The Third, and the most important lesson in the Iraqi imbroglio for Muslims is the withholding of Divine Aid (Allah’s Nusrat) from the Ummah.

The product of the Iraqi equation—Muslim fighting ability and the impotency of the superpowers— should be victory for the Muslims and the total defeat of the enemies. But this product which appears to be the logical consequence of the equation is beyond the grasp of the Ummah. A vital factor for the attainment of victory is clearly missing.

The fighting ability of Muslims coupled to the inability of the invading kuffaar superpowers has not produced the desired defeat of the enemy and the victory of Muslims. For Muslims of intelligence, it is an axiomatic truth that victory over the kuffaar is not attainable merely on the basis of the fighting ability of Muslims nor on their possession of an abundance of sophisticated weapons nor on the weakness and impotency of the enemy forces.

POWER-BASE
The power-base of the Mu’mineen is only Imaan— an Imaan which has generated a powerful spiritual fibre in the Mu’min’s character— and nothing else. Allah’s Nusrat is attainable only on the basis of a healthy Imaan. The Qur’aan Majeed says: “If Allah aids you, then there is none to vanquish you. And, if He withholds (His aid) from you, who then can aid you besides Him?”

The Mujahideen and other anti-U.S. fighters in Iraq are fighting valiantly and are succeeding in inflicting heavy losses on the enemy. They have succeeded to wreak havoc throughout the land. They have made the country ungovernable. All reconstruction work has come to a complete standstill. No area is safe in Iraq for the enemy and for those who collaborate with the enemy.

The same situation prevails in Chechnya and Afghanistan where the enemy has failed to rout the Mujahideen and to establish its rule and control. While it has a presence in these lands, it has failed to pacify the fighters. This state of affairs indicates that there is a measure of Allah’s aid for the Muslim fighters. But the required degree of aid to establish Muslim domination is not forthcoming. Allah Ta’ala is clearly withholding that vital aid. Allah Ta’ala is clearly displeased with the Ummah. And why should He not be displeased with this Ummah of transgressors and rebels?

A’MAAL
Allah Ta’ala says in His Kitaab:

“Allah has promised those among you who have Imaan and who practise righteousness that He will establish them (with political domination) on earth just as He had established those before them. And, He will make dominant for them their Deen which He has chosen for them. And, after their fear, He will substitute peace for them. They (the Mu’mineen) worship Me and they do no associate anything with Me.” (Surah An-Nur, aayat 55)

The imperative condition for victory and political domination is A’maal-e-Saalihah based on correct Aqeedah (Belief). It is impossible for the Ummah to regain its former pedestal of glory, spiritually and politically, minus this incumbent condition stipulated by the Qur’aan and thoroughly expounded, theoretically and practically, by Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). The Ahadith are replete with discussions and explanations on this requirement.

Since Muslims throughout the world have abandoned practical Islam, having relegated it to the historical records of Islam, they have fallen from their former pinnacle of power and are today grovelling in humiliation at the boots of Islam’s enemies.

CORRUPTION
Corruption has spread like wildfire in every domain of Muslim life, and in every wrung of Muslim society. The learned and the ignorant, the elite and the masses, are all in a boiling cauldron of vice, bid’ah, kufr and immorality, and the worst culprits responsible for the ruin of this Ummah being the learned —the Ulama of the age to whom Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) has directed the following Hadith:
“Verily, I fear for my Ummah the Aimmah Mudhilleen.”

MUDHILLEEN
Who are the Aimmah Mudhilleen? They are the learned ones—the molwis, maulanas, sheikhs, khalifahs and imams—whose goal in life has become twofold: Hubb-e-Jah (the craving for fame and name), and Hubb-e-Maal (the greed for wealth). These were the twin diseases which had overwhelmed the brains and hearts of the Ulama and Mashaaikh of the Yahood and Nasaara, bringing disaster and ruin to the entire Ummah of Bani Israaeel. Hence, the Qur’aan Majeed warning Muslims, says: “Verily, numerous among the Ulama and Mashaaikh devour the wealth of people in unlawful ways.” (Surah Taubah, aayat 34)

To gain name, fame and wealth, the Ahbaar (Ulama) and the Ruhbaan (Mashaaikh) of Bani Israaeel would distort, misinterpret, and conceal the Haqq (Truth of the Shariah) in their pernicious trade of issuing fatwas (verdicts) to appease people, especially the wealthy, the rulers and the men of influence and prominence.

