SOURCE : http://radicalmiddleway.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=45
Between Ignorance and Extremism
10-12 February 2006
London :: Bradford :: Manchester
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s concluding remarks:
Like Sidi Abdal Hakim said, “Tradition or extradition” – it’s
not a joke, and people really have to think about the presence of
over 25 million Muslims in Western Europe. We have to really think
about what we’re doing here, what we’re planning to do here in
the future. For those of you who have children, you have to really
think about what’s going to be the situation of your children and
your children’s children. I mean, these are really serious
situations. Unfortunately, we have sufaha. We have people
who are simply safeeh, and I don’t care how sincere they
are, there are plenty of sincere people out there but we have people
who are fools. They are foolish people. There are people that read
things and take them literally. This is what Shaykh Abdallah was
talking about. You have naqal and you have ‘aqal…
Unfortunately, we have some naqal-heads out there.
We have people who are not using their intellect when they read
verses. Don’t think these people haven’t been around since the
beginning, really. They believe they are rightly guided and our
Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said “Yahmilu hadha al-ilm min kul qarnin
uduluhu” – that this knowledge will be carried in each
generation by upright people, “yanfuna ‘anhu tahrīth
al-ghalīn”– they’ll repudiate the misquotations of
extremists.
Tahrīth is – yuharrif al-kalim ‘an
muwādi’i – is to
take something out of context. So the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) said
that rightly guided scholars will repudiate the misquotations of
extremists – wa intihāl
al-mubtilīn, and plagiarisms of people that are trying to
undermine the religion or attack the religion, these are just
fabrications, people that fabricate – wa ta’wīl al-jahilīn
– and interpretations of zealots, of ignorant people.
Now
there’s no doubt that the Muslims are suffering in many different
places. But again, this is not new. There have been many many
periods where Islam was under siege, had troubles, had difficulties.
We have two sunnah. In fact, we have three sunnah.
We have the sunnah of the prophet in Mecca. One of the
things that Ibn Taimiyyah said (rahimahu Allah) is that
there’s nothing that’s abrogated in Islam so that if the same
circumstance(s) in which a ruling was applicable returns, then the
earlier ruling becomes applicable to the present circumstance(s) as
well. In other words, there’s no absolute abrogation. There
is no verse in the Qur’an that’s absolutely abrogated with the
exception of about four verses on which there is no difference of
opinion. All of the verses in the Qur’an (Wasbir ‘ala ma
yaqulun, wahjurhum hajirun jamilah, lasta ‘alayhim bi musaytir,
laysta ‘alayhim bi wakil, laysta ‘alayhim bi jabar) are
verses in which the Prophet was told to be patient. Those
verses are all applicable because that’s the sunnah of
Mecca.
One of the things Hudaybiyya Ibn al Yamaan said is “In the
end of time,( yukhair al-maru bayn al-‘aji wa al-fujur), and
of the tabi’in listening to this (qabaha Allahu
al-‘ajaz), Qabahak Allahu anta – al-‘aju
khairun min al-fujur,” He said that there will be a time when
people will be given a choice between powerlessness and going to
extremes (fajara means to go beyond a limit). One of
the tabi’in heard him say this and said, ”May Allah make
ugly powerlessness.” To this, Hudaybiyya Ibn al Yamaan
replied, “May Allah make you ugly. Powerlessness is better
than going outside of the boundaries.”
So the sunnah of
ibtihal, the sunnah of being oppressed is Makkah.
Look how the Prophet (s.a.w.s.) behaved. One of the reasons
that I stayed a Muslim was when I studied the seerah, the
period of Makkah was an overwhelming period. Anybody that studies it
has to come to that conclusion about our Prophet (s.a.w.s.).
It’s what made him great. And if you’re denying the Makkan
period, you’re denying something that’s absolutely
overwhelming…there’s more time in Makkah than there was in
Medina: thirteen out of twenty three years! So if you deny the
Makkan period and say that that was all just strategies until he got
into power, then at that point you stop forgiving and you stop
overlooking. We seek refuge in Allah from misunderstanding who the
Messenger of our Allah was. Kana ahlam al-nas – the
prophet (s.a.w.s.) was the most forbearing of people. And this is
what we have to return to our community because we’ve created a
culture now in which people can’t see any other way out than this
reactionary mode. We’ve been spinning our wheels for far too
long, and the Muslims really need to think at a deeper level.
Hikma
– wisdom, wherever it is, wherever you find it, you should follow it.
Einstein said that the definition of madness is to do the same thing
over and over again and expect different results. The Muslims,
really, we have to ask ourselves what we’re doing about our
strategy, about our attitudes and behaviours.
Then finally, about Denmark, because you are having your
demonstration tomorrow, I find it really odd that the very thing that
we are accusing so many people in the West of doing towards Muslims
is that which Westerners blame all Muslims for: the actions of a
handful of people. This is the same thing that Muslims end up
doing. I mean whoever did these cartoons was a fool, and
unfortunately there was some malevolent intent there. I don’t
have any doubt because it wasn’t like an artist who drew some
pictures and then there was an editorial decision whether they print
them or not. It was actually somebody who wanted to find somebody to
do this.
