Al-jihad fi sabil Allah (part 2)

Attaining power is not the objective in Islam. That is not the end. It is a means to an end. And the end must always be to uphold the tenets and doctrine of Islam. And power for the sake of power is not on in Islam. It must be power for the sake of a higher objective. And this higher objective is God. Hence Muslims will say al-jihad fi sabil Allah or strive in the way of Allah.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

DAP chairman Karpal Singh has again warned PAS not to spoil Pakatan Rakyat’s chances in the 13th general election by continuing to make contradictory statements regarding its stand on setting up an Islamic state and instituting hudud laws. “PAS is only scuttling Pakatan Rakyat’s march to Putrajaya in the coming elections with contradictory statements on its stand on Islamic state,” he said today. (READ MORE HERE)

I have written before that PAS is a political party, albeit an Islamic party, and the objective of political parties is to attain power. Hence the focus of PAS must be to win the general elections because only by winning the elections will they attain power.

I also wrote that if certain people in PAS wish to propagate Islam then they should leave the party and go join a missionary movement. Islam should be propagated through a missionary movement and not through a political party, whose job is to win elections and form the government.

Hence I would support what Karpal Singh said.

However, that is easier said that done. While PAS may be a political party and not a missionary movement, the objective of PAS is to see Islam implemented in Malaysia. And we cannot blame PAS for this. In fact, Islam itself is not a religion but a way of life. Hence Islam is not just about praying and fasting. It is about setting up an Islamic system of administration.

Secular states and separation of church and state do not exist in Islam and never was the objective of Islam regimes since the beginning of Islam back in the 600s. Hence PAS would face great difficulty in trying to explain to Muslims how it can forsake the ideals of Islam for the sake of attaining power.

Attaining power is not the objective in Islam. That is not the end. It is a means to an end. And the end must always be to uphold the tenets and doctrine of Islam. And power for the sake of power is not on in Islam. It must be power for the sake of a higher objective. And this higher objective is God. Hence Muslims will say al-jihad fi sabil Allah or strive in the way of Allah.

DAP has to accept that fundamental aspect of Islam, and thus that of PAS as well. You can tell PAS that you disagree with the ideals of an Islamic state. You can agree to disagree on this. But you can’t ask PAS to abandon its ideal of an Islamic state. To do so would be asking PAS to abandon the ideals of al-jihad fi sabil Allah.

DAP and PAS, plus PKR, of course, can enter into an electoral pact -- because that is what it really is in the absence of a legally registered coalition like Barisan Nasional. But whether this loose coalition can agree on all issues or they have to leave some issues aside on the basis of agreeing to disagree is something that needs to be accepted.

It is either that or end the relationship and each party go solo -- which would mean Barisan Nasional might as well be given a walk over because it is going to win hands down anyway.

Australians were divided as to whether the Queen of England should still be regarded as Australia’s Queen as well or whether Australia should be turned into a Republic with a President. The Australian Republic Referendum was held on 6th November 1999 to resolve this. 55% voted in favour of maintaining status quo with 45% in favour of an Australian Republic.

In the event that Pakatan Rakyat wins the coming general election and gets to form the new federal government, can the same thing be done? If 55% vote in favour of retaining the Secular system of government with 45% of favour of a Theocratic system of government then status quo is maintained.

Nevertheless, even after the Islamic State Referendum is held and it gets defeated, that still does not stop PAS from continuing to talk about the Islamic state -- and they should not be denied their democratic right to talk about it, just like some Australians are still debating today whether to retain the Queen or turn Australia into a Republic.

The struggle of a Muslim must be to strive in the way of Allah. There are no two ways about it. You aspire power but it should not be for power’s sake but for the sake of upholding the religion of Allah. And any Muslim who does something else is not a true Muslim.

So understand what the duty of PAS is. And if you agree to work with PAS it must be with taking this point into consideration. Even the Muslims in Medina entered into an alliance with the Jews. Of course, later, the Jews were said to have breached the agreement by their treacherous act and were hence expelled from Medina.

Note that ‘declaring war’ on the Islamic State would be like declaring war on Islamic itself. And in such a situation PAS would have to trigger the rules of war. It is thus always better to engage than to declare war because in a ‘war’ the boundaries become blurred. Anyway, read what Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid said below and figure out yourself what it means.

And note that I have been saying this for more than 15 years.

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Islam allows deception in war in order to attain victory. Al-Nawawi said: “The scholars are agreed that it is permissible to deceive the kuffaar (infidels) in war in any way possible, except if that would mean breaking the terms of a treaty or trust, in which case it is not permitted.”

The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “War is deceit.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 3029; Muslim, 58).  One of the most dangerous elements of deceit is taking the enemy by surprise and catching them unawares before they can get ready to fight. When the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) wanted to head for Makkah in order to conquer it, he ordered the Muslims to get ready without telling anyone of his intention until after they had set out for Makkah, and after taking all precautions to prevent news of that reaching the mushrikeen.

And the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to send out many raiding parties, and he would tell them to travel by night and conceal themselves by day so that they could catch the enemy unawares.

Although it is permissible to use deception in war, we say that Islam has attained a high standard of ethics with regard to the use of these tricks in war. Among the most prominent examples of that are the following:

‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab wrote to the commander of an army that he had sent out: “I have heard that some men among you look for kaafirs, then when they run to hide in difficult mountainous terrain they say, ‘Do not be afraid,’ then when they catch up with them they kill them. By the one in whose hand is my soul, if I hear that anyone has done that I will chop off his head.”

It was narrated that Abu Muslimah said: “ ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab said: ‘By the One in Whose hand is my soul, if any one of you were to point to the sky [i.e., a gesture to imply that he will not harm him] to make a mushrik come down to him and then kill him, I would kill him for that.’”

Islam has forbidden treachery, and treachery is not one of the kinds of tricks and deception that are permitted in war.

This Islamic sharee’ah makes a distinction between the kinds of deceit that are permitted and that which involves treachery and breaks treaties. -- Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid