Ali Ataie – Keep Your Islam Rooted to Its Core Principles A Cautionary Sermon on Zionism
AI: Summary ©
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AI: Summary ©
It is reported from Abu Said Al Khudri,
and you'll find this hadith from the Sahih
of Imam Muslim
as well as another in the sunan of
Ibnu Majah,
the ladder on the authority of Abu Hurairah
Radiallahu Anhu.
Let the messenger of Allah
He said speaking to the Muslims, you will
surely follow the path of those before you.
He continues and listen to how he describes
this following, this.
Fathom by fathom, cubit by cubit, hand span
by hand span,
or we might say step by step, inch
by inch.
Even if they entered a lizard hole,
you would follow
We said, oh messenger of Allah, do you
mean we're going to follow the Jews and
Christians like this?
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, who else?
Who else?
Meaning, yes, Jews and Christians, you will follow
like this. You will follow down the lizard
hole.
As a side note, one of the major
signs of the divine providence of the Quran,
one of the major signs of the divine
origin of the Quran is the fact that
the Jews figure so prominently in the Quranic
discourse.
The word al Yahud is mentioned 9 times.
The phrase Bani Israel is mentioned 41 times.
The phrase al Adina Hadu is mentioned 10
times, so dozens of references.
Why is this a
sign? Because the Jews have always been a
tiny community in terms of numbers.
They were a tiny community at the time
of the prophet
with no real worldly power.
Palestine was under Byzantine control,
and the Jews were scattered across the nations
in diaspora.
The Persians, on the other hand, at that
time, were a huge powerful empire,
and yet Allah
almost never mentions the Persians.
The reason seems to be because Allah
knew that the Zoroastrian Persians, Al Majus,
will very quickly become Muslim, almost all of
them.
And yet the Jews, despite their tiny numbers,
will continue to be very consequential
for many, many generations to come and even
rise to power once again.
The Quran refers to 2 rluw of Bani
Israel
at the beginning of Suratul Islam also known
as Surat Bani Israel.
You see the Quran is trans historical in
its guidance.
The author of the Quran knows the future.
So back to the hadith. We will follow
the Jews and Christians even down the lizard
hole.
Forget about the rabbit hole.
The lizard hole.
So then, by examining the trends among yahud
and nasaara in our times, in terms of
their theological trends, their philosophical trends,
their trends and their practices, we can avoid
their pitfalls. We can avoid their lizard holes.
Allah
says about the Jews and Christians,
They took the religious leaders as divine lords
other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, their clergy,
their rabbis, their monks, their popes.
How? According to the statement of the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam, they obeyed the creation
in disobedience to the creator.
That's a problem.
Manipulating the religion to fit our desires, our
That's a big problem. And yet, this is
what most Jews and Christians expect from us
today.
You Muslims need a reformation
like our reformations.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
The Jews and Christians will never be satisfied
with you
until you follow their form of religion.
Say Allah's guidance is the only guidance.
If you, Allah's addressing the prophet
by extension the ummah,
if you were to follow their desires, now
that after all this knowledge has come to
you, then you will find neither helper nor
protector
against Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The grand example here that is so relevant
in our times is Zionism.
The Jewish and Christian appropriation of Zionist principles
has had devastating
and disastrous effects upon the world at large.
Let this be a cautionary tale for us
as Muslims
about the importance of staying rooted in our
principles
and not succumbing to our desires.
We must guard with our lives
the guidance that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
given to us. Listen to what our master
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that Abdullah
ibn Abbas radhiallahu anhumah.
Ibn Abbas was a young man at this
time. Listen to this, this hadith is in
Musnad Ahmad. And Ibtih Abbasin radhiallahu anhumathalakuntukalfarasullillahi sallallahu
alaihi khalfarasudillahi
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, yomann. I was once
behind the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Faqala yahulam
ihfadillahiyahfadka.
He said, Oh young man protect Allah
and Allah will protect you.
Protect Allah and you will find him before
you. How do we protect Allah?
