Was the Chinese Referee Biased!

Peace be upon you. I will speak in colloquial language so that the message reaches the people it needs to reach.

Was the Chinese ruling biased towards the Qatari team?

Let the answer be for others, but before that, let's answer a question: Is sports haram? Are we required to live in misery, remain depressed and melancholic because of Gaza? The answer: No. Sports in itself is not haram, nor are we required to remain depressed and melancholic because of Gaza and to grieve for the sake of grief. However, we are required to have honor and dignity that prevents us from acting recklessly. We are required to have chivalry that prevents us from sending destructive messages.

One of the known honorable acts in our societies is that if you have a wedding and your neighbor dies, it is polite that you do not play loud music and ululate, hurting your grieving neighbors. This is if your neighbor dies of a stroke or a car accident, a normal death. What about when they are being ground by the dogs of the earth, and your common enemy is showing their state as they explode mosques and torture Muslims.

Think about the messages you send when you chant in the streets, show extreme joy for a goal, dance in the coffee shops, and your pictures are broadcast around the world.

Destructive Messages of Celebration

To the People of Gaza

The first message you send is to your brothers in Gaza: "We have forgotten you, we are tired of you and your burdens, we no longer look at you, let alone show sympathy for you."

To the Criminal Zionists

The second message you send is to the criminal Zionists who, at the same time as the match, were and still are planning to invade Rafah, and it is only a matter of time before the issue of Gaza is resolved before Ramadan, lest the surrounding peoples, with their emotional Ramadan, get out of control. You have sent them a message: "Do not be afraid, keep pushing, you have the green light, we are peoples who forget and do not have patience, so do not expect retaliatory reactions."

To Non-Muslim Westerners

You send a message to non-Muslim Westerners, those who demonstrated for Gaza and put themselves at risk of arrest and beating. You send them a message that: "What are you proud of? What are you interested in? We Muslims are not distracted by the ball from the people of Gaza, go back to your homes and do not pressure your rulers."

To the Leaders in Muslim Countries

You send a message to the leaders in Muslim countries that: "You can achieve more humiliation of the peoples, more humiliation, religious war, theft of wealth, and oppression. We see our brothers being slaughtered and yet we dance and cheer for a ball, so do not count on us or our anger."

To the People Who Have Lost Patience in Gaza

You send a message to the people who have lost patience in Gaza, who always blamed the Mujahideen and held them responsible. There were those who previously answered them: "Be patient, we are all potential martyrs, we are an example to the Islamic world, we are reviving all Muslims, and you will see how your steadfastness will change the face of the world." Now those who have lost patience, as well as the fifth column in Palestine in general and abroad, who should direct their hatred towards the Mujahideen instead of the traitors and conspirators, will come out to these patient people and say to them: "Aha, we have seen how our patience has changed the face of the world." So you are sending a message of sedition, division, and the inability to continue and endure.

To Yourself

You send a message to yourself that the prophetic saying: "The believers in their mutual kindness, mercy, and sympathy are like one body; when one part of it is in pain, the rest of the body responds with fever and sleeplessness," does not concern me. Either I do not see the people of Gaza as believers so that I prevent my current state from being like theirs, or I do not see my current state as a believer so that this hadith applies to me.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, all this for a little whistle, applause, and dancing in the streets? Yes, because the truth is that you are an important person, your actions are important, calculated, and influential, "He utters no word but there is with him a watcher ready" [Qaf: 18].

My brother, do not add to our burden, see that we are the ones who celebrated, got angry, and grieved for the ball. If the door of jihad were opened, I would be the first Mujahid. The door of jihad will not be opened by extraterrestrials, my friend, do not wait for the opportunity to come to you on a silver platter, "And if they had intended to go forth, they would have made ready for it some provision" [At-Tawbah: 46].

Okay, you know that some of the players are Quran memorizers and some of them have shown support for Gaza in the matches? I am not concerned to judge these players now, but I want to tell you that the way you celebrated is called heedlessness and betrayal, and it sends the destructive messages we have talked about.

