While listening to the Abu Bakr series, I became aware of the focus that al-Awlaki was putting on for the “success” of Muslims in the world. He doesn’t ever call to direct acts of terror, but indeed you get the feeling as he is telling the story that waging militant Jihad against non-Muslims is a key to success for all times and places and the only real solution to our problems. This idea is against the consensus of modern jurists so he is representing an emotional interpretation of texts he read and not correctly deduced shari’ah. I warned the IPC where I worked not to propogate these CD’s because of how it might affect a zealous convert. In his, no doubt, deep studies of books he clearly has a sincere heart to want to make Islam a dingnified enitity once again. The problem is that he lacks the proper supervised education at the hands of real scholars.
As one of our great contemporaries, Sherman Jackson taught us at an Alim program in Michigan, “The world back then was empires and there was a perpetual state of war and so naturally no ideology was going to spread unless there were some wars. Thus the struggles of the Salaf in Da’wa from being tortured, abused, plotted against and so on… As Sh. Al-Qaradawi once noted today’s world of secularsim and democracy thankfully brings the Jihad of ideas out of the battlefeild and into the arena of media.
The truth is that sound scholarship and a proper understanding of the seerah would tell us that according to Shari’ah what Malik Hasan did was indeed an atrocious crime against these people and a huge sign of corruption in Malik’s faith and values. We know this because being a citizen in the US requires an allegiance or oath which we must upheld is we plan to live here. We read in 5:1 of the Qur’an “O you who believe, fulfill all covenants and oaths…” And in 5:8 “O you who believe, be persistantly standing firm for Allah as a witness to jsutice. Don’t allow your hatred for a people to cause you to be unjust.” In 4: 58 ” And Allah commands you to fulfill your trusts/responsibilities/rights to whom they are due and when you judge then judge with justice…”
In 2:26-27 We read how breaking our oaths and coventants and neglecting the rights Allah has enjoined upon man are of the characteristics of those who don’t believe in and therefore aren’t guided by the Qur’an.
It is well known in the seerah that the Prophet personally went through great measures to draw up peace treaties with the Pagans from Makkah and neighboring Jewish tribes. He saw it as a major sin to break these covenants. To the extent that he said “Whoever kills a non-Muslim under treaty with the Muslims will not so much as smell the scent of heaven” Now according to the consensus of our scholars over history the only one who may take anothers life is; in the case one is being attacked and cannot escape an attacker or someone who is defending someone else who is defenseless and are being attacked. Other than that the judicial branch of a muslim GOVERNMENT may take retribution for those whose crimes call for the death penalty. Last and most important for our discussion is the call for militant Jihad known in the west as “a just war” . Only the head of a Muslim state can call for such action, NOT bin laden, zawahiri, or any other politically motivated emotionally overcome person. Till now it is well known that no Muslim head of state is calling for a Jihad against the US and it is not just because they are weak and scared as the extremists would say. The truth is that neither the US gov. nor a noticable percentage of the US is against Islam or have shown any clear enmity towards Muslims as an offensive agreesive military position. Conspiracy theorists DO NOT set the bar in Islam. In our Aqeedah we judge people on their outward claims and not our suspicion about them and their TRUE motivations. I worked in Kuwait with many military men. Some were converts as well as people of other faiths. The soldiers are all sent believing and being taught that they are there to help the people of Iraq. There are racist elements who act on thier racism in conflcit over there but they don’t represent the gov. policy and they aren’t anywhere near the majority. No doubt there are political agendas, but none of them are any where near to be proven to attack Muslims and bring harm to them.

We must live in reality -not emotion- and take the proper measures for supporting our cause as Muslim Americans. We must work to make ourselves better people who stand out for moral excellence and positive activism supporting justice and human rights for everone. We must be politically active on the local and national fronts. We seek make the world a better place and spread the mercy, love, compassion and kindness that the Prophet was sent as the prime example. We must do this with wisdom guided by our scholars.
If the sad day in which the great constitution upon which this country was built is violated and desacrated by the government taking a stance against Muslims then we would be commanded to make Hijrah to a place where we can peacefully be accepted, practice our faith and make our da’wa. Even in such an unlikely event we are not to take matters into our own hands as individuals a take up arms unless we are actually being threatened of imminent attack then in that case we defend ourselves which is a main reason why the 2nd amendment of the consititution was raitfied by our forefathers.

I agree with you in that I am deeply concerned by that which is within our jurisdiction, namely that we have Muslims in our communities who can commit such atrocities against innocents while shouting Takbir. I am of course concerned by all acts of injustice, but when it is from within our own Ummah, it falls upon us to remedy this blight.

