إِن يَمْسَسْكُمْ قَرْحٌ فَقَدْ مَسَّ الْقَوْمَ قَرْحٌ مِّثْلُهُ وَتِلْكَ الأيَّامُ نُدَاوِلُهَا بَيْنَ النَّاسِ وَلِيَعْلَمَ اللّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَيَتَّخِذَ مِنكُمْ شُهَدَاء وَاللّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ

"If a wound hath touched you, be sure a similar wound hath touched the others. Such days (of varying fortunes) We give to men and men by turns: that Allah may know those that believe, and that He may take to Himself from your ranks Martyrs. And Allah loveth not those that do wrong." (3:140)


I've been thinking about this ayah over the last week after receiving a few emails about different people.

The first email was concerning the most recent attempt to revive the case for the freeing of Sheikh 'Ali Timimi - visit here - which is a noble effort to help free someone who has been instrumental in helping Muslims to come closer to Allah. No doubt his imprisonment was a blow to the da'wah.

Arguably a bigger setback was that of Anwar Awlaki, a more 'mainstream' Da'ee, who has just been imprisoned in Yemen in the latest act of the War Against Truth. I remember fondly the days when we would reminisce over Shatibi's Muwaffaqat, something which I (sold out and) left studying to return back to England whereas he carried on and completed it under his illustrious teacher. May Allah give him and his family hope, patience and strength, Ameen.

His da'wah has been touching hearts for many years now and this act of oppression from the world's puppets, the latest of just a continuous worldwide attempt to kill off and imprison Muslims by proxy in every 'Muslim' country in the world, will shock many of us in the West who benefitted so much from his exposition on the Sirah and other aspects of Islam.

But that's always the way - nothing has changed. 'Ulema, du'at and tullab al-'ilm all the way down to basic Muslims who have a concern for the fellow people and call them to what is right, have always faced struggles in their da'wah. No-one lives for ever. People come and go, da'wah peaks and troughs, good times with the bad, ease with difficulty, indeed as He said, "Such days (of varying fortunes) We give to men and men by turns..."

I suppose all us old-timers have to probably water down our shows even more, and if not then get ready for the slammer (or even worse if you get caught outside the West in a Muslim country by-proxy of course). The only problem is...how do you water down water?

A lot of noise is being made about Shaykh Hamza and how much he 'watered down' his da'wah post 9-11 (often confused for maturity of thought), yet you have deviant 'Muslims' appearing from all corners condemning Shaykh Hamza for being extremist. My goodness me.

Moral of the story: hold your nerve, stick to your Deen, and don't compromise. Or at the very least, make Yasir Arafat proud: "The mountains are never shaken by the wind!"

Alternatively, maybe us old dogs should step aside and let the new blood come through with a new twist. The third email showed me what could well possibly be the future direction of da'wah in the interim at least; young Muslim lads presenting a simple easy form of the Deen with a giggle and a google - you can't help but admire the efforts of lads like these.

Watch the latest example of their offering here.

Finally, remember one thing: it's one of His greatest blessings upon us that the work of da'wah and its results are not in our hands, but in His, jalla wa 'ala. Alhamdulillah, the last time I checked, the Qur'an was still there on the table so things aren't too bad...

May Allah accept the Shuhada', may He hasten the release of those wrongly imprisoned and may He strengthen us all to remain firm and patient upon His Path, Ameen.