The Saudi government for all its missteps in global and regional diplomacy, in the oil trade and petrodollar space, local policies and reported human rights abuses, is like any other nation - one with its good and not so good sides.
But again, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA - as it is officially known - is not just any other nation on the basis of historical context and of course significance till date and undoubtedly till the end of time.
The Kingdon is home to Islam. It is where the religion that over 1.8 billion people ascribe to this day was birthed and nurtured 1440 odd years back. Islam has since spread as Allah promised - and the promise of Allah is TRUE!
Its blessed lands of Makkah and Madinah are copiously captured in the Qur'an and Sunnah. They are two holy sites, the reason for which millions troop to the country in the months of the pilgrimage, hajj, and all year round for Umrah - the lesser pilgrimage.
Then the answered prayers of the Prophet that Allah blesses the land despite being arid. Who can deny today that Saudi is not just blessed, but beyond blessed.
A simple definition from Word Web says KSA is "an absolute monarchy occupying most of the Arabian Peninsula in southwest Asia; vast oil reserves dominate the economy."
With the historical, religious matrix; Saudi Arabia is and represents Islam. Try deliberately turning to a different Qiblah (prayer direction) your worship is rendered invalid - simplicita!
Saudi politics and it's diplomacy is what does not represent Islam, and categorically whoever seeks to in the remotest sense try to claim the contrary is being downright ignorant, mischievous or self-serving.
The kingdom via the Gulf Cooperation Countries, GCC, bosses Middle East diplomacy. Their backing spreads as far as to Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea even Ethiopia on specific issues.
That 2017 blockade, call it squeeze on Qatar was a horrible show of force yet you had almost all the above mentioned nations plus the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and others backing the move. Saudi foreign policy should have but largely has nothing to do with Islam.
Whipping Yemen to pulp - as the international press and aid agencies - continue to trumpet is worrying but it is political Saudi at play - zero religion.
Where you want to equate Saudi to Islam properly look at the pronouncement of their leading clerics, it is they that represent Islam. In any case, even their fatwas (religious edicts) cannot be exported hook, line and sinker as per Islamic rulings.
Take the Islamic dating structure. The Kingdom largely carries Muslims the world over along. The numbers game that Nigeria or Indonesia has more Muslims than Saudi doesn't come up, Saudi will still maintain its status even if it has a handful citizens.
When Muslims are in distress anywhere, you first hear, so what is Saudi doing about what is going on, say in Palestine? May Allah ease the affairs of our fellows there. Ameen.
The 80-plus years house of Saud monarchy, are not representatives of Islam but are servants playing their role in advancing the cause of Islam. Millions continue to benefit from their vast programs across the world - education, health, relief, infrastructure etc.
Again I repeat, Saudi like any nation has its shortfalls but also has its firm roots and position as the representative of Islam from way back and going into the future. The power of its political leaders is no power for indeed Allah give and takes power to whom HE - jalla jalaaluhuu - wills.
Every Muslim has lofty expectations of Saudi on different fronts but truth is Saudi cannot fulfill every expectation - known to it or otherwise. We owe it a duty to pray for Saudi - as the birthplace of our beloved prophet. We owe it a duty to seek Allah's guidance for its current leadership - across all spheres.
We are all Saudis in a way or the other. Saudi binds us at a core convergence point. Sects aside, emotions and pent up bitterness kept at bay, Saudi Arabia is our motherland, the single one (emphasis mine) we have.
The dastardly, unconscionable, murderous, dizzying Jamal Khashoggi affair brought to the fore the Saudi - Islam "together-as-one" debate. May Allah have mercy on the deceased and grant his family a better replacement. Ameeen.
In his op-ed for Al Jazeera, Khaled A Beydoun, a law professor, and author of American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear, goes to great but often simplistic lengths to prove that: "The Saudi regime does not represent Islam."
He assumes that there is a conflation between the religion and the state - in his view by Islamophobes and via deliberate Saudi policy and what he calls propaganda proselytization.
Below are relevant portions for purposes of this piece: "And where Saudi Arabia is the subject of wrongdoing, Islam stands alongside it. Collaterally implicated and indicted as the source of the vile actions taken by a government that, since its inception as a sovereign state, has been popularly anointed as the living embodiment of the religion.
"Saudi Arabia does not represent Islam. Despite its best efforts to promote and project itself as the symbol and "centre of Islam," the Saudi state represents a regime steered by a desperate and austere few and, namely, one Mohammed bin Salman.
"But it does not represent Islam, before and especially today. Saudi Arabia is just one nation, which enshrines an austere and primitive interpretation of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism.
"Again, this is in great part the work of prominent Orientalists and modern Islamophobes, but also the intended fruit of Saudi policy and propaganda, proselytization and posturing. At most, Saudi Arabia represents the insular and static canon of Wahhabism."
Observe how he subtly moves from the regime to pontificating that the entire Saudi Arabia does not represent Islam.
Then he goes on a tirade against Wahhabism which he seeks to paint as black and crudely as Saudi crude.
He blames Islamophobes and Orientalists for seeking to reinforce Saudi's interchangeability with Islam but long before these factors Saudi held its revered role not for politics or diplomacy but for all its worth, it's religious, historic significance.
Yaa Allah continually bless the land of your Noble Messenger Muhammad ( May Allah exalt his mention) may we be witnesses of its blessedness and feel its warmth someday insha Allah.
Long and short of it is: Saudi Arabia represents Islam depending on which matrix one looks at.
