“Subaygh sought knowledge but he went in the wrong way.”
These words were ordered by `Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) to be proclaimed regarding a person who was given disciplinary punishment for rising deviant questions that could stir doubts and sow misguidance in the hearts of the believers.
What then should be the case with regard to a group that spread death and destruction in Muslim countries?
If they speak in the name of Islam and jihad, they have gone astray and have taken the way of hirabah, baghy, and sowing corruption in the land.
These are the three crimes committed by this group of people and can be classified under different crimes according to the shari`ah.
Hirabah stands for highway robbery and the use of weapons to exploit people, whether Muslims or non-Muslims who live under covenant with Muslims. The Malikites have deemed it sufficient for this crime to spread horror in such a way that one becomes unable to seek help in streets, narrow alleys, or houses. These are crimes against the society or public crimes; and therefore the verse described such acts as waging war against Allah and His Messenger to make their acts despicable and to condemn their misbehaviour. He said “Assuredly, the recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger…..” [5:33]
There is one observation here. The punishment of this crime is left to the ruler to decide the suitable punishment from among the explicitly stated penalties.
The second observation is that the individuals who suffered from the crime of these people do not have the right to forgo the penalty, because the issue is entirely in the hands of the ruler.
Obviously, the crime of hirabah applies to the acts of these terrorists.
The second crime is the crime of baghy where a group of people with military ability rebels against the ruler on the basis of some interpretation of shari`ah texts. This is the definition of most of the scholars.
The Malikites, however, do not deem it a condition that they should be a group of persons- the crime could be done by one person. It is not also a condition that he should be adopting a particular interpretation. Khaleel, a Malikite scholar, said: “Bughah (those who commit the crime of baghy) are a group of people who disagree with the ruler to prevent a duty or to topple him.”
His commentators said that the word “group” is not meant to exclude other possibilities. One person will be considered baghi (singular of bughah) if he rebels against the ruler.
The nature of rebellion: Is it a must that they should have attacked people’s properties or persons or have agreed to overthrow the ruler? Or is it enough that they just declare rebellion even if they do not actually threaten public security? This is last point of view is the one adopted by al-Ramly, a Shafi`ite scholar, who said: Their mere existence gives rise to evil consequences that may not be avoided as long as they have rebelled against the authority of the ruler and prepared themselves to fight. (Nihayat al-Muhtaj 7:386.)
Almighty Allah said: “But if one of them commits injustice against the other, then fight the one that commits injustice until [that group] reverts to the rule of Allah.”
The third crime is their sowing corruption in the earth. The Malikites have built many branched rulings on this crime without setting an all-inclusive and all-exclusive definition for it – such as deeming it lawful to shed blood, taking people’s property, and declaring others as disbelievers; even if one has not actually done anything that threatens public security. (See Tabsirat al-Hukkam by Ibn Furhoun)
In the West culture, the definition of terrorism is not far from these meanings. Taken from its original source, it is defined by Roubir French Handbook Dictionary as: A current of thought that constantly adopts exceptional violent measures to reach political goals. It is also a set of violent acts, aggression, destruction etc carried out by a political organisation to instil fear in people and create an atmosphere of terror. The terrorist is the one who is a member in an organisation of this kind.
La Rous French Dictionary defines it as a set of violent activities committed by an organisation to create an atmosphere of terror or to topple the regime.
If this is the description of this deviant and rebelling group who commit three of the most heinous crimes in Islam, they also adopt three manners condemned and denounced by the shari`ah; namely, extravagance, extremism, and over-strictness.
Islam forbid over-strictness as in the hadith narrated by Anas “Do not be over-strict so that Allah should not make things harder for you.”
Islam forbids extremism in religion which means going to extremes. In a hadith narrated by Ibn `Abbas, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Beware of extremism in religion, for those before you underwent destruction for their being extremist in religion.”
It also forbids extravagance which, just like extremism, is to exceed the limits in words and deeds. In a hadith narrated by Ibn Mas`oud, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said three times “Perished be those who are extravagant.”
