Sheikh Nâsir al-`Umars Address to the Conference of the International Committee for the Support of the Prophet

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Introduction
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of All the Worlds. And may peace and blessings be upon the Prophet of Mercy and Guidance, the Prophet who was sent to all humanity.

Muslims in the East and West have been deeply disturbed by the fierce campaign being launched against our Prophet (peace be upon him) by a number of prominent American religious leaders. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is Allahs Messenger to the whole of humanity since he is the last of the Prophets and Messengers whom our Lord sent as a mercy to the world.

Slandering Muhammad (peace be upon him) is an act of disbelief. It is also a blatant denial of Allah who sent him and called him: "a Messenger from the Lord of the Worlds". [Sûrah al-A`râf: 61] It is slander against - as well as a denial of - all the other Prophets and Messengers, for whoever rejects one Prophet by implication rejects them all. Allah says:

"Indeed this religion is one religion and I am Your Lord, so worship Me." [Sûrah al-Anbiyâ: 92] 

"The Messenger believes in what was revealed to him from his Lord and so do the believers. All of them believe in Allah, His angels, His books, and His messengers [saying], We make no distinction between any of His messengers and they say, We hear and we obey. We seek your forgiveness, our Lord, and to you is the final destination." [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 285]

What has made the matter more alarming is that this campaign of slander coincides with the oppressive campaign that America has launched against the Muslim world. This only proves that both emanate from the same source. "They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light although the disbelievers dislike it." [Sûrah al-Saff: 61]

There can be no doubt that their resorting to this strategy is proof that their plotting has failed them and they perceive an imminent moral defeat leading to a tangible one. So they are pulling out the last arrow in their quiver. Since they were incapacitated by the power of logic, they resorted to the logic of power, and the two are quite different indeed.

A Legacy Passed Down
The enemies of the Prophets have always endeavored, when foiled by the clear arguments of Islam, to change the subject of discussion from the religion itself to one in which people of dignity do not engage in. They malign, slander and calumniate the one who brings them the truth from Allah in the manner of those whose argument is feeble. All they hope to achieve by this is to avert people from guidance and truth. 

We can see this behavior when we read the story of Moses (peace be upon him) whom Allah sent to Pharaoh. What did Pharaoh do when he saw the clear signs? He resorted to calumnies and slanders. Although the Jews were deeply affected by Pharaohs slander of Moses when he called him "a sorcerer and a liar," they did not learn a lesson from it. Rather, when Jesus was sent to them, they in turn called him "a sorcerer and a liar." 

Ibn Jarîr al-Tabarî, in his commentary of the Qurân, comments on Allahs statement "This is Jesus, the son of Mary, the statement of truth about which they are in dispute" [Sûrah Maryam: 34] saying: The Jews and the Christians argued about Jesus. As for the Jews, they claimed he was a sorcerer, while the Christians claimed he was the son of God, one in a trinity, and God. But they both told lies. He was in truth a servant and Messenger of Allah, His word, and a spirit form Him.

Allah tells us about their state: "The Jews say, the Christians have nothing true to stand on, and the Christians say, the Jews have nothing true to stand on, though they both recite the scripture. Those who have no knowledge speak the same." [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 113]

Allah tells us the following as well: "And to `Âd, We sent their brother Hûd. He said: O my people! Worship Allah. You have no God besides Him. Will you not then fear Him?" [Sûrah al-A`râf: 65]

But what was their response? "The leaders of the Unbelievers among Hûds people said: Ah! We see you are a fool and we think you are a liar!" [Sûrah al-A`râf: 66]

All of the Prophets faced the same thing. "Similarly, no Messenger came to the peoples before them, but they likewise called him a sorcerer or a madman. Is this the legacy they have passed down, one to another? Nay, they are themselves a people transgressing beyond bounds!" [Sûrah al-Dhâriyât: 52-53] Al-Tabarî, in his commentary of this verse, says:

Allah the Almighty shows that in the same way that Quraysh denied their Prophet (peace be upon him) and labeled him a poet or a sorcerer or a lunatic, the disbelieving nations of before denied their messengers. Allah inflicted on them his wrath and punishment on such nations as the people of Noah, Âd, Thamûd, and Pharaoh. Likewise, Quraysh said the same thing about Muhammad (peace be upon him).

Al-Qurtubî, in his commentary, writes:
Allahs words "Is this the legacy they have passed down, one to another?" apparently ask whether the earlier people enjoined the rejection of the Prophets upon the later. The question, however, is rhetorical and conveys a tone of astonishment and ridicule. It basically means that they did not tell each other to do this, but all of them are the same in their wrongdoing and transgression.

