and they're
always young, overzealous brothers. You
never find a 50-year-old in their rank
in their ranks. You never find a wise,
mimure person. You never find somebody
who's dedicated his life to Islam. You
always find a 19-year-old overzealous
person who's just discovered Islam
yesterday and he thinks he's holier than
everybody else. These young brothers
come to me, and I've heard this myself
with my own two ears. Who are you to
criticize them? At least they're doing
something. I've heard this so many
times. Okay, don't listen to me. Listen
to Dr. Fod. Dr. Fod is their senior
cleric. Dr. F participated for more than
a decade in Afghanistan. Dr. Fod was a
personal friend of bin Laden and Amazi.
After 911, he writes this book called Al
Jihad. And so this is coming from a real
jihadist, not some pacifist, not some
somebody you can accuse of being an
American servant or lackey or whatever.
This is coming from somebody who has
lived the life. What did he write? He
accuses the jihadists of many things. He
says that these people don't understand
the reality they're living in. That they
don't take current circumstances into
account. He said that the jihadists are
so over insensed with doing jihad that
they sometimes live evil lives. They're
willing to acquire money by any haram
method if it will finance guns. And we
don't acquire money through haram. They
said they're justifying the spilling of
innocent blood. And he writes there is
no crime in the Sharia after shik that
is more severe than the spilling of
innocent blood. He said that people in
this movement typically don't have any
Islamic knowledge. Pause here. Think
about it. Where are their clerics? Where
are their where are their Messiah? Bin
Laden and Zawahi. These are self-taught
people. They learned Sharia on their
own. They have not studied 10, 15, 20
years. They are not bonafide scholars.
They are self-taught. Look at any other
person who is famous in their ranks. Abu
Muhammad al- Makdi, Abu Mus Abasi. Who
are these people? Where have they
studied? What are their credentials?
They are self-taught. They pick and
choose and paste and cut. And this is
coming from Dr. F's mouth who has lived
the movement. He said that jalah rise
the highest in their ranks. The most
fanatic become the leaders not because
of knowledge, because they have the
sweetest speech. And he writes, and I
quote directly from the book, and I
translated this myself, this paragraph.
He writes, "Oh believers,
don't listen to those with fancy slogans
who entice you to enter a conflict you
are not qualified to participate in. And
what is the point in killing one of
theirs when they will come back and kill
a thousand of yours? What is the point
of destroying one building of theirs
when they will bomb a hundred of yours?
What have you accomplished?" end quote.
Think about what Dr. Fod is saying.
Think about what he's telling you. WHAT
IS THE PURPOSE of picking them with a
pin when they will throw a bomb back at
you? FORGET ISLAM. THINK common sense
even. What is the purpose of getting
involved in these militant movements
when no good has ever come out of them
in the history of Islam? Yes, there's
something called legitimate jihad.
Nobody's denying that. But what these
groups are doing is not legitimate
jihad. This is not what I am saying.
This is what Dr. Fed is saying. This is
what people far superior and senior to
me are saying. It never ceases to amaze
me, brothers and sisters, how shallow
the militants are. What do they think
will be accomplished? What do they think
is going to happen? They never think two
steps ahead. It's always ONE STEP. KILL,
KILL, KILL, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB. WELL, THEN
WHAT? What's going to happen after that?
What did Jiman think was going to happen
when he held the Kaa hostage? How did he
expect his band of people to be freed?
What did Gam Islam think when they
assassinated Sadat? Who would take over
one of their own? No. Somebody much
worse than Sadat came. What did they
think when they massacred a bunch of
tourists? What did this man in America
think when he's going to uh the two
brothers when they when they blew up the
the people in Boston, the Boston
Marathon? Do you think people will love
Allah and his messenger, will embrace
Islam, will support your movements and
causes? Wall your movements and causes
have been harmed more by your innocent
blood and the shedding of it than
anything the foreign policy has ever
done. The religion of Islam has suffered
more in the eyes of the people by your
own fanaticism than by anything else
anybody else has done. Think about the
long-term effects. You have made life
more difficult for Muslims in your lands
and the foreign policy that you are
championing. Now people are sympathetic
against it. They want more harshness.
Why? because of your fanaticism. What
have you accomplished? Neither dean nor
dunya. Religion does not teach this.
Common sense does not teach this.
Brothers and sisters, in conclusion,
there's a lot to be angry about in
today's world. There's a lot that
deserves our condemnation. I am an
American and I swear by Allah. I swear
by Allah, my country's foreign policy is
what makes Muslims get angry and fight
back. I'll admit this. I'm not running
away. Yes, it is the foreign policy of
my land, the unjust, oppressive foreign
policy that makes people angry. I admit
this. But what should that anger do?
Cause you to kill? Then you're just like
them. Cause you to kill, they will kill
you back. That anger should motivate you
to be a better Muslim. To fight in a
legitimate manner. Our prophetam said,
"Fight the pagans, fight the kufur with
your tongue, with your pens, and with
your hands." There's times and places
for different types of jihad. Right now,
the jihad of the internet, the jihad of
the tongue, the jihad of the pen is more
effective in your lands. Again, I'm
speaking to you. Don't tell me the
brothers in Syria. They have a different
verdict. YOU RIGHT HERE IN NORWAY, what
can you do? Spread the message of Islam.
