US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that Gaza should come under US control and that it should be rebuilt as the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ whilst its people are permanently relocated to neighbouring countries.
His words are both very ignorant and very arrogant.
He is ignorant because he does not understand Islam and the Muslim mindset.
Perhaps this is because he only communicates with the foul Arab rulers who are far removed from Islam and who are falling over themselves to ‘normalise’ relations with the Zionist entity in exchange for favours from the USA.
It would be wiser if he considered the responses of Sultan Abdul Hameed II, a late Ottoman Khalifah, ruling at a time when the Ottoman state was very weak.
In 1901, in response to Theodore Herzl’s request for Palestine, Sultan Abdul Hameed II told Herzl’s messenger: “While I am alive, I would rather push a sword into my body than see the land of Palestine cut and given away from the Islamic Khilafah.”
Abdul Hameed II was offered huge sums of money, enough to clear the state debts. He rejected the offer saying: ‘I will not sell a single inch of the land, because it is not mine, it belongs to all the Muslims. They paid for this land with their blood. And we will redeem it with our blood. Let the Jews keep their millions. If the Khilafah is partitioned, they can get Palestine for free, but that will happen over our dead bodies.’
Herzl himself visited the Sultan and reiterated the offer, to which the Sultan replied: ‘Even you paid me the weight of the Earth in gold, I would never agree. I would never bring shame upon the Muslims. If you want to buy Palestine, know that the price is the blood of all Muslims. I have no enemies, other than the enemies of Islam and the Muslims.’
Sultan Abdul Hameed II wasn’t referring to the small area called Palestine created by the British in 1917 that everyone sees as Palestine today. He meant the entire region that includes present-day Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and parts of Syria.
Where does such bold and defiant thinking come from? It arises from Islam itself.
Islam gives us a concept of land. Once it is taken in the name of Islam and comes under Islamic authority it is considered Islamic land for perpetuity.
Individuals can own parts of this land (living, benefitting, and selling it when needed), but it is ultimately Islamic land. As such, land is not only personal property but also a collective responsibility of the Ummah.
A Muslim can not sell or give away their land to a foreign state, especially if that state has displaced them. Giving up land in such situations is not a matter of personal choice. It is a betrayal of that collective obligation. This act is thus not only haram (forbidden) but also one of the worst sins in Islam.
The Messenger ﷺ said: “If anyone oppresses someone else even to the extent of a piece of land measuring a hand’s width, his neck will be encircled with it from the seven earths.” (Bukhari)
The Messenger ﷺ also said: ‘Whoever takes anything from land without right, will be sunk with it until the seven earths on the Day of Judgement.’ (Bukhari)
The land is part of the sacred territory of the Muslim world and belongs to the entire Muslim ummah, which must protect it.
The principle is simple: if land is taken, Muslims must work to get it back, even if that requires war. This duty starts with those directly affected and if they cannot succeed then it encompasses those in surrounding lands who must come to their aid until the land is liberated.
The reason the Ummah cannot do this today is due to the poison of nationalism that has been imposed on us. Over a century of colonization distorted our Islamic beliefs and prepared the way for the division of our lands into weak nation-states after the fall of the Ottoman Khilafah following World War I. Suddenly, we identified as Palestinian, Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Lebanese. Overnight, brothers became enemies, and the enemy was seen as the saviour. Treacherous rulers were put in place to keep these divisions entrenched and prevent us from returning to Islamic solutions.
However, with each year and each disaster, the ummah is rediscovering its roots. It seems that Allah is guiding us through trials to turn back to Him alone and the Islamic way of life for our solutions. All the -isms have failed us. The hypocrisy of the so-called ‘Enlightened’ values of the Western way of life has been laid bare. The treachery of our rulers is beyond doubt.
The Ummah must move away from the colonised mindset and fully embrace Islam. Each of us has a part to play- the common man, the business people, imams and community leaders, social media influencers, soldiers, journalists etc to expose the lies and hypocrisy and build and support the Islamic project. We must reject nationalism and strive for political unity under an Islamic system. If we do our part, Allah’s help and victory will follow, if He wills.
Trump will never understand what motivates the Believers. He will never understand why the Palestinians will never give up their land and why the Ummah will resist any occupation.
This highlights his arrogance. It is telling that he wants to take over Gaza directly- a sign surely that the puppet Arab rulers have failed. Yet why does he believe he can succeed where so many colonialists, including the US, have failed in the Muslim world? Iraq, Afghanistan, and 15 months of Gaza have not brought any Western victories, despite the utter destruction caused by the US and its allies.
He will fail like every arrogant tyrant before him. This is especially true for Palestine, a land that Allah has bestowed upon His blessings. This land, the land of al-Aqsa and the prophets and the final resting place of the future Khilafah has always resisted tyranny throughout its history and evil has never prevailed here indefinitely.
أَمْ حَسِبَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ ٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ أَن يَسْبِقُونَا ۚ سَآءَ مَا يَحْكُمُونَ
Or do the evildoers (simply) think that they will escape Us? How wrong is their judgment! (alAnkabut 4)
Living For Islam 