O Armies: Would that you were ours!
The late professor of Arab journalism, Muhammad Hassanein Heikal, narrated that King Abdullah I, son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali, reviewed in Jericho, months after our Palestinian Nakba in 1948, a group of honor guards from the Arab Army, during the days when it was led by the British officer, Glubb Pasha, and asked the imam of the Jericho mosque, who was a blind man, to be the first speaker to the Arab Army in that meeting. The imam ascended the platform and began his speech by saying: "O Army, would that you were ours!" King Abdullah I immediately ordered the imam to be removed from the platform.
I allow myself to quote the words of that imam and say: "O Army, would that you were ours"... What if you were really ours? A ray of light filled the room, so I did not tremble at the horror of imagining the idea, a dream that suddenly became a reality, as if I were seeing organized armies under one banner (There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God) roaring like one lion saying (God is the Greatest) echoing in the corners, supporting the oppressed, deterring the enemy, and spreading the call, their loyalty is to God, His Messenger, and the ruler as long as he does not disobey God and His Messenger, empires and kingdoms tremble at their sight, they fear none but God, their motto is "No conqueror but God", Jihad and death in His cause are their highest goals, obeying what is stated in the Qur’an, God Almighty said: ﴿AND PREPARE AGAINST THEM WHATEVER YOU ARE ABLE OF POWER AND OF STATIONS OF HORSES BY WHICH YOU MAY TERRIFY THE ENEMY OF ALLAH AND YOUR ENEMY﴾.
Suddenly I was awakened by the cry of a girl from Gaza who lost all her family members in a treacherous Jewish bombing, and the voice of a hungry child from Sudan, and the tear of a martyr's mother in Syria who lost her youth for the sake of elevating the word of God, and the price was a secular state that serves those who killed her children! I returned to my painful reality by force, to a painful reality in which our Arab armies were manipulated after the fall of the Caliphate in 1924 AD, so these armies were no longer protectors of the homeland, but rather an obstacle, shield and protection for tyrants! The West has succeeded in penetrating the structure of the armies by appointing rulers who serve its projects and planting their daggers in our sides by means of armies (who are from our sons and brothers), but the treacherous agent governments exploited the weakness of Islamic awareness among the nation, and employed sheikhs of sultans who issue fatwas that suit the whims of the sultan, not the law of God, and since we are a nation that tends by nature to religion, it was easy and programmed to manipulate us through corrupt media, as the principle (execute then object, otherwise you are a traitor!) was instilled, and thus our brothers in the armies became aides to our enemies against us, an army of borders, not an army of a nation. It is not based on the basis of creed and jihad, but rather its loyalty is to a Qatari state and a local ruler, so jihad is either absent or distorted, and it has been replaced by national service to protect artificial borders set by colonialism (Sykes-Picot) and to suppress peoples and protect regimes or employ it in internal conflicts.
Unfortunately, these armies were established under colonial sponsorship, and some of them may be linked to Western alliances (such as NATO), and are even prevented from fighting the Jewish entity, but are used to protect its borders, as is the case in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The army has become to protect regimes that work to prevent the liberation of the nation and serve its enemies, so it is submissive, controlled by regimes governed by a military elite or allied countries that train and equip it through major countries to ensure the survival of the ruling regime and its loyalty to it, not to the nation, where the ruler organizes and structures the army by appointing leaders and senior officers loyal to him without regard to the level of performance or sufficiency, and they are paid high salaries and granted legal immunity, while the rank of soldiers is infiltrated by poverty and injustice, like slaves, who have no choice but to carry out orders without thinking, for the sake of a livelihood for their children, even if it is dipped in humiliation, and in addition, these agent regimes have established intelligence agencies within the army that monitor the movements of officers and soldiers and prevent any alternative organization or loyalty, otherwise they will be imprisoned or executed. These regimes were also based on the principle of divide and conquer, so the army was divided into competing units or militias that manipulate their loyalty to each other, so division occurs instead of unity.
The army was also linked to the regime, not to the state, through slogans, education and media, and the proof of that is, where are the armies (our sons and brothers) from what is happening in Gaza? Was not the rifle of the Egyptian soldier, in implementation of the orders of the agent Sisi, for example, but not limited to, directed towards the Palestinians in preparation for any breach of the borders of the crossing? That crossing, the only artery and last resort for the people of Gaza, is today surrounded by Egyptian soldiers who have not only watched, but have prevented food and drink from hungry, oppressed Muslims whose men were violated before their women, and the remains of their children were scattered, so who do these work for? Where are they from supporting the oppressed? Where are they from the religion of God? Why did the cries of widows and the tears of bereaved mothers not move their feelings? Are you so afraid of the ruler and not afraid of God, who is more worthy of being feared? Is not death in the cause of God a dignity in this world and a victory in the Hereafter? With your weakness, you have made the hand of the West superior to us, enslaving us, stealing our wealth, and controlling our decisions as if it were a guardian over us, and we are a nation that God has honored with Islam!
Here the scene is repeated in Sudan, because of your fear, for the aggressor is one, the tools are Arab, and the goals are Western, grinding the nation. And here we are today in pain for what the Syrian revolution, the Libyan revolution, and all the Arab revolutions have become. How much blood have we paid under the name of change, so that our remains become a bridge to achieve the goals of the West in our nation, and at the hands of whom? At the hands of our armies! Like an innocent child dreaming of a peace of honor, not a peace of humiliation, not fearing planes or missiles, sleeping soundly, or like a man who is tired and worked hard and founded a family to serve the religion of God, dreaming of seeing his children conquer the corners of the earth to elevate the word of God, or like an old man who wishes for a good end in a mosque from which he is not expelled or imprisoned for performing prayer, do not all these have the right to have their dreams come true under a just, strong and lofty caliphate that is feared a thousand times?
However, I see a glimmer of hope in winning these misguided armies to restore the nation to its glory by establishing the Rightly Guided Caliphate on the method of Prophethood, which is based on a clear system (economic, political, military, etc.) under a rightly guided leadership that preserves dignity and rights according to the scales of Sharia, not a coup to serve the interests of a particular group, and this is the role of the sincere men of the nation; to address the sincere members of the army to be an aid to the Caliphate project in understanding and sincerity, and to work to convey ideas to those who have the decision to influence and direct the discourse to them as people of power and immunity, and to clarify the corruption of the existing regimes and their conspiracy against the nation, and the cause of the misery of the peoples, as it is necessary to clarify the Sharia ruling for everyone who fails to support the religion and remind them of the positions of the Ansar as a successful model,... In conclusion, winning the people of power requires a Prophetic, da'wah mentality, awareness, patience, steadfastness, and clarity of purpose.
O soldiers, O you who have the keys to victory in your hands, you do not lack equipment or supplies, but rather you lack those who aim your rifles in the right direction and break the chains of tyrants, not guard them, for the blood of Muslims calls you from Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, East Turkestan, Myanmar, Central Africa, and all Muslim countries, so do not be a shield for the oppressor, but rather the sword of justice and the Caliphate, may you answer the call and be with us in our trench, not in the trench of tyranny, to achieve the good news of the Messenger of God ﷺ: "Then there will be a Caliphate on the method of Prophethood."
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Manal Umm Obaida