Imam Mahdi and the illegal state of Israel

A part of the Jaffer Ali Ladak’s lecture

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The discussion this evening is specifically going to look at the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel. We are going to look at the theology and the history of the development of the state of Israel in the Middle East today and to understand that it is one of the great challenges of the world today. And no doubt that if the Awaited Savior of humanity were to come this Friday, may Allah hasten his reappearance, one of the first challenges within the world to break the intellectual shackles and the moral shackles that are placed upon this world can and only be to uproot what is the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel today.

Here, we need to take a pause and frame this discussion within the correct thought process, a befitting humble thought process of this topic. We are blessed to live in a country that allows freedom of thought and freedom of discussion. Other countries, especially in the Western world, champion freedom of speech. And so there should be no fear for anyone to wish to discuss the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel, be it as a panel, be it from the pulpit and not fear that our community cannot discuss such an important topic. What is not permissible is to frame this discussion in any way, shape or form to do with inciting hatred, to do with inciting racism or prejudice. We are not looking at this through a religious context.

There is no such thing as Islam versus Judaism, Judaism versus Islam. In the eyes of Islam, we are brothers to our Jewish partners in faith and our Jewish partners in faith are brothers to us. We are speaking about a political movement of Zionism and we are speaking about a country that has caused much devastation around the world. And we are looking at this in light of history and U.N. resolutions. If I want to talk about what the United Nations is discussing, there should be no fear and nothing but confidence in this particular discussion.

And so it must be looked at in this ligh.THere, when we speak about the illegitimate and illegal state of Israel, we must do so in understanding as well that at times, much of our community is not aware of their own history in recent Islam, and they are being co-opted within a certain narrative. How many Muslims, I have seen, that consider the Palestinians to be at fault. How many Muslims I have seen and talk to that think that when Iran or Hezbollah or any Muslim stands for the rights of the Palestinian innocents, that this is done for political terms in order to score points politically. This is a humanitarian discussion. We want to look at this discussion in light of humanity and human rights. The reality is Israel, the illegal and illegitimate state, is the last and only apartheid state left within the world.

When Nelson Mandela, may God bless him for the good work that he did, sought to overthrow apartheid in South Africa, the entire world joined hands with that movement. In Wembley Stadium, 80000 people packed the stadium in order to sing songs and demonstrate. Why is it that we can speak openly about the apartheid within South Africa, but communities and Muslims fear, especially in great countries like the United States of America that champion freedom of speech, that all of a sudden we become fearful to speak about apartheid in another part of the world today? There should be no reason, as long as the discussion is framed within respect and justice and looking at historical facts, not looking to incite hatred towards any particular group.

When it comes to this particular discussion, we look at it from our perspective first and we stated that the Awaited Savior of humanity must remove the primary bricks within this world that cause hatred, that cause the shackling of the intellect and morality. There is a narration to state that after the zuhoor of our Imam, alayhi assalam, after he establishes his house and his primary government within Masjid Sahla, we know he goes to Masjid Sahla on Tuesday nights in order to prepare for his coming, to see that place where he's going to establish his house. One of the narrations state that after having established himself in Masjid Sahla, one of the first places in his movement that he goes to liberate, he goes towards Jerusalem. Today, Jerusalem is occupied Palestine. Which shows us something very interesting that: a) our theory of seeing the methodology of Rasul Allah juxtaposed with the methodology of the Awaited Savior, that he goes and removes the blocks, the building blocks of the shackles upon humanity. It is very interesting that our narration tells us that the first place that he goes to after his zuhoor is occupied Palestine or Jerusalem - what we know today is occupied Palestine.

That shows us that it is first on the agenda of the Awaited Savior of humanity. It is a shame that Muslims today do not have it as first upon their agenda, despite it being first on the agenda of the Imam, alayhi assalam. Number two, one of our greatest scholars of our era, his Eminence Ayatollah Shaheed Murtadha Mutahhari rahmatullahi alaih has a beautiful statement in regards to the matter of illegal Israel and occupied Palestine. Listen to the statement from this great scholar. He states that if Rasul Allah was present today, the matter that would occupy his mind the most would be that of the Palestinian cause. He continues: It would break the heart of Rasulallah. It would have broken the heart of Syed ash-Shuhada Imam Husayn, salamullah alaihuma.[Allahumma Salli alaa Muhammad wa aali Muhammad].

