Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libbi (May Allah protect him) “Of the master of martyrs…” Lal Masjid
11-08-2007
[The following is a transcription of the As-Sahab video “Of the master of martyrs…” where Sheikh Abu Yahya al-Libbi (hafidhullaah) discusses the Lal Masjid incident and some of its pearls]
In The
Name Of Allah, The Merciful, The Compassionate
All praise is due to Allah, and prayers and peace be upon the messenger of
Allah, and upon his family, his companions, and all those who followed him.
Nation of Islam, May the peace, blessings and mercy of Allah be with you.
Long ago, a poet said, “Killing is destined for us, fighting is for us, and
staying behind is for women”, but today we are in an era in which the situation
is reversed. It is an era in which men are wearing the veils of women, and are
staying inside their homes, hiding in the dark corners of their houses, after
they held back from entering the areas, the fierceness of which are entered only
by heroes. They are paving the way for the weak women, so that they might do
something for their nation, which the previous had refused to do.
Alas, what a pity to see an era in which such weakness has settled, and such
feebleness has nestled among its people, leaving them overpowered by cowardice,
and forcing their veiled and anklet-wearing women to take the stand of men, and
go to the battlefields at the calls of Takbir [the proclamation of the greatness
of Allah], and search for a supporter and for the calls for help. They are moved
by living faith, live conscience, and hearts filled with exploding volcanoes of
fervency for the truth, and flowing rivers of sorrow over a slandered religion,
a violated honor, and an insulted Shariah in a country that is corrupted by the
dishonest, and controlled by the apostate infidels; its womanlike men and
worshippers of lust.
We all heard about Hafsa University [Jamia Hafsa] in the city of Islamabad in
wounded Pakistan, which took a stand that made it worthy of its name as the
university of Hafsa, the daughter of Umar [one of Prophet Muhammad’s wives], may
Allah be pleased with both of them. It took a stand in which chastity and virtue
screamed in the face of profligacy, shamelessness, and debauchery, and the
voices of pride in faith and in religion were heard decrying and belittling the
calls for the sinful modern civilization, and the shameless Western freedom,
which is promoted by the advocates of depravity in Pakistan to catch up with the
procession of modern Al-Jahiliyyah [meaning ignorance, referring to pre-Islamic
times].
Faith called loudly until the ground shook by its echo, and the fragile
pre-Islamic like entity trembled.
“Do they then seek judgment of (the days of) ignorance? But who, for a people
whose faith is assured, can give better judgment than Allah” Quran 5:50
It is true that the university’s degree might not have a great weight in the
world of worldly degrees, which are pursued by many. But this time, and with its
honorable stand, its certificate received the highest medals of honor, and
earned the highest status, and was recognized, and respected by everyone who
loved or hated it, because it is a certificate of righteousness, truth and
faith. It is a certificate of righteousness because it uttered the truth and
raised the banner of guidance and echoed with the words of certitude, and
supported the calls of purity and shouted in the world of deep darkness
“Verily this is My way, leading straight; follow it: follow not (other) paths:
they will scatter you about from His (great) path: thus doth He command you.
That ye might be righteous.” Quran 6:153
It is a certificate of righteousness because it was motivated by zealousness for
the religion, and was moved to rebel by the fervency to support the faith, and
was driven by disdain for submission to the promoters of indecency. Despite its
weakness, its self-esteem was brought out by its sincere attachment to Islam,
and was thrown in the face of the despicable wrongfulness.
“We should indeed invent a lie against Allah, if we returned to your ways after
Allah hath rescued us there from.” Quran 7:89
It is a certificate of righteousness because it uncovered the deceitful
wrongfulness and removed the fake covers from the black grim faces of its owners
and forced them out of their deceptive hideaways to stand in front of everyone,
stripped, exposed and humiliated, with nothing to cover them, thrown
disgracefully where they belong.
“Those who resist Allah and His Messenger will be among those most humiliated.”
Quran 58:20
It is a certificate of righteousness because it sprouted from pure instinct, and
sprang from the depth of monotheistic hearts, and rose from the moral
constitution of pure souls. It did not wait for permission from a disguised
liar, nor a recommendation from a fake adulator; nor recognition or appreciation
from a ravaging careless tyrant. The permission and the recommendation and the
recognition are all in the noble saying of He who has Grace,
“Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good,
enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to
attain felicity” Quran 3:104
So, good cheers to that group who sought cover under the shadow of lofty manners
and jumped on the summit of honor and answered the righteous call with calmness
and confidence in the middle of the noise and racket of the calls of corruption
and indecency.
You [addressing the women of Jamia Hafsa] answered the call of righteousness
without hesitation, and you disobeyed the voice of the unchaste liars; you
avoided the manners of the enemy graciously, and you followed the manners that
were ordained by your Lord; you gave up their outfits and masquerades and made
the Hereafter your ultimate desire. Prosper, oh sister, in seeking
gratification, so pray in thanks to the Giver of your blessings.
