30 January 2013

The blessed relief of Timbuktu and the tragedy of the destruction of its great library faces us with the issue of the abysmal failure of the pseudo-salafi monotheist and anti-Islamic movement of ibn Abdalwahhab which began in the desert of Arabia and ended in ignominy in the desert of the Sahel. It was from its inception a denial of the city, the Messenger, and the social nexus. It was a curse and it is finished, only its ghost remains in Tunisia and Egypt. The whole mythic fabric of anti-Islamic wahhabism, insha’llah I will deal with in a separate text.

The purpose of the message is to point out how undefended modern Muslims are, and the still unconfronted problems of modernity facing our Arab brothers in the Gulf region. There is, now, the beginning of a way forward – for Islam and, yes, for the Arabs.

Firstly a defence. The openly fascist Right in France, despite its Republican pretensions, under Marine Le Pen, still adopts alongside its ‘nice’ democratic role-playing, an on-going anti-Arab position. It should be remembered that Le Pen, the founder, is openly regarded in France as an ex-torturer from the Algerian war.

The National Front media system has launched in Europe a slander against the Amir and State of Qatar. They have claimed that Qatar is playing ‘a double game’ in opposing the wahhabite rebels while secretly funding their futile venture.

This insult cleverly veils the genuine and important role of Qatar. Qatar, rightly, longs to rescue the Tuareg nation both from a wasted energy spent in a 20th century fantasy of nationalism, while at the same time persuading them to a respected federal position inside Mali. Equally, Qatar, desperately wanted to rescue Mali’s literary heritage.

The Euro-fascist attack on Qatar has two motives.

They do not want the issue of Mali’s recovery to have any Islamic dimension. The NATO-based media have insisted on calling the rebels ‘jihadists’ – thus branding all Muslims with a collective blame for what is the work of a rebel rump let loose uniquely by the disastrous NATO campaign in Libya and its resultant anarchy.

There is gold in Mali. It is the primal consideration. France has its known past in the Sahel, notably the slaughter of the Tuareg aristocracy in an attempt to destroy their culture. This does not condemn them in their present action, which is both culturally and humanly a rescue operation. We Muslims can only support the French operation while deploring the Nigerian bid for an entry north into the Sahel, backed by an invented Christianism (the oil corporations) versus the evil and comic Boko Haram – their invention to mask that the Muslim North of Nigeria is civilised and the pagan south is chaotic.

The second motive is that Qatar hosts the dazzlingly successful TV channel Al Jazeera which casts a cool eye on the geo-political realities of our time. Its coverage is both profound and based on a scholarship vastly superior to CNN and SKY who rely, hit and miss, on so-called experts – on ‘Terrorism’ (a second-class degree from a third-rate university), on the ‘Middle’ East, on Indian ‘Mao-ist’ rebels and so on. An attack on Qatar is a desperate attempt to discredit a high-powered media voice of freedom.

This brings us to our hope for the Arabs – since they never had a Spring – here is some light refreshing rain!

When the desert dust settles from Timbuktu to Qatar one clear matter emerges. The outrageous offer made by the kuffar to the Muslims was as follows: ‘Since you bow your heads in shame and denial at the actions of the evil terrorists who stand for an ‘extreme’ Islam and who wish to impose the evil ‘Shari’at’ – we can accept you if you declare Islam a ‘personal’ religion standing for tolerance, democracy and banking.’ In other words that does away with the last of the great religions as we wiped out the other two.

It so happens that this futile attempt at finishing-off Islam was based on two things. One, that ‘terrorism’ would be accepted as the synonym for Islam and two, that this would pre-empt the Muslims from realising that it was something utterly different.

The second factor was posited on the conviction that capitalism was a world success and that usury, (increase in the exchange) had finally been accepted as natural – a part of nature, and not as defined by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as AGAINST NATURE, contra naturam.

Unfortunately, for them in 2008 the whole system fell apart revealing that mathematically perpetual increase could not function on (world) limited resources.

Now is the time for young Arabs to wake up to the fact that high rise building projects do not a civilisation make. That ski-ing in the desert, Formula One racing, and miserable football do not create a just society let alone a viable future.

Now is the time for young Arabs to realise that Madinan Islam, that of the Messenger, Allah’s blessings and peace on him, and the ‘Amal of the People of Madinah – that teaching protected by Caliph ‘Umar and the Lady Aisha, taught by Imam Malik – is the true heritage of the Arabs and world Islam.

Islam – like its Shahada, divides in two. Ibada and Amal. Or to de-code it from its legal frame: worship of God and all social contracts. It is based on Salat and Zakat.

That means – the absolute abolition of usury – and logically paper money, a promissory note, is invalidated. Kindly remember, dear Arab youth, that Islamic Banking was uniquely the creation of Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs!

Now is the time for young Arabs to recognise that Malik’s – that is the Madh-hab of the ‘Amal Ahl-al-Madinah – school is the inheritance and tradition of Madinah itself, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Qatar.

Many years ago Sheikh Zayed, Ruler of the Emirates, hosted my second Conference of Maliki Fiqh – the first had been in Granada – it was interrupted by the Iraq-Iran war. However, all the papers of that Conference are in the State Archives of Abu Dhabi. They constitute a unique summation of Madinan Fiqh by great contemporary scholars headed by Shaykh Ahmed ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Mubarak of Abu Dhabi and the then Sultan al-Ulama, Shaykh Shadhili an-Nayfar of Tunis. It is the Shari’at of Islam. No mention of amputated hands, beheadings or stonings. These are merely hadd-punishments, severely restricted, and requiring social causes to be established first.

Now is the time for young Arabs to realise that it is the end of an age. The final count-down of usury-capitalism. It is time for renewal. Such a time can only bring enormous wealth to the Arabs – one at present disappearing in devaluing dollars. The flash-flood of paper money is vanishing in the desert like an abandoned unrented skyscraper lies crumbling in Dubai.

As Allah the Exalted demands of us an answer when He declares in Sura At-Takwir:

“Where then are you going?”