O people of Egypt, come let us heal the wounds
O People of Egypt, Let Us Heal Our Wounds
My brothers and sisters in Islam in Egypt, peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. In this message, we aim to heal our wounds, revive hope, and address some questions: How long will this trial in Egypt last? What is the way out? Should we continue with marches and demonstrations? Is peacefulness the solution? Should we stop doing good to the public who have given a mandate to the killer and have slandered us?
Firstly, my brothers, those who expect to find in this message a quick and miraculous solution to the crisis in Egypt will not find it. The purpose of this message is to make you despair of the unproductive paths so that you do not waste your time on them, and to direct your efforts towards the productive path, no matter how long it may seem, and to rid yourself of what hinders your progress in it.
Understanding the Shock and Correcting the Method
The beginning of the solution, my brothers, is to understand the shock. The shock that our opportunity to rule - we, the bearers of the Islamic cause - has been lost. Not understanding the shock, being stubborn, denying reality, and clinging to imaginary hopes are very harmful. It is the same thing that numbed people at the beginning of the revolution when the military returned to their tyranny and control of the country, yet people were blind to the reality of the revolution being stolen, and they did not rise to save it, clinging to false hopes like parliamentary and presidential elections, and the opportunity was gradually lost over two and a half years while we were under the anesthesia of imaginary hopes, walking on unproductive paths.
Mistakes of the Past
Therefore, it is futile and laughable to chase news that gives hope for the return of the opportunity from the imaginary. The belief that differences in the ranks of the military and their allies mean the return of the opportunity for us, for their fall does not mean our rise given what we have reached in terms of losing the trust of much of our people.
It is futile to say to the masses: "Rejoice, for the victory of Allah is near," then there is no victory, so the souls are broken and doubts are cast on Allah. What is the method we have followed and returned to Allah with victory. Similarly, it is futile to excel in mocking the people who were deceived by the military, and describing them as slaves to the military and deceived by the media, for this will only increase the people's aversion and enmity towards us.
Similarly, we will not find it exhausting our energies in monitoring the crimes of the military and their government, although something of exposing their crimes is required so that our people know their reality, but I repeat: the fall of the military will never be enough for our rise. Similarly, it is futile to waste our time following the shameful positions of official sheikhs or those who have joined the Salafis and allied with the military. All of these, my brothers, are practices and speech that deepen the problem and do not solve it, or at the very least waste our time, and we do not have time to waste wandering in the alleys of earthly causes disconnected from Allah the Almighty.
What delayed me, my brothers, from issuing this message is that we often reject the truth if it is bitter. I mentioned before that the current stage is a stage of paying the price for mistakes and learning from them, not a stage of getting out of the crisis with a quick solution or victory in this round. So what is the solution? You will hear repeated words here, but if you ignore them, you may say after years: "If only I had worked with it at that time, I would have reached now."
The beginning of the solution is to attach our hearts to Allah, who alone has the power to stop the harm of the oppressors and soften the hearts of our people to allow us in our affliction. To realize that we have erred in neglecting Allah in this political experiment, so Allah has imposed upon us those who do not fear Him in us and do not have mercy on us, so we seek salvation in repentance and purifying our method with sincerity and complete submission to Allah.
This leads us to the next question: How long will this trial last? My brothers, if a private teacher wants to teach a student a lesson, but this student was slow to learn, what will the teacher do? He will increase the number of lessons and thus increase the duration. And Allah has the highest example, Allah loves for us to learn from these events lessons in His sublime laws of change and in the works of the heart such as glorification and the heart's emptiness of attachment to people and their victory and submission.
Those who will cause the prolongation of the affliction are those who are stubborn and insist on our methodological mistakes and neglect to learn these lessons.
The Deposit of Innate Nature
My brothers, it is true that the events have set the call back many years and have created a great gap between us and the people, but there is good news for you, there is good news: If we learn the lesson quickly, Allah the Almighty will fill these gaps for us with a great deposit from Him, glorified be He, which He has placed in the hearts of the people. It is the deposit of innate nature. The innate nature that is in the hearts of our Muslim people in general, the farmer who gave the mandate, the university student who slandered us. These people will eventually stand in front of the mirror and remember that they are Muslims. They will open the Quran and read His saying: {The believers are but brothers} and His saying: {They are severe against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves}.
If we correct our mistakes and show sincere repentance, this will make it more likely that the sediment will be removed from the innate nature of our people to return as pure oil that illuminates with these verses and enlightens their vision. These people will also read His saying: {O you who have believed, if there comes to you a rebellious one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and then become regretful for what you have done}. If we adorn ourselves with good character in dealing with our people, this verse will awaken many hearts to the reality that they were deceived by the corrupt media and thus harmed us.
They will hear His saying: {Do they seek the judgment of ignorance? And who is better in judgment than Allah for a people who are certain}. If we present Allah's judgment this time with purity and sincerity and detachment from personal gain, then these verses that they read will fill the gap between them and the Sharia, which some of us have contributed to alienating them from. It is the deposit of innate nature that will be in our favor and shorten the years and bring us closer to the people if we present Islam with sincerity and adhere to sincerity and return to Allah with sincerity.
This deposit is never moved by slogans of legitimacy, democracy, and the elected president, but rather increases the sediment on the innate nature in the hearts of the people. If they read the words of Allah and did not benefit from them, they will not be able to apply them to reality. So we are not brothers to them, as Allah commanded, as we raise slogans other than {The believers are but brothers}. And they will believe him who describes us as deceitful, and that those who call for it are not sincere in adopting it. So Allah is with the innate nature of the people, Allah is with the innate nature of the people. Save them and remove the sediment from it. Remove the sediment with the goodness of your repentance and the sincerity of your intention, and do not lose it by insisting on slogans far from the light of revelation.