Tell people about the Palestinian
crisis. Tell them what's happening.
Educate the people. This is your jihad
and it is a legitimate and valid jihad.
Be angry, brothers and sisters. Be angry
at every single drone that falls on
innocent people in Afghanistan. Be angry
at every innocent prisoner that is
thrown into American jails. Be angry at
our sister Afia Siddiki and she is being
jailed in America in such a manner. Be
angry at Guantanamo. Be angry at Abu
Kore. The list goes on and on and on.
But don't let your anger drive you
crazy. Islam is not about emotional
knee-jerk reactions. Islam is about
thinking and channeling channeling that
anger in something productive, proactive
for your community in the short term and
in the long term. Brothers and sisters,
channeling that anger into acts of
militancy or into foolish and useless
rhetoric will only bring undue attention
to yourself and the Muslim community.
Not only is it unislamic, it is
counterproductive. Brothers and sisters,
our prophet described theites of later
times as being
they're being overzealous bunch of kids.
That's exactly what it translates into
modern English. They're an overzealous
bunch of kids. They speak a lot of good,
but they do very bad. Think about these
movements. Think about these online
forums and chat rooms. Who's on it? A
bunch of overzealous kids. You don't
find adults. You don't find senior
people. You don't find anybody above 30
years of age. Does a teenager really
think that you have more iman and wisdom
than a 60-year-old who's lived his whole
life practicing Islam and preaching and
teaching to the masses? Do you really
think at the age of 19 you will carry
the wave of jihad forward and your
people triple your age, don't know what
they're doing? Think about this and
don't be the overzealous foolish kid. If
you're not going to allow religious
sentiments to temper uh your your your
anger and your and channel your anger,
then at least let it be tempered by the
lessons from history. If you're not
going to listen to the book of Allah,
and I find it amazing, somebody actually
has to quote you the Quran to tell you
killing innocent civilians is haram. If
you're not going to listen to the book
of Allah, then at least look at recent
history. The final point especially
because I'm speaking here in Norway
brothers and sisters think about it.
What happened in your country last year?
This this madman Bik right Bik
imagine. Did not every one of you thank
Allah that this madman wasn't a Muslim?
Every one of you. Didn't your FIRST
THOUGHT BE I WAS IN AMERICA AND I HEARD
the news and I said, "Ya Allah, please
not a Muslim. Ya Allah, please not a
Muslim. Right?
How can anybody be so foolish as to
think that what Brivik is doing if a
Muslim had done it, it would be
legitimate? My dear brothers and
sisters, do you really need somebody to
tell you that Allah says it's haram to
kill innocent life? Wall, what is your
fanaticism and religion? How will that
affect? Suppose privacy.
Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah he's not a
Muslim. But guess what? We have people
like that in our religion. We have
fanatics like that. The Boston bombers,
they did the same thing. The Fasil
Shazad guy in New York Times, the same
thing. The underwear bomber Abdul
Mutalib, the same thing. They have the
same mentality. They think by killing,
killing, killing, some good will come.
What good will come? Imagine. Imagine if
this guy Bravik had been a Muslim where
I swear we would not be having you would
not invite anybody. You can't have a
conference anymore. Kalas Islam is now
underground in Norway. And would you
blame them? Honestly, would you blame
them? What would you do in their shoes
if that guy had been a Muslim? Think
about it. And I reiterate what I'm
talking about in this whole lecture is
not directed to Avan, to Syria, to the
people in there. It's directed to me and
you over here killing innocent people.
So, please don't misunderstand me. Yes,
there's a legitimate jihad. Yes, people
need to defend their right to live. But
defending their right to live does not
mean killing innocent people, which is
what these jihadist movements have done.
Jihad is a legitimate term. It's a noble
term. We shouldn't be ashamed of it. But
those groups that misuse and abuse THE
TERM JIHAD, WE should be brave enough to
stand up for the sake of Allah and
criticize them because they're harming
the real jihad much more than any
non-Muslim can ever harm it. May Allah
subhana wa ta'ala allow us to be people
of the true jihad and not the false
jihad. May Allah subhanaa tala allow us
to do jihad as he is pleased with and
not a jihad that is that is false and
that will lead us astray. May Allahel
return is and glory to this religion.
May Allah subhana wa ta'ala bring peace
to this earth. May Allah subhana wa
ta'ala cause us to live as Muslims to
die as and to be resurrected amongst the
[applause]
The first question we have is should we
go to Syria to join the jihad?
Alhamdulillah.
There is no doubt that what is taking
place in Syria is the height of
oppression. We have not seen in this
last century a greater disaster. The
Syrian disaster has even eclipsed the
Rwanda disaster of two decades ago.
There is not any humanitarian crisis of
the last century that is worse and more
painful for us to watch than the Kate
crisis in Syria. And I have no doubt
that this modern
this this this this evil person in
charge this there is no doubt in my mind
that he is the modern of our times and
that the people that are being oppressed
under him allahel will reward them and
inshallah
and whoever is able to legitimately
oppression
alhamdulillah that is great
theoretically jihad against Bashar Alsad
is the greatest jihad. Realistically,
you in Norway sitting on a plane and
going to Syria, what are you doing? You
see, theory and reality are sometimes
two different things. And theoretically,
I will be the first to say that it is a
duty for all Muslims to help against any
oppression. when our sisters are being
raped, when our children are being
slaughtered, when our men are being cut
up alive because they don't prostrate to
Bashar al-Assad, then we should stand up
and defend those people. But
realistically, can you here in Norway do
something of this? The reality is, and
this is not me speaking, this is the
Syrian National Congress. This is people
that are Syrian. These are people who
know their country better than me and
you. They have issued multiple
statements saying that oh Muslims in
other lands do not come to Syria. Why?
Because the situation is complete chaos.
You cannot guarantee that you will end
up fighting the right enemy. The reality
on the ground is that much of the
warfare is taking place between
different groups all of which claim
allegiance to Islam in opposition to
Bashar als. The reality is one Sunni
group is fighting another Sunni group.
Sunnis are fighting other sects and
sometimes the both of them are fighting
each other and Bashad is their common
enemy. This is the reality that you
cannot deny and if you deny it, I swear
by Allah you are naive to the streets of
Syria. Look and read. Theoretically,
yes, it is good to fight against Bashar
al-Assad. Realistically, you cannot
guarantee. Nobody can guarantee. I know
people that have gone. I have many
Syrian friends. They are all on the same
wavelength. That your going there is
only going to cause greater confusion.
You become a pawn in a larger game that
you do not control. You are a very
precious pawn. You're not just a pawn.
You're a knight or a bishop. Why?
Because you're from Norway or America or
England. Other groups are salivating
looking at you. Because you are
something they can manipulate and they
are being manipulated. The problem once
again is not the theoretical jihad. It
is the realistic scenario on the streets
of Syria. Everybody that I know that
people that I look up to and trust,
genuine people concerned about Syria, my
fellow Syrian brothers and sisters in
Memphis and all over the world, all of
them people of intelligence and im and
tawa who hate Bashar al-Assad, whose own
cousins and brothers are being raped and
killed. I have friends in Memphis. Their
cousins were killed by Bashar al-Assad.
They are not saying go and fight in
Syria. Why? Because they know the
situation better and they understand you
taking a plane ticket and landing
somewhere in Jordan and smuggling
yourself over the border. You are acting
like a fool. You're entering a war zone
and you're a little kid that has never
played with real war. You will make the
situation worse. Other groups will
pounce on you. Each one will want to
take you and you will end up fighting a
war that is illegitimate because it's in
between the opposition forces. The
problem is the opposition forces are not
united against Bashar al-Assad's forces.
They themselves are bombing each other.
They themselves are killing each other.
Half of the time that's what's
happening. and you walking into this war
zone naive and innocent with the best of
intentions, you might end up losing your
life. Or worse than losing your life,
you will kill innocent blood. Because
you losing your life, okay, that's sad,
but at least on the day of judgment, you
haven't killed anybody. How about you
picking up a gun and killing somebody
innocent? What will you answer Allah on
the day of judgment? And the fact of the
matter is ISIS and many of these groups
in Syria, they have innocent blood on
their hands and they will have to answer
to Allah for that innocent blood. So why
should you get involved? I wish I wish
that there was a unified fight that we
could go and support in all different
ways. But that is not the reality. And
you being who you are, being born and
raised in this land, not being a part of
that. Now if you were in Syria, then I
would tell you go to the scholars of
Syria. I am not speaking to the brothers
in Syria. That fatwa should go come from
the scholars of Syria. I'm speaking to
you in Norway. I'm speaking to us in the
west. I'm a western scholar, a western
academic. I'm living and and talking to
my Western Muslims. For us, my dear
brothers and sisters, the jihad is the
jihad of the tongue. It's a jihad of the
pen. It's a jihad of Facebook and jihad
of the of the of of of the keyboard. You
preach message. You teach Islam. You
tell others about the reality. And you
want to do more than this. You donate
your your you donate your your to the
welfare of the um refugees. You go and
help the people with food with blanket.
You go and get humanitarian aid. This is
going to be clean. You really want to
help out? Go join a humanitarian
organization and go and feed the poor,
the orphans that are coming out of
Syria. Clothe them. Go there and feed
the hungry. Don't fight people whom you
don't know who they're going to be. My
honest advice and this is not coming
just from me any person of knowledge.
Ask the other people of knowledge.
Wallah my dear young brothers and it's
always young brothers and a few young
sisters. It's always young brothers. I
plead and I beg you. Your 19year-old
mind is not more mature than that of a
50 60 year old. You don't know Islam or
reality better than your father or
grandfather. You might have more
emotions but you don't have more
knowledge. You don't have more
understanding. Don't think that you know
better than everybody in the world. You
have good emotions. Wah. I know that you
want to help. You see the images of the
rape, the slaughter. You see that little
child torn up to pieces. You see that
little girl frozen to death. Wall. I
cried when I saw that image. I have a
daughter that age. W I cried. But what
can we do other than dua? Other than
other than better our lives and give our
money to help them whatever way we can.
