Justice With Reality
Shaykh Salman al-`Awdah
Moral Code of the Daa`iya
Translated by Muhammad Buneef (Edited transl.)
Some of the duaat live in this era as if they were in the fifth century of al-Hijra! They are ignorant of their era, and do not know what is going on around them. A speaker in one of the villages gave a speech from a book, and at the end of the speech, he prayed for the leader of the believers, the Ottoman Sultan, asking Allah to prolong his reign, and support his royalty! The speaker was unaware that the leader had been dead for a long time! This screaming picture of unconsciousness may not repeat itself often, but there are enough examples that are less horrible that are repeated constantly. One of the youth asked me about the "Ba`th [resurrection] party", "What is the Ba`th party? What are their beliefs other than disbelieving in the resurrection?" My brother thought that the reason for calling them the resurrection, or the Ba`th party, is because they disbelieve in the resurrection, just as the Qadariyya were named so because they disbelieved in the Qadar! Surely the Muslim is aware of his community, conscious of the current of thinking and political directions, and strives to find correct solutions to new events, to fighting, and he strives to correct deviations after he becomes aware of them and is conscious of their roots. He who is not conscious about the roots, circumstances and starting point of western intellectual methodology cannot refute it. It is not necessary that every daai'ya becomes familiar with it, but a group of them must. On the opposite side of those who are alienated from reality, there is one who embraces reality defeated, searching for justifications and excuses to say that what people are doing does conform to Islam, or he tries to abandon some of the shariah matters as a flattery to reality, or in submission to the pressure of his nafs. Justice is acquaintance with reality, then fortifying it with Islam, and correcting deviations according to one’s capability.