This Nation Will Not Die

Al Ummah, the Arabic word for nation, is a word that is made definite with " AI" al'ahdiyya (known, familiar) as the scholars of Arabic say. It refers to something that is familiar to the mind, drawn in the mind and sculpted in the heart.

It is the nation that the Muslim knows no second to, he belongs to it, is proud of it and it is for the sake of its permanence and glory that he fights. This is the nation of Islam.

It is the only nation that believes in the Same and One God, He is Allah Almighty, it believes in one Book, it is the Glorious Qur'an, it believes in one Messenger, it is Mohammed (PBUH), and five times a day it faces the same direction, that of the Kaa'bah, the Holy Mosque of Allah.

It is made up of peoples and tribes in countries and regions and in spite of that it remains one single nation, is united by faith, and linked by Islamic law. Its inclination and tastes are united by Islamic values and literature. It has also lived a united history in its victories and crises and has shared the same present with its pains and hopes.

Thus we cannot say 'Islamic Nations' but we can say 'Islamic Peoples' of the same nation, whom Allah Almighty addressed in the following manner, "And lo! This your religion is one religion and I am your Lord, so keep your duty unto Me" ( Surah 23, Verse 52)

It is one nation in its purpose and direction.
It is one nation in its ideas and concepts.
It is one nation in feelings and sensitivities.

The Prophet (PBUH) described its unity with the image of the body, which if one of its members is ailing, in response the rest of the body suffers from insomnia and fever. It is a nation which is distinguished by its values and special characteristics. One of its characteristics is that it is a divine nation.

It did not emerge by accident. It was no accident that it was located in the same region, and related to a single race, as is the case of some nations. It did not arise by the simple wish of some individual, or the wish of a party, a social class, a revolutionary individual or an elected council. It is the creation of Allah for the purpose of spreading His message in the world as He (Praised be He) said: "Thus We have appointed you a middle nation", ( Surah 2, Verse 143)

It is Allah Who Made it in that way and for that purpose, so that it plays its role towards humanity.

Distinguished characteristics

Amongst its characteristics we find what the noble verse has referred to as 'middleness'. It is a 'middle' nation in everything, in its concepts and beliefs, in worship and piety, in its values and morals, in its acts and behaviour, in legislation and organisation, in politics and economics, in all its relations be they internal or external. It does not neglect matter for the sake of the soul and does not neglect the soul for the sake of the matter. It does not give so much importance to the individual that he predominates over society and does not give so much importance to the society so that it predominates over the individual. It gives each party its share, and requires from it its duty without coercion or loss, as Allah Almighty Stated, "That ye exceed not the measure, but observe the measure strictly, nor fall short thereof". (Surah 55, Verses 8-9).

It is a nation with a universal message, it is not a national or regional entity, it was put by Allah in a position of a tutor to the whole humanity, and guide for all people. That is the meaning of His word (Praised be He): "Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that ye may be witnesses against mankind" (Surah 2, Verse 143). and His Saying (Majesty to Him), "Ye are the best community that hath been raised up for mankind. Ye enjoin right conduct and forbid indecency; and ye believe in Allah" ( Surah 3, Verse 110.)

This nation did not grow on its own like a parasitic plant, as it is referred to by some people. But it was planted by a Planter, and it was created by a Creator, He is Allah (Glory to His Majesty). He did not Create it so that it remains on its own or within its borders, or for special materialistic interests, but created it "for people", all people, black and white, Arabs and non-Arabs, poor and rich. It is a nation that is sent for all world inhabitants, in the same way as its Book was revealed as a guide to all world dwellers, and its Prophet was sent as a blessing to all people. The mission of this nation is a mission of blessing and welfare not a mission of hardship and difficulty.

The Prophet (PBUH) addressed the nation saying, "You were sent to ease matters, not to make them difficult". The Companions seized this meaning, and understood that they were sent to guide the nations of the earth. One of these companions - Rab'i Ben 'Amer, in his confrontation with Rostom, the Persian Commander - expressed this notion and delimited the function of the nation very eloquently and concisely when he said: "Allah has sent us to draw people from the worship of people to the worship of Allah alone, and from the narrowness of the world to its spaciousness, and from the tyranny of religions to the justice of Islam".

