This is an independently made series explaining a group of amateur researchers’ theories on how everything, from the existence of Humanity, good and evil, religion, belief in God, government, history, the advent of Islam, the Islamic belief in Imam Mahdi, etc, are connected.
The video embedded below is Part 40. There are a few more parts to go. Each part is about 10 minutes long. Some of the earlier parts which I had viewed were actually a bit draggy and repetitive, but the overall message I take away from it is profound.
It’s a bit like Zeitgeist or Loose Change, but the unifying end theme of this series is something very close to my heart.
Of all the episodes, I think the one embedded below, the latest so far as of this moment, is most important. I advise you begin with this episode, then watch all the other episodes from the beginning, and come back here again for a refresher:-
Imam Jaafar as-Sadiq AS has said: “A Nasib is one who bears enmity to us the Ahlul Bayt, but since you will never find a person who says, ‘I hate Muhammad and the family of Muhammad’, he is openly hostile to you since he knows that you follow us (the Ahlul Bayt) and (since he knows) that you are of our Shiah.”
My condolences to the Faithful, for the martyrdom of their Master, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Thalib AS, on the 21st of Ramadhan, 40th year of the Hijrah.
The Faithful convey their condolences to RasulullahSAWA his brother, to Fatimah Az ZahraAS his equal companion and to his children, the Imams from the Ahlul Bayt AS, especially to the Imam of This Age, Muhammad Al-Mahdi AJTFS.
Imam Ali is undisputedly incontestably incomparably the greatest personality in Islam, of Islam, for Islam and from Islam, second only to the Noble Prophet Muhammad SAWA. If Muhammad SAWA is the best teacher, Ali is his best student.
The Prophet had said of Ali, “O Ali, love for you is true faith (imaan), while hatred for you is hypocrisy (nifaaq)”. Like his brother, the Prophet himself, Ali is a polarised figure. Like his predecessor, Muhammad SAWA, he is one of the most loved as well as the most hated personalities in history.
He is loved for his generosity, nobility, magnanimity, valour, wisdom, brilliance, mercy and liberality. Yet he is hated by the hypocrites and the treacherous for his unflinching devotion to justice and preserving the purity of Islam.
Yet his true lovers, followers and devotees will find that even if all the books in existence were to be made into praises for him, they would not do justice to him.
Some more points about Imam Ali:-
- The ONLY Muslim or human being for that matter to have been born in the House of Allah, the Holy Ka’abah.
- The ONLY Muslim to have given zakat (alms) while praying, in the state of Ruku’ as revealed in the Quran, Chapter 5 Verse 55.
- The ONLY Muslim who 100% never questioned the Prophet and always supported him in everything, while other Muslims and Companions occasionally had their human moments.
- Yet despite all his greatness and the praises which he absolutely deserve, he describes himself only as a “Servant of Muhammad”. Despite his undefeatable ferocity on the battlefield in the defence of Islam (and he is the best defender of Islam, Khalid Bin Walid, Salahaddin, etc, cannot compare to a single stroke of his sword), he is so humble such that sometimes beggars who eat from his hands mistook him as someone even poorer than them, and in prayer, he is the best example of one who upholds the prayer after the Prophet.
- His in-depth knowledge of Islam and the Quran was of such genius proportions that the Companions and the Caliphs after Rasulullah would only turn to him as a trusted authority on religious, political, social, even occasionally mathematical matters, despite being narrators of hadith themselves. His deep knowledge of Islam was evident in the fact that he never manifested any signs of doubt or forgetfulness in giving his answers or delivering his sermons; there was absolutely no uncertainty in him, it was as if Rasulullah was still alive and dictating to him when he was giving his guidance. Many Jews and Christians with questions about Islam did not embrace Islam only until they get satisfied by the answers of Imam Ali AS; for the answers of no one else could satisfy them of the truth of Islam.
Sayed Ammar Nakshawani gave a lecture analysing the history of the spread of Islam, discusses the concept of freedom and the importance of freedom of speech, the Inquisition and also a reply to the Pope.
No other young Islamic scholar I know of could deliver what he had delivered:-
Dr Zakir Naik was asked as to Yazid Ibn Muawiyah (may Allah deprive him and his followers of His Mercy), the so-called Caliph in the History of Islam who was infamous for the murder of Imam Husain, the Grandson of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his progeny).
