Pandangan ulama Saudi - Syeikh Yusuf ibn Abdullah (berkaitan tindakan Mesir menutup terowong)
As widely known, Egypt is now constructing a huge, indissoluble, bomb-proof steel barrier that will stretch about 14 kilometers along the Egypt-Gaza borders and go nearly 20–30 m deep into the ground. It has been stated that the purpose of this wall is to obstruct the tunnels and prevent the smuggling of aids to Gaza. Construction is supervised by the American, French, Israeli, and Egyptian intelligence agencies. About 6 kilometers of the wall have been built so far.
In an uncouth reply to those objecting to the steel wall, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit said, "No Arab whosoever has the right to tell Egypt, 'Do so and so' or 'Do not do so and so,' no matter what his argument or motive may be and no matter how much important the case he is addressing may be"! What is your opinion in this regard?
Wa `alaykum as-salamu wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
Dear questioner, thanks a lot for the confidence you placed in us. May Allah help all of us do our work satisfactorily for the sake of Him!
How sorrowful the reality of the Muslim Ummah is today. Wasn't it enough for Gazans to be subject to ceaseless attacks and irresistible raids by Israel ? Has Israel failed to crush Palestine so that Egypt offers its service to topple the unvanquished Gazan army? And what fault did Palestine commit for Egypt to do so with it?
Anyway, with regard to your question, Dr. Yusuf ibn `Abdullah Al-Ahmad, a prominent Saudi scholar, states,
Indeed, the construction of the steel wall to block the tunnels through which aids were transported to Muslims in Gaza is prohibited from the Shari`ah perspective, and it is among the gravest sins in Islam. This is because it implies siding with non-Muslims against Muslims, and involves injustice toward our fellow Muslims in Gaza, by tightening the siege over them and choking them. It was authentically reported in Sahih Al-Bukhari, on the authority of Ibn `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him and his father), that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "A woman was entered into Hellfire because of a cat that she had confined till it died of hunger; she neither fed it nor set it free to eat from the vermin of the earth." So, how would it be with those who lock up an entire Muslim community?
Undoubtedly, the sin comes upon all of those who participate in the crime of establishing such a wall, whether in word or deed, even the construction workers themselves, since it is a form of cooperation in sin and transgression. In this regard, Almighty Allah says,
(Help you one another in righteousness and piety, but help you not one another in sin and rancor: Fear Allah, for Allah is strict in punishment.) (Al-Ma'idah 5: 2)
As for the statement made by the Egyptian foreign minister, it contradicts the Shari`ah's injunctions of enjoining good and forbidding abomination, as Almighty Allah (be He Exalted) says,
(And the believers, men and women, are protecting friends one of another; they enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and they establish Prayer and they pay Zakah, and they obey Allah and His Messenger [i.e. Prophet Muhammad]. As for these, Allah will have mercy on them. Indeed, Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.) (At-Tawbah 9:71)
Thus, it is obligatory for all Muslims in general, and those of authority and influence in particular, to spare no efforts in order to stop the construction of the wall, lift the siege, and remove the injustice suffered by our fellow Muslims in Gaza.
I ask Almighty Allah to strengthen our brothers in Palestine, grant them victory, and preserve them through Islam.
I also recommend those participating in the construction of the wall to fear Allah, the Exalted, and to remember that they will stand before Him on the Day of Judgment. No believer should sell his religious commitment for a worldly gain.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
The Arabic text of the fatwa is quoted from IslamLight.net
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaza. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tariq Ramadhan bidas Ulama Azhar - Terowong Gaza-
It is common knowledge that the Palestinians have long been direct victims of the directionless, spineless and hypocritical polices of the Arab leadership. It is equally common knowledge that the State of Israel need make no effort to impose its vision, its methods and its objectives. Given the support of the United States, Europe’s guilty silence and the compliant passivity of the Arab regimes, we know what to expect. The foreign policy of most Arab states has been described with good reason as “pro-Zionist.” Their cowardice and treachery comes as no surprise.
Following last year’s murderous attack on Gaza by Israeli forces, we may have thought we’d seen the worst. That judgment failed to take into account the ingenuity of the “worse yet” scenario produced by the Egyptian regime and the “religious authorities” of al-Azhar. In the name of “national security”, of the fight against “terrorism”, and ultimately, of combating “corruption”, “smuggling” and “drug trafficking”, the Egyptian government is building a wall reaching twenty meters below ground level to stop the “Gazans” from carrying out their “illegal” activities and from digging “smuggling tunnels.” Of course, the Egyptian government has no intention of confining the inhabitants of Gaza to their hell; of course, the measure is dictated only by concern for national security! So persuasive is the argument that the committee of religious experts of al-Azhar quickly endorsed the government decision, declaring it to be “islamically legitimate” (“in conformity with the Shari’a”) for the country to protect its borders. (The al-Azhar scholars were responding to a fatwa issued by the International Union of Muslim Scholars that had ruled the exact opposite, that the Egyptian decision was “islamically unacceptable.” )
For shame! So this is how justice is mocked, how power and religion are misused. The Palestinian people, and most of all the inhabitants of Gaza, are denied their dignity and their rights; deprived of access to food, to water and to basic health care. And now, the Egyptian government becomes the ally of Israeli policy at its worst: isolating, strangling, starving, and smothering Palestinian civilian life after having eradicated hundreds. The aim is clear: to choke off all resistance and to destroy its leadership. The Egyptian government has blocked convoys attempting to deliver badly needed aid to the Palestinian people in an effort to raise the siege of Gaza. The mobilization that brought hundreds of women and men from around the world to Rafah was met by refusal upon refusal by the Cairo authorities, along with a strategy of selective humiliation.