According to the commentators,
the meaning is to guard and keep his
awamir and his nawahin.
To guard Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's commandments and
prohibitions.
Tajidhu jajahaka. And you will find them before
you.
Meaning Allah
will help you. He will aid you. He
will give you strength.
He'll facilitate your affairs. He will bless you
and give you his tafik.
The Quran warns against ghulu, extremism,
adopting extreme or radical positions.
Allah says to the Jews and Christians,
Don't be radicals.
Let's talk about the word radical.
We hear this word all the time, radical
Islam. We've heard this for over 20 years.
But lest we forget, there's also radical Judaism
and radical Christianity,
and both of these are in full display
right now
in the world.
Before I elaborate, let's come to terms.
Let's define some terms. The English word radical
in its origin means to pertain to the
root of something, the chiral or the asl.
In terms of religion, something that is radical
constitutes a drastic and highly significant
departure from the normative tradition.
By normative, and a lot of folks nowadays
are offended by this term,
because it sounds like normal,
and certain people who have certain,
leanings in their desires,
who are very proud during this month,
don't like to be characterized as abnormal.
Nonetheless, despite despite the hurt feelings of certain
individuals,
Islam definitely has a normative tradition.
By normative, I mean what the scriptures
clearly say in their most apparent meanings,
the plain and obvious meanings of the Quran
and Sunnah. What is mumkam, wadih from the
kitab and sunnah?
The normative definition of a religion is what
the religion clearly says about itself.
Islam has a normative definition, it speaks for
itself.
If I showed you an image of a
polygon with 3 angles that add up to
a 180 degrees,
what is that?
That's a triangle. It speaks for itself. Now
you can try to convince people
that it's a square in some weird and
confusing way, but you probably won't make a
lot of converts.
We have clear guidance.
This is what makes Islam so attractive.
The Quran is kitabunwubeen,
a book that gives clarity.
By tradition, I mean something that is widely
known and long standing
among a community,
a practice or belief that has been passed
down. The word tradition comes from the Latin
tradere,
to pass down, something malruth
inherited for generations
and has enjoyed widespread acceptance.
Therefore, a radical is someone who advances a
drastic departure
from the very root of the religion. The
radical transgresses the plain and obvious meanings of
the sacred text, in our case the Quran
and Sunnah,
or decontextualizes
the sacred text, and then make some claim
that has no basis
or a very flimsy basis
in opposition to the vast community of scholars
over 100 and 100 of years.
In other words, a radical opposes the rasihkhunafil'am,
to use a Puranic phrase. Scholars who are
anchored, rooted, grounded
in the foundational principles of their religion.
Now there are 2 types of tradition.
This is very important.
There are 2 types of tradition. In other
words, there are 2 types of beliefs and
practices
that are passed down. And these 2 types
may agree or disagree.
And this distinction will, insha Allah ta'ala,
clear up a lot of confusion that people
might have.
Number 1, religious tradition.
Religious tradition is what we have inherited from
our religious authorities.
These are beliefs and practices that are clearly
found in foundational texts and are mass transmitted
and passed down to us. They are talaqi.
This is our normative religious tradition. Things that
have a solid basis in the Quran and
Sunnah.
They are obvious and axiomatic of the religion.
Abu Bakr ibn Arabi, he said that the
secret of this religion, deen ul Islam, is
the Sanad, the chain of transmission. We never
had any ecumenical councils like the Christians,
yet every Muslim in the world knows exactly
what to do when he goes to Mecca
for Hajar Umrah.
How?
The Sanad.
The 5 daily salawat.
Normative religious tradition. Not 2, not 4, not
10, everyone knows.
Muslims pray 5 times a day, 5 daily
salawat, clear as day, in the kitab and
sunnah.
Another example, the 10 canonical reading traditions,
the qra'at al ashar, normative,
religious tradition,
Asim, Nafir, Al Kisai, Abu Amr, etcetera, etcetera.
Mass transmitted
from the followers to the companions back to
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Imagine if someone led the prayer and said,
Alhamdulillahirubalalamin
arrahmanarrahim
malakayomadeem malakayomadeem malakayomadeem.