Give them food and shelter. And what
else can we do? Me going there, you
going there is not going to help that
little girl. And anybody who has been
there or knows the situation will tell
you this. Our hearts bleed for our
brothers and sisters. Allah is testing
them in very difficult ways. But again,
don't act emotionally and rashly. The
situation in Syria is very complicated,
very convoluted. You have at least at
least seven or eight groups fighting
Bashar als and fighting themselves.
They are fighting against an enemy and
occasionally fighting against
themselves. And we have seen on YouTube
on video clips some of the injustices
that these groups do against the
civilians in their fanaticism. If a
civilian doesn't support them, oh you
must be voting working for Bashar Assad
and kill him right then and there or do
something of this nature. Meaning what?
When you have a gun and you have fanatic
ideas, everybody becomes an enemy. You
start thinking like this. Therefore,
dear brothers and sisters, the situation
there is very complicated. I wish it
were simple. I wish it were black and
white, good and evil. The Muslims of
Syria versus the regime uh the regime. I
wish there were two camps. They are not.
There are at least half a dozen, maybe a
dozen camps. And you walking in, you are
literally becoming a pawn in a game far
more powerful than you, far more evil
than you, far more sinister than you can
ever imagine. Once again, use that
emotion and channel it to something
productive. Raise awareness of Syria.
Start a humanitarian efforts here. Raise
some funds. Get some blankets. Get some
jackets. It's freezing cold there. Any
surplus jackets you have, become a ma a
means and a channel for helping people
out. do something that clearly will not
harm anybody and that's humanitarian
effort, sending bread, sending or or
doing something of this nature. But
militarily, you going there. No, no, no.
Because the situation does not dictate
for it. Not that the fight itself is
evil, but the fight is too complicated.
And therefore, theory and reality are
two separate things and allahel knows
best.
We have mah a very good news. There is a
sister who wants to accept Islam.
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Do we have some sound in the microphone
in
uh can you speak in the microphone? Can
you say something? What's your name?
Alam alaikum.
What is your name?
Kubella.
Kubella. So, Kubell, you understand
English?
Yes.
Okay. Uh, do you understand? Have you
been uh taught the basics of Islam? That
Islam means that you must believe in one
true God and that the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is the final
prophet and messenger. Have you been
taught this?
Yes. You understand that when you
convert to Islam, there is a lifestyle
that you should try to live by which
includes praying five times a day and
fasting the month of Ramadan and paying
zakat and living in accordance with the
laws of Islam. Have you been you
understand that this is an obligation
that you have a lifestyle to try to live
by? Have you been told this?
Yes.
And you also are embracing Islam freely
of your own charge. Nobody is pressuring
or forcing you. This is something you
want to do genuinely from your own
heart.
Yes.
Alhamdulillah. That's great. So the way
that somebody embraces Islam is very
easy and that is that you repeat the
testimony of faith after me. So I will
recite the testimony of faith in Arabic
and you will repeat word by word and
then I will recite it in English and you
will repeat the English and that will
conclude your uh acceptance of Islam.
Allah
illall
I testify
that there is no deity
worthy of worship
except for Allah
except for Allah. And I testify
And I testify
that Muhammad
is his final prophet and messenger
is his final
prophet and messenger.
Alhamdulillah. Allah
Abbar
Allah Akbar
sister, I welcome you to the fraternity
and the sorority of the Muslim um today
is the most blessed and fortunate day of
your life. Every one of us is jealous of
you. Do you want to know why? Because
today your sins have been wiped away
completely. You are the holiest and most
sinless person amongst us and every one
of us is jealous of you. Today you are
coming with a clean slate. Today you are
being born all again. And inshallah tala
this is the beginning of the rest of
your beautiful life. May Allah bless
you. Sisters please take charge of her
affairs. Sisters please exchange phone
numbers with her. Do not just let her uh
uh unhelped and unaded. She needs to be
taught. She needs company and support.
She will face persecution and harassment
from even if it's verbal, from her
society, from her family, from her other
culture. You have to embrace her as your
own sister. My dear sister in Islam, you
now have alhamdulillah a billion
brothers and sisters. Everyone in this
auditorium is now your brother and
sister. And we will do anything we can
to help you out. Mabuk. Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
The next question is about the opinion
of
you also mentioned that you have studied
with so you should know.
Uh so the question is uh some people
justify their their terrorism or their
tactics with uh means fatwa. Now my dear
brothers and sisters I'm not going to
reference the fatwa because it's you
know very controversial in here. Please
listen to me carefully. A scholar, every
scholar
teaches and gives verdicts and the
teaching
is always generic and theoretical and
the verdicts are what are practical. If
you go through medical school, you go
through engineering, you go through any
school, you will study large textbooks
and you will go over many different
cases. But when you get to the actual
operating theater, when you get to the
actual mechanical plant or chemical
engineering plant or whatever, that will
not necessarily be exactly what you
studied in class. So theory is sometimes
different than reality. Now on YouTube,
there's a very famous clip where
somebody took a 5 minute or 3 minute
clip from
when he's teaching theory. And this is a
book of that he teaches called Mustak
and he teaches this book. He taught it
seven or eight times in his life. And
one of the chapters in this book is the
chapter of jihad. And in this in a
theoretical scenario, he's giving what
if this then maybe we can do this, what
if that, we can do that. He's talking
theory. And he mentions things in this
theory to take his theory, cuten past
it, and apply it to Bosnia, apply it to
Syria, apply it to Norway. This is the
essence of jahal, of ignorance. It's
like you open up a book of neurosurgery
and then you practice neurosurgery on
the patient in front of you. It doesn't
work like that. This is class that he's
teaching to advanced students. This is a
class you want to attend it. You attend
it cover to cover beginning to end.