To be fair, Dr Zakir Naik did not praise Yazid nor express explicitly that he approved of what Yazid had done. What he did do though was to say, “May Allah be pleased with him”, referring to Yazid.
Here are some of the traits & habits of Yazid according to renowned Sunni scholar-historians:
He loved drinking alcohol even though he was the so-called Caliph of the Muslims.
He committed incest with his own mother.
He pleased himself with “beautiful young boys without facial hair” (I leave it to your imagination).
He said that the religion of Islam was nothing more than a political plot for Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) to gain power over Arabia.
He played with monkeys more than he engaged in worship (if he EVER did any worship).
After the battle of Karbala, he ordered the raid on the cities of Medina and Mecca. In Medina, his soldiers pillaged the houses, slaughtered the Muslim civilians and raped the women. In Mecca, his army burnt and destroyed the Kaabah, the holiest shrine of Islam, the very House of Allah, with catapults.
Sayed Ammar Nakhshawani, a young Shiah scholar and speaker, replies to the Doctor’s expression of opinion in this lecture:-
The following video is of a function titled “How to Achieve Muslim Unity between Sunni and Shiah” held during last year’s birth anniversary of the Prophet -
4 years ago, the Amman Message was declared and endorsed by hundreds of Muslim scholars all over the world on the agreement that despite the sectarian differences (Sunni, Shiah, Sufi, Salafi, Ibadhi, Ash’ari, etc) existing within Islam, no Muslim should call another an apostate and hence intra-Muslim violence should never be sanctioned let alone carried out.
After 4 years since the declaration of that message, one may wonder how far the Muslims have gone to really actualise it and live by it. Should an annual re-declaration of the message be necessary?
I think the shortcoming of this message is that it seemed or made to seem only to involve and apply to the ‘intellectual’ or so-called ’scholarly’ class of Muslims and not to the common ‘layperson’ Muslim. I don’t remember any significant publicity or news coverage being given to this event.
From Singapore, only Dr Yaacob Ibrahim endorsed it but not the Mufti of Singapore himself. Who is Dr Yaacob Ibrahim? A Muslim scholar? No. He is the Minister of the Environment and Water Resources, and Minister in charge of Muslim Affairs.
The Message was endorsed by the Head of State of Malaysia, and the Muftis of several other countries.
Another side effect of the fact that this important message was not sufficiently made known to the Muslims at large (and not only the so-called ‘intellectual’ class) is that a majority of Muslims are still unaware of the rich and diverse range of schools of thought prevalent amongst its communities. The worst permutation of this side effect is that when a Muslim from a majority / so-called mainstream school of thought encounters another subscribing to a minority school of thought, the former calls the latter a deviant, at worst, an apostate.
Note that I am not referring to Ahmadiya / Qadiani which is totally a religion outside of Islam. I am referring to cases whereby even over differences in opinion as to who succeeded the Prophet in leadership (not really a matter of primary Islamic doctrine) would merit one party calling the other apostate.
And then there are the innocent victims of malicious sectarianism-inspired propaganda. For a specific example, writing as a follower of the Twelver Shiah school of thought myself - and no, don’t you go stereotyping us Shiahs as people who like to victimise ourselves, this is reality - my Shiah friends and I have encountered instances whereby our non-Shiah Muslim brethren would ask / impose / insist on certain ‘facts’ about the Shiah (and the manners in which they did so varied greatly - from academically courteous to outright narrow-minded brute-headed rudeness) - for example -
That the Shiah worship Ali as God.
If not God, then the Shiah take Ali as the Prophet after Muhammad.
If not, then the Shiah believe that actually the Arch Angel Gabriel made a mistake - Ali was supposed to be the last Prophet, not Muhammad.
That the Shiah have a different Quran.
That the Shiah are obliged to mutilate themselves every year because they failed to aid their Imam Husayn when he was killed in the historic Battle of Karbala.
That the Shiah take the Prophet and his family, the Ahlul Bayt, as Avatars of Divinity who can grant boons if called for.
That the Shiah belief actually came about from a Jew who infiltrated the Islamic faith and sought to disrupt it from within (and his name was Abdullah Ibn Saba).
That the Shiah legalises prostitution.
Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…
This is not the place for me to explain all the above (and more) away, but my friends know me for who and what I am.
I think I am going to be ‘outraged’ too. I am terribly outraged. Perhaps I want to pillage, maim, burn effigies and bomb buildings… if I am not too lazy this month of Ramadhan. Oh, wait. I have to fast in the day, read the Quran, pray, help the poor and needy, help my Mom prepare for Eidul Fitr, etc. I think I’ll just let the protests pass.
But I am not outraged because a book about the Prophet is written by a non-Muslim. I haven’t read it yet so I wouldn’t know how it is.
Watch Fitna here (link opens in a new window / tab).
Now my opinions, in point form:
I don’t think Geert Wilders deserves to be killed. Seriously. And this is not just because I’m pretending to be a ‘moderate’ liberal-minded Muslim or I don’t want to earn the wrath of my non-Muslim friends. He deserves to be brainwashed - washed of all prejudice and paranoia. Nah, maybe that won’t work. He’s just an attention seeker.
The beheading video-makers, the bombers, the shooters, all will go to hell. Don’t worry.
“God Bless Hitler” is an insult to Islam as much as the Prophet cartoons. It is an insult to all humankind. Muslims who say, “God Bless Hitler” are akin to those who curse the Prophet.
The part that says, “Islam will rule the world” comes from the speech of some Iranian (presumably) Shiah scholar, then proceeds on to Ahmadinejad’s opinions on Islam dominating the world. Yes, we Shiahs, like most Muslims, believe Islam will eventually dominate the Earth. Deal with it. How? I won’t debate the How here. But just imagine this - if you were to go back in time to pre-democratic Europe and tell all the peace-loving peasants who were generally okay about living under a monarchy that eventually an idea and a system known as democracy will eventually dominate (most of) the world, or their continent for that matter, what would they think?
Geert Wilders somewhat wants to make Europeans feel threatened by the exponential growth of the Muslim population (of course he wants to elicit an emotional response, why would he show a statistic without a purpose?). Remember how Hitler used to blame the Jews (which were many in number back then) for all the problems Germany (or Europe for that matter) was facing.
What’s with the displays of news about Halal investment schemes (the Halal industry is a multi-billion perhaps coming close to a trillion-dollar industry anyway, why throw away this opportunity? I thought the capitalism-loving West should know better) or the non-banning of the Burqa (people want to ban the Burqa or the Hijab because they feel it is an ostentatious display of religious belief which the Muslims voluntarily don. Compare this to Nazi Germany making the Jews involuntarily put on the Star of David armband so that people can recognise who are the Jews. Both are opposites - one forcing, the other banning - but stem from the same source - paranoia and prejudice)?
The “you’re taking verses from the Quran out of context” argument from Muslims or apologists of Islam is the most cliched one even I, a Muslim, have ever heard. But how this film quotes from the Quran and links them to (real) instances of violence caused by (or allegedly caused by) Muslims; is like a kid shouting, “Mommy! Mommy! I learned from school that Shakespeare said all the world’s a stage and that we’re all actors! Wow! We’re famous!”
Any consumer of Noam Chomsky’s works on media and propaganda will see and know how paper thin Geert Wilder’s arguments are.
If the likes of Irshad Manji, or anyone who is influenced by this film, want to tear out pages from the Quran that have ‘violent’ verses, go ahead. It’s between you and Allah. I, a Muslim, who will harm no person, will not. Jews and Christians have not torn pages from the Old or New Testament (respectively), why should we?
I am always, always, always enraged whenever I view any media of some saliva-spewing, sword-shaking (only 1 instance in the film), ugly-bearded, Arabic-speaking Sheikh talking about beheading Jews and killing infidels. They are slaves of the religion that worships Abu Sofyan, Muawiyah and Yazid. The Prophet did lead battles against the non-Muslims of Arabia who had oppressed and massacred the early Muslims, yes, but he never, ever (even after reclaiming Mecca) talked about militant expansion or of massacring entire populations of civilisations that do not want to accept Islam. His so-called ‘companions’ started that tradition.
Lastly and most importantly, I would like to plead with the host of the above-linked video copy of Fitna to keep it online, so more (hopefully intelligent and discerning) people (both the godly and ungodly) will see how amateurish and immature this attention-philiac is; and also to dispel the myth that Muslims are afraid of ‘freedom of speech’.