The role of scholars in revolutions

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.

Dear brothers, we are still analyzing the mistakes that led Egypt to its current crisis, striving to rectify them in the present and avoid them in the nation's renaissance project in the future. Among the most important of these mistakes is the confusion in the concepts of fitna, bloodshed, and stability.

Clarification on Revolutions

Here, it is necessary to clarify an issue before continuing the analysis of the Egyptian situation. Some of our followers think that we urge Islamic peoples to revolt against the oppressive dark rulers without considering the ability and capacity to achieve the required or its absence, and this is not the case. Our call is not like that. Rather, we emphasize that it is necessary to completely separate the ruling on revolutions before they begin on the one hand, and the stance towards them after they have begun and reached a stage of no return on the other hand.

In other words, if a man were to ask before the Syrian revolution, for example: "Should we revolt against this criminal while we do not have the sufficient power?" Then we would accept the difference of opinion in this matter and understand that some scholars may prevent it, not out of concern for the criminal regime nor because it is a legitimate system that is not permissible to rebel against, but rather because such a revolution may not take the causes of victory, which may result in harm to the Muslims without achieving the desired benefit.

However, once the revolution has occurred and the Muslims have reached a stage of no return with this criminal regime and behind it the criminal global system, then discussing the legitimacy of starting the revolution no longer has a place, and speaking about stopping it from the side of the Muslims in an attempt to calm down does not go beyond being heedlessness or treachery. This applies to the rest of the revolutions and countries.

Conditions for Change and the Responsibility of Scholars

Those who want to change the evil in their countries and establish an Islamic system that liberates the country from the humiliation of the corrupt factions and the international system, these people must ask themselves:

• Do they have the power and strength, and does it seem to them that it enables them to change and establish the Islamic rule?
• Do they have scholars ready to lead the people, descend into the arenas, and sacrifice themselves for that purpose?
• Is their cause clear to the people, and do they have a popular base and alternative media so that only hypocrites or enemies of Allah's religion fight them, or those who have accepted for themselves to be from the soldiers of darkness, obedient to them in disobeying Allah?
• Or is there a lack of clarity in the cause so that injustice and their media succeed in defaming the cause of these reformers and striking them with the generality of their people due to the immaturity of their project and the lack of clarity of its image?

If the answer is: "Yes, we have these qualifications and reasons for the ability to change the evil," then these people have no excuse before Allah if they refrain from change, even if that costs a fierce war in which blood is shed and the darkness uses its criminality. The sin is then on the darkness, not on the reformers, and it is not said about the reformers at that time that they dragged the country into fitna. Rather, there is no fitna worse than that people worship a corrupt group of humans who rule over their blood, wealth, and honor with earthly laws and tempt them away from their religion sometimes with corruption and desires and sometimes with iron and fire. Fitna is worse than killing, "And fight them until there is no fitna and the religion is all for Allah." As Sheikh Sulaiman bin Sihman, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "If the Bedouins and the city dwellers fought until they were destroyed, it would be better for them than to appoint a Taghut to whom they refer."

Lack of Conditions

If the answer to these questions is: "No, we do not have sufficient power, nor scholars, nor symbols to lead them, nor a popular base, nor alternative media, nor a mature project," then these people are not obligated to start a revolution, they are not obligated to start it as long as they have not obtained the causes of its success. Rather, they must strive to obtain these causes, because what is not fulfilled except by it is an obligation.

Otherwise, starting an immature revolution is a cause for the persistence of evil, the persistence of the evil of injustice and the status quo, but with the shedding of blood, the violation of honor, the striking of the Islamic project in its cradle, and its defamation in the eyes of the people, and the isolation of the reformers from the body of their people, so that matters become confused, and they are abandoned or resisted by people among whom there is good but they are deceived and do not realize the cause of these reformers.

The comparison here is not between establishing the Islamic rule with bearing these damages or not establishing it to avoid these damages, but the comparison here is between the persistence of the darkness while working to obtain the causes of their removal, and on the other hand their persistence but with the loss of the causes of their removal as a result of the immature revolution, which may strengthen them and prolong their rule, in addition to the mentioned damages to the people's blood, wealth, and honor without a counterpart of enabling Islam to bless them with its justice and mercy.

