‫كتابات أبو الحق‬

‫عاشر من تموز‬
2010

Lesley Hazleton On Islam After The Prophet ..

Romancing History, As Desirable!
By: Abu Al Haq

I should be admitting it here.

I am never into reading, not any more. Whether novels, books, or any
kind of huge mailings hitting my mailboxes, whatsoever!!
I seem to lack time and stamina required to sit and read for hours at this
age of mine, in times that I tend to call as "My Worst", "Time & Not
Cash, Is King" to me, this is to describe how busy my schedules are and
how much my desktop gets flooded with delivered articles, that usually
end up into the "Recycle Bin”, after a very brief counter measure of
diagonal reading. Hence, a brief review is what I favor most, accordingly.
For this very reason, I should be thanking my friend Dr. Mohammad-
Hussain Ali, who had forwarded the brief article that I am about to
discuss here , an interview between Kris Puopolo & Lesley Hazleton, for
her book on Islam (After The Prophet). Actually, I should also be
acknowledging all readers of mine that Dr. Mohammad-Hussain Ali is the
first scholar to initiate the Grand Schism probing project, for the intended
objective of amending, trying to reshape Islamic history way off from the
add-ons and all impurities found here and there, using rational logic and
scientific tools of Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology for this intended
study, and caring for a better understanding of all the incidents that led to
this vast divergence between Muslims all across the world. His concerns
for his country and people in Iraq are better understood and depicted
through his work on this issue, where he is always there to scratch the
minds of his contacts, bringing them to disclose their own understanding
of all controversial issues, may be hoping to bridge the gap.
 While replying for the reason that brought her for this foundational
Islamic story, the female author, Lesley Hazleton attributed it to a
massacre that took place in Karbala, saying that it shocked her. The book
itself was supposed to bear the title of "Karbala". This rings a bell to me,
the " Sobering = Coming Back To Senses " or the "Awakening" term, i.e.
"Sahwa", as pronounced in Arabic ,to suggest the act of someone
transitioning from the idle, passive mode to a positive and active one,
towards issues that are vital and crucial to his being . The massacres of
Muslims from all sects have been there for the lady and any westerner to
view and get such feed from. I, and quite accidentally, had been viewing a
track on Quiet Tube before editing this one
(http://quietube.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHi50YdAQQ )

, showing Africans massacring some twenty thousands Arab citizens in a

few days time, all in villages of theirs in Zanzibar. The footage which is
the only available evidence to those crimes of 1964, had been shot from a
helicopter of an Italian team. Rwanda crimes seem just a pale shadow of
these, and once viewing those painful shots of people marching to their
own death stand, in a long row, it urges the reasonable spectator to
commit suicide for being a part of this criminal and impotent world,
where mass crimes take place and the real perpetrators flee unpunished
.This is a far more ample size of crime than the alleged massacre of
Alqaeda in Karbala, the one supposedly to cause the author to go
compassionate with it, right to its roots. Even those crimes of the Serbs
against the Muslims of Bosnia during early nineties of last century, they
should have urged the same author to do her part too, if we were to take
her declared motives to indulge here for certain!! Hence, why this one in
special? And why now and not any earlier?
Leslie Hazelton credited Khomeini and Moqtada Alsadr in her interview,
as if these are the best Shiite icons to consider while dealing with the
aftermath of the massacre of Alhusain some fourteen centuries ago . The
fact that both of these characters have been the main perpetrators of the
most prominent killings of Iraqis during 1980-1988, and in 2003 till as
late as today itself ( subjecting innocent Iraqis to the most hideous torture
and rape techniques , rating to more than the crimes of the Spanish
Church Inquisition) makes this application very much out of range. They
relate none to Imam Alhusain and Shiite theology does have better titles
to offer, heroes and martyrs who fought their way against tyrant
governors, repeating the martyrdom experience without any fear or
retreat. Moqtada Alsadr is just another Torquemada, a New Era replica of
that Spanish Dracula! And the anagram thing is almost there between
Moqtada & Torquemada , except for a few letters in excess of it !! To
import the images of assassins does not come in any conformity with the
proposed objective of the author.

The first mistake that had been made by Leslie Hazelton while being
interviewed was considering the Umayyads as Sunnies and holding all
Sunnies accordingly, responsible for the massacre of Al Husain and his
family . The unaware outsider readers, who are expected to have no idea
of any terminology or facts of that conflict, would be bluffed and led to
believe in this framing, that Sunna stand against Shiia. Leslie's very
words (… with four thousand of the Sunni Caliph's troops surrounding
the 72 warriors of Hussein's encampment, along with the women and
children of his family), need be probed with an enlightened mind that is
well aware of each and every Newspeak term, this is a very sensitive
subject, and it can turn back as a boomerang, yielding an opposite effect
compared to what is expected . The Shiite theology had not been there
while Alhusain was confronting the Umayyads. It was Alawites against
Umayyads, a tribal conflict using religious issues to support each party's
case. Shiite theology had been visualizing by Imam Ja'far Alsadiq, so
many decades later to the martyrdom of Imam Alhusain himself .The
image of the Sunnie & Ja'fari conflict of ideologies and interpretation of
the Islamic Shari'a came later to that incident of Karbala. This is the
typical mistake to be committed by insiders from both sects, not to
mention an outsider, the author herself, who had never been to Islam to
the extent of digesting its historical and theological input and conflicts
that a whole time span of fourteen centuries could not bring to any
reconciliation or compromise. It is all about the difference between
people themselves, and how much does any one of them commit himself
to the right, and be willing to sacrifice himself for his ideals.

One significant comment made by the author was, how gruesome that
curse would sound. 'May your mother be bereaved of you'!!
ّ‫ثكلتكّ أممك‬
The made up exclamation she had showed alongside it reveals her total
ignorance of the Arab traditions and their terminology. She is not aware
of the richness and exaggeration styles of Arabic language, as if she is not
the yield of a western culture that uses the terms "Shit", "Fuck" and
"Mother Fucker" very explicitly, almost in every topic, and sparing no
class of the society from hearing these hideous and unabashed tackling on
t.v. movie theatres, rap songs, presidential interviews and elections
campaigns debates,…etc. She should have been acknowledged of that
Bedouin poet, Ali Bin Aljahm who praised the Abbasid Caliph,
describing him as a dog, before he was administered for further
urbanization, to come out later to that with one of the most beautiful
masterpieces of poetry :
‫عيون المها بين الرصافة والجسر جلبن الهوى من حيث أدري ول أدري‬
The "curse", ( as described by her), that she is criticizing is never a
curse .actually it was used even by the slaughtered Husain himself, and
almost every native of that vast peninsula. It is one way of addressing
someone who had been inquiring about something quite familiar and
understood to all , or having been reported to commit a massive fallacy
which requires a stern gesture to let him feel repentant long before any
further elaboration is to ever be started, it is that |Ooooops of today, in a
way or another ."Damnation" is not allowed in Islam, since it means the
eternal deprivation from God's mercy and forgiveness, so there had to be
a substitute for the western "Damn You"! Another term that she had been
overlooking is how early Muslims ,namely (The Prophet's
Companions=Sahaba) used to express their endearment of him,( Fidaka
Abi Wa Ummi= Both Parents of Mine Are There For Your Own Safety).I
am positively sure that she would consider it very rational of those people
to sacrifice their love for their parents that way, she is trying to submit
that era to her standards of these times, although both terms , the one she
had been denouncing, and the one brought out here by me, are no longer
used, it was a Newspeak of that revolution of Heaven against the earthly
tyranny and ignorance. It really doesn't fit how westerners focus on every
little detail in our heritage, yet, overlooking too many practices in the Far
East & elsewhere. Islam is viewed thru its dark side of events, always!!
Of all those revolutions and uprisings that Shiites have been known for,
Imam Zaid Bin Ali Bin Al Hussain, Al Mukhtar Al Thaqafi, and the rest
of them, against the Umayyad state, none of them appealed to the author
while she jumped to modern times, picking the sickest icons who had
nothing to do with the principles of Al Husain revolution. In stead of
mentioning Ali Shari’atmadari and his principles, Sheikh Mohammad
Husain Fadhlallah of Lebanon, it was Khomeini! And the most irrational
analogy was that of Muqtada Alsadr, as the author bestows onto him a
gown of a bravery as if an Islamic Che Guevara, which is never the
truth .So once again, this is a further deformation of Al Husain's
revolution, to be further robbed of its descent characters and handed over
to a crook who had been leading all anti-humanity crimes against
Christians, Faili Kurds, and Sunnie Iraqis eventually. If this is all that the
author's work had been about, then I can frankly say it that she had been
strayed away from it, failing to adhere to the real thing then and now too.
Another thing is the way the author had been wondering, " 'How come
Muhammad, the prophet of unity -- one people, one god -- could leave
behind him this terrible, unending, bloody legacy of division between
Sunnis and Shia? ". If she were any acquainted with the Prophet's quotes,
she should have been acknowledged that the Prophet had warned all
Muslims not to turn back to pagan life as before, once he is dead,
decapitating each other's head " :

" ‫ يضرب بعضكم رقاب بعض‬، ‫"ل ترجعوا من بعدي كمفاراا‬

Whether interpreted as a prophecy, or a warning sign, a command, or an
advice, it still clears any blame off the Prophet's side. The brutality shown
at those times is the least, compared to what had been prevailing all
around the world by then , and those twenty three years of teaching and
preaching while the Prophet was alive, were counteracting a cumulative
lifetimes cycle of inherited pagan and Bedouin styles of living where
arrogance and bullying rule the scene, people almost fighting for any
available source of nutrients and water ,for them and their cattle of
livestock, sparing no life while trying to survive it there thru raids and
fighting .The march had just been started at the time the Prophet was
quitting the stage ,forever, and the change that he had managed to induce
amongst those who abided by his preaching and rules of Quran, have to
be recognized ,same as done with the wrong doing relevant to this issue
and the rest of issues where the statesmen had been exploiting and doing
their own fellow subordinates and average people wrong . People are
destined to change and alter things, whether intentionally, or due to aging.
The things that Prophet Mohammad fought his own folks for had been
resumed by the Umayyads, and by many of the tribes that had been lately
converted to Islam by then. It is the eternal fight between faith and pagan
styles of life. Something that all other religions had been going through,
what's the big deal then?
"And most of them believe not in Allah without associating (other as
partners) with Him! " Joseph - 106

106 -‫" وما يؤمن أكثرهم بال إل وهم مشركون" يوسف‬

I wish that the book itself is much better than what Leslie Hazelton had
been going through while being interviewed. The fact that Imam Alhusain
had the guts to speak, while others favored to mute ,is a great act of
heroism and sacrifice .it is the same story, almost all the time, and
everywhere. Alhusain is there for black people of Africa, yellow people
of China ,Myanmar and Thailand .He is already there for the Americans
and British people, to wake up and figure out how much wrong had been
done in their name, against all peoples of the world. This is what makes
his sacrifice worth it all, to apply it for the author herself, and her country,
rather than just asking the people reading her novel to shout
"Oh My God"!!!