He states, that it would break the heart of Rasul Allah and break the heart of our third Imam , alayhi assalam. He says, if you want to cry over Karbala, your slogan today should be Palestine. If you want to know that the Shimr of thirteen hundred years ago is dead, get to know the Shimr of your time. Have you heard from a scholar, a more obvious and direct statement about the importance of this discussion? It is first upon the agenda of the Awaited Savior. One of our greatest scholars says, if you really want to understand Karbala, Karbala occupies what position in our belief system? The height, the importance, the centrality - if you want to understand the Karbala of today, look towards Palestine. How important our scholars have placed such an agenda. Yet our own Shi'a scholars do not speak about this. Our own communities forget about this until once a year when we make a very arbitrary movement on the last Friday of Ramadan and make a very empty Jum'a Khutba where again, some of our communities don't even speak about the rights of the Palestinian people. We must think about what this discussion really means to us.

What is the theology and the history of Israel and why is it so important? And how can you and I make an impact today in regards to the issue of Palestine? The history of the Zionist movement to occupy the Palestinian lands started in 1896. There was an individual by the name of Herzl who created the term Zionism. Historically, Zion is the name of a hill in Jerusalem, and so, of course, for our Christian and Jewish brethren, this location is a respected and sanctified location. Today, that hill is within the boundaries of Jerusalem. And so Zionism is a political movement in order to occupy those lands for the purpose of creating a Jewish state. Now, here your immediate question would be: well, is there anything wrong with a Jewish state? Absolutely not. Every community has the right to its own self-determination. Every community has a right if they wish to be able to legally occupy lands in the correct way under international law and then to create it as a state for themselves.

Once this notion had been created of Zionism, of a land within Palestine for a Jewish community, a year later in 1897 in Basel in Switzerland, there was something called the first Zionist Congress that was created in order to proliferate and expand this idea. And there they formalized the notion that they would take land within Palestine in order to create their own homeland for a Jewish state. Again, if this is something that is legal within international law, you purchase land, land is given to you, there is no problem in the world for any community to have a state for their own sect or for their own religion. This is something that is beautiful and we would want the Jewish people to have a place for them to be able to practice their faith freely, and especially in light of what occurred in Nazi Germany and other places in Europe.

There should be a place where all people can feel secure to be able to practice their religion freely. In this particular meeting in 1987, there were three or four points that were determined from this Zionist Congress. For example, number one: there should be a place within Palestine for the Zionistic people. Number two, that there should be a federation of all major Jewish organizations around the world that should come together for the purpose of this particular land. Especially within the media, there should be a self awakening and consciousness of the Zionistic program and the Jewish faith around the world. And number four, that all necessary steps to creating a Zionistic land should be created. These four things were determined within that first Zionist conference within Basel in 1897.

Since then, or from that immediate time, many of these organizations pressed governments of countries in order to create that state and to have self-determination within that particular land. It was later, especially after the British war against the Ottoman Empire in the years of 1915 to 1917, that this aspiration really began to take place. Movements such as the Balfour Treaty or the Sykes-Picot Agreement or the British mandate were three legal movements that tried to divide the countries within the Middle East and create borders and give these borders to countries that could govern them or could occupy them. So, for example, you had Britain, you had France, you had the U.S.S.R. Try to divide those areas such as Syria, Trans-Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, into the various borders that exist until today. It so occurred that as these borders of Palestine were being drawn up, now there was mass movement from Europe amongst the Jewish community to Palestine from the years 1920 to 1945. It was in this period between 1915 and 1917 and the following mass migration of millions of Jews to this particular area.

For example, then the Foreign Secretary, James Arthur Balfour, made a historic statement that the British government, His Majesty's government, will make all efforts to ensure that the Jewish state is created within Palestine, but to ensure the rights of those who live upon the land today. Meaning, yes, move; yes, have your own place, but not to the detriment of Palestinians that are living at that time. As you know, World War II, so horrendous treatment of our Jewish brethren, lamentable until today and until the end of time. As people continued to move, wars started between the Palestinian people and the Zionists that sought to occupy more and more land up until the events of 1967.