An immortal nation

Among the characteristics of this nation, is that it is an immortal nation, by the immortality of its message and its Book, it will remain as long as there is night and day, it wil1 be as eternal as there is in the world a Qurian that is recited. If the Qur'an is preserved by the Wil1 of Allah, then the nation of the Qur'an will remain as long as the Qur'an remains.

Allah Almighty has promised His Noble Messenger that He will not annihilate his nation as he did earlier nations through divine punishments, and universal catastrophes such as floods, sinking into the ground, transformation, and cold winds.

He also promised the Prophet that He will not send to it an enemy apart from itself, to extirpate and unroot it, and that parts of it destroy other parts, and a part of them experiences the evil of the other part.

He also Promised the prophet that He will preserve his nation from the feeling of extirpation of its roots. He Promised him to preserve it from moral annihilation through gathering for the sake of ill-doing. In the Hadith it is said "Allah Will not Let my nation gather around for the sake of ill-doing".

The secret behind that is that it is the last of the nations, in the same way as its Prophet is the last Prophet, and its Book is the last Book. Thus, there is no messenger after Mohammed, and there is no book after the Qur'an, and there is no jurisprudence after Islam, and there is no other nation after the nation of Islam.

If any nation, before Islam, gathered around for the sake of ill-doing, there was no danger for humanity to result from that because these were limited nations in terms of time and space, in opposition to the nation of Islam. It is a nation which is characterised by universality and eternity, and that makes of it a nation which extends in terms of space covering the east and the west. It also extends in terms of time since it will last until Doomsday. So if it is all based on ill-doing, the whole humanity will be based on ill -doing, without any hope of change, since there is nobody in it or after it that will spread the guidance of Allah to it.

That is the purpose of the divine solicitude, that within this nation there will remain a group who will live and die for the sake of truth(fullness). Such a group is the same as the lifeboat of the army of liberation which maintains the balance, and keeps the construction together lest it would collapse. It is in this context that the Qur'an states, "And of those whom We created there is a nation who guide with the Truth and establish justice therewith" (Surah 7, Verse 181).

The Messenger of Allah (PBUH) said in the same context, "A group from my nation will remain guarding the truth without being disturbed by those who contradict them, until Allah's command comes to confirm them".

This group is the light of those who travel by night, the guide of the uncertain, and the strength of the weak. They are the ones who serve as proof to Allah, and preach for Allah , and spread the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anybbut Allah.

They are the strangers, who remain sound when other people become evil, they also repair what other people have marred. They are "the safe group" within the mortals, they are the ones who find the right path when others stray from it. They are the ones who revive the values and principles of the Prophet and his Companions. Allah's Blessing for the people is that there is always among them such a chosen group which is mandated by Allah Almighty to teach those who do not: know, and guide those who err, and remind those who forget, since reminding is good for the believers, "But if these disbelieve therein, then indeed We shall entrust it to a people who will not be disbelievers therein " (Surah 6, Verse 89)

Allah Bless Ahmed Shawqi for saying:

He Who Created Truth and made it bitter
Did not Deny any of its generation the virtue of truth

One of the proofs of immortality for this nation is that catastrophes and crises do not annihilate it or kill it, but revive in it the spirit of resistance and challenge. So when the worst catastrophes befall it you see that it becomes at its strongest, and its twig becomes strongest, until people start to think things about it, and consider that it has become part of the dead. Then, in a short period it can overcome the factors of weakness that surround it, with the spirit of the strength that is inherent in it. As a result, those who are observing it from afar or from close up see a victory after a break down, and reunion after dispersion and a life and movement after inertia which resembles death.

1 - We have seen that at the dawn of Islam during the wars of apostasy and the fight against those who do not want to perform almsgiving.

2 - We have witnessed that at the time of the division of the Islamic Nation, during the fight against the savage invasions of the Tatars, who came from the east as if they were Yajouj and Majouj or the sterile wind "which lets nothing in its way but turns it into dust".

3 - In the fight against the crusades, during which Europe invaded the Muslim East with all its people, its trinity and its cross, and killed, burned, marred and destroyed all that any student of that period of history knows.

But the individual strength which is inherent in the Islamic nation soon appeared in conclusive historical events, and thus destroyed the dreams of the crusaders in Hittin, and Bayt Al Maqdis was conquered back after it had been hostage in the hands of the conquerors for over ninety years. Louis IX, the king of France was imprisoned in Dar Ibn Luqman in Al Mansurah, and thus the Tatars backed off as they were defeated in Ain Jaluut, after people had considered that they were "the force that could not be defeated", and the saying that spread amongst people was "If you hear that the Tatars got defeated, do no believe it".

