14 September 2014 Musa and Pharaoh, Current Politics & Islam

14 September 2014 Musa and Pharaoh, Current Politics and Islam

Musa* and Pharaoh
Musa* has 2 objectives from Allah:
- Talk to Pharaoh and convince him about Islam
- Ask Pharaoh to free Bani Israel as he has been oppressive

Musa converys the message
Musa* had easy access to see Pharaoh through their knowledge of the palace and local contacts. He came to challenge their way of life – their gods and beliefs. Pharaoh and Musa* have extensive conversations (with Musa* speaking mildly but being firm):
Pharaoh said, "Who then is your Lord, Moses?"
He said, "Our Lord is He Who gives each thing its created form and then guides it."
He (Pharaoh) said, "What about the previous generations?"
He said, "Knowledge of them is with my Lord in a Book. My Lord does not misplace nor does He forget."
It is He Who made the earth a cradle for you and threaded pathways for you through it and sent down water from the sky by which We have brought forth various different types of plants. Eat and pasture your cattle. Certainly there are Signs in that for men of understanding. From it We created you, to it We will return you, and from it We will bring you forth a second time. (TMQ 20: 49-55)
Pharaoh accuses Musa* of overthrow
Pharaoh accused Musa* of trying to overthrow his godhood, and trying to take over Egypt for himself. Why did Musa* hate their way of life? Despite being brought up in Pharaoh’s palace and with all the luxuries of modern civilisation why would Musa* now turn his back on Pharaoh and be so ungrateful?
They said, "Have you come to us to turn us from what we found our fathers doing, and to gain greatness in the land? We do not believe you." (TMQ 10: 78)
Moses said, "Pharaoh! I am truly a Messenger from the Lord of all the worlds, duty bound to say nothing about Allah except the truth. I have come to you with a Clear Sign from your Lord. So send the tribe of Israel away with me." (TMQ 7: 104-105)
He (Pharaoh) said, "Did we not bring you up among us as a child and did you not spend many years of your life among us? Yet you committed the deed you did and were ungrateful."
He (Moses) said, "At the time I did it I was one of the misguided and so I fled from you when I was in fear of you but my Lord gave me right judgement and made me one of the Messengers."
And anyway you can only reproach me with this favour because you made the tribe of Israel into slaves! (TMQ 26: 18-22)
The only reason Musa* was brought up in the palace was because Pharaoh was killing children, and that forced the mother of Musa* to throw him in the river and then he ended up there. No killing = Musa* would be brought up with his family! Pharaoh then changed tack and started attacking / insulting Musa*:
Pharaoh said, "What is the Lord of all the worlds?'
He (Moses) said, 'The Lord of the heavens and the earth and everything between them if you knew for sure."
He (Pharaoh) said to those around him, "Are you listening?"
He (Moses) said, "Your Lord and the Lord of your forefathers, the previous peoples."
He (Pharaoh) said, "This Messenger, who has been sent to you, is mad."
He (Moses) said, "The Lord of the East and the West and everything between them if you used your intellect."
He (Pharaoh) said, "If you take any god other than me, I will certainly throw you into prison." (TMQ 26: 23-29)
Musa* shows his miracle
This tactic of undermining Musa* and discrediting him was something that also happened to our Prophet Muhammed, and happens to sincere Muslims today too! Musa* was not distracted by these insults and he stuck to his message.
He (Moses) said, "Even if I were to bring you something undeniable?"
He (Pharaoh) said, "Produce it then if you are someone telling the truth."
So he threw down his staff and there it was, unmistakably a serpent. And he drew out his hand and there it was, pure white to those who looked. (TMQ 26: 30-33)
He (Pharaoh) said to the High Council round about him, "This certainly is a skilled magician who desires by his magic to expel you from your land, so what do you recommend?" (TMQ 26: 34-35)
But when Moses brought them Our Clear Signs they said, "This is nothing but trumped-up magic. We never heard anything like this among our earlier forefathers." (TMQ 28: 36)
Pharaoh and his inner circle (the elite also known as MALLA) clearly preferred taking the route of denial and evil rather than choosing to be rightly guided. Despite these miracles, they decided to defy the Prophet Musa*. Pharaoh grasped the challenge to his authority and consulted with his elite on how to defeat Musa*.
They said, "Detain him and his brother and send out marshals to the cities, to bring you all the skilled magicians." (TMQ 7: 111-112)

Main Topic: Brief Recent Political Stories
Pakistan
Quasi-revolution and some people calling for a change of leadership in Pakistan (‘Go Nawaz Go!) because of corruption, nepotism, failed leadership and election fraud. Can Imran Khan (or even Tahir al-Qadri) make any serious change to the political landscape as they are only calling for more of the same but done differently. It is unlikely that any change will be meaningful if it happens.

Gaza
The Israeli war (massacre) of the Muslims of Gaza. Although the pretext was the unfortunate death of the 3 Israeli teenagers (putting aside the fact that the Israeli government knew it wasn’t Hamas and that the kids had died straight way but kept the information secret to whip up hysteria) the real reasons predate this – especially with the Unity Agreement between HAMAS and FATAH (Palestinian Authority), and issues around gas, pipelines, water and land access.
Very unilateral / one-sided attack – disproportionate and essentially a massacre. Now, thankfully an open-ended ceasefire.
However, the medieval boycott / siege still exists!
How do we solve the problem?
- we can have HUMANITARIAN support (more charity work). This necessary work (more blankets and food) will not solve the problems for the people in Gaza
- POLITICAL discussion to address Israel, one-state or two-state, or UN discussions. Or try to dismantle Israel or make the government more fair.
- but we don’t often hear about the ISLAMIC solution. Islam is quite clear that this is Islamic land and belongs to the Muslims and we should increase our efforts to bring Islam back to this land and we should empower the Muslim armies to support the oppressed people in Gaza.

ISIS
A lot of controversy about the new off-shoot of al-Qaeda called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’.
We should be careful with the news that we know of until we are able to verify the news and not always be taken in by any propaganda from any side.
The action of beheading journalists and aid workers cannot be justified by Islam – this is against the Shariah and we should condemn this. However, there is a context to the instability in Iraq/Syria. Just as Musa* contextualised his upbringing in Pharaoh’s court as a problem caused by Pharaoh, so the issues we are seeing in Iraq/Syria are a direct result of Western policy and interference in Muslim lands. This goes back through 9/11, the Iraq sanctions, the First Gulf War, the rise of Ba’athism and the injustices of Saddam and the Assad family.
A quick discussion about the belief system of the Yazidis who venerate Iblis. Whatever their beliefs, there is no justification to persecute or kill them as we are told ISIS want to do.
ISIS are not a proper Islamic State and the ISIS militia do not fulfill the criteria for a functioning state or a Khilafah. An Islamic State should be a place of sanctuary and justice – not what we are seeing in Iraq/Syria. We should criticise them when they do wrong (like the beheadings) and we should criticise the bombing of Muslims by the West as a supposed reaction to this wrong action. As Muslims in the West we do not need to apologise for the bad actions of bad Muslims, any more than the West apologises for the bad actions of the bad Christians from Hitler through to Anders Breivik (who killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, in a mass shooting in Norway 2011).

Peace