Here, the question will be posed, why so much determination to find yourself back in the land of Palestine and is this something that is permissible to the Jewish people and to the Zionist movement within itself? Here, we need to understand, firstly, what the Qur'an says and what the Jewish scriptures say about the movement of people back towards Palestine. The first thing we find is, within the Qur'an, it talks about the history of Banu Israel and their moving back towards the land or going towards 'ardh al-muqaddisa' - the Holy Land that is today occupied Palestine.

For example, you will find within Suratul al-Maeda, Chapter number five, verses 20 and 21. These verses speak about the historic movement of Banu Israel at the time of Musa alayhi assalam to ardh al-muqaddisa. 'Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim. Wa idh qaala Moosaa liqawmihee' (5:20), and when Musa said to his community. 'Yaa qawmiz kuroo ni'matal laahi 'alaikum'(5:20), O my community, bring to mind the blessings of Allah that He has conferred upon you. 'Iz ja'ala feekum ambiyaaa'a' (5:20), what were these great blessings that God gave to you? He made amongst you prophets; ' wa ja'alakum mulookanw'(5:20), and He made amongst you kings; ' wa aataakum maa lam yu'ti ahadam minal 'aalameen'(5:20), - and He gave to you as people what He had not given to any others within the world. You had become the chosen people. Why? By virtue of the guidance that had been given to you.

The next verse speaks now about that determination into the holy lands. 'Yaa qawmid khulul Ardal Muqaddasatal latee katabal laahu lakum'(5:21), - this verse is most prominent and most important: O my community, enter into the Holy Land, which Allah has prescribed and written for you. Meaning that even within the Qur'an, those lands were given towards Banu Israel. Those lands which was sanctified were chosen by Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, for them. But later on, due to their own shortcomings and leaving that land and being excommunicated from that land and having broken many of the covenants from Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, the virtue of being the chosen people had been taken away and that land had been taken away from them as well. And so they determined to return back to that land.

From their own scriptures, the land of Israel is a prominent and important place. I will read to you a few lines from the scriptures of the Bible to see how this land is supposed to be for them, according to the Jewish and Zionist belief. Israel was created to be a light amongst the nations. Isaiah, 42:6 . Israel is the everlasting possession to Banu Israel. Genesis 13:15, 15:18, 17:7&8. And to Abraham your Lord appeared and said to your descendants, will I give this land, Genesis 12:7. God would remember the land Leviticus, 26:42. And fetch His people to this land, Deuteronomy:34 and bring them into their land which their fathers once possessed,35. This means that within the mindset of the Jewish community, this land was once for them and once again will be returned back to them. The Zionist movement seeks to bring that to manifestation so that that world, that land could return back to them.

As this occurred, unfortunately, wars took place and many people were killed and many people were removed from their lands. The United Nations had determined that there should be a partition for the Jewish state of Israel and the Palestinian people. Once those lands and lines were drawn up, war continued, and this is when the occupation of those lands was taken to another level. In 1967 on the 14th of May, the state of Israel was formally announced as a state occupying 60 percent of the Palestinian lands, occupying many of the water reservoirs of that land, killing thousands and making refugees of seven hundred thousand people at that time. Having done this, then wars continued between the Arabs and the Zionists of the state of Israel.

Unfortunately, the Arabs and the leaders of those countries made peace treaties allowing more land to be taken by the state of Israel. It was Egypt and Lebanon that especially allowed land to be taken. And until today, the Egyptian government have continued to have treaties with the state of Israel. This is another interesting point, because if you look within the holy Qur'an, the Qur'an speaks about Banu Israel and how they are supposed to treat people when they enter into lands and when they have lands that they have occupied, or land that they have in their state.

Three verses speak very interestingly about this. For example, within Suratul Baqara, verse numbers 82, 83 and 84. These verses are the covenants made between Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala and Banu Israel that are supposed to last until today. 'Wa iz akhadnaa meesaaqa Baneee Israaa'eela'(2:83), and when We took a covenant with the children of Israel; ' laa ta'budoona illa Allah'(2:83), do not worship any other than Allah; 'wa bil waalidaini ihsaananw'(2:83), and do good towards your parents; 'wa dil qurbaa'(2:83), and the nearest around you; 'walyataamaa'(2:83), and do good towards orphans; 'walmasaakeeni'(2:83), and the needy and the poor; 'wa qooloo linnaasi husnanw'(2:83), and say nothing but good to people; ' wa aqeemus salaata wa aatu az-Zakaata'(2:83), and establish the prayer and defray the zakat; 'thumma tawallaitum illaa qaleelam minkum'(2:83), -but then you turned your backs upon this covenant, except a few of you; 'wa antum mu'ridoon '(2:83), and you turned away from this covenant. The next part of the Covenant speaks specifically about people within lands and how you treat people within lands. 'Wa idh akhadhnaa meesaa qakum'(2:84), - and We made a covenant with you Banu Israel; 'laa tasfikoona dimaaa'akum'(2:84), do not shed the blood of people. Whereas in the 1967 era and those wars that preceded and were post that era thousands and until now hundreds of thousands have been killed and you have shed the blood of hundreds of thousands. 'Wa laa tukhrijoona anfusakum min diyaarikum' (2:84), and do not expel yourselves from houses, from lands. One of the covenants was that even amongst your own people, you were not allowed to expel people from their houses.

