Islam between the creations of the formers and negatives of the later

Since ever, those who serve the religion of Allah think, exert efforts, and try to satisfy their Lord, seeking His Guidance and hope for His Companionship. "As for those who strive hard in Us (Our Cause), We will surely guide them to Our Paths (i.e. Allâh’s Religion — Islâmic Monotheism). And verily, Allâh is with the Muhsinûn (good doers)." [Surat Al `Ankabut: 69].

They are people walking on earth but their hearts are connected with their Creator in the sky, so their hearts became high until it reached the sky. They prostrated for Allah on the ground, but their foreheads went high until they touched the clouds. They did not fear any of the humans, did not lean to one of the forces of the earth and did not look at any of the worldly benefits. Their path and goal was clear which was to satisfy Allah alone as long as their work did not contradict the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him); they were not harmed whether people praised their work or not.

The Prophet's way supported and encouraged creativity in its utmost degree in all features of the Prophet's administration.

Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of his genius leadership character that he simply was able to release the creative energies of his Companions, no matter their abilities and levels were. Moreover, he let each one of them use his intellect to serve the religion in which he believes by the highest degrees of efficiency and individual effectiveness.

He made each one of them a special leader in his own field, feeling the highest degrees of responsibility, indulged in working for his idea by all means, and participated, created, and initiated new ideas without being asked to do so.

The Messenger (peace be upon him) could achieve super works with those Companions which made them superior to the nearby countries who were more equipped, more organized, and more culture such as the Persians and the Romans, and that was the success criteria of any leader.

Salman Al Farisy:

Salman Al Farisy belongs to "Esfahan" from a village that was called "G" and his father was its ruler. Salman had been through great events: from a bishop to another and from a city to another. One day, a caravan passed by and he went with them to the Arabian Peninsula but they sold him to a Jewish man with whom he worked in his palm fields until he heard him talking with another person about a prophet in Makkah who was staying in Quba'. In the evening, Salman made up his mind to go to him. Salman said: The Prophet (peace be upon him) called me and I sat before him and talked to him as I am doing now. Then I became a Muslim but slavery prevented me from attending Badr and Uhud. One day, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: write to your master so that he would free you. I wrote to him and the Messenger (peace be upon him) commanded the Companions to help me and Allah caused me to be free. I lived as a free Muslim and witnessed with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) the Battle of the Trench and all the following battles. Salman was the one who proposed to dig the Trench around the Medina when the confederates wanted to attack the Medina to eradicate Muslims and completely eliminate that emerging state and that new religion. They outnumbered Muslims and Muslims could not stand before their army. Thereupon, the Prophet (peace be upon him) gathered his Companions for consultation in this matter and there was the new creative idea which was not known for Arabs at that time. The idea was to dig a trench in the part from which Medina could be attacked which was between two high places . That indicated how Salman was indulged and exhausted himself in thinking, studying, and knowing the geography of the site, exerted his mind and thinking in solving the problem as if he was the higher commander and the only responsible for solving the problem.

How great and correct idea it was! It turned balances upside down, changed the weakness of Muslims to power, turned the power of polytheists to weakness, and formed a strategic sudden surprise for them. Furthermore, it turned their plans and arrangement upside down and put them in defense stance rather than attack and made them lose the advantage of their number and equipments which they enjoyed.

When the people of Makkah reached the Medina and found the Trench, Abu Sufyan said: That was a plot Arabs were weaving. That day, the Supporters said: Salman is one of us and the immigrants said: Nay, Salman is one of us. However, the Prophet (peace be upon him) called them saying: "Salman is one of us, O family of Muhammad."