The Difference Between Ambition and Heedlessness

There is a big difference between two states, guys: between the events affecting you deeply, making you have a great goal that you want to support your brothers, strengthen your religion, and stop this injustice and falsehood in the world. If you do not strive in this round of victory, you must know what the obstacles are so that you can work to overcome them, and turn your ambition into energy and driving force. You practice your studies, your profession, your social roles seriously, and you dedicate them to the Mujahideen. And during that, you can practice sports and go out to recharge your ambition to continue the path.

The difference between this state and the state in which you celebrate sports in a way that shows you have no great goal, and that the events you previously sympathized with did not make a radical change in you, and that you are not ready to have patience for your religion, nation, and brothers.

A Call from Gaza

Brother Jihad Hals wrote yesterday from Gaza: "They play football and we are being killed and diminished. They cheer for football and we are starving and being defeated. They cry and laugh at an inflated skin, and our children cry from the cold. This is their concern and this is our concern."

Imagine when your brothers are disappointed in you, and you were the one who yesterday said to them: "Brothers, your concern is our concern, your blood is our blood, we and our money are at your disposal, but if the borders between us were removed." Put yourself in the place of one of your brothers in Gaza, watching Muslim youth gathered, waiting for the ball to go into the net in a festive atmosphere, while he is waiting for the rocket to come to his home, his family, and his children to be shattered and dismembered. Would you accept it if you were in his place?

The Supplication of the Oppressed and the Warning of Betrayal

And what if an oppressed person supplicates against you, will you be saved from his supplication? Rather, I am not afraid that the supplication he once made: "O Allah, support those who support the people of Gaza and abandon those who abandon them," I am not afraid that with your actions you are supplicating against yourself and betraying them and rejoicing in this form? And once again, do not laugh at yourself that sports have nothing to do with it, the problem is in showing joy in this form contrary to honor.

"And if you turn away, He will replace you with a people other than you, and they will not be like you" [Muhammad: 38]. It seems that many of us will not benefit except through affliction until they wake up. It is not that everyone is like this, but nevertheless, it is necessary for the rejecters to denounce this evil so that Allah the Almighty may save us if the consequence of betraying our brothers befalls our societies.

Denouncing Evil

And I say to my brothers who denounce evil when it happens: Continue to denounce the treachery of the traitors and the heedlessness of the heedless. Continue your supplications and support for your brothers as much as you can. This steadfastness of our brothers until now, I think you have a share and reward in it, by the permission of Allah. And this is a time of trial, so deposit with Allah actions that you love to meet Him with.

Returning to the Original Question

Returning to the first question: Was the Chinese ruling biased towards the Qatari team? I do not know, nor does it concern me. I did not attend the match, and these tournaments do not occupy my attention from the real tournaments. However, I know for certain that we will all return to Allah for the just judgment, Who said in the sacred hadith: "O My servants, it is your deeds that I will reckon for you and then recompense you for them. So whoever finds good, let him praise Allah, and whoever finds otherwise, let him blame no one but himself."

A Message to the Youth

Finally, a word to my brothers and sons, the youth in whom the spirit was ignited at the beginning of the events, who sympathized with their brothers, took to the streets, wept, and moved with pain, boycotted, and had the wells of goodness burst forth within them. The youth who circulated the "zero distance" clips, the mujahid who strove to die while prostrating, and others. Is it reasonable, youth, that all of this was just a scare and is over? Is it reasonable that the people of Gaza have endured for over 120 days through all these horrors, and we cannot even endure to respect their feelings, show seriousness, sympathy, and support for them, and abandon negligence out of respect for our brothers in Allah?

And to be precise, the negligence that some of us showed was the mistake. And if Allah wills, we will return, and the spirit of dignity and honor will be revived within us. These events, youth, are a test for all of us, so I ask you, do not fail the test. "And say, 'Work; and Allah will observe your work, and His Messenger, and the believers. And you will be returned to the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, then He will inform you of what you used to do.'" (Surah At-Tawbah, 105).

Peace be upon you.