In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace.
Alhamdulillah Al-Rabb Al-'Alamin for those of us who are born and been fortunate to live lives in which all our basic necessities and more are provided for us. And yet there are those who are not so fortunate.
Recently, the Muslim world was in an uproar over Israel's attack on Gaza where civilian casualties were high. Before this, there has been sanctions on Gaza - cutting off their basic necessities even like food, medicine and fuel. Hamas kept responding by launching rockets over Israel. To my mind, both actions were wrong and two wrongs don't make a right. The losers are the civilians and the innocents - the trauma that begat further violence. Who are the winners? No one.
I was listening to a lecture a few nights ago on a chapter in the Quran called "The Story" which basically was the story of Moses a.s. when he was a baby. As I listened to the unfolding story of how the Pharaoh weakened the children of Israel and broke their spirits such that they didn't even dare to rise up against the Egyptians who were slaughtering their baby boys, I saw the parallels to what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians, only so far the Palestinian spirits are not yet broken. Yet the deliverance of the children of Israelis was not a violent one, at least not through the violence of the children of Israelis towards the Egyptians. Instead, it was actually a dialogue between Moses a.s. and the Pharaoh that held the key to the deliverance of the children of Israel; a dialogue ordered by God. Can we learn from the lessons of the past?
And I saw the parallels to many other times in the past when a group of men oppressed others for various reasons. One of these was the oppression of the Quraysh on the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. and his companions at the beginning of his message, culminating in what is known in the Seerah as the Boycott. What was the key to the deliverance of these early Muslims, most of which were the poor or slaves or young men and women without much standing in their clans- the weakest within the Meccan society - from their oppressors?
Let us start at the beginning of the Boycott which lasted for three years, years of great hardships to the fledgling Muslim community. The small community had just been made smaller by the first emigration to Abyssinia and the aggression against them were escalating. The Quraysh leaders kept trying and failing to tempt the Prophet s.a.w. away from spreading the message and an assassination attempt by Abu Jahl on Muhammad s.a.w. was foiled until they finally realised that there was nothing they could do to stop him. On top of this, the Muslims emboldened by the conversions of Umar Al-Khattab and Hamzah r.a., two strong and well respected men of the Quraysh, were beginning to be more open about their own faiths and challenge to the disbelievers.
It was in this charged atmosphere that the leaders of the Quraysh agreed upon a boycott against the Prophet s.a.w., the Muslims and the Prophet's clans of Banu Hashim and Banu Abdul Muttalib who were sheltering and supporting him. The terms of the boycott which was hung inside the Ka'abah meant there were to be neither trade nor intermarriages between the Quraysh and them. For Mecca whose people relied heavily on trade to survive, this meant a great loss of not only income but also food supply. Outside tradesmen and farmers were discouraged from selling to the Muslims who were confined to their quarters. They were slowly being starved and deprived, a slow death...especially the children. It was mentioned that the Prophet's daughter Fatima r.a. who was a young girl at this time never fully recovered her health from this boycott. We don't have to imagine how horrifying this must have been for the children when all we have to do is see the photos of the children dying in Niger and Sudan because of the famine these past few years.
And yet through all these hardship, the Muslim kept their faiths and strove to spread the message. There was no report of violence or of uprising. Instead it actually took people such as Hisham ibn Amr who sympathised with the Muslims plight to stop the boycott.
Hisham witnessed the delegation of the Prophet's uncles confronting the leaders of the Quraysh, where Abu Talib said, "My nephew, who never told a lie to me, has informed me that Allah has caused moths to eat up everything that contained injustice or boycott of kinsfolk in your covenant. The only thing that has remained is Allah's name. Let us go together and find out whether my nephew has told the truth. If what he says is true, then you give in and stop your injustice. If he has told a lie, I will give him up to you to kill him or spare him." (Quoted from M A Salahi) The Quraysh leaders agreed but when they found out that it was true, they went back on their words and continued with the boycott.
This incident led Hisham gathered the support of like-minded people who stood up to the Quraysh leaders and demanded the boycott be ended. When they went to destroy the scroll on which the boycott was written, they only found Allah's name on it. Thus the boycott ended.
Points that I think might apply to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also to other oppressive situation:
1. Violence is no answer - patience and perseverance are, together with a steadfast confidence that Allah is on your side as the one being oppressed. Allah will provide a means out of the situation as He did with the children of Israel and with these early Muslims.
2. As shown by Abu Talib and his brothers, a dignified negotiation allows the oppressed a status above the oppressor.
3. The combination of the two points above was what moved the hearts of Hisham and other Quraysh people to stand up to their leaders to stop the boycott. And it would be the same dynamics that would likely bring help to the oppressed.
In fact the spring of 2011, named the Arab Spring, points to the fact of how a civil resistance could bring about that change. Especially in Tunisia and Egypt where the protests were mostly without armed resistance, the dictatorships were broken. But Allah knows best and I pray that there will be a way out of this whole mess in which justice prevails.
