Stop Calling It War…

There is no Palestinian army, no navy, and no air force.

There are civilians being killed, land being seized, and a people being displaced.

The prominent American thinker and professor of political science John Mearsheimer says:

“Stop calling it a war… Israel is erasing a people and stealing its land… This is ethnic cleansing, nothing less.”

But after everything the latest trial has revealed, the question is no longer simply: What is happening in Palestine?

Rather, the more serious question has become: Where is the ummah that the Qur'an made a witness over people?

God said:

﴿وَكَذَٰلِكَ جَعَلْنَاكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِّتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا﴾ (And thus We have made you a middle ummah, so that you may be witnesses over people and the Messenger may be a witness over you) [البقرة: 143]

This verse is not a title with which the ummah adorns itself, nor is it a symbolic act of witnessing (shahāda) invoked on ceremonial occasions. It is a function.

And that function has no meaning unless there is something to bear witness to. If the ummah is a witness over people, it must therefore know:

What does it bear witness to? On what basis does it bear witness? And how does it carry out its witnessing (shahāda)?

Here the verse brings us back to the foundation of the case.

The Messenger Conveyed… So What Did the Ummah Bear Witness To?

God said:

﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الرَّسُولُ بَلِّغْ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِن رَّبِّكَ ۖ وَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ﴾ (O Messenger, convey what has been sent down to you from your Lord; if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message) [المائدة: 67]

The Messenger is commanded to undertake the conveyance (balāgh), and the ummah is commanded to undertake witnessing (shahāda). There is, then, a clear sequence:

Sending down ← the conveyance (balāgh) ← knowledge ← witnessing (shahāda)

The Messenger does not convey to the ummah merely so that it may memorize the text, but so that it may become capable of performing the function God assigned to it: ﴿لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ﴾ (so that you may be witnesses over people).

This is where the ummah's responsibility begins.

What Did the Trial Reveal?

In the case of the allotted share, the verses were not absent. The Qur'an itself revealed the trajectory:

﴿لَأَتَّخِذَنَّ مِنْ عِبَادِكَ نَصِيبًا مَّفْرُوضًا﴾ (I shall surely take an allotted share of Your servants) [النساء: 118]

Then it revealed what this share does:

﴿وَلَأُضِلَّنَّهُمْ وَلَأُمَنِّيَنَّهُمْ وَلَآمُرَنَّهُمْ…﴾ (And I shall surely lead them astray, and fill them with vain desires, and command them…) [النساء: 119]

Then it revealed the outcome:

﴿فَلَيُبَتِّكُنَّ آذَانَ الْأَنْعَامِ… وَلَيُغَيِّرُنَّ خَلْقَ اللَّهِ﴾ (Then they will surely slit the ears of livestock… and they will surely alter God's creation) [النساء: 119]

The case, then, does not concern an isolated word. It concerns an entire trajectory:

The allotted share ← leading astray ← instilling vain desires ← command ← action ← spreading corruption ← exaltation ← altering God's creation

Then, in the Qur'an, we find the Children of Israel facing another trajectory that reveals corruption and exaltation:

﴿وَقَضَيْنَا إِلَىٰ بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ فِي الْكِتَابِ لَتُفْسِدُنَّ فِي الْأَرْضِ مَرَّتَيْنِ وَلَتَعْلُنَّ عُلُوًّا كَبِيرًا﴾ (And We decreed for the Children of Israel in the Book: You will surely spread corruption on earth twice, and you will surely rise to great exaltation) [الإسراء: 4]

The Allotted Share and the Witnessing (shahāda) That Must Not Be Absent

The case, then, is not a search for an unknown name. The Qur'an has revealed the trajectory:

The Children of Israel ← the share ← leading astray ← instilling vain desires ← those who became Jews ← the Jews ← command ← action ← spreading corruption and exaltation ← altering God's creation

The allotted share is that portion of God's servants whom Satan took for himself and subjected to this trajectory until they became the bearers and executors of his project.

In this trial, this share emerges from within the Children of Israel into those who became Jews, takes shape through being led astray and filled with vain desires, and appears at a stage that ends with the Jews.

Here the trial has reached a point that can no longer be passed over: If the Qur'an has revealed the trajectory, whose function is it to bear witness to it?

The ummah's.

Who Is the Witness?

The witness is not someone who sees and then remains silent, nor someone who sees and then waits for others to name things for them, nor someone who replaces the witnessing (shahāda) of the Qur'an with the witnessing (shahāda) of the media, politics, and authority.

The witness sees, knows, distinguishes, and then bears witness to what they have come to know.