This self-same disease has overtaken the Ulama of Islam in this age. Too many fatwas of baatil and convenience are fabricated to appease people and to curry favour with the rulers and the rich. The eyes of the learned one’s are focused on the wealth of the worldly classes of people.

Knowledge of the Deen is pursued with the specific aim of acquiring the dunya (worldly goals). The Deen is used and manipulated for personal motives. With such dastardly ways of deception, the Ulama have not only destroyed themselves, but have opened up the avenues for the ruin of the Ummah. Making this declaration, Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said:
“Soon there will dawn an age over people when nothing will remain of Islam but its name; nothing will remain of the Qur’aan but its text; their Musaajid will be beautifully adorned structures, but devoid of guidance; their Ulama will be the worst under the canopy of the heaven; from them (such Ulama) will emerge evil, and into them will rebound this fitnah (evil ).” --Mishkaat and other kutub

The evils mentioned in this Hadith have all materialized in our age. The Ulama have become leaders of misguidance. Most of them have acquired the knowledge of the Deen, not for the sake of Allah’s Pleasure, but for despicable mundane goals. They have thus become a manifestation of one of the Signs of the Final Hour of Qiyaamah. Said Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam): “Knowledge (of the Deen) will be acquired for purposes other than the Deen.”

AMR BIL MA’ROOF
The Ulama have by far and large abandoned their sacred obligation and occupation of Amr Bil Ma’roof Nahy Anil Munkar (Commanding righteousness and forbidding evil). In so doing they have allied themselves with the learned men of the Yahood and Nasaara. They have descended into a rut and rot, taking with them the Ummah into the cauldron of fitnah and dhalaal which they are brewing for their own despicable monetary and egoistical aims and objectives. Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) had 14 centuries ago expressed his fear about the rise of such leaders of misguidance (Aimmah Mudhilleen).

The Ulama are the brains of the Ummah. But the brains are in an advanced stage of decomposition. What now can be expected of the body— the masses?

THEIR FATAAWA
The fataawa (religious edicts) of the contemporary Ulama are being churned out to appease, applaud and woo the rulers and the wealthy. Intolerably wide avenues of interpretation (ta’weel baatil)—baseless interpretation—have been opened by even senior contemporary Ulama to accommodate the baatil concepts the western world has to offer. They, thus, viciously betray the Amaanat of their sacred Office and trade the Shariah for a miserable pittance in diametric conflict with the Qur’aanic prohibition:

“Do not sell the laws of Allah for a miserable (worldly) price.”

THEIR ATTITUDE
In consequence of this pernicious trade which the Ulama are plying, the Ummah has been derailed from Siraatul Mustaqeem—the Straight Path leading to success in both worlds and Allah’s Pleasure.

The attitude, mannerism and conduct of the Ulama who hanker after the world, have ruined the morality of the Ummah. Instead of fulfilling their sacred obligation of ta’leem and tarbiyat of the masses, the Ulama indulge in destructive activities which alienate Muslims from the Shariah and the Sunnah. Churning out edicts of permissibility for all the corruption the western world has introduced, the Ulama are guilty of the massive erosion of Akhlaaq (moral character) and the weakening of the Imaan of the masses.

An elaboration of the villainy of the present-day Ulama-e-Soo’ will fill a book. A great Shaikh observed:
“Two groups have harmed Islam the most: the worldly kings and the ulama-e-soo’ (the evil learned men).”

THE AIM IS LOST
The entire Ummah has lost its direction and the aim for which they live on earth. The Ulama are responsible for this lamentable state of the Ummah because they have shirked their obligatory function of guiding the community with the Haqq, and have diversified into activities which are totally unbefitting of their lofty Office. This is not the occasion for a detailed exposition of the evil acts of diversification.

