News & Comment
Ramadan is the Shield of Ummah from Fitnah

News

Venturing Ramadan 1439 AH, there are many fitnah (affliction and trials) befall Muslims around the world. Starting from the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, to the terror bombing in Indonesia that led to anti-terror bill targeting activists and Islamic organizations.

Comment

Amidst the trials, the calamities, the oppression that afflicts Muslims, in fact there’s always a great hope for us. All that comes from our Iman (faith) which always becomes the shield from various evil plots to stop the rate of Islamic uprising. Moreover, we as Muslims have a champion character because Allah (swt) gave us noble title as the best nation (khayru ummah). Since the earlier era of Islam, Muslims accustomed to being a fighter, and end up victorious, because Islam is high and nothing is higher than it is.

In the words of the Rasulullah, the word "junnah" (shield) is used in two matters: fasting and leadership. The first shield indicating the fasting which the Prophet sallahu 'alaihi wa salam once said, «الصِّيَامُ جُنَّةٌ» “fasting is a shield” (Bukhari and Muslim).

Fasting as a shield (جنة) will protect us in the world and also in the hereafter, in the world protected from the destructive lusts, while the Hereafter is protected from the Hellfire. In the communal scale, fasting is also supposed to fortify our community of lust division, and avoid our people from the group ego, because Ramadan is the momentum of unity.

Ramadan, every year has always been an incubator of the unity of Ummah and the rise of Islam. We should interpret every fasting Ramadan as an educational tool for our unity, because Ramadhan is momentum to sharpen our sensitivity for Muslims plights and crises across the world. Sensing an observing the plight of our brothers in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria, Rohingya and other Muslim countries.

Therefore, Ramadan should also awaken us to the importance of the second shield, the shield that comes from the Ummah’s true leadership, i.e. the Khilafah. Suffering, division, terror and poverty are caused by 97 years living without our true shield. Remember Rasulullah (saw) once said: The Imam is a Shield

«إِنَّمَا الإِمَامُ جُنَّةٌ يُقَاتَلُ مِنْ وَرَائِهِ وَيُتَّقَى بِهِ فَإِنْ أَمَرَ بِتَقْوَى اللَّهِ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ وَعَدَلَ كَانَ لَهُ بِذَلِكَ أَجْرٌ وَإِنْ يَأْمُرْ بِغَيْرِهِ كَانَ عَلَيْهِ مِنْهُ»

“Only the Imam is a shield, behind whom you fight and you protect yourself with, so if he orders by taqwa and is just then he has reward for that, and if he orders by other than that then it is against himself.” (Muslim)

Yaa Rabb, make this Ramadhan as the shield for the Ummah from the storms of fitnah, strengthen our ranks and union, plant firmly our feet and give us victory over the disbelieving people ... May this be the last Ramadan of the ummah without the shield of the Khilafah, Aamiin aamiin aamiin...

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fika Komara
Member of Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir