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Islamic
Brotherhood
By
Khalid Baig
"The Believers are
but a single Brotherhood." [Al-Hujurat 49:10]
"A Muslim is the brother
of another Muslim. He does not oppress him, nor does he leave him at the mercy
of others." [Sahih Muslim].
The Islamic Brotherhood
is not based on economic interests, race, or color. It is based on something
infinitely superior: Rejection of falsehood and acceptance of the Truth as revealed
by the One True God.
Not only is this Brotherhood
based on faith, it is also a part of that faith. The Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi
wa sallam, said: "You cannot enter paradise unless you become a total believer
and you won't become a total believer unless you love each other." Obviously,
faith and community are inseparable in the faith community produced by Islam.
Even a casual reader of Qur'an would note that it almost always addresses the
Believers and not the Believer. All acts of worship that are declared pillars
of Islam have a collective form. The five daily prayers are best performed in
congregation, that being twenty-seven times more valuable than the individual
prayer. The special Friday prayer cannot be offered individually at all. Zakat
is obviously aimed at making the rich of the community take care of the needs
of its poor. Fasting, an essentially individual act, has been given a collective
form through unity in time. Hajj enforces unity in both time and place, bringing
the believers together in the plains of Arafat in their remembrance of Allah.
Those who join in the worship
of Allah produce a Brotherhood that embodies the best moral values of the faith:
Mercy, compassion, fear of Allah, piety, and justice. It is a Solid Cemented
Structure [As-Saff, 61:4], a tremendous force in the service of Right and against
Wrong. Its members are to help each other in righteousness and piety but not
in sin and rancor [Al-Maida 5:2]. They are to be "strong against unbelievers
but compassionate amongst each other [Al-Fat-h 48:29]. They do not do injustice
to others nor do they tolerate any injustice to themselves. In their love and
concern for each other, all members of this Brotherhood are one body: when any
part of the body suffers, the whole body feels the pain [Sahih Muslim].
This Brotherhood was established
in the most unlikely place: Arabia, where before Islam internecine war was a
way of life. On both social and political levels, this was one of the greatest
achievements of Islam. On both levels, it remains one of Islam's greatest goals.
We can imagine the sensitivity of the Shariah about it by reflecting on its
teachings regarding the relations between believers. It is forbidden, for example,
for two Muslims to start a whispering conversation in the presence of the third.
This might offend the one left out and weaken the Brotherhood. It is not permissible
for a Muslim to sever relations with his brother for more than three days. "It
is sufficient evil for a Muslim that he should look down upon his brother. The
life, wealth, and honor of a Muslim are inviolable by another Muslim."
[Sahih Muslim]. The books of hadith are full of such teachings.
This Brotherhood was a force
for good, a purveyor of peace and justice for everyone. It provided stability
in a quarrelsome world. To the downtrodden and oppressed everywhere, it provided
freedom. When it was powerful, it even saved the Jews and Christians in Palestine
and Spain from each other.
Two unfortunate developments
in this century have impaired this Brotherhood. The first was the destruction
of Khilafah and the emergence of independent nation-states in the Muslim world.
This made it possible for "national interests" to be declared that
are at cross-purposes to the interests of the Brotherhood. Not only that, it
destroyed the means for both defining and defending the Brotherhood interests.
The second development was the emergence of the United Nations Organization
and the participation of individual Muslim nation-states in it, solely at its
terms. The U.N. was and remains an organization of unequal powers, designed
to perpetuate that inequality. Its purpose was to establish hegemony of the
Western alliance over the rest of the world--- not for any higher moral purpose
but solely for economic exploitation. Its very structure (with real decision
making in the hands of a few in the Security Council ) guaranteed the disenfranchisement
of the weak, and the entire Muslim world found itself in that category at the
end of official colonialism.
While the U.N. has failed
miserably in its declared goals, it has been tremendously successful in the
real ones. While it promised peace and justice, it has delivered death and destruction,
exploitation and oppression. It provided legal cover for the first U.S.- Iraq
war in 1991. It facilitated the carnage in Bosnia by tying the hands of the
victims. It has perpetuated genocide in Iraq through the imposition of the most
brutal economic sanctions in the history of the world, resulting in death of
a million people through starvation and disease.
If any one country or group
of countries had tried to commit such atrocities on their own, there would have
been a tremendous reaction. But we have allowed ourselves to be deceived by
the legal camouflage provided by the U.N. And witness how low we have fallen
with our own accord. Muslims are not allowed to kill the women and children
of their enemies even in war. How could we support the killing of our own women
and children? A Muslim is not really a believer if he eats his full while ignoring
the plight of a hungry neighbor. How could a believer then participate in economic
sanctions designed to starve his own people to death?
When giving commands regarding
the Islamic Brotherhood, the Qur'an uses a beautiful style with a profound message.
Instead of saying, "greet each other" it says, "greet yourself."
[An-Nur 24:61]. Instead of saying, "do not defame each other," it
says, "do not defame yourself." [Al-Hujurat 49:11]. Instead of saying,
"do not kill each other," it says, "do not kill yourself."
[An-Nisaa 4:29]. The message is clear: Whatever is happening to others in the
Brotherhood, is actually happening to yourself. Any aggression against any part
of the Brotherhood is an aggression against all of it.
We must free the Brotherhood
from the servitude to the ideology of nation-states and the unjust international
organizations so we can stop killing ourselves.
[reproduced with permission
from www.albalagh.net]
Date/Time Last Modified: 6/18/2002 8:04:40 AM
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