How Can Gaza Be a Step Towards the Nation's Victory?

Peace be upon you and God's mercy.

Firstly, am I optimistic? No, I am not optimistic, because optimism is being overly confident about victory and relief. As for me, I am certain of victory and relief, for certainty is a higher rank than optimism. I find it my duty to bring good tidings to the nation, as our Prophet, peace be upon him, said in the authentic hadith: "Give glad tidings to this nation of ease, comfort, honor through religion, empowerment in the lands, and victory." We are a nation that has been given glad tidings.

The Importance of Righteous Deeds and Sincerity

But look at what he, peace be upon him, said immediately after that: "Whoever among them works for the Hereafter in this world will have no share in the Hereafter." This means that work is necessary, not just any work, but work done with sincerity for the sake of God Almighty, seeking the Hereafter.

Do we say that there will be no victory unless the condition of the Muslims improves? This was one of the main objections of the brothers to the phrase "let them solve their own problems," which is what some of them said: "It is as if you are promoting the idea that the righteousness of the individual leads to the righteousness of society, and the days have proven that this theory is incorrect. How do you expect the general public to improve when education, media, power, and law are in the hands of people who do not fear God with honor, but are in reality swords held to the necks of the Muslims? There will be no fundamental change in the people unless the righteous take hold of the reins of power."

So we say, esteemed ones, of course we are not among those who imagine this childish and incomplete notion that if people improve, the ruling class will peacefully shed themselves like a sick skin to be replaced by healthy skin, just like that, without struggle or sacrifice. Nor are we naive enough to imagine that those who rule over the Muslims, if they see the Muslim people improving, will in turn yield to the will of the people and announce their repentance between one evening and the next in an emotional scene.

We do not doubt that God troubles the ruler with what He does not trouble the Quran with, and we fully understand the importance of power in bringing about change. But the one who says, "Power must be in the hands of the righteous" has not brought anything new in reality for all reasonable people. Rather, this is the old and new question that thinkers and groups have differed on: How can Islam return to the reality of life and the rule be for Islam?

We fully understand the importance of power, and calling people to reform themselves is not an alternative to striving to spread the rule of Islam over the lands of the Muslims. Rather, we call upon ourselves and the people to be righteous and reformers, because this prepares them for the stage that may bear within it the possibility that power will be handed over to the righteous. This is the stage that is expected to be filled with pain, sacrifice, and perseverance, and in which only those who act upon the saying of our Prophet, peace be upon him, will stand firm: "Know God in times of ease, and He will know you in times of hardship." If people do not adhere to what is within their power that does not require great sacrifice, how can they expect to stand firm in the shaking trials?

Relief and Victory: Between Numbing and Action

God Almighty said: People differ in how relief can come or how it can come and what is the path that leads to it. When we call them to reform, we are only reminding them of the saying of God Almighty. We say to the people: We must strive against our desires and forbidden lusts, and our laziness, and also we must defend falsehood and its people with what we can so that God may guide us to the path of victory, and may God increase those who have been guided with guidance.

There is a big difference between this speech and the speech that numbs one from confronting falsehood and its people and tells you to busy yourself with your own sins, and the speech that says: Among the most important works of your reform at the same time.

Linking victory to the righteousness of all people is not correct either, but it is discouraging, making the believer feel that he must reform himself, sacrifice, and bear the consequences, even though it is very unlikely that he will see the effect of that in this worldly life, because change is conditioned by a difficult and distant condition, which is the righteousness of all Muslims or most of them. It is not wise to demand that people bear this idea, for it requires high levels of faith that most of them do not reach. It is not correct, but hope remains alive for relief, and in the Quran there are glad tidings of that in the story of Talut and others.

And the matter is not "All or None" (everything or nothing), either a comprehensive victory for all Muslims or no victory at all, but perhaps God may prepare the causes for a group of Muslims and grant them a limited victory in which there is revival for others from the sons of this nation. They go through labor pains and tests that raise them and enable them to reform their condition, and extract from the owners of sins and major sins acts of bravery and sacrifices, and life is infused into the veins of this Islamic beast little by little until it rises again.

