Introduction: The Danger of Systematic Isolation
Peace be upon you, dear brothers.
There is a dangerous trend that many of us, those associated with jihad whether in combat, theory, or commentary, have fallen into recently after the fighting in northern Syria. We isolate ourselves through the way we approach the problem, making others feel that we only see "Salafi-Jihadi" groups on the scene. It seems we are more concerned with solving their problems than those of others, as if other Muslims are second-class.
We may not intend this nor believe it. Many of us have left our homes and sacrificed ourselves to support these others. However, focusing our efforts and language in one direction may give the impression that we no longer see them.
Who Are We and Who Are the "Others"?
Who are we? Those who call themselves "Adherents of the Method"? What method? The clear method of intending to establish Sharia and reject democracy and man-made constitutions.
And who are the others? They are the general public and the non-methodical factions fighting for a legitimate goal of self-defense and honor. If you tell them "Sharia," they say, "We hear and obey." They do not know what democracy or secularism is, nor do they fight for any coalition or military account. They have not fought a Muslim for his Islam nor demonstrated against a disbeliever. We ask them, "What is your method?" and they say, "What method? We are simple people, brother"; they speak with simplicity.
My talk here is not about the factions fighting to implement external agendas, nor about the factions created in the eyes of the international system with the support of functional states and conferences by the bodies that declare their will for a sovereign state other than the rule of Allah, the Exalted. Nor will I address here the problem of reducing the method to rejecting democracy alone.
Consequences of Neglecting the Majority of Muslims
What I want to say is that even we, who criticize those who rejected the independent arbitration, have gradually neglected the majority of the Muslims of Sham in our discourse. Do you know, brothers, what we do with them?
- We make the general public in Sham feel that we are fighting our battle on their land.
- We prove to ourselves what the forces of disbelief initially failed to prove against us; that we do not represent the Ummah but have imposed ourselves upon it.
- We waste the greatest opportunity that Allah has given us in contemporary times; the opportunity for the jihadi spirit to spread among the Syrian people so that they adopt the project of liberation and the establishment of the religion they profess in reality in their lives and embrace it, so that the seizure of the project becomes like the seizure of the spirit from the body of this Muslim people.
We isolate ourselves to the point where the eradication of the "elite adherents of the method" becomes as easy as the removal of a foreign thorn from the body.
Brothers in Islam and the Balance of Rights
I am truly pained when we circulate news about the leaders of a "method-adherent" faction being eliminated, and one of the other ordinary Muslims puts up a picture of his brother or friend and says, "People, this one is also an oppressed person who was killed. Do you not have mercy on him? Do you not demand his rights?"
People now remind us of the brotherhood of Islam and remind us that the blood of Muslims is equal. Moving them from the scale of our good deeds to the scale of our bad deeds is a greater calamity than moving them from the ranks of our brothers to the ranks of our enemies in this world.
The factions that fight for a legitimate goal and do not carry out external agendas; these are our brothers. How wrong we are when we want to prove to the people of extremism that we are "pure in method," leading us to speak about these brothers as if they are accused! We try to prove their innocence, but what is their innocence? That they are not disbelievers alone! And we threaten them that if we see disbelief from them, we will stand against them, instead of showing them loyalty and love because they are Muslims.
The Duty of Reconciliation and Appreciation
These people did not know jihad, knowledge, or method before, and they lived under a system of ignorance and oppression for decades. Our enemies tempt them with money to fight us, but their religion and brotherhood prevent them from surrendering to us, and they say, "Yes, we want the religion of Allah to prevail."
How wrong we are when we fear praising these brothers lest the owners of "the most severe tongues against good" suspect us and describe us as "servants of popular support," as if reconciling with people and being kind to them is not from the religion of Allah, the Exalted, and as if the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not spend great sums to reconcile the hearts of the polytheists!
These brothers are Muslims, not polytheists, and they do not want from us what we do not reconcile with them, but they want from us a kind word, appreciation, and the feeling that we see them as our brothers. How unjust we are if we deprive them of these words to please those who do not understand the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him) in reconciling with people.
How severe our condition is if we fear praising them today lest they deviate tomorrow, so that a follower of their mistakes and their inventors will blame us for our old praise of them. We prefer to be cautious for our reputation and leave our brothers to the harshness of the road, and we do not have mercy on those we lose completely, just as we do with those we see as "brothers in method."
The Broad Concept of Brotherhood and Loyalty
These are our brothers; their common people who fight the enemy and the attacking disbeliever are more beloved and precious to us than the "pure in method" by the narrow definition who have distorted the compass of the struggle.
It is true that revolutions need elites with a method to become a jihad with insight leading to liberation and the establishment of the religion of Allah and preventing the distortion of the path and the theft of the fruits, but the relationship of these elites with the other components of the revolution must be a complementary and cooperative relationship, not a superior and dominant one.
In addition, those we see as "others" include religious and missionary elites and people of knowledge in matters other than jihad and not of the Salafi-Jihadi direction, and among them are those with specializations in various fields of life without which the project of establishing the religion of Allah cannot be accomplished.
Fulfilling the Sacrifices of the Ummah
These are our brothers; if we teach them the method, we learn from them sacrifice, steadfastness, and faith, and we have seen them being slaughtered and burned to disbelieve and say, "There is no god but Allah, we have no one but You, O Allah."
Among the most important signs of the purity of the method is loyalty to those who were slaughtered and burned, for they burned and were slaughtered with a covenant of subjugation and humiliation, and they departed from this world without their hands being stained with the blood of Muslims for the sake of power or arrogance. Those who did not know the "method" but had faith like towering mountains in their hearts in what we consider.
Our brothers whom we have neglected in the recent period include many who can be like them; a few words and attention to them will ignite in them springs of sacrifice and ransom for Islam. It is not fair, reasonable, or in accordance with the Sharia or the purity of the method to neglect them to please anyone.
May peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.