‘And
when the Fire is caused to blaze up’---[Holy Qur’an, 81:13]
Abu
Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (sa) as saying: ‘The last Hour will not come
unless there is ‘Harj’. They asked: ‘What is ‘Harj’, O Messenger
of Allah?’ Thereupon, the Holy Prophet (sa) said: “Bloodshed, Bloodshed, Bloodshed”.--- (Sahih Al Bukhari/Muslim)
The Civil War in Syria
In less than a month, Syria’s horrific ‘civil’ war will enter
into its eighth year. Having
already lasted more than the Second World War, the internecine conflict in
Syria has profoundly impacted the nation and its people in unimaginable ways.
The conflict and its aftereffects has virtually reduced the country to rubble.
Entire cities and villages remain abandoned, people having no choice but to
flee the mindless violence and mayhem, altering the everyday life-world of the
common people forever. Even as hundreds of thousands lost their lives, millions of others had to flee their homes and hearths, seeking refuge
elsewhere in the country or beyond the borders, in nations near and far. Thanks
to the many actors on the conflict scene and their varying political interests and strategic
calculations, the bloodletting in Syria continues unabated with no end in sight
till this day. Indeed, the humanitarian catastrophe that has engulfed this already
suffering, impoverished nation shakes the conscience of our common humanity.
How do we explain the
extraordinarily mind-numbing shift in the fortunes of the Syrian people in
recent times? What are the prospects for peace in the land, especially in view of its complex regional environment? How
does the present situation relate to Divine revelations vouchsafed to the
Promised Massih (as)? Can we look at the Syrian quagmire as a Divine Sign of
our times? These are some of the few questions and concerns explored in the following
article.
Syria: the Making of a Totalitarian State
Like so many nations in Asia
and Africa, Syria’s modern history is marred by the colonial encounter in many
different ways. With the Turkish Empire having lost the first World War, the
European powers- France and Briton, with the assent of Russia- decided to
partition the Middle East into their distinct spheres of political influence
and territorial control through the Sykes-Picot Agreement. As it happened, the
Empire’s former provinces, Syria along with Lebanon, came under France. The
framework was designed under the League of Nations’ Mandate, making France
technically a “trustee” of the world community appointed to look after the
Syrian people in the prelude to their eventual national independence. In 1946,
Syria became one of the first Arab nations to become independent and
inherited many institutional practices
and rule of law from France, the Mandate Power that administered Syria during
the period after the First World War.
The progressive Constitution
of 1950 notwithstanding, the democratic sentiment and institutional frameworks
in Syria came under great strain with the national military increasingly
entrenching itself in political affairs in the decades after independence. The
political ideology of the State was heavily influenced by Arab socialist authoritarianism.
As the military dictators feared freedom of expression and dissent, the ruling
elite began to arrogate to itself the sole role in the formulation of national
voice and implementation of policies in the pursuit of a Totalitarian State. In the colossal fight against Israel and other
foreign enemies, for a period, Syrian leaders were influenced by the Arab
nationalism of General Jamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt. With their brand of
authoritarian nationalism in the last half a century, the rule of Hafiz al-Assad (1971-2000) and his son, Bashar al-Assad (2000-2018), in many ways,
represent the consolidation of the totalitarian state in Syria, with the free
deployment of the military intelligence and security services for the control
of the people and their political fortunes.
The Arab Spring and the Syrian War
In many ways, the year 2010-2011 marks a new era in Arab
politics. The “Arab Spring” wave
of political protests against entrenched authoritarian regimes began in
November 2010 in Tunisia. The political mobilization of the Tunisian people forced
President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to
step down and flee the country in January 2011 after being in power over two
decades (1987-2011). 
Within a month of the fall of the dictator in
Tunisia, massive protests broke out in Egypt and it forced President Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011) to step down
after thirty years in the saddle. Inspired by these developments, pro-democracy
protests assering people’s rights against dicattorial privileges spread across several
nations in the Arab world, including Syria.
In March 2011, the regime of
President Bashar-al-Asad sought to quell anti-government protests in the
country by unleashing the army on the people. As the iron-fist policy and consequent
bloodbath infuriated the common people, the opposition political groups began
to engage the military on street battles in several regions. The civilian protests,
and parallel armed militias entering the filed, the political situation morphed
into a low intensity conflict, initially. With the Syrian Government using
disproportionate scale of force to repress the political challenge, a humanitarian catastrophe unfolded in Syria,
with millions seeking to desperately flee the war-torn nation by all means
possible.