That the Muslims reach a general collective state and a general collective opinion is a possible matter in a tangible way, and the collective boycott that occurred in many societies is evidence of this possibility. It is not right to occupy the Muslims with some of the duration of victory to so many years and so many generations, but we always embody the saying of the one who said: "God's victory is near, but we are the ones who approach it or move away from it."

Our Lord, the Gentle, when He wills, may prepare for us causes that make the nation higher in spirit and determination to approach victory. It is not required that the entire nation becomes mujahideen, but there are incubators for jihad and its people, societies that deal with them as an indivisible part of them, as the body supplies its tissue with blood and air, not as a foreign body. At the same time, we do not rely on burning stages and achieving victory while the condition of the Muslims is still far from deserving it.

The Mother of the Believers, Zainab, may God be pleased with her, said: "O Messenger of God, will you destroy us while the righteous are among us?" He said, peace be upon him: "Yes, when evil prevails." The believer needs to be moved by balanced motivators: waiting for the reward of the Hereafter, and having a share in the honor of Islam even after his death, and also the hope that he will see in his lifetime what pleases him, and at the same time the fear of the consequences of his negligence and his failure to reform himself. All of this drives him to renew his determination whenever it weakens.

The statement may be heard in different contexts and be right in one and right in another. When you hear: "If you want victory, O Muslims, then you must obey God, purify yourselves, and stay away from sins," when you hear it within a speech that hypocritically addresses criminals or abandons people to resist injustice and denounce evil, then such speech is numbing and diverting energies in the circles that the disbelievers and hypocrites allow. While when you hear it in a context that denounces evil and instills in people the importance of the rule being for Islam, this is true speech and part of a comprehensive system.

The first presentation diverts you from the battle under the pretext of being preoccupied with personal matters, while the second presentation prepares you for the battle with purification, obedience, knowledge, and attachment to God Almighty. The second presentation says to the Muslims: "Defend falsehood, and at the same time obey your Lord so that He may strengthen you in this defense, for it has costs, and abandoning their support is a sin that may be greater than many of the sins you commit even if you are a sinner. Continue in support in all its possible forms, hoping that God will make you successful with this to reform yourself and choose you for the support of His religion."

Your fear for your brothers in Gaza, hold on to it, continue in it, and build upon it. When we say "let them solve their own problems," it is not for us, because we need work to prepare, but this speech is an enlightenment about the sensitivity of the stage we are living in and the coming stage, and a direction for our energies so that we prepare for it, and that we do not drown in analyses as if we are mere spectators.

Preparing for the Next Stage

The next stage, as it appears, is very sensitive, my brothers, and critical. There is no safety in it except for whom Allah has secured. Does this mean that we should fear our enemies? Never! They are more contemptible than that. Rather, we fear losing Allah's company, so He may unleash them upon us and we may not endure. We say this so that we may strive to be under Allah's protection through obedience: "And if you are patient and fear Allah, their cunning will not harm you in the least. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do."

We say this so that we may not place complete trust in any illusory security apart from Him, and that we may not feel secure except to the extent that we act in obedience to Allah and in combating falsehood and its people: "Those who have believed and have not mingled their belief with injustice - those are the [rightly] secure, and they are [the ones who are] guided." Otherwise, all the disbelievers and hypocrites who fight the religion are too insignificant and contemptible for us to fear them. Allah says: "It is only Satan who frightens his devotees, so do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are [indeed] believers."

It is not required that we fear them, but rather that we wake up and realize that we are in a state of war, and that what is in danger is not Gaza alone, but Muslims in general. Thus, the change and reform in our lives should be commensurate with the events. We are in a stage that requires us to transition from the mentality of the passive observer to the mentality of the active, influential actor who is ready, from the mentality of the hesitant in taking the means to the mentality of the serious, decisive, and swift.

This is a critical stage regardless of the results of the Battle of Gaza. If Gaza wins - and we ask Allah for that - what do you know that the tribulation of the Muslims in other countries may begin, where the international system and its minions will strive to prevent the Muslims from rejoicing in its victory and seeking liberation like it, especially since disbelief has revealed its ugly face and entered a stage of clear, blatant enmity. And the question here is: Are we prepared for this stage? Have we prepared for it?

