Confusion of Our World Due to Chaos of Whims

Friday Sermon Presented by
Dr Mahmud Abul-Huda Al Husaini
Al 'Adiliyya Mosque, Aleppo, 19\6\2009

When our Islamic world is saved from the blows of the non-Muslims at some intervals, we find that the Muslims, themselves, kill one another. Either the missiles of the Muslim enemies are directed to them, such as what is taking place in Palestine, in Iraq, in Bosnia and in Afghanistan, or the Muslims, themselves, kill one another when the attacks of the non-Muslims against them stop.
Are we the Ummah that belong to the Qur'an?
Are we the Ummah that say: Our Imam is Muhammad (PBUH)?
Are we the Ummah that turn to the one Ka'bah in prayer?
Are we the Ummah that talk about their fundamentals?
It is a painful reality that indicates our reaching a deteriorated state!
Had this phenomenon been confined to a certain place or certain people, as the example of Al Kharidjites (the outlaws) in the past, we would have said: it is a case of dull understanding in a small center of corruption.
But when we turn east and west and see how in the most distant regions (in the extreme west in Africa, and the extreme east in Asia), Muslims use arms against their Muslim brethren, we understand that the case has become a universal Islamic crisis. Today, we are not living a local regional crisis in one district. We are rather living a universal Islamic crisis.
A statement from the Holy Qur'an I was reading drew my attention that I want to make it the pivot of our sermon today. In it, the Exalted Allah said:

"Nay, the wrongdoers {merely} follow their own whims, being devoid of knowledge" (Ar Rum, 29).
It is an issue that indicates the cause quite clearly. Definitely, the Ummah whose Prophet (PBUH) said: "Do not oppress one another", and: "Do not {become infidels} revert to disbelief after me by striking the necks {cutting the throats} of one another {killing each other}" cannot be changed into this appalling state.‏
The Comrades in Somalia who have all recently claimed to fight with the aim of raising the banner of "There is no god but Allah", and with the purpose of raising the flag of the right, quickly change their attitudes into the other side.
This is one of the many examples we read about today.
Today, in Pakistan one class is armed against another. They carry heavy weapons so that they kill one another.
Our enemies who plan to destroy this Ummah have done without the use of weapons, because they find that the Muslim has the readiness to be an easy tool in their hands, deliberately or unintentionally.
"Nay, the wrongdoers (merely) follow their own whims". It is the injustice that begins from verbal oppression, to actual one, till it reaches the oppression of man to man, especially, when man aims at eradicating people, which is endless injustice. According, to the Exalted Allah, it is a sin graver than destroying Al Ka'bah. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "Pulling down Al Ka'bah stone by stone is less grave to the Exalted Allah than killing a Muslim".
Consequently, if man understands the Holy Qur'an and follows its instructions, and comprehends the balance set by our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), according to which he is brought up, he will never commit the sin of injustice.
Abdullah Bin Abi Salul said: "If we return to Medina, surely the more honorable will expel the most debased" (Al Munafiqun, 8).
This unbeliever defied our Master, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) and described himself as the most honorable, and the Prophet (PBUH) as the most debased. He said: "If we return to Medina, surely the more honorable will expel the most debased".
In the face of this challenge which we read about in the biography of the Prophet, there were unprecedented defiance and insolence within the Islamic society.
The son of Abdullah Bin Abi Salul came to the Messenger of Allah and said: "Oh Messenger of Allah, do not authorize anyone to kill my father. Instead, allow me to kill him so that there will be no rancor in my heart against anyone of your companions". The Messenger of Allah said: "No, (I won't kill him) so that people would not say that Muhammad kills his companions".
Abdullah Bin Abi Salul was the head of the hypocrites, and frankly declared blasphemy when he described the Messenger of Allah as 'debased', yet the Messenger of Allah prohibited the phenomenon of killing the Muslims to spread in his society, even though this man was outwardly a Muslim, but inwardly an unbeliever as the words of the Holy Qur'an state. Thus, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) did not want this phenomenon to spread in his Ummah.
Through the Holy Qur'an, and through the conduct of our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), the Muslim learns not to belong to the people of whims who are described in the Holy Qur'an as "Nay, the wrongdoers {merely} follow their own whims".
-"Being devoid of knowledge". Had they had knowledge, they would not have fallen in the pit of the sin they had committed.
When the choice is between killing or being killed, the Muslim chooses to be killed, so that he be like the son of Adam, who said: "If you do stretch your hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against you to slay you; for I do fear Allah" (Al Ma'idah, 28).
"But who will guide those whom Allah leaves astray to them there will be no helpers?"