That's fine. But for you to take three
minutes talking theory and then apply it
to reality to a particular situation.
Nobody with a shred of intelligence does
this. Also you want to know something
the sheh Allah he is my sheh I love him
more than any other sheh in the world I
have a relation my my love for him is
more than any other sheh he had an
impact on me that no other sheh did do
you know that the sheh when it came to
the bosnian war he was alive and healthy
911 happened he's already passed away so
he doesn't have any fatwa in the Bosnian
war he was alive and healthy and many of
the people in the Bosnian war would call
him up and ask him I know for a fact I
know for a fact that much of what he
told them is not allowed and allowed in
the Bosnian war varied from the theory
he's teaching in his generic classes.
Why? Because theory is one thing.
Practicality and reality is another.
What he might teach theoretically? Well,
sometimes you can do X. Okay, sometimes
you can. Now, are you allowed to do X in
Bosnia? Somebody calls him a can we do
this and that? No, no, no, not there
because this is going to cause this and
that. So, he gives a specific fatwa. No.
Now to take his theory and then apply it
in Norway or America. I swear by Allah
the sheh would never approve and I will
stand in front of Allah and answer this.
He would never approve of the terrorism
acts that occurred on western soil.
Never. That was not the methodology of
our and you don't believe me. I'm not
one of his major students. I don't I
don't claim to be one of his major
students. Allah blessed me to study with
him one summer. Call it what you will. I
had his company for one summer. Go to
his major students. go to his son-in-law
who has stood and studied with him for
30 years. Go to those who study with him
40 years. Go to all of his heirs, the
actual people who studied with the sheh
and go ask all of them right now, sheh,
can we go and and throw a bomb off in
Norway? Can we kill people in the subway
of New York? Go ask them and see what
they say. What stupidity is this that
you without any knowledge of Arabic log
on to YouTube, take a 3minut clip and
then think you are
Google. This is what you become.
Brothers and sisters, don't kill
innocent people based on Wikipedia and
Imm Google. What type of knowledge is
this? What type of knowledge is this? Go
study from the real. And if you really
want to go to his students and ask them
directly, he has a son-in-law that
studied with him for 40 years and is now
teaching in his chair. Literally, he's
sitting in the chair of the in the
masjid. The sheh loved him so much he
married his daughter to him. If you
trust anybody, go trust him. Ask him,
sheh, this is what we found on YouTube
from your own father-in-law. Can we
apply it to America or Norway? And I
know exactly what he's going to say
because I know this student or this
stud-in-law very well. I know the sheh
as well. He would never approve of this
lunacy, of this militancy, of this
blood, blood, blood. This is not the way
of our religion. Theory is different
than reality. And you cannot quote
theory and then apply it to reality
without having knowledge. None of the
famous scholars, the reputable scholars,
none of them allowed such terroristic
attacks on innocent people, on innocent
soil. None of our scholars did this
because wall this is not a part of our
religion of Islam and allahel knows
best.
The next question is about
should we listen to his talks about the
and other things even though he has the
opinion that you can use mass
destruction weapons and kill as much as
many people as possible in the west.
It's a bit awkward talking about
specific people because people get very
emotional
was somebody who allahel blessed with a
good tongue and he had some some basic
knowledge of Islam and in America that
basic knowledge is very useful and
before 911 he did a lot of good work
before 911 he did a lot of good work and
he did a lot of good lectures about the
s about the lives of the prophet and
allahel blessed him with a personality
that really the people and the youth
loved uh and I was of course I mean
active in dawa when he was active I I
knew him I met him uh we had some type
of cordial relationship then after 9/11
uh he released a number of statements
which condemned 9/11 and condemned
America and he followed a path that you
still see me upon which is you criticize
America for its foreign policy and you
criticize the militants for the
militancy this is my methodology I'm
still upon it you criticize America for
their foreign policy and you say America
has killed more people through its
foreign policy than all all the
jihadists combined. I'm an American. I'm
saying this. Listen to me carefully.
American foreign policy has killed far
more people than the jihadists have
killed. That doesn't make the jihadist
methodology right. This is what himself
said. You will find it on YouTube. Same
types of stuff. That methodology, I'm
still upon it. Then what happened?
Slowly but surely, he began veering away
from this methodology and he began to
feel that it is legitimate to attack all
American citizens. Any American citizen
becomes a legitimate target. Eventually
he left America and he moved to Yemen
and he became more uh incendurary and
more militant. And this is when I
disagreed with him. I began to
indirectly refute him. Not directly. I
never wanted to mention him by name. I
was hoping and making dua and praying
that he would come back to a more
moderate path especially because he had
lived in America for I think 15 years or
something 10 years. And he had seen that
look the average American is totally
ignorant of foreign policy to this day.