The emergence of the Daesh (The
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) under Abu Baker al-Baghdadi on 7 April
2013 and its swift success in running over territories of Iraq and Syria,
further complicated the Syrian conflict. It was in June 2014 that Abu Baker
al-Baghdadi was elected by the Majlis al-Shura (Shura Council) of the of
the Islamic State, to be their Caliph. The Daesh presence in the Middle East,
and its ruthless militray operations and wanton killings of cpatured opponents as well as minortiy groups attracted global
condemnation. The defeat and destruction of the Daesh became a priority of the
international powers, including the US and Russia.
The Syrian situation became
an international crisis of a humongous dimension over the last few years thanks
to the involvement and entrenchment of regioanl forces and international powers.
While the US is opposed to Assad's
regime and backs "moderate" rebels fighting Syria government forces,
it has not really militraily engaged in the conflict. Estimates say that the
United States, and its intelligence services, CIA, has spent billions to topple
the Asad regime through its covert regional proxies. Since 2015, the governments
of Russia and Iran have firmly stood behind the national government in Damascus in taking on the ‘rebels’ or the democratic forces.
Russia’s decision to deploy
its army in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the fight against
the rebel forces has now made it the peace–maker in Damascus. While the primary
goal of these big powers in Syria was apparently the liberation of the areas
under the ‘Islamic State’, now that the objective is achieved, the Big powers
are making calculations on retaining their spheres of influence and
maintaining their strategic interests into the foreseeable future. While Turkey
is seriously against the formation of Kurdish State in the region due to its
own domestic considerations involving Kurdish rebels, the Turkish government
has been welcoming of the Syrian refugees into its land, seeking to do its
part in addressing the humanitarian despair engendered by the conflict.
Over the last decade, Israel
watched its Arab enemy neighbour collapsing through internal strife. Yet, from
a strategic and national security point of view, it is increasingly concerned
about the volatile situation in Syria becoming
a fertile ground for the alliance building of its enemies- the Bashar al-Assad regime, the Hizbullah of Lebanon and the Iranian Army coming together. While
Israel has been carrying on with its stealth, offensive operations in Syria all
along- hitting targets at will with complete impunity-, the recent downing of
its fighter jet in Syria, and its subsequent response, shows its anxiety
around the shifting ground in its neighbourhood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tough talk
against Iran, and the suave response of Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif at the Munich Security Conference this Sunday (February 18) must be seen against
this backdrop, as a clear indicator that
Iran's entrenchment in Syria collides with Israel's interests.
Prospects for Peace in Syria
According to close observers
of the Syrian civil war, including the UN officials on the ground; more than
half of the country’s pre-war population is directly impacted by the conflict;
so far, it has claimed the lives of close to half a million people. The
humanitarian catastrophe has especially affected the country’s women and
children in a disproportionate way. Over five million Syrians have become
refugees in various countries, with Syria’s neighbours Turkey, Lebanon and
Jordan together hosting over 4 million people. Europe also has more than a
million Syrian refugees now. Besides, the refugees, the civil war has also
internally displaced six million Syrians and there are hundreds of thousands of
people who are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in remote areas cut off
from the rest of the world by the internecine conflict. Worse, the long-running
conflict is not showing any sign of subsiding anytime soon. In fact, all
indications are that the violence and killings and the associated humanitarian
suffering will continue unabated.
In an objective assessment, one
can only agree that everyone
of the politico-military actors on the Syrian soil today has blood on their
hands. Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his military has been guilty of
unspeakable excesses and horrors, tyranny and oppression in the land- creating
the very conditions for the people’s revolt when the time came. On the other
hand, those opposition groups who took up arms in resistance, as well as the
regional actors and international powers taking sides on both sides of the
conflict in Syria, have also mostly ignored the rules of military engagement.
Hence, there is little doubt that all warring groups have exacerbated the
humanitarian suffering on the ground. The brutality of the conflict and the
barbarity of its participants in inducing human suffering is visible from the
sense of scale it has already achieved. Sadly, there is no respect for human
suffering in this unbridled quest for military control and political dominance;
and seemingly, there is no accountability on the horizon, with every actor enjoying
virtual impunity for their war crimes and human rights violations.
Thanks to Russian military
backing, Bashar al Assad regime can survive the Civil war in Syria. With the
defeat of the Islamic State and the virtual decimation of rebel forces from
most part of the country, the regime certainly has the advantage in the
immediate future. As Russian President Vladimir Putin taking the initiative to forge a peace accord, it
remains to be seen how peace and reconciliation can return to the war-ravaged
country and what the new peace would mean to the hapless Syrian people as the
nation will grapple with the challenges of post-war reconstruction.
