Syria, Golan Heights, & Israel

Modern international law has colonial origins; yet it has evolved much in the post-colonial times, especially after the end of the Second World War; with the establishment of the Charter-based mechanisms and processes of multilateral cooperation under the United Nations Organization. From being merely an imperial handmaiden in the past, international law has progressed to a great extend to articulate the common standard of civilization and human rights in our multicultural world today, and States, by and large, respect and abide by international law and treaty obligations most of the time. A vital standard of State conduct conferring global legitimacy, the 'soul' of international law stands for peace and strives for justice in our power-oriented, complex international system. 

Contemporary International law insists upon non-use of force as a foundational principle of the world public order. Hence, the military conquest of nations, or ‘aggression’, is a crime under international law. Likewise, acquisition of a territory belonging to another nation through coercive method/s is also prohibited. As a consequence of this clear normative position, territorial aggrandizement through conquest will not be recognized by the international community. The conquering State cannot hope to gain any valid title to the newly acquired territory under international law as no legitimacy is attached to the taking of territory through military occupation. Consider the case of Israel. Notwithstanding the fact that it has been effectively controlling several Arab territories occupied through war for over five decades, international community continues to reject Israel's sovereignty claims over such territories, including in the cases of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. 

In his Friday Sermon of 07 June 2024~29 Dhul-Qaddah 1445 AH, Imam-Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (aba) of Mauritius spoke about the persisting, ongoing illegal occupation and annexation of the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights by Israel since 1967/1981. As Hazrat Khalifatullah (aba) rightly notes, many blatant illegalities are being perpetuated with impunity by the State of Israel on the lands of its Arab neighbours. Strong economic, military and technological support of the United States provides the material basis for Israeli excesses in the Middle East. Perhaps equally important is the complicity of important Arab leaders who have their own secret relations with the Jewish State even in the midst of the latter's despicable crimes against the Palestinian people, as well as its continued, illegal occupation and annexation of Arab territories, including the Syrian territory of the Golan Heights. Hazrat Saheb (aba) alludes that the enemies of Islam have been able to get away for so long with their manifest illegalities and high crimes against the Muslim peoples in a religious, political and strategic context of manifest internal weaknesses, disunity, and internecine conflicts. Fair-minded people in Europe and elsewhere are increasingly becoming aware of the horrific extend of Israeli/US highhandedness in the Middle East. Be that as it may, it is by reclaiming the true spirit of Faith, including the duties of solidarity, that Muslim nations will be able to discriminate between 'good' and 'evil', and 'friends' and 'enemies' of the Faith and of the peoples in these times. And it is by invoking Allah (swt) through fervent prayers, and by embracing the lawful methods of resistance against injustice that our Faith teaches that we can eventually triumph over the forces of evil- both internal and external- that presently pervade our backyard inflicting much suffering on the Ummah in these turbulent times, notes Hazrat Saheb (aba) in this discourse. 

Read the Friday Sermon Below:   

Tears of the Muslim Ummah

   

In his Friday Sermon of 12 April 2024~ 02 Shawwal 1445 AH, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam International, Hazrat Muhyiuddin Al Khalifatullah Al Mahdi Munir Ahmad Azim (aba) of Mauritius, spoke movingly about the plight of several Muslim communities around the world. In China, the communist regime is applying repressive methods to eradicate the cultural memory, social practices, and religious consciousness of the Uighur Muslims of Xinjiang. Likewise, in Myanmar, the Rohingya Muslims are facing worst forms of violence and ethnic-cleansing at the hands of the Buddhist extremists and the military junta. Elsewhere, several Muslim minority communities are facing the onslaughts of anti-Islam forces. Majoritarian, ethnic-nationalist parties in some countries, as well as the secular fascists in other lands, are equally united in their hatred of Islam, and they scheme to restrict the basic human rights and cultural identity of the Muslims in their midst. It seems as though other religious groups, dominant as they are today in their lands,  are mortally afraid of what the future holds for them as Islam gradually spreads in these lands incrementally. On the other hand, in Muslim nations such as Yemen, Syria and the Sudan, civic conflicts and internecine warfare have taken a toll on entire Muslim communities, with unending violence devastating every day life in these societies for years altogether, leading to large scale forced displacement and migration. 

