Sheikh Anwar al Awlaki: ''A Muslim for the sake of the disbelievers''

I recently received this email from a brother:

• "Assalamualaikum sheikh. I loved your works, enjoyed and learned from them. I do desire to become one of the Mujahideen but not as you describe. I desire to become a mujahid in da'wah and learning and believe this is the right path. I heard and read some of your views on what the Muslims should do and believe them not to be true. I think you should review your works and when you find the true path, apologize about your previous works. Jihad can't be the right path because this is a religion of peace and if we go around killing everyone, it would be wrong for us to call this religion a religion of peace. What the Muslims should do is evacuate Palestine and Afghanistan and continue with the da'wah and the rest is with ALLAH Insha'Allah."

Just like there is a Muslim for the sake of Allah, there is a new phenomenon of a Muslim for the sake of the disbelievers. And just like the Muslim for the sake of Allah does everything thinking what will Allah will think of me, the Muslim for the sake of the disbelievers does everything thinking what the disbelievers would think of him. So when a Muslim speaks out he does so to please Allah and when our other Muslim does not speak out he does so in order to please the disbelievers. When a Muslim fights he does so for the sake of Allah and when this other Muslim does not fight -even though he has every reason to do so- he does that in order not to displease the disbelievers. Obviously this is not expressed as such but is packaged in nice terms such as ‘this is not good for dawa', or ‘this would turn away the people from Islam'.

Allah says: "It is not your responsibility to guide people but it is Allah who guides whomever He wills"

This Muslim is obsessed with his image in front of the disbelievers. He is so obsessed with it that it becomes his standard for wala and bara. So he loves the Muslims who present the ‘good boy' image to the disbelievers and he despises the Muslims who give Muslims a ‘bad name'.

Rasulullah (saaws) says: One of you does not achieve full Imaan until he loves for Allah, dislikes for Allah, gives for Allah and holds back for Allah.

This Muslim is so aggressive and intolerant with his fellow Muslims but is tolerant and kind towards the disbelievers. He is an extremist with Muslims and a moderate with disbelievers.

Whenever the interests of the disbelievers are threatened or harmed by Muslims he is the first to jump to their defense. He would speak against his brothers and betray them. He may even advise Muslims to spy against one another and report to the authorities. For him fighting for Islam, and for the ummah is terrorism, but he manages to shop for a fatwa that would allow him to serve in the armies of the disbelievers and fight against his brothers. Being a Muslim for the sake of the disbelievers permeates his every action. If he meets a Muslim he frowns and if he meets a disbeliever his face beams with a smile.

In fact there are some Muslims who are so much Muslim for the sake of kuffar that they do not even like Muslims who call the kuffar kuffar!

I mentioned that this is a new phenomenon because this only came about in these later times. The Muslims of the early times would care less about the kuffar, and if they ever did it was for the sake of Allah and not for their sake.

But lets put things in proper perspective:

Allah says about the disbelievers: "They are like cattle, nay, they are even more misguided"

And Rasulullah says about the believer: "Tearing down al Kaaba stone by stone is less than shedding the blood of a Muslim"