Of the narrations of his asceticism is: He was an emir of Ctesiphon during the caliphate of `Umar and his salary was 5.000 dinars of which he did not receive one dirham because he gave them all to the poor and the needy. He used to say: I buy palm leaves with a dirham then sell it with three dirhams: a dirham to buy a new one, a dirham for my children, and I would give the third in charity. Salman Al Farisy was nicknamed by Salman of goodness or the seeker for the truth. When he was asked: who are you? He would answer: I am the son of Islam and from the children of Adam. He was famous for his frequent acts of worship, his frequent companionship to the Prophet (peace be upon him) so, he did not separate from him but for a need. The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to love him so much and Abu Hurayrah called him "Sahib Al Kitabayn" the bible and the Qur'an. `Ali ibn Abu Talib called it the wise Luqman. The Prophet (peace be upon him) made a bond between him and Abu Ad-Darda' and passed away in the caliphate of `Uthman ibn `Affan in 35 AH.

Nu`aym ibn Mas`ud the one who separated the confederates:

The opinion of Salman was not the only idea in the battle but there were other ideas that were not less important than the first. The other idea was invented by a Muslim whose Islam was still virgin; he was Nu`aym ibn Mas`ud who came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said to him: O Messenger Allah, I became a Muslim and my people did not know of my Islam, so command me as you wish.

Hence, the genius of Nu`aym in leadership and management appeared and the Messenger (peace be upon him) commanded him not to declare his faith because its declaration will not add anything to Muslims, but he should make chaos in the polytheists because war is deception. Nu`aym ibn Mas`ud set out as mentioned in the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and set up a well-knitted plan to disrupt the alliance relationship between the Jews and  the polytheists and to plant the seeds of doubt and disparity between them to end their agreement and alliance, to ruin their plot, and to make them return without causing harm to Muslims.

All these happened without using one arrow, but through the use of mind efficiently and creatively.

The doubt which Nu`aym cast in the heart of Quraysh and Ghatafan made the Jews worry of Quraysh and Ghatafan and vice-versa. Allah cast hatred and doubt between them and their word separated; at the end Allah granted victory to His Muslim Servants.

The man of the tunnel:

Muslims besieged a fort in one of their expeditions, however, that fort could not be opened, so the commander of the Muslim Army, Maslamah ibn `Abdul-Malik called: Who of you can enter through a hole inside the fort? If he dies, he shall enter paradise, and if he survives, he should go and open the gate of the fort in order that Muslims would enter the fort repeating: "Allahu Akbar." Thereupon, a masked man stood up and said: "I shall enter the tunnel." The man advanced and entered the tunnel, then Muslims heard the voice of Takbir "saying Allahu Akbar" and saw the gate opens, so they entered and opened the fort for Islam. The commander of Muslims called on the man of the tunnel, but he never showed up. On the next day, the commander of the army called on the man of the tunnel again and persisted that he should come to him day or night. While the commander was sitting in his tent, a masked man entered upon him. Maslamah said: Are you the man of the tunnel? The man answered: I am his messenger and he has three conditions to reveal himself. Maslamah said: What are they? The man said:

1- You do not reward him.

2- Do not treat him specially.

3- And do not send his name to the Caliph.

Maslamah said: All his conditions are accepted. Thereupon, the masked man revealed himself and said: I am the man of the tunnel. Thereafter, Maslamah used to invoke Allah with this supplication: "O Lord, gather me with the man of the tunnel."

Al Hubab and the Battle of Badr:

The Battle of Badr witnessed the sound opinion of Al Hubab bin Al Mundhir when he suggested that the wells of Badr should be covered with dust in order to prevent the polytheists from drinking. Thus, Muslims had the water and the polytheists did not have any and that opinion had the greatest effect in the battle. The follower of the Companions' biography will find amazing things showing how did they mastered the service of religion by all means and used all the available means to disseminate the religion.

The nation now needs innovators:

In the time we live conferences have been held, plots were set up, and strikes hit Islam and Muslims badly. However, the nation still standing high as long as there are loyal, Mujahedeen, and innovators and the need to such people is now pressing to promote the performance, innovate new methods and to use the new means used in science and technology to convey the religion to the people and set the proof against them.

