We remain ready, and not distracted by vanity.
Just as this success and integration has become a source of pride, it also imposes a shared burden on both causes: to fully absorb the lessons of the current stage in light of ancient wisdom. Since the elections in Iraq and Palestine are only forty days apart, the collective advice for both is: do not lay down your arms, no matter how abundant the political and electoral gains may seem. The proper time to lay down arms will be when the occupier withdraws, the effects of occupation are erased, the land returns to its people, and rights are restored.
The most important thing is that both jihads do not fall for the democratic deception, settling for a ministerial or even presidential position.
Sixty years ago, Mohammad Natsir and the Masyumi Party, along with its militant wing “Darul Islam,” fought until Indonesia's independence was achieved after World War II. The secular and opportunistic faction wanted to steal the revolution and monopolize it without including Darul Islam, Masyumi, or the broader Islamic movement, but they feared the armed strength they possessed.
President Sukarno's clever plan was to make the righteous man, Dr. Muhammad Natsir, the head of the Masyumi Party, the Prime Minister. This was to convince him that he held actual power. Once assured, Sukarno convinced Natsir that the stability of Indonesia hinged on the mujahideen laying down their arms and handing them over to the government to enable a strong centralized rule. Muhammad Natsir exerted great effort, using all logical arguments and persuasion to convince Darul Islam, believing there was no danger since he was the Prime Minister.
However, the leaders of Darul Islam refused and resisted, and Natsir increased his pressure until he brought them down from the mountains and out of the forests where they were fortified. He took their weapons away, and once he had completed this, Sukarno disposed him along with his power. Muhammad Natsir blamed himself until his death, and the leaders of Darul Islam continually reprimanded him. But it was too late for regret, as he had lost his strong military arm in a devastating blow from which it never recovered, making it easy for Sukarno to imprison them and exercise various forms of tyranny against them.
Even if the weapons were to be available again, the psychological shock caused by the wrong decision, deeply flawed and overly simplistic, along with the apparent naivety, would prevent any revival. The psychological impact after losing the symbol of honor and its instrument meant that the fervor, enthusiasm, and drive built up over years through educational methods could be dispelled by a single psychological setback stemming from an unwise decision.
This experience serves as a lesson for both the Iraqi and Palestinian jihads, teaching them to use elections, ministerial positions, and government roles as peaceful means to support combat pressure without considering them as ends in themselves. They must not abandon their grand strategic jihad goals, nor should they lay down their arms. Even agreements on independence, freedom, and the restoration of rights require the continued presence of arms for a period to ensure implementation, meet demands, and prevent deception. Any descent from our organizational heights, which we have fortified ourselves within, would mean revealing our secrets, numbing our aspirations, and sowing seeds of discord among the mujahideen due to differing political opinions.
In the Palestinian context, today there are two competing assets: the asset of jihad, faith, sincerity, and dedication, versus the asset of Oslo, submission, administrative corruption, and exploitation of the downtrodden. The shrewd should not deceive the valiant, and it must be remembered well how in the 1970s, in the Al-Qattan Mosque in the Al-Nakra neighborhood of Kuwait, the youth of the Palestinian community would gather for Al-Rashed to give them lessons about the Islamic path, the nurturing of elites, the feeling of superiority and separation, or about jihad jurisprudence and its equations, or about balanced steps and strategic planning. Those educational sessions were exemplars for the environments where some Hamas leaders were nurtured, and some of its fighters grew up.
Iraqi jihad leaders remember well the gesture to a high moon that does not set, a dawn that heralds, and a shining sun that does not wane. Before them, during the war, there was early talk about the lack of jihad security under intelligence services, and the call for immediate jihad after the missiles ceased, with a U.S. Marine face-to-face with an Iraqi fighting the infidels. Over time, they have learned the lesson to maintain their strength even after the American withdrawal to address potential civil war scenarios from factions that oppose historical wisdom and seek to eliminate the other side, intertwined with malicious sectarian desires, and falsehoods codified in an unjust constitution in a moment of negligence by the free. This situation has become entrenched in Jewish plans that aim to divide Iraq, hidden behind the allure of federalism terminology.
This firm conviction has produced numerous “work doctrines” and “performance equations,” forming a distinctive methodology in “contemporary jihad” with its jurisprudence and added efforts, inherited from the legacy of “Islamic jihad” over the centuries. We must avoid deviation, eccentricity, or softness today, but instead, adhere to the inherited wisdom from trusted sources, adding further good, and deriving what suits the new reality.
We adhere to the doctrine of taking refuge under the clouds of the sky, olive branches, and green palm fronds, not under pavilions stained with the blood of oppressed Muslims.
We take pride in discovering the doctrine of independence on the day of mingling.
We follow the Hanafi doctrine of Karaha Tanzihiyya (actions that are not forbidden but are better avoided), avoiding sources of contamination.
We embrace the principle of strict separation, adhering to the prohibition of impurity.
We take pride in the doctrine of superiority on the righteous and lofty path.
We lean towards the doctrine of legal precaution, from doubt to certainty.
We sing songs of chastity and chants of loyalty and disavowal.
In all this, there are covenants, pacts, and contracts, witnessed by Allah, with days as our testimony, and people as our witnesses. We have written stories, set examples, and chanted verses of optimism, hope, and aspiration.
And Allah is the most protective, He is the guardian of fate.
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A message written by Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Al-Rashid following “Hamas” winning the elections in Palestine.
Source: “Palestine Dialogue Network.”
Read the Article in Arabic
