“O Ummah of Islam! This is a letter from a prisoner to all those who are responsible: to every scholar… to every Muslim… to all men and women…O Muslims…”:
“Indeed
I am living through testing times. Illness has overwhelmed me and
fatigue has exhausted me. The sun blazes continuously until sunset and
the dealings of the captors are very harsh. Every time I enter or exit
my cage, the chains are on my hands and feet. I am weighed down by their
weight. What can be bitterer than to fall into the hands of a seething
enemy? What can be more distressing than to be forced to bow and be
humiliated in front of a American lout? However, to Allah I complain of
my helplessness, the weakness of my stratagem and my dishonour in front
of people. O Most Merciful! You are the Lord of the oppressed! You are
my Lord! Whoever have you entrusted me with, whether into the hands of a
distant person who frowns upon me or to an enemy who has been given
control over my affairs, but as long as Your Wrath does not fall upon me
then I do not care.
But
Your Pardon is sufficient for me. I seek protection from the Light of
Your Face that illuminates the darkness, through which the affairs of
this World and the Hereafter are set right. May it never be that I
should incur Your Wrath, or that you should be angry with me. And there
is neither power nor recourse but to You Alone!
O
to the one who hears my letter, whatever situation I am in from anguish,
misery and distress, it pales in comparison to what runs through my
head when I think of how the Muslims have forsaken us.
How
they have forgotten our issue, how they have not raised awareness of
our plight … as if we are people of another planet … as if we are not
Muslims. It is indeed shameful that the Western organisations are moving
to defend our cause in the midst of the incompetence and apathy of the
Muslims towards our situation. It is strange how Australian-American
relations can become strained because of one Australian prisoner and how
the relationship between the Anglo-American Alliance has become worse
because of a few British detainees. As for us, no one will cry for us
despite there being more than six hundred of us. Rather, if it was not
for America declaring our nationalities, the Arab countries would have
continued pretending to ignore us and our existence.
O
to the one who hears our letter … we are the prisoners…we will stand
against you all before Allah on the Day of Judgement and we will say to
Him … ‘These people, they knew the orders of your Prophet Muhammad
(SAWS) regarding freeing the prisoner, but they did not oblige nor did
they take all the courses of action that could lead to our freedom.’
Indeed
we call out to all people who are jealous of their religion. We call
you with the bond of Iman that is between us, that you move to make our
issue a living issue. Through lawyers that can demand our release, to
speak about our plight via the media, to put pressure on America, to
warn her that it is against her interests if she does not let us free.
As for the one who can do nothing then the very least that he can do is
to raise his arms in the last third of the night praying against the
oppressor and the despondent one, asking Allah to relieve us of our woes
and to remove the burden from us. The Prophet (SAWS) said, ‘Whoever
forsakes a Muslim in a situation while he has the ability to help him,
Allah will forsake him at a time when he would want the help of Allah.’
And he said (SAWS), ‘Whoever removes a grief from a Muslim, Allah will
remove a grief from him on the Day of Judgement.’
If you do forget us –
then please do not forget our wives and our children, to care and look
after them, for we can bear with resolve – and to Allah do we pass our
complaint. And finally to my dear and beloved mother and father, have
patience; seek the reward from Allah and say often, There is no recourse
or power except with Allah,’ as our Prophet (SAWS) advised us.
Indeed
Auf bin Malik Al Ashja’i came to the Prophet (SAWS) and said, ‘O
Messenger of Allah! Indeed the enemy has taken my son prisoner and his
mother has become distressed. What do you order me to do?’ He (SAWS)
replied, ‘I order you and her to say as often as you can, “There is no
recourse nor power except with Allah.”‘ The woman said to her husband,
‘What a blessed thing he has asked you to do.’ So they began to
repeatedly say this, until the enemy then became negligent and the son
managed to flee with a herd of four thousand sheep, which he then
brought to his father. The following verse of the Quran was then
revealed, “Whoever fears Allah, Allah will find a way out for him (from
every difficulty) and He will provide for him from sources that he could
never have imagined.” [Quran 65:2-3]
Finally
do not forget our plight. We are the prisoners… we are your sons in
Cuba… do not forget our plight … do not forget our plight…”
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