A believer should not lose hope in creativity:

A believer should not despair because despair is the quality of the disbelievers and the manner of the hypocrites. “And never give up hope of Allâh’s Mercy. Certainly, no one despairs of Allâh’s Mercy, except the people who disbelieve.” [Surat Yusuf: 87].

Despair is the compeller of men, the destroyer of generations, the waster of actions, and destroyer of hopes. As for hope, it is a motive force that opens the breasts, lightens the faces, spreads activity in souls, pushes the lazy to diligence, and pushes the diligent to go on. The thing which pushes the planter to work and activity is his hope for harvest. The thing which tempts a merchant to travel and risk is his hope for profit. The thing which pushes a student to seriousness and persistence is his hope for success. The thing which motivates a soldier to protect the frontiers is his hope for victory. The thing which relieves the costs of Jihad is hope for liberation. The thing which makes the bitter medicine loveable for a sick person is hope for cure. The thing which calls a believer to suppress his whim and obey his lord is hope in Allah's pleasure and paradise. Likewise, the person who wants to innovate for his religion, creates for his call, and thinks carefully in the way to his lord is patience and hope. Hope is the elixir of life, the driver of its activity, the reliever of its scourges, and the maker of joy and pleasure. It is something sweet, of beautiful nature, and of high value. A believer is the most hopeful person, the purest soul, the purest heart, the most open-breast, and the most optimistic because he believes that there is a superpower that runs the universe and nothing will be hidden from it and nothing can fail it. It is unlimited driving force, not confined, and endless; it is the power of Allah. A Muslim believes that Allah is Omnipotent, Capable, Compassionate, gives life, causes death, enriches, causes poverty, gives and withholds, cherishes, and degrades. "Say (O Muhammad peace be upon him): “O Allâh! Possessor of the kingdom, You give the kingdom to whom You will, and You take the kingdom from whom You will, and You endue with honor whom You will, and You humiliate whom You will. In Your Hand is the good. Verily, You are Able to do all things." [Surat Al `Imran: 26].

Hope is important to support messages, establish renaissance, and achieve tournaments. However, if a creative loses his hope, he enters the battle without a weapon to fight with, moreover, without a hand to hold the weapon, how would he be victorious or achieve success? However, if a person has hope, the difficult will become easy, the harm will be removed, and the distant will become near because days draw the distant near and time is part of the cure.

Destroying the Bar-Lev line:

In the 10^th of Ramadan War 1393 AH, the 6^th of October 1973, it was the curtain wall which the Jews established from Port Said northward to Suez southward with a length of about 160 km.

General Baqi Zaki said in his interview with Egypt News: We were watching the Israelis establishing "ditches" and powerful points. The curtain wall (Bar-Lev line) was going high every day. It was composed of natural sand dunes formed as a result of digging the Suez Canal and the digging sand was placed on the east bank of the canal because there were agricultural lands in the west.

They mixed the natural sand dunes with the output of the Suez Canal to approach the Canal until the inclination degree of the curtain wall with the bottom of the channel became (80 degrees) and it was almost a right angle in order to be difficult to climb or to collapse and the height of the curtain was about 20 meters.

General Baqi Zaki presented his idea to destroy that curtain wall. He said to the leader of the squad: by using the high-pressure pumps that are placed on light boats we can withdraw water from the Canal then pump it using a high-power surge to the curtain wall which was near the Canal where the power of water presses sand down to the Canal edge.

He kept on explaining his idea which was unusual and all the attendants were silent and stunned, saying: During my work in the high dam in 1963, we transferred about (10 million cubic meter) by curettage ; the idea succeeded, the Bar-Lev line was destroyed, and the army won the war.

That man was neither a scientist nor a knowledge seeker, but he bore the concern of Islam. He thought of an idea by which he may serve his religion, thus his mind guided him to fill his car with science books from different languages then wrote on his car in different languages: "who wants to read about Islam should stop me." If anyone stops him, he would ask him about his language then would give him a book or books in that language. Thereupon, many people embraced Islam at his hand in a time that he does not know their own languages.

• This is one of Muslim youth who read a lot in Christianity until he mastered it then created a chat room on the internet to answer the questions and doubts of the Christians and discuss them about their religion with wisdom and good advice. Moreover, he would explain to them the virtues of Islam and its sound beliefs; thereupon more than 500 persons embraced Islam because of him. [Magallit Al Usrah (family Magazine)].

• This is an example of a Turkish Muslim man of medium living standard and whenever he desired something and went to buy it, he would say: as if I ate it and would return home without buying it then put its price in a box. He would do that every time he wanted something to eat until the box was filled and got a lot of money with which he could build a Masjid (mosque) in one of suburbs of Istanbul. The visitors of the Masjid called it as if I ate it so it was called as if I ate it.

Another person in the West booked the first seat in one of the lines of transportation and paid its charge for a full year then wrote a small ad on the seat: "If you want to know something about Islam, call this number," and wrote his number. Thereafter, people were calling him to ask about Islam and he would answer their questions.

An invitation to creativity:

Dear reader, previous generations have offered many for Islam and showed creativity, whereas  the subsequent generations gathered around themselves, lived negativism by all its dimensions, and left diseases and deadly epidemics decay its body except for few. It is true that the nation is beaten everyday and every hour, but it is still alive and if it had been dead, it would have not beaten; but where are the men of the nation? Where are the creative? Where are the innovators? Doors were closed in their faces, and paths were blocked before them, therefore they turned to be immigrant birds. It is an excuse that is more dangerous than a sin. If this is the case, they should be creative to their religion out there because every land on which Adhan is repeated is the land of Islam and every people pronounces the Shahadah (Testimony of Faith) is a Muslim. The owner of the tunnel was not born in the tunnel but he opened it. Abu Ayyub Al Ansary was not born at the wall of Constantinople but he climbed it and was buried by its side. `Amr ibn Al `As was not born in Egypt but he opened it. Many people who migrated were creative, so they opened countries for Islam and invited people to Islam. All those achievements were fulfilled by creativity, love, Qur'an, with wisdom and good advice, whereas the later lost creativity inside and outside; why is that? They have lost love for the religion of Allah which caused the wisdom to be taken away from them. They took off the meaning of Islam from their hearts. They recite the Qur'an but "Deserted this Qur’ân (neither listened to it, nor acted on its laws and teachings)." [Surat Al Furqan: 30].

They have the Sunnah but they neglected the duties and voluntary acts of worship which caused them to work for themselves and not for their lord; for their own interests and not for the interest of their religion; for their own selves and not for their Muslim brothers, which made their conditions as you see except for a few.

Dear reader, if the formers offered their lives and efforts for Islam religion, what have you offered for Islam? If they established the bases for this nation, what did you establish? If those blocked the gaps defending this nation, are you defending Islam against the so many attacks? And if you are, how are you acting? If those sacrificed their lives for Islam, by thinking, creating, and exerting efforts, have we thought for the benefit of our religion? Have we invented something for our Islam? Have we exerted efforts for the day on which we will encounter our lord? If we fight and do well, Allah will guide us to the proof which will enlighten the road for us "As for those who strive hard in Us (Our Cause), We will surely guide them to Our Paths (i.e. Allâh’s Religion — Islâmic Monotheism). And verily, Allâh is with the Muhsinûn (good doers)." [Surat Al `Ankabut: 69].

If we reached the degree of piety in our thinking, innovation, and exerted efforts, Allah will grant us His Companionship; and how great it is! "Truly, Allâh is with those who fear Him (keep their duty to Him), and those who are Muhsinûn (good-doers).' [Surat An-Nahl: 128].

O Allah, grant us the honor to work for Your Religion, guide us to fight for Your Sake, grant us piety, guide us the Righteous Path, and grant us Your Companionship. O Allah, grant us sincerity in sayings and actions, do not make the world our biggest concern nor the end of our knowledge, and peace be upon our master Muhammad, his family, and his Companions. Praised be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds [i.e., people].