So he turned the noun into a verb
And then he said, well, the Masahif Uthmaniyah,
the,
the Uthmani codices don't have any vowel notations.
So So I'm going to read the Rasam
like this because the meaning is sound. What's
the difference?
No. There's no transmissional basis whatsoever for this
reading.
We know exactly how the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam recited the Quran.
You can't just make something up.
Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours,
I. E. Islam,
that has no basis will have it rejected.
Another other examples, the belief in the day
of judgment, prohibition of alcohol, prohibition of homosexual
acts,
normative religious tradition,
all over the Kitab and Sunnah.
Anyone who disagrees is not Muslim. It's just
that simple.
So that's the first type of tradition,
religious tradition.
The second type of tradition is called cultural
tradition.
These are also beliefs and practices that we've
inherited.
However, if some cultural practice or belief contradicts
the established religious tradition,
then we reject the former based upon the
principle lata atalimakhlukin
fima'asiatalchalik.
There is no obedience to creation and disobedience
to the creator.
Acceptable cultural practices must fall within the parameters
of religious permissibility.
For example,
despite what anti Muslim charlatans on YouTube or
TikTok say,
Honor killings,
no basis in their religion.
Abuse of women, no basis in their religion.
Abuse of children, no basis in their religion.
Lying or cheating or being a grifter or
a con man, no basis in the religion.
Now in 2024,
someone on the Internet or in a TED
Talk or something on TikTok
might say, hijab is just cultural.
Covering the head is cultural.
The Quran doesn't say head anywhere.
Maybe you've heard this.
This is an example of a radical claim.
I'm using the word radical. Why? Because this
is a violation
of our mass transmitted normative religious tradition, which
is firmly established upon the plain and obvious
meanings of our sacred text. So what are
we now to believe that for 1400 years,
100 of 1000 of scholars, men and women,
who mastered dozens of disciplines all misread the
Quran,
but some journalism major from Yale or Columbia
who took 2 semesters of Arabic
was able to figure it out last week.
Amazing.
Masha'Allah.
This makes a mockery of the religion.
We know what hijab is. We don't need
some radical revisionist
to muddy the waters. The mud the waters
are crystal clear.
The hijab covers the head, the neck, and
the chest area. The style or color of
the hijab,
these are cultural.
Go to different countries, you'll see different styles
and colors. But hijab is hijab. It's malum.
But do you see how this shubha was
created?
A lack of knowledge of Koranic loha,
Koranic terminology,
a lack of knowing the Saba'bon Nuzl, the
historical contextualization of this ayah, and then failing
to distinguish between religious
and cultural tradition.
A shubha, by the way, is something that
resembles the truth.
The verb shabaha means to resemble something. A
shuppah masquerades as truth. An average person with
limited knowledge might be persuaded by it, but
in reality it is falsehood. The prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said that the impostor messiah, the
antichrist,
will cause many Muslims
to go astray because the impostor messiah is
an expert at raising Shubu hat,
pseudo verities,
confusing people
by implanting doubt.
Speaking of the antichrist,
let's bring it back to Zionism.
The most consequential example of adopting a radical
position
that I can think of is the Jewish
and Christian adoption of Zionism. In other words,
a Zionist reading of the Bible
is a radical reading of the Bible.
It is essentially a modern, Eurocentric,
settler colonial reading of the Bible. It is
to read and interpret the Bible through the
lens of Zionist
principles.
Imagine reading the Bible through the lens of
Nazi principles or Marxist principles.
It is to depart from long standing biblical
exegesis
and its normative tradition. It is to deviate
from the jama'ah
in order to fulfill one's worldly desires.
We know that inherent with the European settler
colonialism
is the continuous,
continuous
dispossession
of the indigenous population
through ethnic cleansing, either genocide
or forced expulsion.
Ethnic cleansing is inherent
in Zionism. That's a quote from doctor, Rashid
Khalidi.
