[ad_1]
The most distinguished Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a uncommon, highly effective fatwa condemning Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault on Israel, which triggered the devastating conflict within the Palestinian territory.
Professor Dr Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law on the Hamas-affiliated Islamic University of Gaza, is likely one of the area’s most revered non secular authorities, so his authorized opinion carries vital weight amongst Gaza’s two million inhabitants, which is predominantly Sunni Muslim.
A fatwa is a non-binding Islamic authorized ruling from a revered non secular scholar normally based mostly on the Quran or the Sunnah – the sayings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.
Dr Dayah’s fatwa, which was printed in an in depth six-page doc, criticises Hamas for what he calls “violating Islamic principles governing jihad”.
Jihad means “struggle” in Arabic and in Islam it may be a private wrestle for religious enchancment or a army wrestle in opposition to unbelievers.
Dr Dayah provides: “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying people’s lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”
For Hamas, the fatwa represents an embarrassing and doubtlessly damaging critique, notably because the group typically justifies its assaults on Israel by non secular arguments to garner assist from Arab and Muslim communities.
The 7 October assault noticed a whole bunch of Hamas gunmen from Gaza invade southern Israel. About 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel responded by launching a army marketing campaign to destroy Hamas, throughout which greater than 43,400 individuals have been killed in Gaza, in accordance with the Hamas-run well being ministry.
Dr Dayah argues that the numerous civilian casualties in Gaza, along with the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure and humanitarian catastrophe which have adopted the 7 October assault, signifies that it was in direct contradiction to the teachings of Islam.
Hamas, he says, has failed in its obligations of “keeping fighters away from the homes of defenceless [Palestinian] civilians and their shelters, and providing security and safety as much as possible in the various aspects of life… security, economic, health, and education, and saving enough supplies for them.”
Dr Dayah factors to Quranic verses and the Sunnah that set strict situations for the conduct of jihad, together with the need of avoiding actions that provoke an extreme and disproportionate response by an opponent.
His fatwa highlights that, in accordance with Islamic regulation, a army raid shouldn’t set off a response that exceeds the meant advantages of the motion.
He additionally stresses that Muslim leaders are obligated to make sure the security and well-being of non-combatants, together with by offering meals, drugs, and refuge to these not concerned within the preventing.
“Human life is more precious to God than Mecca,” Dr Dayah states.
His opposition to the 7 October assault is very vital given his deep affect in Gaza, the place he’s seen as a key non secular determine and a vocal critic of Islamist actions, together with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
His reasonable Salafist beliefs place him in direct opposition to Hamas’s method to armed resistance and its ties to Shia-ruled Iran.
Salafists are fundamentalists who search to stick the instance of the Prophet Muhammad and the primary generations who adopted him.
Dr Dayah has constantly argued for the institution of an Islamic caliphate that adheres strictly to Islamic regulation, reasonably than the political party-based programs that Hamas and different teams advocate.
“Our role model is the Prophet Muhammad, who founded a nation and did not establish political parties that divide the nation. Therefore, parties in Islam are forbidden,” he stated in a sermon he gave at a mosque a number of years in the past.
He has additionally condemned extremism, opposing jihadist teams like Islamic State and al-Qaeda, and has used all of his platforms to situation fatwas on varied social and political points, starting from business transactions, social disputes over marriage and divorce, to the conduct of political violence.
The fatwa provides to the rising inside debate inside Gaza and the broader Arab world over the ethical and authorized implications of Hamas’s actions, and it’s prone to gasoline additional divisions inside Palestinian society concerning the usage of armed resistance within the ongoing battle with Israel.
Sheikh Ashraf Ahmed, one in every of Dr Dayah’s college students who was pressured to depart his home in Gaza City final 12 months and flee to the south of Gaza together with his spouse and 9 kids, instructed the BBC: “Our scholar [Dr Dayah] refused to leave his home in northern Gaza despite the fears of Israeli air strikes. He chose to fulfil his religious duty by issuing his legal opinion on the attack”.
Ahmed described the fatwa as probably the most highly effective authorized judgment of a historic second. “It’s a deeply well researched document, reflecting Dayah’s commitment to Islamic jurisprudence,” he stated.
[ad_2]
Source link