But part of this, unfortunately – and we have to be honest – is
that the Muslim community of Denmark has failed to be an upright
community. Some of the really serious social problems with
Muslims in Europe are occurring in Denmark. You can study the
situation there because there are plenty of statistics that have been
done on this. This is what we have to ask ourselves as a
community: “Have we been honouring our prophet?” In other
words, “Has there been anything in our behaviour in these lands
that has lead to people having a bad opinion of who our Prophet
(s.a.w.s.) is to us? We have to ask because we are ambassadors
of the messenger of Allah. We are his ambassadors and people
are going to judge him based on our actions. You cannot honour
your Prophet by dishonouring his sunnah. You cannot
honour your Prophet by dishonoring his sunnah. If you
want to honour the Prophet (s.a.w.s.), if you really want to honour
him, then practice his character, practice his moral probity,
practice his excellence and his virtue towards people. Practice
his forgiveness; practice his ability to smile despite all of the
incredible difficulties.
This is an age, unfortunately, of brawling. We’re dealing
with people now, we’ve gone down into the ghetto, and we’re just
swinging it out. This is not an age of discussion; this is not
an age of discourse. This is something the poet Yeats said in a
poem that he wrote in the earlier part of the last century. He said,
“Come let us mock at the great, That had such burdens on the mind,
And toiled so hard and late, To leave some monument behind, Nor
thought of the levelling wind.” And then he goes on, “Come let us
mock at the wise,… Come let us mock at the good,…” and finally,
“…Mock mockers after that, That would not lift a hand maybe, To
help good, wise, or great,To bar that foul wind out, for we, Traffic
in mockery.” And this is the age that we are living in. It’s
not an age of virtue; it’s not an age that respects the other.
This includes the Muslim and the non-Muslim alike.
Islam is a high religion and it calls to the highest human
ideals. We as Muslims have to live up to that. If we want
to have the moral high ground where the sacred is honoured than we
have to honour the sacred in ourselves and in others. But if we
lose that moral high ground, then we sound like hollow men.
When we have anti-Semitism in our newspapers all over the Arab world,
what moral high ground do we have to talk about what’s put in
cartoons, and what’s not put in cartoons? We have to be people of
truth in order to call others to the truth.
The Qur’an says to the people of the book, “Laystum ‘ala
shay hata tuqimatu taratu wa al-injil” – You have nothing
until you apply your tawrah and your Gospel. Well the mafhum
al-awla, the a priori understanding of that verse, is
that you have nothing until you apply your Qur’an. Muslims,
we have nothing until we apply our Qur’an. Wa Qulu
lil-nasi husna.
We condemn this, and we recognize the double standards in the
West. When you have people now that are being prosecuted in
England for holding up a sign that says, “Cut off the heads of
anybody that criticizes the prophet Muhammad,” I mean, that person
is not going to go and cut off anybody’s head. They are just
expressing themselves, and it’s more silliness, but if you are
going to prosecute him for inciting to hatred, but then attacking the
messenger of God? That’s something that 1.3 billion people hold
sacred, and that’s not inciting to hatred? So there are
double standards here, we recognize those double standards, and I’m
opposed to those double standards, but I also recognize the fact that
we as Muslims will not have a strong moral voice until we ourselves
are applying our truths. We have to do it ourselves, and
Denmark is a nation of good people. This stupidity of
demonizing an entire nation because of the actions of one or two
fools in that nation. That is as silly as condemning the Saudi
Arabians for the actions of a handful of Saudi Arabians and their
criminal activities. The Danish defend human rights in the
Muslim world. The embassies that were in Egypt, the Danish embassy
actually, is involved in monitoring human rights transgressions in
prisons in Egypt. I mean, this is the work that the Danish have
been doing. And trampling on their flag is absolutely
unacceptable. First of all the flag has a religious symbol on
it, which is the cross. And second of all, Allah subhanahu wa
ta’ala says “La tasub allazina yada’una min dun illah, fa
yasub Allah ‘ajwan bi ghair ‘ilm.” Do not curse the
idols of other people because they will curse God. So there are
people that will take the Saudi Arabian flag that has “la illaha
illa Allah; Muhammad al-Rasul Allah” and stomp on it as a
retaliation. The prophet said, “Let not one of you curse his
parents” and they said to him “How do we curse our parents?”
It is done by cursing their parents and they in turn curse your
parents. These are the types of things that, as a community, we
have to break down. I really believe the onus is on us.
We have to tell them who our Prophet (s.a.w.s.) is. Whoever
that caricature was, I don’t recognize him because that’s not my
Prophet. That’s some poor man’s projection in his own self,
of complete misunderstanding. And I reject that, and I reject
any insult or denigration. Our Prophet (s.a.w.s.), we honour
him and we love him, but we should honour him and love him by living
up to his words, by living up to his religion, and then by telling
people about him. Tell who he was, not just in our words, but
in our actions. Jazakum Allahu Khair. Wa Assalamu Alaikum.
Transcribed by Amina Nawaz. Edited by Karen Nooruddin.