Today we hear and see Muslims making Jihaad synonymous with complete tolerance with the disbelievers. We ask Allah to save us from these wicked people. The way to rebuke such Faasiqeen is that we revolve our evidences around the Qur’aan and Sunnah since Allah Ta’aala told us that if we think we are truthful, then we must bring our evidences (from it). Now, there are hundreds of ways to confront these Faasiqeen in argument. Here, we would like to present another form taken from the book, “Jihaad: The Forgotten Obligation” from section 18, “The Reward of Spying in Jihaad.” This is in regards to spying against the Kuffaar.
Many will think that this is too dangerous to talk about, but we feel that this needs to be clarified today especially since many Muslims are doing the opposite; they are spying for the Kuffaar against the Muslims. And whosoever does such an evil – and there is absolutely no justification for this in the Shari’ah – is no different than a Kaafir. We ask Allah Ta’aala to protect us from this. This is an important subject because nobody in the West talks about it; they literally water down Jihaad to the extent that it has little or no reference to a military struggle. So you never hear them talking about spying against the Kuffaar, training for Jihaad, increasing love for Jihaad, and so on. This article is a great refresher and we ask Allah to increase our ‘Ilm regarding Jihaad fe Sabeelillaah.
The Reward of Spying in Jihaad
Narrated Jabir رضي الله عنه, the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “Who will bring me the information about the enemy on the day (of the battle) of al-Ahzaab (the confederates)?” Az-Zubair رضي الله عنه said, “I will.” The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said again, “Who will bring the information about the enemy?” Az-Zubair said, “I will”. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “Every Prophet had a hawari (disciple) and my hawari (disciple) is az-Zubair” (Saheeh Bukhaaree, p.399, vol.1)
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was a successful commander. One of the names of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was the Prophet of wars. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was quoted as saying, “I am Muhammad and Ahmed and the Prophet of mercy and the Prophet of repentance and the last Prophet and the Hashir (the person who will gather everyone on the day of Judgment) and the Prophet of wars.” (Shamaa’il Tirmidhee, p.25)
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was well acquainted with the tactics and weapons of war. With reference to the books of Seerah, we learn that the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was an exceptional commander and displayed remarkable knowledge of war strategy. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم developed the Sahaabah accordingly used to say: “War is strategy (to deceive the enemy)”, thereby expressing that strategy plays a vital role in wars.
We learn from the narration of Bukhaaree that the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم used to use double meaning words in war affairs, so that the battle tactics would stay a secret.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم kept his plans of war very secretive at the time of the victory of Makkah and kept a close eye at all incidents on this occasion. When one Sahaabi [Haatib ibn Abi Balta’ah رضي الله عنه] made a mistake and tried to inform the polytheists of Makkah about the plans, the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم changed this effort into failure and kept the plans so secretive to the extent that the unbelievers were only informed when the fierce army of the Muslims had reached them. The benefit of this was that Makkah was conquered without bloodshed, with the exception of one or two fronts there was no confrontation. This was a great war strategy.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم used to fight in the front line in the elevation of Allah’s word and this enabled him to be aware of the plans of the unbelievers. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was always mindful that the unbelievers were looking for any opportunity to attack him; and due to his understanding of war tactics and general awareness, many schemes of the unbelievers turned into failures.
Khalid bin Sufyan was preparing an army against the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم sent a Sahaabi (companion) to kill him.
Ka’b bin al-Ashraf, who was a Jew, planned to wage the last final war by uniting with the Mushrikeen (polytheists). The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم appointed Muhammad bin Maslama رضي الله عنه, who killed him.
Whereas the Masjid ad-Dhiraar was a well planned scheme of the Mushrikeen and the Jews which was demolished.
One main aspect of war is spying on the enemy’s army, and this was requested by the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم in the earlier mentioned hadeeth. Zubair رضي الله عنه complied with this request and for this he received the noble status of Hawari (disciple). The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم’s keen interest in war tactics was due to Allah’s commandments.
The Muslims have the opportunity to revive Allah’s commandments and the way of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم and by doing this they can overpower the enemy and the era of Islamic glory can become a reality once again.
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