In the killing fields of Gaza and elsewhere in the occupied territories of the Palestinian people, Israel's relentless bombing campaigns over the last six-months have murdered more than thirty five thousand persons- a large majority of them children and women; hundreds of thousands more became displaced in the land, with thousands critically injured while entire hospitals and housing buildings stand destroyed, making human life virtually intolerable in the land. And yet, the people of Palestine patiently awaits the dawn of their liberation from the clutches of their racist oppressors. Hazrat Khalifatullah's speech concludes with a long, heart-felt prayer to the Almighty God for the destruction of the forces of evil, and for the alleviation and edification of the suffering Muslims of the world, Insha Allah, Aameen.    

Read the Friday Sermon Below:

Islam: Dark Clouds, Silver Lining

The situation in the world is extremely worrying for all Muslims (and all my disciples in Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam) and I am again reminding you all to pray earnestly that Allah (swt) may remove the dangers which face Islam which is being encircled by dark clouds which only God can remove whenever He pleases.

There is nowhere in the world where Muslims are not in danger directly or indirectly and we do not see any intelligent Islamic response. There is only one despicable response which they know: persecuting their own Muslim brethrens and finishing Islam by their own hands. In addition to the civil wars and the religious strife which they wage between themselves but when it concerns the Divine Manifestation and the belief in the Promised Messiah Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (as) and in this era this humble self the Khalifatullah, all the Muslim sects don't hesitate to group together to counter-attack what they term as heretics. It is on this basis that they seem to agree and help each other to crush the divine truth. Since the advents of non law-bearing prophets/ messengers after Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh), they seem to have lost their bearings when they denied and calumniated the men of God.

The Middle East on Short Fuse

Based on recurring Divine inspirations and special Messages in recent times, Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hadhrat Khalifatullah  Munir Ahmad Azim (atba) of Mauritius is inviting the world's attention to the looming dangers lurking beneath our troubled global order. These Divinely-inspired warnings can be read in his recent Friday Sermons, shared also through this Blog. When they look at, read up and reflect on these profound words intimating about the extraordinary dangers facing our small world; knowledgeable Muslims will remember the prophecies contained in the Holy Qur’an, as well as in the Prophetic traditions on the portents/events of the End Times. Ahmadis among them will also remember the dire warnings lefty behind by the Promised Massih (as) in the last century and also the unfulfilled aspects of those grim prophecies concerning the Later Days. 

The World at the Brink

There is little doubt that humanity is at the brink of Disaster(s) in our times. World nations are facing multiple dangers of an existential proportion: of environmental degradation, species extinction and the grim prospect of nuclear annihilation. The unsustainable consumption patterns in the industrialized world have also produced the irreversibly great danger of global warming and climate change, as science now confirms. The devastating consequences of this drastic change in weather patterns would be felt everywhere. Indeed, climate change threatens as it comes home not just in the main lands of the industrial world, but even the inhabitants of remote island nations who had done nothing comparable to  to bring about the whole problem. 

Likewise, powerful nations have arrogated to themselves ‘total security’ of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and they threaten other nations that defy their dictates. So much so that countries like North Korea seek nuclear capability as a security imperative; triggering global fears of a nuclear war in the not so distant future! Short of being fully wiped out from the very face of the earth through the aforesaid blinding passions of riches and excesses, the unbridled armament race among the nations has the potential of promising a veritable Hell on Earth for those of us- the hapless common humans- who are condemned to live amidst all these dangers.

The multilateral system, forged after the Second World War, is bedevilled by multiple crises and it seems incapable of providing effective solutions to the manifold challenges of global governance- poverty and rising inequality;environmental degradation; the arms race and the quest for nuclear weapons; internal conflicts and terrorism; racism and xenophobia, national chauvinism and Islamophobia, etc. International institutions and organizations are designed in such a way that these works to protect the entrenched interests of the Big Nations, rather than seeking to sub serve the larger cause of global justice and equity. These organizations largely ignore the real concerns of the poorer nations when they raise their experiences of political injustice and  colonial exploitation. 