This collective transgression by the enemies of the Messengers is the normal habit of the people of falsehood. Sayyid Qutb, in his commentary of the Qurân, discusses the following statement made by Pharaoh about Moses, "I fear that he should change your religion or spread chaos and corruption in the land" [Sûrah Ghâfir: 26]. He writes:

"Is this not the very statement that every despotic tyrant declares about every righteous reformer? Is it not the very same statement of falsehood designed to obscure the bright face of truth? Is it not the very same statement of sinister deception calculated to raise evil doubts in the face of confident belief? It is not the same logic being repeated when there is an encounter between truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief, righteousness and transgression? It is an old story that recurs again and again."

Let us consider some passages from the Talmud that talk about Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) so we can see how its authors are following in the footsteps of their predecessors:

-The Talmud states that "Christ was a sorcerer and a pagan."

-It says that "Jesus the Nazarene is simmering in the bottom of Hades (or Hell) in the midst of pitch and tar."

-The Talmud also says, "Jesus misled, corrupted and subverted Israel."

The Most Inviolable of People
It is quite amazing that the most tested and abused of all people are the most sacrosanct. They are the Prophets. This fact has been conveyed to us in a number of authentic hadîth. If slandering righteous believers is an abomination, then how much worse must it be to slander the Messengers? The Prophet (peace be upon him) relates to us from Allah: "Whoever stands in enmity against one of my friends, I will declare war on him." [Sahîh al-Bukhârî (5/2384)] 

Slandering people of knowledge and those who call others to Allah is more monstrous than slandering other righteous believers. Ibn `Asâkir said, "The flesh of scholars is poisoned, and it is Allahs custom to disgrace those who partake of it. Whoever lets loose his tongue against the scholars, Allah will make his heart dead before his body dies." 

Allah says: "Then let those beware who withstand the Messengers order, lest some trial befall them, or a grievous penalty be inflicted on them." [Sûrah al-Nûr: 63]

We are told that Balaam, the son of Boer, was an Israelite who supposedly knew Allahs greatest name. However, he devoted his knowledge to attacking Moses (peace be upon him) and cursing him, so Allah told us his similitude in the Qurân: "And recite to them the news of him to whom We gave knowledge of Our signs, but he detached himself from them; so Satan pursued him and he became of the deviant. And if We had willed, We could have elevated him thereby, but he adhered to the Earth and followed his own desire. So his example is like that of the dog: if you chase him he pants, or if you leave him, he [still] pants. That is the example of the people who have denied our signs. So relate the stories, perchance, they will give thought. How evil an example is that of the people who denied our signs and used to wrong themselves." [Sûrah al-Arâf: 175-177]

The Islamic Legal Ruling on One Who Slanders the Prophet (peace be upon him)
Due to the seriousness of the crime of insulting the prophets, scholars concur with the verdict given by Ibn Hazm in his Muhallâ:

"It is therefore proven that whoever insults the Prophet (peace be upon him) is an unbeliever and an enemy of Allah. The Prophet (peace be upon him) is not an enemy of a Muslim. Allah says, "The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another" [Sûrah al-Tawbah: 71] Therefore it is proven that anyone who blasphemes against Allah, insults an angel, calumniates a prophet or mocks him, or makes fun of the verses of the scripture or the divine legislation is an apostate. It is as stated in the Qurân: "And if you ask them, they will surely say we were only conversing and playing. Say, Is it Allah and His verses and His messengers that you were mocking? Make no excuse; you have disbelieved…" [Sûrah al-Tawbah: 65-66]

Muhammad b. Nasr, in his work entitled Ta`zîm Qadr al-Salâh, conveys to us that Ishâq said: 

Among the matters in which the scholars are unanimously agreed is that a person who believed in Allah and his revelation and then killed a prophet or was an accomplice in such a killing becomes an unbeliever, even if he believed that killing the prophets is prohibited. The same ruling applies to one who insults a prophet or rejects his message without being coerced to do so.

A Comparative Study
Todays Christian Crusaders have not brought anything new. In fact, they are treading the path of their forefathers. All we have to do is to look at the similarity between their statements. Jerry Falwell says, "I believe that Muhammad was a terrorist. I have read enough about him by Muslims as well as non-Muslims who say that he was a man of violence and of war."

But we do not know what he read by Muslims. Did he read, by any chance "We sent you only as a mercy to all the worlds" [Sûrah al-Anbiyâ: 107]? 

The statement of this unbeliever is essentially no different than that of his predecessors, like the enemy of Moses (peace be upon him) who said: "O Moses, do you intend to kill me as you killed someone yesterday. You only want to be a tyrant in the land and do not want to be of those who do right." [Sûrah al-Qasas: 19] It also echoes the statement of Pharaoh who said: "I fear that he should change your religion or spread chaos and corruption in the land" [Sûrah Ghâfir: 26] and that of Pharaohs chiefs who said: "Will you leave Moses and his people to spread mischief in the land, and to abandon you and your gods?"" [Sûrah al-A`râf: 127] 

It is also akin to the following statement about Jesus (peace be upon him) in the Talmud: "Jesus misled, corrupted and subverted Israel."

