This is the translation of speech by His Eminence Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky at the fortieth day prayer for Quds Day Marytrs held at the Jannatu Darur Rahma cemetry on Wednesday (03/09/2014). It was translated from Hausa to English by Ibrahim Usman.
Peace and blessings of Allah be unto you all.
The purpose of our meeting today is to conduct the fortieth day prayer. Supplications have already been recited. People were also given portions of the Holy Qur’an and was also recited. Similarly, Jaushayn Kabeer supplication was recited. What remains now, by God’s grace, is some few word which we hope might take an hour before we finally end the session. There will also be recitation of Ziayaratu Ashura and supplication of Alqamah, and by God’s grace we will conclude with a closing prayer and depart.
Before then, I would like to say, as I said during the third day prayer, that whatever calamity that will befall a believer cannot be compared to the calamity that befell Sayyed Abdullah Al-Husain (AS). This is why every calamity is belittled when compared to the calamity of Sayyed Abdullah Al-Husain (AS) on the day of Karbala. All his pious disciples were killed before is eyes. Similarly, all children of his blood relatives and all grandchildren of Abdul Mutalib, descendants of children of his aunts and uncles were killed. The killing continued on the children of Ameerul Mu’mineen, children of Imam Hassan Al-Mujtaba to the last moment he stood alone with his brother Abul Fadhl Abbas. When finally Abul Fadhl Abbas was killed, he presented himself and was eventually killed. Among his children killed was a suckling baby that was killed in his hands. For this reason, all calamities have become less in degree in the face of this calamity, no matter how big another calamity might look.
Every believer receives tranquility whenever he remembers the calamity of Abi Abdullah, for he views the calamity of Abi Abdallah as the greatest of all. This is why at occasions such as this, whenever we meet, we instead remember the calamities that befell the Ahlul Bayt. We remember the calamity of Sayyedah Zahra; we also remember the calamity of Ameerul Mu’mineen and that of his sons Hassanain, and the calamities that befell this Household, Imam after Imam. We have not lost hope, it is not a period of tears and melancholy that everything has come to an end. We are waiting for the Avenger, the Awaited Saviour- Al-Qa’im. You can see that, while we shed tears, we are at the same time full of hope that the day will come when we will rejoice, by God’s grace.
What happened to us now is indeed a pride. In the first place, it happened on the day of solidarity with the Palestinians, the day called the International Quds Day. At that time, the people of Gaza were under bombardment for about twenty consecutive days. Families were completely wiped out. These involved many families, where you find a family of 9 with the father, mother and children, all wiped out. Similarly, a family of 24 including the grandparents, all wiped out. In some cases you find only one member of a family survived. In many families, none survived. This is the real day for identifying with the Palestinian people, on the International Quds Day. It was at that period this was done to us.
If one looks closely at what is now happening to the Palestinians, our case is a minor issue. It is with pride that the killers of our brothers and sisters in Palestine, the grandchildren of killers of Prophets and children of Prophets, became our killers. It is a pride that among the dogs they used here, none among them was a Muslim. Out of the total of 64 killers brought from Abuja, none among them was a Muslim. There was not even a Christian from the North. The people that were brought were specially trained to kill. These people boasted of eating raw and cooked human flesh. We are proud that our killers were Oku, Chima, Umama and Ebele. May Allah curse them. It is with a sense of pride that they could not find this country a rotten Muslim that could do the dirty work for them. This is of a great pride. There was not even a single rotten Muslim, whose rottenness had reached such stage where he could shoot at his fellow Muslim, had agreed to work for them. It is a great pride that their dogs were those who have no faith in Allah, they have no faith in the prophethood of the Messenger and did not believe in the hereafter. They did this job! It is great pride on our part that even those grandchildren of killers of the Prophets and the children of the Prophets, the grandchildren of pigs and gorillas, were on that day present. They were seen that day in their cars with their white skin. Whenever they executed an operation of such magnitude, you would find that it was among these grandchildren of pigs and gorillas that would be in control of the operation from behind the scene. This is of a great pride to us. This united the Muslims in realizing their common enemy.
After what they did, they thought that people would come out in protest setting places on fire and causing mayhem, so that they could freely kill more people, but to their disappointment our weapon became very different from their own in nature. How did the people aligned to us? Did we fire guns to make people come to us? We called people and hold unto the truth. Our greatest weapon is the truth. A journalist once asked me to comment on the war between Palestine and Israel. He asked of my view on whether the Palestinian were capable of winning the war with Israel having more sophisticated weapons over Palestine. I told him that the weapons of the Palestinians were never guns. Yes, they do throw stones, yes they do fire rockets, but their greatest weapon was the truth. The truth outlives everything, and no matter the length of time it will be manifest. We do not throw stones here, nor do we fire rockets. Our weapon is the truth that we hold unto, and the truth will triumph.
Now people have been divided into three groups. The first group are the oppressors. The second group are the few (we) who stood against the oppression, and rest of the people watch from the side how it will end between the few (weak) and also the few, but strong- those who hold the country’s wealth and arms and power in their hands, yet very few in number. They watch as onlookers, how the struggle between the few, but strong and few, but weak will end. Our word to the onlookers, you either take side or for sure you are with the oppressors! He who claims that he is an onlooker is a liar, he is on the side of the oppressors! He will also be with them on the Day of Judgment. For he who kept quite in the face oppression is party to it and on the side of the oppressor. This is clearly stated in the famous Hadith of the Holy Prophet, in which he gave the example of people on a journey in a ship that are in two categories. The two categories are the upper and lower chambers. The upper chamber supplies water to the lower chamber, and the lower chamber says, ‘we are closer to the water than them, let us make hole and get the water by ourselves. Why do we have to wait till they supply to us?’ The Prophet said, if they allow them make a hole in the ship all of them will be destroyed. If they stop them, everybody will be saved. This shows that if you are an onlooker, you will surely be destroyed along with the oppressors.
There is also story (in the Holy Qur’an) in which Allah the Almighty cited the case of children of Israel who landed at particular shore fishing, when they were ordered not to fish on Saturday. Yet a group among them defied the order. Another group said, ‘Why do you warn those who are bound for destruction by Allah?’ they replied that it was to do what was expected of us as a testimony before Allah, lest they may be guided. When the punishment from Allah came, He says, the oppressors were wiped out and He saved those warning against oppression. It is said that, the people became segmented into 3 groups, but when the punishment came they were segmented into 2 groups. We are told that those warning against evil were saved and delivered. We are not told of the fate of the onlookers, in another words, they were also destroyed. For this reason, people should know that this is not an issue that one should stand by and watch, you ought to take a side.
Taking a side is normal in human being. For instance, if you are watching wrestling contest between two people on television, you are bound to support one of them to win. So also if you are watching a football match between two countries, your country not being among, you must love one country to win. In the same vein, there is no way you can be an onlooker in this situation. You must take a side.