With the Great Sedition, unfortunately, we will today have to stop and write an objection post, like a parenthetical sentence.. or a "point of order".. before we continue the events.. or perhaps we will not continue them.. according to how we see the friends' interaction and their opinion on this matter.

The truth is that I had been saving this talk for the end of the era of the so-called rightly-guided caliphate.. before we storm the eras of everyone who later gave himself the title of "caliph".. but unfortunately I am forced to write it today.

1 - I am not seeking to condemn a particular era.. nor the era of any one of the Companions.. the matter is a reminder of an era that was closed off from us and kept from us and turned into a taboo.. and we did not get to learn from its good points or its mistakes.

2 - There are thousands of young people whose minds have been toyed with and who have been convinced that this period of the caliphate was enchanting and rosy, that people in it strolled about in silk, and breakfasted on milk and honey, and that you could meet the caliph, insult him and say to him "Fear Allah", and then go and sit in your house surrounded by slave girls and the harem, copulating and eating like bulls without work, while the public treasury pours gold coin over you.. and we wanted to make clear, together, through posts and discussion, that all of this is empty talk.

3 - There are young people who have been seduced and mocked by the terrorists.. it was a good idea that they understand that no one is too great for error nor for sedition, and that is why the reference was made to the Prophet Solomon ﷺ in the course of talking about the Kharijites.. because he himself was seduced, "and We did try Solomon".. and before him his father, "and David thought that We had tried him".. meaning they entered the circle of examination and testing.. and in the Holy Bible the same thing, prophets were seduced and the talk of them is long.. our Lord wanted us to learn from their experiences.

"Iblis", with all his knowledge and intelligence and piety and devoutness, conversed with Allah Himself, and was seduced and fell to the depths of humiliation.. our father "Adam" ﷺ himself was seduced.. this is one of the characteristics of free, rational beings.. that they make mistakes in choice.. because freedom necessarily entails error.

And the idea here was that this should appear and be clear.. and that whoever among these young people sees that he has been seduced and has erred, or whose mind and conscience are at war over his affair.. and who has raised arms against the state.. should be able to return to what is right.. and lay down his weapon.. and cooperate with the authorities.. and spare the blood of many people.. even if he is punished.. but he will not lose his world and his hereafter.

But comments on the order of "so-and-so the Companion was an animal hahaha".. "that Companion is a son of sixty such-and-such hahaha".. do not achieve this aim at all.. on the contrary.. they make that young man, when he reads them, more hardened, because "the other camp", in his view, has become aggressive and transgressing.. and it confirms to him the view of his leaders from among the contemptible terrorists.. that we are unbelievers.

In this way, in his eyes, we are transgressing against the scribes of the Revelation, and casting doubt on them.. meaning we are casting doubt on the Book of our Lord Himself in an indirect way.. and we are making him doubt the person of the Messenger ﷺ.. that he did not know how to choose his companions!

So he closes in on himself more and more.. and throws himself into the lap of terrorism more.. and we become, in his view, the enemy.. just as he is.

This is called "counter-extremism".. when you go to an extremist young man and show him that the other camp is us legalising joints of hashish and sitting over the fumes of smoke amid beer bottles, transgressing against the prophets and insulting his religiously cherished symbols.. he will not come to us nor listen to us.

4 - It is a mistake for us to judge the minds of men of the seventh century with our minds in the twenty-first century.. nor to measure them against them.. at that time in the history of the world every government on earth ran on two systems and no third.. religious authority.. the rule of the god-king or the pope or the temple priest or others.. or inheritance.. a strong family that subdues the rest of the clans by the sword and passes on its rule by inheritance.. and they sit kneading one another with weapons all the time, in pursuit of rule.

Of course you might reply and say to me.. "But ancient Egypt was not like that".. ancient Egypt cannot be measured against, because it is a civilisation that was thousands of years ahead.. consequently, by the time it passed through these stages and closed them and forgot them and laid down respectable human rules and foundations.. the rest of the world was in the Second Stone Age.. we were composing musical pieces and smelting metals.. and working chemistry and designing prosthetic limbs and performing complex surgical operations.. and the rest of the world was killing one another over a piece of chicken or a bunch of bananas or a scrawny, lice-ridden, passing female.

Meaning Egypt is a historical exception in everything.. and the exception is not measured against.. the lesson is in the common and the prevalent, not in the rare.

5 - This is the idea that must reach the minds of the deluded young people.. that this stage of the history of the world cannot be applied to others.. meaning it is not possible for me to apply systems of rule from the seventh century AD after 15 centuries on the basis that in this way I am successful! These systems, some of them may have been successful in their time.. or failures in their time.. in all cases it is "their time" and "their era" and it has ended and died out and been obliterated.

6 - "Uthman ibn Affan" had a policy different from the policy of "Omar", which is different from the policy of "Abu Bakr", which differed from the policy of "Ali ibn Abi Talib", all of whom differed greatly, in several situations recorded historically, from the policy of the Prophet ﷺ himself.. some of them preferred people of trust.. and some of them people of competence.. some of them were harsh and severe with his officials.. and some of them forgiving and easy-going.. why did this happen?

