Sikander Hashmi – Picking Sides in Conflicts KMA Friday Message
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Especially those who are not Muslim,
then usually the ummah usually the Muslims are
in agreement
with regards to who is right and who
is wrong most of the time.
But when the source of the chaos and
the turmoil
and the violence
is from within,
is from within the ummah,
then oftentimes what happens,
we find ourselves
divided.
We find ourselves in debates,
in discussions,
in arguments,
and sometimes things get
a bit nasty.
In any case though, what we find
is that there's a general feeling
of
sourness
and hostility
and perhaps betrayal and even astonishment
that, oh, how could you support those people?
Oh, how could you be a supporter of
that party?
Oh, how could you be a supporter of
such and such leader? Whatever the case may
be.
Regardless of the situation, my brothers and sisters,
we have to remember
that first of all,
we are all human beings. We are all
one human family.
And on top of that, we are all
Muslims.
And as Muslims, Allah has
made us brothers and sisters.
And thus, our perspectives
and our attitudes
and our views
with regards to any issue
or any conflict
must be humane
and also must be Islamic as well.
As Muslims,
our views and our attitudes must be humane
and also Islamic as well.
Now in the heat of the moment,
when, you know, emotions are running high,
and the anger,
and the outrage,
and the hatred
has spread through
hearts and minds, it can be easy to
forget that.
Because for many people at many times, it
can be a very emotional issue.
Perhaps
someone's family members have been impacted. Perhaps someone
has been impacted
themselves
negatively. People are hurt. People are afraid.
And in such situations,
there can be obviously
a lot of emotionally charged discussions
and moments where a person is not perhaps
acting or speaking
in a balanced and logical manner. So it
is easy to forget this.
Now my brothers and sisters, I'd like to
share with you a few reminders
for my benefit and yours to ensure
that our reaction and our response
is always humane
and Islamic. 2 key things to remember,
humane and Islamic.
So first of all,
it should be clear
that there is absolutely
no room or justification
for harming, especially killing innocent people and for
oppression.
The killing and hurting of people who are
innocent,
who have not killed anyone, who have not
harmed anyone,
who are not injuring anyone, and who are
not threatening
to harm or to kill
cannot be condoned and cannot be accepted
regardless of who is responsible,
regardless of who is responsible. It doesn't matter
who the group is or who the person
is.
Such behavior is always unacceptable
and regardless of who is targeted.
You know, sometimes they feel okay. If our,
you know, if our
people are doing something to others, oh, then
it's fine.
But, no, when our people are being targeted,
then, no, it is wrong. So this is
not the way of the believer.
The prophet
said,
Your blood, your property, and your honor
are inviolable
to you.
And he said this, right, in the blessed
land on a blessed day,
In Hajjatulwada,
the Khutbatulwada,
the final khutbah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam in the final Hajj.
He He said, they are inviolable to you
like the inviolability
of this day of yours, in this city
of yours, and in this month of yours.
So this is something which the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam has
marked as a red line. It is inviolable.
It is haram
to go
down that road.
And the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam also
said,
that beware of injustice.
Beware of injustice and oppression.
For oppression will be darkness on the day
of resurrection.
Imagine a person
who does acts, who commits acts of oppression
in this world,
thinking that he or she is doing a
noble act, thinking that he or she is
behaving in a way that is pleasing to
Allah
But on the day of judgment, they will
discover.
Rather, it was the opposite and will find
themselves in a state of darkness,
in a state of darkness and confusion
on the day of judgment. May Allah
protect us
all. So anything that leads
to the above, to oppression from any side,
again,
whether it is killing or torturing of innocent
people regardless of their
faith, or whether it is harming of property,
or destruct,
causing destruction of
places of worship, whether they are masajid,
whether they are churches, whether they are temples
or synagogues or whatever the case may be,
harshness
against people,
against innocent people, unnecessary harshness,
especially
against those who are vulnerable,
especially against women and children and girls.
This type of behavior is totally unacceptable. It
is not in the line in line with
the sunnah of Rasulullah he sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam never behaved in
this way, and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
never condoned, never taught anyone to behave in
this way. So that's number 1. Number 2,
my brothers and sisters,
our job as believers
and as people of justice
is to help each other in goodness and
justice
and not in aggression.
Sometimes what happens is that our sense of
loyalty,
our sense of or or our connections,
perhaps, you know, our connections to a certain
group of people, the people of our own
ethnicity, of our own village, of our own
tribe, or perhaps
our own area,
our own party, if we talk about politics,
can lead us to support those who we
affiliate ourselves with,
support those who we feel connected to even
when they are causing aggression and doing things
which are prohibited.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the
beginning of Surah Al Maidah,
Help each other in righteousness and piety,
and do not help each other in sin
in sin
and aggression. And Allah
says,
fear Allah
So here is a very beautiful, very simple
principle,
which sometimes can be difficult to apply for
some reason.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is telling us
very simply,
if people are doing good,
if they're doing acts of righteousness,
if they are doing acts of piety,
then support them
regardless of who they are.