During the Talibaan regime in Afghanistan some senior Ulama of Pakistan had issued the edict of permissibility for the vast drugtrafficking of the Afghans. Juggling with technicalities and throwing out of the window the spirit of Islam and the Maqsad (Aim and Object) of Rasulullah’s mission, a queer and baseless ground for the legality of the mass production of drugs and selling to the western world was fabricated.

The poppy fields of Afghanistan were given religious sanction on the ground of America being the enemy. According to the ill-conceived logic of the Mufti who issued the edict of permissibility for the drug trade, the final market of the drugs was the U.S.A. In view of the U.S.A. being the enemy of Muslims, to ruin the moral and spiritual fibre of its youth with drugs was justified.

Based on this warped reasoning, the Mufti’s fatwa legalized selling tons and tons of drugs to the enemy to ruin the nation. This is indeed a colossal miscarriage of religious authority. The Qur’aan and the Hadith have been manipulated for despicable motives which have absolutely no admission in the lofty moral and spiritual goals of altruism for which Islam stands.

MISSION
We fail to fathom the Mufti’s mentality. He had miserably failed to understand the mission of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). Did Allah Ta’ala dispatch Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) to earth to ruin and destroy the moral and spiritual fibre of nations? Were the mushrikeen of Makkah not the inveterate enemies of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) and of Islam? Is there any where in the Qur’aan or Hadith the slightest hint that the mission of the Nabi (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) envisaged the moral destruction of the enemy? Did Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) preach drugs and immorality to the enemy? There is no scope for wickedness in Islam.

These underhand, morally bankrupt tactics and legal antics of the learned men are the tools of nations such as the U.S.A. If our enemies reason in this fashion and employ such plots, it is fully comprehensible. But for the adherents of Tauheed such vile concepts are intolerable.

The mission of Islam is directed to all mankind, including the U.S.A. and all our enemies. Da’wat and Tableegh have to be directed to them as well. The function and duty of the Muslim are to propagate the pure Deen to even the enemy because all kuffaar are the targets of the Message of Islam. Islam has come for the everlasting salvation of all mankind, including the U.S.A. and all other enemies of Islam.

Is it possible to offer the enemy the Deen of Islam when its followers conspire to ruin their youth with drugs? Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) came as a Guide to mankind. He did not come as a plotter to ruin the morals of nations. If we too have to degenerate into adoption of the evil tactics of our enemy, then what is the difference between us, those who claim to hold aloft the banner of Tauheed, and them (or enemies)? We are supposed to be an Ummah with the highest moral and spiritual values. This Ummah has been created for the Aakhirah and the way to the Aakhirah is via the avenue of Ibaadah, not sanctified corruption and immorality fallaciously asserted to be justifiable methods in the furtherance of the institution of Jihad.

JIHAD
The objective of Jihad is not mere territorial expansion and political domination for worldly goals. The purpose of Jihad is to open the road for the free propagation of Allah’s Deen so that the creation of Allah Ta’ala could be saved from everlasting damnation in the Hereafter. But, in some Mujahideen quarters it appears that Jihad is believed to be the ultimate end—the goal to be pursued. On the contrary, Jihad is only the means for acquisition of the lofty goal of raising the Law of Allah Ta’ala and inviting mankind to the worship of the One Creator so that they attain everlasting salvation in the Aakhirah.

This lofty and altruistic goal does not admit dirty tactics such as selling drugs to destroy the entire nation of the enemy. The very nation we are fighting today can tomorrow be the champions of Islam. If anyone desires a daleel (proof) for this, let him study the history of the Mushrikeen of Makkah. What was the reaction of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) on the day Makkah was conquered? How did he respond to decades of torture and persecution by the
mushrikeen? He did not establish any truth commission. He simply issued a general pardon for the entire nation of the enemy.

The Mongols who ravaged and utterly destroyed the lands of Islam, are another example. These very savages became the ardent followers of Islam. Those who had destroyed Islam, became its champions fighting its cause.

