Independence Day and the Slogans of the Qur'an

Occasion: A summary of a Friday khutbah delivered on 5 July 2019Source: A transcription of a video khutbah by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, gave sincere counsel to the Ummah, and through whom Allah lifted the gloom; so may Allah reward him on our behalf and on behalf of the Ummah of Islam with the best of rewards. To proceed:

Yesterday, words of congratulation were repeated to America on its birthday, announcing that the country came into being only through its independence. And that is a truth, for the human being who lives under the authority of another does not have a life, and the enslavement of peoples under the weight of an occupier is a hastened death. And this celebration expresses a human instinct that rejects humiliation and exploitation.

What Is the Meaning of Independence?

This instinct is what moved the people of the colonies, which Britain considered its property, to reject the situation: the people from here and the sustenance from here and the tribute from here, and they were taken like subjects. So they rose up, raising the banner of freedom. And after it had been the state of Massachusetts alone that led the scene, other states followed, and after orders used to come from Britain to be carried out, the country came to have a constitution that governed it, and people felt that they were the owners of decision.

This independence is celebrated every year, and the celebration this year was more lavish than others, but we are speaking about the concept. Does it have a meaning? Does it have a significance? Does it have a price?

Its meaning is that you be a decision-maker and not a slave, and that you do what you wish under rules that govern everyone without exception, so no rule stands above a citizen and no citizen stands above an official. Its significance is that you feel ownership of what is yours, plan for the future as you wish in your country, determine the fate of your children yourself, and feel sovereignty and not servitude. As for its price, it is what keeps your children on the face of the earth with their heads held high, what ransoms your offspring from the captivity of humiliation and detention, and what protects the land and honor.

So do these concepts have a basis in Islam? Did the Qur'an not point to something of them?

Islam Is a Revolution That Begins in the Self

In the course of preparing I found a definition that some have striven over, which holds that Islam is a comprehensive liberating revolution that sets out from the depths of the self, the mind, and the will, to extend to every pillar of social, economic, and political life, but it rises up in the self first. And on the basis of this definition we understand why Islam fought the servitude of idols: because it wanted to free the mind from the limitation of worshipping what it does not understand, into the freedom of understanding and grasping the universe and what is in it, and from reliance on another being to reliance upon the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And we understand why it fought wine: because it does not want your mind to go away from its purpose, nor for you to be a captive of a desire or a cup.

And if we look in the Qur'an we find that each prophet had a specific goal for which he came to treat it as a specific disease in his society: some came to fight economic corruption, some came to fight behavioral corruption, and some came to free the peoples from the tyranny of Pharaoh, his domination, and his enslavement of creation: ﴿يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ﴾ [البقرة: 49] (who were afflicting you with the worst torment, slaughtering your sons and keeping your women alive) [Sūrat al-Baqara: 49]. And Mūsā, peace be upon him, came for the sake of this phrase: ﴿أَنْ أَرْسِلْ مَعَنَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ﴾ [الشعراء: 17] (Send with us the Children of Israel) [Sūrat al-Shuʿarā': 17]. His mission was to take this people so as to grant it a freedom to breathe.

The Children of Israel and the Calf: When a Person Longs for the Chain

But in the same story there is something painful. For after Allah saved them, drowned Pharaoh, and freed them from humiliation, they chose for themselves the first calf to worship. So we learn that independence is not a glimpse of time nor a year that passes, but a heartbeat in the heart of every citizen, and the independence of every soul.

And we always remind that the row in prayer does not become straight except because each one stood by himself, prepared himself, and had the will. You hear "Straighten up, may Allah have mercy on you" once from the imam and the row straightens: no voice, no movement, no flaw, and everyone is bound by the order, because each one found the will for it within himself. So it is with those who want freedom and independence, it must come from within them. As for the Children of Israel, they did not want that, and they relished being humiliated in the hands of whoever ruled them, even if it was a calf without reason.

The Constitution of Medina and the Rights of People

And when the Prophet ﷺ came to Medina he set down a constitution for the people. He did not enter it in the language of the invading colonizer who dominates its resources, and he did not expel the Jews from it on the first day, and did not transgress against any of their rights, and did not take from them anything they deserved as citizens, and did not pay heed to the idea that this right is taken by a Muslim and not deserved by a non-Muslim. He treated people equally because from the beginning he raised the slogan of independence.

It was the habit of humankind to submit to whoever is above them, and he ﷺ did not want from the beginning that people submit to him. It is related, according to what the speaker mentioned, that when one of the Muslims met him and hurried to his hand to kiss it, he ﷺ pulled it away and said what means: Do not exalt me, for I am only the son of a woman of Quraysh who used to eat dried meat.^[1] And in the same sense the speaker says: I am a simple man, I do not have this authority, do not give me this domination. For deifying the ruler and raising him above the level of humanity is our doing, we who glorify humans until we make of them gods besides Allah, and that is the way of the weak in every time.

