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The Shām has ended up in the spotlight once again in the last few weeks, and certainly not for events to rejoice about.
The new Syrian army intervened in a “legitimate” manner to quell the counter-revolutionary insurgency launched by remnants tied to the old Baathist regime of the dictator Bashar al-Assad across the coastal areas, mostly inhabited by Alawites. However, not everything went smoothly, if one may say so.
On-the-spot executions and mass killings were indeed numerous, and it would be unfair to hide them, although we do not want to join the “war of numbers” to establish how many were actually murdered among the civilian population in just three days of madness.
The only one who knows about the actual figures, with flawless honesty and certainty, is Allāh swt, because He saw everything and knows everything about what dwells in the hearts and minds of the protagonists of the story.
From our human point of view, even more limited by the distance from the place where the events took place, we can only try to look at the glass half full even in such extremely sad and tragic circumstances.
All attention has been focused on Ahmad al-Sharāʿ, the man who led the Revolution to victory and today rightfully holds the office of new Syria’s President.
Was he involved in the massacres? In mobilizing the army, did he know what he was getting into? Did he give the order?
Allāhu A‘lam, but until proven otherwise we believe we should answer “no” to the aforementioned questions.
Why would he inflict such a damage on himself? It was widely foreseeable that the negative repercussions of such actions would have hit him first.
However, the President’s acquittal does not downsize neither the gravity of the events, nor the crucial problem they highlighted. That is, the presence in the ranks of the army, and more generally of the security forces, of numerous “misguided of Jihād” – bedfellows who have shown no intention of redeeming themselves.
Did they betray the trust of al-Sharāʿ? In any case, it is certain that they cannot be relied upon, and the President has made this clear, openly distancing himself from the massacres and condemning them without ifs or buts.
The ongoing investigation must be uncompromising, both in identifying the culprits and in imposing the appropriate sentences for violating every rule of the Sharīʿah concerning the Jihād “with” the sword.
There should be no need for repeating these rules but, given the continuous violations, repeating them may be beneficial.
In the face of an enemy attack, such as the one carried out by the “Assadists”, the jihād bi’s-sayf for self-defense must comply with the criterion of proportionality in the use of force with respect to the aggression suffered, as established in the Qur’ān (sūrat al-Baqara, 2:194). Morever, in numerous ahādīth, the Islamic leader par excellence, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, prohibits the killing of women, children, the elderly, and other categories of non-combatants. Therefore, non-Muslims who are not at war with Muslims are not legitimate targets.
These are the so-called “civilians” and the “misguided of Jihād” who unfortunately have been integrated into the new Syrian army killed many of them in cold blood. Toward the victims, almost all Alawites plus Christians and Druze, they behaved in a way that is anything but consistent with the Islamic standards that every Muslim must respect to be a good believer: “Do not let hatred for a certain people push you to iniquity. Be fair: fairness is consistent with piety. Fear Allāh. Allāh is well aware of what you do” (sūrat al-Mā’ida, 5:8).
Instead, they have inappropriately triggered the so-called āyah of the sword (sūrat at-Tawba, 9:5), with the dreadful consequences that Muslims themselves must first acknowledge in order to fully grasp how far from Islām and its principles these actions are, Astaghfirullāh.
What to do now, President al-Sharāʿ, with the “misguided of Jihād”?
The first obligatory step is their total purge from all security forces, together with the revocation of the Syrian citizenship, which deserves greater respect.
Then, from a juridical-legal point of view, we leave the burden of establishing the most appropriate punishment to the Sharīʿah experts with whom the President is certainly surrounded. Undoubtedly, they will also take into account in their judgment that the killings took place in the month of Ramadān, which the “misguided of Jihād” have deliberately desecrated.
Unless they repent (Tawba), their fate in the Ākhirah is already sealed, since the Most High “does not love those who do evil” (sūrat ash-Shūrā, 42:40): “I will fill Hell with all of you, you [Shaytān] and those who have followed you” (sūrat al-A’rāf, 7:18).
President al-Sharāʿ has now a truly unique opportunity in his hands, an opportunity that perhaps will never come again. The agreements with the Kurds and the Druze confirm his sincere desire to build a Syria where there is room for everyone, just as requested by an authentically Islamic “governance”.
Yet, Mr. President, there is one thing you must do and immediately: get rid of the “misguided of Jihād” once and for all.
Jihād senza Spada 