The Spirit of Resistance in Islam by A.R.
Among all of the variant qualities which can be used to describe Islam, one of the most outstanding in the psyche of an unbiased observer is the spirit of resistance. Islam is a religion which deals with politics, along with its religious doctrine. The modern idea of the seperation of religion and politics is an attempt to dilute the zeal which Islam can bring in to the political arena as a vibrant and powerful force. Such a seperation doctrine does not exist in Islamic people, who accept Islam as the embodiment and absolute truth of all the exists. Indeed, to a follower of the Islamic faith, the nature, political law, economics, science, chemistry, and even physics of this world are the natural laws of God almighty, known to Muslims as the all-encompassing Islam. Islam is used often to not only denote the religion of adherents to a religion, but the culture, heritage, natural law, and even the universal codes of behavior for human beings. Using this definition, it is no suprise that Islam lays down laws and commandments which further the belief in the doctrine of resistance to an oppressive power. In discussing this captivating lesson of the Islamic belief, we must remember to disregard all our preconcieved notions of the resistance defined to us by the oppressive western civilization. This in itself, is a resistance.
History shows us that Muslims are the descendants of a people who do not know how to give up, even when faced with certain defeat.This the result of hundreds of years of lessons in the Islamic philosophy which praises the pride and dignity of the free people of the Islamic nations. The Muslims, even when faced with overwhemling odds, always manage to overcome their adversaries, even if it takes a hundred years as in the case of the crusades or the mongol invasions. Islam is a religion which naturally inspires the greatest heroes and knights of the human world to fight in the most hopeless of situations and overcome the most oppressive of occupations. Some of our most revered and beloved personalities include Khalid bin Waleed, Muhammad bin Qasim, Salahuddin Ayubi, Zengi, Nur ad-Din, Imam Ibn Taymiya, Sultan Babar, just to name a few. Though the Muslim people in this era do not have a strong record of resistance towards their own incompetent leaders who may indirectly support foreign meddling, it is well known that when Muslim people are faced with overt foreign invasion, they will fight until their death for the religion, nation, and families. This quality of Islam to inspire massive resistance to domination by an oppressive foreign rulership has been the subject of debate for many years. When the world was suffering under the heat of the direct Western imperialism which had seized all the free peoples of the continents, there was one region where the crusaders did not leave their bases for fear of the local people's wrath, this place was the modern Islam world. As can be seen from the neo-crusader forces failure in occupying and encountering of stiff resistance from the two centers of Islamic resistance in the proud nations of Afghanistan and Iraq. These two nations have now become the symbols of Islamic resistance in which the populous of all Muslim nations praise the mujahideen for continuing the fight against the occupiers against overwhelming odds. As a matter of fact, this very concept is central to Islamic history which shows that since the first Muslims during the life of our great leader and ruler Sayyidina Rasool Pak (sallahu alayhi wa sallam), that Muslims had always fought against steep odds and came out victorious. There are numerous stories in the chronicles of Islamic history of Muslim armies with fewer numbers of troops, less armaments, and hungery soldiers which still overcame the mightiest armies of the world through the power of the inspiration of Islam alone. The greatest armies of the world, the Romans, Persians, Babylonians, Crusaders, Byzantines, Hindu Rajas, Mongols, British, French, Russians were overcome.
Upon realization of the fact of Islamic resistance to any foreign occupation as inevitable, the route which must be taken becomes clear. Today we witness a United States which is quite eager on bringing war and misery in the form of complete and total war to the peaceful Muslim nations of the Middle East. The rhetoric of the occupying forces is that they want to redraw the map of the Middle East and to bring democracy, yet as can be seen from the failure in Afghanistan and Iraq, they have brought choas, war, and after evicting the rulers of these nations, they have put the region's most notorious villians in the place of the leaders of these proud people. There is no greater shame than to have jackals in the robes and garments of kings fight their own valiant people, supported only by a military force from a foreign land, while the rest of the world is engaged in constructive talks which lead to the same conclusions which amount to a verbal excuse for their utter silence and cowardliness. In such a sensitive time, it is the duty of men to take up arms to help bring about the overthrow of tyrants and foreign legions and work to establish a just and honest society. Just as the great leaders of old, for example Sultan Salahuddin, were mocked by the crusaders, we should not fall into the trap to condemn our own great heroes. So that we may be of use in bringing freedom to our people, we must keep ourselves ready as war is knocking on all the gates of the greatest cities of the Muslim world. If these wars continue, it is only a matter of time before the entire Middle East is in a state of perpetual warfare. If such a thing were ever to happen, God protect us, the people need to rely on the warriors and saints of the Muslim world in the form of the Mujahideen to protect the weak of society and bring unity to the struggle. In the wake of death and humiliation of innocent civilians of the Muslim nations, we must realize we cannot depend on foreign-backed rulers and jackals on thrones. It is the duty of the Muslim people, as conveyed by our great Rasool pak, to protect themselves from such a scenario and to never be lowered to helplessness. An oft-repeated Islamic advice is,' God will not change the situation of a people, unless they change themselves.' The meaning of this phrase is that if people do not work to change their situation (by following the religion, supporting Mujahideen, and fighting oppression), they will remain in their terrible situation. I hope this has shed some light on the greatness of the spirit of resistance in Islam and the need for us to individually resist injustice wherever we may see it.