Palestine: The Climax of Islamic Challenge

1. Glory Be to Him who carried His servant by night from the Holy Mosque to the Farther Mosque the precincts of which We have blessed, and We might show him some of Our signs. Surely He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing. 2. And We gave Moses the Scripture, and We appointed it a guidance for the Children of Israel, saying: Take not to yourself any guardian besides Me. 3. Of the offspring of those that We bore with Noah; he was a thankful servant. 4. And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Scripture: You verily shall do corruption in the earth twice, and you shall become great tyrants. 5. So when the promise for the first of the two came, We sent against you our slaves, of mighty prowess, so they went through the habitations, and it was a promise to be accomplished. 6. Then We gave you once again your turn against them, and We aided you with wealth and children and made you more in number. 7. (Saying): If you do good, you will do good for your own souls, and if you do evil, it shall be for them (in like manner). So when the promise of the second came to pass, We sent Our slaves against you to discountenance you, and to enter the Temple, as they entered it the first time, and to destroy utterly that which they ascended to. [ The Children of Israel ]

All of the human societies had looked and are still looking for civilization. Civilization is a simple word which contains several meanings. It means prosperity, welfare, might, advancement, unity, and aspiration for a bright future. Thus, all mankind looked for these meanings for themselves and differed with one another , as individuals and communities, in the means of attainment. It was natural for them to act differently in establishing and preserving the civilizations, for, the means were different. Therefore, history witnessed quickly vanishing civilizations and others long lasting ones. Civilizations like that of the Pharaohs suddenly collapsed and went to total destruction, where Allah drowned Pharaoh and his soldiers in one moment. Or the civilizations of Aad and Thamoud of whom the Quran tells us.

The Truth of Civilization

The great question that remains is the truth and essence of civilization. How can man ascend to such a state? What is the destiny of the Islamic civilization? Are we, Muslims, sentenced to remain separate? And, should we submit to the Zionists oppression in killing our Palestinian children and raping our women in the same manner Pharaoh did to the children of Israel? Or, is there something else going on?
All tangible facts indicate that Allah the Glorious wished might and not humility and misery for the believers: To Allah does belong might, and to his messenger and the believers. But the hypocrites know not (this). And Allah had described the desirable state of the Muslims: You were the best nation rendered to mankind. And elsewhere He says: And we made you a middle nation to be witnesses to men and the prophet to be a witness to you.
Therefore, no divine law demands that the Muslims be an oppressed nation on earth. Neither the Prophet nor his progeny wished this for us. So every Muslim should ask himself and the society he lives in, the following question: Until when should we stay in this weakness? For Iraq and Afghanistan and other Muslim countries live in total misery. And here it is the Israeli prime minister decidedly threatening Yasser Arrafat to behave his people or else they will use all their weapons to destroy and back them off.
O Brethren, the most dangerous disease affecting us today is that we either do not pay attention to or do not feel our true weakness and ailment. And that we focus all our attention to worthless and simple matters, and instead of feeling our weak points, we wholly mind the medals we could get at the Olympic games neglecting the innocent Iraqi children who fall dead by tens, or the Muslim Afghan nation who is being devoured by the western plots, or the Muslim and non-Muslim African nations who suffer the severest possible forms of hunger and deprivation.
O Muslims, civilization begins with determination, spirit, work, and knowledge, quite the way man searches for food, when hunger excites within him the will to obtain food, starting to smell, touch, look, and listen for it; using all means he possesses to get and find that food.
And those who do not want progress, prosperity, might, and dignity should have no share in/of life. Allah the Glorious says: 24. Say: If your fathers and sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and your tribes, and the wealth you have acquired, and merchandise for which you fear that there will be no sale, and dwellings you desire are dearer to you than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah brings His command to pass. Allah guides not wrongdoing folk. [ Repentance ]
Therefore those who do not wish to work, do not wish glory. Life only belongs to those who have will and determination.
How possibly could we, while undergoing such a dire state, bring about life and motion in our Muslim societies?
The most important thing that does spring spirit in the passive and inactive is blood and martyrdom. Imam Hussain noting that the Islamic nation had become passive, selfish, following the oppressors and cruel among the kings, saw death the only answer to that problem and thus presented his pure and sacred blood in the way of Allah, with which to water the tree of Islam, that tree the Muslims had caused to whither and dry.

Civilization and Martyrdom Culture

The martyrs sprout and spring out in the decisive moments, when all men are submissive to cruelty, ignorance, and corruption; when they all say, Alas, the same answer the people of Kufa gave to Moslem Bin-Aghil, we shall not associate with kings, thus deceiving themselves with such justifications, according to this verse, O, believers be watchful of yourselves, those who have gone astray shall not harm you if you be guided.
On that day Imam Hussain chose blood to uproot the voice of passivity, laziness, and submission to wrong. So, his pure blood gave life to the Islamic nation for ever. Thus are the martyrs of Islam every where , for, their blood moves lots of people, who never cared for what happened around them, to become determined and changed looking for life.
Thus, martyrdom like those of the great Islamic thinker Martyr Ayatollah Al-Ozma Mohammad Baghir A-Sadr ; the great Islamic thinker Martyr A-Seyed Hassan A-Shirazi; martyr Mohammad Sadigh A-Sadr, and thousands of other martyrs from among our youth, scholars, and the active, all have given new life to the Iraqi people and their religion. And here are the martyrs of Palestine pushing the passive to stand up and say here we are.


Is Martyrdom Alone Enough?!

But martyrdom by itself,despite its great role, is not enough. This great role materializes when brave men come out to accomplish that mission, for, the martyrs' flag needs men to carry it.
When Imam Hussain fell a martyr on Karbala ground. He needed some one to accomplish his mission, and his blood needed some one to disclose it against all that censorship of the Umayyds. Therefore, it was the great Zaynab the righteous who undertook that great and sacred mission coloring her flag with Al-Hussain's blood spreading it across the horizons, thus were the other infallible Imams' role, and the persistent scholars in the course of history, and thus will even be the awaited divine proof, Imam Mahdi, when Allah gives him the permission to come out and declare of himself, then he should not but carry his great grand father's flag and cry out (This is) for Hussain's vengeance. To top all that it has been related that A-Zahra will ask forgiveness with Imam Hussain's blood and oppression for her father's nation and the followers of her husband, Imam Ali.
For, even if it be for the martyrs' role to end by their martyrdom and their blood being shed, their mission should stay for ever awaiting someone to come and spread it in the horizons. It is possible to say that martyrdom is a very original culture, the primary aim of which is reviving and enlivening the society and pushing it toward the establishment of a prosperous civilization. Martyrdom culture is totally in contradiction with that detested culture of selfishness and seclusion.
The martyrs of Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Indonesia, and other areas need one who would carry their mission, coloring with their pure blood the horizons. Then radical change should happen and a better reality could evolve out. That is nothing but a reflection and instance of the culture of martyrdom at the advent of Islam. For, in Hamza's, the prophet's uncle, martyrdom one can not imagine only an ordinary incident, where the prophet had said The lord of all martyrs is my uncle Hamza. For, with his martyrdom he proved to the world that Islam's mission has elevated values deserving sacrafice in their way. Naturally why should all Moslems offer their blood. The merchant offers his money, the scholar his knowledge, the powerful their power, and every one carries his role, and thus is made the list of religion.

Confronting Justification Culture

Whereas believing in martyrdom culture requires one to sacrifice and donate. Confronting and refuting justification culture guarantee that martyrdom attains its goals in most desirable ways. Here, by justification culture, we mean the case where an individual abandons his musts and duties by virtue of various excuses and guises, by insisting on committing sins, or undermining the effects of doing one's religious duties.
However, men are required to have a will to constant change, and to consider positive movements which, in fact, are like falling rain. For, rain excludes no specific place and showers equally mountains, valleys, farms, wells, rivers, and ponds. Most important, thus, it stays not useless in a single place, and brings about good and life, and so is the human movement. The scholar/Scientist moves in the field of his knowledge/science, the merchant in his business, the young in their vitality, the old in their sound judgements, and the elderly in praying good for others. Here Allah says, man has nothing but that which he has worked for. * And, he should see his hard work (rewarded).
We have quite a lot of such examples which we should take as a lamp for our movements, however simple the movement be in our views.
For instance, we know that there exists an international problem known as the poor countries debts, which exceed two billion dollars to the rich states and the International Monetary Fund. We also know that those poor countries are unable to pay their debts, even if they sell themselves (off)!! But there are youth clubs and societies which have started to establish and gather up to the total number of 62, from all over the world, demanding and pushing the rich countries and IMF to treat this world problem, originally caused by the industrial states. In fact, these youth groups, consisting of human, economic and revolutionary assemblies were by three great demonstrations in USA, Australia, and Prague, successful in forcing the resisting great states to retreat and accept doing with most of the debts, and also rescheduling the remaining quantity.
Thus are those pro-environment groups know as the Green Groups, whose non-geographical bound efforts had the best and most effective results in reducing the nuclear tests in the world.
The western civilization were never to rise, if their thinkers had not felt the necessity for an internal change, after they had become totally convinced that the European Church would lead all European societies to utter destruction. Then was it that these intellectuals called for a change in the void foundations and principles of the Church everywhere. Despite the Church's war against them by its notorious Scrutiny Courts and trials, and after they were forced even to leave to the newly discovered America. They could really spread the principles of faith in freedom, reason, and the refutation of corruption. All this was embodied in the Industrial Revolution, and afterwards in the French Revolution, and the release of the Church from its detestful intellectual death. Whatever western colonial and racial practices seen today are by no means related the preceding revolutionary thoughts. They are clear deviations from those principles.
We, Muslims, too, started with the spiritual, the day Allah sent the Quran on His prophet's, Mohammad, heart, to convert that spirit to a method and rule to be followed by all its contemporary who were immersed in utter ignorance.
The Holy Quran, in the blessed surrah of The Children of Israel tell us about the Israeli who once gathered around the center of religion, faith, reason, and piety. But sooner had they separated and disbelieved, and abandoned noble ethics that they found themselves completely torn apart, receiving their enemies' violence, torture, and insults. What happened to those people is a constant cosmic law that allows no exceptions. The Zionist Theodore Herzel, the founder of modern Zionism, was quoted claiming that he had inferred this cosmic law form the Holy Quran in Allah's following words: If you do good, you will do good for your own souls, and if you do evil, it shall be for them (in like manner),which is a Quranic sentence delivered in the context of the sons of Israel and the Jews', in general, ascent and descent of luck star.
In conclusion it should be noted that the secret behind choosing Qods a place for our holy prophet's ascension to heaven is inherent in the fact that Palestine had been the landing place and recipient of revelation, heavenly messages, missions; and human civilizations and it should remain so forever and even after the reappearance of the great savior of mankind, the proof Imam (may Allah hasten his reappearance).
Therefore, Moslems should invest all their energies to release that sacred land from the Zionists' claws and clutch. For in such an action resides the release of all the Moslem world and the key solution to all those crises and problems surrounding the Moslems.

Let us ask Allah to help us: do what He wishes and pleases, be the supporters of His religion, not be substituted by other servants, become united in our words; and to ask Him to make us live and die as Mohammad and his progeny lived and passed away. Allah is the patron of all success.

Allah's salutes to Mohammad and his pure progey