What does the next verse say? 'Thumma antum haaa'ulaaa'i taqtuloona anfusakum'(2:85), but then you decided to kill people instead; 'wa tukhrijoona fareeqam minkum min diyaarihim'(2:85), and you threw out a group of people amongst yourselves from their own houses. The state of Israel is not permissible by its own standards, because you cannot create a state based upon throwing people off their own land and killing them to steal their land when your own God gave you a covenant not to do those two specific things.

And therefore, when we speak about it at the theological level, this is not something that is permissible to themselves. This is why you have famous Jewish groups like the Neturei Karta, that will stand against the existence of the illegal state of Israel, stating that this was not permitted to be created in this way. It is only God that can create a state for us and not us by killing and throwing people off their own lands. History continued, and you will no doubt know of the many conflicts and the many thousands of people that have been killed to date by the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel.

I will read to you just a few of the United Nations resolutions against the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel. And you will see that this is not a Muslim issue. This is not an issue against Jews. This is against people who have stolen land and killed for the sake of creating a state. Resolution 259 calls for the conclusion of occupation of the Palestinian lands. The United Nations resolution number 279 two calls for the end of settlements on the Palestinian Lands. Resolution 3236 calls for the self-determination of the Palestinian people and their right to return to the lands of 1967. Resolution 313414 calls for sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel until it fully withdraws to the borders of 1967. U.N. Resolution 35207 calls for a full withdrawal and the creation of a state for the Palestinian people. Resolution 39146 calls for all countries in the world to cut ties with the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel. All countries in the world should cut ties with the illegal and illegitimate state of Israel. This is not me. This is not you. This is the United Nations resolutions that are calling these specific issues.

Why is this such a problem? As we stated, there is no problem for our brethren of any faith to have a state for themselves. In fact, if you look at the way in which the Muslim greats have treated Jews, you would see the example as to how you and I are to treat Jewish people. One beautiful example from Amir al-Mu'mineen Ali ibn abi Talib, salwatullah wa assalamu alayh [Allahumma Salli alaa Muhammad wa aali Muhammad] states that he had lost his shield in a battle. And it was a Jewish individual that had found that shield and kept it for himself. Having seen this, Amir al-Mu'mineen alayhi assalam went to the judge of the time and said, this person has stolen my shield, I would like to present my case to have it back. The judge, Qazi Shuray, asked for both parties to come and present their own witnesses. The Jewish individual stated, I don't need any witnesses. Possession is nine tenths of the law. I have this, its mine. Qazi Shuray asked, 'Amir al-Mu'mineen, please, can you bring your witnesses?' Ali ibn abi Talib responded by saying, 'Oh Qazi Shuray, do not address me as Amir al-Mu'mineen because the fact that you have addressed me in this way may make your mind to be biased towards me by virtue of my position over the Muslims'.

Look at the justice of Ali ibn abi Talib. Call your witnesses. He calls, according to one narration, Imam al-Hasan, alayhi assalam, and his servant - presents them as the witnesses. Qazi Shuray responds by saying, 'I cannot accept these witnesses. One is your son and one is your servant,' Amir al-Mu'mineen, alayhi assalam did not respond by saying, 'I am Amir, I am Muslim and this is Jew. How can you determine judgment against me in favor of him? Do you not know that my religion is better?' He never said any of these sorts of words. What he said was, 'If that is your belief, then I accept your decision,' turned his back and walked off. The Jewish individual responded by saying, 'Wait Ya Ali! If this is your religion, that in your own court where you are Amir over, you still have to go and bring me to have a genuine case in front of the law. Then this shows me the type of religion that you have. If you are an individual, despite being Commander over that court, that when the decision is made against you, even in favor of someone of a different sect of a different faith, then this is a religion that I want to be part of, because this shows the way in which Islam truly is'. And according to the narration, he says, 'Ashhadu anna La ilalaha illa Allah, wa anna Muhammadan Rasul Allah, sallal-lahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.'[Allahumma Salli alaa Muhammad wa aali Muhammad]