Compulsion Is Not an Islamic Term, and Claiming Weakness Is Not an Excuse

And the Qur'an points out that compulsion is not an Islamic term, even in religion: ﴿لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ﴾ [البقرة: 256] (There is no compulsion in religion) [Sūrat al-Baqara: 256], and it addresses His Prophet ﷺ: ﴿أَفَأَنتَ تُكْرِهُ النَّاسَ حَتَّىٰ يَكُونُوا مُؤْمِنِينَ﴾ [يونس: 99] (Then, would you compel the people until they become believers?) [Sūrat Yūnus: 99].

And more severe than that, the Qur'an threatens with a grave threat the passive ones who call themselves oppressed. Hear the dialogue: ﴿إِنَّ الَّذِينَ تَوَفَّاهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ ظَالِمِي أَنفُسِهِمْ قَالُوا فِيمَ كُنتُمْ ۖ قَالُوا كُنَّا مُسْتَضْعَفِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ ۚ قَالُوا أَلَمْ تَكُنْ أَرْضُ اللَّهِ وَاسِعَةً فَتُهَاجِرُوا فِيهَا ۚ فَأُولَٰئِكَ مَأْوَاهُمْ …﴾ [النساء: 97] (Indeed, those whom the angels take in death while wronging themselves, [the angels] will say: In what condition were you? They will say: We were oppressed in the land. They will say: Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein? For those, their refuge is …) [Sūrat al-Nisā': 97].^[3] "In what condition were you?" What made you patient with the humiliation you were in? They said: We were oppressed in the land. And often a man says, when he complies with his superior's order: I am just the servant of the one commanded, sir. And this sentence is a direct cause of the angels' address. Why does our Lord threaten them with punishment? Because they surrendered and were content, and they had no will from within them to take them out of the frame of what they had grown accustomed to over generations of humiliation and servitude.

And in contrast the Qur'an raises the standing of the believer of the family of Pharaoh and raises the standing of the people of the trench, because they fought this humiliation and raised their voices in the face of an unjust ruler. And the Prophet ﷺ tells us that among the greatest jihad is a word of truth before an unjust ruler.^[2] That is the philosophy of our religion.

With What Do We Occupy Ourselves?

And when we see this enslavement to creation in its kinds and patterns, and we see people's preoccupation with trivialities on the pages of the media and social media, we realize that it is an issue of utmost seriousness. People are preoccupied with the news of Princess so-and-so and the daughter of King so-and-so, and what she did and where she went. And this is a defect in the ordering of life's priorities. With what do we occupy our hearts and our lives? How many of us, we Muslims in the West, sit down to think about what we can do? How do we treat the problems that exist in the mosques? How do we challenge the obstacles facing our children? How do we draw up a plan for the future with which we proceed in peace with people, the land, and the religion at the same time?

By Allah, I am amazed at peoples who claim to be Muslim and live without independence, and I am amazed at people who do not belong to a religion or an identity, but who respect the humanity of the human being, acknowledge his independence in making his decision, and acknowledge him as a human being. And our Lord said: ﴿وَلَقَدْ كَرَّمْنَا بَنِي آدَمَ وَحَمَلْنَاهُمْ فِي الْبَرِّ وَالْبَحْرِ وَرَزَقْنَاهُم مِّنَ الطَّيِّبَاتِ﴾ [الإسراء: 70] (And We have certainly honored the children of Adam and carried them on the land and sea and provided for them of the good things) [Sūrat al-Isrā': 70].

I say this, and I seek forgiveness from Allah for myself and for you. O Allah, we seek refuge in You from being abased or being humiliated, and we ask You to protect us from everything that harms our religion and hurts the people around us.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Something close to this meaning is reported in Sunan Ibn Mājah, that the Prophet ﷺ said to a man who was seized by trembling out of awe of him: «هَوِّنْ عَلَيْكَ، فَإِنِّي لَسْتُ بِمَلِكٍ، إِنَّمَا أَنَا ابْنُ امْرَأَةٍ مِنْ قُرَيْشٍ تَأْكُلُ الْقَدِيدَ» (Take it easy, for I am not a king; I am only the son of a woman of Quraysh who ate dried meat). As for his pulling his hand away from the one who was kissing it, that is among what the speaker mentioned and no source has been found for it. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Reported by al-Nasā'ī with wording close to this, and reported by Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Mājah with the wording «أفضل الجهاد كلمة عدل عند سلطان جائر» (The best jihad is a word of justice before an unjust ruler). What is kept here is the meaning of what the speaker mentioned. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The verse is followed by the exception of those who are truly oppressed, who are unable to find a way and are not guided to a path (al-Nisā': 98-99); and the speaker means the one who took oppression as a pretext for surrender while having the ability to change.