Doctor Benny Morris, former professor at Ben Gurion
University in Israel, he's the author of several
books, a Zionist himself.
He said that the idea of transfer
is inbuilt
and inevitable
in Zionism. Transfer is an Orwellian euphemism
for expulsion or ethnic cleansing.
Inbuilt and inevitable.
Now Zionism has 2 horns,
secular and pseudo religious.
Secular Zionism throws the Torah and its tradition
in the garbage
and redefines a Jew
primarily along racial lines. It's race over religion.
Zionism as a settler colonial project was founded
by atheists.
I think it was Ilham Pape who once
quipped, most Zionists don't believe that God exists,
but they do believe that he promised them
Palestine,
coming from an Israeli.
So those are the secular Jewish Zionists. But
what what is the radical position of the
religious Jewish Jewish Zionists?
For the religious Jewish Zionists, the Zionist movement
constitutes what's known as the Hat Chalat Haqaulah
in Hebrew, the beginning of the messianic redemption.
That is to say, Zionism is an acceptable
means by which god will bring about the
Jewish redemption under the Messiah.
This is a deviation at best, blasphemy at
worst. Therefore, for the religious Jewish Zionist, a
Jew may no longer remain diasporic.
He can now reject the traditional idea of
a divinely decreed indefinite
exile
from the Holy Land. What's the result? Come
make Aliyah to the West Bank and continue
to contribute to the ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinians. Now
what do I mean by divinely decreed indefinite
exile?
So before the blasphemy of religious Jewish Zionism
Zionism,
which is called Adzionot Datit in Hebrew, for
100 and 100 and 100 of years, almost
2000 years, most Jews the world over believed
based upon
explicit Muhamkamat
texts in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament,
that their exile from the Holy Land was
justified.
That it was divinely decreed due to their
disobedience,
Jewish disobedience.
This was the most prevalent traditional understanding among
Jews.
In other words, the Holy Land, the Promised
Land was given on condition.
This is extremely important.
It was conditional.
Obey God or else the land will reject
you and God will thrust you out. This
waid,
this threat is stated dozens of times in
the Tanakh. It's all over the place. Deuteronomy,
Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel. It's all over the place.
So according to the most according to most
traditional authorities, no one other than God,
by means of the Messiah,
can initiate a return to the Holy Land.
No one other than God, by means of
the Messiah,
can reestablish a Jewish nation, kingdom, or homeland.
They must wait
patiently for the Messiah.
Whereas Maimonides said in his principle number 12
of his 13 principles of Jewish faith in
his Mishnah Torah, I believe with complete faith
in the coming of the Messiah. And even
if he should tarry, I nevertheless will wait
every day for his coming.
The Jews are under a 2 1000 year
divinely mandated diaspora.
This is what almost all Jews believed
prior to a 150 years ago. This is
Judaism
in its most widely taught tradition.
Of course, there were exceptions.
Extremists
like Nachmanides,
not Maimonides,
Nachmanides.
But for the majority, any attempt to reestablish
any land
through military means in lieu of the Messiah
was viewed as kufr,
as rebellion against God.
Even if there's some uninhabited
island the size of a football stadium in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The Jewish people have no right to it
whatsoever according to the majority of the traditional
orthodox, the Cheredim of their own tradition.
One of the most famous anti Zionist rabbis
was Rabbi Yisrael Nair Kagan. He was a
famous halakist, a jurist. He died in 1933.
This is what he said. The quote, the
Zionists are the dead limbs
of our people which caused the entire
body to rot.
In other words, these Zionists are making trouble
for all of us. Their fitna is affecting
all of us. They're giving Judaism a bad
name.
The anti Zionist traditional orthodox say Israel is
not a Jewish nation, it's an abomination.
They say,
This is their mantra in Hebrew.
A true Jew is not a Zionist.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says. They're not
all the same. But unfortunately, it gets even
worse.