Today, after the Hafsa University in Islamabad recorded its stand, and rose with
it to the throne of glory, its professors and scholars refused that their stand
would be other than the stand of their students, whom they had raised on the
meanings of faith and instilled in their hearts strong determination. They
taught them to seek excellence, and paved for them paths of sacrifice. They
crowned the terraces of glory with a crown that shines over the forehead of
history, as they restore by their words and actions a symbol whose depth and
meaning can only be understood by those who are characterized by patience,
guidance and certitude,
“I do not mind when I am killed if I am a Muslim, and my death were for the sake
of Allah; and if Allah wills, He will bless my body if torn into pieces’ [poem]
This is how righteousness and certainty spoke in the past. It refused to back
off when matters were related to its faith. This is how truth and conviction
should be proclaimed today and every day. A person should refrain from
satisfying the unfaithful person with words that his despicable nature would
wish to hear. Such were the religious beliefs contained in the battle of the Lal
Mosque, or what is called the Red Mosque, and which is truly red, not red for
the sake of embellishment or camouflage, but because it was painted, rather
covered, with the blood of the faithful and chaste martyrs. This is how we
reckon them, but Allah is the judge, as they took the stance of unparalleled
heroes, engraving the pages of history with terrific combat stories that can
never be matched. And, as this great mosque used to graduate students and
scholars, who appealed for compassion, propagated virtue, and forbade vice, it
is today graduating a new class of master scholars, who, after receiving their
graduation medals, will be among the ranks of the masters of martyrdom. We do
consider them as such, but Allah is the final judge.
At the top of this regiment of lions is the courageous imam and the active
scholar, the martyr, the son of a martyred father, and a martyred mother too, as
we consider them as such, but Allah is the final Judge, Abd-al-Rashid Ghazi, may
Allah bestow His mercy upon them, who spoke the truth at a time of
subordination, and exalted faith at a time of submissiveness, and despised he
who was evil and proud, who depended on his own strength and relied on his own
omnipotence. He would confidently, surely and serenely tell him, ‘You depend on
your audacity and conceit, but I depend on Allah.
“Get ye then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan
be on to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me, and give me no
respite.” Quran 10:71
He is the one who said while facing the hardship of the blockade and the menace
of the enemy, “I would rather die than give up anything I call for or submit to
captivity.” His deed matched his word.
“Avoiding death to him was easy, but the bitter taste of observance, and the
rough road of morals returned him to it. He kept his feet firm in the swamp of
death and said to it under your toes lies hell.” [poem]
Did not our prophet, may the peace of Allah be upon him, say that the best kind
of jihad is telling the truth in the face of an unjust ruler. So what do you say
about a word of truth that may be thrown in the face of one of those infidels
and unjust? Rather, in the face of a country, its army, its intelligence and its
security authorities? The bearer of the truth conveyed it openly and honestly,
without flattery or adulation. He announced it in their midst and while looking
at the swords of injustice and revenge shining brightly before his eyes. He did
not fear them, nor did he pay much attention to them. He endured for the sake of
the truth until he attained his wish and met his end. He was killed and his
mother was also killed alongside of him, may Allah bestow him mercy upon her. He
died trying to shut up all the lying mouths, and silence all the hateful hearts
that spread lies and falsehoods, as if he was saying to them:
“Perish in your rage. Certainly, Allah knows what is in the breasts.” Quran
3:119
He was an example for those who fought under him, and became a school for those
that will follow his path, Allah permitting, so that their heads remain high and
so that the goal they would compete for is the attainment of the highest rank of
martyrdom and its most noble status. ‘If you take risk for the sake of an
honorable objective, do not be content with anything less than the stars.
“Meeting an honorable death is not more painful than a mundane death.” [poem]
Jabir, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated that the Prophet, may peace be
upon him, said:
“The master of all martyrs is Hamzah bin Abd-al-Muttalib [Prophet’s uncle] and
any man who was killed because he stood up to an unjust Imam [leader] and
enjoined for what is right and forbade what is wrong.” [Hadith]
Have the martyrs of the [Red] mosque not satisfied this criterion the Prophet
use to describe the master of all martyrs? Isn’t it true that they stood up to a
despotic, secular, and despicable tyrant after they saw him dragging the land
and the people to the abyss of abandoning Islam and morality and turning them
into blind followers and an exact copy of his masters in the East and West in
culture, values, creed, and customs? They stood up to him [Pervez Musharraf] and
to his agent and dishonorable army and his intelligence apparatus that targets
only the weak, in order to say “stop this train of corruption that destroyed the
country, and crushed the values and obliterated virtue.” They stood up to them
to say that Pakistan will not achieve independence from the worshippers of cows
[India] only to be enslaved by the worshippers of [material] pleasures and the
people of sin,
“They are only like cattle, nay, they are even farther astray from the Path
[even worse than cattle].” Quran 24:44
They stood up to them to say that Pakistan was not created to be turned into a
state that rejects Islam, fights its people, and condemns its commands, and
adopts the trash of ideas produced by the minds that were cursed by Allah and
are subject to His wrath and made out of them monkeys and swine, for they
worshipped false gods, putting them in high esteem, and turned them into the
laws of the land and forced the people to conform to them in the name of
civilization, and progress. They stood up to them to say that Pakistan was not
created to become an ally and a supporter of the patron of the Cross, America
and its followers, by chasing the mujahideen, detaining them, torturing the
monotheists, and opening its airspace, ports, and land to those infidels, and
allowing them to move freely in safety while their weapons massacre thousands of
Muslims here in Afghanistan. They stood up to them to say that the mission of
Pakistan’s army, which falsely carries the slogan of “Faith, Righteousness,
Jihad for the sake of Allah,” is not to defend the Crusaders, carry out their
orders without revision or objection, wreck the mosques, besiege the schools or
to kill the people in the streets. But the Pakistan Army’s mission is to truly
commit, without charlatanism or deception, to the slogan it claims it adopts and
carries.