On the Syrian Quagmire

‘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.

Surah Quraysh: A Commentary

1. In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

2. For the covenants (of security and safeguard enjoyed) by the Quraysh,

3. Their covenants (covering) journeys by winter and summer,-

4. Let them worship the Lord of this House,

5. Who provides them with food against hunger, and with security against fear (of danger)!

The Quraysh loved their city, Mecca and they were proud of this place. First of all, Mecca is positioned in such a way that the Quraysh and the other inhabitants of Mecca felt safe and moreover this place was the ideal place for trade and through this they earned a lot of profits. With all the facilities that Allah has given them, they should have been the first to accept that the message that Allah had revealed through His beloved Prophet (pbuh) is a message of truth. But unfortunately they turned their backs except a small part of them who had accepted the Message of Islam.

Who had given the Quraysh their talents for commerce/ trade, manual works and how to straighten out a difficult situation? It is Allah of course! He also gave them intuitions to move at the right time to trade and make Mecca a place where no enemy could enter. Despite all this, they rejected the message of Allah. Instead of showing gratitude to Allah, they denigrated His signs and His prophet.

This Surah shows us that all our successes and the powers we possess on this earth come from Allah. Without Him, we are helpless and powerless. So, for all the blessings that He gives us we must be grateful to Him for this and we must worship Him alone as He deserves and we must see that all our actions are in accord with His will and glory.

Syria and the Looming World Crisis

The extremely delicate situation in Syria, where the on-going civil war has consumed over 1,00,000 people and rendered millions into refugees and internally displaced persons, has created a mounting fear psychosis in the entire Middle East that a humongous war is in the offing, especially in the aftermath of the US declaration of intent at military intervention. While the regime of President Bashar Al Assad has come under a cloud of accusation of gassing its own people, the “humanitarian imperialists” who are proactive to ‘teach a lesson’ to the regime also face a credibility-deficit/crisis. As the US seek to use military force in Syria, its dreadful and despicable record of duplicitous dealings in matters of war and state terrorism in the past remind us of the devastating consequences the new war will entail for all people who are going to be caught up in it. A western war in Syria will only be putting a match to the tinterbox, engulfing the whole region and the wider Islamic world and beyond into a quagmire of unimaginable proportions.

In the last decade of the Divine Manifestation, Allah (twa) has informed His Khalifa (the Khalifatullah) Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius several times about the internal and external threats the Muslim Ummah will face and taught him special prayers for the believers to recite in these troubled times. In a Speech on September 09, 2013 the Khalifatullah (atba) spoke on the escalating Syrian situation and the ominous signs of a World War staring at mankind, in the backdrop of the prophecies of the Promised Massih Hadhrat Ahmad (as).

Read the Extracts from the Speech:

The Case against War on Syria

The US President, Barak H. Obama, is currently seeking domestic Congressional endorsement and international political support to legitimate his decision to invade Syria. The US war against Syria has the strategic support of Israel, which shares the goal of containing Iran and the Hizb-Allah of Lebanon, which are viewed as the last threat to Israel’s national security interests in the wider Middle East. As Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria come under external attacks one after the other, the unfolding humanitarian disaster it represents for the common Muslim peoples is a matter of grave concern. The recent reports about the usage of chemical weapons in the on-going Syrian civil war provide the perfect pretext for the planned invasion. The unilateral intervention, without sufficient approval from the broader international community and the UN Security Council in particular, will be a naked violation of the rules and principles of international law. In the name of protecting the people, the US military intervention will only repeat the tragic history of destruction of the very edifice of yet another Muslim society.  

Ambassador Kanwal Sibal, India’s former Foreign Secretary and a distinguished scholar of international affairs, in his article “Two-faced in West Asia”, published in The Hindu (New Delhi), September 4, 2013, comments upon the US case for intervening in Syria as “legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow”. For the benefit of our readers, we reproduce the article below:

President Barack Obama’s case for intervening in Syria is legally weak, internationally divisive and morally hollow