Syria

We begin with the words of the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) who said, “Glad tidings for Shaam (which includes Syria)” (Sunan al-Tirmidhi; Musnad Ahmad)

In the last few days, the entire world has witnessed swift and incredulous changes in Syria. In a matter of days, the ostensible authority of the tyrant, Bashar al-Assad and his criminal government, came to an end, fallen like the proverbial house of cards irresistibly to the winds of change. It was a reign of tyranny, oppression and wrongdoing meted out to the people of Syria spanning more than five decades from the time of his equally tyrannical and beastly father, Hafez al-Assad.
 

Islam and history has taught us that oppression and oppressors will never be successful and that their downfall is inevitable. Allah Almighty states in the Qur’an:

Oppressors will never succeed

(Qur’an Chapter 6, verse 21)

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) further stated that Allah Almighty said:

Oh my servants, I have made oppression forbidden on myself and made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another

(Bukhari).

We congratulate the noble people of Syria on the restoration of their freedom, which has been achieved through hard sacrifice, commendable patience and unwavering perseverance. We remember the tens of thousands who lost their lives in this struggle, including 13 year old Hamza al-Khateeb, killed by Al-Asad’s forces in 2011, sparking and igniting the Syrian people’s unceasing call for freedom and justice and the inevitable and dramatic demise of yet another tin-pot tyrant now consigned to the annals of history as notorious. 

It has been bittersweet watching the emancipation of decades-old prisoners from the notorious and secretive Syrian torture dungeons, where once Western “allies” extraordinarily renditioned kidnapped individuals to be tortured—often to the point of death—in the so-called War on Terror. The forked tongue hypocrisy of these duplicitous actors is enough to make even mountains tremble, given the faux outrage of their “concern” for “what’s to come in Syria after Al-Asad’s fall,” while shrugging off, with not an ounce of care, decades of complicity, abetting, and support for a brutal dictator. 

The disingenuous calls that the future of Syria should be determined by the Syrian people are already filling the airwaves – an infamous throwback to Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring, where the illegitimate overthrow of Mohammad Morsi was hailed as a triumph of democracy, despite the fact that it was a military coup that undermined the will of the people.

With the end of the tyranny of Bashar al-Assad we exhort unity in Syria and the rebuilding of a once strong and prosperous nation, under the counsel of Syrian scholars. We urge the new Syrian leadership to fulfil the duties and responsibilities of that office as commanded by Allah in the Qur’an and as practised by the Messenger of Allah (saw) and his rightly guided caliphs.

Witnessing the rejoicing of the people of Syria rekindles our faith in the certain and inevitable success of the Palestinian people, in spite of any and all efforts to forestall a Palestinian State, for we know that both are interlinked, as beautifully summed up by the great scholar Ibn Asakir in his magnum opus, Tārīkh madīnat Dimashq, ‘History of the City of Damascus’ where he said:

One of the sacred places on earth is Syria; the most sacred part of Syria is Palestine; the most sacred part of Palestine is Jerusalem; the most sacred part of Jerusalem is the noble sanctuary; the most sacred part of the noble sanctuary is Masjid al-Aqsa.

And they plot and planned, but Allah also planned. And Allah is the best of planners

(Qur’an Chapter 3, verse 54)

We hope to see very soon – insha’Allah – the end of the oppression of the Palestinian people, and of Muslims in every part of the world. Ameen