The issue here is not the prohibition of revolting against the rulers who rule with earthly laws because it is a rebellion against the rulers who must be obeyed as the scholars of evil say, but because the immature revolution enables them, enables them, and even if they fall and the reformers do not have a project, someone worse than the fallen may come to reap the fruits of the efforts and sacrifices of the reformers, the sacrifices of their people, and their pains.

And this does not mean appeasing the darkness or remaining silent about them, but rather it means clarifying their reality to the peoples and teaching the people the doctrine of disassociation from them as long as they deviate from the religion of Allah, and teaching the peoples that the enmity with them is not over a loaf of bread or providing a job so that the peoples accept them if they provide that, but the enmity with them is for Allah and in the most dangerous issues of slavery to Allah, from legislating and enforcing laws on the souls of people other than what Allah has accepted for His servants, misleading the people, and corrupting their morals. And hunger and lack of security are but some of the ominous fruits of this rule.

That is, the reformers, even if they are not able to carry out a revolution, must maintain the revolutionary state in the hearts of the people, live with the people their pains, demand their rights, and strive to lift the injustice of the tyrants from them. And they must be patient in all of that with what results from this call of narrowing, imprisonment, fabrication of charges, dismissal from work, and threats to livelihood.

And it is not for the people of knowledge and the callers to remain silent about clarifying that or to cover the legitimacy of the darkness under the pretext of the interest of the call, "And when Allah took a covenant from those who were given the Scripture to make it clear to the people and not conceal it." And the heroism in this call and patience with the systems monopolizing the callers, hiding them, and bearing that with confidence in the promise of Allah and reliance upon Him, this heroism is not less than the heroism of those who want to rush the immature revolution and be among the crowds so that the hands of darkness do not reach them as they reach the first.

The Role of Preachers During Popular Revolutions

What if the people revolted on their own and found themselves in a struggle for survival against the oppressors? Should the role of preachers be to break this revolution, subjugate the people to the oppressors again, and tell the people, after the conflict has reached a point of no return, "Your revolution is not mature, you were wrong when you started it, and the reasons are not yet complete, so go back to your homes"? God forbid! What kind of reformer would accept this for himself! Rather, at that time, it should be said: "It is the decree of Allah, and He does what He wills. It is a fait accompli, perhaps Allah will help to turn it to the benefit of the Muslims, even if the reformers did not choose it initially."

So, the people of truth must, at that time, lead these revolutions, direct them, and raise the ceiling of their demands. If it is for a piece of bread, let it become for the sake of Allah entirely, for the reform of the people's hereafter and their worldly life together. And let the reformers be seen in the front lines of these revolutions, not content with mere words, not stingy with their lives for the lives of the people, but sacrificing and setting a practical example as the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, did.

But what if it turns out that the people do not want to adjust the course of their revolution to be for the sake of Allah, and that the piece of bread that brought it out will return them to their homes, and that they do not want the reformers to guide them but want only those who will fulfill their desires? At that point, the reformers should withdraw from the matter entirely and remain with their call, as long as this revolution has no share for Allah. And they should remind these revolutionaries that their revolution against injustice does not permit them to attack their fellow citizens or their properties.

However, what is not an option in all cases is that we descend to betray the people in the name of religion from their revolution against injustice, when they have not seen us before in the squares demanding their rights or striving to lift their oppression. Until, when they respond to us and return to their homes and the matter is settled for the oppressors and they gain strength, they begin to seize the revolutionaries, one by one, and we become a tool for these oppressors without realizing it. Our efforts then go towards prolonging their oppression and betraying the people, and we lose our credibility at that time with our peoples and appear as evil scholars who record positions for the oppressors at the expense of our peoples, or at the very least, as fools who think well of others in the wrong place. At that time, the call becomes great, and you should not expect the people to listen to you afterward or to help you in achieving the causes we mentioned for establishing the religion of Allah on earth.

Mistakes in the Egyptian Experience

Within this framework, what are the mistakes that occurred in the Egyptian experience? What are the mistakes that should not be repeated in the future, whether in a reform project owned by the preachers or in revolutions that are imposed on them and require a position from them? This is what we will know in the next word, God willing.

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.