In recent history we witnessed the heroic fighting against the colonialist invaders, in all the lands of Islam. As examples we can cite the fighting of Emir Abdelkader against the French, and Emir Abdelkrim Khattabi against the Spanish, and the hero Omar Al Mokhtar against the Italians, and Sheikh 'Iz Eddin Al Qassam against the English and the Jews, including the Algerian revolution against the French, and the battles of the Palestinians against the Zionists, and the Canal against the English.

The giant awakens

Today we see that the Muslim giant awakens after its lengthy sleep and inertia, and leads a heroic holy war in Afghanistan, and a fight in Eritrea and the Philippines, and a resistance fight in Palestine, and an awakening in Egypt, Syria and Turkey. We also find the educated youth in the East and West that joins Islam with strength and awareness, challenging the relics of the old and the glistening of the new, and sticking to the conviction of the strong and the strength of the believers.

All these proofs brought from here and there and everywhere reflect clearly the permanence, strength and authenticity of this nation, in spite of the signs that may be gleaned from its appearance.

The foreign orientalists and scholars of the nature of our nation, the characteristics of our religion, the stored energies of our peoples are the ones who realise the extent of our inherent strength, and who take it extremely seriously. They are even haunted by its fearsome eruption one of these days. Professor Gibb says in his book entitled The outlook of Islam

"Islamic movements usually evolve with overwhelming and surprising speed. They usually explode in a surprising manner before observers can notice their precursor signs. Islamic movements lack nothing but leadership and the innovative reform of religion"

The German traveller Paul Schmidt wrote a book that is dedicated to this topic entitled Islam, the power of tomorrow and published in 1936. Among the ptints that he mentions he includes the following: the characteristics of the forces in the Islamic East can be summarised in three elements:

1 - The strength of Islam as a religion and the belief in it, in its ideals, and in its fraternisation between the different sexes, races and cultures.

2 - The wealth of natural resources in the area of the Islamic East which extends from the Atlantic Ocean on the borders of Morocco westward to the

Pacific Ocean on the borders of Indonesia eastwards. And also in the fact that these different resources make up one sound and strong economic entity and a self-sufficiency. This fact puts the Arab world in absolutely no need to rely on Europe or any other country if the Muslim countries get closer and help each other.

3 - Finally, he mentioned the third factor which is that of the extreme fertility of Muslims, which makes their numerical strength grow bigger and bigger (Let the advocates of birth control in the Muslim world read this )

Then he said: "If these three factors are put together and the Muslims united around their conviction, and the oneness of Allah, and if their natural wealth fulfilled the need of their growing number, then the danger of Islam becomes real and a threat to annihilate Europe and gain world sovereignty over a region which is the center of the whole world".

Paul Schmidt advances these ideas after a detailed discussion of the three factors on the basis of official statistics. He also bases his analysis upon what he knows about the essence of the Muslim faith, as it is witnessed in the history of the Muslims, and the history of their relations and their defence to fight those who attack them. That the Christian West unites, including all its governments and its peoples, and undertakes over again the crusades in a new format that is appropriate to our present time, but in a style that is quick and efficient. (Translated by Dr. Mohammed Al Bahy in one of his lectures. The whole book was translated afterwards by Dr. Mohammed Abdelghani Shama, under the title of Islam, the world power of tomorrow, published by The Library of Wahba, Cairo.).

Robert Benn said in the introduction to his book that is entitled the Sacred Sword: "We have to study the Arabs and evaluate the depth of their thoughts, because they have governed the world in the past, and may come to govern it again. The flame that was ignited by Mohammed is still strongly lit. There are signs that lead to believing that the flame will remain permanently lit. This is the reason why I wrote this book so that the readers may discover the origin of the Arabs, and I called it with the name of the double-edged sword, which Mohammed won and kept in recollection of his victory at the battle of Badr, as the sword that become a symbol of his imperialistic claims" ( English edition of the book, p.l7. We have quoted this passage from the report of Dr. Isaac Musa Al Hussaini about this book.).

In spite of the attacks expressed in these words, and the boiling hatred that it includes, it shows us the extent of the strength of the Muslims in the opinion of the people who are foreign to them. It also confirms that big truth which is: that this nation may weaken, but it will ndie, because Allah mandated it with the message of eternity.