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Shia-Sunni Unity
A lecture by Shaykh .Ahmad Deedat
The Following
speech By Shaykh Ahmad Deedat, who is a world renowned Sunni scholar
from South Africa, was made following his trip to the Islamic
Republic of Iran on 3 March, 1982
INTRODUCTION
In the Holy Quran, Allah (SWT) says "It
is he who has sent his apostle with guidance and the religion of
truth so that he may make it prevail over all religions even though
those who worship false Gods may detest it" (Quran 9:33). Even
though the United States, Russia and all the superpowers may detest
it. Allah's promise is not conditional on the strength of the
superpowers. In its widest sense the Islamic movement spans the
entire ummah, in its narrowest it represents that part of the ummah
which is most advanced in its struggle towards establishing Islam as
a total way of life.
A few years ago one could not recognize
a single leading edge in the Islamic movement. This was the bleak
outlook which faced the ummah as history moved into the final decade
of the 14th century Hijra. But the world was unaware of the Islamic
movement in Iran. Iran under the ex-shah was beyond the pale of
Islam. Iran was a blind spot. We were Sunni and our age old
ignorance was deep and total, and thus when the Islamic revolution
in Iran began to make headlines in early 1978. The bulk of Muslims,
who called themselves Sunni, were caught unaware. The Shah's
propaganda had then blamed the Islamic masters. The western media,
and the Muslim media manipulated by the west, and the alienated
regimes of Muslim countries had then dismissed the events in Iran as
insignificant. All of us were slow in recognizing the new reality in
Iran. There has been a systematic attempt at smearing Islamic Iran.
And the western media deliberately promoted false accounts of the
events of the Islamic revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini who was
indeed the founder of the revolution, and the leader of the Islamic
republic of Iran.
This campaign against Iran is nothing
new. Right from the beginning vested interests have carried on an
unending campaign against the Islamic revolution in Iran, this
evening our guest speaker, Mr. Ahmad Deedat who is a distinguished
scholar of Islam, who hardly needs any introduction to the public
and who has just returned from his trip to Iran, will present to us
his first hand account on Iran. I now call upon Mr. Ahmad Deedat to
speak to you. (Applause).
Shaykh Ahmad Deedat
I seek refuge in the accursed Satan, In
the name of God the Beneficent the Merciful. The Holy Quran says:
"And if you turn away (from Islam and the obedience of Allah), He
will substitute you for some other people, and they will not be like
you." Quran 47:38
Mr. Chairman and brothers: While we are
looking skeptically of the miracle of a nation reborn. Allah's
inexorable decree is finding its fulfillment in the rise and fall of
nations which is mentioned in the verse I have just read to you from
Surah Muhammad. In the last section of the last verse Allah (swt)
reminds us, and warns us that if ye turn back from your duties and
responsibilities if you do not fulfill your obligations then he will
replace you with another nation.
Our Urdu speaking brethren use these
words so beautifully when they describe some mishap that occurs in
the community in talking about that other nation that can replace
them. It is actually Quranic. And this really has been happening
throughout history again and again. Allah (swt) first chose the
Jews, the Bani Israel as he tells it in the holy Quran: "O children
of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I
preferred you to all other nations."(Quran 2:47).
That favor was that they should become
the torchbearers of the knowledge of God to the world. This was the
honor, this was the privilege that was at first given to the Jews
But because they did not fulfill their end of the obligation, a Jew
amongst the Jews Hadhrat Isa (A.S.) as recorded in the Christian
gospels told them "That the kingdom of God shall be taken away from
you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."(The
Bible, Matthew 21:43). And that nation, we will happily own up is
the Islamic ummah. It was taken away from the Jews and given to the
Muslims. The Muslims then, among them who were the Arabs at first,
were given by Allah (SWT) the privilege that they became the
torchbearers of light and learning to the world, but when they
relaxed and failed to bring forth the fruits, Allah (swt) replaced
them with another nation. In history, we remember the Turks and
Mongols destroyed the Muslim empire and when they accepted Islam
they became the torchbearers of light and learning to the world.
As Iqbal beautifully describes this
situation: "O' you Muslims, you will not perish if Iran or the Arabs
perish, that the spirit of the wine is not dependent on the nature
of it's container." The container is our nations, our boundaries and
the spirit of Islam is not dependent on our geographical boundaries
or national limitations. So this is what Allah (swt) does again and
again, he chose the Jews then he chose the Arabs then when they
became lax he chose the Turks and when they became lax another
people and so on and this is a continuous process. If you don't do
the job, Allah (swt) will choose another people who will. In the
world today there are a thousand million Muslim, that is, one
billion we boast! And 90 percent of this one billion happens to be
the Sunni branch. We have stopped delivering the goods so Allah (swt)
chooses a nation that we have all been looking down upon. The
Iranians! The Shias! History has been very unkind to our brethren in
Iran that the shah happened to be the ruler, and his name happened
to be Muhammad.
Imagine, that this mans name happened
to be Muhammad and he really wasn't a believer. It's hard for us to
imagine today, but once you go to that country and you go into the
details and find out what was going on. That this Iranian the shah
it seems to be, that he was a foreigner. If Hitler conquered this
land and oppressed them, then we could understand. If the Russians
conquered the people, we can understand. But here is a man who is an
Iranian, speaking Persian, whose name was Muhammad, and look at what
he was stooping to. For sixteen years he had forbidden Jummah
prayers. Sixteen years. We had been equating Iran with the shah and
the shah with Iran. To us they were synonymous terms. But when you
go into details we learn that the shah and the Iranian people were
both apart. They were in reality foreigners to one another.
Now about this visit of mine to Iran
and my impression. Let me begin with the place where I had the first
fragrance of this Iranian brotherhood of ours and it happened to be
in Rome. First I smelled it, and then some of my companions had
smelled it in the Rome airport. We were waiting to get on the plane,
and we had some problems with visas and one of our men was given the
responsibility of overcoming these problems. So he goes to the Iran
air office and he tells our problem to a young lady wearing full
Islamic attire with her body well covered. It was Beautiful, Just
beautiful to look at. And I mean that when you look at these people
in this attire you see that they are beautiful people. So there was
a lady in Rome and you brothers should have seen the way she handled
these problems. And someone came to me and told me, man if you want
to see a real Iranian Muslim girl you should come over and I went
and some others went and we saw. And that was the first whiff we had
of the Iranian ummah in Rome.
When we landed in Iran, we were taken
to a five star hotel which was there before the revolution known as
the Hilton hotel but is now known as Hotel Istiqlal. And we were
taken around, to places of interest and I will relate to you some of
the things we saw and I will try to describe the feelings one has.
If I remember correctly, the first thing we visited was the Behesht
Zahra cemetery. Behesht means paradise in Persian and Zahra is the
title of Fatima Al-Zahra (AS) who was the daughter of Prophet
Muhammad (saw). And Zahra means the radiant one. So it was called
Radiant paradise. And before arriving in Iran, I had read about the
Behesht Zahra cemetery. And I remember when Imam Khomeini had
arrived in Tehran he made a trip to the cemetery. And I'm thinking
why does one go to the cemetery? To make du'a? Yes. For the departed
souls? Yes. And when you think of cemeteries here in South Africa
you think of Brook street and Riverside. You cant imagine that this
cemetery is square kilometers by square kilometers. You Just cant
imagine. It is a big open ground where about a million or two
million people can be accommodated.
And people gathered here because it is
the easiest place where people can release their emotional and
spiritual baggage because there you have the martyrs. There were
70,000 or so people who were martyred in this revolution and 100,000
maimed. Unarmed people with only the slogan "Allahu Akbar" as their
weapons had toppled the mightiest military force in the middle east.
So we went to this cemetery There were about a million people there.
There were men and women and children and we were greatly inspired
by the enthusiasm and the feeling of our brothers and sisters there.
It was mid winter there, and the men and women and children were
sitting on the cold ground for hours on end. In mid-winter on the
ground with no carpets or chairs! A nation that could endure that
discipline for hours on end, you can only imagine what destiny Allah
(swt) has planned for them.
A day or 2 later on my program I read
Behesht Zahra cemetery, again. The first time we went for a lecture,
but we had seen the graves people reciting poems of sorrow and
reciting dua' and I thought this second visit would be redundant.
Why should one go a second time? I've seen what a cemetery is. But
all my companions were going and I thought if everyone else was
going, it wouldn't be good for me to stay in the hotel relaxing when
all my companions are going in these buses to a cemetery. But I went
and I became very happy. And the second time I went it was a
Thursday afternoon and Thursdays in Iran is like Saturdays for us.
And tens of thousands of people were in the cemetery. This was a
custom. It was like Bid. Tens of thousands are there, for what else,
but to charge their spiritual batteries.
It was a constant reminder to not
forget. "My son gave his life for Islam" or "my father gave is life
for Islam " that they gave their life for Islam. With that kind of
system, Every Thursday is a spiritual injection and reminder that
they are willing to give their life for Islam. There was a town hall
that accommodated 16,000 people, compared to the biggest town hall
in South Africa which is the Good Hope Center in Cape town for
8,000. This was built by the shah to boast his own "Aryan myth". He
was boasting not only that he was the shahanshah or king of kings,
but also that he was the aryamehr, light of the Aryans. What is this
Aryan sickness? Remember Hitler bragging about being Aryan because
the Germans are Aryans. And the Hindus boasting we are Aryans.
If my people, the Gujarati people,
weren't Muslims we'd be boasting about being Aryans as well. The ex
shah claimed to be the light of Aryans and he built this monument as
a tribute. He built another monument spending millions to
commemorate his ancestor Cyrus the great, a pagan, a mushrik and
squandering the wealth of this nation for this project. In 1984 he
was supposed to have the world Olympics in Tehran to boost his ego
even further. In this town hall we saw athletics, gymnastics, and
acrobatics. Unfortunately we Muslims here in South Africa are like
jellyfish that is we have made ourselves into jellyfish. Our young
men do not participate in that kind of activity. Who here does
athletics, gymnastics, acrobatics we do not do that here. It's not
for us. Who does jogging, You know the young people here, when I
meet them I shake hands with them and they are like jellyfish.
Almost every young man you meet in Iran
appears to be an athlete. They are doing sports on a world standard
and it makes one feel so happy because there they are not projecting
Iran. They are not talking about Iran "we are Iranians, we are
Aryans" instead they are talking about Islam, about Islam, about
Islam. There was not one semi-naked girl, not a single girl who was
half naked there. If the shah had his way, if he was alive and
organized it, there would have been semi-naked girls for everyone to
stare at and feast upon.
In Iran everything is Islamic to
strengthen the morality of the people, boosting the men and women by
the thousands. We were thrilled, we were thrilled to see our
children, we felt as if theses were our children, our own brothers
and sisters, and we were really thrilled. We saw these as things
that our children can do. Then we went through a military parade
with different groups of Iranian men and there was no shortage of
man power.
You know, some people want to go and
help our Iranian brethren. Alhamdulilah there is no shortage of man
power they only want the tools, and the weapons. If the Iranians had
the military weapons that the Israelis had, the whole of the
middle-east would be free from every kind foreign intervention in no
time. This is a nation that can do it. The spirit is there, the
spirit of Jihad is there in each and every man and woman in the
nation. It seems that the whole nation is involved in promoting
Islam. We are talking about 20 million people that they can put into
the field. If they had the weapons and the materials, every man
woman and child would can go and do jihad.
Then we visited the Iraqi prisoners of
war. As you know when this war started Iraq attacked Iran. The whole
country was in turmoil. Iraq felt that the Jews did it to the Arabs
in 6 days, then they will do it to the Iranians in 3 days and the
whole world thought that in one week’s time, Iran would crumble to
pieces. And do you know how long it has been now? It's been a year
and a half, and even more. And in the beginning there were twenty to
one odds against them in men and materials and the Iranians turned
the tables and brought the odds to 3 to one still against them. And
they were able to push them back. They recaptured all their land and
a hill that was named Allahu Akbar.
Before I went to Iran Dr. Kalim
Siddiqui from the UK jokingly remarked that "you guys have half a
chance of becoming martyrs (shahid)...” It was a joke and it nearly
became true. While we were coming out of a city on the war front
there was a field of tanks. And our young men came out of the buses
and started to climb onto the tanks taking pictures to show people
back home. Then one of the tanks in the courtyard came out for a
training demonstration on how it works and suddenly we hear gunfire
and in the distance we saw smoke coming from a few places and some
of our young men got scared and started hiding behind bushes, and it
turns out that we were under attack from the Iraqis. And there were
bombs exploding all around us and Allah (swt) saved us. And remember
Khaled had said that was half a chance that we would become martyrs,
well it almost became a full chance, (laughter).
We visited those wounded in the war and
no one was complaining about what had happened to them. One man had
his leg amputated, and there were no tears, I never saw a single
tear from anyone, and they were asking if it was possible to go back
to the front. Their regrets were not about their injuries but why
they can't go back to the front to fight and become shahid, this is
the ambition of each and every Muslim there. When we visited the
prisoners of war the Iranians had captured 7000 prisoners of war and
they looked healthy, well clothed, well fed. One of my friends was
interested in finding out what the Iraqi prisoners felt about their
condition first hand. And anyone he asked said that they were being
looked after very well. Then I had an idea. Some were here for over
a year and others for a few months and I was wondering how many
people had committed suicide. And I asked each group of the
prisoners of war and asked each group how many people committed
suicide. They said not one.
I then asked the next group and so on.
Not one single person committed suicide amongst the 7800 prisoners
of war. And if we look at our so called civilized western country of
South Africa, 46 people committed suicide in our prisons this year
alone and they are well fed well clothed have their own cells and 46
committed suicide so far. And if people are not well treated some
are going to want to find an easy way out but there was not one
single person who committed suicide amongst the 7800 prisoners of
war.
We went to visit the Imam, Ayatollah
Ruhollah Musawi Khomeini. There were about forty of us who waited
for the Imam and the Imam came in and was about ten meters away from
where I was, and I saw the Imam. He delivered the Lecture to us for
about half an hour, and it was nothing but the Quran, the man is
like a computerized Quran. And the electric effect he had on
everybody, his charisma, was amazing .
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