Because our Lord wanted to show us that the table of politics is not uniform and not fixed and does not serve a single dish.. on it are different dishes.. and its pages turn with the change of time and place and people.. and it can change from hour to hour.. and each one chooses from the political table what suits his circumstances and the circumstances of his society.

And our master "Omar ibn al-Khattab" added to the legislation on inheritance. And suspended the fixed punishment for theft at a certain time.. and "Uthman ibn Affan" replaced the right of blood with blood money, and Imam "Ali" postponed retribution.. and each one ruled by a system and enacted legislation and took decisions and had a way different from the other.

Our Lord wanted to show us that the idea of "the caliphate that we will bring back from 1400 years ago and apply today" is backward.. even the period of the caliphate itself was not harmonious and stable in its system of political rule nor in legislation.

So when your honour comes and insists that no.. such and such had to happen.. you are thereby confirming to him that the system of political rule has one fixed model.. and does not change with the changes of the age.. even though among these Companions, all of them, may Allah be pleased with them.. the ways of political rule change within a matter of days.. the system of "Uthman" was changed by "Ali" after days.

7 - The idea that you come into my inbox and say to me "But Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, Allah forgave him".. and "No, be careful, before you get to Muawiya.. Muawiya is fine and one of the people of Paradise".. this does not concern me and I do not write from that premise and I do not admit anyone into Paradise nor do I throw anyone into the pit of Hell.. I am presenting you with raw history.. which makes clear to you the idea of "the diversity of political systems".. and the idea of "these are mistakes, come let us learn from them together".

The same idea applies to the one who comes and messages me "By the way, you did not say that when Uthman addressed the people it was half past three and five, Greenwich time.. and at exactly three, seven and thirty-seven minutes.. they departed to I don't know where".. of course this is unreasonable and a waste of time.. and it wastes the fundamental idea in side issues.

8 - The one who is pleased to take me to places I have not been to and puts on my tongue words I did not say, then comes and says to me "Aha, so these Companions were hypocrites, slanderers, invaders".. and repeats the same comment to me between one episode and another.. if you are looking for someone to confirm to you a certain idea you have formed deep inside you.. then that is not me and not my purpose in what I write.. and I have said repeatedly.. at that time the whole planet was like that.. whoever was able would storm countries and subdue them to himself by conquering them.. and at the same time.. every state at that time called this "a conquest".

9 - The idea of "the Arab invaders came and wronged us and destroyed our civilisation" is a fine and lovely idea for us to take up over two chilled bottles of beer in a "Haram Alaik" café in downtown.. but the reality says that before the Arab conquest we had entered the ages of decay, your honour.. and we were already occupied.. and much of our temples had been destroyed and much of their inscriptions erased.. the reasons for our entry into the ages of decay after our tremendous advance which enlightened the world greatly, we have an article on them, Allah willing.. but among the most important of them was "the monopolisation of knowledge".. we reached a stage where the caste of priest-physicians taught mummification to their children only.. the caste of blacksmiths restricted the sciences of metals to their children only.. and so on.. so when the last one of each caste dies without offspring.. we go back hundreds of years.

Among the most important causes of the backwardness of the whole region, in the twentieth century.. was the Wahhabi movement.. which awoke from its resting place after the Second World War at the instigation of the Allies to strike at Soviet expansion.. and turned great states into ruins.

But what about the Arabs themselves? The Egyptians are in truth the origin of the Arabs! Lady "Hagar", may Allah be pleased with her, the mother of "Ishmael" ﷺ, the father of all the Arabs.. was Egyptian.. the tribe of "Banu Abd Manaf" was mostly from the emigrants of "Memphis" in ancient Egypt and they were the ones who founded it.. the Messenger ﷺ came from the lineage of this tribe.. there are very rigorous scientific studies that confirm this.

10 - The terrorist young man, or the one who is not a terrorist but is infatuated and deceived.. and you are trying to enlighten his mind.. you will not enlighten his mind by coming in and insulting his religion and cursing his prophets and Companions! You will enlighten his mind by making him understand that they were not in a state of rigidity or immobility and that they even differed over the interpretation of the Book.. and that worthier than applying the systems of politics and rule as men of the seventh century applied them, with all that they had for them and against them.. is applying "what benefits people" in every age, according to the vocabulary of the age.

I do not know in truth, after what I have seen in what has gone before, whether I will continue the series at all or not.. the matter is up to you.. the jurists through the ages hid the sedition from us and refused to teach us what happened.. the truth is that now, by these actions, I have come to understand their position completely after I had rejected and denounced it.

Shall we continue together on the previous rules, or shall we stop and join the ranks of the jurists of the taboo? Indeed I do not know.. but without observing what has gone before.. this series of episodes will lose its significance and its purpose and will have no meaning at all.

The decision is yours.. and perhaps there remains more to the talk about the Great Sedition.

Perhaps....

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Previous posts:

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1 - http://bit.ly/2Rm5tBs

2 - http://bit.ly/2RACrOV

3 - http://bit.ly/2NeseJs

4 - http://bit.ly/2XoDruI

5 - http://bit.ly/2IAYulr

6 - http://bit.ly/2IYrjHm

7 - http://bit.ly/2IKnM0s