They confronted them to tell them that our Muslim people in Pakistan, the people
of virtue, compliance, purity, humility, and zeal, have no room for the people
of prostitution, impudence, libertinism and lewdness, who would like for
indecency to spread among the believers. They confronted them to tell them that
Pakistan is a Muslim nation and its people are Muslims, and it [Pakistan] should
be ruled by Islam, enjoy [life] under the umbrella of its just Shariah [Islamic
law], to have the banner of monotheism fluttering in its skies, and the banners
of secularism and the cross rolling in its mud; and if it is not, then below the
ground is better than above it [death is better than life]. Because of that,
they rose, resisted and were killed, and they have become truly martyrs as we
count them and Allah is the final judge.
“Among the Believers are men who have been true to their covenant with Allah. Of
them some have completed their vow [of obtaining martyrdom], and some [still]
wait: but they have never changed [their determination] in the least.” Quran
33:32
It was as if they were offering their lives one by one, and plunging into the
sea of death one after the other, and finding excuses for themselves before
Allah, as the fragrance of faith and longing for paradise is going through their
emotions, they repeat in the voice of a man leaving his will:
“Brother if you shed tears over me and wet my grave with them in reverence, use
them to light the candles’ residues, and to guide you [the lit candles] toward a
time-honored glory; nothing is more generous, no better gift to be bestowed upon
and no liberality is greater.” [poem]
Allah willing, their pure and chaste blood that they offered freely, will be
prominent landmarks to guide the ramblers, and a flowing spring to irrigate the
tree of Islam in Pakistan. The banner that they were loyal to will be received
by those who follow their footsteps, follow their example and imitate their
actions, to finish building an edifice that they established with their remains.
This is how the procession of truth will continue.
“If one moon [light] is abating or fading, another one will show on the horizon
shining.” [poem]
A situation like this, which can not be overstated, should not just disappear
with the wind and melt in the oceans of lies. This is Allah’s Sunnah.
“And say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah. “They are dead.” Nay,
they are living, though ye perceive [it] not.” Quran 2:154
“Oh Martyr with whom Allah forever carried the battle of justice, you will
always be a banner, a leader of the symbol and a troop for sacrifices. We did
not forget you have taught us the smile of the believers in the face of death.”
[poem]
Oh people of jihad in Pakistan, oh lions of sacrifice, and oh you seekers of
martyrdom and the virgins of paradise, man dies but once. You should then seek
the meadows of martyrdom, which are not available in your country; rise in a way
that Allah will see in you what pleases Him; mobilize to remove this apostate
and corrupting tyrant; put an end to his secular tyrannical rule; and attack the
strongholds of his demeaned army, the dens of his filthy intelligence, and the
centers of his pre-Islamic-like regime. You should follow the example of your
neighbors; the heroic people of Afghanistan, who with their steadfastness,
strong will, persistence, and with their strong dependence on Allah have made
their country a grave for arrogant and powerful empires and forced them out
humiliated and defeated. Along with those empires, the people of Afghanistan
crushed all the dishonored agents, and you should do likewise.
You should know that the tax of humiliation that will be paid by the people of
Pakistan by their surrender, subordination and humiliation at the hands of this
apostate government is many times greater that the tax of glory, which they will
pay generously and willingly to glorify the religion [Islam], to instal the
Shariah, protect the faith, and liberate themselves from worshiping human beings
and delight in worshiping the Lord of all beings.
Justice will not be won by begging, rights are not attained by pleading, and
oppression will not be lifted by imploring, but with tough determination,
high-minded aims, serious work, and continuous sacrifices, by overcoming
difficulties and with the willingness to take risks.
“The greater the peoples’ determinations are, so will be the rewards, and the
pathetic people will not be able to achieve the smallest of things, but the
great people will achieve great things.” [poem]
Best of all and more beneficial to you is the Almighty Allah’s saying:
“Go ye forth, [whether equipped] lightly or heavily, and strive and struggle,
with your goods and your persons, in the cause of Allah. That is best for you,
if ye [but] knew.” Quran 9:41
We plead with Allah to accept the martyrs, elevate their rank in paradise, free
the prisoners and the subjugated, care for the wounded, cure the sick, grant the
families of all those serenity and reward them. He is benevolent and generous.
And our final supplication is praise be to Allah, Lord of all creation.
Sheikh Abu Yahya Al-Libi
16 Rajab 1428
July 31, 2007