Abd el-Salam Farag and "The Absent Obligation"

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

وصلى الله على نبينا محمد

وعلى اهل بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المظلومين

In 1981, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated by a group of extremists affiliated with the modern “Jihadist” current.  The Egyptian president had concluded a peace treaty with the State of Israel, liberalized Egypt’s economy and firmly put his country in the Western bloc. But his assassins considered him a pharaoh and a taghut worthy of being killed. Regrettably, Sadat’s demise only served to worsen the situation for Egypt, as his successor, Hosni Mubarak, proved to be even more authoritarian and autocratic. Likewise, when the Arab Spring ousted Mubarak in 2011, Egypt entered a phase of instability which eventually allowed for a real pharaoh, General Sisi, to seize the reins of power. Not since Gamal Abdel Nasser has Egypt been under such a suffocating dictatorship. This is why the great Imam of the Salaf, the pious Hasan al-Basri (rahimahullah) said:

إن الحجاجَ عذابُ اللهِ ، فلا تدفعوا عذابَ اللهِ بأيديكم

“Verily, al-Hajjaj (b. Yusuf) is the punishment of Allah. So do not try to repel the punishment of Allah with your hands.”

This too is my madhhab with respect to the tyrannical and evil rulers that rule over the Muslims. In fact, I extend this principle to foreign occupation and colonialism that the Muslims have historically endured. All of this was a manifestation of the punishment of Allah for our corruption and sins.

Sadat’s assassin, an extremist named Khaled Islambouly, was a member of the Jama’at al-Jihad founded by Abd el-Salam Farag (1954-1982). The latter wrote a book entitled al-Faridat al-Gha’iba (“The Absent Duty”), which details the “Jihadist” ideology. He writes under the heading إقامة الدولة الإسلامية “Establishment of the Islamic State”:

هو فرض أنكره بعض المسلمين وتغافل عنه البعض مع أن الدليل على فرضية قيام الدولة واضح بيِّن في كتاب الله تبارك وتعالى  فالله سبحانه وتعالى يقول : (( وان احكم بينهم بما أنزل الله )) .. ويقول

(( ومن لم يحكم بما انزل الله فأولئك هم الكافرون )) .. ويقول جل وعلا في سورة النور عن فرضية أحكام الإسلام : (( سورة أنزلناها وفرضناها )) ومنه فإن حكم إقامة حكم الله على هذه الأرض فرض على المسلمين ولكون أحكام الله فرض على المسلين فبالتالي قيام الدولة الإسلامية فرض على المسلمين ، لأن ما لم يتم الواجب إلا به فهو واجب ، وأيضاً إذا كانت الدولة لن تقوم إلا بقتال فوجب علينا القتال

“It is a duty. Some Muslims reject it and some neglect it. The evidence for the obligation to establish the state is clearly explained in the Book of Allah – Blessed and Exalted – so Allah Holy is He and Exalted – says: ‘So judge between them with what Allah has sent down’ and He says: ‘And whoever does not judge by what Allah sent down, then they are the disbelievers’. And He, Glorified and High, says in Surat an-Nur regarding the obligation of Islamic rule: ‘A Sura which We have sent down and which We have obligated’. So from this is the command to establish the rule of Allah upon this Earth, a duty upon the Muslims. So the establishment of the Islamic state is obligated upon the Muslims because an obligation cannot be undertaken without it, so it (too) is mandated. Furthermore, if the state cannot be established except through fighting, then fighting is obligated upon us.”

This logic is quite strange. If establishment of the Islamic state was a religious obligation (let alone the greatest obligation) upon the Muslims, commanded by Allah Himself, why did not Allah simply state that explicitly in the Revelation which He sent down? Why are the so-called “Jihadists” and “Islamists” forced to prove this obligation through deduction? The principle of Islamic jurisprudence, according to the mainstream schools of law, is that a religious obligation is lifted or suspended from someone who is physically incapable of performing it, as Allah Most High says:

لَا يُكَلِّفُ اللَّـهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا

Allah does not charge a soul except (by its) capacity.

(Sura 2:286)

Throughout the Qur’an, Allah Most High reminds the Believers that He has mandated Zakat upon them. Nevertheless, even the so-called “Jihadists” and “Islamists” will have to admit that the destitute and those that do not incur upon them the minimum nisab for the payment of Zakat are not religiously obligated to acquire enough wealth so that they can pay it. Even they can understand how absurd such a notion is. None of the Five Pillars of Islam, the most fundamental obligations for every Muslim, necessarily require the establishment of a state to discharge. Unlike the moderate “Islamists” like the Muslim Brotherhood, the “Jihadist” Farag has gone a step further and stated that since the Islamic state cannot be established without fighting, therefore, fighting too has been obligated upon the Muslims for the purpose of the establishment of a state. Here we can see how this flawed methodology is like a chain. In other words, every action necessary for the establishment of another which eventually leads to the carrying out of a religious obligation itself becomes a religious obligation, even if that has not been expressly commanded by Allah in the Revelation He sent down. Although qital (fighting) is a religious obligation, that too depending of various conditions and circumstances, its purpose is not to establish a state, but to defend against those who initiate aggression and violent hostility (Sura 2:190). Allah Most High says:

وَقَاتِلُوا الْمُشْرِكِينَ كَافَّةً كَمَا يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ كَافَّةً ۚ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّـهَ مَعَ الْمُتَّقِينَ

And fight the polytheists collectively as they fight you collectively. And know that Allah is with the righteous.

(Sura 9:36)

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم with his Companions رضى الله عنهم were commanded to fight the disbelievers and polytheists of Arabia in order to establish Tawhid and the Religion of Allah in that land (Sura 9:28), hence he said:

أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أُقَاتِلَ النَّاسَ حَتَّى يَقُولُوا لاَ إِلَهَ إِلاَّ اللَّهُ‏

I have been ordered to fight the people until they say “there is none worthy of worship except Allah”

This was an order specifically for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم but generally the Muslims are not obligated to fight in the path of Allah until the people submit to Tawhid and Risala. Rather, Allah says:

لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ

There is no compulsion in religion

(Sura 2:256)

 

But the qital for the purpose of establishing an Islamic state has not at all been legislated by Allah. It is an innovation and a major deviation of the so-called “Jihadist” movement.