OUR FATE
If the attitude of the Sahaabah and the early Muslims had been what the attitude of Muslims, including their Ulama, of this age is, what would have been our fate today? None of us would today have been Muslims. Our forefathers were mushrikeen and idolaters. We are most fortunate that Allah Ta’ala had sent such noble men as the Sahaabah, the Taabieen and Tab-e-Taabieen to conquer the lands of our polytheist forefathers.
They never came to destroy the morals of the kuffaar. Their Jihad was a true Jihad waged to raise the glory of Allah’s Law. Their Jihad was a clean war devoid of atrocities. They never followed the kuffaar style of pillage, plunder, maim and murder.

NO RECIPROCATION
Due to colossal ignorance in the ranks of the followers of Islam in this age, sight has been lost of the objectives of Jihad. Since the fight in these times is not to gain the Pleasure of Allah Ta’ala, Muslim fighters too react in the same strain of villainy and vengeance which characterize the forces of the kuffaar. Regardless of the conduct of the enemy and how they maltreat Muslims, the followers of Islam are not allowed to reciprocate in like manner.

Consider the filthy, inhuman torture camps of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram Base and many other such haunts established by the C.I.A. in collaboration with the intelligence agencies of other countries. The most horrendous acts of brutality and inhumanity are perpetrated by the specimen of sub-human barbarians who man such dens of torture. If by a decree of Allah Ta’ala, these enemies should fall into the hands of Muslims or the Mujahideen, they are not allowed to reciprocate in like manner.

The Mu’mineen are a noble breed of people whose hearts and minds have to dwell in the lofty angelic realms notwithstanding their physical nature and bodies. No matter how strong the provocation may be, and no matter how compelling the urge may be to subject the savages to suffer the same treatment, Muslims are not allowed by Islam to abdicate their humanity, nobility and sully their Imaan with the horrors which are inherent attributes of kufr. Thus, when it served the mundane objectives of the U.S.A., Bush and Rumsveld had no qualms when the decision was taken to distance themselves from the principles of their own Geneva Convention. But, Muslims cannot dissociate from the principles of insaaniyat (humanity) which the Qur’aan and Sunnah impose on the followers of Islam. While the morality of non-
Muslims is regulated by worldly expediencies, that of the followers of Islam is governed by the eternal principles of the Shariah which tolerate no accretion and change.

Some years ago when the genocide perpetrated by the Serbs in Bosnia was at its height, we met a group of Bosnian Muslims during the Hajj. They were the victims of Serb brutality. In their hearts there was a justifiable burning for revenge. In a discussion with them they averred that Serbs should be exterminated even if they adopt Islam. It was difficult to reason with men whom the Serbs had brutalized, whose womenfolk were publicly gang-raped by the sub-animal brutes—the Serbs who were upholding Christian doctrine. The hearts of these Bosnian Muslims had become understandably raw with hatred for their Serb persecutors. Due to gross ignorance, they were unaware of the true mission of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) and the goals of Jihad and Islam. We asked them: If the Sahaabah had to adopt what you are saying, would you and we have been Muslims today? Your forefathers were Serbs or some European Christian community. Nevertheless they were all the brothers of the Serbs and Croats while our forefathers were Hindu and Buddhist idolaters. Would we have been Muslims today, if the Sahaabah and the early Muslims had exterminated all the Mushrikeen and kuffaar as you are advocating?

JAHAALAH
The jahaalah (ignorance) in the ranks of Muslims, universally, is staggering. We do not possess the morality, spirituality and the Knowledge of the
Deen for assuming the leadership of the world. It is for this reason that Allah Ta’ala has removed us from the stage of political domination of the world. The populations of all Muslim lands wallow in stark ignorance, and blindly follow only the evil and immorality which the western nations manufacture. The good there may be in institutions of the west is left behind while the evil is imported. Coupled with western evils is our colossal jahaalah. If a survey of the lands of the Muslims is taken, men of intelligence will be appalled at the moral and spiritual decadence in which the Ummah is engulfed.

“HONOUR KILLINGS”
Sometimes the western media report horror stories of ‘honour killings’ in Muslim lands. Exiting the paraphernalia of animosity which the anti-Islamic press harbours for Islam and the Muslim Nation, and its smearing innuendos to bring infamy to Islam, the factual position is correct. The truth cannot be expunged with emotional reactions presented in our defence. There is no benefit and no goodness in the exercise of taking up cudgels with the enemy press. The proper thing—the Islamic directive—is to lament over the rotten stench emitting from our own home and to institute measures for reformation.

