Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
The Significance of the Taliban for the Muslim Ummah
A Personal Comment:
There,
on the opposite side of the river, a fisherman casts his net - he is
standing on the stern of his small boat rowed by another man. Now, the
net-caster, his net thrown, beats the fast-flowing Nile water with a
long stick, there where small narrow fields are planted with sugar
cane, maize, and trees bearing bananas.
I sit in the shade of a
palm tree, almost in the middle of one of the strips of fertile green
that bounds both sides of the river. Nearby, an Ibis waits, patiently
watching the water. Beyond, on both sides, is the desert where
yesterday I walked, alone, under the strong, hot sun, until it was time
for Asr. It was good to be there, bowing, kneeling, prostrating, in
submission to the one and only God, saying the same words in the same
language as the Prophet himself (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam),
nearly one and half thousand years ago. I felt connected - to the
desert, the Sun, the land around, to the Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi
wa sallam), to my brothers and sisters around the world, suspended in
time, and so keenly aware of my fragility, my mortality, my smallness,
among the creations of Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, who created this
desert, this life-bearing river, the Sun, this planet, and this man,
sitting in the shade of a tree.
Now, as I sit here, I think
about the beautiful and profound simplicity of Islam. For Islam is
simple, beautiful, and profound. It is simple in theory, simple in
practice, and both human and futuristic: far superior to any and all
the philosophies, the ways, the political ideas, that I have studied
over the past three decades. Why? Because it places us where we truly
belong - providing as it does an appreciation and understanding of our
fallibility, and providing as it does guidelines to make and keep us
human: possessed of an awareness of our Creator. For it this awareness
that is beginning of our humanity, just as it is the guidelines given
in the Quran and Sunnah which, if followed, can take us to and keep us
upon the path of honourable personal conduct in both our private and
our social lives.
Islam is futuristic because it is a gateway to
the next and most important life - that which awaits us after our
mortal life, here on this Earth, has ended. It is futuristic because it
reveals how we can and should live our lives: as honourable,
well-mannered, human beings who are careful, out of respect for their
Creator, not to over-step the bounds of right conduct, and who thus
follow the true middle way that lies between the two extremes of
prideful arrogance and addiction to our own desires, our own
selfishness, our own personal fulfillment.
Every time I return
to a Muslim land I am aware of two things. First, how many Muslims seem
to be Muslim in name only, imitating as they seem to do the ways of the
kaffir; second, of what this modern world really needs. Does this world
really need more wealth, more luxuries, more materialism, more
development, created by the idea of "progress"? Does the so-called
"under developed world" have to play the Western game according to
Western rules in order to achieve something called "happiness" and
something called "prosperity" and something called "progress"?
Every
time I return - and especially now as I sit here under a beautiful blue
sky, with desert beyond the small patches of food-producing land - I
ask myself what is the true meaning of prosperity, of happiness, of
progress, of wealth? Is the fisherman there, casting his net again,
happier than the vastly more wealthy Western man I saw on my journey
through London, sitting in his expensive car? Is there true wealth
here, in a simple living, in a simple submission to Allah Subhana wa
Ta'ala? In a simple acceptance of this life as a gateway to another,
eternal, life? The answers to such question all depend on our
perspective, on one fundamental question: what is the meaning and
purpose of our lives, as individuals?
Islam provides one answer,
which I as a Muslim have accepted, and it is an answer which everyone -
as Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala says - is free to accept or reject. This
Islamic answer is a simple one, and it is that our purpose, the meaning
of our lives, is to strive for Jannah, for the eternal life of
Paradise, through a complete and simple submission to Allah Subhana wa
Ta'ala.
The Taliban:
Several years ago, I
came to consider that the Taliban were Allah's blessing to the Ummah -
that they represented all that was good, and honourable, about Islam,
and that in their leader, Mullah Omar (hafidhahullah) we had another
excellent example, similar to al-Khulafaa' al-Raashidoon and As-Salaf
as-Saalih: that he did indeed merit the title Ameer-ul-Mumineen.