Thus, the absence of witnessing (shahāda) does not mean that the reality did not occur; it means that the witness did not perform their function.

Here the matter becomes more serious. If injustice occurs before the ummah's eyes, and it then proves unable to name it, or unable to connect it to what the Qur'an has revealed, or allows others to determine for it the meaning of what is happening, the problem no longer lies in the absence of verses.

The problem lies in the absence of witnessing (shahāda).

Palestine Is Not Outside the Trial

What is happening in Palestine cannot be reduced to a passing political news item.

For when a crime passes without witnessing (shahāda), it becomes a precedent. When a precedent goes unchallenged, it becomes a model. And when a model becomes acceptable, it can be repeated.

This is why the case does not end at Palestinian land. When the Qur'an speaks of spreading corruption on earth, exaltation, and altering God's creation, it does not place before us a closed historical dossier. Rather, it reveals a trajectory that the ummah must recognize when it appears in reality.

Here the question becomes: Does the ummah see what is happening?

Yes, it sees. But the more difficult question is: Does it bear witness to it?

How Was Witnessing (shahāda) Obscured?

After the judgment in the case of the allotted share, the question shifted from: Who is the allotted share? to a larger question: How was it able to conceal from the ummah what the Qur'an had revealed?

The Qur'an did not leave the ummah without evidence, nor did it merely tell it, “Be witnesses.” Rather, it gave it the Book, the verses, and the balance, and called it to Tadbur, examination, and the drawing of lessons.

Nevertheless, a person can see a verse without seeing what it signifies, read the text without connecting it to the text, and see reality without placing it before the Qur'an.

Here the most dangerous kind of concealment occurs:

The Qur'an remains open before the eye, while its meanings are closed to the mind.

Witnessing (shahāda) Begins with the Qur'an

The ummah does not become a witness because it belongs to an ummah called “Islam,” or because it raises the slogan of witnessing (shahāda), or because it repeats what its predecessors said.

It becomes a witness only when it performs the function of witnessing (shahāda) defined by the Qur'an: to know what God has sent down, to read the verses in light of one another, to discover the trajectory the text reveals, to see its effect when it appears in reality, and then to bear witness to it.

Here the relationship between the conveyance (balāgh) and witnessing (shahāda) becomes clear:

The Messenger conveyed. The Qur'an revealed. And the ummah must bear witness.

Here the Trial Returns to Palestine

When we look at Palestine from this perspective, the question is no longer: What does the world say about what is happening? Rather, it is: What does the Qur'an say?

The question is no longer: Who describes the event for us? Rather, it is: Can we see it ourselves?

The question is no longer: Is the ummah a witness? Rather, it is: Where is its witnessing (shahāda)?

For witnessing (shahāda) that does not appear when injustice occurs, does not name the crime, and does not stand against corruption becomes merely a title.

And the Qur'an did not make the ummah ﴿شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ﴾ (witnesses over people) so that it would bear witness to history after its conclusion, but so that it would bear witness when the event occurs.

The Final Trial Is Not Over

The trial began with the question: What is the allotted share? It then moved to: How does it work? Then to: Where does it lead?

Then a trajectory emerged before us:

Leading astray ← Arousing vain desires ← Commanding ← Spreading corruption ← Exaltation ← Changing God's creation

But after the judgment, a more grave question remained: If the Qur'an has exposed all of this, why has the ummah not fulfilled its function as a witness?

Here, the trial was no longer the trial of one party; rather, it became the trial of witnessing (shahāda) itself.

For Palestine is not only a land being occupied, nor only a people being killed. It is also a test for the ummah of which God said: ﴿لِتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ﴾ (so that you may be witnesses over people).

And the question that remains after all that has preceded is not: Does the world know what is happening? Rather: Does the ummah know what is happening?

And not: Do others speak? Rather: Does the ummah bear witness according to what God has sent down?

For the Qur'an did not expose Satan's project so that the ummah would continue recounting it, but so that it would recognize it when it appears, expose it when it operates, and bear witness against it when it occurs.

The conveyance (balāgh) was thus the beginning of responsibility, and witnessing (shahāda) its extension.

The Messenger conveyed. The Qur'an exposed. And the ummah was commanded to bear witness.

Here, the final trial stands before the ummah itself:

If the verses are before us, and the events before our eyes, what remains before we bear witness?

Or have we become witnesses to what others tell us, instead of bearing witness according to what God has sent down?

Related Case Materials

The Decisive Trial

After the Judgment: The Ummah's Witnessing (shahāda) over People

The Third Final Trial: The Trial of the Witnesses