The one class in our society who can effect such reformation is the Ulama. But, these august personalities have deserted their posts and positions just as the Iraqi police have abandoned almost all their stations in the face of the Mujahideen assault.

The ‘honour killings’— haraam and brutal— have absolutely no sanction in Islam. Even intelligent persons in the western media which reports these incidents are fully cognizant of the fact that Islam does not condone such anarchy and evil. But their aversion for Islam impels them to attribute the products of primitive and polytheistic ignorance and custom to Islam. Nevertheless, these horrible episodes are truly taking place in some Muslim lands such as Pakistan and Iraq and perhaps elsewhere as
well.

A woman who has defiled the family or tribal honour with her loose morals is summarily put to death by command of the family chief. Inspite of the gravity of the crime of women who defile themselves and besmirch the names of their families with their acts of immorality, these ‘honour killings’ are haraam acts of murder.

Last year in Pakistan a man verbally made some lewd remarks to a woman. Such conduct is undoubtedly considered a heinous crime in Islam and the culprit deserves severe punishment (Ta’zeer), which the Islamic Court will order. But Pakistan is not an Islamic state. It has a non-Muslim secular government with a myriad of tribal governments, each operating its own private code of morality according to primitive customs of jaahiliyyah. The Islamic flavour of these tribal and family courts is either negligible
or totally extinct.

The lady who was verbally molested, an act which is tantamount to immoral sexual abuse in Islam, reported the culprit to the tribal authority. The juhala (ignoramuses) who conducted the proceedings found the culprit guilty. But they handed down a shocking verdict. Their summing up of the position: The criminal had defiled the sister of another man. As a punishment, his sister too has to be defiled, and the defilement should be of a greater degree than the defilement perpetratedby the criminal.

This shaitaani court of village-elders ordered two thugs of the town to invade the home sanctuary of the criminal’s sister and rape her. And, to the shame of the Nation of Muslims, this sentence was precisely carried out.

There was some hue and cry in the Pakistani press. Some people objected, but the Ulama were silent. A criminal charge was laid by the ravaged woman. Everyone knows what the outcome of the cry of this oppressed lady subjected to such a heinous crime of immorality will be. Pakistan with its secular government and cowardly army can go to America’s aid to crush Muslim brothers fighting the enemy. The evil Pakistani secular authorities can aid the kuffaar in the mission to abduct Muslims for exporting them to the torture camp of Guantanamo, but it is impotent to address the horrible crimes which the ignorant tribal chiefs commit in their tribal courts in the name of primitive laws of paganism.

Acts of such brutality are widespread in a country such as Pakistan. Both the secular authorities and the Ulama cast a blind eye to these evils. Can such a nation rule the world? Why should Allah Ta’ala bestow political power and domination to a people grovelling in such naked ignorance?

RUDIMENTS
On a universal basis, the present Ummah of Islam lacks in the very rudiments of government. Both the Ulama and the westernized Muslim intelligentsia view the western system of stupid democracy as the ideal institution for Muslims. Those who send up the call of Khilaafat are spiritually barren and lack a proper understanding of this sacred institution. Progress and power are measured with the yardstick of western technology whereas this is a massive fallacy spun by shaitaan to perpetuate the deception in which Muslims of the age are dwelling. Muslims have hopelessly failed to understand the secret of the successes and victories of the Sahaabah and the early Muslims.

THE TRUTH
The unpalatable, but incontrovertible truth which Muslims should learn to swallow, is that in the present era there is not a single Muslim community anywhere in the world which possesses the necessary Islamic qualifications for assuming the reigns of leadership of the world. It is this deplorable state of the Ummah which is the obstacle to Divine Aid. It is the decadent condition of the Ummah which does not allow Muslims to mount the stage of political domination. Frankly speaking, with the mood and attitude of the present-day Ulama and masses there do not seem any prospects in the foreseeable future for a better change. And, Allah knows best.