Why
is this? Because the Taliban had returned to the fundamentals of Islam,
purely from a desire to please Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala and Allah
Subhana wa Ta'ala alone. These were indeed honourable Muslims - who
saught to implement Islam and who, through Jihad, were prepared to die
to defend Islam and fight those who desired to destroy Islam and a true
Islamic community.
It occurred to me - as I travelled, talked to
Muslims, and read and studied all I could - that the Taliban were an
example of the recent revival of authentic Islam: that they had
perceived, and understood, the essential simplicity and beauty of
Islam, and thus rejected any and all attempts to imitate the kuffar;
that is, any and all attempts, from whatever reason or motive, to move
away from the fundamental truths of Islam.
Thus I understood how
the Taliban represented a fundamental if rather neglected principle of
Islam - that of Zuhd in dunya. That is, the desires of this life comes
second - after the desire for Jannah; after the desire to obey Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala; after the desire to love and follow His Messenger
and Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam).
Understood thus,
all the rhetoric of the kuffar - all the rhetoric of the tame and
moderate Muslims subverted by the kuffar - about prosperity, about the
poverty of the Taliban and their land, about the "backwardness" of the
Taliban, is seen for what it is: irrelevant; un-Islamic.
For the
simple truth is that, in this life, we do not need very much - but what
we do need, above everything else, is to follow the clear, the simple,
the beautiful guidance given to us by Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala in the
Quran and the Sunnah. We need, that is, to humbly submit to
AllahSubhanahu wa Ta'ala ; to humbly obey Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala ;
to love His Prophet (salla Allahu 'alayhi wa sallam) and so be Muslim,
in our hearts, our thoughts, our way of life. And that is all. For it
is Zuhd in dunya that moves us towards that simple submission to Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala that is Islam.
Propaganda Against the Taliban:
There
was something quite inspiring about the Taliban - many Muslims sensed
this, as did many who did not like the revival of Islam which was
occurring, in Afghanistan and elsewhere. More and more young Muslims,
it seemed, were being guided to the right path by the example of the
Taliban. The Taliban had even begun to create the foundations for a
genuine Islamic community - ruled by Shariah and Shariah only - as they
had begun to encourage Muslims to migrate to Afghanistan to help in the
revival of Islam, and in the construction of what many hoped would one
day become a new Khilafah.
Those in the West who disliked Islam
and who had worldly plans of their own for the world thus came to
consider the Taliban a threat, and so began a campaign against the
them, using the power of the Western Media - which was in their
control, directly or indirectly - to try and discredit the Taliban, in
the eyes of the both Muslims and non-Muslims, and using as they often
did the services of the many tame and "moderate" Muslims who believed
that imitation of the kuffar way of life was "a good thing" and that
"Islam needed modernizing". In addition, the so-called leaders of many
Western nations began agitating for sanctions against the Taliban, with
some advocating direct intervention by that kaffir organization, the
mis-named "United Nations".
This campaign, by the kuffar, by the
enemies of Islam, culminated in the invasion of Afghanistan by Amerika,
and in the installation of a puppet, pro-Amerikan regime.
The Significance of the Taliban:
Despite
the invasion, despite the propaganda of the kuffar, and despite the
attempts by the kuffar to subvert Islam, the Taliban have not been
defeated, Alhamdulillah. The significance of the Taliban, for us, is
that they have revealed, in what the kuffar call "the modern world",
the beautiful, the noble, the true, path of Islam. They have
steadfastly rejected all the many and varied temptations of this modern
world - the temptations of the way of life of the kuffar. They have
remained honourable, focused on Jannah, and remained steadfast in
following the Quran and the Sunnah, and these alone.
If the
recent events in Afghanistan, in Iraq and elsewhere, reveal anything,
it is this - that we, as Muslims, have a choice: we can allow ourselves
to be influenced by the kuffar, by the ways and ideas of the kuffar, by
the temptations, the materialism, of this world, or we can follow the
clear and noble and quite simple guidance given to us by Allah
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
May Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala) protect
us from all forms of Al-asabiyyah Al-Jahiliyyah, forgive us for our
mistakes, and guide us to and keep us on the Right Path.
Abdul-Aziz
8 Rabi` al-Awal 1425