A Prophecy on Bloodshed in Syria
It is astonishing to note
that more than a century back, an Indian Muslim saint, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian (1835-1908) who claimed to
be a recipient of Divine revelations, made certain prophecies pertaining to the
situation we are now familiar in Syria. In his book Tadhkirah (a collection of the dreams, visions
and verbal revelations vouchsafed to him), Hazrat Saheb mentions about an Urdu
divine revelation he received on April
9, 1907:
“Calamity
of Damascus”
This revelation was published in
contemporary Ahmadiyya publications when it was originally revealed. [Badr, vol. 6, no. 15, April 11, 1907, p. 4 and al-Hakam, vol. 11, no. 12, April
10, 1907, p. 2; cited from Tadhkirah, p.943, 2009 edition, UK. )
In his
Friday Sermon of 13 September 2013, Khalifatul Massih V Hazrat Mirza Masroor
Ahmad Saheb speaks on the Syrian civil war and confirms that the Divine
revelation of 1907, vouchsafed to the Promised Massih (as), is very much being
fulfilled through what is happening in Syria in our times. It is also,
however, surprising to note what the Khalifatul Massih left unsaid on the
occasion. Knowledgeable Ahmadis would recognize that the Promised Massih (as) famously linked the
bloodshed in Syria with the time of a Promised Son/reformer in the
Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya. Though the Khalifatul Massih quoted from Tadhkirah on the calamity
in Damascus, he did not make a reference to the very important prophecy that
was also mentioned by the Promised Massih (as) in relation to the Syrian calamity in the same collection/ book, and
I quote:
“God has
conveyed to me that….. (Then) there will be a great uprising in the world. That would be the first
uprising. Kings will invade kings. There will be so much bloodshed that the
earth will be filled with blood. The subjects of all kings will also fight
fearfully among themselves. There will be universal ruin and destruction. The
centre of all this will be Syria.
Addressing Sahibzadah Sirajul-Haqq (ra) directly, the Promised
Messiah (as) continued:
It will be
the time of my Promised Son. God has decreed these events in connection with him. Thereafter our Movement will spread and
kings will become members of the Movement. Be sure to recognize the Promised One'. ---[Tadhkiratul-Mahdi, part 2, new ed., p. 274], Cited from
Tadhkirah, pp.1065-66, 2009
edition).
As they have been taught to think by the Nizam-e-Jamaat, Ahmadis usually know the ‘Promised Son’ Hazrat Mirza
Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad (ra), the second Caliph of the Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya. But,
like Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad Saheb notes in his aforesaid Friday sermon: “some revelations are fulfilled
more than once”. The great Second Caliph himself acknowledged as much when he
made the claim of being the ‘Musleh Maoud’ in 1944, and I quote:
“I do not say that I am the only Promised One
and that no other promise one will appear till the Day of Judgement. It appears
from the prophecies of the Promised Messiah that some other promised ones will
also come and some of them will appear after centuries. Indeed, God has told me
that at one time He will send me a second time to the world and I will come for
the reform of the world at a time when association with God will have become
widespread. This means that my soul will, at some time, descend upon someone
who will possess faculties and capacities like mine and he will, following in
my footsteps, bring about a reform of the world. Thus, promised ones will
appear in their due times according to the promise of God Almighty.”
Furthermore, Hazrat Khalifatul Massih II (ra) published the
following claim through divine revelations:
“God
has told me that at another period of infidelity He will send me in the world a
second time, which means that my spirit at such time will descend on another
person who will possess capabilities similar to mine and he will reform the
world by following my footprints.” (Al-Fazl, 19 February 1956).
Allah (swt) says in the Holy Qur’an: “We shall soon show these
(disbelievers for their guidance) Our signs even in the remotest regions (of
the earth) and in their own persons until it becomes quite manifest to them
that this is the lasting truth in fact. Is it not enough (for them) that your
Lord indeed keeps watch over everything?”
(41: 53).
Like the great French writer Victor Hugo famously stated, “No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come”. Ahmadis and their present Caliph need to be aware of the
times and the signs it heralds within their small community and in the larger
world. The Syrian calamity is indeed a Divine Sign for the Promised Son of our
times. Now that the Caliph has recognized the Syrian calamity as a sign of the
times, it is time the Jamaat and the devout Ahmadis investigate and embrace the Promised Son among their midst as per the Divine Promise
vouchsafed to the Promised Massih (as) with humility, open-mindedness, sincerity
and above all, God-consciousness. May Allah (swt) bless all sincere
truth seekers, Ameen.