The Holy Qur'an seems to call us to understand Islam, for Islam is not a complex religion. It is the religion of true natural disposition.
Islam can be understood by the Bedouin, the scholar and the simple ordinary person.
Islam is sent to all humanity so that they be acquainted with it and understand its purport.
This idea is summarized in the following words of the Exalted Allah: "So set your face steadily and truly to the straight religion", i.e., direct your heart sincerely to Islam so that you become a follower of this upright religion.
"Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which he has made mankind". It will not be hard for us to guide people to Islam when we are true, because Islam is implanted in the natural disposition of the hearts of all people.
"There is no change {let there be} in the work {wrought} by Allah", No one can change the hearts but Allah. The hearts are ready to accept truth, but they are waiting for the moment when someone comes to improve communication, to improve treatment, the one who presents the text without complication or theorization, and without diverting people from the goals of Islam.
"That is the straight Religion; but most among mankind understand not". The straight religion guides people to the best path, to the best and most balanced method. In Islam, equilibrium is conspicuous, and it needs not much blatant talk, nor much initiative.
In the sound Hadith narrated by Imam Muslim (MBUH), the Prophet (PBUH) said: "Destroyed are those who are very stern {in religion}", i.e. those who exaggerate in applying the Islamic rules and make Islam complex and change it into an unintelligible matter.
Certainly Islam is not so. Islam facilitates matters and comprehends the distant and the near and make them comprehend the others. Islam facilitates matters for everyone to make him understand it and make the others understand it.
Oh Messenger of Allah, allow me to understand this Hadith to explain the reality we are living in. I say: "Oh Messenger of Allah, you are true when you said: 'there are stern people' and nowadays, they are destroyed".
They are not only destroyed because they bring upon themselves the wrath of the Exalted Allah, and their being remote from Islamic objectives, but they are also destroyed because they have changed the space of our Islamic world (that is supposed to be the starting point of proselytizing, of morality, and of knowledge…), into a confused reality so that we have become occupied with one another's affairs.
Islamic groups are nowadays struggling with one another. The so-called scholars are in struggle with one another, so are the so-called proselytizers, and so are the so-called fighters in the cause of Allah.
What a reality it is we are living in today!
Does this indicate Islam?
But the one Billion and a half that are supposed to be the Ummah of knowledge that address people by Islam, the Ummah that get the world from darkness into light, are an Ummah preoccupied with their own interests, their own goals and personal discord.
It is improbable that Islam accept this state, and the Exalted Allah reveals the right path briefly when He said: "Turn you back in repentance to Him, and fear Him; establish regular Prayers, and be not among those who join gods with Allah. Those who split up their Religion, and become {mere} sects, each party rejoicing in that which is with itself".
The above mentioned are issues the Qur'anic text calls to, to reveal the path that leads to the state of power and to the turning of the heart to religion and to this method that implied "There is god but Allah", and "Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah". It implies the Qur'an that is the disciplining and instructing constitution, namely:
"Turn you back in repentance to Him", i.e., whenever you err, you return to Allah in repentance.
In short, this is Islam, and the Islamic communities, and whoever desires to call to Islam, have to understand these headings, and to comprehend their meanings when they find these fundamentals.
Thus, Islam provides objectivity and realism, not idealism. Whenever a Muslim errs, he returns to Allah and repents.
If only we understand the title of returning to Allah. If your brother, the community, or the society make a mistake, they return to Allah.
Why is it unlawful for us, according to our jurisprudence, to take possession of the tyrants' wealth nor capture their women when they rebel against the Islamic community?
It is because the aim is: "And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression" (Al Baqarah, 193).
It is also to suppress the force which is used to stir tribulation. No, for injustice; no, for vengeance; no, for tyranny, while you comprehend that he is mistaken.
2- "and fear Him", i.e., there are prohibitions, as well as fixed borders that should not be approached. No Muslim can disagree with another Muslim that adultery, eating the meat of the dead or the swine, or drinking alcohol are forbidden.
Through these fundamentals, we can understand the meaning of piety, and by means of which we can be remote from what the Exalted Allah has forbidden. These include religious knowledge that we have to be acquainted with by necessity. On the other hand, we should not have personal opinion and disagree on what has been decided by legal scholars to be forbidden when there is a general consensus.
Piety is to talk about being remote from the forbidden that are agreed upon, the matters that are proved to be decided by Allah and His Messenger (PBUH).
