Introduction: The Spirit of Brotherhood and the Issue of Prisoners
Peace be upon you and the mercy of God and His blessings, dear brothers.
There is no doubt that a Muslim wants to alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters who are prisoners in the occupation's jails, and that we are pleased with the Islamic brotherhood that has driven many Muslims to revive the prisoners' issue in the media, and to change the personal image on Facebook and Twitter pages to a picture of the prisoner and the prisoner in brown clothes. The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us that "do not belittle any good deed," and the nation of Muhammad (peace be upon him) is alive, in which events ignite the spirit of brotherhood.
Allah the Almighty said: {Verily, the believers are but brothers}, and the Chosen One (peace be upon him) said: "The example of believers in their love, mercy, and compassion for one another is like the body; if one part of it suffers, the rest of the body responds with sleeplessness and fever." These events indicate that the nation has the energy and love for sacrifice.
The Zionists are evil, more wicked, and more arrogant and haughty than to be moved by humanity or mercy to meet the demands of the prisoners, but they sense the pulse of the nation; if they find life in it, they will reduce some of their evil, otherwise they will persist, for they do not respect any covenant or pledge with a believer. Many Muslims and Muslim women were heedless and negligent, but their concerns have risen after seeing the cause of their imprisoned brothers. O Allah, reward our imprisoned brothers for us with good, for they have raised the concerns of the nation during this period, and grant them complete relief, and reward those who sympathize and show mercy to them with good, O Lord of the worlds, amen.
But my brothers, here are four important facts that we must not forget in the midst of the issue of the strike, demands, and the agreement.
The First Truth: Our Prisoners Are Still Prisoners
Our prisoners are still prisoners, so what has been agreed upon to improve their conditions should not be considered a victory for the nation. The victory of the nation is the liberation of these prisoners and their land from the occupation. I say this because the Jews - who are the most wicked of people - resort to lowering the ceiling of the nation's aspirations by preoccupying it with secondary demands instead of the real demand.
Imagine, my brother, that a thief stole your son, and you knew his whereabouts, so you went to free your son, but the thief beats and tortures your son in front of you. You demanded that the thief stop the torture, but he refused, and over time you got used to seeing your son being tortured. Then, after pressures and negotiations, you agreed with the thief to stop torturing your son, and he actually stopped. You returned to your home rejoicing that the thief had stopped torturing your son! Rejoicing in this "victory," you entered the house and found your son's room empty!
Similarly, our prisoners; their liberation is a collective duty. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "Relieve the distressed" (i.e., the prisoner). We do not want, my brothers, for the Zionists to succeed in preoccupying us and draining our energies in side battles that make us forget the main demand and numb our senses with the euphoria of an illusory victory.
I return to say: The solidarity of Muslims with the prisoners that we have seen indicates the goodness and life in the nation of Muhammad, but we must beware of falling into the trap of exaggerating the result; for the prisoners, even if their suffering has lessened, they are still prisoners, and victory is not in reducing their suffering but in their liberation.
We want our ceiling of aspirations not to be lowered. When I personally faced the ordeal of imprisonment because of supporting my brothers in Afghanistan, I used to feel pain when my case and the case of my imprisoned political brothers were presented in the media in the direction of "improving prison conditions" instead of focusing on the illegitimacy of our imprisonment in the first place; for our imprisonment was an injustice according to the Sharia of Allah the Almighty, and so is the imprisonment of our brothers in Palestine. What is expected of Muslims is to strive to remove this injustice entirely and not to limit themselves to improving the conditions in prison.
There is also a very important matter, my brothers; the noise about an agreement made with the Jews and mediated by their aides (the Egyptian border guards) aims to legitimize the imprisonment of our brothers, so that the result is: "There is no objection to the imprisonment of Muslims in Palestine, but they should be granted the rights stipulated by the Geneva Convention, and their detention conditions should be legal according to the laws of the Jewish state, and the administrative detention period should not be extended."
This is a disaster, my brothers! Some may say: "What is not fully achieved should not be entirely abandoned; if we cannot liberate them, then at least we can alleviate their suffering," but in reality, the noise around these mentioned terms (Geneva Convention, legal detention, etc.) obscures the original issue and gives detention a kind of legitimacy; the problem is no longer that our brothers are detained, but the problem is their living conditions in detention!
If Muslims think in this way, this is a reality that we do not achieve, but the Jews achieve it by luring us into what they drain our energies with and distract us from the real demand. Let us beware of these terms, and let us beware of exaggerating the achievements and calling what has happened a victory, for our prisoners are still prisoners.
