Q: Well, we can’t fight. So then what do we do?
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): What I am saying is prescribed, so follow that. Look at your prowess. If you have the power , then instead of just sending multitudes to settle there, then Fight. Wage jihad. Take the sword in your hands.
But if you do not have this power, and it is evident that you do not, then have Sabr. In the position of weakness ,if you do what you are doing, and undergo harm , you won’t be able to withstand it. And one should not launch oneself into harm that you are unable to withstand , or that causes you great affliction,.
Q:In the ayah of Jihad it says “Min Quwwatin” , and it is nakirah(indefinite). And we do have the power to goto jail etc.
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): This is not the intended meaning of power. What is meant is that where there is harm to your enemy and no *certain* harm to yourself
Q: There is no harm in going to jail. And it causes agitation to the enemy, so what’s the harm?
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): If Qudrah was this then we have the power today to spit upon the enemy, and this causes them discomfort , but because we understand that in fact this causes us harm, we do not do so. …. What is meant by Qudrah is causing the enemy certain harm and not causing oneself certain harm , and it is obvious that going to jail is a harm to yourself and of no real harm to the enemy.
Listen well. There are two types of Qudrah.
- We have the power to do a certain task but after doing it we do not have the power to withstand the negative consequences that result.
- We have the power to do the task and we have the power to successfully ward off the harms that will result when we undertake it.
The first condition is called ISti’taat Laghwiya and the second is isti’taat Sharriya’. And for self defence to be waajib the first type of isti’aah is not enough, the second type of isti’taah is the condition. The following hadeeth clarifies
Man ra’a mikum munkaran fal yu ghayyirhu be yaddi’ f aillam yasta’ti fa bi lisaani fa illam yastati fa bi qalbi
Well, it is evident that everybody has the power to address munkar with the tongue at all times. So when will the situation come when we are unable to do so?
If it was enough to have the physical ability to do it for it to be fardh , and being able to defend oneself from the negative consequences that would result is not a condition, Then to address munkar with the tongue would be Fardh in all times and places. (because we all have the physical power to waggle our tongues)Then what would it mean for the Prophet
to say that if you don’t have the power to change it with your tongue, then hate it with your heart? This proves isti’taah means that as well as having the physical power to do it, there is no danger that one faces harms that one would be unable to repel (As far as normal cause and effect expectation and prediction goes)
Another condition is that after this defence a greater evil does not result .
Q Then what options remain to help the muslims of Kashmir
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): Go there. Make tableegh, and call them to unite amongst themselves. And when you have the power(as detailed above) then QItal is permissible
Q But they stop us at the gates, and arrest us. They don’t even let us in
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): So you tell me if this is the condition then how do you expect to help them? You don’t even have the Qudrah to reach there. The multitudes end up being caned, end up in jails and on hunger strikes. Hunger strikes are akin to suicide. Even if a benefit results from suicide it’s still not a permissible course of action. What then of suicide where there benefit for anyone? If it becomes known that committing suicide will affect and harm the kuffar , will suicide become permissible? IS going to jail and having hungerstrikes not on a par with suicide? If a benefit becomes apparent from suicide , the act of suicide in itself is such a tremendous harm that has no recompense. Not every supposed benefit is to be relied upon. Its like someone saying , so-and-so’s life will be spared if you jump into a well and drown. So is it permissible for me to jump into the well(NO)
Q So should we fight?
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): By all means. But the codition for this is that you have sufficient power and resources that would be expected to conventionally overcome their forces. Mere wishfully thinking that we will win ,so let’s fight- This is not enough.
Q: But fighting entails harm. Is it not greater harm that lives are lost?
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): But fighting is an objective and is in our texts so this is not considered a “harm” , but these methods and strategems that you have invented are not from the texts , so they will be closely inspected. The reason for the difference is that the ultimate objective is the removal of fitna. Qital is not a fitna, because the heart is not perturbed in war, and there is an inner tranquillity. But these matters involve tumult and the wastage of great time. When formulating their schemes, people rarely consult Fiqh. Its not enough to just look at fiqh with your own opinions. But you have to look at it with the true taste of a seasoned faqeeh, and in doing this everything becomes crystal clear. The art of Fiqh is very very subtle, which is why I always emphasise erring on the side of caution.
Q : Man Qatala doona Idhahu ma maalahu Fa huwa Shaheed. This establishes the permissibility of forgoing one’s life . Strikes and such like seem to be plausible within in this rubric.
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): Qatl does not mean suicide. But it means fighting. In other words Fight. Wage war,. The intention is that you save your possessions and your life. Then if by chance you happen to die, then it is shahadat. Qatl Itself is not maqsood(the end in itself). But if it happens in the course of qitaal, then it is permissible. SO Qitaal not Qatl is permitted and then only if all the conditions for it being allowed are found and none of conditions to make it impermissible are present(and these are delineated in great depth in the works of Fiqh). And Qatl not being maqsood is established in the Quran because everywhere we see Yaqtuluna (with seegha majhool) , after this we see Yuqtaloona (be seegha maroof). So we see yuqtaloona is not maqsood but sometimes results as a side effect of yaqtuluna.
Q: We don’t have the full power(qudrah) . But the little that we do possess, how should we utlise it. After all we ought to do something?
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): You can tell me what should be done. I don’t know any better than saying that you should do tableegh and teach them the deen and after that fight. I ask you, after the Hijrah , there was great peril for the lives of some of the muslims who were left in Makkah. The people of madina didn’t send any delegations there. Until the ayahs of qital were not revealed, there was no course of action adopted other than Sabr. This is the only form of Islamic struggle we know, all these other innovations are rejected.
Q Perhaps these matters were not known then . Had it been so wars would have been like this
Shaykh (Maulana) Ashraf Ali Thanwi (RA): It becomes evident these are intellectual constructions rather than revealed things. The sahaba too were men of intelligence. Great matters entered their minds, so why did these things not? Did not one of these strategems occur to them? The only thing that did was Qital and that too only when the verses of Qital came. The questions come that in the course of Islamic history why did no-one come up with these ideas. In 1300 years did not such conditions of oppression manifest, then why did no one suggest these things?
The other thing I would mention is that was there not power in the muslims who were left in Makkah post-hijrah. If you say they didn’t have the power to mount an offensive I say you are absolutely mistaken . They had such power that before it the power of the entire Indian Government is completely overshadowed.
Jihad is also an obligation so does this Fatwa apply to the present situation (of slaying someone) who blasphemes Nabi (Sallallaho Alaihe Wassallam).