According to a radical religious Jewish Zionist,
God promised the Holy Land to the sons
of Jacob. And so it is the duty
of his descendants to not only initiate a
return to the land, to seize the Holy
Land and break the exile, but to continuously
implement in every generation
the various mitzvot or commandments
in the Torah
that are particular to the Holy Land. What
mitzvot am I talking about? Mitzvah number 7
528,
to commit herem of non Jews from the
river to the sea. We should know this
term, herem.
It's a hard heh, h e r e
m. Herem. What does that mean? Genocide,
ethnic cleansing.
Mitzvah number 604, to exterminate
Amalek,
whom high ranking Israeli officials have explicitly identified
as the Palestinians.
Gradual and continuous
annihilation
of men, women, children, and animals. This is
radical Judaism,
and this is what we're seeing right now
as innocent men, women, and children are being
burned alive
at refugee camps
in Rafah.
Most traditional Jews have very different ways of
dealing with these mitzvot
in the Torah.
So let's see what happened. Listen closely.
These violent verses in the Torah
that most traditional authorities
consider to be highly contingent and limited
in their application.
Okay? These verses were suddenly universalized
by a few Ashkenazic
rabbis, European rabbis, in the 20th century in
order to harmonize the Torah
with the principles of Zionism, to accommodate
Zionism.
But then to justify themselves religiously,
they would find these minority opinions
like the extreme opinions of Nachmanides
who advocated continuous unrelenting
herem, genocide, in the Holy Land, from the
river to the sea in every generation.
To put it simple,
Judaism
Judaism plus Zionism
equals radical Judaism.
When we look back at Islamic conquest, we
see something very different. The indigenous were allowed
to live in their homes and practice their
religion and customs.
The Zoroastrians who didn't convert survived in Iran.
The Christians survived in North Africa. To this
day, there's millions of them. The Jews thrived
in Muslim countries for centuries.
If they convert to Islam, they convert. If
not, they pay a tribute tax if they
can afford it. And they're guaranteed protection from
the Muslim polity. This is called dhimmni status,
protected status. Genocide, ethnic cleansing are against the
principles of Islamic conquest.
We have this
concept of Ahlul Kitab,
protected minority status.
Were there injustices committed by certain Muslims? Yes.
But these were in breach of the Sharia.
By contrast,
ethnic cleansing is inherent
in Zionism, to quote doctor Khalidi again. Ethnic
cleansing is in the DNA
of Zionism.
According to Khalidi,
protected minority status was completely contradictory to the
aims of Zionism. Why? Because the whole point
of Zionism
is not to have goyim.
That's the whole point, not to have Gentiles.
It's Der Judenstaat,
the Jewish state.
So Zionism is a betrayal of the Old
Testament teaching. But here's where it gets even
more disturbing.
Zionism is also a betrayal of the New
Testament teaching.
It is a betrayal of Biblical Christianity.
According to the clear teachings of the New
Testament
and the an established Christian tradition, the Jews
are no longer the chosen people. The New
Testament clearly advances replacement theology.
This is also called covenantal supersessionism.
Supersessionism
is this idea that the Christian church has
superseded the nation of Israel as God's covenant
people.
Of course, this is not a total replacement
because Jews can still believe in Jesus, and
they must believe in Jesus if they want
to remain God's people. That's traditional
Christianity.
Now, Christian Zionists,
they love to quote Genesis 12:3,
where God says to Abraham, I will bless
him that blesses you and curse him that
curses you.
So they take this to mean that they
must bless and support the modern day of
Israel, the modern state of Israel, or else
God will curse them.
This is what they say.
Where are they getting this from? A recent
shubha
called dispensationalism.
This is not biblical.
They were hoodwinked.
They were duped.
Just recently, perhaps you heard about this, a
duped congressman from, Georgia
was questioning the president of Columbia University.
Right? This was in the context of the
pro Palestine campus encampments.
He asked the president of Columbia,
president Shafiq,
he said, quote, are you familiar with Genesis
12:3?
She said, probably not as much as you
are. Then he said, oh, it says,
if you bless Israel, I will bless you.
If you curse Israel, I will curse you.
Do you want Columbia University to be cursed
by
God? Christian Zionists like this ignorant congressman
say Christians have a religious duty
to love and support Israel. This totally contradicts
the New Testament.
Just read the letters of Paul of Tarsus.
13 of the 27 books of the New
Testament, almost half are explicitly attributed to him,
and Paul is a supersessionist
to his very core. Listen to what Paul
says in Galatians 3 16,
about God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:3.
So Paul explicitly comments on Genesis 12:3. The
Christian Zionists summarily ignore him.
Ajib,
here's what he says. The promises were spoken
to Abraham and to his seed. And here
the Christian Zionist says, amen.
But Paul continues.
Scripture does not say enter seeds, meaning many
people,
but enter your seed, meaning 1 person who
is Christ.
According to Paul, God in Genesis
was specifically referring to Jesus Christ as being
Abraham's seed. Only Jesus and those who believe
in him
are blessed, not the disbelieving Israelites and certainly
not the modern genocidal,
blasphemous,
apartheid,
ethno state of Israel founded by atheists.
Paul goes on to say, Galatians 32829,
conditional statement.
If you belong to Christ,
then you're Abraham's seed
and heirs according to the promise. So believers
in Jesus are the new chosen people according
to the New Testament. It's crystal clear. You're
only chosen and blessed if you believe in
Jesus.
Religious Jews do not believe in Jesus,
to put it kindly.
And secular Jews,
forget about Jesus, most of them don't even
believe in God.
My point is, if New Testament believing Christians
would just follow their tradition,
they would not support Zionism,
they would not be war hawking for Israel
and supporting genocide.
Millions upon millions of Christian Zionists supported the
invasion of Iraq 20 years ago. I remember
it well for theological reasons, because it was
in Israel's best interest. What is Israel's best
interest? It's all laid out. It's all on
the Internet. The Ynon Plan. Look it up.
Ynon Plan of 1982, also called the Greater
Israel Project.
Of course, the American public was sold a
pack of lies about WMDs,
absolutely disgraceful.
A quarter of a 1000000 innocent Iraqis murdered,
probably more.
How many Afghan families were murdered?
We had these Christian Zionist leaders and preachers
on television
with millions of followers stoking hatred for Arabs,
hatred for Muslims, offering these half witted,
asinine,
futuristic interpretations
of biblical verses, which they claim were referring
to Saddam Hussein in Iraq and these types
of things. Total nonsense.
All for the glory and protection of Israel.
War hawking for Israel by means of bad
theology.
Warhawking for Israel
by means of bad theology. This is a
murderous ideology. Christian Zionism
is a murderous extremist
radical
ideology.
Who says that? Doctor Steven Sizer. Doctor Sizer
is a Bible believing Christian.
He wrote a book called Christian Zionism,
Roadmap to Armageddon,
and that's exactly what it is. It's a
roadmap to Armageddon.
As thesis of, as theists of normative religion,
we don't want Armageddon.
We don't wanna see the fitna of the
end of days. It's the worst fitna in
human history. No one but a psychopath wants
to hasten that fitna. How did Zionism become
so popular among the Protestants in particular? We
don't have time. I'm out of time, but
it's a fascinating history. It involves men named
John Nelson Darby and Clarence Larkin
and James Hall Brooks, CI Scofield. It it
involves a book called the Scofield Study Bible,
infamous
Bible. It involves a radical eschatology.
Radical.
Radical not as in good. That's radical. No.
No. No. Called modern dispensationalism.
It involves a radical theology called dual covenant
theology. This is what happens
when tradition is ignored and people follow their
desires.
This is your reformation,
You ahlulkitab.
In conclusion,
my respected brothers and sisters in Islam,
know your tradition.
As Allah
commands, stand firm as you have been commanded.
Hold fast to our principles.
Be committed mind, body and soul to our
beautiful, robust
and time tested tradition.
We don't need to reform,
we need to reinform.
Take a lesson from Ahlul Kitab,
Disobeying Allah
to chase kuffar
down lizard holes only leads to major fitna
and facade upon the earth.