Another example is Pat Robertsons statement about the Prophet (peace be upon him) in which he said: "He urged his people to kill the polytheists…He was extremely fanatic. He was a thief and a bandit…he called to deception and trickery…80% of the Quran is taken from the Christians and the Jews…and yet he turned against the Jews slaughtering them…."

While reading Pat Robertsons accusations, I recalled what the Jews had said in the Talmud: "The Nazarene (i.e. the Christian) is he who follows false teachings which are invented by a man who called people to worship on the day after Saturday." So I said to myself: Allah has spoken the truth when He said: "Their hearts are similar." [Sûrah al-Baqarah: 118]

Such accusations have been offered by the unbelievers over and over again. Allah refutes these accusations in the Qurân:

"And you (O Muhammad) were not able to recite a Book before this Book came, nor are you able to transcribe it with thy right hand. In that case, indeed, would the talkers of vanities have doubted." [Sûrâh al-`Ankabût: 48]

"We know indeed that they say, "It is a man that teaches him." The tongue of him they wickedly point to is notably foreign, while this is Arabic, pure and clear." [Sûrah al-Nahl: 103]

Look at how the accusation mongers today turn reality on its head and try to depict the people who terrorized the believers in Mecca and Madinah, broke their treaties, and repeatedly tried to kill the Prophet (peace be upon him) as the innocent victims and the victimized Muslims as the perpetrators of all offenses.

Jerry Vines - the former president of the annual conference of the Southern Baptist Church - said about the Prophet (peace be upon him): "He is a pedophile who married 12 women, the last of whom was a child at the age of 9."

This is the statement of an ignorant person. He should know that the Prophet married his first wife Khadijah who was 15 years his senior. Yes, he consummated his marriage with `Âishah when she was nine years old. However, no one denounced that, not even the hypocrites who were more anxious to vilify the Prophet (peace be upon him) than this Jerry Vines. This is because it was a common practice among women at that time to marry at the age of nine. So the Prophet (peace be upon him) did not consummate the marriage until she reached that age although he married her three years before the emigration to Madinah. Moreover, he never married a virgin other than her, although he was leader of his people, nay of all humanity. And this calumny only reminds us of what the killers of Prophets said about Jesus (peace be upon him) in their Talmud: "Jesus Christ was an illegitimate son. His mother bore him as a result of an illicit relationship with the soldier Pandera during her menses." 

Conclusion
I would like to reiterate, in summary, the following points:
1. These Christians have actually denied Jesus and disbelieved in him when they slander Muhammad (peace be upon him), since Jesus was the one who gave the glad tidings of his coming: "Behold Jesus son of Mary said, O children of Israel I am the Messenger of Allah sent to confirm the Torah that came before and to give glad tidings of a Messenger to come after me who name shall be Ahmad. But when he came to them with clear signs, they said, This is evident sorcery." [Sûrah al-Saff: 6] Whoever denies one Messenger has indeed denied them all.

2. When these Christian leaders hurl insults at the Prophet (peace be upon him), they are in fact insulting all Christians, just as an insult against Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) is an insult against themselves.

3. All Christian must denounce what these people are saying and apologize to the Muslims for the slanders against their Prophet which, in fact, is a slander against themselves.

4. Silence of the American government is a proof of their conspiracy and collusion with the slanderers. This could result in negative consequences, sooner or later.

5. This approach bears out the fact that the US war on against terrorism is indeed a crusade. "Terrorism" in this context is synonymous with "Islam" and "Muslims", since they labeled the Prophet (peace be upon him) a terrorist. And did he bring anything but Islam? And are Muslims anything but followers of Islam?

6. All countries that presently support the US in its war against terrorism should publicly detach themselves from it. They need to abandon that oppressive alliance. For it is a war against Allah, His Messenger, and all the believers. The reality is not as they are depicting it. Rather "Hatred has already manifested from their mouths and that which their breasts conceal is even greater. We have certainly made clear to you the signs if you only reflect." [Sûrah Âl `Imrân: 118]

7. Despite the pain and bitterness that this matter invokes in the hearts of the Muslims, it should also give us hope. It foreshadows the decline of America and her allies. America has shot the last arrow in her quiver, and the prudent never do that. It is the behavior of the defeated. Falsehood may enjoy its temporary existence, but the truth prevails until the Day of Judgment.

8. America has engaged in war in all theatres. It has employed both legal and illegal weapons. Therefore, Muslims have to rise up to these developments, organize themselves, and unite their efforts before they are implicated in a war or trapped in an ambush that they are not ready for. "And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steed of war, by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them who you do not know but Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you and you will not be wronged." [Sûrah al-Anfâl: 60]

Finally, I ask Allah to make this conference successful and fruitful, and to guide your steps on the path of truth, and I also ask Him to make us of those for whom the Prophet (peace be upon him) intercedes on the Day of Judgment. 

And may the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you..

Your brother,
Nâsir b. Sulaymân al-`Umar

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