It is because, according to theology, this land is not theirs for the taking. It is because according to international law, this land is not for the Zionists to take. It is because today there is this land that is still an apartheid state. There is a wall separating one group of people and a wall separating another group of people. It is because the water reservoirs of one group of people have been 90 percent stolen. It is because when a Palestinian wants to go to work or his wife is pregnant and entering into labor, they are forced to wait at checkpoints, not knowing whether they will ever get in.

It is because the lands which hold gas underneath the Ghazan Sea has been stolen by the Zionist people. It is because warships and helicopter gunships and tanks on a regular basis destroy the houses of these people, that this state does not deserve to have a place in the modern world. It is for those reasons and those reasons only. The Muslims, unfortunately, have not taken this issue seriously. Our marajae, may Allah bless them, have told us it is haram, haram shar'an to purchase anything that is going to directly aid the state of Israel. It is shocking to see in our own mosques and imambargahs around the world that we continue to purchase Coca-Cola products, bring them in, and our families still keep Coca-Cola products within their fridges, take their children to McDonald's, take their children to Disney, where every single cent that is being spent, a portion goes back to the last apartheid state and that purchases bullets, gun ships and tanks to run over the houses and the children of Palestinian people.

How can Muslims justify this? In which way? No wonder we are struggling to bring people to the mosque when what we are feeding our children is the blood of innocent Palestinians. Our organizations complain, 'Where are people on a Thursday night? Where are people on the makhsoos occasions? Why is there no spirituality? When you feed your children the blood of Palestinian people, you think people are going to come to the mosque when that's the kind of spirituality we're putting into ourselves?

It is beyond belief. It is shocking that the Muslim has arrived at this point. The verse of the Qur'an says, 'Wa idal maw'oodatu su'ilat Bi ayyi dambin qutilat'(81:8-9), on the Day of Judgment, the innocent pagan girl that was buried alive will have the right to ask for what reason was I killed? If I go on buying Coca-Cola and McDonald's and taking my children to Disney and buying Disney movies, making them grow up on this nonsense, every cent that goes towards killing those innocent Palestinian children, the bullets in their head, the bullets in the chest, wallahi, on the Day of Judgment, if the pagan child has the right to say 'Bi ayyi dambin qutilat,' wallahi, the Palestinian Muslim child on the Day of Judgment will have the right to ask you and I 'Bi ayyi dambin qutilat,' . for what reason did you kill me?

There's no two ways about it. The Awaited Savior of humanity, when he returns, according to our narrations, the first of places he goes to liberate is Jerusalem. If it is first upon his agenda, surely now it is time for the Muslim world to make it fast upon their agenda. And you and I, as Muslims have to think about how through boycotts and divestments and sanctions and political organizations and lobbying, we can begin to make a move to free the world from the last apartheid state.

It is not that the Jewish brethren cannot have a state, but it must go back to 1967 borders and all the lands and repairs to go to the Palestinian state must occur. Why? Because this shows that the world is not ready to allow the rights of each other. When we stated Rasul Allah will come and break the shackles, Mahdi, salamullah alaih, will break the shackles, the shackles upon humanity today is to allow an apartheid state to remain in the world, to allow people that are being killed and butchered in their thousands, starved in their thousands, and yet the world has not done enough to change this scenario, let alone the Muslims having not done enough to change this scenario. This is why it is on the agenda of Imam al-Mahdi, alayhi assalam, because until that state is removed, humanity itself is not truly allowing itself to be humanity as it ought to be humanity. You cannot still exist in a world with an apartheid state like this and consider ourselves to be in a befitting world. This is why it is on the agenda of Imam, alayhi assalam, and this is why it should be on our agenda as well.

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Source: https://www.al-islam.org/media/philosophy-ghaybah-914-imam-mahdi-aj-and-illegal-state-israel