For shame! No wonder the Israeli government purring with contentment. After all, a new and “promising” start for the “peace process” has been announced! There will be something for everybody: the United States, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt has spared no efforts to draft a new and “comprehensive” program. A splendid “peace process” indeed, in whose name civilians have suffered months of blockade before their leaders are invited to take their place at the “free” and “respectful” negotiating table. Israel can keep on purring: it can play for more time without making the slightest concession. Settlement activities are to be temporarily frozen—except for construction projects already underway. Finer negotiations would be hard to find!
It cannot be repeated often enough: the Egyptian “national security wall” is a wall of shame. The religious authorities that have legitimized it have behaved exactly like the notorious “ulama” (Muslim scholars) or “Islamic councils” that openly serve power, whether of dictators or the forces of colonialism, or of some self-styled Republic specializing in the manipulation of religion. What can possibly remain of their credibility after issuing a “political fatwa” that lends the Islamic endorsement of craven scholars to the power of dictatorship? Silence would have been far better.
We must condemn these unacceptable acts, and stand beside those who resist with dignity. If successive Israeli governments know one thing—with which we must agree—it is this: the Palestinian people will not surrender. For those who may still harbor doubts, we must add a second certainty, that of time: History is on the side of the Palestinians; it is they who represent, today and tomorrow, hope for the noblest human values. To resist oppression, to defend one’s legitimate rights and one’s land, to never yield to the arrogance and to the lies of the mighty. As for the power of the Israelis, the Egyptians and others, as for the fatwas of government-appointe d ulama, these things too will pass; they will pass, and will be forgotten. Happily forgotten. For the duty of memory is transformed into forgetfulness when it comes to the names and the acts of dictators, traitors and cowards. (This article first appeared in Tariq Ramadan Site)
Global Arab Network
Following last year’s murderous attack on Gaza by Israeli forces, we may have thought we’d seen the worst. That judgment failed to take into account the ingenuity of the “worse yet” scenario produced by the Egyptian regime and the “religious authorities” of al-Azhar. In the name of “national security”, of the fight against “terrorism”, and ultimately, of combating “corruption”, “smuggling” and “drug trafficking”, the Egyptian government is building a wall reaching twenty meters below ground level to stop the “Gazans” from carrying out their “illegal” activities and from digging “smuggling tunnels.” Of course, the Egyptian government has no intention of confining the inhabitants of Gaza to their hell; of course, the measure is dictated only by concern for national security! So persuasive is the argument that the committee of religious experts of al-Azhar quickly endorsed the government decision, declaring it to be “islamically legitimate” (“in conformity with the Shari’a”) for the country to protect its borders. (The al-Azhar scholars were responding to a fatwa issued by the International Union of Muslim Scholars that had ruled the exact opposite, that the Egyptian decision was “islamically unacceptable.” )
For shame! So this is how justice is mocked, how power and religion are misused. The Palestinian people, and most of all the inhabitants of Gaza, are denied their dignity and their rights; deprived of access to food, to water and to basic health care. And now, the Egyptian government becomes the ally of Israeli policy at its worst: isolating, strangling, starving, and smothering Palestinian civilian life after having eradicated hundreds. The aim is clear: to choke off all resistance and to destroy its leadership. The Egyptian government has blocked convoys attempting to deliver badly needed aid to the Palestinian people in an effort to raise the siege of Gaza. The mobilization that brought hundreds of women and men from around the world to Rafah was met by refusal upon refusal by the Cairo authorities, along with a strategy of selective humiliation.
For shame! No wonder the Israeli government purring with contentment. After all, a new and “promising” start for the “peace process” has been announced! There will be something for everybody: the United States, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt has spared no efforts to draft a new and “comprehensive” program. A splendid “peace process” indeed, in whose name civilians have suffered months of blockade before their leaders are invited to take their place at the “free” and “respectful” negotiating table. Israel can keep on purring: it can play for more time without making the slightest concession. Settlement activities are to be temporarily frozen—except for construction projects already underway. Finer negotiations would be hard to find!
It cannot be repeated often enough: the Egyptian “national security wall” is a wall of shame. The religious authorities that have legitimized it have behaved exactly like the notorious “ulama” (Muslim scholars) or “Islamic councils” that openly serve power, whether of dictators or the forces of colonialism, or of some self-styled Republic specializing in the manipulation of religion. What can possibly remain of their credibility after issuing a “political fatwa” that lends the Islamic endorsement of craven scholars to the power of dictatorship? Silence would have been far better.
We must condemn these unacceptable acts, and stand beside those who resist with dignity. If successive Israeli governments know one thing—with which we must agree—it is this: the Palestinian people will not surrender. For those who may still harbor doubts, we must add a second certainty, that of time: History is on the side of the Palestinians; it is they who represent, today and tomorrow, hope for the noblest human values. To resist oppression, to defend one’s legitimate rights and one’s land, to never yield to the arrogance and to the lies of the mighty. As for the power of the Israelis, the Egyptians and others, as for the fatwas of government-appointe d ulama, these things too will pass; they will pass, and will be forgotten. Happily forgotten. For the duty of memory is transformed into forgetfulness when it comes to the names and the acts of dictators, traitors and cowards. (This article first appeared in Tariq Ramadan Site)
Global Arab Network
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