Global Intifada

Fitnah seems to be everywhere these days; its as if it is coming out of the ground. This past week especially, there has been fitnah in my family (arguments over financing the purchase of a car) , fitnah among friends (the father of a girl I know tried to do an honor killing on her), the local Muslim community (youth group on fiqh issues) , the national Muslim community (reforming MSA Nationa), and the global Muslim community (i.e. Lal Masjid in Pakistan, the situation in Palestine, Iraq). It feels like that the very fabric of the social order from bottom to top is tearing itself apart.

Fitnah has various characteristics. The first of which is confusion. Many people are not aware of the true situation. This is caused by (a) spreading of rumors without authenticating one’s source and (b) speaking from nafs. The second cause is the more grievous one as the nafs is the origin of much of the chaos that one sees in fitnah. No fitnah occurs without people and they usually have personal agendas or ambitions of their own but instead of pondering over the greater good, they place their egotistical self-interest above the wellness of the community. What aggravates the personal agendas is that no one is entirely sure exactly what is going on, but they pretend like they do and end up contributing to the growing chaos. They misunderstand justice with vengeance and courage with rashness. It is for this reason that they will end up committing many injustices while shouting the slogan of justice; it is because their conception of justice is limited to only one particular sense of the term and it is warped by the fact that they have a personal agenda or self-interest on matters instead of a wholistic and communal approach. The same can be said of courage; rashness is not a characteristic of leadership but a characteristic of people prone to fitnah. A good leader or commander is one who does not rush into a situation without first acquiring intimate knowledge of the exact nature of an event and the people involved. The person of fitnah jumps into a situation, without even knowing exactly what is going on in the name of resolving the issue, but end up causing just adding fuel to the fire.

The reason why fitnah is such tribulation is because the very forces that keep the community together end up turning against themselves. This tribulation is one that we see in ourselves, our family, our communities, our nations, the Ummah as a whole, and all across the world. The social structure collapses in and of itself and usually results in much harm to one’s faith, property, intellect, or family. The greatest damage that it causes is a breach of trust between the interested parties and usually discredits them in the eyes of the public as well as each other. Recovering from fitnah can take a very long time and sometimes, as in the differences between the Sunni and Shia, may never actually be resolved again.

The question arises: how does one deal with fitnah?

The best way to deal with fitnah is simply by not doing things that promote it to manifest itself in the first place. Never spread rumors of information without confirming a source. Once a companion came knocking on Umar’s (radhi allahu anhu) door and he didn’t respond; he repeated his knocking twice and when Umar (radhi allahu anhu) didn’t respond, this companion turned around and left. Then Umar (radhi allahu anhu) opened the door and asked him why he turned around and left after knocking. This companion related the hadeeth of the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) that if a person knocked three times to enter a dwelling and the inhabitant didn’t respond, then leave. Umar (radhi allahu anhu) told this person that he should bring a witness to confirm this statement or else … Umar (radhi allahu anhu) would … “fix him.” This companion went to the market place and his skin was white because he was absolutely terrified that he wouldn’t be able to find a witness to substantiate the hadeeth (not because it was false, but because he needed another witness to satisfy Umar’s (radhi allahu anhu) request. The other companions consoled him and a witness was found. The point is that the Sahabah (radhi allahu anhum) were people of scrupulousness. They would take knowledge only from reliable sources and when they had information of which they weren’t aware, they would confirm it first. Recall the statement of Abu Bakr (radhi allahu anhu) when the story of Mer’aj was related to him. Instead of affirming or denying it, he said “If the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) said it, then it is true…” Thus, he had conditional acceptance to the statement that was brought before him. He knew that the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) was the most righteous man of them all. Abu Bakr (radhi allahu anhu) qualified the statement by linking it to a credible source. After all, the enemies of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) had frequently fabricated lies against the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) in order to discredit him and cause people to turn away from him, so its was reasonable to question the accuracy of their allegations. Had he been rash and affirmed the statement without confirming if it was true or not, it would make him and the Prophet (sallahu alayhi wa sallam) look gullible. Had he denied the statement, it would have made him look insincere. Thus, he had a conditional statement of acceptance in order to authenticate the statement. Similarly, whenever news of fitnah comes before us, we must do the same, especially if we seek to transmit it to others. This applies in our families and society as a whole, especially with regards to the media.

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