The first step, I believe, is to stop the denial and playing the victim card. We should be proud of all that we are, subhanAllah, and nothing should allow us to fall so low as to blame others and seek excuses when those from amongst us commit such heinous crimes. These are complex, multi-faceted issues and motivations, but regardless, we need to take steps to better educate our own people about the beauty of Islam and responsibility Muslims have towards humanity’s progress.

BTW you don’t need to shoot a police dog to get shot, anybody who even raises a weapon at a police office is going to be shot at, even if he is an Imam.

Assalamualaykum,

Brother Saeed already apologized, buddy. Don’t worry too much about it.

The case of Imam Luqman is still being investigated. Detroit Imams have briefly met with the FBI to see what they have had to say. He shot the dog after they unleashed it on him, which reminded him of the time when dogs were unleashed on blacks in the 60s. We should let the case be dealt with properly and not let our emotions control us too much. We need plenty of Muslim and non Muslim lawyers working on this issue. The ACLU recently joined in. Which is why we need more Muslims going to law school instead of medical school…

Alhamdilulah, I am a convert to Islam and very troubled by remarks like the one left by brother Saeed. It is very scary when Muslims make insinuations against scholars and devout Muslims like Imam Suhaib Webb. So what do ‘you wonder’ about brother Saeed? Is it not obvious to every one that we as Muslims are concerned when a brother and Imam is gunned down so viciously.

The truth us that as far as Imam Luqman is concerned, it is a tragedy but the facts are not known. The authorities claim he opened fire first. Do you really believe there is a conspiracy amongst law enforcement to gun down Muslims? Police and law enforcement over react and kill people all the time. Should we stop as Americans stop trusting the authorities and feed your type of paranoid thought.

The fact is that as Muslims we are not responsible for the actions of the kaffir. We can demand explanations and investigations into what happened and that is it. We are responsible for our brothers and sisters and what Nadal Malik Hassan did is going to have reverberations on Muslims in America. If he was deranged or not – he touted himself as a devout Muslim and called takbir before or while shooting, killing and maiming INNOCENT people. If he was just a Muslim without any kind of religious ideology behind him, we would not need to react or bother ourselves with this. But that is not the case.

Brother Saeed I suggest you concern yourself with the well being of our communities and reflect on this and wonder what poisonous wells Malik Hassan was drinking from and do not point fingers at others about tragedies that are incomparable in magnitude and scope. Unfortunately it is comments like your that lack compassion and do not serve the good brothers and sisters at large and help feed antagonism and suspicion of Muslims.

Asalamu alaykum,

Deena:

I was made aware of Anwar Awlaki’s change over the last few months and find it greatly distrubing, un-healthy and harmful. I hope and pray that Muslims in the West will avoid this kind of message and ideology.

SDW

I have come upon information that Nidal Hasan was a follower of Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, who you may know, now runs a website that calls for America’s destruction and for the mujahadeen to join forces to kill.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kamran-pasha/a-muslim-soldiers-view-fr_b_348973.html

Nidal listened to al-Awlaki and believed in his extremist brand of Islam. In fact, Al-Awlaki, who I used to love and was inspired by his CDs about the lives of the prophets, etc., is now using his talents to promote evil and hate in the name of Islam. Check out his website and notice the comments section — the many US and UK Muslim youth who are swayed by his message, and in Nidal’s case, carrying it out to kill.

Nidal shouted Allahu Akbar as he killed. He gave Qur’ans to his neighbors the morning and day before his killing.

I find this all tremendously disillusioning.

Any comments?

What!

Why?

Its during these times that we need to stick together.

MCA had additional security during Jumma, there were very few people at the second Jumma.

Imam Suhaib, this is a definate tragedy. I was driving to school when WBAI stopped programming for the news bulletin of this incident. SubhanAllah. What kind of things would you suggest college and graduate students do to ease this situation and at the same time keep ourselves out of the line of fire? Akhi, my parents would really rather I not got to masajid because of being targeted. Alhamdulillah we’re working on a visiting the sick program at my University inshaAllah it comes into fluition and the MSA is very active on campus. HasbunAllahu wa ni3mal wakeel. Is there anything you would suggest we as young muslims can do or what programs you think would be more beneficial at this particular time in light of this incident? And what can we say to help ease the hearts of those who are worried about our safety when we go out in the street? InshaAllah last question, could you explain for me how to make qunut and when it should be performed?