Alhamdulillah after more than two weeks of continuous protest the Egyptian people have managed to force Mubarak to leave. Subhanallah this is what people can achieve if they get united. This is the same country where centuries ago, the people of Moses (AS) with Allah SWT’s help stood up against the dictatorship of Pharaoh. I am so glad to witness this great historic event during my lifetime alhamdulillah as these sorts of events are very rare. The year I was born was also a very significant year as it was 1979 when the Iranian revolution took place. That was a huge blow to the Western powers especially America and some EU countries as they never thought general public will be able to topple the Shah who was strongly supported by the West and its allies. But Iran being a predominantly Shia country, the revolution didn’t really influence the Sunni world. Unfortunately Sunni world didn’t really get that much motivation to revolt against their dictators who are also heavily supported by the West. Most of the Muslims assumed that (Sunni) Islam doesn’t really encourage political activities as oppose to Shia Islam. The Sunni scholars rarely talked about politics and the importance of having Islamic state. There were groups like al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood) who tried to enlighten people but they were treated very harshly by the authorities. People in Middle East were scared do to anything to displease the people in power. But alhamdulillah Muslims around the world are gradually going back to their faith and learning more about Islam as a way of life which includes the running of the state according to the Qur’an and the Sunnah (tradition) of our last prophet Muhammad (saw).
However, this is not the main reason that the people started to protest. There was this poor guy in Tunisia named Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old who triggered this revolution in his country as well as in Egypt. Like so many young Arabs, he was born poor and only dreamed of providing for his siblings and his mother. He had been to college, where he studied law, but had found no employment. So he chose to humble himself and find a halal means to generate some income. But he kept running into problems with the police and government inspectors until the fateful day in December when they confiscated his cart and his produce, saying he didn’t have a proper permit, and leaving him with an unpaid loan with which he’d bought the goods. At the station, upon attempting to reclaim his cart, he was slapped and humiliated publicly which is again quite a frequent treatment received by powerless public in Middle east and other third world countries. His already deferred dreams had clearly dried up. Bouazizi left an apologetic note for his mother and set himself on fire in front of the local government building. That just shows how miserable he felt and end his life in such a sad and horrific way! May Allah SWT show mercy on him and forgive his sins, ameen!
Four weeks later, the protests sparked by his death brought down the government of President Zine el Abdidine Ben Ali, who had ruled Tunisia with an iron hand for 23 years. Like Tunisia the people of Egypt were also suffering greatly financially , physically and emotionally as well as spiritually thanks to the dictator, the modern day Pharaoh – Mubarak. Just like in Tunisia, the sacrifice of poor guy Bouazizi encouraged the people of Egypt to initiate their long waiting revolution.
When it first started I was very worried thinking how brutally the government of Egypt might deal with it’s people. I remember reading Lady Zainab Al-Ghazali’s book Return of the Pharaoh (Memoir in Nasir’s prison) . So many times it brought tears in my eyes reading the utter inhuman torture and humiliation she and the pious people of Egypt had to go through as their only crime was they were working for bringing back true justice of our faith.
But alhamdulillah the situation must be lot better now given the awesome power of global media and Internet. Alhamdulillah to get the real news we are no longer restricted to western ( almost biased) news agents such as CNN, BBC, FOX or SKY news anymore. We have
AlJazeera,
Press TV and other sources such as You tube available to us free through the Internet. Even the social networks like Facebook, Twitter have made it very easy to unite and mobilize like minded people to work for a common cause. The governments cannot really hide their atrocities anymore. There is a limit and they all have crossed that limit ages ago. Now it’s time they face the consequence of what they have done. Remember what goes around comes around !
I am very glad for the people of Tunisia and Egypt but also worried for their future. The dictators have left but who is going to take charge to run the countries? It’s not like these dictators did commit all the atrocities on their own ; they had their Western allies and local supporters i.e the army, the police force to do their dirty job. Where are they now? Are they going to fill this power vacuum? If so, then I am afraid that’s not really a sign of a successful revolution. May Allah swt help us and save us from anything bad. I hope and pray that the outcome of this revolution will be a good and blessed one insha-Allah and also this will encourage the people in other countries to start their revolution against their corrupt leaders INSHA-ALLAH!
Let us all pray for good in Egypt, the land from which Hajar (AS) the wife of Ibrahim (AS) and mother of Isma'eel (AS) came from, where our Prophets Musa (AS) and Yusuf (AS) lived, where our beloved last messenger’s (SAW) companion 'Amr bin al Aas (RAW) built the first masjid in Africa, the land which was home to great scholars like Imam ash-Shafi'ee (RA) and Ibn Hajr al-Asqalani (RA). There are some beautiful dua (supplication) I read recently which I would like to share with you:
Allaahumma ‘innaa naj’aluka fee nuhoorihim wa na’oothu bika min shuroorihim.
O Allah, we ask You to restrain them by their necks and we seek refuge in You from their evil. (Abu Dawud)
Allahumma ‘Anta ‘adhudee, wa ‘Anta naseeree, bika ‘ajoolu, wa bika ‘asoolu , wa bika ‘uqaatilu.
O Allah, You are my strength and You are my sopprter. For Your sake I go forth and for Your sake I advance and for Your sake I fight. (Abu Dawud)
Hasbunallaahu wa ni’mal wakeel.
Allah is sufficient for us and the best of those on whom to depend. (Al-Bukhari)
May Allah swt help us to achieve successful revolution everywhere and bring back justice and peace insha-Allah :-)