"And establish regular Prayers": The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) used to recommend his soldiers saying: "Do not enter a village in which you hear Ahdan (calling to prayer) performed", for there is no need to fight the people of this village, as they already perform prayer that is the heading by which the slave announces "You do we worship". He announces his worship to Allah by his tongue, and we are not responsible for the faith in his heart. In his prayer, he says: "You do we worship". Consequently, when the soldiers heard Ahdan in a village or a city, they were forbidden from entering it.
Does this happen in our societies today, while the Muslims bomb the mosques of one another?!
4-"And be not among those who join gods with Allah; those who split up their religion, and become {mere} sects".
When the Qur'anic text uses the word 'polytheism' with disunity, it emphasizes the meaning of injustice presented in the beginning of this text, for the highest degree of injustice is polytheism. Here, the Qur'an describes disunity as polytheism, because Allah is One, and the Oneness of the Allah necessitates the unity of the Ummah. When the impact of monotheism does not appear on the conduct of the Muslims in the Islamic society, it means that the phenomenon of polytheism is prevalent.
"Each party rejoicing in that which is with itself". Isn't this the reality we undergo today?
Isn't this the fact our Ummah lives in today from one end to the other?
Then, in the next verse the Qur'an presents a matter that is worth considering, namely, when man is in distress, he appeals to Allah. It is said: "Tribulations make us united".
When the Zionist entity bombed Gaza, and the American planes bombed the territory of Iraq, did not we hear, at that time of the shelling and distress, but one common voice on the land of Gaza or Iraq? All the minarets called: "Allah is the greatest".

But when the aircraft stopped bombing, the one who belonged to Hamas began killing the one who belonged to Fath, and vice versa, and the Shiite began killing the Sunni, and vice versa… .
It is a phenomenon worth considering. That is, at times of distress, man forgets everything and turns to Allah.
The Exalted Allah seems to threaten the Ummah and say: "if you do not accept unity, then wait for tribulation". In fact, it is an indirect threat.
The Exalted Allah said:
"-When trouble touches men they cry to their Lord, turning back to Him in repentance".
The Exalted Allah uses the title we have already mentioned as a way of uniting the Ummah, namely: "Turn you back in repentance to Him", i.e., when harm befalls upon you, you all unite and appeal to Allah.
"But when He gives them a taste of Mercy as from Himself, behold, some of them pay part worship to other god's besides their Lord".
In this verse, the Exalted Allah repeats the statement of polytheism mentioned a little before; polytheism that reminds of disunity and contradiction with the meaning of monotheism with its two sides, the one connected with belief, and the other connected with conduct, the meaning that the Prophet (PBUH) directs the Ummah to when he said: "Oh people, your Lord is One, and your father is one".
Thus, do believe in that, and perceive the meaning of human brotherhood so that you may be raised to a high moral state.
"{As if} to show their ingratitude for the {favors} We have bestowed on them! Then enjoy {your brief day}; but soon will you know {your folly} . Or have We sent down authority to them, which points out to them the things to which they pay part worship"? i.e., do they have any proof or evidence for what they commit concerning behavioral polytheism?
"When we give men a taste of Mercy, they exult thereat; and when some evil affects them because of what their {own} hands have sent forth, behold, they are in despair". In this verse, the Exalted Allah refers to the state of the onlooker who expresses despair and hopelessness, while we are an Ummah that is legally prohibited from being desperate.
We have to behead despair with a sword so that it becomes non-existent among us. However deteriorated our conditions are, we still have great hope in Allah, because we have a great moral power that supports us with that hope. The Holy Qur'an is preserved, and Muhammad (PBUH) is amongst us: "And know that among you is Allah's Messenger" (Al Hujurat, 7). Consequently, the Ummah that has the Qur'an and Muhammad (PBUH) is a powerful Ummah.
"See they not that Allah enlarges the provision and restricts it, to whomsoever he pleases? verily in that are Signs for those who believe". The Exalted Allah reminds us of the cycle (a heavenly law) in which there is change of states. So if you see that you are in a state of weakness, another state of power will definitely follow, and vice versa:
"Such days (of varying fortunes) we give to men and men by turns" (Al Imran, 140).
Consequently, beware of falling into the pit of despair however difficult your conditions are.
Then, the Exalted Allah instructs man to have strong social ties, and the whole texts deals with the issue of Islamic unity.
Why does the Exalted Allah say "So give what is due to kindred, the needy, and the wayfarer".
Why does He call to expenditure in the cause of Allah?
Why does He call the believer to move money from private property so that it becomes circulated among the poor, the needy strangers and relatives?
" So give what is due to kindred". The wealthy should spend money on the poor in his family.
"And the needy", the one who does not have any money on him, so by the favor of Allah, and by means of the pious heart of the wealthy, the poor becomes satisfied and in need for no one.
