Khutba on Woolwich Incident
الحمد لله، الحمد لله الذي جعل صحةَ الإنسان وحياةَ المجتمعِ في إصلاح المعاملة، وحفِظها في المدينة المنورة، نحمده تعالى ونستعينه، ونشكره تعالى ونستغفره ونستغيثه، نعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سيئات أعمالنا، من يهد الله فهو المهتد ومن يضلل فلن تجد له وليا مرشدا، ونشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك و له الحمد، يحيي ويميت، بيده الخير، وهو على كل شيء قدير، ونشهد أن سيدنا و مولانا محمداً عبده ورسوله، وحبيبه وصفيه، بلغ الرسالة وأدى الأمانة ونصح الأمة، النبي الأمي الذي أرسله الله بالهدى والدين الحق، بشيرا ونذيرا بين يدي الساعة، صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى آله وأصحابه ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيا عباد الله اتقوا الله حق تقاته ولا تموتن إلا وأنتم مسلمون. يأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله وقولوا قولا سديدا يصلح لكم أعمالكم ويغفر لكم ذنوبكم. ومن يطع
الله ورسوله فقد فاز فوزا عظيما. اتقوا الله فيما أمر وانتهوا عما نها عنه وزجر.
You will all have heard the news and read the reports of the recent barbaric murder that took place in Woolwich, England, and the resulting frenetic, concerted attempts by the media to equate the actions of the two lunatics involved to the great deen of Islam, thereby extending the responsibility for the act to the whole umma and not just the perpetrators of the act. They are doing this on the basis that the two men said Allahu Akbar as they did the act and then stood around afterwards telling whoever asked them that they did it in retaliation for the Muslims killed in Afghanistan and other places. On the basis of these words, the murder is being described as Islamic terrorism and mosques and Muslims all over the UK are being attacked in reprisal.
But the truth of the matter is that the murder has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and cannot be attributed to Islam in any way. Indeed, the two men appear to be mentally ill.
People may say we are on a jihad footing against all non-Muslims, but that is not the case and cannot be the case without true leadership of the Muslims. And that does not exist in this world of petty nation states squabbling over borders. There is no leadership that makes decisions on behalf of the Muslims in this current time. But. some argue, these countries are at war with the Muslims. Yes, they are at war with some statelets the majority of whose population is Muslim but they also have treaties with other statelets the majority of whose population is Muslim. The definitions of concepts such as Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Sulh, Dar al-Kufr and Dar al-Islam, are extremely complicated and cloudy in this day and age, and the Muslim is only permitted to act on the basis of certainty. Another person’s life may only be taken with haqq, when he has the right, when there is due cause. Allah says,
ولَا تَقْتُلُوا النَّفْسَ التِّي حَرَّمَ اللهُ إِلَّا بِالْحَقِّ
the translation of which is, “Do not kill any person Allah has made inviolate, except with the right to do so.” And He says,
مَنْ قَتَلَ نَفْسًا بِغَيْرِ نَفْسٍ أَوْ فَسَادٍ فِي الاَرْضِ فَكَأَنَّمَا قَتَلَ النَاسَ جَمِيعًا
the translation of which is, “If someone kills another person – unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth – it is as if he had murdered all mankind.” This aya is revealed about the Banu Israil, but the position of most the ulama is that the rulings of theirs that are mentioned apply to us also unless they are expressly abrogated. The haqq mentioned in the first aya is limited to three things. Al-Qurtubi says,
وقد حرم الله القتل في جميع الشرائع إلا بثلاث خصال: كفر بعد إيمان، أو زنًى بعد إحصان، أو قتل نفس ظلماً وتعدّيا
“Allah has made it unlawful to kill [a person] in every single set of laws [brought by the Messengers], except in three cases: one who leaves Islam after entering it, one who commits adultery after entering into a consummated marriage, and one who kills another person unjustly.”
The second aya mentions fasadin fil-ardi. According to the mufassirin, this refers to shirk or kufr, that which jihad is waged to eradicate, for jihad is for the purpose of i’laai kalimati-llah – ‘to raise high the banner of Allah’. But jihad has rules – it is not indiscriminate killing. When Sayyidina Abu Bakr sent his army out to fight, he gave them a set of instructions, among which were,
ولا تمثلوا ولا تقتلوا طفلا صغيرا أو شيخا كبيرا ولا امرأة ولا تعقروا نحلا ولا تحرقوه ولا تقطعوا شجرة مثمرة
“Do not mutilate [bodies], do not kill children, the elderly or women, do not burn palm trees or render them sterile, and do not cut down fruit-bearing trees.” And even when someone who has actively fought against you on the battlefield is taken prisoner, they are not automatically put to death. No, their fate depends upon what is in the best interests of the Muslims and what will serve their cause best, and that is the sole basis upon which the decision is made, as is made clear in the commentary on the risala of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani. The wider interest of the Muslim umma must always be taken into account. Jihad is not about killing people, it is about opening up lands to the deen of Allah. When the Muslims first conquered Syria, Persia, India, Egypt or any of the other lands they conquered, they did not massacre every non-Muslim or force them to enter Islam, but permitted them to remain practising their own deen so long as they paid jizya. Indeed, before even attacking them, they first gave them the opportunity to enter Islam or pay jizya and retain a certain degree of autonomy.
Fasadin fi-l-ard can also refer to highwaymen or those who rebel against the rightful ruler – by such actions, their blood becomes lawful, but only to those whom the ruler sends to deal with them.
The final way killing is permissible is in defence of one’s own family, life and wealth, or that of one’s neighbours and fellow Muslims.
It is clear that this murder that took place fails on all these criteria. Firstly, it is clearly not jihad because they were not fighting for any ruler or any polity, or to make high the word of Allah, since that requires the capacity to rule the lands you have conquered according to the Laws of Allah.
Secondly, it is clearly not defence, because they were not attacked, and the person they killed was not engaged in any active fighting.
Thirdly, they have no legal right to his blood – a right can only be established with clear-cut evidence, and that evidence can only be established by a correct judicial procedure, a procedure that was not followed. That right is either on the basis of a person having committed an act that carries a hadd punishment of death, or on the basis of him having killed another person, thereby enabling him to be killed in retaliation. Ibn Abi Zayd says,
ولا تُقتَل نفس بنفس إلا ببينة عادلة أو باعتراف أو بالقسامة
“A person may not be killed [in retaliation for] another person without either just evidence or confession or with qasama.” ‘Just evidence’ means two trustworthy men having witnessed the killing blow and whose accounts agree in every single detail, while qasama is a group oath of fifty or more people related to the victim who did not witness the killing blow that So-and-so killed him.
As for those who say that those rulings only apply when the victim is Muslim, that is not true – it also applies when the victim is dhimmi or from a nation whose people have a treaty with the Muslims. Which countries have treaties today and which do not, is a grey area at best and a matter of disagreement, due to dar al-Islam itself not being clearly defined in the present multi-nation environment, and given that the starting position is that human life is inviolate and may not be taken without due cause, it cannot be correct to take the life of the man who was murdered. Do you not see that when there was no clearly defined Dar al-Islam, when the Prophet and His Companions were still in Mecca, the Muslims did not kill any of the idolaters, even when provoked or attacked. It is only when they had their own polity, their own dar, that they were able to move on to a war footing.
We do not say that Islam is a religion of peace or pacifism, but we certainly do say that it is not a deen of anarchy, it is not a deen where everyone follows his own whim and own interpretation of what is right and wrong, it is a deen of law of structure. Allah says,
وَمَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّنِ اتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ بِغَيْرِ هُدًى مِنَ اللَّهِ
the translation of which is, “Who could be further astray than the one who follows his whim without guidance from Allah.” People are not permitted to take matters into their own hands. Even if you know someone killed your father, you cannot kill him in retaliation without witnesses, confession or qasama oath. Even if you witness first hand someone carrying out zina, you cannot carry out a hadd punishment on him yourself. We only act with authority. We do not condone vigilantism even when the vigilante is in the right, such acts are an attack on the authority of the Muslims and an act of rebellion. And as such they have nothing to do with Islam and are themselves punishable.
أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين من كل ذنب فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور الرَّحيم.
الحمد لله الحمد لله رب العالمين، وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له وأشهد أن محمداً عبده ورسوله، صلى الله وسلم وبارك عليه وعلى آله وصحبه، والتابعين وتابعي التابعين ومن تبعهم بإحسان إلى يوم الدين.
أما بعد! فيأيها الذين ءامنوا اتقوا الله ما استطعتم واسمعوا وأطيعوا وأنفقوا خيرا لأنفسكم. يا عباد الله أوصيكم وإياي بتقوى الله وطاعته وأحذركم وإياي عن معصيته ومخالفته.
