Ghayrah for Islam Has become a Deficiency

Ghayrah for Islam Has Become a Deficiency

By Shaykh ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam

“…It is a disaster that your heart dies without you noticing. It is as if you say: ‘O Lord! How often I rebel against You without you punishing me for it!’ And He replies: ‘How often I punish you without you even noticing! Haven’t I removed the life from your heart?’

The death of the heart, the lack of reaction to the Shar’i texts, that your face doesn’t become red for the sake of Allah…that’s it. Your heart is dead. It no longer pumps blood. In fact, this has now become something shameful. It has now become blameworthy for one to have zeal and to react strongly when he sees some corruption or evil in front of him. This is now considered a deficiency of the many deficiencies that can exist in one’s character. People will say that you are a poor guy who is quick to get charged up, or that you are passionate, or that you are zealous, or that you are rash, or that you are a fundamentalist, etc. Yes! It is now something blameworthy!

…Yes, and this is why we now use these terms without realizing what we’re saying. This person is too simple-minded, this person is too passionate, that person is a fanatic, easily charged up, zealous, etc. And is this religion given victory by mere reason, or is it given victory by zeal and passion? Reason tells you: how can you stand against Russia? Malik bin Nabi said that the index finger of Bilal that was raised to the sky saying ‘Ahad, Ahad (He is One, He is One)’ was not the voice of reason. Rather, this was the voice of emotion, because reason would tell him to deceive Umayyah bin Khalaf and then come at night and renew his Islam with Muhammad.

Someone once said to me: “Brother, we shouldn’t be so open with everything we say. I sat for two years in an office without my coworker knowing my mindset.” So, I said to him: “May Allah ease your affairs. This means that for two years, you didn’t speak a single word encouraging good or forbidding evil because if you had spoken, he would have known your mindset?” And he considers this to have been cleverness on his part!

The cowards think that cowardliness is intelligence * This is the deception of the wicked soul…”

[‘Fi Dhilal Surat at-Tawbah’; p. 223]