In his May 5, 2024 column in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, Suleiman Saleh, a former member of the Egyptian parliament on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), called on the West to renounce its arrogant attitude toward the Muslims and understand that their Islamic identity obligates them to fulfill a certain role in this world, a role that includes waging jihad in order to bring about the victory of Allah. The Quran, he said, indicates that "the future will be shaped by the believers who bear their suffering with fortitude and wage jihad for the sake of Allah while their souls yearn for Paradise." Therefore, the Muslims will continue their jihad with fortitude however long it takes, for they realize that this is but a trial and will end in victory. Saleh also stressed that, by waging jihad with limited means and bearing its suffering with fortitude and faith, the Islamic resistance in Palestine – namely Hamas – has proved that faith is more powerful than the Western weapons.
Suleiman Saleh (Image: Ikhwanonline.com)
The following are translated excerpts from his column:[1]
"The arrogance of the West, which stems from its power, has prevented its rulers and clerics from understanding many facts that could have helped [it] to better handle its struggle [with the Muslims] and to form ties with them based on understanding rather than conflict. The arrogant West did not understand that the Muslims have a cultural identity and role, and that whoever wants peace and cooperation [with them] in order to realize shared goals must understand this [identity and role]. The Muslims' identity obligates them to perform the tasks of da'wa [preaching Islam] and jihad in order to make Allah's word supreme. It is the hope of attaining Paradise that motivates the Muslim, and that is why he embarks on a war of jihad, endures his suffering with fortitude and worships Allah as Allah wants to be worshiped in [this] world.
"The West must learn about the Muslims' identity in order to understand them without arrogance. Israel's aggression against Gaza is the beginning of a new phase, which forces all of us to reconsider [our course in] building the future, for tyrannical force is not enough to win campaigns lasting many decades. There are many indications that the young generation in the West has begun looking for a new path. The West's cultural imperialism is associated with the imperialist era, in which the Western countries used every advanced weapon to exterminate peoples, steal their resources and condemn them to weakness, backwardness and subjugation. This phase is about to end, after the Islamic resistance in Gaza – which confronted the might of the usurping West [but] managed to survive and insisted on opposing the aggression with its simple weapons – showed the world that the power of faith is more effective than the hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives that the occupation army hurled at Gaza in a crime that has no precedent in the [entire] world.
"The world should therefore contemplate this power [of faith] that is stirring the imagination of the freedom-lovers who dream of liberating their lands and building a juster world. The world must also remember that, since 1919,[2] the Palestinian people has known many defeats, suffering, pain, massacres, destruction, expulsion, hunger and every conceivable kind of torment. How then did this people manage to endure and how did the Islamic resistance [manage to] wage a war of liberation in which the jihad fighters are spearheading a revolution of the mind [that is rooted in] the hearts of the believers who yearn for Paradise[?]
"To understand this, we must read the Quran, which is the true source of the Islamic nation's identity and cultural role. By its light, it is possible to understand that the future will be shaped by the believers who bear their suffering with fortitude and embark on jihad for the sake of Allah while their souls yearn for Paradise. To this end they are willing to suffer calamities, bear their suffering with fortitude and defy the oppressive power of the occupation army.
"Allah tells the Muslims in Quran 3:142, after their defeat in the Battle of Uhud:[3] 'Do you think that you will enter Paradise while Allah knows not who among you strove hard and who among you was steadfast?' [Saudi Quranic exegete Abd Al-Rahman bin Nasser] Al-Sa'di [1889-1957] says in his commentary on this verse: Do not think and do not imagine that you will enter Paradise without suffering hardship for the sake of Allah and striving to please Him, for Paradise is the loftiest aspiration of all…
"That is why the Muslims insist on enduring their suffering with fortitude, which is related to courage, to jihad and to da'wa; on passing the test of jihad, and on defying the evil [power] whose arbitrary force and destructive weapons have deceived it – for [the Muslims] trust that the victory of Allah will inevitably come after they pass the test. This test is difficult and tough for those who lose their loved ones every day, but they believe that their loved ones enter Paradise where they attain the satisfaction of Allah.
"The Quran shapes the identities of the believers, their cultural role [in the world], the purpose of their lives and their perception of their station in this world. Thus, the believers will continue their jihad as long as necessary and will endure their suffering with fortitude, for it is but a trial after which the victory will come. In the arena of jihad [this Islamic] identity is clearly prominent, and the believers – who bear their suffering patiently, wage a war of jihad, and anticipate Allah's victory and the attainment of His satisfaction in His Paradise – are proud of [this identity].
"The West does not understand these facts because the Muslim scholars have not managed to clarify them for the past 200 years. However, the Islamic resistance in Palestine has proven [these facts] by enduring its suffering with such fortitude [and with its] jihad, belief, da'wa, certainty and action. It is by means of this clear identity that the Islamic nation will build its future."
[1] Al-Sharq (Qatar), May 5, 2024.
[2] This year saw the first Palestinian Arab Conference, which was followed by six further such conferences, the last of them in 1928.
[3] The Battle of Uhud (625), the second battle between the Quraysh tribe and the Muslims, took place near Mount Uhud, about eight kilometers from the city of Medina, and ended in a Muslim defeat.