Dealing with People
Patience and Kindness
Peace be upon you, brothers. We need, my brothers, to be patient with people's harm and foolishness, and to transcend the past political experience and the performance of the Islamists in it. We should not engage with them on the issue of exonerating or condemning individuals or groups, even if they are oppressed. We should return to calling people to Islam, befriending them, and responding to their harm with kindness. We should avoid, for the time being, raising topics that make them feel we are seeking to rule again.
This is not a betrayal of our oppressed and imprisoned brothers, nor a betrayal of the implementation of Sharia. However, our people need a period of recovery to regain their trust in their religion. Someone may say, "But the military will not let us do this peacefully; they may even attack us during this time." True, and you have no choice but to be patient. There is no other correct choice. So, absorb the shock, my brother, absorb the shock.
It is very important, my brothers, that we correct our intention in befriending people and being kind to them. We do not do this out of fear of them or in hope of their support against the military. Rather, we do it to regain their trust and faith in Islam itself, and to atone for our sins that caused them to turn away from Allah's religion and His Sharia. We do this to regain.
For verily, Allah defends those who believe. "Perhaps Allah will put between you and those who harm you among them affection." "Repel [evil] with that which is better; and behold, he between whom and you was enmity has become as though he was a close friend."
This leads us, my beloved, to the next question: Should we stop being kind to the general public who gave a mandate to the killer and insulted us? Should we deprive them of sacrifices and charities? If we do this, it will also cement the image they have of us: that we are self-serving people with agendas, who are kind to them in hopes of their electoral votes, and we withhold kindness from them because we did not get the worldly benefit we want from them. So, neither our kindness nor our withholding is for Allah. What is required of us is to befriend people.
Protests and Demonstrations
The next question: Should we continue with sit-ins and demonstrations? This issue, my brothers, should never be discussed in isolation from what we have mentioned about the necessity of absorbing the shock and correcting the methodology. We are greatly mistaken if we demonstrate with the goal of disrupting public life until the state of the military collapses, and this is without correcting the methodology and slogans. This will cement the image that the media portrays to the people that these Islamists do not want your interest, oh Egyptians, but to ride on your backs, and they are ready to harm you and your interests for the sake of implementing their private agendas.
Demonstration is a means if we agree with our people and merge with them, and express through demonstration their pains and hopes. It is not acceptable if, in the eyes of the people, it is a disruption of their interests to impose our view on them. We must ensure that demonstrations and marches are not, in the eyes of the people, an extension of the past political experience, which we have repeatedly clarified is not legitimate and has lost its credibility with them. It should not be our goal to overthrow the military alone without working on reforming ourselves and reconciling with our people again, and presenting new leadership that is pure and in harmony with its slogans, gaining the trust of the people. It should not be that demonstration comes at the expense of these priorities, because without them, the overthrow of the military does not mean the rise of an Islamic model that gains the support of Allah and then the support of our people.
In summary, my brothers, we need to put a new point and line, and whichever the choice, demonstration or otherwise, the emphasis remains on repentance and correction, so that if we are afflicted, our affliction is purely for Allah, and if we are killed, it is for His sake, and this makes it more likely that Allah will have mercy on the group and bring about recovery from the affliction.
Peacefulness and Confrontation
The next question: Is peacefulness the solution, or is peacefulness contrary to Islam? If by peacefulness we mean that we want it as a methodology that all humans adhere to in all circumstances, such that it is a mistake for anyone to resort to fighting even if they are defending a clear right, then in this case, it is undoubtedly contrary to the religion of Allah, which commands fighting in appropriate circumstances. Peace, in this case, would be a mistake in the command of Allah and an acceptance of an alternative methodology to the methodology of Islam, and in this meaning, it is a branch of the corruption of democracy. Unfortunately, peacefulness is often used in this corrupt meaning these days, where the use of force is generally condemned with the intention of condemning the military, but the believer should not raise false slogans to address partial evils.
As for if by peacefulness is meant that the demonstrators in Egypt in their current situation do not resort to fighting, it is not appropriate to consider peacefulness in this case a methodological deviation or a flaw in the creed, but the matter is subject to evaluation and consideration, even if it is better to avoid terms with corrupt connotations in people's minds. It is better to say, for example, "restrain the hand."
So, should we restrain our hands in this stage, or should we resort to confrontation? This question, my brothers, should not be discussed away from what we have presented that we have made mistakes in the Egyptian experience that require repentance and correction. Yes, the media has slandered a lot, but we have made methodological mistakes that have been detailed in many words. Choosing confrontation at this stage means to our people that we have resorted to force to impose ourselves with these mistakes, and this will deepen the gap, complicate the problem, and facilitate the task of our enemies and their media in putting us at odds with our people, who have been victims not only of their ignorance but also of our mistakes.
Therefore, it is not the restraint of the hand that is blameworthy in this stage, but our insistence on our mistakes and neglecting correction that is blameworthy. Confrontation is not the solution at this stage, but the removal of the residues of the illegitimate democratic experience and its effects on our relationship with our people. This does not mean adopting peacefulness as a lifestyle that suits all times and erring against those who disagree with it, whatever the circumstances.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my brothers: attach your hearts to Allah. "If Allah should aid you, then no one can overcome you; but if He should forsake you, then who is there that can aid you after Him?" Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.