This is the biggest problem of jihad is
that they think every American is a
complete expert in everything. The
average American doesn't even know where
Norway is. With all respect to Norway,
if you showed them on a map, where is
Norway? They would have no idea
completely. This is the system of
America. They don't know. You're just
going to go kill them because of
American foreign policy. No, this is not
Islam. It's not logical. It's not
rational. But this is what he began
saying. And he began preaching something
that I did not agree with. I began
refuting him indirectly. And when uh
America assassinated him in a cruel
unjust assassination that goes against
everything it stands for itself. For
those of you who are into political
science and history and whatnot, the
right of habius corpus is what makes the
west the west. The right of habius
corpus. You're not going to kill
somebody, try somebody, jail somebody
without a trial, without a jury, without
evidence being presented. This is the
cornerstone of Western civilization.
Well, when whenever it suits them,
they'll throw it out the window. And
they did it for when they assassinated
by an executional decree by the
president himself. He just willed it.
And he just said, "Go and kill him."
When they did this, I was the one who
wrote an op-ed in the New York Times.
And I'm not trying to brag or boast,
brothers and sisters, but sometimes
things need to be said. the only
national cleric in America that came out
and criticized and in the New York Times
which is the most prestigious
publication in all of America. The next
day after is assassinated, I wrote a New
York Times oped. Google it New York
Times oped. You will find it and I wrote
an unjust and a illegal and a
counterproductive unjust illegal
counterproductive assassination. And I
criticized
but then I said, "What do you think you
guys have done by assassinating him? You
have done exactly what you accuse them
of doing, which is killing
indiscriminately, which is killing
people that are that are without judge
and jury and trial. And the lines
between you and the enemy are becoming
blurred. Now you're doing the same
tactics that you criticize. And what
have you done? You have made into a into
a person who will be admired. His
thought will be admired. Look, my dear
brothers and sisters, we do not
pronounce verdicts on people. What is
his fate in the that's not my business
to judge. Allah will judge. I will judge
the legacy he left behind and that
legacy has much good and it also has
much harm. That legacy has much good and
it also has potential danger. I do not
believe in his methodology of jihad and
I think that he misunderstood. He was
now Allah knows best. Some people told
me he was tortured in Yemen and that
torture caused him to react in a manner
whatever Allah will answer. He will
answer to Allah on the day of judgment.
I'm not talking about his whether he
died a shahid or not. We hope every good
Muslim dies the death of a shahid.
That's not my business to judge. My
business is to judge his legacy. And his
legacy has a lot of good and also a lot
of harm and danger. So should you listen
to him? If you want to take the good
only and you're qualified to take the
good, fine. But be careful that his
methodology of jihad in my humble
opinion it goes exactly in sync with my
entire lecture. It sounds so good. But
what good will it do you? What good will
it do you? And here's another point,
brothers and sisters. Our religion
doesn't tell us to die foolish deaths.
Our religion does not tell us to charge
into battle, a legitimate battle, and
throw off your armor and say, "Come and
kill ME. I WANT TO die a shahid." Do you
think that's how the Sahaba fought?
Think about it. Do you think that's how
the Sahaba fought? Yes, we want to die a
Shahid, a legitimate martyr, but that's
after we fought a real war, a legitimate
war. You cannot fight a real war doing
what he did. Speaking as he spoke. You
are asking for trouble that will not
bring about any positive to the ummah.
And subhan Allah, the brother did so
much good when he was preaching and
teaching. How many youth came back to
Islam? Wall. Think about it now. Be
calm. Be fair. his message that he died
with, how has it tainted all of that
good? Before anybody else was giving
dawa to that level, I was in Medina,
others were in Medina. In the late '9s,
the most effective preacher in all of
America to bring the masses back to
Islam was alhamdulillah somebody like
Anoir doing so great work. What did his
late legacy do to his earlier legacy?
Think about it. Imagine if he had stayed
on that same path. Imagine if he kept on
telling the youth come back to the
masjid, come back to Allah, pray, leave
your sins, don't do this, don't do that.
How much more benefit could he have
benefited the um now as it is ask
yourselves what has he done of benefit
in legacy? As for his I say again that's
between him and Allah. That's not my
business to judge. But in this dunya I
have to say that I disagree with that
methodology. I think it is harmful for
him and it proved to be harmful for him
and it is harmful to the ummah. It is
counterproductive to the ummah who will
benefit you know and wasn't the only one
who died. There were other Americans who
were killed in drone attacks. One of
them was with him and that brother that
died with him Khan is his name. So I I
also had online interaction with him and
a lot of back and forth and he would
refute me as being oh you're a pacifist
you're a sellout. You're this. No wall
it hurt me back then. wall it hurt me
that this brother has so much zeal but
he's misusing it now where is this
brother what has he done what good has
he done for the um what he could have
remained I would I visited his community
last year and his family is grieving his
mother is sad his brothers are this and
that my point is what good has been
accomplished a young vibrant dynamic man
has been extinguished nothing left of
him what what could he have done for the
um now there's nothing left our um our
religion our lord our prophet Phet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam is not
telling you to die the death of a fool.
Live your life productively. You know
she bas had a beautiful saying. He said
it's easy to die the death of a a
shahid. It's difficult to live the life
of a shahid. Meaning what? You walk into
a battle it's easy to die. You're living
and you live like the shahid. You live
like a Muslim. That is the real battle.
Brothers and sisters, what good did they
do? what with all respect to them what
good did they do so don't follow that
path and let Allah be their judge and
realize that the um needs every one of
you to be proactive and productive uh in
in doing what you are doing right now
which is being good Muslims giving back
to your communities spreading the
teachings of Islam this is what the
ummah needs of you and Allah subhana wa
ta'ala knows best
the next question is we have a group in
Norway who follows this mentality, this
ideology
where and they are spreading it. They
were active in recruiting young people
to join their ideology and many of them
are present here today maybe and many of
the young people have friends who are in
this in this community and they are
they are what
po
and they're yes and they're affected by
their ideology. What advice do you give
to the young brothers and sisters in
this room? Should they be with these
kind of people or should they
disassociate themselves from these kinds
of people?
Did you not listen to my entire lecture?
What was I saying for the last hour and
a half? All of those brothers who are
flirting with this ideology, please
think with your heads and not with your
emotions. Think rationally. Listen to
what I have to say and challenge me.
Don't even accept me. Challenge me.
every fact that I quoted, go do your own
research. Find out the reality of find
out.
Find out what Mustafa did. Find out what
all of these groups did. Find out they
assassinated one of the greatest
scholars of Egypt, Dr. Adahhabi, in
1977. They abducted him and killed him
in front of his daughter. They shot him
to death. The greatest one of the
greatest scholars of Egypt because he
said, "This is a fanatic group." They
showed their fanaticism by shooting him
in front of his own children. the
greatest a great scholar of Islam wrote
a whole bunch of books. Find out what
these groups have done. Don't believe
me. Fine. But then do the research.
Don't be led and misled astray by people
exactly as the prophetam described a
bunch of overzealous kids.
Literally in English, this translates a
bunch of overzealous kids. They sound
good, but they're causing destruction in
the ummah. If you don't think these
hadith apply to these jihadist groups,
then go find the groups they apply to.
Tell me who else is there that is
speaking in this manner, preaching in
this manner and yet causing so much
destruction. So don't trust me. Go find
somebody else and do the research
yourself. Read history, read these
books, but whatever you do, don't
blindly follow. Don't blindly follow
somebody who sounds good, fiery
rhetoric, but in reality, he's telling
you to kill yourself and to kill
somebody else. That's not the religion
of Islam. All I can say is, wah, what
can you do? Listen to my lecture and
challenge it and go find other people
that will tell you these things. Read
the books and keep on spreading these
types of ideologies. The problem is, my
dear brothers and sisters, the real
problem is the world is not black and
white. It's not composed of righteous
angels and evil demons. There are people
that have little bit of good and little
bit of bad. And these jihadists they
have a little bit of good meaning they
want to fight evil but they also have
sometimes a lot of bad. This is the
problem that you have to find out what
is the bad as well. The world is not
black and white. Everybody has some good
and some bad in him but these movements
have more bad than good and the good is
eclipsing their bad. You need to find
out what is the reality in the end of
the day. Stick with your senior scholars
in this land. Stick with the people who
have been here a part of your community.
Go to your your Messiah. Go to the
people that have been activists here.
Not some 17-year-old or 20-year-old kid
in his basement. Not somebody who's
achieved internet fame. Not somebody
who's a keyboard jihadist that online he
becomes Mr. Mujahid and then in the day
he's watching porn and drinking and
going with his girls. Don't do Don't be
like that. No. Be real. Y be real. This
is the reality of what is happening.
It's easy to be a keyboard jihadist. You
become Mr. Anonymous Mujah. You become
the the lion of Islam. This is now your
online, right? The lion of Islam. And
the lion of Islam has a poster of
whatever is the rock group in Norway, I
don't know, on his bedroom wall. What
type of lion of Islam is this? And wah,
every one of you who's involved with
these movements, you know exactly what
I'm talking about. What type of lion is
there that still does these types of
sins? And then online, it's like Mr. Dr.
Jackekal, Mr. Hyde personality. online,
he'll become super pious, super mujahed.
And in his real life, he's watching the
latest um what is it the Lord of the
Rings or Batman the Dark Knight or
whatever. He's going to be watching
this. This is your jihad. This is your
jihad that the latest movie comes out,
the the Game of Thrones or whatever.
You're watching the latest series of
that, right? This is your jihad. Let's
be real, brothers. Let's be real. No,
this is not jihad. This is fooling you.
Shaitan is fooling you. You want to be
do jihad, do it against yourself and
your own soul first rather than think
online and abroad. And allahel knows
best.
Next question is, what can you do if
your husband is like these jihadist
movements but he doesn't treat you good
at all?
Exactly my point. What type of jihad is
this that you can't even treat your wife
and child in a good manner? Wall whose
sunnah are you following? Think about
it. And I know this hurts and I know the
jihadists online are going to smear me
again. But wall I have to say this. Look
at your own manners. Oh mah of online
world. Look at your own families. Look
at your own habits in private when
nobody's watching other than Allah. You
know and Allah knows. Look at your own
habits. What type of jihad? Here's a
sister spilling the beans, telling it
like it is. Because there is no such
thing as Mr. online jihad who is really
legitimately doing jihad the way it's
supposed to be done. No, it's a facade.