"and the wayfarer". The wayfarer is a stranger who is cut from his country while he is in the Muslims' country.
This is the ethics of Islam. The Muslim spends money on the near and the remote. The ethics of Islam is not that the Muslim kills another Muslim.
"That is best" for the one who spends money in this way. But what does the Exalted Allah say afterwards? "for those who seek the Countenance of Allah". Herein the crux of this Qur'anic statement, not the poem, for the Qur'an is not poetry.
When you compare the Exalted Allah's words: "Nay, the wrongdoers (merely) follow their own whims", with His words: "those who seek the Countenance of Allah", you find that those who aim at satisfying Allah wait for the command of their Lord to carry it out, and follow the dictates of the Book of Allah and the guidance of our Master, Muhammad (PBUH).
Then the Exalted Allah warns against usury because it causes injustice. In fact, it is the very same injustice. In contrast with expenditure of the private property of man, the Exalted Allah presents a sample of material injustice which is usury:
"That which you lay out for increase through the property of {other} people, will have no increase with Allah; but that which you lay out for Charity, seeking the Countenance of Allah, {will increase}. It is these who will get a recompense multiplied".
Consequently, the Exalted Allah handles the phenomenon of social disunity that the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) also asserts in his Hadith: "Give presents to one another for this would increase your mutual love", for the more expenditure there is, the more consolidated social ties will become. But when usury is widespread, it is an indication of man's oppression of the others. Moreover, the society in which injustice spreads is disunited and will be destroyed, whereas the integrated society never causes the killing of man to man. Moreover, its members help one another whenever there is need for that.
These are two contrasted images. How can man kill the one to whom he gives his money?
The two images can never be joined.
Then, the Exalted Allah summarizes the issue and concludes it when He said:
"It is Allah Who has created you; further, He has provided for your sustenance; then He will cause you to die; and again He will give you life". The One Who created you, provides you with sustenance, the One Who will make you die and bring you back to life, is worthy of directing your heart to, so that you belong to those who desire the Countenance of Allah. Thus, why should you turn to other than Him and follow your whims?
"Are there any of your {false} Partners who can do any single one of these things? Glory to Him! and High is He above the partners they attribute {to Him}"
The Exalted Allah concludes this idea saying:
"Mischief has appeared on land and sea because of {the deed} that the hands of men have earned", and He, Exalted He is, reveals that this chaos that has spread on our planet is the result of personal whims as well as the bad deeds of people.
What their hands earned is the result of their following their own whims. The distress inflicted upon them, and the confusion and all the tribulation mankind suffer from are all to remind them that the way to peace, the way to universal and mutual mercy among people is the return to Allah Who created them, Who provides them with sustenance, Who makes them die and brings them back to life.
The right way is a return to Allah, so that mankind may repent to Him when they suffer distress and a lot of confusion.
"That (Allah) may give them a taste of some of their Deeds: in order that they may turn back {from Evil} (Ar Rum, 29-41).‏
The Exalted Allah does not inflict this distress as retribution. He rather does that so that mankind remember the way of having mercy on one another. It is to direct them to Allah only, the One Who created them, Who provides them with sustenance, and Who makes them die and bring them back to life.
Haven't mankind understood yet the cause of the financial crises they suffer from?
Hasn't time come for the Islamic societies to comprehended one another?
Hasn't time come to the Muslim to understand his Islam?

Hasn't time come for us to be promoted to the status and the rank the Exalted Allah wants us to occupy?
When are we going to comprehend our Islam?
When are we going to realize that we own a great treasure, but we turn away from it, we forget it, we do not avail ourselves of it and we are ignorant of its great value?
When are we going to understand that our belonging to Islam means that we belong to the greatest principle because it is revealed by the Knowledge of Allah, and because it is the principle by which Allah guides all mankind?
When are we going to remember our duty to call to Allah?
When are we going to get out of our own egotism?
When are we going to get out of our individualism?
When are we going to get out of our narrow mindedness to understand our religion and make the others understand it, and so that we may get rid of our crises that exist only because of our following our whims that produced the injustice and confusion we are living in today?
Let us return to the Holy Qur'an. Let us meditate upon it, understand it, be committed to it in manner and behavior, and let us follow the footsteps of our Master, Muhammad (PBUH), our Imam and ideal in ethics, in speech and in deed.
Perhaps we may return to the essence of our Islam and its spirit.
Perhaps we may return to our humanity that we have missed though we claim to belong to Islam.
Allahum…, guide us to You favorably, and make us from those who listen to wisdom and follow the best of it.
I say my words and ask Allah's forgiveness