The motivation of the perpetrator is immaterial for his action is on the basis of a lack of knowledge and is not representative of the deen. An ignorant person could rob a convenience store or rape someone or declare interest banking halaal based on his warped understanding of the deen, but that does not make that action okay or Islamic. All these acts are still kaba’ir, they are still major wrong actions in the deen. The Prophet said,
اجتنبوا السبع الموبقات، قالوا: وما هن يا رسول الله؟ قال: الشرك بالله، والسحر، وقتل النفس التي حرم الله إلا بالحق، وأكل الربا، وأكل مال اليتيم، والتولي يوم الزحف، وقذف المحصنات الغافلات المؤمنات
“Steer clear of seven serious wrong actions.” “What are they, Messenger of Allah?” they asked. He replied, “Associating others with Allah, magic, killing a person Allah has made inviolate without right, consuming usury, consuming the wealth of orphans, fleeing from the battlefield, and slandering careless but chaste believing women of adultery.” Giving some spurious explanation for your senseless act doesn’t exonerate you of responsibility or justify it in any way. And certainly does not make it part of the deen of Allah. Holding Islam or Muslims responsible for the acts of these two mad men is ridiculous, just as ridiculous as holding christianity and all Christians to account for the murderous rampage of Anders Breivik in Norway, or all English people to account for the vicious murder of a 75 year old Pakistani man on the streets of Birmingham as he walked home from the mosque in the late evening. They are just unhinged individuals satisfying their blood lust. Their adherence or lack of adherence to Islam is immaterial. Such people exist in every community and every time. If not, we would not have to have laws to deal with and punish murderers.
We should not have to defend Islam every time such events take place, but unfortunately we live in a time where the politicians and media have an agenda, and must have a convenient enemy and scapegoat and have decided on Islam. So, anything that can be pinned to it, will be. Even Cameron’s apparently good-intentioned statement, “a betrayal of Islam and the Muslim communities”, links Islam in the minds of the listeners to the event. No one said about Breivik, despite his claims that he did what he did for Christianity, that his acts were, “a betrayal of Christianity”.
They are trying to polarise us into two camps – the terrorists and their supporters – the evil side of Islam, and those who take the position that all violence is reprehensible and that Islam is the religion of peace – the good side of Islam. Anyone who does not fall into the latter category is considered to fall in the former. But the truth of the matter is that neither of these things is Islam – Islam lies somewhere in the middle, and is found in the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah that has been preserved for us by our great ulama throughout the ages in the compendious books of fiqh. Those laws and rulings that cover all aspects of our lives and clearly define what is acceptable and what is not. That is the Islam of which they are truly afraid for its inherent justice threatens the unjust bases upon which their world is built.
We ask Allah to protect the Muslims in these difficult times and restore the deen in its true and glorious form. We ask that He enable the Muslims to see beyond the dialectic that seeks to confuse and cloud their identity and all them to distinguish truth from falsehood and friends from enemies. We ask that He guides the Muslims and weeds out from our communities those who would sully the name of His deen and attribute to it things that could be no further from it.
إِنَّ اللهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ، يَا أَيُهَا الذِينَ آمَنُواْ صَلُّواْ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُواْ تَسْلِيماً.
اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ وَبَارِكْ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ. وَارْضَ اللَّهُمَّ عَنِ الْخُلَفَاءِ الرَّاشِدِينَ أَبِي بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَعُثْمَانَ وَعَلِيٍّ، وعن أم المومنين عائشة التي أمرنا الله في سورة النور أن ندافع عنها، وَعَنْ سَائِرِ الصَّحَابَةِ أَجْمَعِينَ، خُصُوصاً اِلأَنْصَارَ مِنْهُمْ وَالمُهَاجِرِينَ، وَعَنِ التَّابِعِينَ وَتَابِعِي التَّابِعِينَ وَمَنْ تَبِعَهُمْ بِإِحْسَانٍ إِلَى يَوْمِ الدِّينِ.
اللَّهُمَّ اهْدِ وُلَاةَ أُمُورِ المُسْلِمِينَ لِمَا يُرْضِيكَ وَلِاتِّبَاعِ سُنَّةِ نَبِيِّكَ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ، وَثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَهُمْ عَلَى الصِّرَاطِ المُسْتَقِيمِ، وَأَصْلِحْهُمْ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى شَيْخِنَا، وَعَلَى أَمِيرِنَا، وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ أُمَرَاءِ وَزُعَمَاءِ المُسْلِمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ بَارِكْ عَلَى المُسْلِمِينَ فِي هَذِهِ المَدِينَةِ، وَوَفِّقْهُمْ لِمَا تُحِبُّهُ وَتَرْضَاهُ يَا أَكْرَمَ الأَكْرَمِينَ.
اللَّهُمَّ أَعِزَّ الإِسْلَامَ وَالمُسِْلمِينَ، وَاخْذُلِ الْكُفْرَ وَالْكَافِرِينَ، وَانْصُرِ المُجَاهِدِينَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ. وَاجْعَلْ كَلِمََتَكَ هِيَ العُلْيَا وَكَلِمَةَ الْكُفْرِ هِيَ السُّفْلَى.
رَبَّنَا ءَاتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقَِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ.
إِنَّ اللهَ يَامُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَى، وَيَنْهَى عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ، يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَّكَّرُونَ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَقُومُواْ إِلَى صَلاتِكُمْ يَرْحَمُكُمُ اللهُ.