The reward of spying against the disbelievers in Jihaad
23-08-2007
Today we
hear and see Muslims making Jihaad synonymous with complete tolerance with the
disbelievers. We ask Allah to save us from these wicked people. The way to
rebuke such Faasiqeen is that we revolve our evidences around the Qur’aan and
Sunnah since Allah Ta’aala told us that if we think we are truthful, then we
must bring our evidences (from it). Now, there are hundreds of ways to confront
these Faasiqeen in argument. Here, we would like to present another form taken
from the book, “Jihaad: The Forgotten Obligation” from section 18, “The Reward
of Spying in Jihaad.” This is in regards to spying against the Kuffaar.
Many will think that this is too dangerous to talk about, but we feel that this
needs to be clarified today especially since many Muslims are doing the
opposite; they are spying for the Kuffaar against the Muslims. And whosoever
does such an evil - and there is absolutely no justification for this in the
Shari’ah - is no different than a Kaafir. We ask Allah Ta’aala to protect us
from this. This is an important subject because nobody in the West talks about
it; they literally water down Jihaad to the extent that it has little or no
reference to a military struggle. So you never hear them talking about spying
against the Kuffaar, training for Jihaad, increasing love for Jihaad, and so on.
This article is a great refresher and we ask Allah to increase our ‘Ilm
regarding Jihaad fe Sabeelillaah.
The Reward of Spying in Jihaad
Narrated Jabir رضي الله عنه, the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “Who will
bring me the information about the enemy on the day (of the battle) of al-Ahzaab
(the confederates)?” Az-Zubair رضي الله عنه said, “I will.” The Prophet صلى الله
عليه و سلم said again, “Who will bring the information about the enemy?”
Az-Zubair said, “I will”. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم said, “Every Prophet
had a hawari (disciple) and my hawari (disciple) is az-Zubair” (Saheeh Bukhaaree,
p.399, vol.1)
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was a successful commander. One of the names of
the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was the Prophet of wars. The Prophet صلى الله
عليه و سلم was quoted as saying, “I am Muhammad and Ahmed and the Prophet of
mercy and the Prophet of repentance and the last Prophet and the Hashir (the
person who will gather everyone on the day of Judgment) and the Prophet of
wars.” (Shamaa’il Tirmidhee, p.25)
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was well acquainted with the tactics and weapons
of war. With reference to the books of Seerah, we learn that the Prophet صلى
الله عليه و سلم was an exceptional commander and displayed remarkable knowledge
of war strategy. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم developed the Sahaabah
accordingly used to say: “War is strategy (to deceive the enemy)”, thereby
expressing that strategy plays a vital role in wars.
We learn from the narration of Bukhaaree that the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم
used to use double meaning words in war affairs, so that the battle tactics
would stay a secret.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم kept his plans of war very secretive at the time
of the victory of Makkah and kept a close eye at all incidents on this occasion.
When one Sahaabi [Haatib ibn Abi Balta’ah رضي الله عنه] made a mistake and tried
to inform the polytheists of Makkah about the plans, the Prophet صلى الله عليه و
سلم changed this effort into failure and kept the plans so secretive to the
extent that the unbelievers were only informed when the fierce army of the
Muslims had reached them. The benefit of this was that Makkah was conquered
without bloodshed, with the exception of one or two fronts there was no
confrontation. This was a great war strategy.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم used to fight in the front line in the elevation
of Allah’s word and this enabled him to be aware of the plans of the
unbelievers. The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم was always mindful that the
unbelievers were looking for any opportunity to attack him; and due to his
understanding of war tactics and general awareness, many schemes of the
unbelievers turned into failures.
Khalid bin Sufyan was preparing an army against the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم sent a Sahaabi (companion) to kill him.
Ka’b bin al-Ashraf, who was a Jew, planned to wage the last final war by uniting
with the Mushrikeen (polytheists). The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم appointed
Muhammad bin Maslama رضي الله عنه, who killed him.
Whereas the Masjid ad-Dhiraar was a well planned scheme of the Mushrikeen and
the Jews which was demolished.
One main aspect of war is spying on the enemy’s army, and this was requested by
the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم in the earlier mentioned hadeeth. Zubair رضي
الله عنه complied with this request and for this he received the noble status of
Hawari (disciple). The Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم’s keen interest in war
tactics was due to Allah’s commandments.
The Muslims have the opportunity to revive Allah’s commandments and the way of
the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم and by doing this they can overpower the enemy
and the era of Islamic glory can become a reality once again.