Thread by @TheOblongata

While we wait for the quiz time to elapse..BONUS THREAD

The Kaabah! Ah..so much to say. What a witness. It has been flooded several times; it has been burned in a war between muslims, and its black stone/Hajr al Aswad was smashed, literally stolen and held for ransom for >20yrs

https://twitter.com/TheOblongata/status/1198242325870317569

2: Just 40yrs ago, one of the saddest events occurred: on Nov 20th 1979 (1st Muharram 1401), a fanatic group led by a young zealot called Juhayman seized and barricaded the masjid after Fajr prayer. For 2 weeks, there was no azan, no tawaf, no congregation, no jumuah 💔💔💔

3: They smuggled guns to the masjid, held pilgrims hostage & killed several hundreds. Indeed blood was shed in the Sanctuary-something unimaginable even in Jahiliyyah.

Juhayman exhibited the hallmarks of a khawarij, a recurring group of cursed muslims that SAW warned about.

4: Several hadiths describe khawarij as youth who are over zealous in religion. They drip piety. They are excellent in speech but terrible in actions. They have grandiose dreams. They read the Quran but it doesn’t enter their hearts.

5: As Ibn Taymiyya noted, the tendency/ease with which they declare muslims kafir is a key feature of khawarij. They are unable to engage in dialogue and quick to take law in their hands. Since their crystallization in the time of Ali RA, they’ve been consistently intolerant.

6: In our times, these fanatics seem to be have a paranoid inability to adapt to contemporary life.

Juhayman’s complaints included repulsion at the introduction of TV (yes, television) to Saudi Arabian society in the 60-70s. He hated that women went to school/worked

7: He wanted soccer banned, even bank notes coz there were photos on them! He considered all of these haram & an affront to the faith. He also overindulged in hadith..even declared his brother in law as the mahdi. He wanted a return to “salafiya” (..whatever that meant to him)

8: These extremists can be smooth operators: they can fool everyone with their outward piety & “education”.

Juhayman was a student of Sheikh Al Bazz, one of the eminent scholars of the last generation. Most of Juhayman’s followers were Quran memorizers, students of prestigious

9: ..Makkan & Medina Universities. Young men..

Yet look at the atrocities they committed in the name of “reviving the faith”.

And so it was that for 2 weeks in 1979, the masjid al haram was bathed in the blood of innocent muslims. The minarets were unsafe.

10: Tanks had to be used storm the masjid in order to liberate it from the rifle-weilding extremists. Some walls & gates of the masjid had to be destroyed to allow the tanks in. Holes had to drilled in the floor of the masjid to deliver noxious gases to the extremists who were..

11:.. hiding in the basement. The basement was flooded and charged with live electric wires..absolute unimaginable mayhem

Again all this happened just 40years ago...by muslims, in the full view of the Kaabah.

Juhayman truly exemplifies the danger of religious zealotry that..

12: ..we continue to see today.

And we see these tendencies even on these twitter streets..almost daily, as embodied by folks who eagerly declare muslims kafir (eg maulud celebrants) and those who bully and want to lynch others simply because they disagree with their stance.

13: Khawarij behaviour abounds. And nothing hurts Islam and muslim more.

May Allah grant us sincere faith, protect our faith from intolerance and zealotry, and guide us all, especially our youth, on the Right path.