Sheikh Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah: regarding the events of September 11th and the explosions of Riyadh, Casablanca and Madrid as forms of Jihad emanates from a narrow-minded mentality that
approaches Islamic religious texts with a limited outlook

In an interview with “Al-Shark Al-Awsat” journal (The Middle East journal), the Lebanese Religious Authority said that Jihad is not a simple question one can turn into a political slogan

By Imam Muhammad Imam

During the past month of April, I visited Lebanon to participate in the seventh conference of the Islamic Universities Association, held in Beirut and hosted by the Faculty of Imam Al-Ouza’i for Islamic studies. I grasped the opportunity to visit Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlullah, the Lebanese Shiite Religious Authority, in his residence in Haret Hreik, south of Beirut. We conferred over various issues mainly concerning the events now taking place in Iraq and the occupied land of Palestine.

The Islamic thought facing the challenges

* Your eminence! We know that today the Islamic Nation is facing a crisis after the increasing troubles resulting from the wars, assassinations and explosions that have been taking place in some of the Islamic world’s regions, leading to a certain kind of unrest or disorder among Muslims. My question is how the moderate Islamic thought is dealing with this crisis, taking into account the different schools, trends and communities it embraces?

- Israel commits all its aggressions against the Palestinian people and their leaders and occupies their territories with the approval and blessing of the successive U.S. administrations. This actually has endowed the Israeli assaults with a political legitimacy and an international cover as the Security Council was kept from condemning the assassinations and actions violating international law. This fact is admitted by the international community as a whole except for the United States that makes use of its veto right each time Israel is being a subject of condemnation. This is actually what made Israel feel free to carry out all kinds of assassination operations and all sorts of human, agricultural, structural and economic demolitions now in Palestine and earlier in Lebanon and various neighboring Arab countries. What is worth mentioning is the passive attitude of other countries and entities such as the European Union and Russia that are standing still, abstaining from taking any action against the Israeli criminal operations in fear for their interests with the United States.

As regards the assassinations and explosions starting from the events of September 11th in the United States, to the events of Riyadh and Casablanca, and finally to the events of Madrid and what happened recently in Riyadh; all of these tragic incidents have been given an Islamic face and labeled as a form of Jihad. Lots of people spoke about Jihad as if it embodies all of these actions.

We believe that this way of thinking emanates from a narrow-minded mentality that misinterprets the Islamic religious texts. In fact, Jihad is not a simple question that someone can use as a political slogan, as a means to give vent to his complexes, or as a way to confront another political party. Jihad is not an international or a regional theme, it is not about persons here and there; verily, the question of Jihad is governed by the plans based on the jurisprudential texts which must be scientifically approached and compared. Moreover, the question of Jihad must be treated by examining the negative and positive results that might affect the reality of Muslims in this event or that or by taking into consideration the objective circumstances surrounding the Arab and Islamic world. Besides, Jihad is not a question that can be decided by one jurist only. Indeed, it falls under those questions that require the gathering of all experiences. It should be dealt with by the jurists who are opened up to the wide Islamic jurisprudential culture that adopts comparison between texts, as well as by experts in politics, economics, military and security affairs and so on and so forth… On that account, we can say that the question of Jihad should be proposed, dealt with and carried out correctly away from emotions and inclinations. Nevertheless, there is another point that must be discussed in this regard; that is “At-takfir” (charging others with Kufr; meaning unbelief in Allah).

As a matter of fact, accusing others of unbelief is one of those issues that carry intellectual ambiguity. We all know that being a true Muslim means confirming the Oneness of Allah with all the characteristics and general headlines involved in this particular issue; it also means believing in Muhammad (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and upon his noble family) as the Messenger of Allah, believing in the Last Day and in the content and meaning of the Message with the Glorious Qur'an atop; the Qur'an that {No falsehood can approach it from before or behind it} ( Ha-mim  41: 42) and that has placed emphasis on the Shari'a in its saying ({So take what the Messenger assigns to you, and deny yourselves that which he withholds from you. And fear Allah. For Allah is strict in Punishment.} (59: 7).

Condemning others with unbelief happens when the obligatory postulates of Faith are broken. Consequently, such accusation is to be delivered only when the Messenger of Allah (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and upon his noble family) is being rejected; that is, when rejecting the basic principles or the self-evident admitted Truth, such as the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger (May the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him and upon his noble family). So, when a person rejects an axiom of Faith, it would be as if rejecting the Glorious Book and the Messenger of Allah (p.). However, when it comes to the theoretical matters that one can deny for the doubtful elements they carry here and there while he keeps his faith in the Messenger of Allah, the most Exalted, intact; his attitude in this case cannot be interpreted as unbelief because we are dealing with something involving suspicions, the thing that excuses his rejection. Besides, he is not aware of the connection between his rejection to these hateful matters and his faith in Allah and His Messenger; that is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Accordingly, accusing this person of unbelief would be, in this case, setting from a misunderstanding to what unbelief and faith really mean.

This is actually what happened in the past when Muslims faced this complicated problem. They accused each other of unbelief to the extent of considering it lawful to kill one another. In fact, in cases of unbelief, it becomes lawful to kill unbelievers only if they launch wars against believers and not because of unbelief itself. That is why Islam has recognized other unbelievers, the People of the Book and others, assuming that they had promised Muslims to observe the highest Islamic interests. Hence, we notice that what we are facing here is a closed culture that fails to open up to Islam’s comprehensiveness of concepts, and consequently mixes up between the ethical question, the question of faith, the methodical question and so on and so forth… Moreover, we find that those people - who deliver such accusations - treat the issue from one angle only and become engrossed by it; but we are all aware that Islamic jurisprudence embraces secondary as well as primary considerations.

It is very likely that, according to Islamic jurisprudence, a single matter can be regarded as lawful and then as unlawful when it is causes harm, and there are lots of examples that are deemed unlawful due to secondary considerations.

So, when we look into the reasons behind the accusations of unbelief against this party or that, or behind the decision of killing this person or that, we find that they are the result of this mentality bounded with a limited and prejudiced outlook. Indeed, that is what we have seen happening with those teenagers who crowned themselves princes in Algeria and other countries; and the same with those who carry out explosions and suicide bombings thinking they are performing martyrdom.

In this respect, we believe that there must be a gathering of Islamic leading and prominent personalities such as the Islamic intellectuals and the open-minded scholars who are quite knowledgeable of the wide Islamic culture in order to treat this negative cultural pattern overburdened with bitter resentment and hatred towards whoever disagrees with it. For among those who do not comply with this pattern, there might be some good people who are honest in their thoughts and beliefs but, unfortunately, live a mentality driven by a certain thought here or there. In his text speaking about dissidents, Imam Ali (a.s.) says: “Fight not dissidents after me; verily, the one who seeks Truth and misses it is not equal to the one who seeks Falsehood and reaps it”.Those people have sought Truth but missed it and that’s why the solution to their problem lies not in slaying them but in guiding them towards the right path, in establishing a dialogue with them, and so on and so forth…

We believe that the repercussions of the September 11th events only redounded to the benefits of the U.S. arrogance and its allies at the level of the world as a whole, for these events have served all American’s security, economic and political interests throughout the world. As a matter of fact, had the United States spent tens or hundreds of billions of dollars, it couldn’t have been able to achieve the results it has achieved. Owing to these events, it managed to penetrate into all the joints of the Islamic and Arab world, and to shut all the opened windows allowing Islamic heralds to reach the West. What happened is that it was successful in negatively affecting the way an ordinary western citizen regards Islam and even to make the person who has certain knowledge of Islam labels it as the religion of terrorism.

Up till now Muslims were not able to defeat this negative outlook towards them. Explosions keep in fact on succeeding the one another even in the Islamic countries. In consequence, I do believe that we should work towards fighting this cultural, jurisprudential, intellectual Islamic disease within the Islamic framework. We should treat it as a state of emergency and to deal with this climate by resorting to the means that could give those people a clear idea on the noble Islamic thought.

PART II

Rabhi'I 20 1425 H,May 9 2004 A.D