Wal Laahu a'lam wa ah'kam. Was salaamu alaikum!
17 Safar, 1440 = 24 October, 2018
But again, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA - as it is officially known - is not just any other nation on the basis of historical context and of course significance till date and undoubtedly till the end of time.
The Kingdon is home to Islam. It is where the religion that over 1.8 billion people ascribe to this day was birthed and nurtured 1440 odd years back. Islam has since spread as Allah promised - and the promise of Allah is TRUE!
Its blessed lands of Makkah and Madinah are copiously captured in the Qur'an and Sunnah. They are two holy sites, the reason for which millions troop to the country in the months of the pilgrimage, hajj, and all year round for Umrah - the lesser pilgrimage.
Then the answered prayers of the Prophet that Allah blesses the land despite being arid. Who can deny today that Saudi is not just blessed, but beyond blessed.
A simple definition from Word Web says KSA is "an absolute monarchy occupying most of the Arabian Peninsula in southwest Asia; vast oil reserves dominate the economy."
With the historical, religious matrix; Saudi Arabia is and represents Islam. Try deliberately turning to a different Qiblah (prayer direction) your worship is rendered invalid - simplicita!
Saudi politics and it's diplomacy is what does not represent Islam, and categorically whoever seeks to in the remotest sense try to claim the contrary is being downright ignorant, mischievous or self-serving.
The kingdom via the Gulf Cooperation Countries, GCC, bosses Middle East diplomacy. Their backing spreads as far as to Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea even Ethiopia on specific issues.
That 2017 blockade, call it squeeze on Qatar was a horrible show of force yet you had almost all the above mentioned nations plus the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and others backing the move. Saudi foreign policy should have but largely has nothing to do with Islam.
Whipping Yemen to pulp - as the international press and aid agencies - continue to trumpet is worrying but it is political Saudi at play - zero religion.
Where you want to equate Saudi to Islam properly look at the pronouncement of their leading clerics, it is they that represent Islam. In any case, even their fatwas (religious edicts) cannot be exported hook, line and sinker as per Islamic rulings.
Take the Islamic dating structure. The Kingdom largely carries Muslims the world over along. The numbers game that Nigeria or Indonesia has more Muslims than Saudi doesn't come up, Saudi will still maintain its status even if it has a handful citizens.
When Muslims are in distress anywhere, you first hear, so what is Saudi doing about what is going on, say in Palestine? May Allah ease the affairs of our fellows there. Ameen.
The 80-plus years house of Saud monarchy, are not representatives of Islam but are servants playing their role in advancing the cause of Islam. Millions continue to benefit from their vast programs across the world - education, health, relief, infrastructure etc.
Again I repeat, Saudi like any nation has its shortfalls but also has its firm roots and position as the representative of Islam from way back and going into the future. The power of its political leaders is no power for indeed Allah give and takes power to whom HE - jalla jalaaluhuu - wills.
Every Muslim has lofty expectations of Saudi on different fronts but truth is Saudi cannot fulfill every expectation - known to it or otherwise. We owe it a duty to pray for Saudi - as the birthplace of our beloved prophet. We owe it a duty to seek Allah's guidance for its current leadership - across all spheres.
We are all Saudis in a way or the other. Saudi binds us at a core convergence point. Sects aside, emotions and pent up bitterness kept at bay, Saudi Arabia is our motherland, the single one (emphasis mine) we have.
The dastardly, unconscionable, murderous, dizzying Jamal Khashoggi affair brought to the fore the Saudi - Islam "together-as-one" debate. May Allah have mercy on the deceased and grant his family a better replacement. Ameeen.
In his op-ed for Al Jazeera, Khaled A Beydoun, a law professor, and author of American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear, goes to great but often simplistic lengths to prove that: "The Saudi regime does not represent Islam."
He assumes that there is a conflation between the religion and the state - in his view by Islamophobes and via deliberate Saudi policy and what he calls propaganda proselytization.
Below are relevant portions for purposes of this piece: "And where Saudi Arabia is the subject of wrongdoing, Islam stands alongside it. Collaterally implicated and indicted as the source of the vile actions taken by a government that, since its inception as a sovereign state, has been popularly anointed as the living embodiment of the religion.
"Saudi Arabia does not represent Islam. Despite its best efforts to promote and project itself as the symbol and "centre of Islam," the Saudi state represents a regime steered by a desperate and austere few and, namely, one Mohammed bin Salman.
"But it does not represent Islam, before and especially today. Saudi Arabia is just one nation, which enshrines an austere and primitive interpretation of Sunni Islam, Wahhabism.
"Again, this is in great part the work of prominent Orientalists and modern Islamophobes, but also the intended fruit of Saudi policy and propaganda, proselytization and posturing. At most, Saudi Arabia represents the insular and static canon of Wahhabism."
Observe how he subtly moves from the regime to pontificating that the entire Saudi Arabia does not represent Islam.
Then he goes on a tirade against Wahhabism which he seeks to paint as black and crudely as Saudi crude.
He blames Islamophobes and Orientalists for seeking to reinforce Saudi's interchangeability with Islam but long before these factors Saudi held its revered role not for politics or diplomacy but for all its worth, it's religious, historic significance.
Yaa Allah continually bless the land of your Noble Messenger Muhammad ( May Allah exalt his mention) may we be witnesses of its blessedness and feel its warmth someday insha Allah.
Long and short of it is: Saudi Arabia represents Islam depending on which matrix one looks at.
17 Safar, 1440 = 24 October, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment