Trials & Tribulations

There is a famous proverb, which says:

أعط الخبز لخبازه ولو أكل نصفه
“Give the (job of making) the bread to a baker,
even if he eats half of it.”

The armed groups in our lands have zeal, but no knowledge of governance and State building.

Raising a flag on top of a hill is not governance.

Modern governments have international relations, airports, infrastructure, banks, healthcare, engineers, electricity, water & gas infrastructure, telecommunications, etc.

Patrolling a city with an AK-47 is not governance.

These people have no knowledge – yet, they engage in armed rebellions against governments.

They drag entire countries down into the abyss.

The economies collapse, people die of hunger and malnutrition. The entire infrastructure of the country breaks. Millions of people die and become refugees.

The scholars should be brave to stand up against these zealous youth and channel their valid grievances in the right direction.

We do not support tyrants, but we also don’t want to replace evil with more evil.

Yes, there is a lot of oppression and prosecution taking place in our lands, at the hands of these dictators.

But the Prophet and the Sahaba were also prosecuted for many years in Makkah. They did not fight back, because the harms (المفاسد) outweighed the benefits (المصالح).

Real change comes with time and working on grass-root level. That’s how we bring change.

Don’t pluck the fruit before it is ripe – otherwise it will be sour.

Ibn Taymiyah offers good advise:
إن الفتن إنما يعرف ما فيها من الشر إذا أدبرت
فأما إذا أقبلت فإنها تزين ويظن أن فيها خيرا
فإذا ذاق الناس ما فيها من الشر والمرارة والبلاء صار ذلك مبينا لهم مضرتها وواعظا لهم أن يعودوا في مثلها
“As for trials and tribulations, their ugly face only becomes apparent after they depart.
When they first arrive, they come decorated with beauty and people [welcome it] considering it good.
But when people taste the extent of its evil, bitterness and disastrous consequences, then the danger of it becomes a lesson for them not to return to something like this ever again.”
[“Minjah al-Sunnah”, 4/410].