It's a bravado. It's a show they're
putting on. Wall. It is overcompensation
for their own lives that they live.
Their lives are full of sin. Their lives
are full of misery. So what happens?
They become Mr. Jihad online to give
themselves a feeling of being better
than everybody else. Wall, you cannot do
jihad if you're mistreating your wife
and your children. Why? Because our
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said the best amongst you are
those who are the best to their wives
and I am the best to my wife. He is
saying this the best amongst you are
those who are the best to their wives.
How can this Mr. Jihad exist and his own
wife is complaining in public that he
mistreats me, he abuses me, doesn't take
care of the kids. What type of jihad is
this? This shows us the reality of this
movement which is what Dr. Fed himself
pointed out that they concentrate on
jihad, jihad, jihad, and they don't
think about their families, their
children. They don't think about society
usefulness. How can you talk about jihad
in Syria when your neighbor is hungry?
When your neighbor on the other side is
thirsty? When wallah your neighbor
doesn't even know you're a Muslim? What
type of jihad is this? Have you told him
the reality of Islam? Have you shown him
the beauty of Islam? You're worried
about Syria and Palestine and
Afghanistan and the person in front of
you does not even know
and you're with him for 10, 20, 30
years. Think about it. This is not
jihad. This is foolishness. And this
sister has exposed it better than I
could do. Jihad is a noble concept,
brothers and sisters. These people, the
jihadist movements are not showing the
real jihad. That's my point in the
lectures that I'm giving. And Allah
knows best. We done.
We can take one last question.
Okay.
The question is about
these jihadis. They always talk about
the kufur of the Muslim rulers and
the Muslim rulers are kufuar because
they don't rule by the rule of Allah
subhana tala. Is this correct? Are all
Muslim rulers kufur?
So the question is about Muslim rulers
and leadership. And this is a very deep
and convoluted topic and much can be
said. I will tell you what our ownham
used to say when somebody would come and
ask him these things. Somebody would
come and ask him these things would say
look this is an issue that's very deep
it's very theological how will it
benefit you
how will it benefit you an average
person how will you benefit knowing that
the al this and the al that or Muslim or
kafir how will it change your life and
again I go get back to my last example
when your neighbor is hungry when your
neighbor is is not knowing Islam when
you have problems in your own society
what difference does it make you if the
rulers of Egypt the rulers of the rud
that are Muslim or non-Muslim. It is an
important issue for some people. It is
an important issue for those who can
affect change at certain levels. For
them and for students of knowledge and
for experts in theology, let them
discuss it. For the average person, Sheh
would say this. My own teacher would say
this. This knowledge is more dangerous
to be taught to the masses than useful.
Some knowledge is not useful because you
misuse it. You mis you abuse it. This is
a theoretical issue and it has practical
application for some people. Those
people that it has practical application
for, let them research it. Let them go
do it. Let them find out. For us at our
level, and I am including myself in that
level, let us just be very simple and
say we are obliged to follow the law of
Islam in our personal lives to the
greatest extent possible. as much as we
can. Our food, our clothing, our
inheritance, it must be done in
accordance with the Sharia. Let's strive
to do this. And there's a famous
incident that's narrated by Hassan
Albari.
And it's a beautiful story that Hassan
Albasi lived at the time of Hajb Ysef
and Haj Ysef was a very tyrannical
ruler, a very evil ruler. He killed the
Sahabah. He did a lot of bad things and
everybody really despised him. And a
group of young men came to Hassan
al-Basi uh preaching you know we have to
fight this ruler is not a Muslim he's
this he's that he's you know we need to
go and fight him and do and what not and
Hassan Albasi kept on diverting them
have you studied the Quran have you done
this have you done that and they kept on
saying how can you ignore this reality
and they went on and they fought the
army of hij and they all died one of the
things that Hassan told them and listen
to this carefully he said wahi one
backbiting that you have in this world
will cause you on the day of judgment
more distress than all the blood has
ever shed.
Think about that one backbiting one that
you have done will cause you more
distress on than all the blood has shed.
So why don't you concentrate on your own
and backbiting than on the blood of but
they ignored him again
overzealous bunch of kids. They went and
they killed and they they killed
themselves. They they basically died.
And Hassan Albbas when the news reached
him, he said he expressed regret and
remorse. And he said, "What good did
their zealousness do them? Where did
they end up? Who benefited? They killed
themselves. Their lives are ended. Their
families are crying. They don't have
children anymore or their children are
orphans. Who benefited from all of
this?" Wall. This is the same thing
here. Ask that which is useful and
beneficial. The issue of Muslim rulers
really is of no concern to me and you.
Let it be discussed amongst those who it
is a concern to for us at our lives. Let
us concentrate on applying the laws of
Allah the most that we can in our
personal lives and leave the business of
the rulers to those who are ruling and
to those around them that have to
discuss these issues with their scholars
and Allah subhana wa ta'ala knows best.