If someone is doing good, be with them,
support them.
On the other hand, if someone is is
committing sin and aggression,
then don't be with them. Don't support them
regardless of who they are. Right? Simple as
that. Very simple if you live by this.
Right? Regardless of affiliation and who's supporting who
and who's supporting who and who's what, it
doesn't matter.
If they're doing good, acts of piety, righteousness,
bismillah. You support what is good.
If you find sin and aggression, things which
make you uncomfortable,
make you fearful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
then you stay away. Simple as that. Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala also tells us with regards
to justice.
O you who believe He's talking to us.
Oh you who believe, every single believer.
Be steadfast
for obeying the commands of Allah
and be witnesses for justice.
Be witnesses for justice.
And then Allah goes on and says,
That malice against the people,
you know, ill feelings towards the people should
not prompt you to avoid doing justice.
You always have to be fair even against
your most bitter enemy. You have to be
fair.
So do not go into injustice simply because
you don't get along with someone, simply because
you don't like them, or you have enmity
or hatred towards them.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, Do justice.
That is nearer to taqwa. That is closer
to piety. That is closer
to the fear of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So my brothers and sisters, beware of injustice
and beware of promoting
injustice and supporting those who are responsible for
injustice,
again, regardless
of which side it is. And
who
relates that rasulullah
said,
Right? Famous hadith that help your brother
whether he is an oppressor or is being
oppressed. So
the sahaba radiAllahu anhu are a little perplexed.
So they said, You Rasool Allah,
that, oh, messenger of Allah, we help the
one being oppressed. Right? Like, we understand if
someone is being oppressed, you help them out
of their oppression. You help them in their
situation.
You help save them.
But how do we help an oppressor?
How do we help someone who is an
oppressor? So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
by seizing his hand
by seizing their hand. So
your brother,
whether it's your blood brother or sister or
in faith or in humanity,
we learn that you must help people
in both situations. If they're oppressed, obviously, we
have to help them,
help save them, help protect them. But if
they are the oppressor, then we also have
a duty to help them,
but not in continuing their oppression
and holding their hand back, pushing them away,
holding them back, moving them away from committing
that oppression. Because at the end of the
day, that oppression is gonna come back to
bite them. They are the oppressor is going
to lose.
The oppressor is going to be the loser
at the end of the day. We see
this from time to time in this dunya,
and we will certainly see it in the
akhir and the hereafter on the day of
judgment. So oppression
and oppressing others,
causing harm to others will never lead
to meaningful success. It will always end up
in loss.
So protect the oppressor. Help the oppressor by
moving them away from their oppression.
So that's number 2. Number 3, my brothers
and sisters,
don't take information, especially in such circumstances,
at face value.
This is something that Allah
has told us
to verify
at all times,
generally,
to verify information.
Allah tells us that news comes to us,
we should verify
its correctness.
And especially in cases
where there could be harm to others.
Be careful
of what news you accept.
Be careful of what news you accept that
you believe in,
that you pass on to others,
and that you act upon.
Verify that the news
is 100% accurate
before using it to form an opinion or
to pass judgment.
And a lot of times what happens is
that we have
complex situations,
and there are many elements. You know, a
lot of times you say there are 2
sides,
but it's not always 2 sides. Sometimes there
are multiple sides.
Multiple sides and many times,
complex
situations, with many hidden interests as well. There
are the things that we see which are
on the surface, but there's
a lot more that we are not able
to see. There's a lot more that is
hidden.
There's a lot more that is being done
behind the scenes.
So it's very easy
to manipulate
a situation to one's advantage
and cause trouble and blame someone else to
make them look bad. And it is actually
known as a fact that especially when there
are conflicts, like armed conflicts,
that propaganda
is
a a weapon and a tool of war.
Right? It's a known fact, and pretty much
every side engages in it. Right? There's no
one who's, like, totally innocent
of this hardly.
Right? Almost every single
actor
in a conflict
in a large conflict will use propaganda
against their opponents
to win people over against their
opponent.
Now
it can be hard to find evidence of
that. Right? Because, again, it's hidden. It's not
apparent.
But it is a strong possibility
in many cases.
Right? And also realize
that especially in large conflicts where many people
are involved,
you know, no one side is going to
be perfect even in smaller conflicts, like within
communities and stuff. Right? No and families. No
one person is going to be perfect or
no one group or one side is going
to be perfect.
There are ignorant people.
There are
troublemakers.
There are people who cannot control their anger,
contain their anger and their emotions
everywhere on every side.
Right? It's not like there's one side that
is made up of completely of angels,
of people who are a 100% perfect and
sinless because, obviously, there's no one like that
in the denier right now,
and that the other side is all made
up of and every single person is evil,
or you're hardly there's hardly gonna be a
situation like that. Almost the angel thing obviously
is not gonna happen because every single human
being commits sins and makes mistakes. Yes. There
may be degrees. Some may be better than
others. Absolutely.
Some may have better intentions than others. Absolutely.
But at the end of the day, when
we talk about large groups of people, when
we talk about large conflicts, there are always
going to be people who are ignorant, who
are troublemakers, who can't contain themselves,
and, you know, who end up doing the
wrong thing everywhere on every side.
So when there's
such, you know, large situations and so many
people involved,
especially if it's over a large geographic area,
it's possible
for many reports
to actually be true in in particular areas.
And there may actually be cases where people
are making up stuff as well. We just
don't know. Right? That's just a complex part
of the complexity of the situation. And when
we are far away, when we are not
party even for people who are there, it
can be difficult.
But especially when we are removed
geographically in terms of distance from an area,
it can be, you know, be it can
be difficult. It may not be impossible, but
it can be very difficult
to get a completely accurate picture of everything
that is going on.
We may be able to get, perhaps, verified
reports
from our contacts, our sources, people who are
on the ground, especially if you have family.
You have you know people who are there,
but they know what they have seen.
What do they know? They know what they
have seen. They know what they have heard
from others,
and they may not necessarily know everything that
is going on. Right? So basically, whenever there
is such a situation,
there is a high chance of misinformation,
of misunderstanding,
of,
of
propaganda,
of lies, whether there are, you know, purposeful
or, you know, just innocent misunderstandings.
People have biases, so it's
complicated when it comes to trying to understand
exactly what is happening somewhere.
So that brings me to my 4th point,
which is the beautiful teaching of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that
that whoever believes in Allah and the last
day,
Whoever believes in Allah and the last day,
which is basically every believer.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, such person
should say something good or they should remain
silent.
Say something good,
say something positive,
say something constructive
and meaningful,
which is going to help the situation, which
is going to be pleasing to Allah
or just stay silent.
There's no compulsion upon us to formulate an
opinion on every single issue and every single
conflict,
and then more so on top of that
to propagate it and share it.
Like, no one's putting a gun to your
head and saying that, oh, if you don't
give your opinion on this issue and post
it on social media or, you know, on
WhatsApp or whatever, like, you're gonna you know,
something's gonna happen to you or you're gonna
be sinful or something or you're gonna get
harmed.
No. Just, like, keep it to yourself. Right?
You're not sure about what's happening. Just admit.
Let's just admit. Okay. I don't know. I'm
not sure. I'm not there. I don't have
all the details.
Yeah. I can try to understand the situation
and formulate some sort of opinion in my
head. I don't need to share it with
everyone. Yeah. Maybe you wanna share it with
someone. You know, you're just talking, chit chatting
privately. Okay. Fine. It doesn't have to be
broadcast. It doesn't have to be, you know,
shared and propagated, especially when you really don't
have a clue as to exactly what's happening.
So my brothers and sisters, you know, political
differences, differences of opinion
regarding the best course forward for a community,
for a nation, this is nothing new.
This is nothing new. Sometimes people get surprised
when there's differences on issues.
Like, seriously, what did she expect? You know,
like everyone's gonna think the same? No. Of
course not. Right? Everyone's created different. Everyone has
different experiences, has different, you know, backgrounds, has
different, you know,
levels of understanding of education, different sources of
information.
So, of course, people are going to disagree.
You know? There's nothing new. Right? There were
serious differences even amongst the companions of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Right? Not too long after the passing of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
So to have differences is normal. It is
part of living together with other human beings.
It's part of living together with other human
beings that people are gonna have differences of
opinion.
Now, oftentimes, we find people who are focused,
you know, on one aspect
of the group that they are supporting or
that they are inclined towards
while the opponents are focusing on a different
aspect,
or
they are receiving different and conflicting information upon
which they are basing their opinions,
or perhaps they have different priorities. They're looking
at different things,
or maybe they just have a different way
of looking at things.
Right? So give, my brothers and sisters, give
people the benefit of the doubt.
Don't jump to conclusions.
Be measured
about your opinion regarding those who don't see
things your way. It doesn't have to be
you're either with us or against us.
Right? That type of dichotomy does not need
to exist.
Right? It could be someone who thinks differently,
but for some reason, that
is not the one that you are assuming.
Okay. So give people the benefit of the
doubt. And as civilized human beings and especially
as Muslims,
we must be guided by the principles of
justice,
of goodness, and righteousness,
and not to be blinded
in support or opposition.
Very few things in the world are going
to be black and white. Very few issues
are going to be black and white.
There's going to be a lot of gray.
There's going to be a lot of shades
of gray.
So let's understand and appreciate that. We ask
Allah
to unite the hearts
of the Ummah in goodness.
We pray for our brothers and sisters,
our innocent brothers and sisters who are living
in fear or who have lost their lives
under oppression,
may Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, shower his mercy
and forgiveness
upon them. We pray. We ask Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
for peace and security
for people who are innocent
everywhere, for the protection of their homes and
their properties
and their community.
May Allah
remove their fear, their stress, and their anxieties,
and we ask Allah
to bring true peace and stability and justice
all over the world and especially
in the Muslim lands. Ameen You Rabbar Ally.