And if the battle in Gaza ends otherwise, God forbid, are we prepared for what comes after that? Or is there a state of complacency and ignorance of the Sunnah among many of the influential and followed, making him himself vulnerable to spiritual collapse if what we dislike happens, so that he will need someone to strengthen him in faith, let alone that he strengthens others.

Factors of Strength: Lessons from History

We must work now, my brothers, to remind people that the Battle of Gaza is a round in the struggle between truth and falsehood, and that the wave of faith that has surged through the body of the Ummah is a victory that must be sustained. Its fate is not tied to the fate of the military Battle of Gaza and its results. And that we must work now to identify the causes of weakness that prevented us from achieving complete victory for Gaza, and strive to eliminate them, so that we may win in the next round, without ever neglecting to continue supporting our brothers in Gaza. And to sever the popular base from its Mujahideen, or to engage in political manipulation that harms them in this world and the next, and we ask Allah to spare them from all this, and to return the plots of the plotters upon their own necks.

So, have we prepared for this by knowing that our support for Gaza is a support for the sake of the religion first and last, not for individuals? For whoever strays from the truth, whatever he may be, his sin is upon himself, and this should not affect our support for our religion to the extent that we are able. Are we prepared for any possibility as we should be?

Do you know, my brothers, what distinguishes our enemies from us? They prepare and work firmly to recover quickly from any disaster that befalls them. Imam Muslim narrated from Al-Mustawrad ibn Shaddad, may Allah be pleased with him, that he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say: "The Hour will come while the Romans are the most numerous of people." Umar (meaning Umar ibn Al-Khattab) said to him: "Do you see what you are saying?" He said: "I say what I heard from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him." Umar said: "If you say that, then indeed they have four qualities."

Now, Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, will enumerate qualities that make the Romans dominant and numerous. He said: "They are the most forbearing of people in times of trial, the quickest to recover after a disaster, the swiftest to return after retreat, the best to the poor, the orphan, and the weak, the fifth is a good and beautiful quality, and the most protected from the injustice of kings."

Good, "the most forbearing of people in times of trial," meaning they have reason and steadfastness when trials occur. "The quickest to recover after a disaster," meaning they recover quickly from the disasters that befall them. "The swiftest to return after retreat," meaning they are the quickest people to initiate fighting against their enemy after defeat. "The best to the poor, the orphan, and the weak," meaning they have social solidarity. "The most protected from the injustice of kings," they do not remain silent to their kings about injustice.

Someone may say: But not all of this is available in all European and American societies now. Regardless, the mention of Umar ibn Al-Khattab reminds us of the factors of strength of the Romans that were present in his time and will have an effect on their remaining numerous until the establishment of the Hour. Some of these factors may strengthen or weaken, disappear or appear in different times. And we need to take these factors of strength: steadfastness and forbearance in times of trial, quick recovery after disasters, return after retreat and defeat, mercy among ourselves, and resistance to the injustice of kings.

A Call to Serious Work and Certainty of Victory

The matter, my brothers, is not discouragement or pessimism, but rather directing energies. Think now about what you are doing not only to save the people of Gaza, but also to save yourself and your Ummah, in every sense of the word. When you judge any action, do not measure its effectiveness only based on whether it saves the people of Gaza immediately, but also whether it will save you and your Ummah afterwards. The battle is extended in time and place.

He who says: "Does this mean that you will keep talking about obeying Allah and avoiding sins? Does this mean that if I commit and he commits, Gaza will be victorious?" My friend, the concern is for you that you may be tempted and disbelieve in the next stage, and then you are more deserving that people fear for you than for the people of Gaza. And temptation is worse than killing.

Our Prophet, peace be upon him, said: "Hasten to do good deeds, for trials will come like pieces of a dark night, when a man may wake up as a believer and go to sleep as a disbeliever, or go to sleep as a believer and wake up as a disbeliever, selling his religion for a morsel of the world." Hasten to do good deeds, meaning hasten to your condition, gather as much as you can, because trials will come to crush the faith of those who do not hasten to prepare for them.

To begin with, we must not be optimistic but rather joyful, certain of victory for this Ummah, but not with the mentality of the passive observer waiting for analyses, but rather with the mentality and mindset of the serious, long-suffering worker.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.