These three terms signify a state of being away from moderation in thoughts and sayings, which is contrary to the moderate approach and leads to, bigotry, and mischief. These terms are synonymous to extremism and fundamentalism.
Three authorities:
As for the three authorities that are directly responsible for prevention and cure, they are the family, educational institutions, and media.
Family is the first incubation that affects the behaviour of the young. It thus has a significant role in providing good education that protects its sons against intellectual and behavioural deviation. It is known that the intellectual concepts are the motives that turn soon to be practical behaviour.
Family is greatly responsible for fixing the defects and filling the intellectual gap which the youth suffer from in the age of globalisation and the influx of exciting and thrilling information that drains minds, causes crimes, and magnifies the culture of murder and fight.
Family should teach its children how to distinguish between truth and falsehood, darkness and light. Here I recall two words by two rightly guided caliphs describing the state of mischief when eyes turn blind. When the masses revolted against `Uthman ibn `Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), Commander of the believer, he said “The falsehood has made them see as a devil.” This means that the falsehood has overcome the minds of these people and thus they saw their caliph as a devil and revolted against him.
The second word is by Abu Bakr, the first caliph of the Messenger of Allah, (may Allah be please with him) who said “O guide! Either the dawn or the darkness.” He said so at his death when he feared lest people might deviate from obeying the one to whom he entrusted caliphate. He meant: O you who guide people! There is nothing before you except light or darkness.
Family has a great role in the process of prevention and cure when it feels that the son shrinks from the society. Then it has to guide him to the correct way and to seek help from specialists to treat his case before it is too late and before he is lost in the corridors of darkness.
Educational institutions have an effective role in crystallizing the concepts that lay the foundation of individual and collective will. The more positive, effective, and pioneering these institutions are, the more they will be able to graduate generations of pioneers and of positive and rational individuals and the more their students will acquire intellectual and psychological immunity.
The more failure the educational process suffers and the more defects it has in presenting proper thought and correct information, the more loss and failure their graduates will experience. This will make them more liable to accept deviant ideas and to engage in criminal activities and futile practices.
The educational system from elementary level to university along with technical institutes has a responsibility and task; namely, the task of communicating with the psychology and emotion of the student.
The spectacle of an introverted student who does not pose a question or give an answer and who – in the best cases – copies at exams the books without analysis may make the teacher feel the easiness of being free from the strain of dialogues. But this bears the danger of graduating youth intellectually unprotected and weak before the temptation of deviant ideas.
The third side:
This is the national journalism written, audio, or visual. This side is concerned with daily treatment of events to present, comment on, explain, clarify, and direct them.
It plays a decisive role because news has become like daily meal for people. But the situation with regard to national journalism is so difficult owing to the torrent influx of information that broadcasts good and evil, falsehood and truth.
This is a mixture that leaves the recipient to live in a whirlwind of depression, and sometimes of fallacies. But the intelligence of the journalist, his sincerity to his religion, his nation, his abilities, his talents, and his experience enable him to deal with the audience and to secure success in the ruthless media competition….
In sum, these three sides in addition to the pulpit in mosques and intellectual symposiums in cultural clubs, can form a synchronous system of multiple means and tools that have one goal and one end to provide the correct message and the proper concepts to the minds of the youth in order that their behaviour becomes correct, their inclination becomes moderate, and their misguided ones become guided. This is the bet we ought to win so that the Ummah should win and the youth should succeed.
Finally, there are two referential authorities: one of them is the fiqh academies and fatwa institutions which have to refute such deviant ideas and extreme behaviour with argument and proof and to rebut the false fatwas and sophistry of unknown muftis.
The second authority is the institutions whose role in this issue does not differ from their role in all other criminal issues. Their role is to protect the society from crime and criminals by looking for criminals, collecting information about crimes, and bringing criminals to courts.
Finally, perhaps what I mentioned in this paper is not unknown or absent from minds, but it serves to call upon a misguided person to go right, upon a sick person to seek cure, and upon a sound person to be on guard “And remind [them]. For, indeed reminding benefits the believers.”
Almighty Allah is the One who grants success; and He is all-worthy of reverent fear – and all-worthy or [granting] forgiveness.