Let us not forget that they bow the heads of our brothers, blindfold their eyes, and bind them with shackles led by one of the Zionist army members. Let us not forget that some of the female soldiers take pictures of themselves in front of our prisoners as a memory of humiliation and torment of our brothers. Let us not forget that the occupation conducts experiments on some Palestinian prisoners using drugs that some of which lead to serious complications. Our prisoners are still prisoners; this was the first and most important truth.
The Second Truth: Distorting the Image of the "Rule of Law"
The Jews resort to showing some of their injustices and letting them take media attention, then they pretend that they have dealt with this injustice in a "legal" manner, and all of this is a cover for their crimes that know no law, no custom, no religion, and no humanity.
They forcibly seize large areas of land from their owners, then the media circulates the story of a land they have seized, and the Palestinian Muslim owner files a complaint with the Jewish courts. After highlighting the issue and waiting for its result, the media comes out to us that the Palestinian "won the case and restored his land!" All of this is to spread that their state is a state of law and institutions as they say. The same applies to our case; our brothers are still suffering from imprisonment by the most hostile people to those who believe: the Jews. Our prisoners are still prisoners.
The Third Truth: The Symbolism of "Shalit Punishments" and the Value of a Muslim
The occupation deliberately names the punishments that our imprisoned brothers demand to be lifted as "Shalit Punishments." This is a symbolic name aimed at informing the world that the Jewish state—so it claims—sacralizes its individuals and becomes enraged on their behalf.
For a single Jewish prisoner, the occupation waged war on Gaza and killed over a thousand Muslims. For a single prisoner, they tightened the noose on Gaza. For a single prisoner, they imposed punishments on Muslim prisoners. For a single prisoner, the occupation arrested hundreds of Muslims in Palestine before the exchange deal with Shalit, so that the global media would spread the message that the value of a Jewish prisoner is worth more than a thousand Muslim prisoners! And their book even states this during the exchange deal, where one of them said, "And the truth that no one can deny is that one of us is worth a thousand of them."
So let us remember, my brothers and sisters, for the Muslim woman who cried out "Wa Islamah," Al-Mu'tasim avenged her, and likewise, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) pledged the companions to death in the Pledge of Ridwan when it was rumored that the polytheists had killed Uthman (may God be pleased with him). And the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) sent the army of Mu'tah when the Ghassanids killed the Prophet's envoy to Busra. And the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) prepared the expedition of Usama (may God be pleased with him) to take revenge on the Romans who had killed the governor of Ma'an before the Romans (Furwa bin Amr al-Judhami), for he was a Christian who then embraced Islam, and the Romans killed him after he had been their governor. Thus, the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) prepared the expedition of Usama to avenge this individual.
As for those who follow the news of the Jewish leaders, they see treachery, deceit, and trickery even against their own people. However, they know how much this symbolic name, "Shalit Punishments," strengthens the prestige of their state.
It is in the interest of the Jews to preserve some face for the systems that are subservient to them. Therefore, we see that this agreement to meet the demands of the prisoners was achieved through official Egyptian mediation, and the exchange deal with Shalit was also through Egyptian mediation.
This is one of the most trivial of absurdities; for the Egyptian system aids and continues to aid in the imprisonment of Muslims throughout Palestine, tightening the noose on them, and filling in the tunnels of the people of Gaza who are trying to transport medicine and children's milk through them. Then, it is the same system that mediates in meeting the demands of some prisoners! So, no thanks or dignity for the official Egyptian mediation. We ask God to relieve the people of Egypt from the oppressors who are sitting on their chests.
Conclusion: The Solution Lies in Returning to Ourselves
In conclusion, my brothers and sisters, our prisoners are still prisoners, and the honor and dignity of Muslims will only be preserved by an Islamic state that is mighty. A state that, if any of its subjects are attacked, rises up entirely as the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) established.
And the solution is: {Indeed, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves}. It is our duty towards our imprisoned brothers that we strive in acts of obedience and refrain from sins, so that God may honor our nation. And whoever is overcome by desires and falls short in acts of obedience will not contribute to building a state, nor will they contribute to the glory of the nation, and the enemies will continue to imprison its children and disrespect its sanctities.
So, support the cause of your brothers in Syria, in Palestine, in Afghanistan, and everywhere, until the law of God rules the earth. Occupy yourself with working to honor your nation, otherwise, you will occupy yourself with trivialities. For the soul, if not occupied with truth, will occupy itself with falsehood. And whenever you falter, remember: our prisoners are still prisoners.
Peace be upon you, and the mercy of God and His blessings.